Tomatoes. When.

Wow. I've been tossing rotted fruits back into the bed, figuring they were just compost. I guess that bed is now dedicated to tomatoes for another year!

Corey

Yeah Rick every year I pull out lots of volunteer tomatoes. I allow a few to grow just to see what happens. They did set fruit and turn red as fast as the ones I babied. Even as fast as the starts I bought and babied.You can imagine how un-enamored I am becoming of starting tomatoes. Or of buying them early to get the season going. As you say they just sat there shivering.

Volunteers are OK if you don't have to know it's "parentage", but I don't want to gamble that sprouts from a hybrid will not be good. Just my 2 cents worth!

Wow. Well, that's why started fiddling around: to learn.

Some new neighbors are moving in; they say they are into raw foods and permaculture, and plan to convert some lawn to raised beds.

I was able to show off (as if I had a clue what i was doing) and give them a handfull of Sungold cherry tomatoes, and some leaves pinched from a "leaf brocoli" I have ("Broccolo Spigariello", "Spigariello Liscia", Brassica oleracea var. 'Spigariello') just like I knew what I was doing.

Corey

Nice. And you will learn so much faster in the company of like-minded people, that's for certain.

I unfortunately didn't have such good luck with volunteer seedlings. They came on much later and most didn't ripen. I t might have been that the seeds were not an early variety to begin with,maybe from the compost I dug into the bed, or they may have crossed with tomatoes from the neighborhood somehow.

I have read that tomatoes are mostly self-pollinated even when grown close-together. Like, 90% or more!

I have a vaguely-formed idea that starting warm-weather crops in coastal WA much depends on how fast your soil warms up, which may depend on soil type, slope, how completely water-soaked or well-drained it is, sun angle, shade, weather, microclimate and who-knows-what-all.

In a year or three, I'll have some idea whether Patti and I have similar results with tomato volunteers. Unfortunately, most of my volunteers will probably be random-pollinated Sungold F2 of variable cold-tolerance and earliness. I should see a few self-pollinated OP Stupice, which are allegedly ultra-early and cold-tolerant.

Next year I plan to plant all or almost all very-early cold tolerant OP plants like Glacier, Manitoba, Sub Artic Plenty, maybe Matina. Plus some (hybrid ) Sungold F1s somewhere I DON'T expect to allow volunteers.

However, it would not amaze me if soil, slope, sun angle, shade or even a few miles distance or 50-100 feet of elevation make a difference. For sure, half-day-shade must make a huge difference!

Corey

You are spot-on with the soil-temp theory. People out here have had huge success with that. I'm trying to remember where I saw a good discussion on that here on DG. Black plastic of course, and digging out the holes & mounding them.

Thanks! I knew that both soil and air temp played a role,but don;t know when which was more critical.

>> Black plastic of course, and digging out the holes & mounding them.

I do have raised beds, and ONE RB that gets fair sun and has a south-east-facing wall. My plan for that was to drape clear palstic over bed-plus-wall so that solar heating kept its feet warm as well as the surface.

But all my beds are heavy wet clay (huge themral inertia). And if I don;t provide some umbrella, they will have lots of cold rainwater pouring through them all spring.

I always get a laugh out of how different our climates are, even if we are all Zone 8. In Texas Zone 8, the spring tomato-growing was over before mine started, and their temps were stewing tomatoes into sun-dry or paste before my nights went below 50 F.

I have lots of new things to try, including volunteers with and without plastic umbrellas and foot-warmers.

Corey

P.S.

Does anyone know if the desire for a conclusive list of
"which variety is earliest"
or
"which variety is most cold-hardy"
are just vain desires?

Can those lists even be meaningfull for just one region or microclimate?

I'm guessing that "which variety is earliest" changes depending on how fast your spring warms up, and how far it warms up. Would daytime max or nightime min matter more?

And I'm guessing that "most cold-hardy" varys depending on things like
"which seedlings can be set out effectively in colder night-time temps"
"which seedlings can best tolerate plastic hats during mild frosts"
"which will ripen at all in the coolest summers"

And I;'m sure the lists would depend a lot on whether you're tlaking about direct-sown plants, volunteer plants, transplants put out naked at optimum time, or transplants put out with warming gadgets and coddling.

But I would love to be wrong, if someone could just my varieties in Post #8849316
from earliest to latest ripening (or earliest to latest set-out date)
and coldest to warmest nights in late spring (or coolest to warmest summer days).

Corey

We have had lots of Tomatoes this year but we don't go for the big ones. Romas (sp) are quite productive, of course all sweet little ones, and all we do is keep them in the sun room until our soil is 60F and warming. Usually mid June. Then we pull off all vegetative branches and keep only the fruit bearing.
We are still picking Raspberries and we have had frost every night for the last 2 weeks. This is today's haul. Most sweet too.

>> all we do is keep them in the sun room until our soil is 60F and warming. Usually mid June. Then we pull off all vegetative branches and keep only the fruit bearing.

Hmm! I thoguht planting them with flowers on was a non-no. But you put them out with fruit on? Cool!

Corey

Sadly, my raspberries are turning to mush in the rain. Yours look great, Steve.

I guess I don't read what you should do and not do. I do what I always have done. We got another quart of rasp today. Very sweet and firm. The early ones we had are not so good and so glad Karen got these. Love picking Rasp in late Oct.