Planting tomatoes in the Fall? California.

[beavis]

Hey there,

I am wondering if anyone in zones 9, 10 ever plant new tomato plants in order to get a fall / winter crop.

We RARELY see frost, and I have had some summer plants last into december.

But the plants always look haggered at best, so I was thinking about planting some fresh transplants into the ground now and seeing how well they fare.

Anyone do this in lLorida, California, Texas, etc?

 

[chixluvdirt]

I'm going to bump this - I've been wondering the same thing?? Anyone tried this here is So-Cal?

 

[nittygrittydirtdigger]

I tried it when I lived in Santa Barbara, but results were not good. Not hot enough and the days are too short for good fruit development.

 

[Northernrose]

The local Nursery here in zone 9 (N. California) is selling Fall "cool season" tomaotes. I haven't tried it, but was thinking about it. I think they might work better if you had a covered porch or green house to keep the rain off of them. My tomato plants usually look ok until December too, but the rain rots the tomatoes.


"Here at Wyntour Gardens we carry a wide variety of cool-crop vegetable and herb seedlings and specialized tomatoes that will set fruit at lower temperatures, to help make winter gardening even more exciting. Choose varieties that are adaptive to chilly temperatures and shorter daylight hours such as the tomato variety, Siberia. If you start from seed, plant between July and September. Seedlings should be planted as soon as they become available"

 

[hoodat]

I've tried it here in san Diego but the plants show little growth once the cool weather sets in and days become shorter. Little fruit sets and that which does never ripens properly. It might work if you used some of the heirloom tomatos from colder countries that have been developed for low temps.

 

[Ariel301]

I know some people that do it here in Arizona. (zone 8) I don't know what varieties or how well it works though. It's so hot here in the summer that tomatoes won't set fruit well, (and most other things too) so August-November is our best gardening season. I'm going to try some tomatoes here in a few weeks for fall that were developed in cold areas with short seasons, so we will see what happens. I'm going to be using heavy mulching with straw around the plants and plastic row covers to basically make little greenhouses out of each garden row that I can put on or off as the weather changes.

 

[PotterWatch]

i bought some seeds this year that are supposed to be cool-weather tomatoes. I haven't started them yet and don't know if I will be this year.