Harry,

My 2016 season got started real fine. I planted out everything from mid April til the end of April. The weather was better than average in May and my plants started putting out flowers. But then June and July turned out much cooler, lots of drizzles and clouds. So those flowers did not turned into fruits and most of them got stunted and stayed in tiny nub stage. ... overall not a tomato weather.

So When I compare this year to 2014 and 2015, everything is behind by about 3 weeks. Our real summer did not really take off until August.

As a result of poor weather some of the varieties go set backs and became almost mule that I had to pull them. Now , past the middle of August I am getting some harvest. Luckily the weather is just about right and helping to get the things moving a bit faster. If September turns out to be better than average then it should be an okay year.

Sey

BTW: My plants are normal in size and growth size.

Decent year here in E. Tn. Good harvest, lower incidence of disease, fewer stink bugs... all in all - a good season. Freezer is completely packed, and there's still a table full of ripening fruit, as well as lots still setting and green on the vines.

I'm in the PNW, but eastern WA, so the weather is much different than you're probably talking about, but I'll chime in anyway.

June 2015 was a very odd month. June here is usually in the 80's, give or take. But we had something like 21 days in a row over 100 degrees in June that year. One day was 111. The garden got abandoned, because it was too hot to do anything. All the plants died, and the weeds took over. I only had 2 tomato plants, and mostly wanted the winter squash, and when that died, I gave up. A few weeks later, something is growing in the weeds. The tomatoes. They started flowering in late august and growing and growing. They sprawled to cover a 1Ox12 ft area, just the 2 plants. They got tons of flowers, and tons of tomatoes that didn't have time to ripen. I gave my mom green tomatoes and bread crumbs for her birthday on October 24th.

This year, it was much cooler, and much rainier. Over here, that means good tomato weather. But for the other side, it likely means a little too cold.

Seysonn's summary of our PNW coastal weather sounds about right although here north of the border I think our good weather started 3rd week of July.

Sey, since you say your plants are pretty normal in size I'm guessing mine are smaller this year 'cause I started my seeds in mid-April (planted mid -March in 2015) and I don't think I had them potted-up and outside 'til late May. That was just about when the weather turned cooler and wetter. Thought that was just going to last a few days when instead lasted for weeks!

Sey, do you have any of your toms in pots and if so have you tried any of the 5:1:1 mixes that are so talked about in "Container Gardening" section of GWeb?

Harry

Harry, I have about 10 plants in pots . And I make and use 5-1- 1. Actually this year I use what I had from last year's containers. So didn't make any new batch.

I think 5-1-1 might not do well down south but it is perfect in our cool climate. You can water without the worry of over watering. .

On The Weather :

So far it is perfect. Day highs in 80s and night lows around 60F. I used to water the beds once a week now i do it every 4 days . I can tell that tomatoes are getting bigger everyday , and the green is reducing to pale as a prelude to color break.

Sey