Did Your Tomatoes Suck This Year? Mine Did, Here’s Why…
Many Michigan gardeners this year, myself included, weren't overflowing in tomato harvests. This is not to say that everyone had a bad tomato year, or that none grew at all, but rather that tomatoes were pretty delayed due to the heat we experienced in the hot and dry summer.
Not all tomatoes are created equal and the ones we grow in Michigan weren’t cut out for the heat!
Over 85 degrees the pollen in the yellow flowers that grow tomatoes can become sterilized. By the time many of us had yellow flowers forming on our tomato plants a heatwave come through and wiped them out!
For those that already had tomatoes forming they can become cat faced (although still edible) and stressed which can even cause the plant to drop some tomatoes before ripening.
Ultimately, this lead to many gardeners that I worked with finding that as the heat passed and the plant started to form flowers again it was pretty late in the season.
So…are we doomed to disappointing harvests? Of course not!
Next year I plan to plant a few more varieties of tomatoes so that I can harvest more tomatoes no matter the temperature. Many of the tomatoes that I like to grow (such as romas) have relatively long windows to reach maturity and ripen.
I will probably add a few varieties that are quick maturing (such as sungold) so that if a heatwave comes through they can start over and still give me load of delicious tomatoes. Another thing to pay attention to is the type of growth of the varieties you plant. Determinate tomatoes grow to a determinate size, blossom, and fruit all at once. The other type of tomatoes that I grew were determinate & affected by the heat wave were lost for good - I will definitely plant this type in containers next year that can be moved in to the shade during heat waves!
How Can I Get More Help?
When I work with gardeners, especially those in the Detroit area that already have gardens, a lot of our work together is problem solving what’s going wrong in the moment. Whether it’s through my virtual coaching program or down in the dirt work with me one on one, if getting support in your garden this year is on your list, let’s talk.
www.floraculturegardens.com/consultation
