"God Bless Texas" wrote in message
news
On Mon, 23 Oct 2006 02:58:57 +0000, Jonny wrote:

Have been monitoring the tomatoes since early spring when they sprung.
Not
alot to talk about. Heat seems to have restricted any reasonable
reproduction. Except for first flowering, with small results and small
maters.

To my mind, we have two "mater" seasons in Austin, and it's almost
pointless to try to keep the plants from the first alive until the second.

Now since that low cell almost a month ago produced some reasonable
rain, and lengthy cloud cover; have at least 3 dozen fruit and more
flowers continually coming. Intermittent rain since. And lower temps.

That's the second season.

The first fruit, same small size seems to be ripening on the vine. Later
fruit is green and continues to grow. Green growth, meaning branching
and consequential leaves are doing well.

Been thinking about transconductance. Meaning, the heat conduction of
the soil from external sources such as sunlight and air temperature. My
observations lead me to think that possibly that the soil type around my
raised garden area is subject to soil temps of the entire soil area.
And, as a consequence, affecting the growth of anything planted there.
As a result, whether the garden is raised, and provided suitable soil is
of no consequence if the surrounding soil temp is too hot.

Um, not sure I understand this - are you saying that you think the soil in
your raised beds is affected by the ground temperature?


Comments?

Yes - before the first freeze, pick *all* of the fruit, no matter what
color. You can keep the green ones on a window ledge until they ripen -
they won't rot - and you can get that sunny flavor into January if it
takes that long.

Thanks for input. Was unaware of 2 growing seasons. If so, must start new
plants in late January next year to have any chance of decent amount of
fruit prior to May. After that, its too hot. Prior to September is too hot
for new plants.

Tomato plants doing okay since spring, early March. They were troubled in
August. Now okay. Why would I replant?

My thinking is regarding the dry NATIVE SOIL absorbing so much heat and is
affecting the raised bed garden soil temperature. Kinda like an egg in a
hot frying pan. Eventually the egg will get hot as the pan. Even the
jalapenos were close to dying for awhile, same garden. They are also
bearing new fruit and flowers. I don't remember this dual growing season
when I was young living with parents, from S.A. The same stuff kept
producing until it was too cold. All came to a screeching halt in November.
Am living west of Wimberley now.
--
Jonny