Dead branches.

I dont know how to explain how I prune but maybe next year cut it back to 12-20 inches


My plants are 8 or so years old and after fighting fungi and I guess youth about 3-5 years ago started getting berries

All the plants you see are mostly transplant from the main plant I started with 4

I'll give it a shot! Thank you.

Queso1 said:

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I'll give it a shot! Thank you.

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Also read this. Lots of good information in there, especially about pruning correctly.
https://agrilifelearn.tamu.edu/s/product/texas-fruit-and-nut-production-blackberries/01t4x000004OfhgAAC

I'm having a difficult time finding any of the heat-tolerant tomato varieties this year. I planted a Homestead #24 (at least that's what the tag said) last year, and it did very well, but that's about the only one I can find at the moment in Williamson County.

HTownAg98 said:

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I'm having a difficult time finding any of the heat-tolerant tomato varieties this year. I planted a Homestead #24 (at least that's what the tag said) last year, and it did very well, but that's about the only one I can find at the moment in Williamson County.

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I've always started my own for this very reason. But better boy and early girls are pretty common and do well. I'm in the part of the state that is Aggie Maroon for drought and it is hot as balls during the summer. Early girls will beat that heat in production and better boy won't be far behind. I generally get one or two pickings and then the plants really reduce yield and quality when the temps hit 98+. I try to plant determinate varieties for this reason as well on the mix.

Im seeing creoles here in bellco, had good luck with one last year

Have some extra tomato plants if anyone is interested.
Ace 55
Cherokee Purple
Beef Steak
Steak Sandwich
Sweetie Cherry

Trades welcome

Extra Bell pepper maybe also
Extra Red Seed Potatoes ready to slice

Marigolds didn't germinate so starting Round 2
Yukon Golds ready to plant may have some extra?

Let me know what you got?

Located in Bellville but travel to BCS often

Anybody else try the polbig tomato this year? They were the new variety recommended by a&m and my local nursery. I planted two of them and one celebrity. The two polbigs started out great and put on tomatoes fast but they both seemed to get hit with disease. The celebrity is right next to them and doing fine. Disappointed because they looked promising.

have not seen those. I have the following this year

celebrity x 8
early girl x 12
beef steak x 6
super fantastic x 6 (still need to be put in ground)
roma x 6 (still need to be put in ground)

Could just be bad luck but I usually don't have issue early in the year and it's the tops of the plants that turned black. I'm going to leave them and see what happens. Didn't do much planting this year so even if it does wipe out the celebrity I won't be too upset.

Also, anyone looking to plant at the average normal time, make sure you check the forecast coming up. I have to fight the urge to plant March 1 when it's 90 damn degrees. March 15 is usually safe but temps in the mid 30's coming up and where I am that means a frost so I'll wait. I can't cover 100 plants easily. But I'm itching to get them in the ground

SharkinAg said:

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Anybody else try the polbig tomato this year? They were the new variety recommended by a&m and my local nursery. I planted two of them and one celebrity. The two polbigs started out great and put on tomatoes fast but they both seemed to get hit with disease. The celebrity is right next to them and doing fine. Disappointed because they looked promising.

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Supposedly the Polbig tomato does not like clay soils. It did well in the test farm because it's located in an area of sandy loam soils.

got our little backyard garden in last week.

Trying to limit myself on tomatoes this year, last year I couldn't keep up even with making sauces/giving away to neighbors etc so only doing one bed instead of two.



Creole, Husky Cherry, Old German, Sun Sugar, Cupid Grape, Super Sweet 100, Viva Italia, Early girl, and Rapunzel. Lots of basil and marigolds planted around the tomatoes, curry in the corner, strawberries and thyme in the pot in front.

Second bed is mostly climbers and herbs.



Thyme, sage, dill, oregano, sugar snap peas, kentucky pole beans, carrots, along with more flowers for pollinators. Sweet peppers (gypsy and lunchbox) in the planter in front.

third bed is a few more climbers, some lettuce, okra and peppers.



Cucumbers, watermelon, raddichio, swiss chard, okra, leeks, sweet onions, chile petin, jalapeno, thai chili, vietnamese chili, rue. More strawberries and thyme in the container.

I also have a few fig trees going (lsu gold, brown turkey, chicago hardy), an olive tree thats still container sized, blackberry, blueberry, chives, lemon grass etc in other containers and on the porch, along with lots of other polinator stuff in other parts of the yard like salvia, lavender, turks cap, star esperanza, bee balm, lantana, borage, etc.

How do you avoid disease pressure on the tomato plants? They look really close together.

Natives!

I try to do as many low-water natives as I can. Low maintenance, less water, and they can freeze to the ground and (normally) come back. That bed gets blasted with morning sun with the reflection off the house, so things that can handle heat was important. I lost one Zexmenia to the freeze, but it was kind of a sickly plant when I put it in the ground last fall.

Do you ever or how often do you trim/prune your Esperanza?

Mine is coming back from the last freeze, but it will be over 7' tall by the end of summer.

I have not been able to bring myself to trim it back with all the wonderful flowers, didn't know if pruning would reduce the # of blooms....I will cut off branch if it encroaches on the driveway, but that's been it so far.

I planted that one last fall, so it hasn't gotten big yet. The Google machine says you can trim it back to within 6"-8" from the ground. I'll likely do that this winter (assuming we have one) to keep it manageable.

We've had this one for probably close to 10 years, every freeze it drops all leaves and I cut it back to the ground.

Then the next thing I know it 7' tall and covered with yellow bells, with absolutely no help from me...

Great plant