09-05-2004, 05:03 AM
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tomato weather question
(Hillary Israeli) wrote in message ...
I know you are supposed to wait until night temps are in the 50s F before
planting tomatoes. My question is this: what happens if you don't? I mean,
if night time temps are in the 40s when you plant, does that mean you're
doomed, or does it just take longer to mature, or what?
I always wondered about this, so I did an experiment.
I put out plants in one week intervals, the first batch one month
before the last frost, the last batch at the end of the frost date.
I have a big tarp that I just cover the plants at night in case of
frost warnings (about 5 times in a month).
This is what I found:
1) the plants that went out first seem to stopped growing, while the
inside plants kept growing at a steady pace.
2) Actually the first plants set out didn't really stop growing, but
were becoming thicker at the stems, when I put out the new plants, I
noticed that the new plants were taller, but thiner.
3) At about 2 weeks after the last frost date, the plants that went
out first were the biggest, with thicker stems and growing like crazy,
the other plants that went out later could never catch up (even
throughout the season.)
4) The first batch of plants had the earliest fruit, but not too many,
their major production of fruit occurred at about the same time as the
other plants (in August).
5) The first batch of plants produced many more tomatoes then the
others, mainly because they were about 3 feet taller and wider.
I suspect the first batch of plants were developing a big root system
underneath in the warm soil (since they had the room), when warm
nights arrived they could really take off.
Now I always plant one month before last frost date and use the tarp
at nights, why, I don't know, guess I want the biggest plants on the
block and I get working in the garden a month earlier, I could just
plant more tomatoe plants later and get the same amount of production,
but I don't!
Of course, each spring is different, warm springs means the first
batch out is going to be really bigger then the others, cold springs
means the first batch out will only be slightly bigger then the
others.
steve
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