I’m in zone 6a. Each year I try to grow San Marzano but with mixed results. This year, we got a lot of rain in June/July but not crazy different. But from 4 plants, that honestly don’t look that healthy, I’m getting a bumper crop. I picked 92 fruit last weekend and 6 days later picked another 60. They are still coming with many green ones. What could be causing this and how can I ensure to recreate? I am going to do a soil test.
by Dropitlikeitscold555
24 Comments
For anyone interested I am canning marinara like crazy!!
Sometimes the weather gods are just in your favor. I’m 5b and having maybe my best crop ever, including SMs. Most people I’ve talked to in my city are overrun with tomatoes. Enjoy the bounty!
I am expecting maybe five pounds at the end of September/early October. Zone 7b. Heat really slows down growth in July and I got basically no new flowers for that month. August cooled down enough to get decent fruit setting.
I was hoping for 75 or so pounds of tomatoes this year and I’m so far at probably 130. Pulled my third harvest from the pastes last week and like the first two it was 10 lbs. Such a great year.
I have 8 gallon bags of tomatoes in my freezer. I’m about to fill another one today. I have enough for half a bag that are currently ripening and my plants are still full of green ones.
So much sauce lol I might have to buy a much larger pot than the one I have.
I’m in 8b 9a mix and my three plants have really turned out! (Though this is my first year gardening so my view might be skewed)
Ah, no. My san marzano has ONE tomato that looks to be the same color as yours and a handful of tiny green ones.
I gave overflow plum tomato plants to my neighbor who gets better sun exposure and they have been unreal productive. Made a ton of sauce as they share em with me.
UK based and it’s been an amazing season for tomatoes here. It feels like I’m keeping the whole village in tomatoes 🤣
5b and the best tomato (and pepper) harvest I’ve ever had.
Out of 6 plants, I’ve gotten 30 lbs worth of marzanos this year in 5b.
I’ve got just one San Marzano plant and have had a very large yield too! Put together four 28 ounce bags of sauce for the freezer, made sauce for dinner (with leftovers) on another day, and now I need to pick a bunch again……zone 6b. They were very slow to ripen but once started have done well. Squirrels have taken bites out of quite a few too since we haven’t had much rain since mid-August and I forgot to give them a water dish.
I live in the Baltimore burbs. Unfortunately, the we did not have a good year for tomatoes. It seems like we had a cool and fairly rainy late May and June. I think it caused plants to over produce greenery and move to quickly towards fungal issues before fruit was ready to ripen later in July and August. I planted 5 San Marzano plants this year. 1 plant died off before producing any ripe fruit and 2 plants produces very few full-sized ripe fruit.
Bumper crop here too on my Heidi pastes. I had a dozen of plants but I got like 200+ pounds of fruits, absolutely overwhelming. Took days to process.
I’m in BC – it’s been pretty average for me. Two plants have yielded maybe 8lb total so far. Please share your secrets! The big question – what was your pruning strategy (if any)?
I’ve got around 8 lbs frozen in vacuum bags, just waiting to be made into Christmas Eve’s eve lasagna.
Sadly not here. Waves of heat and very low yields this year .Zone 6
I have worked so hard to get tomatoes from my San Marzano plant. I finally got a bunch.
So underwhelming 😞
I made some pasta sauce with them and some fresh basil I grew. I dont see the hype. Im happy for all you guys though. Next year im going to grow something different.
Those appear to be Roma
I got a bunch early in the season and then basically nothing since. I have two plants in Maryland.
Your San Marzanos don’t look much like the ones I have grown or seen. My Roma have had such huge fruits I question whether they are really “plain ol” Romas. By far my best year ever for pastes. Not so much for slicers but they had a rougher start.
Very nice!
Last year I had two San Marzano plants (zone 10b) and had about 20-30 total tomatoes. They never produced, even though I had been religious about tending to them.
This year I planted six San Marzano plants and generally ignored them after they got established. Just water and time. I ended up having to learn water bath canning because I had so much fruit. I currently have about 15 pints of tomato sauce and 5 pints of crushed canned tomatoes. I also still have approximately 10lb of tomatoes in freezer bags. I will pull those out and use them (as needed) if I want a fresh sauce rather than a deep roasted and cooked sauce.
I’m finally getting through the sauce that I had put in the freezer. Pizza and pasta are standard fare for us, so we go through about 1.5-2 jars every month.
I figure we have almost a full years worth of sauce. Even if we get through all that, I have six packets of frozen tomato paste that I made as well. I think I have enough tomatoes for the two of us for the next year.
Yes! 😂
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