Tomatoes & Peppers: First Freeze Tonight, 1 by Ozark

Ozark wrote:
We had a cold front come through with storms last night, and a low temp of 28 degrees is predicted for tonight. That's the end of the season - my tomatoes, peppers, okra, cukes, basil, etc. will be dead tomorrow and I'll start clearing the garden. Only three rows of turnips will remain.

I'm amazed at how well some of my tomato plants have done this year, though. Here's my row of eleven experimental F2 generation crosses on a five-foot fence as they look this morning. They're still healthy with no sign of disease, and they're blooming and setting on green tomatoes like crazy. I've picked everything we can use off them, green and ripe, and it's time to let them go.

I think these plants are in awfully good shape for late October. My tomatoes of other varieties, like Big Beef and Cherokee Chocolate, are showing the usual late-season stresses and look nowhere near this good. I've saved seeds from three of these F2 plants to take to the F3 generation next year - and I'm hoping the surprising vigor of these plants was somehow caused by the cross I made.