Climate

How you plant and when you plant depends on your climate, both on a macro (large) and the micro (small) scale.

My wife and I live in the west San Fernando Valley. We have scorching summers. In general our tomato plants and tomatoes will get bigger than normal.

We live on the east side of a north/south street. There's no tree in front of our house of any significance, nor with our neighbors house across the street. In the summer, these plants get at least eight hours of sun a day, frequently at temperatures of 95 degrees or more. Our garage will radiate heat back at our container plants (we keep several of them near there) causing additional stress to the root systems of these plants. For our clay pots, we'll water the pots every day if need be. Not the plant, mind you, but the pot itself, in an effort to try to cool it down a bit.

Our backyard is dominated by a ponderosa pine in the southeast corner as well as a lemon tree in the north side of the back yard. Here our tomato plants get morning sun and in some cases there's some evening sun. But all of the plants get significant shade. That's both good and bad. There's quite a variance in the about of sun a plant will get based on where it's planted in our backyard. The ones under the lemon tree are cooler. Planting under the ponderosa pine wouldn't work, as it would be too dominant – tomato plants need sun!

Last year we planted a Speckled Roman in the front yard and underneath the lemon tree in the back yard. The back yard plant took two to three weeks longer to mature, but the tomatoes themselves seemed to do a tad better.

Our neighbor across the street has the same weather, of course, but has an entirely different situation. They plant exclusively in containers against their back fence on the west side of their property. That fence is covered with ivy. There, they get morning sun for about six hours or so. The ivy protects against the ravages of the afternoon sun and that area is noticeably cooler than our front yard in the afternoon. Their containers work very well in that environment.

In general, I think the heat of the summer makes up for a fair amount of planting mistakes on my part (for instance I really don't have to worry at all about what tomatoes to plant, they'll all work), but the plants pay for it come late July.

What's your climate like?