My first tomato!

[Retrograde]

Harvested my first tomato today. Yes, it's the middle of September, but I'm at the edge of the San Francisco Bay "fog extending inland nights and mornings" zone, and some years we don't get enough sun for them to ripen at all. There are a bunch more on the vines, so maybe I'll get a tolerable crop after all, before the frost sets in.

The zucchini, though, have yet to set any fruit.

[WhiteTara]

1. Lucky you! We had a terrible

tomato season.

[mopinko]

6. here too.

i just picked all the green ones, since they are dropping before ripening, anyway.
i had one variety that gave me a dozen tomatoes. that was about it.

[Denninmi]

2. Do you use any tricks to increase the heat units around the plant?

Black plastic underneath, heat retaining background like a stone or brick wall, cloche or coldframe early/late in season? That sort of thing?

[Retrograde]

3. Hope and prayer?

I mulch heavily, but I'm in a marginal climate for tomatoes. I've learned from long experience that no matter when I start the seeds or set out the plants they're not going to produce until late September, which is when we get our hot weather: our summers are just too cools. OTOH, this does have some advantages: almost no one around here has air conditioning!

The wonders of micro-climates: thirty miles south of here my gardener friend can grow anything all year round. Thirty miles north they can't get tomatoes to set fruit at all.

[Kolesar]

4. The variety "Stupice" grows during cool weather

I have transplanted Stupice plants as early as April 28 in Ohio. They grow during the cool weather. By the time hot July weather starts, the plants are big and are blooming and setting fruit. I have had tomatoes as soon as July 4.

Perhaps you can try this variety. I buy plants by mail order. www.hirts.com

[shanti]

5. sounds kind of like my garden

which was done by mid july. i'm in sacramento and got 6 tomatoes and no zucchini at all this year :(. it's never happened before....