last year my crop was not so good they were hit by hail and I replanted then a late frost I replanted but the years before I did well with several kinds. Purple Cherokee,Black Krim,JD Tech,Celebrity,Mortgage Lifters,Ox heart,Juanne Flambe,Black from Tulula. I have not had good luck with any of the beef steaks or brandy wines I'm hoping this year will be a good one and oh yes the large Cherry is a good one and if I have any green ones on the vine when we get our first frost I make a green pickled tomatoe like they serve at some of the local fish places. good luck and hope to hear how it goes this year.

The Bonnie Husky Cherry Red did quite well. It set fruit for most of the summer. It did not stop blooming till the 100 degree days, and 80+ degree nights. I am thinking along the lines of a couple more heat tolerant determinants. Also I am going use one of my Paw Paw's old tricks by planting a row of corn on the south end of the bed to give a tad of evening shade to them. In all of my years I never saw him have a real bad year.

Well the tomatoes I planted outside are no more. Even though I did everything I could the rain came first. Then the freeze. Then the 0 degree wind. End result is 7 dead tomato plants.

Well I do have a whole bunch of seedlings going indoors now. I am going to wait at least until April before I plant them outside. I do have one large Bonnie Plants Bush Goliath that I have inside that looks great. At least I can bring it in when the cold snaps hit.

I have used Celebrity as my main crop for over 30 years and they have always done better than anything I have tried. Tried heirlooms and got 1-2 tomatoes per plant.
This year I am trying a yellow pear one, a Black Japanese Trifele, and something called Umbierto. We'll see how it goes.
I had my plants out and in the water tepees so most survived the 19 degree weather.

The only problem with waiting until april to put more plants in the ground is that it is always a race with the heat to produce a decent yield before the temps go high enough to cause the plant to want to give up the ghost. I have tried late March but didn't do well so I use tepees and plant around March 1(this year it was the last few days of Feb.)

I have had heavy black clay before but not now. I always piled on the compost about 4 inches and tilled it in and did OK. My clay was shallow though and mixed with limestone.

I'm thinking I will put them In The ground this weekend hopefully no more. Freezes. They are gettty leggy and have started falling over so can't wait much longer plus ive lost a few. Think i might start some more seeds just in case I have to wait until Easter. Way to late.

I'm thinking I will put them In The ground this weekend hopefully no more. Freezes. They are gettty leggy and have started falling over so can't wait much longer plus ive lost a few. Think i might start some more seeds just in case I have to wait until Easter. Way to late.

I just read a very nice discussion on growing tomatoes in hot climates like ours.

Here is a link that might be useful: tomato discussion in OK forum

I am starting again. One Black Prince in the ground. (Thank you to Bonnie Plants.) One Bush Goliath in container with the cage. More large seedling will be purchased here soon. I am also starting to harden some of the indoor plants now.

It is just a crap shoot for tomatoes every year here. This year I am trying for the earliest start I can get.

Melvalena thanks for the link. I am going to read up on it here shortly.

I feel the Charlie Brown uuughh. I had to plant the Bush Goliath in the ground. My wife put it in the back yard on the picnic table. The nice little 35 mph breeze with the heavy gust blew it off the table, and rolled it for a good way. I think a large portion of the root ball was torn away in the soil. The stalk, and main tap root were still intact so I cut off the lower branches, and deep planted. I am hoping for the best.

I am hoping for a better year this time. Last year was not a very good one for most of my tomato plants. The cherry tomatoes did produce for most of the summer. A couple gave some good slicers. Right about the time good fruits were set it froze. Last year we had two late freezes. I replanted both times. Then 3 hail storms in 4 weeks. So by the time I had good plants it was late May. Then they grew great till early July. The heat wave hit till mid Sept. Then the first frost hit on my birthday the first week of Oct.

I pray for a good season for all, and bountiful harvest.

Oh Man! Centexan!!!

Tomatoes are tough and you deep planting it is the best you can do with this one. I'm sure it will be just fine. Can you put a cover over it for a few nights until it bounces back? Just as a little extra protection until this trauma is forgotten.

What we've done up here in late fall is the afternoon before our first frost/freeze is go pick all the tomatoes that have shown a color change on the bottom. We bring them inside and wrap individually in news paper and stack in cardboard boxes and set out in the garage. After about 6 weeks go check a few of the top layer. Usually they continue to ripen and we have our garden tomatoes for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Not all of them ripen or stay fresh but most of them do.

Ok the Bush Goliath is looking healthy as are several other seedling I planted. I have some plants I started myself indoors that once they get big enough I will harden for outside. I am going with a bunch of Bonnie Plants seedlings as a just in case measure. I am doing mostly hybrid determinants, With a few heirlooms thrown in for good measures.

I am attaching a pic of my 6 ft. x 12ft raised bed. Behind me the 4 ft x 4 ft x 20 inch deep raised bed can be seen. It is going to have most of my hybrids in it. I am planting two heirloom indeterminant plants on the south end of that one to give the bush tomatoes a touch of evening shade. I am planting a bunch of peppers this year as well.

http://i1231.photobucket.com/albums/ee518/centexan254/IMG_0984_zps1ff1b67c.jpg

This post was edited by centexan254 on Sun, Mar 16, 14 at 13:44

Your beds look great Centexan! I don't have mulch down on mine yet.

I was going to plant out my celebrity tomatoes this weekend but looked ahead at the forecast and decided to put it off a day or two more. These things have roots out the bottom and tiny little blooms on them already! We're supposed to get down to 33* overnight... and it can get a bit lower than that at my house. With the cold and wind out there now, I don't want to mess with trying to cover them either. BRRR... its even cold here inside! gotta go bump the heat a bit.

Looking ahead the next 10 days look great for no more freezes where I live. We've almost turned the corner here.

I am starting to think that for some strange reason the deck gets stacked against me every year. I had the beds ready early. Planted once, with use of covers made it through 3 freezes before everything froze enough to go brown to the ground.

I replanted. Only had two near freezes, I covered everything anyway. Plants were looking great. I went out to eat with my wonderful wife. While we were eating the sky outside went black. Rain started to pour down. Then the hail started. It came down for over half an hour with up to golf ball sized hail. It beat the crap out of my peppers, and tomatoes. The cuces, and sun flowers I planted are not looking too good. I potted a salvia for wife that is no more than pile of leaves in pot now.

Ugggghhhh. I have back up plants, and am sure most of my plants are going to be ok till the next weather related disaster destroys more of it.

If you look close enough in the picture you can see some of the hail that was not melted when we got home an hour after the storm.

It has been a while. I am going to update this thread. Things are looking much better now. I had so many back up plants I am now trying to find containers for all of them. Since my last post I only lost a single plant from the late frost. It was still alive though it looked sick enough I decided to pull it. I had too many back ups that are way more healthy.

Here is last weeks pic. I have many green tomatoes set. More blooms, and fruit set every day so far. The little spot of rain we had last week was a blessing as well.

Here is a view from the other side. Note I have more than just tomatoes planted. I also have several types of sweet, to medium hot peppers, rosemary, several types of basil. As well as a salvia, Multiple strawberry plants in containers, as well as mint, oregano, and giant sunflowers. There are some others though I will try to keep the list short. The larger raised bed it 6'x12'. The smaller box bed is 4'x4' by 20'' tall. Containers about with everything as well.

Glad to hear and see things are much better for you now.