This year I wanted to see if I could manage to get a harvest of tomatoes by the last frost date if starting from seed. (Zone 7b last frost April 22nd-May 8th).
I started San Marzanos indoors on Feb 17th. June 1st, I have my first tomato. This is a total of 104 days or nearly 15 weeks. I failed to have a harvest by May 8th, but part of this failure was due to not realizing San Marzanos take 75-90 days from fruit set to ripe fruit. I assumed they took 40 days, as the beefsteaks I have grown in the past.
Still, they produced a ripe fruit significantly earlier than expected for their variety. Fruit set was on around April 10th, meaning they took 52 days or around 7 weeks to develope.
Big thing of note here is the small size of the fruit. This fruit should be quite a bit larger, but it looks like a cherry. I believe this is mostly due to fertilizer burn. Around the 8 week mark, half of the plants started to experience some sort of issue that I still haven't figured out the root cause of, but I think was fertilizer burn. This more than likely stunted the growth of the fruit.
BER was also an issue. Half of the tomatoes that developed were lost to BER.
by SeaworthinessNew4295
1 Comment
It’s always interesting to try to meet specific, pre-set goals. A worthwhile experiment! I always learn something helpful from such projects.
I live in NE Texas 8a and try for an early crop via planting outdoors before our frost free date under the protection of Wall-of-Water insulated teepees, using early-maturing determinates of small and medium size. That push is separate from more general growing goals with the large, vining indeterminates and such.
For me, it’s never a total success, but also not a total fail. And every year I refine the process. By the time I’m 100 or maybe 120, I should have it all down pat.