Our Fall Tomatoes Experiment

Back on August 22nd, we embarked upon a new experiment for us - planting fall tomatoes.  We plant a lot of tomatoes in the spring.  I try to get them planted as early as possible in the spring, usually planting them from seed during the cold, gray days of January.  I nurture them indoors under grow lights until the lasts frosts have passed.

It is a race to harvest them before the stink bugs and other pests take their toll on the quality of the tomatoes.  Once it heats up, swarms of stink bugs descend upon the tomatoes, stinging the fruit, making them ugly.  We still get a decent crop, but we were affected in a negative way by the very wet spring, very dry summer, and intense bug pressure.

So I wanted to see if we could grow some fall tomatoes.  I'm not talking 'hot house' tomatoes.  I'm talking tomatoes planted outside in the garden in the late summer/fall that will grow and produce a crop before the frost knocks them out. Sounds like a good experiment to undertake!  I planted my tomato seeds indoors on July 16th and then on August 22nd, the tomato plants were transplanted into the garden.  I experienced about a 20% mortality rate on the plants, attributable to some bug or worm that immediately cut the stems of the young plants in half.  The rest kept growing and by October 26th, the indeterminate vines of my heirloom tomatoes were loaded with tomatoes and blooms!

The plants were nice looking and due to the cooler temperatures, there was no competition with stink bugs.  The majority of the fruit was blemish-free, fat, and shiny.  I did pull a caterpillar off of one of the tomatoes that was eating, but that was the only one.  Sometimes in the spring, I'll have birds that like to eat on the tomatoes, but none of that so far this fall.

On November 19th, I harvested the first fruits off of Our Maker's Acres Family Farm's inaugural fall tomato crop. Big, fat beautiful tomatoes!  Overall, I'm pleased with the results so far.  There are many more green tomatoes that are burdening the vines right now.  Even if we catch a frost before they are ripe, I told Tricia we can have some fried green tomatoes.

Tricia cut the first tomato in half and it was meaty and (she said) very flavorful!

Review: I'm pleased with our fall tomato crop, and the results of the experiment tell me that we should definitely do this again next year.  I'll only make a few changes.  First, I'll plant more tomatoes.  This was merely a test plot to determine if we could do this successfully.  Next year, I intend on planting many more for canning stewed tomatoes and tomato sauce.  This will be insurance in the event that weather or bugs damage the spring crop.  I'll also plant the seeds a little earlier, setting my target seed planting date for July 1 - roughly a couple of weeks earlier than the July 16th date I planted the the test plot.

Sometimes our experiments don't work out.  This was one of those occurrences where we found success.  It only makes sense to do this.  Living in the deep south has its share of downsides with the heat, humidity, pests and mosquitoes that make enjoying the great outdoors almost intolerable for a gardener during the summer months.  BUT, the long growing season is also a blessing, enabling us to plant fall crops of tomatoes, potatoes, green beans, etc. to fill our pantries with delicious homegrown produce!