Tomato Time!

June 20, 2023

It’s tomato time at Raincatcher’s garden of Midway Hills.  Over 84 pounds were donated and the plants are loaded down with more fruit to harvest this week. It looks to be a very good harvest and we wanted to share the story of our 2023 tomatoes. 

Thirty tomato plants, determinate and indeterminate varieties, were started from seeds in January 2023 and put into the ground and in raised beds in early April.  This was later than is recommended but the nighttime temperatures were too low in March. It is often difficult in Dallas to get the necessary time for a good crop to mature in between the last frost and the onset of temperatures above 92 degrees.

Prior to planting we amended the beds with compost and MicroLife Multi-purpose fertilizer.  After two weeks, Tomato-tone fertilizer was applied and that schedule has continued. The lower leaves are trimmed up off the ground to help prevent fungal disease.  

Our team decided that with our hot weather it would be best not to prune the suckers (new growth in the areas between the main stem and branches). Instead we allowed them to stay in place and protect the developing fruit from sunscald.  There are many different opinions about this practice but it might be that those advocating for drastic removal of suckers live in areas with less extreme weather.  

Harvest before they are ripe, but after color appears. Squirrels keep a keen eye on the ripening tomatoes and early on they ate on the larger varieties before we could take them off the vine.  To combat that, tomatoes are harvested at the first sign of color change and ripened indoors. When ripe, fruit is then weighed and donated to the North Dallas Shared Ministries Food Pantry.

The indeterminate varieties, such as Celebrity, Cherokee Carbon, Early Girl, Juliet, and Sweet 100, are towering over 6 feet in the air in a fenced garden area and in tall, raised beds with supports. 

The determinate varieties are producing abundantly as well in raised beds.  The variety, Patio Choice Yellow (AAS), has impressed our team with its prolific crop, disease resistance, and sweetness. 

While we are enjoying this season of abundance, we are aware that the blooms here in North Texas will soon slow to a crawl, due to the lack of cooler weather in the early morning.   In general nighttime temperatures over 75 degrees will cause the plants to stop setting fruit.  We are quickly approaching that season.  

There are two ideas of thought about what to do –

1. Cut the tomatoes back severely so when it gets cooler they will begin producing again, or  

2. Pull up the plants when the blooms stop coming and prepare to start new tomato plants  in July for a fall harvest before the first frost.  Smaller varieties with shorter days to maturity are recommended for fall due to the risk of an early frost.

Our dedicated and determined gardeners frequent Raincatcher’s most days, but our scheduled work times are Monday and Tuesday mornings.  

Please leave a comment below if you have a favorite tomato variety for our area or tomato wisdom to share.

Starla Willis with input from Beverly Allen, Dallas County Master Gardeners