Hi Bill
I always get a good tomato season either spring or fall. The key for me is to plant large transplants, when is hot and they needed I shelter them from the sun.

The heart varieties which I happen to like the flavor, always fruit the earliest. You have a choice of reds, pinks, yellows, blacks.
Other varieties other than cherries which also set early, to name a few and I grew them before are Bloody Butcher, Stupice, Northern Lights, Jaunne Flamme. A lot of hybrids too like Early Girl.

And sometimes I get in my garden mid season or late varieties that are ripe earlier than the early varieties. It is like the hot season tomatoes are no more resistant than the regulars.

What kind of tomato do you have in mind? cherries, salads or cooking? A lot of paste tomatoes fruit early and they are prolific but I don't really care for the taste unless they are used for cooking.

Good luck in your fall season, you have to try it till you are successful, that is what I do.:)

Silvia

Thank you, Silvia. Did you have good results with Stupice? I hear a lot of good things about this tomato but I wondered how it would do here.

I do set out big plants, but they just drop blossoms and don't set a lot of fruit until the temps cool down a little. (cherry tomatoes are the exception.) At that point the vines set a lot of fruit, but it takes FOREVER to ripen, and most of it never does. The freeze does them in. This happens year after year for me. I see green tomatoes hanging there for months, and never get to eat them (except as fried green tomatoes). Very frustrating.

At this point I would be happy to find any type of good-tasting slicing tomato that would ripen before the freezes. Ana does prefer tomatoes with a "bright" (slightly acidic) taste rather than very sweet though.

Thanks again.

Bill

You are welcome Bill. And yes, Stupice does very well, it is not tops in flavor for me but it is okay. I am looking at some of my seeds packets and it says 55 days. It might be a taste that Ana would like, I like more the sweet and fruity kinds.
Momotaro is 74 days but I don't remember being productive.
Bloody Butcher, 55 days, resembles Stupice in both plants and fruit size
Mountain Fresh, hybrid, 75 days
Florida 91, it produces well in the heat, 72 days
Jetsetter, 64 days,hybrid
This season, I am trying new tomatoes one of them Marmande.

Thank you so much, Silvia, both for the information and the seeds. You are always teaching me new things!

Bill

Bill - I hear your frustration because that's the way it is in this area. Luckily, last winter we had a very late freeze so I was able to pick many more ripe tomatoes than usual. Silvia is in a much warmer area. I've seen her post photos of her tomato harvest long after my vines froze. This gives her more of a variety to chose from.

When I grow Stupice it is in the spring because I was told that it is cold tolerant. I've never tried it in the fall. In fact, usually I stick to only hybrids in the fall due to diseases.

Have you tried Jetsetter? That one is a good variety to grow in the fall (for me). I hope that Silvia sent you some of those seeds too.

Christine

thank you, Christine! I will investigate jetsetter. Don't take this the wrong way, but I'm glad I'm not the only one who's had trouble with fall tomatoes!

Bill

You are welcome Bill, for the fun of the trials if you can grow one variety of each and see how they do for you, Marmande looks promising too for the cold temperatures and yes jetsetter is on the way also.

Hi Christine, I think a lot of the success in fall depends on the situation of the tomato plants, of course my zone is warmer and have the fence around it. If they are in an open field they are going to get the cold and the wind. I know someone in the Jacksonville area who had tomatoes last fall, of course taking the extra work of covering them on cold nights.

Silvia

Thank you so much, Silvia!!! I just checked the mail and found a ton of tomato seeds from you. I'm going to start the seeds now unless you think that's a bad idea. That way i'll have seedlings 7 to 8 weeks old in August, when it's time to set them out. I have very high hopes for a fall tomato harvest! Thank you!

Bill

Hi Bill, you are welcome! I hope that you get a good tomato season this fall, starting them earlier is a good idea, I will be starting mine soon, every week just a few, since I grow them for the community garden also. When starting the seedlings in the hot temperatures, they will be leggy, I usually transplant them deeper a few times. I give them morning sun and afternoon shade.

Tomatoes in August, ready for the garden

Thanks for the tips, Silvia. I will follow your advice. I cleaned some small pots and bought some seed starting mix yesterday. I plan to start planting tomato seeds today. And peppers, too.

Bill