Maybe it was just the heat after all?

[DarthMaul]

Hi folks,
Back in early August I posted about my frustration with the catch-22 of growing veggies that need a lot of sun in a climate zone that gets some pretty extreme heat waves during the summer. I charted the sun pattern at that time of year and noticed that most areas of my garden was only getting 4-6 hours of sun, so I thought that was a major issue.

But here we are in mid-Oct and I've harvested more tomatoes and peppers over the past 4 weeks than I did over the entire summer. They're obviously getting less sun than during mid-summer, but they seem to love the climate at this time of year. We even had a cold snap where temps got pretty close to freezing overnight and that didn't seem to damage them at all. Which makes me wonder if the problem really was the extreme heat, not the lack of sunlight. It's like the tomatoes and peppers basically went dormant during the heat of July and early August, and then woke up when the heat broke.

 

[Meadowlark]

... It's like the tomatoes and peppers basically went dormant during the heat of July and early August, and then woke up when the heat broke.

Happens here every year and has for decades...only our "dormant" period extends into Sept. Oct. is one of the very best months for peppers here and tomatoes are very busy growing and ripening fruit that can be set when nighttime temps finally drop to enable it.

The sun angle this time of year is very favorable to plant growth. I'm even experimenting with growing sweet corn this fall as a fourth crop of corn, and the ears are growing on the stalks and looks like will be very successful.

The extreme heat is certainly a factor, but I believe the sun angle is also very important to stimulating plant growth. They just seem to sense a declining sun angle means frost isn't far away and they better grow and reproduce while they can rapidly...at least that's my theory and I'm sticking to it.

 

[DarthMaul]

Happens here every year and has for decades...only our "dormant" period extends into Sept. Oct. is one of the very best months for peppers here and tomatoes are very busy growing and ripening fruit that can be set when nighttime temps finally drop to enable it.

The sun angle this time of year is very favorable to plant growth. I'm even experimenting with growing sweet corn this fall as a fourth crop of corn, and the ears are growing on the stalks and looks like will be very successful.

The extreme heat is certainly a factor, but I believe the sun angle is also very important to stimulating plant growth. They just seem to sense a declining sun angle means frost isn't far away and they better grow and reproduce while they can rapidly...at least that's my theory and I'm sticking to it.

Very interesting, thanks.

It's weird that I don't remember this happening last year but perhaps the temperature has remained in an ideal range for longer this year. Are there any tomatoes that do well in high heat so that I can get some over the summer too, or do I just have to accept that gardening in this climate means waiting for September/October?

 

[Meadowlark]

Yes, there are some heat-resistant varieties. I use Heatmaster for example and Arkansas Traveller sometimes as summer plants but even those can't set fruit in our Texas 100 deg F plus days of August...but might be something for you to consider next year.

Early Girl also is reported to be heat tolerant.

 

[DarthMaul]

I'll have to see what's available up here

 

[Heirloom farmer1969]

I'll have to see what's available up here

We don't have the extreme temperatures like you or @Meadowlark have, but occasionally, like this past summer, we have temps in the upper 90s that last a few weeks.
Usually, when this happens, almost all my tomatoes will nearly stop producing, except the Burpee Supersteak.
I've noticed that the hotter the summer, the bigger and better these tomatoes do.
But beware, if you grow these, you'd better have good support, because the vines can get huge with loads of 1 lb-plus tomatoes.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

We also had a red hot Summer, it meant no rain either and I wonder if that could be part of the problem?