I've had pretty good luck with tomatoes, particularly my Cherokee Purple heirlooms, during this beastly summer because they're naturally shaded by a 65-year-old American Elm tree. But even these shaded and watered tomatoes have now finally succumbed to spider mites, blight, and wooly aphids.
I harvested some of the larger green tomatoes that were surrounded by spider mites' webs, then cut out all the most diseased branches and left a few small green tomatoes on the now almost-naked vines.
I also cut back (by about a third) the two green zebras and one sugar sweetie I grew from seed that never set fruit in hopes they'll produce this Fall. Two (green) Black Krims are still hanging onto fairly healthy vines, and I can't wait to compare their taste to the Cherokee Purples!
black krim
Not that I'm counting--ahem--but it looks like today will be Austin's 38th day of triple-digit heat this year.
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38 days. Yikes plus. I was reading an article about folks who voluntarily summer without using A/C. None of them living in Texas, naturally. I can't imagine not using A/C at all - we do try to keep the temps set reasonably high during the day and mostly cool things to sleepable levels at night.
Your tomatoes still look so good - I have total tomato envy at this point.
TexasDeb,
105 again today. No way I could live here without A/C, and my Siberian Husky definitely couldn't. I recently put out an electric fan on the floor and miss husky parks herself about 4" from it most of the day...
The black tomatoes are so pretty, Iris - hope your plants get a second wind for fall. My Black Krims were a flop this year - maybe I'll try again next year (if there is a next year!)
Am not feeling too confident of that right now but might feel different if El Nino comes ;-]
Annie
Iris, your cherokee purples are beautiful!
I'm mostly down to juliets and sun golds now. Couple of brandywine plants still have green tomatoes, but spidermites are moving in.
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