It just depends on how they tolerate the next few weeks of very hot temperatures. It also depends on how hard you want to work to encourage them along.

Here's your options:

1. Remove them and replace them with new, fresh plants for fall.

2. Leave them alone and feed them and hope for the best. Keep them well-watered. If their foliage is very sparse, feed them using the water-soluble fertilizer of your choice. After that, try to give them an inch or two a week of irrigation/rainfall. to encourage them to regrow. If you see virtually new regrowth or new growth within 7-10 days after feeding them, they may lack the resiliency to come back for fall.

3. If the plants look half-dead in general, but have new, healthy green growth emerging from down low on the plant, cut it back by 50%, feed it, water it and hope the weather cooperates so fruit set can occur.

Every plant is different. Some are capable of making a full, fast comeback after they've declined so much you think they are dead. After they put out new green growth, they often produce heavily until frost. Others will just deteriorate slowly over the course of the summer and never really produce well again.

So, it is your choice what to do. Some years I've yanked them and replanted with fresh plants. Some years I've cut them back and let them regrow. Some years, I've walked away from the garden and let them sink or swim on their own.

One thing I will do in early July is compare how the plants look at that time to how they looked a month before, and base my decision on how bad they look and how quickly they;ve gone downhill.

Are your plants determinate or in determinate? Determinate are more bush like and usually only produce one batch and are done.

Indeterminate are more branching and can grow 6-10 feet in length if left unchecked. They will continue until fall. They really shut down in the heat of summer but recover once the average temp drops below a certain level. Hanging shade cloth over them helps reduce the stress of extreme 100+ weather.

If indeterminates get adequate water and a bit of fertilizer they almost always come back in late August/early September and give you another round of tomatoes before the first freeze.

In mid October, cutting off the growing ends will help force the green tomatoes to turn red. If the forecast shows a sharp freeze, harvest the last green ones and they will turn red eventually. I routinely have ripe tomatoes into late November in Tulsa.

Thanks, Dawn & JD. They are all indeterminate. I guess I'll leave the ones that look like they have a little life & see what happens. I might look & see if there are any plants left out there to buy & start a new one.

Patty

Most of mine are knocking on death's door, and I am not sorry. LOL I haven't done tomatoes for two days so they are stacking up again. I probably have two more batches of salsa to do then I hope that is the end.

Patty,

You're welcome.

The Tomatoman's Daughter is open. It is in or near Jenks. I linked it on Betty's thread, but since this thread is about tomatoes, I'll link it here too. Her days and hours are very limited, but she offers a great selection of plants.

Carol,

I understand how you feel. I spent most of June struggling to keep up with the tomato harvest, and I was secretly wishing the plants would die. Some of them have obliged me by doing so, but others are putting out new, fresh green growth down near the base of the plant.

I have such mixed feelings about tomatoes at this time of year in a good tomato year. Of course I am always happy to have plenty of tomatoes to eat fresh and to preserve, up to a point. Most years, when the harvest is not as good as it has been this year, I am hoping the tomato plants won't die. This year I'm sort of hoping they will. I know that's wrong, but I am suffering from tomato exhaustion.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: The Tomatoman's Daughter

I can certainly understand why you are suffering from "tomato exhaustion", Dawn! Are you developing a bright, red cast to your skin yet? Don't confuse it with sunburn or a rash, you've probably overdosed on tomatos! LOL!

I was wondering about the fertilizing issue now, since the plants are kind of in an "heat-induced" stalemate. They can't really use any of the nutrients at this point, and I've always belonged to the school of thought that feeding a plant when it's not able to utilize the food, could cause more damage than doing nothing. Are you saying that using the blue food is okay?

My tomatos are still producing. Yes, it has slowed down. Yes, the plants are spider-mite infested, but they continue to put out new, green growth, flowers, and fruit. Just in a more limited quantity. I have picked so many, I am now starting to overlook some that have ripened, hiding under foliage, etc., or right there out in the open! Heehee!

On the other hand, the Okra is jammin'!

I just wondered about fertilizing and have meant to pose that question, but keep forgetting in between watering, picking tomatos, and caring for Charlotte! Oh, where is my brain at?

Susan

Susan,

Your brain is focused on Charlotte, just as it should be. Those baby days go by so quickly, and in the blink of eye she'll be starting first grade and you'll wonder how it all happened so quickly.

Container plants do a lot better with blue stuff (or green stuff or red stuff, whichever suits you). Every time you're watering, you're leaching nutrients out of the soil. I tried for years to raise container veggies completely organically but found it hard to keep them well-nourished in our heat where I sometimes had to water twice daily, or even three times a day when the highs are over 105. So, I will use Miracle Grow (or Peters or whoever) if I think they need it. I've only fed my container tomatoes and peppers once this year with MG but I think they need it again. I like to use liquid seaweed and liquid fish emulsion too, but sometimes the plants need a bigger boost.

I believe perhaps my spider mite population has peaked early and the plants are beginning to recover. That doesn't mean we don't have spider mites because there's still plenty, but we are at the point where it doesn't seem to be worsening. Usually that doesn't happen until mid-August, but I am not complaining. The mites arrived early, so maybe they'll depart early. (Well, I can dream, can't I?)

When I feed the container plants I watch to see if they are putting out new growth afterwards or if they're just barely hanging on. Usually they put out new growth and perk up quite a bit. If they do, that tells me they can tolerate being fed despite the insane heat. If they do not respond to the feeding, I just water them regularly and wait a month and then feed them again.

It is a odd year here. June at our house was much hotter than July has been so far, and I am happy about that because it means the usual mid-August plant recovery seems to be happening a month early. Some of my in-ground tomato plants that had stalled are flowering again. However, I have at least a dozen plants that are as dead as a doornail, and I am not sorry about that.

Once your life becomes focused on "how do I get rid of all these darn tomatoes" on a daily basis, I think it is time to let go of a bunch of the plants, lighten up and have a little fun. So, I've started focusing more on the okra, cucumber and squash harvest, while continuing to feed a lot of excess squash and Armenian cukes to the chickens. I'm still picking green beans and have been forever---since May, and have frozen tons and still am picking more. I keep thinking they'll run out of steam, but they're defying logic.

I am about ready to start yanking some of the summer squash plants so I don't have to deal with their excess any more as well. My first four squash plants that went into the ground in late March or early April contracted Squash Mosaic Disease so I keep meaning to pull them out...but there's a brown snake loitering in that area lately so I don't want to step foot there. So, of course in this year of all odd things, they now are putting out healthy, new green growth from the base of the plants and it is hard for me to yank a healthy plant.

We are going to have a bumper crop of watermelons and muskmelons, and have just started harvesting butternut squash. For July, the garden is doing really well.

Some tomato plants that have struggled with powdery mildew since the heavy rainfall in early June have lost that battle, but others are completely regrowing. Usually it is so dry and hot here in July that I just don't see much of that recovery.

I think that I need a garden vacation. Yesterday I attempted a canning vacation and it almost worked. After I picked cucumbers in the evening hours, I did make a small batch of hot, spicy pickles which didn't take me long, so that violated my self-declared canning vacation. I should be out picking tomatoes today, but I already have enough for two batches of salsa sitting here in bowls, and we don't really need more salsa. I'm going to try to avoid stepping foot in the garden so it is at least a one-day garden vacation.

It is prime time for Okra. I am careful not to plant too many okra plants or we get more than I'm willing to blanch and freeze. We drove by a friend's house a couple of days ago and he was out picking okra from an enormous row of plants. His okra looked fantastic and I am sure he was harvesting tons of it. My main thought when I saw him was that I was glad it was them and not us....because someone was going to have to freeze or can all that okra!

Dawn