Question from a rookie tomato grower

[jerp]

If deer eat the tops/flowers, will they grow back and set fruit? The only place on my heavily wooded lot that gets 6+ hours of direct sunlight is on the driveway in front of the garage so they are in pots. There are a few tomatoes on each plant in various stages of growth but I was wondering why there weren’t more flowers. I noticed yesterday they have all been chomped by the neighborhood deer. Will they grow back? The plants are a determinate variety if that makes a difference. I guess I’ll move them into the garage at night

[Killer]

They will come back the problem will be once it gets about 94 to 95 degrees or hotter it’s hard for them to set fruit. They will bloom and the blooms will fall off with out setting tomatoes sometimes. But it might work better for you with some shade.

I have mine in containers for the first time this year and I had to deal with blossom end rot. Make sure you add lime or put bone meal on them to keep this from happening

[RCDuck]

I'm no expert, but I believe determinate varieties are intended to bloom and set all their fruit at one time (relatively speaking), so you may not get much regrowth and reblooming on them. Indeterminate varieties continue to grow and set fruit over time under the right weather conditions.

As Killer said above once it gets hot, your fruit set becomes problematic. Again, I'm no expert, but I have read, and experienced, that it is more about the nighttime lows than the daytime highs. Once your nighttime lows quit getting below 70, you are likely to not have much fruit set, and the blooms will fall off without setting fruit.

I don't have any growing this year, but have grown off and on over the years. The best advice I can give for growing tomatoes in North Texas is get them planted early. You almost have to plant them before you are really "safe" to do so in regards to the last frost date and be prepared to protect them from the last couple frosts, or replace them if they get zapped. If you don't do that, you'll likely not have mature enough plants to produce fruit before the night-time temps are too high... the window between last frost, and 70+ night time temps is pretty short here, and you have to take advantage of the whole window.

[SaltwaterSlick]

John, I like venison better'n I like tomatoes... I'm jus' sayin'...

[jerp]

Thanks guys. Your explanation exposes my first error - I should have planted them much earlier. It sounds like the tomatoes we have now are all we are going to get out of those plants. We just bought the new edition of Neil Sperry's book. According to him, fall tomatoes work well in North Texas but I will need to get them started by the first week in July. I think I will put the pots on a cart so I can roll them behind the fence at night when the deer start roaming the neighborhood

[RCDuck]

I would suggest looking at the "Days to Maturity" of any varieties you are planting for the fall... again, the time window in fall is relatively short. You're best luck may be with smaller fruited varieties.... cherry sized. Don't try a large fruited variety with a 90+ DTM.

[dustoffer]

I got my plants out late this year and now that the temps have gotten up there, I doubt I will see any more fruit set. I have the same "limited sun" problem in my yard except out by the street and I don't trust my neighbors walking by and not picking my tomatoes, so they are in the back and get about 4-5 hours max. It has been the same every year for me--as our lot is nearly covered with live oaks and cedar elms---but the blessing of that is the lower cooling bills in the summertime.