News article for April 21, 2008:
Tomatoes are probably the most popular crop grown in the vegetable garden. There seems to be a lot of pleasure gained by gardeners when they can have the first, biggest, reddest, or most tasty tomato among their gardening peers.
In south Louisiana we typically will plant spring tomatoes from mid-March (for the risk takers) to about May 1st. In general it takes about 60 -75 days from the time you plant the transplant until you pick your tomatoes. That time will vary depending on temperature, moisture and varieties.
Most of us will make one planting early in the spring and will have tomatoes for a couple of weeks in the early summer. It is however possible to have an extended season of tomato production if you do a little planning and stagger your plantings.
We consider a spring tomato crop to have production from late May into early July.
With the advances in varieties over the past decade it is possible to produce a summer crop with production in July through mid September. This would be the hardest crop to grow because of poor pollination in the heat, but the heat tolerant varieties can accomplish this goal. These tomato plants would need to be planted from May to mid June.
Another opportunity for planting would be the fall crop. Plant these plants in late July to mid August for production from October to frost.
One of the tricks to growing in the heat is to keep down the weeds yet not burn the plants up. I like the white plastic mulch for summer and fall production. You of course could forget the plastic and just mulch with organic mulch like leaves or pine straw. Be careful with hays and straw because the seeds from those grasses will germinate and become weeds.
I would also consider irrigation system. I like the drip tape. Your bury it about 4-6 inches in the ground on top of row or just of center so you can plant in the middle. It will have small emitters or holes every 12 inches that will very efficiently put water in the root zone of the plants and even more importantly, it is very easy. Make sure you get the pressure regulator to go with it because the system operates at very low pressure.
You have a lot of choices when it comes to varieties. There are both determinate and indeterminate varieties. Indeterminate are some times called vining types because they continue to grow taller and require constant pruning for suckers. The determinate varieties will only get about 4 feet in height and will bush out and are usually not pruned.
Indeterminate varieties that have proven to grow well in the Spring in Louisiana include: Better Boy, Big Beef, Champion, Terrific, Sun Gold, First Lady, Jet Star (low acid), and Monte Claro.
Determinate varieties that grow well here are in the Spring are : Celebrity, Amelia (Tomato Spotted Wilt Resistant –TSVW), Spitfire, BHN 444 (TSVW),Merced, Colonial, Mountain Fresh, Empire, Mountain Spring, Bingo, Mountain Pride, Bonita, Mountain Delight, Sunny, Florida 47, BHN 640, Crista, Top Gun, and Bella Rosa.
Summer varieties would include: Solar Set (determinate –d), Heat Wave(d), Sun Master (d), Sun Leaper, Sun Chaser, Florida 91.
For a fall crop try: Bingo (d), Solar Set (d), Sun Leaper, Merced, Florida 91, Sun Chaser, and Hawaiian N-65.
Now that is a formula to keep the tomato sandwiches going.
For more information on these or related topics contact Kenny at 686-3020.