Tomatoes & friends
Tomato (heirloom, roma, cherry)
Two crops: set out late March and again July 1-25.
- Indoors
- 6 to 8 wk (Jan to early Feb)
- Outside
- Late Mar, again Jul 1-25
- Where
- Raised bed or in ground
- Sun
- Full sun; six hours minimum
- Water
- Deep weekly soak; swings split and rot it
- Harvest
- May to Jun, then Oct to Nov
Care
- Water
- Deeply and about weekly, an inch that wets the soil 6 inches down, in the early morning; skip any week that brings half an inch of rain, and step up toward 2 inches in August heat. Swinging from parched to soaked is what cracks fruit and blackens the blossom end, so keep the rhythm steady.
- Sow
- In cells in January to early February: 2 seeds a quarter inch deep per cell, keep the stronger. Plant deep at set-out, burying the stem to the first true leaves. Start a second bench in May for the July fall planting.
- Start inside
- Room temperature germinates tomato fine here, sprouts in 7 to 10 days, so the mat is a speed tool, not a necessity. Under the lights 14 to 16 hours. Out in the latter half of March once frost passes and soil hits 55F; the fall bench goes out July 1 to 25.
- Feed
- Compost worked into the bed at planting, then side-dress once the first fruit set, keeping the nitrogen low once trusses set or you grow leaves in place of fruit. Hold all feeding through the July-August heat, and start again with the fall bed.
- Ready
- Pick once the fruit colors fully and still feels firm; color climbs from the blossom end to the shoulders. The fall crop races the mid-November first frost, so the last pick is anything that has started to turn.
- Trouble
- Flowers that drop in hot, dry weather: mulch, keep the water steady and grow heat-tolerant types; the July-August core of the mid-June into early September gap beats every variety, and heat-set strains only stretch the shoulders. Sunken black patch at the blossom end: uneven moisture, so soak deeply and evenly.
In a bag?
- Yes
- Up to a 10–15 gal bag.
- Water
- Daily all summer, twice a day in a heat wave, water until it drains from the holes; a bag tomato also wants afternoon shade or 30 to 50 percent shade cloth in the gap.
- Feed
- Dilute liquid feed on the watering calendar, leached weekly with plain water; hold the feed when days top 90F.
- Sow
- One plant per bag, the high end for indeterminates. A July-planted bag tomato belongs to the fall window, with the same shade and water rules.
Two tomato seasons share one bed here: a spring crop picked into June, then a fall planting set out in July that carries the season to frost.
Growing
The county's own logic: transplants start indoors in January or February so the plant carries flowers into the field before nights average above 75F and days above 90F and fruit set stops around mid-June. Set out in the latter half of March, and the first ripe fruit comes off before the gap closes. For the fall crop, start a second bench in May and transplant July 1 to 25; set resumes as September's nights cool, and October into November is the harvest. Stake or cage at planting, prune indeterminate suckers, mulch deeply, and water the soil, not the plant.
Varieties
The state sheet's list: Better Boy, Big Beef, Carnival, Celebrity and Homestead for slicers; Red Cherry, Cherry Grande, Juliet, Small Fry and Baxter's Early Bush for the small-fruited sorts. Texas A&M does stand behind heat-set types for a summer planting: Sun Pride, Heatwave, Sunmaster, Solar Fire and Solar Set. Even those stretch the shoulders; none sets fruit through the July-August core here.
Pests
Blossom drop in hot, dry spells is the big one, and the remedy list is mulch, steady water and heat-tolerant varieties. Blossom end rot comes from water swings, not a soil shortage, so the fix is the same deep, even schedule and a fresh mulch.
In the kitchen
Salsa runs the kitchen here: romas cook down into salsa roja and bottled sauce, slicers fill the sandwiches before the gap, and the fall crop carries pico de gallo season into November alongside the September cilantro.