Gardening 101: Planting Tomatoes In Early July

By Jeff Ray, CBS Dallas/Fort Worth

July 10, 2022

To garden is to try something new. The learning curve to a successful garden is a steep one (at least for me): some things work, some don't. I have long heard the rumor that you can plant tomatoes in early July and harvest a fall crop. But it just didn't make sense to me.

The few times I tried tomatoes IN THE SPRING I had the fruit show up on the plant in mid-spring and be ready for picking by mid-May. I would continue to get tomatoes until daytime highs started reaching into the mid 90s. Then the plant would stop flowering and production would end. The plant would turn brown and fall over. Too hot for tomatoes until Fall.

I had some success cutting them back severely and letting them limp along across summer. As soon as the first cool weather in September would show up, the plants would take off and I would have a HUGE crop by Thanksgiving and first frost. "Something to be learned there" I thought to myself.

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