Tomatoes in November

Photo by Peggy McDonald

A tomato plant in the VegHeadz garden is still bearing tomatoes in November. Master Gardener Peggy McDonald has this to say: “I just picked these on Monday, no bugs and still sweet to eat. This is the first time I’ve picked fresh tomatoes from the garden this late. The tomato plant was a volunteer seedling on the Hugelkultur bed that the birds planted so I don’t have a name for it. I should save the seeds to plant next year.”

Another gardener has a yellow cherry tomato in her yard, either Sungold or Farmer Hernan’s Little Yella, which has reseeded for at least five years and bears fruit long after other tomatoes have faded away.  

Small fruit varieties such as cherry and grape tomatoes tend to be easier to grow in our hot humid summer climate.  Tomatoes slow or stop setting fruit when temperatures rise above 90 degrees.  If the plant can make it through the summer until the weather begins to cool again, it will again bloom and set fruit until frost.  

Plants which reseed tend to fare better through the process of natural selection.  Those that germinate and thrive are likely to be better adapted to their environment and tend to grow and survive better.  So let some of your tomatoes go to seed or drop damaged ones in likely places to reseed naturally. Remember that as a result cross pollination, you will most likely not get the exact same tomatoes if other varieties had been planted nearby.

The volunteer tomato plant.  The red circle is a bat sleeping in the 
plant, which was mentioned in a previous post. Photo by
Peggy McDonald.