Q: Just when I thought I was going to get fresh tomatoes from my garden, they stopped turning red. They are mostly green, but a few have a hint of pink. They have been like this for more than a week. I am watering them the same as always, and they don't have too many leaf spots or yellow leaves. What can I do to get them to mature?

A: Tomato plants don't like very hot weather; they grow best in temperatures of mid-to-upper 80s. If the temperatures rise into the 90s or 100s, they stop producing fruit and the existing fruit stop growing. If the temperature exceeds about 95 degrees, any yellow or orange pigments may continue to develop, but the red pigments don't. That being said, the fruit are edible even though they may not be red. Tomatoes that are supposed to turn yellow or orange at maturity may not continue maturing if the weather is too hot, but they will continue to mature to proper color indoors, where the temperature is probably in the 70s. You can harvest the fruit once it begins turning whichever color they are supposed to be at maturity.

If the daytime temperature is above 95 and the nighttime temperature is above 75 for more than a few days, the plants will stop producing fruit, for the flowers will not pollinate. Once the weather cools off, they will begin producing fruit normally again.

Fall Vegetable Gardens

These temperature requirements are the reason gardeners in the South grow their tomatoes over winter instead of summer. The fall-winter garden they plant in August or September has many of the same plants gardeners in the north plant in May or June.

Planting a fall garden is a good way for northern gardeners to get a second crop from the same garden space. The advantages include fewer weeds, fewer insect problems, less need for water and (with the help of a row cover) an extended season that may last until Thanksgiving for very frost-hardy plants.

Fall-garden crops that can be planted in the north in August include: broccoli, Brussels sprouts, kale, leaf lettuce, onion sets, peas, radish and spinach.

Fall-garden crops that can be planted in the South from August to February include all crops listed above and all vegetable garden plants that most people think of as summer vegetables, including: beans, carrots, cabbage, cucumbers, eggplant, peppers, squash and tomatoes.

Northern gardeners often give up on their gardens midsummer. They go on vacation and come back to a weed patch and a few nearly dead vegetables, or they don't keep up with watering and think the garden is a lost cause. A fall garden may seem like a lot of work for July or August, but by the time the September rains start falling the garden seems to take care of itself.

Very few garden centers will have vegetable plants for sale during summer, but they often sell seed packets at very discounted prices. The most important information to look for on the seed package is probably the days until harvest. The seeds need to be planted far enough in advance that the plants will produce fruit before the first frost. For example, if the package says 90 days until harvest, then the seeds must be planted three months before the average date of the first frost. To get a harvest and allow for an early frost plant the seeds 100 or more days in advance.

Email questions to Jeff Rugg at info@greenerview.com. To find out more about Jeff Rugg and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: Maggie McCain