What's that white material you are standing on? I tried landscape fabric to lessen weeding this year. It worked great for about a month then in the "X's" where I planted my plants the weeks took over in those spots. It looked worse than when I didn't have that landscap fabric on the ground.
In the summer I have so many more hours of sun. Now sun is from 11:30 –3:30 because the sun position is lower in the sky and now hidden by trees/ leaves. And these trees are at least 70’ away..
Next year will make an effort to stagger plant tomatoes though instead a ton all at once! June was super weird, VERY COLD OVERNIGHT LOWS and HOT days! I think the Canadian fires affected the season.
Here in zone 9B Florida . Even with 40% shade cloth my tomato plants were on a decline around June. I’m in Central Florida. We start our fall warm season tomatoes late July early August. In time for a fall transplanting in late sept.
We're long-time gardeners and we practice succession gardening. Our 2 main crops to do this are green beans and tomatoes. For us, fall planting includes large beds of kale so that we get fall harvest plus early spring harvest through over-wintering. We're in Zone 6B.
Glad you did. I did not. I planted a lot of your homestead tomatoes, Manitoba, tiny tims and a lot of san marzano. I've gardened four well over 20 years so I'm not new to it. This year the Manitoba plants turned white as soon as flowers started to open so I had to pull every single one of them. The Homestead tomatoes gave maybe 10 tomatoes per plant which was very disappointing. Tiny tims gave maybe a handful per plant, again disappointing. The san marzano was the biggest disappointment. First off at 5 months old they finally started producing tomatoes, 2 of them at that point started wilting and leaves turning yellow while the rest were fine but every single plant produced rotten tomatoes. I would pull 1 good and throw out 5 that were rotten. The soil is great, they were given their feedings and not over watered. Tomatoes were green then either turned a burned looking color or there was the tiniest black for that would show up on the tomato and when you cut in to it the entire center was hard and black. I've never seen anything like this and even in different green houses some of the Homestead tomatoes did the exact same thing just not as bad as far as it was more like 3 good to 1 bad. Just ridiculous.
I feel so much better I planted some tomatoes and peppers in July that were gifted and I thought these aren’t going to be ready, BUT they’re fruiting nicely and probably will be ready in a couple more weeks.
I bought orange hat micro tomato seeds. Planted them in pots in the summer. Their starting to bloom. Will bring them inside to enjoy after frost. Never tried them, hope they do well!!
I just pulled all of mine out they had blight bad but i did pick them as they turned pinkish, and they were beautiful tomatos Arkansas travelers . The plants looked aweful and tomato worms omg. I got my seeds from you 😊 im in michigan
You had me going. I was so sad for you. Then I got scared cuz if this can happen to Luke the guru – then I better watch out! I should have known you were tricking me – your personality is so type A – there's no way you wouldn't have a plan B, C, D & E. Lol. But it's a good eye opener & for the first time my tomoatoes are still producing in Oct. Thanks for alll your wonderful gardening advice! 😊
There are more northern communities who plant determinate bush style tomatoes knowing they will not have time to fully rippen in season, instead as soon as they blush the plants are cut from the base as a hung, i recall the leaves being stripped to slow respiration, around, and under the right conditions you could be serving fresh home grown tomatoes with you x-mas dinner while it's snowing, and then the family preserves the difference on the dead week between that and new years
I'm done aggravating with starting tomatoes indoors in less than ideal conditions. Based on one of your older videos, I direct seeded a hybrid tomato- 'Roadster' during the last week in July. Come the last week in September I hard pruned the plants and removed all the medium and small fruits. Ripening of the largest fruits (some well over 16 oz) began almost immediately.
Next year I'll sow the seeds early in July and prune sooner!
One super simple option for a fall tomato crop is to take cuttings from your best-performing spring plants. Just snip a healthy side shoot (i.e. suckers that you're already pruning), root it in water or directly in moist soil, and you’ll have a strong new plant without starting seeds. Since the cutting is a clone, it’ll carry all the vigor and traits of the parent plant, and it often grows and produces faster than a seedling.
Well, I learned something today. You are a stinker. 🤨 LOL. ❤ I might try this next year. Learning that theres specific kinds of tomatoes to use for fall makes sense. Tks.
I did a late planting of tomatoes after I had room from pulling out my garlic. Same aged (extra) seedlings I had started last winter, but had let struggle in a tray in the shade for months because I had no room. I buried them up to their tips, and now they are over 4'tall and flowering in WI. Agh! I don't have any more freezer room and have already harvested about 200lbs of Romas. I've canned salsa, made chili and marinara. Now, I'm almost hoping for an early frost because I'm so tired of tomatoes. I am very surprised how healthy they look, though…next to my dead looking tomato plants, which are still producing.
If I get a bigger gardening area, I may try planting a later crop of tomatoes. Right now I would never have room to succession plant tomatoes. My tomatoes are waning fast. I still have some green tomatoes that could ripen so I have not pulled my plants.
Panhandle of Texas, still harvesting indeterminate cherry tomatoes from late spring planting. Not staked or pruned apart from lowest 4 leaves, I let my tomatoes ramble freely
I have 120 tomato sets that should be in the ground by Oct 15 maybe the 20th. I did 1500 pounds last year even with approximately 500-600 pounds of loss. Gonna give her another shot. Celebrity Plus has a very good disease resistance profile.
I still choose to mow my lawn and maintain my garden myself each week instead of paying for lawn and gardening services, you did do the same with $55,000 biweekly.
I’m in MI too. Just taking down my early season tomato plants…but the clones I rooted from pruned suckers (San Marzano) and planted in July are producing a bumper crop that’s even better size, quality & flavor that the early tomatoes from the same parent plant. ❤
To all the mig peeps thank you for these videos! Ive been gardening for years but thanks to you all and a few others I watch I am stepping outside the box and doing what everyone else doesnt do! Thank you for challenging us and showing us there is a different way! From high intensity, to putside the box fall plantings I love it all!
I did this a few years ago and got my timing wrong and my tomatoes are still green and my first frost was coming here in Virginia. So I just picked everything and made green tomato salsa and it was wonderful. Thanks for the inspiration to try again and just back up my timing.
I thought you had a crazy early frost. We came close last night, now the forecast has updated to warmer days. Still need water. Buffalo NY USA here. Great video. I like that your app lets you pick tomatoes in the filter by 'days to maturity'.
In zone 5b, you plant your tomatoes in June. So, I have been fall gardening that whole time without knowing it! Also, we had frost last night (October 1st). So, that’s the end of tomato season… 😭
Thank you so much for teaching us how to grow fall tomatoes. I understand why I have failed in the past. I am looking forward to tomatoes in the fall next year.
This is a terrific video, and it mirrors our experiences this year growing tomatoes in NM. We planted romas and cherry tomatoes in early May, but shaded them with burlap. Then in mid-June we planted the beefsteak tomatoes again with burlap as shade cloth. They started slowly producing in early August, but came on strong in early September. I pruned them heavily at that time, and now (Oct. 2). they are at their peak. The romas produced well until around Sept. 1 and the cherry tomatos have been heavy producers since July. The secret here in NM is shade cloth as we have temps over 90 from May until late August.
49 Comments
Floatin cloth not help…..
Dude..keep growin bigger!!
ANOTHER heat wave is comin. In Oct..Ryan Hall…
I've heard some people are still waiting on their spring planted tomatoes because of a cool summer
What's that white material you are standing on? I tried landscape fabric to lessen weeding this year. It worked great for about a month then in the "X's" where I planted my plants the weeks took over in those spots. It looked worse than when I didn't have that landscap fabric on the ground.
89 degrees for summer, that’s dream temperatures for Texas! Lucky you
Adds “Start fall tom seeds” to calendar for 6/1/26. 🥳
You stinker!!!😂…Sue from Arizona
Ha Ha, my tomatoes are still growing with this very warm weather we are having, heavens that's a lot of tomatoes, do you sell them?
When is your average first frost? Here in Ohio usually middle of October and we have a frost
Won’t you have a frost in the next 2-3 weeks? You are in MI, I’m in NH- similar weather.
In the summer I have so many more hours of sun. Now sun is from 11:30 –3:30 because the sun position is lower in the sky and now hidden by trees/ leaves. And these trees are at least 70’ away..
We're getting a low of 49f next week… 😝
Next year will make an effort to stagger plant tomatoes though instead a ton all at once!
June was super weird, VERY COLD OVERNIGHT LOWS and HOT days! I think the Canadian fires affected the season.
I have not tried this, but its already in my plan for next season. Thank you.
Here in zone 9B Florida . Even with 40% shade cloth my tomato plants were on a decline around June. I’m in Central Florida. We start our fall warm season tomatoes late July early August. In time for a fall transplanting in late sept.
I spray my tomatoes with a natural fungicide called JBA Blight Guard – no blight for 4 years now! Not sure if it is available in the USA.
We're long-time gardeners and we practice succession gardening. Our 2 main crops to do this are green beans and tomatoes. For us, fall planting includes large beds of kale so that we get fall harvest plus early spring harvest through over-wintering. We're in Zone 6B.
Glad you did. I did not. I planted a lot of your homestead tomatoes, Manitoba, tiny tims and a lot of san marzano. I've gardened four well over 20 years so I'm not new to it. This year the Manitoba plants turned white as soon as flowers started to open so I had to pull every single one of them. The Homestead tomatoes gave maybe 10 tomatoes per plant which was very disappointing. Tiny tims gave maybe a handful per plant, again disappointing. The san marzano was the biggest disappointment. First off at 5 months old they finally started producing tomatoes, 2 of them at that point started wilting and leaves turning yellow while the rest were fine but every single plant produced rotten tomatoes. I would pull 1 good and throw out 5 that were rotten. The soil is great, they were given their feedings and not over watered. Tomatoes were green then either turned a burned looking color or there was the tiniest black for that would show up on the tomato and when you cut in to it the entire center was hard and black. I've never seen anything like this and even in different green houses some of the Homestead tomatoes did the exact same thing just not as bad as far as it was more like 3 good to 1 bad. Just ridiculous.
Try gardening in Texas!
I feel so much better I planted some tomatoes and peppers in July that were gifted and I thought these aren’t going to be ready, BUT they’re fruiting nicely and probably will be ready in a couple more weeks.
I bought orange hat micro tomato seeds. Planted them in pots in the summer. Their starting to bloom. Will bring them inside to enjoy after frost. Never tried them, hope they do well!!
I just pulled all of mine out they had blight bad but i did pick them as they turned pinkish, and they were beautiful tomatos Arkansas travelers . The plants looked aweful and tomato worms omg. I got my seeds from you 😊 im in michigan
You had me going. I was so sad for you. Then I got scared cuz if this can happen to Luke the guru – then I better watch out! I should have known you were tricking me – your personality is so type A – there's no way you wouldn't have a plan B, C, D & E. Lol. But it's a good eye opener & for the first time my tomoatoes are still producing in Oct. Thanks for alll your wonderful gardening advice! 😊
I’m zone 7 and the tomatoes come out August 1 then peas and carrots.
There are more northern communities who plant determinate bush style tomatoes knowing they will not have time to fully rippen in season, instead as soon as they blush the plants are cut from the base as a hung, i recall the leaves being stripped to slow respiration, around, and under the right conditions you could be serving fresh home grown tomatoes with you x-mas dinner while it's snowing, and then the family preserves the difference on the dead week between that and new years
I'm done aggravating with starting tomatoes indoors in less than ideal conditions. Based on one of your older videos, I direct seeded a hybrid tomato- 'Roadster' during the last week in July. Come the last week in September I hard pruned the plants and removed all the medium and small fruits. Ripening of the largest fruits (some well over 16 oz) began almost immediately.
Next year I'll sow the seeds early in July and prune sooner!
Thank you for these enlightening videos.
One super simple option for a fall tomato crop is to take cuttings from your best-performing spring plants. Just snip a healthy side shoot (i.e. suckers that you're already pruning), root it in water or directly in moist soil, and you’ll have a strong new plant without starting seeds. Since the cutting is a clone, it’ll carry all the vigor and traits of the parent plant, and it often grows and produces faster than a seedling.
Well, I learned something today. You are a stinker. 🤨 LOL. ❤ I might try this next year. Learning that theres specific kinds of tomatoes to use for fall makes sense. Tks.
I did a late planting of tomatoes after I had room from pulling out my garlic. Same aged (extra) seedlings I had started last winter, but had let struggle in a tray in the shade for months because I had no room. I buried them up to their tips, and now they are over 4'tall and flowering in WI. Agh! I don't have any more freezer room and have already harvested about 200lbs of Romas. I've canned salsa, made chili and marinara. Now, I'm almost hoping for an early frost because I'm so tired of tomatoes. I am very surprised how healthy they look, though…next to my dead looking tomato plants, which are still producing.
If I get a bigger gardening area, I may try planting a later crop of tomatoes. Right now I would never have room to succession plant tomatoes. My tomatoes are waning fast. I still have some green tomatoes that could ripen so I have not pulled my plants.
Panhandle of Texas, still harvesting indeterminate cherry tomatoes from late spring planting. Not staked or pruned apart from lowest 4 leaves, I let my tomatoes ramble freely
I have 120 tomato sets that should be in the ground by Oct 15 maybe the 20th. I did 1500 pounds last year even with approximately 500-600 pounds of loss. Gonna give her another shot.
Celebrity Plus has a very good disease resistance profile.
I still choose to mow my lawn and maintain my garden myself each week instead of paying for lawn and gardening services, you did do the same with $55,000 biweekly.
I am bummed that my small yard is just too shady in the fall for a garden 🙁
My Ace 55s are loving this crazy weather.
Man. Around here you'd be fruiting just in time for frost.
Question do you need to cover your fall tomatoes plant if the temperature drops to 40s?
I’m in MI too. Just taking down my early season tomato plants…but the clones I rooted from pruned suckers (San Marzano) and planted in July are producing a bumper crop that’s even better size, quality & flavor that the early tomatoes from the same parent plant. ❤
I wonder if this is an attempt to hack the YT gardening algorithm😅
Lost about 75% of my tomato crop. Still a few large but green ones on the dying vines. Best wishes to you!
To all the mig peeps thank you for these videos! Ive been gardening for years but thanks to you all and a few others I watch I am stepping outside the box and doing what everyone else doesnt do! Thank you for challenging us and showing us there is a different way! From high intensity, to putside the box fall plantings I love it all!
You got me lol
People dont just have tomatoes frost to frost? Im confused.. why are the tomatoes dying before the frost?
I did this a few years ago and got my timing wrong and my tomatoes are still green and my first frost was coming here in Virginia. So I just picked everything and made green tomato salsa and it was wonderful. Thanks for the inspiration to try again and just back up my timing.
I thought you had a crazy early frost. We came close last night, now the forecast has updated to warmer days. Still need water. Buffalo NY USA here. Great video. I like that your app lets you pick tomatoes in the filter by 'days to maturity'.
Dang, the NE has already had two frosts this year. Nothing looking that green this morning.
In zone 5b, you plant your tomatoes in June. So, I have been fall gardening that whole time without knowing it! Also, we had frost last night (October 1st). So, that’s the end of tomato season… 😭
"Sneaky little Hobbitses. Wicked, tricksy, false!" 😆🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅
{LOR}
Thank you so much for teaching us how to grow fall tomatoes. I understand why I have failed in the past. I am looking forward to tomatoes in the fall next year.
I cut mine down a week ago here in Chicago area.
This is a terrific video, and it mirrors our experiences this year growing tomatoes in NM. We planted romas and cherry tomatoes in early May, but shaded them with burlap. Then in mid-June we planted the beefsteak tomatoes again with burlap as shade cloth. They started slowly producing in early August, but came on strong in early September. I pruned them heavily at that time, and now (Oct. 2). they are at their peak. The romas produced well until around Sept. 1 and the cherry tomatos have been heavy producers since July. The secret here in NM is shade cloth as we have temps over 90 from May until late August.