Hi Everyone - Just a reminder that the Midwest Tomato Fest is Sunday, August 26 - TIME CORRECTION - 1:30 pm. We would love to have you attend. Hoping April from the Sioux Falls area is reading - hope you can us again! We have finally had rain but extreme heat and humidity have taken a toll on my tomato crop. If you need directions, please let us know. This is an easy location. Piegirl

Daniel, I have experienced very similar results this year in northern MN. All seeds were started at the same time, planted out at the same time, and treated the same. 2 of my early varieties (Glacier & Bloody Butcher) did beat Cherokee Purple, but only by 8 or 9 days. About 10 days after the 1st early small tomatoes, I picked a Giant Belgium that weighted 1# 8oz. At about 2 weeks after the earliest fruit, several 1# plus C.P. were being picked. The 1st fruit from my "Early Pick" variety were just starting about this same time. However, other large varieties, are very late. Mortgage Lifter, Black Krim, Super Steak, Super Beef Steak, are all very Sloooow. All plants are growing in the same conditions. This is the Giant Belgium that was only about 10 days behind to early little tomatoes: A very strange year.

Good, we have a lot of input now to go by. Do your plants look "top heavy" with fruits from the middle upwards? Did you have any days over 90 and if so do you remember when? Did you have much damage from that hailstorm? Possibly the hailstorm set the plants back. Also possible you had a heatwave somewhere between then & now. If the plants seem top-heavy, it could be from being injured by the hailstorm and even a heatwave early in the season. I guess I'm pursuing 2 angles here to try to cover all the bases: early setback/injury can have slowed everything down due to less leaves for photosynthesis... sparse plant bottoms could be a sign but I asked about any heatwaves too because if they happened early the plant would have less fruit near the bottom too... but if the plants are bottom heavy, then that wouldn't be so. Regardless of the cause, fruits usually take 30-45 days or so to ripen... weather/sun will change these numbers too... I planted most of my plants June 8th thru June 16th and had ripe fruits on some by the end of July,mainly due to the heatwaves we've had. At the same time, I have sections of the plant that may have less fruitset that may actually correspond to the heatwaves. If you feel you are happy with the # of fruit per plant, (I'd guess 40-50 per plant when well watered & fertilized), then warm weather is what you need to ripen them. I still think April 30th is a little risky in zone 5... all you need are a few nights below 50 to affect a young plant... I'm in zone 6 and usually don't plant out until Memorial Day weekend. Why? because during May, there's usually some wicked weather still left to be had... like hailstorms. I think if planted a week or two later, you would have avoided the hailstorm, which may be what caused the most injury and set the plant back, but of course you still need sun & photosynthesis from leaves to ripen tomatoes!

Hi everyone - just a little over a week until the tomato fest. We hope you will be able to join us in Lincoln on August 23. Here in Lincoln we - most of the city - have a serious drought and very, very slow tomatoes but I know I should have several varieties - not all 18 or 19. I hope some of the folks who posted here last year, will join us again. Piegirl may live up to her name and bring a pie - strawberry rhubarb or may be cherry - vote now! Let us know how your tomatoes are doing. Piegirl