Gardeners in hot and humid (or hot and dry) climates often struggle with growing tomatoes once the weather turns steamy in summer. The plant may look green and vigorous, but the flowers keep drying up and falling off.
Most tomato varieties fail to set fruit if daytime temperatures consistently stay above 85°F and nighttime temperatures never drop below 72°F. These long bouts of high temps often lead to tomato blossom drop, since the pollen becomes unviable and the flowers never get pollinated.
And no flowers means no fruits. (Sad face.)
If the heat spell lasts less than a week, your tomato plants will usually recover once temps cool down again. But if your garden goes through long stretches of sizzling temps (think Texas, Arizona, Louisiana, and other areas in the southern and southwestern United States), the only way to get a good yield in summer is to grow heat-set tomatoes (also known as hot-set tomatoes).
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Heat-set tomato varieties are known to have greater heat tolerance. Many of them were bred by agricultural programs in Alabama and Florida, so you know they can take the heat! But hybrids aren’t the only types that can withstand hot weather; some heirloom tomatoes are heat-tolerant as well.
In fact, one particular heirloom tomato that I grow every year is an all-around weather superstar. ‘Stupice’ is an early-maturing tomato variety that’s incredibly heat-tolerant (it’s produced fruit even during “heat domes”) and it’s cold-tolerant (so it’s set fruit through the cooler nights of late summer to fall until our first hard frost arrived).
Where to buy
Stupice tomato seeds
Here’s what else I recommend if you want to keep growing tomatoes when temperatures are high:
Determinate tomatoes
- BHN 216
- Dixie Red
- Floradade
- Florasette
- Florida 91
- Heatmaster
- Heatwave II
- Homestead 24 (semi-determinate)
- Phoenix
- Solar Fire
- Summer Set (semi-determinate)
- Sun Leaper
- Sunmaster
- Sun Pride (semi-determinate)
- Talladega
Indeterminate tomatoes
- Arkansas Traveler
- Big Beef
- Black Cherry
- Black Krim
- Early Girl
- Eva Purple Ball
- Hazelfield Farm
- Illinois Beauty
- Lollipop
- Matt’s Wild Cherry
- Ozark Pink
- Stupice
- Sunchaser
- Super Sioux
- Tropic
- Yellow Pear
Where to buy
Heat-tolerant tomato seeds
I should add that despite their heat tolerance, all heat-set tomatoes will need a little shade if your summers regularly exceed 100°F for weeks at a time. Plant them in a spot that gets morning sun and afternoon shade, or hang shade cloth over your plants to give them a midday respite from the heat.
