July’s summer heat in Central Texas is brutal on gardens. Water and heat stressed plants are more vulnerable to insect damage and disease. If your plants aren’t looking good or unproductive, you may want to pull them out and make room for new ones.
Diseased and insect infested plants should be removed to prevent further infestation and pathogen spread. As you are pulling up plants to make room for new ones, you might want to consider experimenting with trying to get a second crop from your existing tomato plants.
Even though the tops of your tomato plants may look terrible from heat stress, your existing tomato plants should have a great root system--especially if you planted them earlier in the year.
A healthy root system is very important for productive plants. Even when the top parts of the plants have issues, they are more likely to be able to recover if they have a strong root system. Tomato transplants
Tomato transplants started at home or bought from the nursery will look fresh and green, but they won’t have much of a root system since they are grown in little tiny pots. Once a seedling is transplanted, it will focus on establishing roots so you won’t notice a lot of above ground growth right away. Fall tomatoes need to be planted before the end of August so they have enough time to get established and produce fruit for a fall harvest.
Fall tomatoes have a shorter growing season than those planted in the early spring. If you have a tomato plant that produced well for you and didn’t have any issues with disease, take advantage of having a plant with a well-established root system and try to coax a second harvest for the fall by pruning your plants.
Existing summer tomato plants can be cut back by 50%. Remove up to half of long, gangly vines. It may feel counterintuitive to pruning them back so much, especially if you happen to have fruits or flowers, but if you want fall tomatoes then you need to cut them back so that the plant focuses on new growth. The new growth will produce new fruits.
Depending on the variety, tomatoes need 60-90 days to produce flowers and set fruit. Cutting back tomatoes by early August will allow enough time for new growth and fruit production. Choose healthy plants that produced tasty fruits. Strong plants will recover from such a drastic pruning.
Indeterminate tomato plants will respond better to this type of pruning more so than determinate types. Indeterminate tomatoes are those types that grow long and tall and sprawl. They grow more like vines. Their stems continue to grow and grow until it gets too cold and the frost kills it.
Indeterminate tomatoes produce flowers and fruits all throughout the growing season. They have one main stem that continuously grow, set flowers, and produce fruit. Here in Central Texas they can continue this cycle of grow/flower/ fruit all through late fall. Since they continuously develop, they can grow up to 15 feet tall without pruning. Indeterminate tomatoes are more productive when they are pruned, even after being dramatically cut back.
Determinate tomatoes are smaller plants and also called ‘bush’ tomatoes. They are fairly compact and only get to be about four feet tall. Unlike the vining indeterminate types, determinate tomatoes only produce one crop. With the right growing conditions you will get lots of flowers and then lots of tomatoes. All the fruit on a determinate tomato plant will ripen at the same time, usually over two weeks. After this, the plant dies or goes dormant. You might be able to get a second harvest from them, but don’t expect it to be as prolific.
Take advantage of your summer tomato plants and their established root systems and cut them back to encourage growth and productivity through the fall. Remove up to half of your plants. Apply fresh compost or compost tea to support your plants. Avoid fertilizing while plants are heat stressed. Add additional mulch and provide some afternoon shade to protect plants from the worst of the summer sun.
With 25 years of backyard gardening experience, Julie is a plant and nature enthusiast. She lives in Taylor and hosts the “Plow & Hose Organic Gardening in Central Texas” podcast and radio show that airs on KBSR, Black Sparrow Radio every Saturday and Sunday at 9 am.
