![]() ![]() Cherry tomatoes often outperform other types in challenging environmental conditions. ![]() – Plant only heat-tolerant varieties, especially vigorous hybrids, early varieties, and parthenocarpic varieties such as Oregon Spring that will set fruit during hot weather. See The GardenZeus Guide to Buying Vegetable Seedlings Go with the healthiest, strongest transplants that you can find and don’t look back. For summer planting, you’re in a tomatofiends-can’t-be-choosers kind of situation. Tomatoes are more tolerant of being rootbound than most other vegetables, and often perform reasonably well even when transplants are, shall we say, long in the root. – Try to time planting during a cool period, when weather is forecast to be in the 80s or cooler for several days or longer. Your best chance for a good harvest will require checking on the tomato plants at least once per day, especially during hot weather and while they are young and establishing. – Plan to spend extra time and give extra attention to your tomatoes. If you’re so set on having homegrown summer tomatoes that you’re willing to put in time and effort even with a risk of low yields or no harvest, this may be an indication that you are what GardenZeus expert Darren Butler terms a “tomatofiend,” meaning someone who has a strong emotional, psychological, horticultural, culinary, unexplainable, and perhaps clinical need to grow garden tomatoes, and/or someone who may not bother with much gardening or landscaping other than growing tomatoes.įor all of the tomatofiends and other bold gardeners in California’s hot-summer areas who are reading these words, here are my tips for late tomato planting: The prudent choice is to wait until about mid-August to start seeds of cool-season tomato varieties indoors or in a cool, protected, well-lit area for planting outdoors 4-to-8-weeks later, but this means not harvesting homegrown tomatoes until autumn at the soonest. Late planting of tomatoes in hot-summer areas is recommended for experienced and skilled gardeners who have developed fertile, living garden soil over time, and with the understanding that intense heatwaves and even normal hot-summer weather may cause great difficulty with establishing and growing tomatoes.īefore planting June tomatoes, consider that in mild-winter areas, including the two GardenZeus zones above, by June you are only a couple of months away from the prime autumn planting window for tomatoes. It is possible to plant and grow summer and autumn tomatoes in June or July in hot-summer California areas, particularly during cool years or if you are able to time planting and establishment during a cool period. The same tips and methods can be applied to late tomato planting in many hot-summer areas.ĭon’t know your GardenZeus California Climate Zone? Enter your zipcode at. ![]() See customized advice and information for growing tomatoes in your Southern California zipcode – California Climate Zone 13: Southern Inland, Less Extreme – California Climate Zone 12: Southern Inland, More Extreme Want to plant tomatoes in June or July shortly before the full heat of summer arrives but not sure it’s a good idea? This article gives tips and advice for succeeding with late tomato planting in hot-summer, mild-winter California areas, particularly in these GardenZeus zones:
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