Gardeners with hot, humid (or hot and dry) climates often struggle to grow tomatoes when the weather gets sultry in the summer. The plant may look green and active, but the flowers continue to dry out and fall.
Most tomato varieties cannot set fruit if daytime temperatures are consistently above 85°F and nighttime temperatures do not fall below 72°F. These long hot attacks often cause tomato flowers to fall off, as pollen becomes unfeasible and the flowers are not pollinated.
And there are no flowers. (Sad face.)
If the heat spell lasts for a week, the tomato plant will usually recover once the temperature cools again. But if your garden has passed through hot temperatures for a long time (think Texas, Arizona, Louisiana, and other parts of the South and Southwest of the US), the only way to get a good harvest in the summer is to grow heat set tomatoes (also known as hot set tomatoes).
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Heatset tomato varieties are known to be highly heat-resistant. Many of them were raised by Alabama and Florida farming programs, so you know they can get the fever! However, the type that can withstand hot weather is not hybrid. Some heirloom tomatoes are also heat resistant.
In fact, one of the specific heirloom tomatoes I grow every year is a versatile weather superstar. “Stupice” is extremely heat resistant (which also produces fruits during “heat domes”) and cold resistant (sets the fruits until the first hard frost arrives).
Where to buy it
Stupid tomato seeds
Here’s what I recommend if you want to continue growing tomatoes when the temperature is high:
Decide on the tomato
BHN 216 DIXIE RED FLORADADA FLORASETTE FLORIDA 91 HEATMASTER HEATWAVE II HOMESTEAD 24 (SEMI-DETERMINETE) Phoenix Solar Fire Summer Set (Semi-Definition) Sunreaper Sunmaster Sunpride (Semi-Deduction) Talladega
Uncertain tomato
Arkansas Traveler Big Beef Black Cherry Black Crim Early Girl Eva Purple Ball Haze Fal Field Farm Illinois Beauty Lollipop Matte Wild Cherry Ozark Pink Stupid
Where to buy it
Heat-resistant tomato seeds
Despite heat tolerance, I add that if summer regularly exceeds 100°F at a time for several weeks, all heat set tomatoes will need a bit of shade. Plant them in places that will shade them in the morning sun and afternoon, or hang shade on the plants with a shady cloth to give them lunch break from the heat.
