I grew a variety of tomato called 4th of July that is sopposed to have one
of the earliest ripening dates of any tomato. As the name implies if you get
them in the ground soon enough, and the weather cooperates you'll have ripe
tomatoes by 7/4. I got mine in the ground on May 8th. My first ripe tomato
actually came off my Sweet Treat cherry tomatoes lol! That was about 2 weeks
ago. The first 4th of July came about a week ago. I just pulled 5 ripe
tomatoes off the 4th of July tomato, and many more are beginning to ripen.
Many Sweet Treats are also ripening, and 1 of my Big Mama tomatoes has
started turning yellow. None of the Burpee's Burgers and Brandy Boys are
even close to ripening, they just keep getting bigger and bigger.

My weather has been almost exactly like yours (Pat) this year, aside from
the fact we've had far warmer days (and nights) during this month.

"Pat Meadows" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 28 Jul 2003 08:39:42 -0400, Steve Calvin
wrote:


Interesting Pat, I've never heard that before but it explains that last
few years of "late" tomatoes.

PS (see earlier answer) - I think the fact that the Brits
normally grow tomatoes under glass (in greenhouses) gives at
least some credence to this. Their summers are fairly cool
(by our standards).

We have a friend who lives around the corner from us - he's
English. They moved to the USA three years ago: this is
their fourth summer here.

He just routinely continued to grow his tomatoes in an
unheated (plastic) greenhouse - I don't think he was even
aware that most Americans don't grow them under glass, at
first.

He's had many more ripe tomatoes than I have for the last
two years (we only moved here two years ago).

Pat