In San Antonio, weather rules when and how tomatoes grow. These frost-sensitive fruits need to be well protected from cold snaps both in early spring and again in late fall. The ideal growing temperature for tomatoes is when the soil has warmed above 50 and the air is consistently 65-85 degrees. You can see why we need to get a jump start when growing tomatoes in our relatively short spring and fall seasons. Rainbow Gardens brings our tomatoes in early for both growing seasons. To help you make the best choices, we’ve compiled a list of things to look for when choosing your tomatoes. You can see some extra growing tips here.
7 Tips for Choosing the Right Tomatoes for San Antonio
-Get a jump on tomato season by starting tomatoes indoors. Here they can be protected from the elements, while growing strong for planting in the garden when the temperature is perfect. (Start seeds inside in January, and then every few weeks bump up transplants to a larger container, eventually going from a 4” pot to a 1 gallon pot.) Starting seeds inside early is especially important if trying to grow larger variety tomatoes.
-Choose early-setting tomatoes. Look for: Early Girl, Stupice, Valley Girl, Sun Gold, etc… These types of tomatoes are known to set fruit in around 55-65 days. (Weather permitting, of course.)
-Try one of the Rodeo Tomatoes. The rodeo tomato selected for 2023 is the Thunderbird Tomato. Every year Texas A&M AgriLife chooses a new tomato to be the official tomato of the San Antonio Livestock Show and Rodeo. These tomatoes are chosen based on flavor, productivity, disease resistance, and adaptation to our state’s growing conditions. When in doubt, you can look for a tomato on this list.
-Choose tomatoes bred for the heat. Look for: Solar Fire, Sunmaster, Sun Gold, Sun Leaper, Sun Chaser, etc… Get the picture? A lot of these heat tolerant varieties have the word “sun” in their name for a reason. They’ve been bred to handle the higher temperatures and still be able to put out fruit.
-Choose small to medium-fruiting tomatoes. Look for: Celebrity, Juliet, Large Red Cherry, Sweet Chelsea, Sweet 100’s, and Grape Tomatoes. Smaller tomato varieties set fruit better the heat and also take less time to produce and reach maturity. Large-fruiting tomato varieties won’t set fruit once temperatures are above 90 degrees on a regular basis. And since they take longer to get to the fruiting stage, you really have to plant early and gamble on the weather to grow these.
-Choose Tomatoes that have multiple disease resistance, especially V,F (soil-borne diseases) and N (root nematodes), which commonly attack tomatoes in Texas. Choosing tomato plants with resistance to disease gives you a leg up from the start. Check out the informational blue signs at our nurseries for the disease resistant codes on the tomatoes we carry.
-If you are planting late, choose tomatoes in larger containers. Planting small tomatoes way after the recommended date for our area is not advisable. Tomatoes in gallons are further along in their maturity and will more likely still produce fruit before the heat sets in.
Pests bothering your precious tomatoes? Take a look at the link for the top pests we battle with tomatoes and how to prevent and treat them.
~The Happy Gardener
I saw no mention to discriminant and indiscriminant plants. When using container is is very helpful to know the difference since the indiscriminant plants are more vines that go everywhere and harder to support.
Hi Sheila,
Thanks for the feedback. We’re currently updating a lot of our new website and hope to fill in more links with extra information on all things tomatoes! Yes, it is important to know the difference between “determinate” and “indeterminate” varieties of tomatoes. Determinate tomatoes definitely don’t grow as wild and big as indeterminate, but they still need a lot of support too. We’ll chalk it up to all tomatoes need a stronger support system than people may think! Thanks so much for reading and replying!
The last two years I have planted tomatoes when the plant gets full grown and gets fruit on it the bottom of the tomato bush starts getting dry leaves and it just goes all the way up the the bush till it gradually kills the bush and I don’t know what to do I spray them with two different kinds of things and I don’t know what to do
Hi Janet,
Sounds like you have a case of early blight fungal disease on your tomatoes the past two years. Applying a labeled fungicide that treats early blight like, Fertilome Broad Spectrum Fungicide Spray or Hi-Yield Vegetable, Fruit, Flower and Ornamental Fungicide spray, can help if you catch the disease very early, at the first sign of the yellow splotches on the lower leaves. Most of these sprays require a second application after around 7-10 days to be successfully effective; read the label and follow directions. We carry these fungicides.
To help prevent early blight, make sure you keep the foliage of your tomato plants dry when watering, aim for the roots. You can also mulch your tomato plants to prevent wet soil from splashing onto the foliage. You amy also try planting tomatoes in a different area of the garden for 2-3 years. Hope this helps.
What type of tomatoes were you selling a month ago you only had one variety?
I’m not sure which tomato was the last fall tomato variety that was left in the nursery. We bring in a multitude of different types of tomato and sell out pretty fast, so not sure which nursery you shopped at or if the tomato plant had a tag in it. I’m surprised we had any tomatoes in October. Sorry. Maybe you’ll get a delightful surprise and it’ll be the perfect tomato for you!
Looking for tycoon tomatoe plants
Hi Debra,
Sorry our tomato inventory is all sold out. You need to plant tomatoes early here in san Antonio, so we get our tomatoes early February and they are usually gone by end of March. We will get tomatoes for fall planting in August sometime, and Tycoom is usually a variety we carry.
Will you be selling the metal round collapsible tomato cages again. I was able to purchase them about two years ago at your Thousand Oaks location but have not been able to find these cages again. They are a little more pricey but they do a great job and they store much better than the cone shaped cages.
Letty,
I have put in a request to see if these can be ordered again. They are not currently in stock. I will let you know when I find out.
Was looking for HM 8849 and Dwarf Cherry Surprise Tomato(BHN968) seeds, not having an success, wondering if you can help me out please!
Hi Amanda,
Unfortunately we do not have those seeds. A manager replied that they had heard they were not available to the public. We do not have a source for the seeds at this time.