I LOVE tomatoes. Big juicy beefsteak tomatoes on my hamburger. Little sweet cherry tomatoes warm from the vine. Yellow Sungold gems bursting in my mouth. Even the exotic "blue" and purple ones, full of anti-oxidants, hiding in their juicy goodness.
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| Cornell University photo |
Every March I carefully choose the tomatoes I expect to savour the coming summer and shop several nursery websites for seeds. I buy good quality seed starting mix, sterilize my plastic seed-starting cells and set up my grow lights in the master bedroom shower (sorry, hubby, tomatoes have priority). Then I carefully place a few dozen seeds in the containers and add the little plant labels so I'll know who is who.
The excitement of seeing the new plants seemingly pop out of the soil goes a long way to brighten the dreary last days of winter and I'm always delighted to water, keep warm and, eventually, transplant the little plants. Even at just 8 weeks of age, there is that unmistakeable smell of tomato leaf filling my bathroom.
Fast forward to late June, early July. The little plants have been in the garden now for about 6 weeks and a few have tiny pale tomatoes low on the plants. Lots of green leaves, they're looking healthy if a bit small. The yellow flowers are appearing on schedule but - BUT - no tomatoes for the past couple weeks! Nothing! NOTHING!
WHAT IS GOING ON!?!!!??!! What could I have done wrong???
I've chosen several varieties of tomatoes, watered every other day and kept an eye out for low night-time temperatures in case I needed to cover the plants. I've put down a balanced (16-16-16) fertilizer every 4 weeks and there's no history of verticillium wilt in my garden. So far, I seem to have done everything right. So what's wrong?
I'm not accounting for Mother Nature. She's been a false friend this summer, throwing 100+ degree days at us, for weeks without end. It's been lovely (for the vegetables) that the nights are cooling to just about 55 degrees and I thought the hot days would be enjoyed by every vegetable in the garden. I've been so wrong.
A horticulturist at the University of Maryland has studied tomato pollination and has learned some remarkable characteristics of tomatoes, especially those plants grown in greenhouses.
Those of us lucky enough to have hobby greenhouses know that, in summer, they can easily reach 115 degrees. What I didn't know until I read about the tomato temperature study done for Delaware Extension Service, is that tomato plants that are constantly exposed to daytime temps over 95, and nighttime temps over 80, produce fewer, less viable pollen grains. Since most pollen is shed between 10am & 4pm, if temps in those hours are higher than 103 degrees for 2 days in a row, fruit set won't happen. And you'll end up like I have, with nice big plants and lots of fading flowers but no tomatoes.
So until the temperatures drop, I'll have to enjoy the tomatoes that set before the 100+ days rolled in and wait for some more normal Central Oregon weather - as long as it doesn't bring us frost in July!!
If you'd like to read the University of Delaware Cooperative Extension report, click on the link: https://agdev.anr.udel.edu/weeklycropupdate/?p=4489
It's ironic that I've always grown tomatoes in the greenhouse and in the garden, thinking that the outside plants might make it to harvest but if they didn't, I always had my greenhouse plants. This may be the year that I'm dependent upon those outside plants to satisfy my tomato addiction.
After all, even a little harvest of home-grown is better than an abundance of store-bought!
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