Sorry you have had a lousy crop. There’s nothing like a good garden tomato. I have big boys this year and have had a good crop with very good flavor. I am in MKE, Z6a. We also had very hot dry weather then had 10” in 12 hours. After that it seems like fall hit overnight. Day temps in upper 60’s to low 70’s and nights upper 40’s to low 50’s. I have even turned on the heat at night twice.

debra

Please accept my condolences as well - at least you had something. I'm missing gardening terribly - I had some truly delicious tomatoes 😔

FWIW, I believe that too much water can also affect the taste - or lack of it.

What variety are they? Some definitely taste better than others.

We, too have had a bad season. I used to have tomatoes to give to my kids. Only once did I give some to my grandson but there are none to give. We had a wet June and then a horrid humid July and no rain at all and now cool and sunny and very dry. No rain in August so the tomatoes won't recover. I was eating them last year though November since the green ones picked before the frost ripened well.

I'm in Wisconsin. Just now getting ripe tomatoes from spindly plants. Warmer than normal growing season, warmer than normal nights, ample rainfall so I should have had great tomatoes. But week after week after week of grayed out, Canadian wildfire polluted skies is what I'm thinking is the reason the plants lagged and are so spindly. The plot got several inches of compost added to it last fall and the plants were fertilized. Only a week of cooler than normal weather (just this past week) so that doesn't explain why the plants failed to thrive.

I'm in MA and I'm very disappointed in the tomatoes and the peppers this year. It's not like we didn't have some heat. I don't understand why. Usually by now they are above the top of the stakes and they're not even 1/2 way up. I don't get it either...

I thought it was just my tomatoes, and then I started talking with others and it seems as if everyone I have talked with here has had a bad year or at least a lot of trouble with their tomatoes this year. First we had a slow start due to lower temperatures and a heck of a lot of rain in early thru late spring. Mine didn’t grow much at first then finally did. Then the rains continued and it got really hot, almost too hot for any pollination to happen.

Next up was the beginning of the inevitable early blight, which i usually try to control with a light application of fungicide before blooms appear and selective trimming. Things were looking pretty good and then the hornworms showed up! This was only the second time in 25+ years of gardening here I’ve had those. DH and picked off 13 large ones one evening and threw them in soapy water. I went out the next morning and found 4 more, then treated with some Bt. Thought that was the end of it, but then started finding evidence of tomato fruit worms! Applied Dipel dust, another Bt product. Found another hornworm the other day but this one had beneficial wasp eggs on it so I just put it in the yard.

All the first large variety tomatoes I picked in the beginning were smaller than usual. In the past few weeks though I finally have had some larger tomatoes, but many of those are cracked at the bottom and have a large green core, which doesn’t usually happen with the Cherokee Purples I’ve always grown.

The 3 cherry tomato varieties I grew this year did pretty well, especially the ’Jelly Bean’ grape tomatoes which were really nice. First time I grew those. I also had Sun Sugar and Sweet Million. The hornworms hit the Sweet Million plant pretty hard.

The other varieties I grew were Cherokee Purple (2) one of which I’ll pull this week, Cherokee Carbon (2), Lemon Boy (2) one of which is struggling, Heatmaster (1) a new one for me & smaller but very good & still doing ok, and Gurney Girl (1) just ok, but seeds were free. Usually i have Lemon Boys into October. Afraid they won’t make it this year.

I added compost all thru the winter, mulched, fertilized pretty regularly and did all the things I should be doing and there just wasn’t much payoff. From what the rest of you have posted, it doesn’t sound as if it had much to do with variety or lack of care. The only variety I usually grow and did not this year was Better Boy.

In Kansas City, all kinds of crazy weather too. Even the cherry tomatoes are not good. Neither are the regular tomatoes. I did not get enough tomatoes to pay for the plants and an additional box cage. I cant trust my sense of taste since covid, but these were tasteless. Daughter and SIL tasted and said they had no taste either. Discouraging.

This is what AI on Google says: Yes, Canada wildfire smoke negatively affected the tomato crop, primarily by blocking sunlight, which reduces photosynthesis, slows growth, and delays ripening. The smoke can also lower temperatures and coat leaves, hindering growth and potentially delaying harvest.

I've had one of my best crops yet here in Maine. Now I did put in a raised bed and my garden soil wasn't the best before this, but wow! I keep harvesting and harvesting and they are tasty.

Unless one has deep sandy soil (well drained) I suggest at least 1 raised bed. I always had good,often excellent tomatoes when I was on deep sandy soil. When I moved where soil is black clay it was hit or miss for a few years. Then I heard about hugelkultur and tried one mound. Within 4 years I built more and haven't planted anything besides melons and beans in ground since.

I concluded that it's difficult to overwater deep sand but very easy in clay. There's nothing gardeners can do when it rains too much. Not only is too much water deferential to plants, soggy soil promotes disease. Soggy soil helps disease overwinter. If well amended with compost raised bed compensates year around for overwatering PLUS requires less water per growing season.

I believe rotted logs acting like damp sponge at bottom encourages deeper roots and deep roots help bridge ups and downs during growing season. Hot weather slammed the door on blossom set in June for my indeterminates, but I harvested a few tomatoes at end of August. 3 determinates in pots just went into bed which sat empty since cool season veggies expired in Spring. First frost expected Nov 14.

We’ve had good tomatoes and plenty of them. Robert grew them from seed this year in a raised bed and I’ve been impressed with how clean the plants have been (disease and insect free) as well as delicious.

It's been a great tomato year for us. I have very fine 'sugar sand' in the yard so grew mine in huge pots this year. Beefsteaks don't typically do much in my locale but I had great tomatoes from Early Girl, Lemon Boy and a 'new to me variety' Patio. They are tired now but we've eaten a ton of good, tasty toms this summer. Gotta love those 'El Nino' rainstorms.

Rhizo, since you are near me, I’m glad to hear you had a great crop. I too started all of mine from seeds and had also done a soil test. I think it was the weather for the most part. As to the pests, I’ll address during the off season by applying some preventive to the soil before winter. It’s just a part of growing anything and one has to be vigilant to head off disease and pests.

Here in Va it's been a fairly average year for tomatoes. I started with 10 plants which did well before being taken over by early blight (normal). All 10 have been yanked but have been replaced with 10 late season plants (seed started in mid-June) which are now close to producing their first ripe ones, they are loaded with greenies now and my hope is that they'll produce well before it turns too cold. I did have to pull one of them due to being hit with late blight but the other 9 look good so far. One volunteer tomato plant from the compost pile has been a bridge between these 2 plantings to keep us supplied.

Tomatoes were disappointing here, too. Ive hardly had a good one. My cherokee purples were good but my plant barely produced any.

I bought some Jersey tomatoes at a farm stand expecting them to be delicious but they were mediocre at best. So sad.

The peaches have not been great either.

I have had the best tomato harvest ever this year! Beautiful, buxom, bountiful tomatoes. The problem is I've done so little cooking (hence the threads about "subsistence cooking" etc) that the harvest has mostly been given away to friends rather than traveling into mine own tumme. Sigh.

(I installed containers, dug in lots of manure, coffee grounds, fertilizer, and set up a drip system. That plus the abnormally warm summer - which is probably the "new normal" here, ref climate change - resulted in the profusion of fruit.)

John, I'd love to see photos of your set up for your tomatoes. What did you mean, that you "installed" containers? Was it well rotted manure and what kind of fertilizer did you use?

Hope you get to eat some of them soon...lol.

Mine are still struggling. A frost on June 1, followed by 6 weeks of nearly no rain and several 90F days or over and now today it was a high of 57F and will be down to 40F tonight. The tomatoes are just not very happy and the few ripe ones I've gotten have little flavor. Lots of green tomatoes on the vine, though, so there's still a change, I guess.

In addition to the weather this has been the year of the pest. Rabbits ate all the green beans but left the rest of the beans alone, thankfully. Tomato hornworms are finally under control, at least I think so. Potato beetles came in waves, a bear plopped his bear behind down in the sweet corn and ate his fill, stripping off ears, pulling down husks like a person would and eating all the corn kernels and then discarding the neatly eaten cob. Raccoons preceded the bear, crows and sandhill cranes led the way. The flies are terrible and are making the poor cattle miserable no matter how many fly predators I release, how many times I clean and treat the barn, how much repellent I add to the fly rub. Ticks were numerous and voracious but seem to have moderated. And, of course, we can't forget the groundhogs. It's been a constant battle.

I don't even know what the problem is with the peppers and zucchini. Both have huge plants, easily up to my shoulders (yes, I know I"m only 5' tall, but still). However, those big plants have nearly no fruit, not even blossoms. Same soil, same compost, even the same seeds but a completely different result, it's just a strange year. Haven't I said that before, like last year?

Annie

prairiemoon, they are just wooden container boxes, about 1’ x 1’ x 6’. Bags of soil, bags of chicken and steer manure, boughten fish emulsion, and coffee grounds. I guess maybe 2/3 soil, 1/3 the other stuff. So, a pretty extravagant amount of manure. Is it well-rotted? I dunno, the chicken stuff was stinky tho. Drip watered every other day, with hand watering when very hot. Supported with stakes, cages, and twine. On the western exposure of the house. I don’t have good photos - lots of photos of the tomatoes, but none of the boxes.

Now, do I need to change the soil before next year? Or can I keep using the same soil as long as I dig in a similar amount of manure, fertilizer, and grounds? I don’t have a green thumb.

You sell yourself short, to grow in such limited space requires attention to details. If you had no disease this year the soil should be ok after replenishing fertility. I err on the side of caution by rotating crops whether I notice disease or not.

Thanks, I will experiment - next spring I'll change the soil in one container and not in the other, and see what happens.

Annie - where do you garden? That sounds extremely challenging. I’m surprised you are still gardening…! Wow. I have to stop complaining. Lol

I hope you have a better season next year, and is there any adjustment you can make to give you a better chance of success? For instance, I gave up struggling with the rabbits so I am growing what they don’t eat as much as I can figure out. I bought a couple of raised beds on legs to grow veggies and they can’t reach them. How about a big fenced in area that you grow in?

I have no idea how to address flies, I would have a hard time dealing with that. I guess I would get those hats with the nets, but…the poor animals.

John, Interesting. You are a newbie gardener? Always good to have good results when you are just starting out. Very encouraging. Sounds like you have all your bases covered. I don’t grow with manure so I can’t advise, but I would ask over at the Organic forum on GW.

Are the boxes 6ft wide or 6ft deep?

As for changing the soil. The recommendation to avoid disease is to rotate your crops. But…some of us don’t have a lot of options to grow sun loving vegetables. I have grown tomatoes in the same beds for about 5 years without a problem, using compost, not manure. I am ready to switch them to a new location but will have to evict something else to do that. If you have the space to move them and rotate on a 4 year schedule you will be much better off in multiple ways. You choose 4 locations, and every year leave one to rest with nothing growing in it. That is suggested to be ideal.

John, I love that experimenting attitude! lol I love to experiment too. That is the best way to actually 'know' something.

The boxes are 1' tall x 1' deep x 6' wide. It's not too hard to simply change out the soil every few years if it comes to that.

There are only three places on my postage-stamp, heavily tree-shaded yard to grow sun-demanding veggies. One is by the kitchen door with west exposure and no shade, and that's where the tomatoes are now. Another is along the northwest corner fence, but I'd have to elevate the containers to get enough sun. There is a great place by the driveway with south exposure, but it is currently excavated prior to paving - to expand the driveway because too many cars.

I am even thinking of mounting containers on my garage roof, or building a carport in the driveway with containers on top. Or growing them hanging-style from the south side of the house. That's how little sunny growing space we have :-(

I have always grown herbs, but never had much luck with veggies. Prior tomato efforts were disappointing, maybe because not a sunny enough location or because the soil is clay-ey and I was too lazy/ignorant to do anything about it. We have recently started trying to grow veggies in containers in the front yard, after ripping out all the alleged grass, but it is barely sunny enough there for lettuce and peas.

John - are there any community gardens in your area where you could rent a plot to grow some of the sun loving veggies?

John, I completely understand. We have a lot of trees around our small 1/4 acre lot too. I tried for a long time to grow veggies in the back, and it went okay in the beginning until the trees started maturing then I moved to my front where I have a 15ft bed in full sun. That works pretty well except now the rabbits eat most things but tomatoes and peppers. So if it's not one thing it's another...lol

I would second the idea of a community garden!

I moved in late winter / early spring and was so excited about this house having a ton of garden boxes! Only to learn that the previous owners had neglected the irrigation system and there are lines broken everywhere, so no water. Husband and I had enough on our plates fixing things so no garden this year. Maybe next year.

I have been struggling with tomatoes at the old house for the last few years. Previous years I seemed to get some pretty good crops and then the last few years have had summers that have been way too hot and we were trying to conserve water (desert + drought) so I think the plants just didn't have what they needed for a good harvest. Used to have so many tomatoes in July / August and the last few years almost nothing was getting ripe. I even tried a different variety (Arkansas Traveler) but didn't have luck with that.

There is a community garden, but I am too lazy to walk there and ask how to join . . . works better when the veggies are close at hand.

Someone mentioned "experiment" earlier in this thread. If you read between the lines or ask them, majority of long time diehards are always experimenting in some fashion. All the forums in the world can't equal trial and error, success and failure for learning how, when and where.

For anyone struggling or just starting out, I recommend following local reccomendations for their location instead of people on other side of country. . Plant at least one each of medium size and cherry size for production comparison to your large verities.

Here in Portland, we often cannot confidently set tomatoes out until late May, and the rains can start in September, so with that shorter growing season I planted a lot of cherry tomatoes and an ”Early Girl”, just so I’d have something if the other varieties didn’t work.

In Los Angeles the tomatoes almost grew themselves, sigh. Salt shaker on a post in the garden, just munch away.

prairiemoon, I'm in North/West Michigan and usually it's much easier to garden than it was this year, it was just the perfect storm of events and everything was a challenge.

I've been gardening here for about 60 years, first I worked the garden at home with my Grandmother, then I started my own garden. I bought the farm I grew up on when my Dad died, so location is the same, soil is the same. I can fight the pests but the weather has just been so different the past couple of years. Well, I'm not fighting with the bear, he can just have the sweet corn!

Annie

I'm with you annie1992 , shaking a fist and yelling at the sky doesn't change the weather and might upset the bear so best to just take what comes your way.

^^^I’m right there with you two, annie1992 and klem1. It’s nice to vent here though and discover others have had similar problems. I’ve had other not so good years and am still gardening. While I’ve pulled up 2 plants now, several are still producing and I pick 5-6 small-medium tomatoes every couple of days.

klem1, I totally agree with the advice you gave above about following recommendations for their area of the country. Seed catalogs can lure people in with great looking and sounding varieties. Gardening can be one big experiment in itself as you said. I’ve always like to try at least 1-2 plants of a new to me variety. Sometimes it’s great, like this year’s Heatmaster and Jelly Bean, and sometimes not so much. I’m fortunate to have the space to do this.

Here having tomato plants die young has become the norm. Years ago my tomatoes planted in early May would make it all the way to an Oct 1st frost, that's no longer the case. I have had to change my planting schedule switching from planting 20 plants in May to just 10. These first 10 are wiped out by blights by mid August, so in early/mid June I'll start another 10 plants from seed to extend the growing season into Oct, hopefully. So far so good but I have lost 1 plant to late blight and another one is suffering the same fate which leaves 8 decent plants now loaded with greenies. A couple of pics below...

These should ripen up before too long, esp since the long range forecast here is for a warmer than normal autumn. We need rain too and an inch or more is expected tomorrow as a low pressure system crawls up the coast.