[arobwk]

How about best variety for growing outdoors - anyone?

Mortgage Lifter

Ever so slightly concerned about growing a large beefsteak variety outdoors (thinking might need a bit more attention - tying in/thinning of fruits etc) - but I might give a ML variety a try.  Thanks for the suggestion naturelovingfarmer.

[arobwk]

The only tomato I've ever grown outdoors was Gardener's Delight but that was 900 feet lower than here and more than 1/4 of a century ago.  They grew extremely well - I had kept the plants indoors for too long so had to dig a trench and lay the plants, stems overlapping, horizontally in the trench, tops poking up along the way.  I ended up with a wall of tomatoes which were wonderfully productive, having sent up side shoots everywhere    Very tasty grown outdoors - better than indoor crops any day 

Interesting planting solution ! 

[naturelovingfarmer]

How about best variety for growing outdoors - anyone?

Mortgage Lifter

Ever so slightly concerned about growing a large beefsteak variety outdoors (thinking might need a bit more attention - tying in/thinning of fruits etc) - but I might give a ML variety a try.  Thanks for the suggestion naturelovingfarmer.

I grew them outdoors, average fruit weight was about 1 kilo. But big ones were 1.5 kilo.

[arobwk]

Are you in a sheltered spot @naturelovingfarmer ?
I am not (although I'm extending my willow wind-breaks).

[doganjo]

Are you in a sheltered spot @naturelovingfarmer ?
I am not (although I'm extending my willow wind-breaks).

NLF is in OHIO, USA

[naturelovingfarmer]

yup, I'm in Ohio. But I've heard our weather is similar to Southern England.

[Penninehillbilly]

I looked up roughly where you are NLF, i think you are more akin to Spain, which makes some of us look more like the arctic 🤣🤣🤣

[naturelovingfarmer]

I looked up roughly where you are NLF, i think you are more akin to Spain, which makes some of us look more like the arctic 🤣🤣🤣

Well shoot. There's snow outside. Does it snow in Spain? And we get over 80 inches of rain a year. I thought Spain was arid?

[Fleecewife]

Here in Scotland we get an average of about 1500mm of precipitation per year but it varies drastically over the country and from year to year.  A good pile of it falls as snow, mostly above 300 metres. England is different with slightly lower average rainfall and snowfall than Scotland. We also have strongly delineated seasons, four of them.  Even within such a tiny country as the UK there are vast differences in both weather and climate between regions. Here on TAS and elsewhere we are used to finding out just what conditions each of us grows and farms in - just as in the US it is not seen as offensive to estimate someone's weight whereas as it is very much so in the UK, so enquiring about one's local weather and climate conditions in the UK is very normal, whereas it seems to trigger offense in the states?

[naturelovingfarmer]

Here in Scotland we get an average of about 1500mm of precipitation per year but it varies drastically over the country and from year to year.  A good pile of it falls as snow, mostly above 300 metres. England is different with slightly lower average rainfall and snowfall than Scotland. We also have strongly delineated seasons, four of them.  Even within such a tiny country as the UK there are vast differences in both weather and climate between regions. Here on TAS and elsewhere we are used to finding out just what conditions each of us grows and farms in - just as in the US it is not seen as offensive to estimate someone's weight whereas as it is very much so in the UK, so enquiring about one's local weather and climate conditions in the UK is very normal, whereas it seems to trigger offense in the states?

I'm not offended. I just have autism, so I'm very direct. And sometimes my humor doesn't come across. It's actually really hard to offend me. I been through some s**t and I view things through that lens. Like you could cuss me out and I'm likely to laugh at you. I only really get offended if someone calls me a liar, and in true American fashion I usually skip the chatter and go straight to punching them in the face. But nobody here is liable to do that. And there's an ocean in the way that I lack the capability to cross.

[Fleecewife]

Here in Scotland we get an average of about 1500mm of precipitation per year but it varies drastically over the country and from year to year.  A good pile of it falls as snow, mostly above 300 metres. England is different with slightly lower average rainfall and snowfall than Scotland. We also have strongly delineated seasons, four of them.  Even within such a tiny country as the UK there are vast differences in both weather and climate between regions. Here on TAS and elsewhere we are used to finding out just what conditions each of us grows and farms in - just as in the US it is not seen as offensive to estimate someone's weight whereas as it is very much so in the UK, so enquiring about one's local weather and climate conditions in the UK is very normal, whereas it seems to trigger offense in the states?

I'm not offended. I just have autism, so I'm very direct. And sometimes my humor doesn't come across. It's actually really hard to offend me. I been through some s**t and I view things through that lens. Like you could cuss me out and I'm likely to laugh at you. I only really get offended if someone calls me a liar, and in true American fashion I usually skip the chatter and go straight to punching them in the face. But nobody here is liable to do that. And there's an ocean in the way that I lack the capability to cross.

Two nations, separated by language and a great big pond 

So how about you tell us just what your weather and climate are like through the year, from a growing point of view and just what it allows you to grow?  You could maybe pinpoint where your state is too - not only do I not know just where it is (somewhere in the south middle?) but I also don't know the names of all the US states, or even now I come to think of it, all the counties in the UK 

[doganjo]

Here in Scotland we get an average of about 1500mm of precipitation per year but it varies drastically over the country and from year to year.  A good pile of it falls as snow, mostly above 300 metres. England is different with slightly lower average rainfall and snowfall than Scotland. We also have strongly delineated seasons, four of them.  Even within such a tiny country as the UK there are vast differences in both weather and climate between regions. Here on TAS and elsewhere we are used to finding out just what conditions each of us grows and farms in - just as in the US it is not seen as offensive to estimate someone's weight whereas as it is very much so in the UK, so enquiring about one's local weather and climate conditions in the UK is very normal, whereas it seems to trigger offense in the states?

I'm not offended. I just have autism, so I'm very direct. And sometimes my humor doesn't come across. It's actually really hard to offend me. I been through some s**t and I view things through that lens. Like you could cuss me out and I'm likely to laugh at you. I only really get offended if someone calls me a liar, and in true American fashion I usually skip the chatter and go straight to punching them in the face. But nobody here is liable to do that. And there's an ocean in the way that I lack the capability to cross.

Got your sense of humour loud and clear 

[doganjo]

Here you are, Juliet - Mr Google says this

Ohio is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated.

[naturelovingfarmer]

Two nations, separated by language and a great big pond 

So how about you tell us just what your weather and climate are like through the year, from a growing point of view and just what it allows you to grow?  You could maybe pinpoint where your state is too - not only do I not know just where it is (somewhere in the south middle?) but I also don't know the names of all the US states, or even now I come to think of it, all the counties in the UK 

Oh okay. So I'm in the Ohio River Valley, on the Ohio side of the river near the city of Portsmouth OH. I don't know Our temps in C. And I have a very good cold tolerance so my concept of cold is skewed. Like, I went out in just a sweatshirt in the snow on Saturday when it was 27 F. That's somewhat below 0 C, though how much I'm not sure. Everyone but me was cold. Ohio is in a weird spot climate wise. We get extreme weather. Like in the summer, 100 F is a normal August temp, and in February -16 F isn't unheard of. When there's a polar vortex, a type of storm, it can get as cold as -35 F. Our weather in the vicinity of the Ohio River is very wet. 80 inches of rain a year is normal and the ground is soggy all the time and there's moss on stuff. Spring and fall are very foggy times of the year. You can't really grow potatoes here, they all get blight. And corn gets corn smut, which is tasty and edible, but not why you planted the corn. Spring and fall have very mild agreeable weather but are prone to fairly insane thunderstorms that produce tornadoes.

We can grow anything that isn't strictly tropical or arctic and doesn't need dry weather. Because we just plain don't get dry weather. The surrounding area is a temperate rainforest. Our USDA Hardiness Zone is 6b and on the cusp of zone 7a. Japanese crops do well here since our weather is very similar to the central portion of the island of Honshu. Hot and moist in the summer and cold in the winter. We struggle to grow cucurbiticeae (cucumbers, melons, squash, pumpkins, gourds), potatoes, grains other than rice and sorghum, and lettuce. We excel at growing tomatoes, peppers, onions, roots, tubers other than potatoes, greens, sunflowers, beans, rice, sorghum, mushrooms, okra, blackberries, and tree fruit such as apples, peaches, plums, cherries, and pawpaws.

[Penninehillbilly]

Blimey, that is one long river, much longer than the UK south to North! (I like to look things up).

NLF, If my earlier post was offensive in any way I apologise, certainly wasn't meant to be, I'd looked up roughly where you were previously, curious about some of the things you grew, that i'd never heard of, so i knew you are a lot warmer than us, but 100F, gosh, that would kill me, i'm out for the count at about 25c, (77F), but you certainly have some extremes of temperatures, we get frozen for a while, but i think -20c is about the coldest I've ever known it.
Don't your tomatoes ever get blight? Or can you prevent it in some way.? Pawpaws? Never even seen one  🤣. Tomatoes etc have to be in a greenhouse here. Can get frosts up to June 1st.
I think we have a different hardiness zone to you as well, don't know why, it's very confusing at times, ours starts at H7, equivalent to your H5.
Where I live, at 1000ft, we are in UK-H7, your 5, while most of the country is H8, a few southern and western areas in UK-H9. We have the gulf stream running near our western coast, which helps keep the temperatures up.
.