I LOVE tomatoes. I grow them almost every year here in Texas. It gets really hot and humid here, too. Maybe they would grow better during the cooler months in the Philippines?

On really bad years, I grow cherry tomatoes. They grow when all the rest die.

We have a long growing season for tomatoes. Just before the first heavy frost in the fall, I’m harvest everything left on the vines. I try to leave bits of stem attached to the green tomatoes because they keep better. Buckets of green tomatoes keep in the refrigerator for weeks.

Tomatoes suffer a permanent flavor change once they have been exposed to temperatures below 40 F (4 C), but let them warm back to room temperature and they will contine to ripen over the next few days. The most immature green tomatoes may not ripen before they rot, but the rest will taste better than most “store” tomatoes.

I grow indeterminate tomato varieties for a few tomatoes at a time, all season long. I grow determinate paste tomatoes for a big all-at-once harvest. Many heirloom varieties are indeterminate.

I like to spray my tomato plants with a liquid seaweed product every two weeks.

If your tomatoes don’t flower AT ALL, but they are growing lots of vegetation, they may have too much nitrogen. Working a little crushed charcoal into the surface of the soil might help since carbon helps moderate nutrient extremes. Next time use a fertilizer with more phosphorus than nitrogen.

If the tomatoes flower, but the flowers fall off without setting fruit, the vines may be stressed. Too hot, too cold, too windy, too wet, too dry.

Too hot means above 90 F (32 C).

Too cold means below 40 F (4.5 C). Probably not a problem in the Philippines.

How windy is too windy? I don’t know. If the plants are being whipped around a lot, try providing a wind break and see if it helps. The soil dries out more on windy days unless the soil is mulched. Row cover material helps with wind, too. When I plant my tomato seedlings, I put a coffee can with both ends cut out around each plant. I push the can into the soil slightly. The can protects the tender plants against strong winds and blazing sun.

Too wet is more of a problem in heavy clay or poorly drained soils. If the tomato vines have lots of little rootlets along the vines, that’s a good indication they’re too wet.

If the tomatoes flower but fail to set fruit, are they being pollinated? They need a few friendly bugs. I’ve heard you can go down the rows, gently dusting all the flowers with a feather or small paintbrush to pollinate them. I garden organically so I’ve never had a deficiency of beneficial garden insects.

If the tomatoes flower and they’re being pollinated, but they still fall off in a few days and never set fruit, their roots may be getting too hot. Excessive heat means the fruit ripens more slowly too. Try planting them where they will get direct sun until midday and shade in the afternoon.

My soil is deficient in alkaline minerals so I save my eggshells for the tomatoes. I scatter clean, crushed eggshells around the plants (or work into the top layer of soil) as a source of slow release calcium with traces of phosphorus and magnesium. Calcium prevents blossom end rot. Sometimes I add a little bone meal for phosphorus. Phosphorus encourages tomatoes to blossom. If I needed extra magnesium I would add a little sprinkle of Epsom Salts (Magnesium Sulfate) from the drug store. A tiny bit of ash from the fireplace or charcoal grill adds potassium. Coarsely crushed charcoal mixed into the top few inches of soil helps too. Especially if you accidentally overfertilized with nitrogen.

Tomatoes don’t like hot feet. I always mulch heavily to suppress weeds and keep the roots cooler. The mulch helps retain moisture too. Mulch suppresses weeds, keeps the roots cooler, and helps retain moisture. Some materials mat down and form an air and water-tight barrier (BAD!) The year I used “composted” rice hulls lives on as a bad memory.

When I was a little girl, we grew cherry tomatoes year round in a heated greenhouse. When the indeterminate tomato vines got too long, they stopped producing as much fruit. My mother shoveled dirt over the vine here and there. After a week or so, the buried parts had grown roots so she cut them loose from the parent plant. Voila! Soon we were harvesting lots of tomatoes again.

If you’re really desperate for tomatoes and don’t mind spending the money, try an Earthbox type self-watering container. (There are plenty of do-it-yourself versions on the internet.) Tomatoes only need 6 hours of direct sunlight. After that you could drag them into the air-conditioning for the rest of the day.

I bought a white Earthbox with wheels this year. Here’s my plan for midsummer. The tomatoes in the garden will just have tough it out, but every day at lunchtime, I will carefully wheel my two pampered tomatoe plants into the house. I have a little board ramp to help me get over the doorsill. I did this with green peas last winter (took them in when it froze at night.) I figured out that if I tipped the Earthbox slightly to drain part of the water out it wasn’t as heavy. The soil stayed moist overnight. When I took the box back out the next day I refilled the water reservoir.

mm, it must be the french conept of “terroir.” great pasta sauces are made with san marzano tomatoes from san marzano, italy. there is a distinct difference when you use san marzano over ordinary plum tomatoes when making the red sauce (marinara, etc). it is certainly worth paying a premium for those whole peeled san marzano tomatoes ( a 28 oz. can retails in new york city for $3 whereas ordinary plum sells for $1.70) as your pasta sauce will likely have a sense of place (italian).