2009 was a rough year for growing tomatoes in S.E. Texas. Temperatures were cold for longer than expected, and then the blast furnace kicked on from April nonstop through July. It’s a wonder many of us got tomatoes at all! That said, we still had quite a turnout at SETTFest and had plenty to share and bring.
We are looking forward to the 2010 season and if you haven’t planted your seeds yet, this is probably the last weekend to do it!
If you have any experiences you’d like to share, or post your own article, just post a Comment and we’ll check it out. 
-Morgan
Posted on 16 January '10 by Morgan, under News & Events. 2 Comments.
The 3rd annual South East Texas Tomato Festival (SETTFest) returned to the historic Washington on the Brazos state park on June 13th, 2009. We had our best turnout yet, with familiar faces, new folks, and unexpected guests. We had a great time, had everything set up early, so we could just enjoy visiting with folks.
Our mission at SETTFest is to introduce heirloom tomatoes to Central and South Texas gardeners and farmers alike, dispel the myths that only ‘heat setter’ varieties can be grown here, and offer advice and seeds wherever we can. So it was great to see folks asking lots of questions (including a few stumpers!), gathering seeds, and talking shop.
We are thrilled that more and more folks are bringing tomatoes and other items as well. There was a nice spread of breads, cheeses, pasta salads, etc. This was a tough year for tomatoes in our area due to the heatwave and torrential downpours in early May. But still most folks managed to get something and we enjoyed tasting varieties that others brought. Indeed one of the best varieties at the event was Atkinson.
Thanks all for making this a great event!
View photos of the 2009 SETTFest!
Posted on 14 June '09 by Morgan, under News & Events. 2 Comments.
Tomato seeds are surrounded by a gel which contains a germination inhibitor. I like to clean my tomato seeds by processing them with Oxiclean washing powder. Not only does it remove this germination inhibitor, and any bits of tomato that might be sticking to the seeds, but it may also help to remove certain soilborne diseases from the seeds so we aren’t carrying a tomato disease from one year to the next.
Fermentation?
The classic method of saving seeds is to leave them out in a cup or container for a few days until they start to ferment. They produce a strong smell and develop a “fungus mat”. Because of the smell, some people let their seeds ferment outside. But if we have 100 degree temperatures, that can “cook” the seeds, making them not viable. Plus, you never know how long it’s going to take for the seeds to separate from the tomato solids. If you’re going on a trip or out of town for the weekend, you might come back to dried out, useless seeds. Fermentation really got to be a hassle for me. And moldy tomato seeds grosses out my roommates!
Hybrids?
Seeds should be saved from open pollinated varieties (eg, heirlooms), unless you are willing to take your chances and experiment a bit, as your saved seeds may not be true-to-type. Most of the tomatoes at the grocery store are hybrids (F1) and so there is a good chance you will not get the same tomato when you save seeds and grow them.
Tomatoes should be ripe or close to it. If possible, avoid saving seeds from deformed or “catfaced” tomatoes as they may have resulted from a fused blossom. Since a fused blossom is usually a much larger flower than the typical tomato blossom, there is a higher likelihood it attracted bees or other pollinators. The seeds you save might be cross-pollinated from another tomato and yield unexpected results.
Note: Make sure your work surface, utensils, cups, strainer, and fingernails are free of any stray seeds before you begin and after each seed saving session.
Hint: It is helpful to get a paper plate ready by writing the variety name on it with a permanent marker before you begin, in case you walk away and forget what variety you saved seeds from. Don’t write with a regular ink pen because moisture will cause the variety name to run.
Step-by-Step
- Select ripe tomatoes of one variety to save seeds from.
- Cut a hole or X on the bottom of each tomato and squeeze the juice and seeds into a measuring cup.
- If the seeds and juice from the tomato are less than 1 cup, add water to make 1 cup. Add 1 tablespoon of Oxiclean washing powder for each cup of tomato seeds/pulp/water.
- After 30-45 minutes, stir and pour seeds through a fine mesh strainer.
- Rinse off seeds until they no longer feel “slippery”.
- Use a paper towel to dry off the bottom of the strainer.
- Turn the strainer upside down and whack it onto a non-coated paper plate to transfer the seeds to the plate.
- Spread seeds around so they are not all clumped together. This will let the seeds will dry properly. Cover loosely with a paper towel and set out of reach for approximately 1 week or until seeds are dry.
- Scrape seeds into a paper envelope (such as Coin Envelopes from your local office supply store) and label with variety name, year, and your seed source.
Mailing Seeds
Domestically, it is easy to mail 3-5 packets of seeds in a standard sized business envelope. Because seed packets can slide around in the envelope when handled, it is strongly recommended to take a blank sheet of letter sized paper and tape the seed packets to it in such a way that no two seed packets are overlapping seeds.
Loose seed packets can attract the attention of postal inspectors, not to mention that if all the seed packets slide to one end of the envelope, seeds may be crushed by mail sorting equipment. Bubble mailers may be used if you want to ensure safe arrival of your seeds.
Mailing seeds to other countries poses additional challenges. Padded/bubble mailers are not recommended as they attract attention. One suggestion is to mail individual seed packets inside of greeting or holiday cards.
Posted on 31 January '09 by Morgan, under Growing Tips. 1 Comment.
The Right Soil
When they first germinate, tomato seeds are vulnerable to any bacterial or fungal spores which might be present in your growing medium. If shortly after they germinate, your tomato seedlings die, especially with a dark ring just below the soil line, this is damping off.
This can be completely avoided by purchasing a sterile soiless seed starting mix. This can be found for ~$4 for an 8 quart bag which will fill a couple of 72 cell flats or a dozen 4″ pots. If you are growing organic transplants, then you will need to create your own soil mix.
The peat moss you use will not have a wetting agent. Add 1 tsp of an organic dish soap to 1 gallon of water and water the soil with that. |
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Place seed starting mix in a bowl and then moisten it with water until it is damp, but not sopping wet. Scoop the mix into your seed starting trays or pots. Ferry Morse sells reasonable seed starting trays with clear plastic domes. We do not recommend peat pots for a variety of reasons. The peat tends to wick water away from the tender seedlings, depriving them of water. Also, the peat pot does not degrade as quickly as the advertising would indicate. If used, the bottom should be cut out with scissors to allow free root growth.
Presoak?
An entirely optional step in seed starting is to pre-soak seeds. Soaking your tomato and pepper seeds in weak tea and seaweed emulsion can increase germination rates and seedling vigor. If you have fresh seeds (less than 5 years old), or you are starting seeds for too many varieties for this to be practical, than this step can, of course, be skipped.
Add a tea bag to a cup of warm water and steep for 5 minutes. Discard the tea bag and add a few drops of Maxicrop liquid seaweed. Arrange several small bowls or cups, add your seeds to each cup, and then add enough of the weak tea to each to moisten the seeds. 12 hours is our recommended soak time. Then sow into moist seed starting mix as described below.
Depth
Tomato and pepper seeds, especially cherry tomato seeds, seem to perform much better when planted extremely shallow — merely 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch deep. I usually arrange the seeds on top of the soil and then with a small tool pull a few strands of the mix over the seeds. One method is to simply drop the seeds on top of the moist seed starting mix and then sprinkle a little bit of dry soilless seed starting mix on top and mist it with a sterilized water bottle until damp.
If you are willing to separate the plants later, then 2-4 seeds can be started in each cell of a 72 cell seed starting tray. Or you can start directly in 4″ pots. The benefit of starting in a smaller cell and then transplanting or “potting up” into a larger pot is encouraging the initial tap root (which goes straight down to the bottom of the pot) to become a more fibrous root system taking up the whole pot.
Tomato seeds germinate at different rates. Cherries can be especially precocious. Pepper seeds prefer to germinate about 10 degrees warmer than tomato plants (ideally 85 F degrees). If you are lucky enough to have a seedling heat mat, then you can start your seeds at the same time. Otherwise, we recommend starting your pepper seeds 2-3 weeks before you start your tomato plants and expect them to take up to 2 weeks to germinate.
We recommend making a map of your seedling tray (including some indication of orientation in case you rotate the tray and forget which end is which!) and labeling the contents. [Downloadable Seedling Maps]
Moisture
Once you have planted your seeds, the biggest challenge may be resisting the temptation to overwater. We recommend not watering the soil again until the seedlings are 2-3 inches tall and have used up most of the water in the soil. This is typically 5-7 days after germination and there will be a noticeable drying of the surface of the soil. Of course if seedlings start to wilt, then provide them with a little water.
If you are starting in trays and a clear plastic dome was provided,
use it (it does not have to be airtight). Once a good number of
seedlings germinate, remove the dome and place the tray under
fluorescent lights for 16 hours per day.
Some growth of green moss on the surface of your seed starting trays is
normal, but this may be a symptom that you may be overdoing it on watering. Also, if you are
anxious about disturbing your seedlings, you can water the bottom tray instead
of from the top. This is called bottom watering.
Fluorescent Lights
Fluorescent light fixtures which accomodate two 48 inch 40 Watt bulbs run $20-30 at Home Depot and Lowe’s (some are labeled 32W but will work just fine). The $15 models at Wal-Mart are of poor quality. If you are starting seedling trays (instead of individual pots), then it is recommended that you buy the light fixture with the widest metal reflector available so as to distribute the light over the entire width of the tray. To the human eye, fluorescent bulbs are bright from any distance, but
in actuality, the light output falls off dramatically over a distance
of just a few inches.
The top leaves of your plants plants should be kept no more
than 1-2 inches below the fluorescent bulbs for 16 hours per day. If you have to go out of town, then a few days of 24 hours will not harm the plants, although a timer might be a good investment. Use chains to raise and
lower the lights, or use old books, DVD cases, etc. to raise and lower plants. Fluorescent lights will not burn the plants even if the leaves touch them.
Standard cool white 40 Watt bulbs run about $4. I use one cool white and one Daylight (warm/natural light) bulb which run about $6. Avoid any of the ‘deluxe’ bulbs as they are more pleasing to the eye but have a lower light output. Also there is no need to purchase expensive Aquarium, Terrarium, or Plant Growth lights as it is strongly recommended to replace your seed starting fluorescent bulbs every year (especially if you are also starting seeds for a fall crop).
A recent development in seed starting involves High Pressure Sodium and Metal Halide lights. These can produce in excess of 400 W of light. With the use of reflective mylar and with the lights 3-4 feet above the plants, a very large number of plants can be started this way. If there is interest in this subject, we can expand on it in a separate article.
It’s a Breeze
Use an oscillating fan to provide a gentle breeze over your seedlings for several hours per day. This will encourage them to grow thicker stems and overall stockier plants. Many major retailers do not carry oscillating fans in December-February as it is a season item. Buy them in the summer.
| Fertilization
Seedlings should require no fertilizer until their second set of true
leaves. Spray the leaves of your 3-4″ tall seedlings with half strength
seaweed emulsion i.e. Maxicrop. 1/2 teaspoon can be added to a 32 oz
spray bottle (which should be clean and not contain traces of
chemicals). This should be the last fertilization needed until the
plants are transplanted into the ground. |
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Potting Up (Transplanting)
If you started in trays, then you will need to transplant up to 4″ pots when the plants have their second or third set of true leaves. Tomato plants are very risilient and if the trays are well-watered about 30 minutes before transplant, then the tomato plants will have had a good drink of water and stand up better to having their roots disturbed during transplant.
The stems of tomato plants have many fine hairs which have the remarkable ability to become roots if buried in soil. Take advantage of this by transplanting your tomato seedlings as deep in the larger pots as you can. We recommend picking off any leaves that will be buried in the soil by this process. If the seedling is not tall enough to have leaves above the surface of the soil, then add some soil to the bottom of the pot.
You should retain some extra plants as “backups” in case a frost wipes out your initial planting.
Hardening Off
Seedlings started under lights must become slowly acclimated to sunlight before they can be planted in the garden. 11am-2pm holds the most brutal sunlight of the day and is the most likely to damage your plants. 1 – 1 1/2 weeks before planting, your seedlings can be moved out into full shade for 1-2 days and then gradually provided with dappled or direct sunlight with gradually increasing times. If evening temperatures are predicted to fall below 45 degrees or high winds are predicted, then seedlings should be moved indoors. Times can be doubled on cloudy days. Here is a hardening off calendar:
[Day 1] Full Shade
[Day 2] 10 minutes of morning sun.
[Day 3] 15 minutes of morning sun. 10 minutes of afternoon sun.
[Day 4] 45 minutes of morning sun. 30 minutes of afternoon sun.
[Day 5] 1 1/2 hour of morning sun. 1 hour of afternoon sun.
[Day 6] 3 hours of morning sun. 2 hours of afternoon sun.
[Day 7] 4 hours of morning sun. 3 hours of afternoon sun.
[Day 8] Ready to plant.
We realize that many folks cannot do the type of babying described
above, but putting the plants in dappled shade (being aware of the
movement of the sun throughout the day) will help. There are several methods of unattended hardening off, including placing some type of protection directly over the plants to allow morning and afternoon sun to reach the plants, but block the searing mid-day sun until your plants are ready for it.
A lawn chair, inverted laundry basket, or boards supported by bricks, paving stones, or inverted 5 gallon buckets can all be used to provide protection from this mid-day sun. Plants can also be sprayed with inert kaolin clay (sold as Surround) mixed with water to provide a protective physical “shell” to reduce sunlight exposure, but will need to be reapplied in case of rain. 50% shade cloth is another good option.
Plants which are not hardened off will exhibit foliage damage 1-2
days after exposure. The characteristic dessication of the leaves from improper hardening off (tan smooth spots where the leaf has dried out and become paper-thin) can
stunt or kill seedlings.
Seedlings are More Vulnerable to Pests
Tender seedlings are vulnerable to such pests as flea beetles and leaf miners. Flea beetles leave behind tiny holes in the leaves. Leaf miners leave zigzagging tracks in the leaves of the seedlings. In both cases, there is no point in spraying the plants with insecticides as the insects which caused the damage are gone by the time you find evidence. Spraying the plants with Surround or dusting the plants with Sevin (Carbaryl) when they are first set out will protect them from most opportunstic insects.
Planting Dates
Seeds should be started so that plants are 10-14″ tall and healthy
at planting time. These are our recommended seed starting dates for
tomato seeds. Remember to subtract 2 weeks for pepper seeds (unless you
use a heat mat).
Houston (inside Beltway 8)-
Houston (west or north of Beltway 
-
Houston (east or south of Beltway -
Austin -
San Antonio -
Dallas / Ft Worth -
Don’t Trust the Weatherman!
Seedlings should be brought indoors if evening temperatures are predicted to go below 45 F or if high winds are expected. It is important to note that the High and Low temperatures provided by many television newscasts, newspapers, and websites can be very inaccurate and misleading. We cannot encourage you strongly enough to consult the National Weather Service, or Weather Underground to get hour-by-hour predictions of expected temperatures for your area (ZIP code). Weather Underground is particularly pessimistic (they always low-ball evening temperatures) which makes it an especially good indicator.
Can I buy plants?
If you have reached this point of the article and starting your own tomato seeds sounds daunting, or it’s February, you’ll be surprised to know that there are excellent nurseries in the major S.E. Texas cities and surroundings which carry excellent plants. Although I start my own seeds every year, inevitably I do buy a few plants at local nurseries to support the local business and sometimes they have a great variety I hadn’t thought of. It is assumed that plants from local nurseries have already been hardened off and are ready for transplant.
Houston – Inside Beltway 8: Wabash Antiques, Another Place in Time, Southwest Fertilizer and Buchanan’s Native Plants all have an excellent array of tomato and pepper varieties.
Houston – Outside of Beltway 8, RCW Nurseries is starting to carry a good selection of herb and vegetable plants. Cornelius Nurseries, Houston Plants & Garden World and Houston Garden Centers all carry the ubiquitous Chef Jeff’s line of tomato and pepper plants which have some good choices.
Austin – Bloomer’s in Elgin, TX has a fantastic selection. We are currently inquiring about additional nurseries in San Antonio.
San Antonio – We are currently inquiring about the best nurseries in San Antonio.
Dallas/Ft. Worth – Calloway’s Nurseries has nearly 20 locations in and around Dallas, Fort Worth, and Plano. We have not investigated, but presumably they have the Chef Jeff’s line of plants which have some good choices.
When to Plant?
The most common question about growing tomatoes in South East Texas is when to plant. If we wait until all danger of frost has passed (mid-April), then we will get very few tomatoes, especially from late season varieties (most heirlooms). So we must plant out in mid-March and be willing to protect our plants from the occasional cold temperatures. Transplants should be large and healthy. The plants in six packs In late May and June, evening temperatures start to linger in the 70’s. This in addition to high humidity (which denatures the pollen in tomato blossoms)puts an end to fruitset. Most fruitset on your tomatoes will typically occur in late March (if you were able to get your plants out early), April, and early May. It is really imperative to get plants out as early as possible.
Long range weather forecasts should be consulted before planting out. Evening temperatures should not go below the mid-40’s. Once you plant out, it is inevitable that we will have at least one very cool or cold night. In the event of a frost prediction (35 degrees or below), blankets, walls of water, or tarps should be installed during the day to trap as much heat as possible. Plastic coverings should not be allowed to touch plants as they will burn/damage the plants when the cold sets in.
If you have too many plants to protect using the above methods, then constant misting with hose water or sprinklers has been shown to keep plants from succumbing to frost damage as low as 33 degrees. This will increase the amount of fungal problems (specifically early blight) during the season, but it is worth it if your plants can be saved (especially if you did not grow extras as “backups”).
Posted on 31 January '09 by Morgan, under Growing Tips. No Comments.
The 3rd annual South East Texas Tomato Festival (SETTFest 2009) will return to the historic Washington on the Brazos state park on June 13th, 2009.
Located 20 minutes from scenic Brenham, TX, this state park has authentic recreations of crafts and farming of the time of the founding of the Republic of Texas. The excellent facilities available to us at this location should draw a great crowd! Last year we had over 150 tomato varieties represented.
Setup begins at 11am, with the Tasting running from 12:30pm to 3pm.
EVENT INFO | DOWNLOAD FLYER
Posted on 29 January '09 by Morgan, under News & Events. No Comments.
We are proud to announce the relaunch of the South East Texas Tomato Festival (SETTFest.com) website. We will be doing our best to provide helpful and accurate information about the challenges and solutions to growing tomatoes, peppers, and other vegetables in S.E. Texas. We are adding information all the time such as variety recommendations, garden bed preparation, container growing advice, and more. We will be keeping more up-to-date information on our Tomato Festival as well.
If you have any suggestions or feedback, please feel free to leave your comments below or use the Contact Us form. If you’ve got photos of your garden or your tomatoes you’d like to send us for inclusion in the website, please send us an e-mail and we’ll arrange that as well.
Posted on 28 January '09 by Morgan, under News & Events. No Comments.
Grocery Store Tomatoes
There are many forces which conspire to suck the flavor right out of the tomatoes you find at your local grocery store. Very often, farmers choose varieties which produce in a short window of time (determinates), are disease tolerant, and that have tough skin and/or stay firm for a long time in order to handle storage and long distance shipping. These traits are often chosen over flavor. Furthermore, the vast majority of tomatoes are picked green and shipped thousands of miles to an ethylene gas processing facility to ripen the tomatoes to a pale pink. Any last bastion of flavor is lost in the refrigerated trucks and further refrigeration by your local grocery store. It is no wonder that tomatoes are the number one vegetable grown in home gardens, since finding a good one at a grocery store is unlikely.
Tomato Myths Debunked
There’s a lot of questionable information out there about tomatoes, especially in regards to growing them in Texas. Here’s a few we can bust right off the bat:
Myth #1: You can’t grow a good tomato in S.E. Texas.
Fact: For the most part, all the same rules and advice to growing tomatoes that apply elsewhere also apply to Texas, it’s just that our window of opportunity is much smaller. If your seedlings are too small, or you are 2 weeks late planting them, you probably won’t get many tomatoes.
Myth #2: You should only grow special heat setting hybrid tomato varieties.
Myth #3: Beefsteak tomatoes cannot be grown in S.E. Texas.
Fact: Most heat setting varieties do not have great flavor. We have found that in the right soil and planted early enough, almost any tomato variety can be grown successfully here.
Myth #4: Tomatoes don’t grow well in containers.
Fact: Even the fussiest tomato varieties can grow and produce as well in containers as when grown in the ground, if they are given the right size pot, the right care and nutrients. See our Container Gardening article.
Myth #5: You should grow “disease resistant” varieties.
Fact: Since the 1950’s, scientists have been breeding tomatoes to be productive, disease tolerant, and thick skinned to stand up to shipping. Much of this research on disease tolerance has focused on soilborne diseases such as Fusarium and Verticillium Wilt (represented by F and V in the name). However, these are not problems common to S.E. Texas. Root knot nematodes are a problem for some folks here with sandy soil, but there are solutions for that other than limiting yourself to only tomatoes with an “N” following the name.
The biggest disease problems that most of us in S.E. Texas face are Early Blight, Septoria leaf spot, and Anthracnose, etc. for which there are very few hybrids that are significantly tolerant to those problems. In short, trying to grow special tomato varieties for our area is not really necessary. Check out both our Tomato Varieties and Pests and Diseases articles for more information.
The Right Dirt
The heavy clay and “gumbo” soils prevalent in S.E. Texas provide a poor medium for growing tomatoes. Even if you dig a hole and replace it with excellent soil, you are just creating a “bowl” of good soil that will fill up with water every time it rains. Tomato roots, like most plant roots, require not only nutrients and water, but also oxygen for respiration and will rot if left in standing water for even a few hours.
Yet other S.E. Texas gardeners have discovered that their backyard resembles a beach. Soil made up of primarily sand will drain too well. The solution to both issues is raised bed gardening.
A Good Foundation
If you choose to make your raised bed out of lumber, we suggest pressure treated wood, as termites are prevalent in our area. It is no longer treated with arsenic so is safe for vegetables and will last 3-5 years vs. 1-2 years for non-treated wood. A manageable raised bed size is 3′ x 12′ and will comfortably house 5-8 large tomato plants. Two 2″ x 10″ x 12′ boards, a 2″ x 10″ x 6′ board cut in half, and a box of galvanized wood/deck screws is all you need to start your raised bed. You will probably want to leave at least 3 ft minimum between your beds, in order to be able to tend to your plants and pick fruit.
Tip: If using 24″ diameter cages, to fit 7-8 plants in a 3′ x 12′ bed, you will need to stagger the planting in a zig-zig fashion. To fit 5-6 plants, a single row will work.
(3′ x 12′ beds with 8 plants per bed, staggered/zig-zag planting)
The Grass is Greener…
If like most of us, you want to replace some of your lawn with a garden, you’ll need to remove the grass first. Renting a sod cutter will set you back $50, which is a lot cheaper than the chiropractor and also takes a lot less time. If you’ve got a month or two before planting season, you could use Roundup or a similar herbicide to wipe out the grass, although it can be tricky to apply it in straight lines. One way or another, your grass (which is really a cultivated persistent weed) has gotta go.
Fill ‘er Up
A 3′ x 12′ bed filled to a depth of 8 inches requires 24 cubic feet of soil. Potting soil and potting mix are some of the best soil ingredients, but are also very expensive in the quantities necessary to fill such a bed. If you can find it, Pro-Mix is the most cost-effective bagged potting mix (4 cubic feet for $10~12). Peat moss is great, although you might have to add a little dish soap to get it to absorb water. You can use a small amount of dye-free shredded pine bark or sandy topsoil as filler if need be. If you have a wholesale soil company in your area, you may be able to have pre-mixed soil delivered in bulk quantities as small as 3 cubic yards (which will fill 3 raised beds).
Tip: Freshly cut wood chips can be a poor addition to your soil as their decomposition may temporarily “lock up” nutrients which would otherwise be available to your plant roots.
Compost
The most important ingredient in your raised bed gardens is compost. Compost is just partially or completely broken down organic matter, and provides organic material to feed the plants and create healthy soil, as well as improving drainage. The $1 bags of “composted manure”, “compost”, or “composted humus” you find at local home improvement stores and retailers are frequently filled with rocks, sand, or other mystery ingredients and should be avoided. Black Kow composted manure is $4.50 a bag, but it is 100% compost and a 3′ x 12′ bed needs only 3-4 bags in the first year and 1-2 bags each year thereafter. Composted sheep or horse manure, as well as fresh rabbit manure, shredded leaves, composted rice hulls, and cotton burr compost are also excellent products if you can find them.
Tip: Fresh horse manure should be allowed to age for at least 2 months before you plant your tomatoes. If your garden beds are idle in December or January, you can add fresh horse manure and it will have time to break down before you till it under and then plant your tomatoes in March.
Timing Is Everything
March or April is much too late to buy tiny 6-pack transplants from Wal-Mart. In mid to late February, start looking for large (8-12″ tall) transplants from reputable local nurseries, or grow your own plants. Tomato plants should go out as soon as overnight temperatures are predicted to stay above 40 degrees for 7 days. Some years, we can plant as early as February 28th. Others, we have to wait until March 15th. If you wait until all danger of frost has passed, there is a high likelihood you will get very few tomatoes.
Be prepared with blankets, tarps, or row covers to protect your plants. If you are a night owl and temperatures drop to the danger zone of 36 degrees or so, you can mist your plants with a hose attachment to keep them from freezing. Misting can not only warm the plants, but will temporarily warm the surrounding air by 2-3 degrees. Remember, the coldest part of the night is typically just before dawn.
Walls of Water are a frequent recommendation for protecting tomato plants from cool weather. However they are expensive, tricky to set up, and if the wind picks up, they can fall over and crush your plants. Further, the frosts which are the most damaging usually strike when the plants are 2-3 feet tall. Walls of Water are only 18″ tall.
Tip: Local T.V. weather casters and radio announcers have repeatedly provided very inaccurate forecasts — we no longer trust them. Consult a reputable weather website such as Weather Underground or NOAA.
A Tomato is a Tomato
If you contact your county extension service, you will likely receive recommendations for productive commercial hybrid varieties such as Celebrity, Carnival, Sunmaster, Bingo, and BHN444. We mostly grow tomatoes for flavor and these varieties just don’t deliver for us. It can be a challenge to find a balance between the best tasting and best producing tomatoes for S.E. Texas. Our favorite tomato varieties are just not found at Wal-Mart, Home Depot, or Lowe’s. Fortunately, most major cities in S.E. Texas have a great selection of local nurseries with countless tomato varieties to choose from. Please check out our Tomato Varieties and the Recommended Vendors articles for recommendations and where to find seeds and/or plants.
Starting from Seed
Although there are some good sources to buy great tomato transplants in Houston, Austin, Dallas, and San Antonio, sometimes the only way to grow your favorite varieties will be to start your own seeds. We start seeds in late December to mid-January. Seedlings should be grown under fluorescent lights for 6-8 weeks before transplant. Plants which were started indoors must be gradually introduced to sunlight. This process is called hardening off and takes 5-7 days.
Feed Me
Slow release fertilizers such as TomatoTone (4-7-10), GardenTone (4-6-6), or Vigoro Tomato & Vegetable Food (12-10-5) should be applied and mixed into the soil shortly before planting your tomato plants. A small amount of dolomitic lime might need to be added as well to prevent Blossom End Rot, especially if you are growing in containers. Once your tomato plants start to develop small tomatoes, an additional feeding of fertilizer is recommended. This can be a handful of the fertilizers mentioned above, or a liquid fertilizer diluted and sprayed onto the plants such as Neptune’s Harvest fish emulsion, Maxicrop Liquid Seaweed, or HastaGro 6-12-6 liquid fertilizer.
A product that we particularly like is Bluebonnet Farms Premium Organic Fertilizer. It contains many ingredients such as dried molasses, corn gluten meal, dried seaweed, alfalfa meal, and fish meal which are known to foster beneficial soil microorganisms. Update: current availability of this product seems to be poor in the area, unfortunately. We have heard that the private label Calloway’s (Cornelius in Houston) carries might be the same or similar, though – but have not yet confirmed.
Tip: One of the biggest mistakes in growing tomatoes is going overboard on fertilizers. High nitrogen fertilizers such as chicken manure should only be added in small quantities. Adding these or a high number fertilizer like 30-30-30 is a recipe for gigantic plants and little or no tomatoes.
Transplanting
Properly hardened-off tomato plants should be transplanted into the ground 2-3 feet apart from one another, and planted as deep as possible (removing any foliage which will be underground). Several inches of the stem should be buried if possible, so only the upper branches of each tomato plant are above ground. The fine hairs on the stem of a tomato plant will produce roots when buried, providing a much stronger, healthier root system.
Tip: Water your tomato plants just before taking them out of the pots and planting in the ground, and then water them again, getting the surrounding soil moist. Plant on a cloudy day, or in the afternoon or early evening so that your plants will have one night to acclimate themselves before they are hit with full sun.
Water Water Everywhere
After all the time and effort you have invested in your garden, don’t kill your tomato plants with kindness! Tomato plants should be watered well when transplanted, again after 3-7 days depending on the weather, and then if you have prepared your beds as described above, should only require 1-2 inches of water once per week early in the season, provided there is no significant rain. The best judge of whether your tomato plants need water is your finger. Dig your finger into the soil. If it is wet at a depth of 2-3 inches, then it does not need water.
If you want to baby your tomato plants, don’t let them go to bed wet! Tomato plants should ideally be watered in the morning or early afternoon using soaker hoses which apply water where it’s needed — the soil — and not where it isn’t — the leaves. If watering by hand, use a watering wand to apply water to the soil line, rather than wetting the leaves. If tomato plants are watered at night, there won’t be a chance for the sun to dry off the leaves, leaving your tomato plants vulnerable to fungal and bacterial infections.
Fungus is Anything but Fun
The most commonly heard buzzword in tomatoes is “disease resistant”. But the diseases which run rampant in S.E. Texas include fungal foliar diseases such as Early Blight, Septoria Leaf Spot, as well as Anthracnose fruit rot, Bacterial Spot, and Bacterial Speck. At this time, there are no desirable tomato varieties available which protect against these issues.
Fortunately, applying a thick layer of mulch, proper watering, sanitary gardening practices, and weekly application of an anti-fungal spray such as Daconil from the day of planting out can keep these problems at bay long enough to have a fantastic harvest.
Don’t Forget the Mulch
The best preventative measure you can take to keep fungus from splashing onto your leaves when the next monsoon rainstorm passes through, as well as regulating moisture on hot days, is a 3-4 inch thick layer of mulch. Some good choices for mulch include:
- Dye-free shredded pine bark mulch (not super-black or super-red)
- Wheat straw (if you can find it)
- Shredded leaves (not black walnut!)
- Grass clippings (if you have not used ‘weed and feed’ in 3 months)
- Shredded non-glossy newspaper (water immediately to prevent it from flying away)
Tip: Mulch should not touch the stems of your plants, or it may encourage stem rot. If you are installing soaker hoses, do that before installing your tomato cages or mulch.
Support Your Local Tomato
Most of our preferred tomato varieties are indeterminate which means they produce unwieldy 5-8 feet plants and beyond (especially cherry tomatoes). The little 3-4 foot tall cages at major retailers will not support indeterminate tomato varieties.
Texas Tomato Cages are the Cadillac of tomato cages, as they are very sturdy, last forever and can be folded for easy storage, but their price may be out of reach for many readers. You can make your own cages out of Concrete Reinforcing Wire which have large holes for easy access to the plants, if you don’t mind rusty cages. Cages can be built out of galvanized fence, but the holes are too small to reach through — the solution is to use wire to keep a gap of approximately 8 inches where the ends meet so that the plants and fruit can be easily reached. Other solutions include staking, the Florida weave, and cages made from PVC pipe. For more information, see our Support Your Plants article.
Tip: Even though you’ll probably be pretty beat after planting your tomatoes, don’t wait more than a week or two to install your cages or support system. Tomato plants grow fast, and the legs on your stakes or cages could disturb the roots.
Harvest Early, Harvest Often
It is a myth that tomatoes must be left on the vine until ripe to develop the best possible flavor. We have found that tomatoes that are harvested at first blush are almost indistinguishable from ones that are left on the vine until ripe. Considering the temptation that ripe tomatoes offer to mockingbirds, stink bugs, and other pests, why take the chance? Just be careful not to damage other fruit or break branches in the process.
Trivia: Researchers have found that the sugar and acid content in tomatoes actually decreases if the fruit is left on the vine to full ripeness. The sugars begin to turn to starches and acidity is reduced, resulting in a more bland flavor.
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Posted on 25 January '09 by Morgan, under Growing Tips. 2 Comments.
