Those look very nice to me! That's a lot of plants. When will you set them out?

Thank you Suzi. I am targeting 10 August or so. Started clearing the patch today. It is 95. Husband is rigging a human mister/sprinkler so I can stay out longer. This whole Summer Season II is a big experiment. The only plus side to the heat is it is too hot for mosquitos.

Nice seedlings! But first frost date where you are is end of October. You don't have much time. Around here we put in our fall tomatoes in mid-July.

Yes. It's going to be tight to get some ripe ones this season! If you have any that can grow in containers, perhaps you can do that and drag them into your garage on chilly nights?

Linda

I did my homework.

https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/climatenormals/clim20supp1/states/SC.pdf

I don't anticipate a frost until after Thanksgiving.

According to Burpee, average first frost is 16 Nov.. I don't recall any frosts since I have lived here (20 years) before Thanksgiving.

Looking good Janice! I wish I could do that as my favorite part of growing tomatoes is starting and growing the seedlings. We have had Charleston weather this summer but I don't know if I could count on a Charleston fall. :)

I'll trust your research and experience, and it depends on what you want your odds to be. These are 10% odds.

https://www.victoryseeds.com/frost/sc.html

But of course, things start going downhill as the temps start getting low.

I just checked here for last two Novembers:. 32 on 24 Nov 3015; 30 on 29 Nov 2014.

I will have 105 growing days after plant out ( up to 15 Nov). There should be a 10 day buffer as well.

Anything 37 degrees and below you can get frost. Of course the conditions have to be right, clear skies and calm winds. I think I would be planting out as soon as possible. The heat is not going to hurt them at this stage and by the time they start blooming it should be cooler.

We have pretty mild winters here, but it has been known to freeze for a couple days and even snow, but the snow rarely sticks. In such cases we spray all our tropicals and sub tropicals with a product called Cloud Cover. It is organic and helps prevent freeze or sunburn damage in extreme conditions.

For this winter, I have ordered a few cold season tomatoes from TomatoFest.com. Boxcar Willie-Tomato Seeds, Helsing Junction Blues -Tomato Seeds, Legend, Mrs. Maxwell's Big Italian, Green Zebra-Tomato Seeds I plan to plant them straight in the ground next to some stakes for trees that will be going dormant in winter.

I don't think you count temps below 55F as "growing days" for tomatoes. But best of luck!

I am trying this to see what will work. I wanted to build my seedling growing skills, and I believe I have accomplished that. I have a variety of tomatoes to trial.

If this link will work for you, you can see what October is like. Many 70+ days.

http://www.timeanddate.com/weather/usa/charleston-sc/historic?month=10&year=2015

According to this source, I live inside a 9A microzone.

http://www.plantmaps.com/hardiness-zones-for-charleston-county-south-carolina

Be careful. Hardiness zones are pretty irrelevant to summer gardening conditions. This has been discussed a lot here. What they are a measure of is how cold it gets in the winter. I've lived in two places with exactly the same hardiness zone that have months differences in first and last frost.

But, as I said, best of luck, and congratulations at your new skills with seedlings.

You guys got me all paranoid now. I checked my old photo journals. Here is a harvest from Dec 5 2010. I harvested everything due to a hard frost forecast. (I now know I could have left the onions in the ground...)

I did not plant a second fall crop that year. I did not know of such things. Those must have been from sungolds and Big Beefs that lived through summer.

If the photo above is the only harvest after summer, this is bad news. That means pollination "possible" kicked-in late, and that is as far along as ripening could get before frost. Not good. I will look for more harvests before Dec.

The seedlings look very good , Janice. And the can be planted out soon, weather permitting. But I guess you highs are still in 95F++ range !!!.

Now how do you harden off for that ?

Sey

Janice, Hope you were able to use Craig's seeding video I sent to you several mos. back. You look to have some nice seedlings, Congrats!

Regarding first frost, Been in Mount Pleasant since '81. Your biggest issue in August/Sept. will be tropical events, i.e. flooding downpours from last year. You should be OK from freeze until November. In '14 around Thanksgiving we hit a low of 17 one morning. I had a devil of a time trying to protect my citrus and lost a key lime to that event. At Boone Hall, Willie McRae and his staff have an annual "crap shoot" with the weather variables. Last year's Fall crop of tomatoes were drowned. But there have been several seasons where I have been able to pick tomatoes up to the 15th of December before the frost gets them. Good luck and keep us posted...

We had a record high yesterday I believe. I was out in it for three hours which was only possible by using a sprinkler on me. In clearing half the patch, I pulled up some very healthy plants:. In particular Green Zebra and Mr Stripey. Mr Stripey was one of the biggest tomato plants I have ever seen. A true monster. The roots were massive.

The Big Beefs and Cherokee Purples are in a raised bed(not pulled yet). The Cherokee Purples usually do not live through summer and they look really bad. The Big Beefs have some leaf loss on the lower portion, but seem happy otherwise. They must be almost nine feet tall.

i will start hardening off tonight from 6 to 8 pm in the shade, and lengthen time and sun intensity throughout the week. I do worry about some of the heirlooms surviving and growing normal in these conditions. Big Beefs and Sungolds may be the only thing up for it. We will see.

i have the following to trial:. Mortgage Lifter, Kellogs Breakfast, Aunt Gertie's Gold, Earls Faux, Marianna's Peace, Green Zebra. I kept cuttings from a Sun Gold. I also have 4 each Big Beef and Cherokee Purple.

To speed up patch prep, I have a new Honda tiller. Very small, but should work fine. I also have a tree that has too come down. With a cleared patch, this is simplified. If all goes well, plants will be in in 7 days. Two sources, Farmers Almanac and another call out July and August as plant out dates for my zone.

i am starting to wonder if staggered plant outs will be necessary(to back fill for those that fail.). I can take a multitude of Big Beef cuttings from the first crop for that purpose before pulling them up.

With regard to hardening off for high, rather than low, temps, it's pretty straightforward. Put the well-watered plants outside for a few hours each day, NOT in direct sun. Then ease them into sun for a few hours a day, but rescue them if they start to wilt. Pay attention to soil heating. I've made the mistake of setting out BLACK 4-inch pots in the sun, and seeing the plants suffering a half-hour later. Best idea is to have the pots sitting inside other, larger pots while they are outside, so the soil is actually shaded. That works very well.

Thanks Tbird, Dan, and others. I just set them out in dappled sunlight. It is 4:30 here and 91. It is actually cooler today than yesterday. I will look for a way to shade the solo cups for full on sun. I think a light colored box might do.

Update: the tree is gone, weeds have been wacked, old plants removed, and tilling has begun. Got about 20% tilled. The little Honda four stroke tiller gets the job done, but it is a good workout hanging on to it. Hardening off has seen much progress. Six hours yesterday, six hours today.

Janice, your plants are looking nice . If they could take 6 hours of sun they should be ready for plant out.

Good luck. keep updating.

BTW: How is the weather ? Raining a lot ?

Sey

The plants are still working up to a full six hours full sun. I have been setting them in shade between 1130 and 3:00 or when they look stressed.

July is the peak for heat, and that is bearing out here for early August. Yesterday's high was 90, and today's is 86. There were rain storms in the area yesterday but none of the storm clouds dropped rain here. Rain/storm forecasts are numerous, but actual rainfall can be elusive, depending on the path of the clouds.

I will be working the tiller to get ground ready.

I am not too concerned with flooding. My lot is only 7 feet above sea level, but is all high ground - any accumulation runs off into drainage ponds which then have overflows into creeks which run off into ocean. The raised beds don't have much sand, but being raised, they should drain. The plants in the ground will be in sandy loam. The ground drains very well. I will be amending very lightly with composted manure, whatever is available at BBS.

i have a question for the pros in selecting fertilizer type. I don't know to what extent the soil web can use organic. To be on the safe side I want to use readily available organic ferts. I intend to use something like Espoma Grow!, which is, according to the label on the back, 2-2-2. Also contains colonies of various bacteria. I assume this is a rapidly useable formula. Contains hydrolyzed poultry manure, hydrolyzed soy protein, hydrolyzed fish protein,bone meal and kelp extract. This stuff is not cheap. Fortunately, my garden is small.

I have 30 plants and only 25 cages. The small Green Zebras will be relegated to grow with the peppers using a pepper cage. There are two stems in the pot.

Earls faux, Marianna's peace, and Paul Robeson (a total of 10 plants)will be planted two to a cage. They are unproven heirlooms. I will place them on an outside row and add more space between cages.

I have an opportunity to keep a big beef and a Cherokee purple from the March planting just to see what they can do. I will lose two cages to them if I keep them. Two have one each new fruit, probably two weeks old. It is a miracle that the fruit set.

Motivation:

Before plant out: ( I will mix in the composted manure before planting). The soil is very dry and sandy. I tilled in the mulch (newspapers and straw)from spring.

Your zone indicates winter. How will you keep freeze off your babies? I am planting seeds soon, but I am in zone 9b and we have a couple days of freeze. When I know those days are coming, we spray all plants that hate freeze with a product called "Cloud Cover." Google that. It is organic.

I will check it out Suzy. I have transplants that are about 38 days old. I am anticipating 115 days of frost free weather coming up. I think it might be possible to get some tomatoes to the blush stage. I have some very warm weather yet to look forward to. When the frost comes, I will lose the plants.

It is so hot here in July, I just don't think the new transplants could adjust and be healthy with a July plant out date. So I have delayed to see what I can get away with. I am experimenting. This is my first fall planting. I expect to learn a lot. If it does not work , I may try a staggered plant out next year to keep a steady stream of harvest. This year every thing ripened first two weeks of June.

Off topic, but I just planted papaya seeds, and they all came up today! I know I will have to protect them in winter with Cloud Cover, and I will, but wow! Papayas are classified as a herb.. a HUGE herb. Mine are from Hawaii. Crossing fingers for those and for your tomatoes! I'm planting tomato seeds this month too. In ground. On drippers. They will grow. Warm here for a long time.

Hi Janice,

I think you will have a good chance to get some decent harvest before frost. You never know,, you might get a nice INDIAN SUMMER. I am monitoring the weather somewhere in NC/SC border ( Florence area), in zone 8a. October temperature over there is 50 to 75F (L-H). I bet your 9a is even better than that.

Good luck with your second season.

Sey

BTW: today and yesterday our high was 68F. haha

August temps:. http://www.timeanddate.com/weather/usa/charleston-sc/historic?month=8&year=2015

Many 88 to 93 highs.

September temps: http://www.timeanddate.com/weather/usa/charleston-sc/historic?month=9&year=2015

Many high 80's days.

Ocober: http://www.timeanddate.com/weather/usa/charleston-sc/historic?month=10&year=2015

Many high 70s days.

The questions I have are: will prolonged ripening window(days will be shorter) increase disease opportunities? In the spring, ripening happens so fast I am not concerned.

Eight Test plants, new-to-me heirlooms, are the first ones in the ground. 50% chance of rain forecast for next two days, and high of 85.

Half of the transplants are in the ground. The last two days have been part cloudy, perfect for letting the plants adjust. The ones in the ground are much happier than the ones in the house. The bugs won tonight though. The temps dropped just enough they came out, and I was not prepared. I am done for this evening.

Good luck! Looking forward to your reports. I'm thinking they will progres much faster than the spring as far as growth.

Thanks Hoosier. Growth in the spring was quite rapid. We shall see what happens.

24 in, 6 or so to go.

Most seem quite happy, adjusting and showing growth.

A couple are showing daylight through pin holes in their leaves:

Is this guy making the holes, or just hanging out?

Here is another photo trying to show large insect critter on underside of leaf:

While most transplants are adjusting, this Big Beef is clearly not happy. Should I reprocess it:. Repot, bring in house, let rest, then reharden and try again in a new spot:(or should I just shade it and wait and see?)

Update:

Of the 30 or so plants set out around 10 Aug, all but six died from leaf diseases and heat stress. I added two big box store tomatoes in late August.

The plants did not show real growth until about 10 Sept.. At the end of Sept/beginning of Oct, I had some nice plants with blooms and many buds on the way.

Then on 8 Oct, a Category 1 hurricane hit with sustained winds of 85 mph for a period of time. There were 45-60 mph gusts a half day before, and a half day after. My growing method of staked cages did not protect the tomato plants.

The ground in the garden area, and about everywhere you look, is covered in green confetti. A hurricane is natures way of providing a severe trim. Many trees down, branches, and leaves everywhere.

Other plants in the garden seemed to be growing fine or even better after the hurricane: carrots, collards and lettuce. Even the mature pepper plants managed fairly well, keeping their blooms and even half ripe peppers.

Lessons learned:

1) Plant at least some of toms in containers so I can move them out of the sun on blistering hot days.

2) plant some later as a hedge against the early losses due to heat,

3) Containers would have allowed me to move the plants inside during the storm.

4) Consider a Florida weave. Whgille (Silvia) , a Florida grower, also experienced the storm with fruit on the vines and suffered little damage.

Silvia also restricts the amount of sun exposure to morning sun only on younger plants. This limits the heat and seems to allow the plants to grow/survive.

I have three or 4 plants left. They are in bad shape. They seem to be shifting energy into intact growing tips. I can see they will soldier on and survive. I don't think they can regrow, bud, bloom, set fruit, and ripen before 30 Nov.

i will probably pull them. I have photos. They will not lift anyone's spirits, especially not mine, so I will not be posting them. Here is one photo of a Cherokee Purple from one week ago:

Thanks Silvia. Yes I do have many good vegetables coming up. The weather this week is like paradise. Highs in high 70s, low 80s.

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