So Texans, Where do you Stand on Tomatoes?

[karstopography]

I planted my stash of 23 tomato sets out the garden well prior to the big freeze. They mostly were actually looking pretty good and growing, but you can imagine how they look now, dead little piles of weird green and black gelatinous matter. I started to dig up a few to set aside inside as an insurance policy, but then got so busy with freeze preparations that I just said the heck with it.

With so many people losing power for extended periods inside their homes and homes getting so very cold, did your tomato sets make it? Another consideration is that with the Statewide massive power extended outages are the commercial tomato set growers around going to be in equally as bad of shape as the rest of us? Greenhouses need heat in winter in sub freezing temperatures, especially without long periods of sunshine. I just wonder if there will be any tomato sets available at the feed stores and nurseries around? I think Bonnie that supplies our local Lowe’s and HD has their operations near Liverpool, TX, about 25 miles away if even. No doubt they likely lost power like most everyone else.

Too late to replant seeds here. Could this be a tomatoless spring?

[TXTravis]

I hadn't put mine in the ground yet (was thinking about it though), and brought them in. I expected them to get a little leggy after a week indoors, but they seem to be liking it ok. I have about 70 and only need 20-24, so if anyone needs any in Round Rock, Leander, N Austin, etc., I have plenty to give away.

Here's the list, picked largely, but not entirely, for heat tolerance. I've not inventoried how many of each I have yet, so I can't speak to specific availability. Give me a call or (better) text if you like. 512-360-0220. I probably can't deliver, but can meet or be available for pickup.

Black and Brown Boar
Green Zebra
Jubilee
Rio Grande
Tycoon
Indian Stripe
Chico III
Wisconsin 55
Chocolate Stripe
JD's Special C-Tex
Cherokee Carbon
Gary O'Sena
Hillbilly
Kellog's Breakfast
Kosovo
Andiamo
Marzano Fire

[Nan6b]

Wow. My sympathies, Kars. Now I'm also wondering about the commercial growers.

You could start some early determinates. They'll be a month or month and a half late when you plant them out. But they'll give you a crop all at once before the end of your season.

Last year I had to re-seed on the day I would normally have planted out. I grabbed my seed packets and started any that were earlies. I ended up with a decent season anyway.

[Harry Cabluck]

Lost 25 tomato plants that had been uppotted to 5.5-inch pots. Had moved them to house from the coldframe. They were doing well under artificial light in the kitchen, until we lost electricity. Now the snow/ice about melted, in today's 61-degree temperature. Pulled the stems with nice roots, and dumped the potting soil into the garden's center plot. Hope to start seeds again in a few days.

[Mojo]

I had one Pruden's Purple out in the beds on February 3 because I wanted to see if I could get away with it. That one got summarily repotted and put back inside the garage. And then when it took a more serious left-hand turn, all the pots got brought inside the main house, where it never got below 50 even during the 18 hour no-electricity interlude. I plant out tomorrow (PP, Atkinson, Orange Jazz, one or two Black Krims; the remaining BKs, GaryO' Senas and the Gulf State Market will wait a few more weeks to get bigger).

[karstopography]

Heard from my Kemah buddy Maas nursery in Seabrook is selling tomato sets as of yesterday. My buddy picked up Pineapple, Black Krim, Lemon Boy, Old German, Brandywine, and a few others. So tomato sets are available, good news indeed.

[SpookyShoe]

I was at Maas today. What a coincidence. Picked up a Better Boy, Carmello, and Cherokee Purple. These tomatoes will round out the ones I started from seed on January 1st. The tomatoes I started from seed look great ( they stayed in the house during the cold snap) and I will be planting my tomatoes in the ground on March 1st.

With the rolling blackouts, our house never got below 51°. We had the fireplace on in the family room.

[TXTravis]

So y'all're going in ground this week? I'm wary, now, but am thinking about the same thing this weekend just N of Austin. I think my cabbages actually survived the 3F temps, perhaps because they were insulated by 8 inches of snow. Onion sets are toast, most likely.

[AlittleSalt]

We all know that Texas is huge state. A drive at Interstate speeds from my house to Houston can easily take 4 hours. We have different average and late frost dates by at least a month. I know that a local nursery gets their plants from East Texas which was hit hard with snow and very cold temperatures. We are going to that nursery later this week to find out if they're going to have plants or not.

I'm growing Sungold and SunPeach which are usually the first ones to have ripe tomatoes. And Porter which I have over-summered twice in the past. They won't be ready to plant out until mid April.

[karstopography]

I went to Reifels today, but the truck hadn’t came in yet. Tomorrow, I’m getting some tomato sets, that’s the plan. Probably put them in the same day.

[karstopography]

Planted 15 sets today. 4 Big Beef, 2 Hillbilly, 3 Pineapple, 3 Blue Ribbon, 2 Mortgage Lifter and one Cherokee Purple. Reifels was much more limited on selection than last year, but that could change in the next few weeks. Still have room for more tomatoes, those varieties were the only ones that I liked.

[SpookyShoe]

I was at Houston Garden Center this morning picking up bags of mulch. They have tomato starts. The types I remember are Cherokee Purple, Boxcar Willie, Arkansas Traveler, Creole, Better Boy, Large Red Cherry, Roma, and Celebrity.

I was overcome with Tomatomania and picked up Arkansas Traveler and Boxcar Willie. I haven't seen those two varieties in many years.

[karstopography]

Reifels last year had Arkansas Traveler. That variety seems pretty popular around here. I’ve got room for at least six more sets. Not sure what I’m going to get. I hope they get Carbon cause I’d like to try that one. A Carmello or two would be nice. Hard to restrain myself though at the feed store, I might come home with a dozen more.

[TXTravis]

Was at Home Depot today in Cedar Park. They have the usual suspects from Bonnie in abundance, but not the Big Beef I was looking for. Better Boy, Big Boy, Patio, Yellow Pear, and of course Celebrity were present, as were a few others I don't remember. I tilled a whole Ford F-150 bed full of composted cow manure from my father-in-law into my raised beds yesterday (we joke that he only gave me sh*t for Christmas), re-weed-linered my pathways and mulched them, and hooked up and tested my DIY irrigation system. Things are getting real. Tomorrow is the big day where all the toms go in. Peppers in a few weeks. Cucs soonish. It's the most wonderful time of the year.

[SpookyShoe]

Tomatoes went into the ground today.

[MissS]

I'm so glad to see that y'all will still be growing some tomatoes after the horrible weather that you had. Even with seedlings lost, you are moving on.

[karstopography]

Reifels, one of the family members that works there, said they lost $5,000 in Tomato sets during the freeze. I don’t really know the circumstances, but with all the widespread extended power outages, treacherous roads, and other complications the weather caused I’m not surprised.

The sets Reifels did have made me wonder. One, they had a tray a couple dozen of 4” Hillbilly tomatoes that all but two or three were regular leaf and not Potato leaf. I bought two potato leaf ones. Some of the different cultivars looked suspiciously like the others. Just got me thinking what did I actually get in some cases.

Some of the tomato plants did, I avoided those, looked to have some bit of cold damage that must have been from the grower. The Reifels guy said the growers were running heaters in their greenhouses pretty much nonstop.

But, all things considered, I’m very happy to have plants. Been dividing my time between removing and transporting literal tons of frozen dead plants like shell ginger, pittosporum, ponytail palm, firecracker plant, sanservieria, sago palm, etc. and then putting in new landscaping and garden plants. Bought and moved around about quarter ton of boulders yesterday. About $50 dollars worth, what a deal! Plus, rocks don’t die in freezing weather.

[worth1]

No tomatoes for me this year but the jury is still out on many of my other plants.

[worth1]

We aren't out of the woods yet.
The redbuds aren't out and the oak leaves aren't the size of a squirrels ear.

[karstopography]

True, forecast even for this week has changed considerably, now in the low 40s Tuesday and Wednesday morning when it was in the high 50s just 2 days ago. What in the bleep are we paying these weathermen for?!!! Usually, we get something flirting with Frost around April 1st.

To heck with it though, I’m tired of looking at the mostly dead and ravaged winter garden. Things are getting planted, d*mn the torpedoes!