Heat-Tolerant Tomato Varieties

Reader Contribution by Lynn Byczynski
Published on February 26, 2014
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Can you recommend some tomato varieties that will continue to produce fruit when temperatures are high?

Faced with long bouts of daytime temperatures highe

r than 85 degrees Fahrenheit and nights above 72 degrees, tomatoes may fail to set fruit. The plants may look dark green and vigorous — evidence that all other growing conditions are favorable — but have blossoms that dry up and fall off.

If the heat spell lasts no more than a week, the tomato plants will quickly recover. During long stretches of warm nighttime temperatures, however, the plants will stop setting, causing a subsequent gap in tomato production.

In recent years, a flood of new varieties has been bred for greater heat tolerance. Known as “heat-set” tomatoes, or “hot-set” tomatoes, some commonly grown hybrids are ‘BHN 216,’ ‘Florasette,’ ‘Florida 91,’ ‘Heatwave II,’ ‘Solar Fire,’ ‘Summer Set,’ ‘Sunchaser,’ ‘Sun Leaper,’ ‘Sunmaster,’ ‘Sun Pride’ and ‘Talladega.’ According to the Alabama Cooperative Extension System, many heat-set varieties also perform well in cool, rainy weather.

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