Keep Those Tomatoes Alive for a Fall Crop

Just about all the gardeners I run into recently tell me things like “my garden played out” or “I gave up on my garden.” I know, the drought and heat make it hard to keep a garden alive this time of year.

A lot of folks think about gardening as a seasonal endeavor. They plant in the spring. When it gets too hot and dry, they give up. Many never bother to plant a fall garden. That’s too bad, because the fall gardening season can be even more productive than the spring in this part of Texas.

So don’t give up. Keep the garden alive during these hot and dry months. It can be really discouraging, though, there’s little to harvest this time of year. Okra, peppers and eggplants love the heat, as long as you keep them watered. But they should have been planted months ago.

If you planted indeterminate tomatoes back in the spring, they have probably stopped setting new fruit by now. I’ve been picking the last of the ripe tomatoes off my plants in recent days. But I’m not going to pull them up, and I suggest you wait as well. Most varieties of tomatoes stop fruiting when night time temperatures stay above 80 degrees. Indeterminate tomatoes will continue to grow at these temperatures, as long as they get enough water and nutrients.

When the fall arrives and temperatures dip at night, indeterminate tomatoes usually restart production. So keep them alive. They benefit greatly from a foliar spray of liquid seaweed about every week or two, especially during the hot summer months. Try to spray the plants with seaweed after a dew in the early morning.

Don’t let the poor shape of the tomato leaves trick you into thinking that the plant is dead. During these hot and dry months, tomatoes tend to curl their leaves upward in an effort to conserve moisture and protect the tops of the leaves. Strong winds also cause the leaves to curl in this way. Some folks mistake this symptom for certain tomato diseases, which can also cause leaf curl. But disease usually causes the leaves to curl downward instead of upward. Learn to spot the difference.

You may be rewarded with a crop of fall tomatoes.