Texas does tomatoes all wrong.

We try our best to emulate Martha Stewart: garden gloves, tilled soil, tomatoes seedlings in April. Yet by June disappointment is written all over our faces. The happy green bushes just aren’t bearing fruit! How are we to enjoy the lush BLTs and caprese salads that are popping up on our social feeds?

For one thing it helps to know that tomato flowers are wind pollinated. Have you ever noticed that the gentle breezes all but stop after Memorial Day around Dallas? Also…tomatoes must have night temperatures below 70oF to produce flowers and fruit. So our northern friends enjoy summer tomatoseason, because of their “just right” conditions. 

There’s hope for us Texans! I have been a long time proponent of what I call fall tomatoes. Yes, some of my best tomato crops have come in just before Thanksgiving. How? you ask. It takes some planning and patience, but here’s a current pic of the red beauties in my yard.

Quick steps:

• plant tomatoes (from seed or plant) in spring as normal, remove early fruit
• water June-Sept
• not required, but  in July you can trim the stems by 30-50% to encourage root growth
• fertilize (if desired) in late September
• harvest tons of tomatoes in October and November

Some things I don’t do:

• cage plants, you can if your space is limited, but this will not improve quality
• look for tomato plants in summer….they are just not there
• stop watering in summer or pull plants out, their roots are still working

If you live in Texas, and love tomatoes, give my fall tomato season a try. Let me know what you think.