In article
,
desertgardener wrote:

On Oct 6, 3:21*pm, "Suzanne D." wrote:
I planted all my tomato seeds within a week or two this spring, and planted
the seedlings within a few weeks as well. *Over the summer we got tons of
tomatoes, and then despite my misting the plants, our 100+ temperatures in
August sort of wiped them out. *The vines are still growing, and now that
temps are cooler we seem to have a little more flowering and fruiting
activity, but overall the vines just look pooped.

I am wondering if there would be any value to starting 1/2 or even 1/3 of my
seeds in the spring, and starting more a month or two later, so that I could
plant some young plants very early, plant some a bit later, and then plant
some in mid-summer. *I know that tomatoes generally produce until frost, but
I wonder if I would have more luck with continuously planting new, fresh
plants several times rather than doing one big planting in the spring. *Do
younger tomato plants typically have better production than older ones?
--S.

I've done this inadvertently before and in my climate it didn't work
at all. I live in the high desert, very short spring and very very hot
summers. The later plantings did not have enough time to grow and set
fruit before the hot weather inhibited pollination. Nice plants - no
tomatoes. When the temperatures eased off in mid-September they all
started to set fruit again, however there wasn't enough time before
first frost to get much of a crop.

Cyndi
http://www.gardenlist.com

Staggered planting would make sense for determinate tomatoes, but not
for indeterminate.
--
³When you give food to the poor, they call you a saint. When you ask why the poor have no food, they call you a communist.²
-Archbishop Helder Camara

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