tomatoes and summer heat

I've been mounding the soil up around my tomato plants. (1) I didn't think they had enough depth, (2) I'm trying to get them through the summer heat. The Yellow sticky traps are helping with the white flies and the milk jug water tank is working like a charm. I trimmed off all leaves and stems that would have been covered by the soil so they wouldn't rot and they are all doing very well. I will do the last two that are in the swimming pool tonight. I had to pull up all the green onions first because they were too close but they weren't growing anyway.

I have had some yellow tomatoes ripen and they were smaller than I expected them to be but taste wonderful. Both the little pear heirlooms and a Lemon Boy are producing well and still have lots of blossoms. The Early Girls and Celebrity have tomatoes that are just now starting to ripen so I am hoping for a nice turnout soon. The red tomatoes went in late because of my earlier garden disaster but I am not disappointed in their progress, all things considered.

Well, it's a learning process and I am certainly learning a lot. I have a lot of plans for my winter garden and even more for next spring

BTW, my two fig trees actually survived the recent disaster and are coming back
stronger then ever. I just totally soaked them both and watched them for about a week and when nothing seemed to be happening I gave them up as lost. Just last week I was working in my office and thought I saw a little green as I passed by. When I looked closely there were many beautiful little green leaves nestled among the dead ones. They are doing so well I am going to buy them each a great, big, brand new pot for my birthday.

How did everything end up for you?
did you start a winter garden yet?

Everything was doing pretty well until the whiteflies got most of everything. I got quite a few tomatoes but not nearly as many as I was expecting. They just didn't get through the heat. I have about decided that I was way too late getting started. By the time the tomatoes were hitting their stride the heat sent everything into an almost dormant state. I was able to keep the plants until the whiteflies got too agressive. At that point I just pulled out everything but the eggplant, which the whiteflies didn't seem to want. I left the eggplant to fend for themselves. I really was just so discouraged at that point that some days I didn't even go out and look at them. One eggplant not only survived with no attention at all, and no water except the two very inadaquate rains we got, but it grew and blossomed and now has two eggplants and several blossoms on it. I have started watering it and will mound the dirt up around it again. No matter what, I'll tend this plant to see what it will do.

I was afraid to put the fig trees out and they are still inside in their original pots. Doing well but I do need to get them into bigger pots. I decided not to put them out until early spring.

I have tomatoes ready to put out and will do that this week. It's taken me awhile but I'm getting back some of my enthusiasm now. I don't know what I'll plant but I will have a garden this winter no matter what.

How did you make out with your garden? Have you planted your winter garden yet?

Last years spring/winter garden got eaten by the dogs. Once they figured out they could get over our little garden fence, there was no keeping them out. I didn't really get a chance to see what my garden could do. They left the tomato plants in, but kept eating the tomatoes off, so I finally ended up pulling those out around June. They were doing great though!

When did you plant your spring/summer garden last year? You want to put it in around late Feb or early March around here to give the tomatoes enough time to produce and grow good root structures. Also, if you shade them, they have a better chance of surviving in our heat. I also learned that pupkins should go in the beginning of July for Oct harvest here. (I've been going to some gardening classes and stalking a couple az wbsites for gardening )

We fixed the dog problem and planted our winter garden end of sept. I keep hearing it is supposed to be planted mid August/ begining of Sept, but it was just still to hot. I am hoping we have a mild winter and I can over winter our tomatoes. I will also plant more in Feb/March.

Why don't you plant your fig trees? They do great here. I just ordered a black mission fig, and we will be planting in January when it coes in. If you plant your bare root trees in the winter it gives them a chance to get more established before the heat sets in. We also ordered 2 apples, 2 peaches, a blood orange, and a guava tree to go with our oranges, lemon, lime, and grapefruit trees:) Oh and grapes and blackberries, too!

duhh wrote:We also ordered 2 apples, 2 peaches, a blood orange, and a guava tree to go with our oranges, lemon, lime, and grapefruit trees:) Oh and grapes and blackberries, too!

Where do you get your fruit trees from?

the phoenix permiculture guild has a fruit tree program every year. they must be ordered by Nov. 13th? and they need to be picked up on Jan 8th. here is their website. They have alot of good info for Phoenix gardening.

http://www.phoenixpermaculture.org/

The good thing is every tree they sell has been proven to grow and produce here.

AZDYJ2K wrote:

duhh wrote:We also ordered 2 apples, 2 peaches, a blood orange, and a guava tree to go with our oranges, lemon, lime, and grapefruit trees:) Oh and grapes and blackberries, too!

Where do you get your fruit trees from?

Have you guys considered one of THESE (I saw on at one of the box stores last night).

My father was always doing crazy-stuff like this when he wasn't working on the Orchid-house & I've actually grafted same-family citrus (grapefruit on orange stumps... lemons on a lime stump) ...but it appears someones taken this to the next level and commercialized it.

Pretty neat idea for someone who doesnt have a lot of room & for $20.00, it may be worth a try

acara wrote:
Have you guys considered one of THESE (I saw on at one of the box stores last night).

My father was always doing crazy-stuff like this when he wasn't working on the Orchid-house & I've actually grafted same-family citrus (grapefruit on orange stumps... lemons on a lime stump) ...but it appears someones taken this to the next level and commercialized it.

Pretty neat idea for someone who doesnt have a lot of room & for $20.00, it may be worth a try

Yes, I've seen those. I've heard that sometimes the dominant fruit will overtake the others...at least I've heard that on citrus fruit cocktail.

I've been more interested in exotic/tropical fruit trees (mango, guava, bananas, lychee, etc). In Phoenix, there's a place here called Tropica Mango. They carry the exotic fruit trees I've been looking for. I was curious if there were any others.

Thanks for the info. I'll look into those.

I have seen the cocktail trees. I was also advised that one fruit will overtake the tree.

We have decided to try the urban orchard or backyard orchard. Its all about staging your fruit trees so that you get a year round harvest. Also, keeping the trees pruned so that it is small enough to pick easily. A large tree can produce way to much for one family, so by keeping them smaller, the production is easier to manage. One guy let his apple tree get very large and he got 700 lbs of apples from it! Thats a lot of fruit! I am excited to see if this will really work because our yard isn't huge and we will have 12 trees on it come January!