Beefsteak Tomatoes & Tropical Heat

The experiment with the Burpee beefsteak tomato ended yesterday with only two fruits, neither of which made it to ripening. There was another beefsteak grown in a pot outside the garden which delivered a grand total of four fruit, and they were very tasty fruit at that.

Anyhow, my final conclusion based on the observations on the health of the plants and the tragic lack of fruit set, with all the blossoms merely falling off, is that this particular variety of Burpee beefsteak requires much cooler weather.

We are in the process of changing out our garden, as we have an all year round growing season. We are moving the tomatoes to the North boxes and the cabbage and lettuce beds to the South boxes. American Samoa is 14°S of the equator, which means that the majority of the next 4 months will have the sun rising and setting to our South. Hence the rotation.

I've decided to try out a few different varieties of tomatoes, as well as increasing the number of pepper plants. There are a number of bell pepper and chili pepper plants already in the garden, but I've taken the liberty of planting seeds from a cherry pepper plant that we received from a friend. We were actually given a mature pepper plant, and this is now my attempt to propagate it through its seeds. It is a very pretty plant with small, cherry sized chili peppers. And it never stops producing peppers, and it looks like a miniature tree, only just a foot and a half tall, with a green crown... just like a tree.

The primary variety that will be the focus of the garden this wet season will be a South East Asian variety that I can't really identify based on the packet. The packet is decidedly uninformative, but I have hopes that it will thrive in our local growing conditions, as they are a good match for growing conditions in Vietnam, where I think these seeds may have originated. All I could tell from the packet is that it is an F1 generation hybrid.

I will be planting two to four beefsteaks, on the off chance that they might like our hot rainy season better than our extremely hot dry season. Okay, so I'm a glutton for punishment. I may even plant a few of Burpee's "Longkeeper" variety, just to see how it fares.

As usual, my penchant for planting and starting seeds is far in excess of our garden space. I'm hoping the gardener has space in the commercial garden up the hill for my excess tomato plants, and if not - then my friends and various contacts will probably be the proud recipients of a "Tomato Award".