First of all, I like it hot and humid. Second, my tomatoes and peppers need hot weather, plain and simple.
I hate to say this because I am sure things will change in a flash, but my tomatoes and peppers look better than they have ever looked at this time of the year.
The plants are really lush and full with relatively few insect and disease problems. They are also loaded with fruit ready to fill my dinner table.
I go out to the garden every night hunting for the elusive ripe tomato. You know the game: You lift up the foliage, get down on your hands and knees and hunt at the bottom of the plant for that one red, ripe tomato only to be disappointed.
I do have a cherry tomato variety that is slightly getting a little red color. It’s going to be a race in our family to see who gets it first. It won’t be ripe by the time you are reading this article because of these cooler temperatures.
Tomatoes are a warm season crop and killed by cold temperatures. Tomato blossoms won’t set fruit if temperatures are really warm (above 94F during the day and 70F at night) or if temperatures drop below 60F at night. We were at 52F on Wednesday morning.
The fruits that are on the plant won’t be harmed by these cool temperatures; they’ll just take longer to ripen. The blooms that are on the plant may fall off due to lack of pollination.
The bottom line is don’t be surprised if you see some blossom drop in the near future. I wouldn’t expect that all of the blooms that are on the plant will drop off, just those that were at the right stage for pollination when it got colder.
Pepper flowers aren’t quite as sensitive to low temperatures as are tomatoes; it can go down to below 50F before problems occur.
The other physiological issue that occurs when days are cool and cloudy during fruit set is called catfacing. This term is used for deformed, misshapen fruit. I found a couple on my plant while hunting for the ripe ones.
The blossom end of the fruit can be puckered and scarred and some believe that it’s because the blossom sticks to the side of the developing fruit.
Hang in there because eventually the weather will warm up to a point where these growth issues won’t be a problem. Soon we will have ripened tomatoes. Of course, as always they will ripen all at the same time and we’ll be complaining about that!
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