mister gin, my gardens are in full sun and the soil makes a huge difference in this heat. I split my plants and did some in a raised bed with more porous garden soil, and some in sunken beds with native (clay) soil/composted manure/coco coir. Once it heats up, the tomatoes in the clay soil do much better. You want to plant when soil temp is 50+. I planted out starts in the sunken beds on Feb 28 and all plants are very healthy and prolific. We did build a shade structure that provides intermittent sun and shade and I believe that's helping. I have 6 types of heirlooms and 3 others that volunteered out of the compost. Sorry to say that one of the heirlooms was black cherry and they didn't like the heat AT ALL. one just gave up over 90 degrees. Most successful - Paul Robeson, Green Zebra, Jaunne Flamme. Paul R. is from Russia and likes the cold and the heat, so you can start it early and grow it late. I'm in love with these plants. Pauls and Zebras have strong uprights too and hardly seem to require tying up.

Mia, If I have short-day onions that mature in late May or early June, I put in southern peas or more okra if I'm thinking I didn't plant enough okra. If I have intermediate-day onions that mature a few weeks later, I might put in southern peas, or I might hold that area for fall tomatoes, or I might plant more summer squash if the squash bugs and SVBs are attacking the previously-planted squash plants. A lot depends on the weather. Some years (and I did plant this way this year in one bed), I plant my onions but leave an opening every 3' for a tomato plant. Later on, at tomato transplanting time, I come back and plug tomato transplants into those holes. Then, over a period of a couple of months, I harvest the onions closest to the tomato plants as green onions. (The ones I am growing to full size are in their own dedicated bed.) By the time the onions start bulbing up, I've already harvested the ones closest to the tomato plants, and the ones that are left are nice and big. By the time I pull up those onions, the tomato plants are expanding to take over that space. Just picture the onions as a groundcover underneath and between the tomato plants. This year I did it with tomato varieties that I expect will set fruit late in the summer: Phoenix, Merced and Mortgage Lifter, and I planted those plants late (just last week) to give the onions a good long time to grow before they have to compete with the tomato plants. There's millions of ways to squeeze more plants into less space, and combining onions with something that will take over the space after the onions are harvested is one way to do that. I also interplant my Irish potatoes and bush beans in alternating rows. The beans grow more quickly and are being harvested by the time the potatoes are starting to crowd them. Then, after about 3 weeks of harvesting beans, I yank out the bean plants and toss them on the compost pile and the potatoes fill up the space the bean plants had occupied. Dorothy, I figured you'd had ripe tomatoes in February. I probably will try some in at least a part of the greenhouse in late fall/early winter too, but I don't want to heat too large of an area, so I'll need to section off the tomato-growing area. The coldest my greenhouse got this winter was 23 degrees. That's not bad. I didn't have anything in it that night because I had moved the plants to the garage for the night. Dawn

Next year, I might try the containers again, but I'll put them in full sun, now that I think I have a place for them. But I'll also put some in the ground as well. ******** I am in far northern Wisconsin. This is my first year growing in containers. I am in the north woods and am surrounded by trees. My container garden area receives only 5-6 hours of sunlight per day, less in the late summer and fall, but it is the overhead hours of 10:00-3:00. Our growing season is only about 90 days. But I had good success with all my early tomatoes this year(Early Girl & Early Goliath) and fair success with my mid-season tomatoes (Rutgers & Big Beef). All total I picked 558 tomatoes from 30 plants. I planted using a poor soil mix (I will improve it nex\t year) of lake muck, sandy garden soil (bad idea), peat & perlite. I planted in 5-7 gallon crates and pots. If I can do it up here, you can do it where you are. I believe the containers, in some cases, produce better than ground crops, since the soil is warmer earlier and the weeds and pests are easier to control. I received some excellent help about soiless mixes and fertilizer for growing in containers in the Container Gardening Forum here at gardenweb.com. Check it out. The Stupice recommended above would be a good choice for an early tomato. I am not familiar with the others. The Early Girl and Early Goliath are also very reliable. I will grow them again next year. If you plant some early season and mid-season along with your late season you'll have a better idea of what's going on, and probably get at least SOME tomatoes. That's how we do it up north. Up here I start early season plants indoors in late March and place them outside about June 5. Next year I will start my mid and late season varieties even earlier, transplanting then to 6" pots indoors about May 1. Your lack of sun definitely slows things down, but if you think like a short-season gardener I bet you'll have great success in your containers. Good Growing, wi-northernlight

If I remember it correctly, my BK had some green shoulder. What you have, has a perfect uniform color. Searching Google, I see some w/ NO green shoulder too. Probably it has to do with sun exposure. There are several black tomatoes that look very similar in color and shape. Sey