I think of August as the middle of the growing season. How are your tomatoes doing? In non-Covid years, a friendly taste-testing between gardeners will reveal some extraordinary flavors of some different homegrown varieties of tomatoes. Perhaps in this season, you can come up with alternatives to group meetings and share some tomatoes.

August is a good time to give the tomato plants in our gardens some additional help to be productive through the fall. I spend a good deal of time in the tomato patch pruning, assessing which branches to keep for the second surge of production. Pruning concentrates the plant’s energy on fruit production and not green growth.

First thing, check for any branches that are touching the ground. Any lower branches that touch the soil could transmit disease. Keep hand clippers sharp and use them to cleanly clip off the offending branch at the stalk. Also, assess if all branches are producers. If they are without flower shoots or developing tomatoes and adjacent branches have flowers or tomatoes, clip off the non-producers. The goal is to trim to a leafy plant with branches that get sun and have some air circulation to discourage fungus growth. I know gardeners that have the bottom 12 inches clear of branches. Just be sure that those branches are not producing fruit. You might want to place some straw under the plants and pull any weeds as needed.

There is one other place to remove extra green growth. Look where a branch grows from the stem. Is there a third shoot growing between them? That is called a sucker. Remove most of the suckers. Notice I said most. Fruit can still develop from sucker shoots. Make an assessment of productivity. Is the original branch producing blossoms or should you let the sucker branch grow? The decision does not need to be all or none. The idea is to get produce so whatever has the best chance of greatest production should be your choice. Do not leave removed tomato leaves, stalks, etc. on the ground. If they are healthy, they can be added to the compost. If diseased, trash them.

The tomato fruit itself does like to ripen under the benefit of leaves. Full sun on fruits can “scald” them. Irregular access to water can “crack” them. Aiding me in my desire for the perfectly formed tomato, I just read some info in a research article written by Chuck Marr of Kansas State University that will result in a change to when I pick tomatoes. With his insight, I am hoping to avoid bird beak pecks into my tomatoes, aborting their sampling.

“By the time the tomato has its first blush of red color, the layer of cells—called abcision zone—is complete, and you can pick the tomato with no loss of flavor or quality. If left on the vine after that, all the tomato will do is hang there, disconnected, going through the rest of the ripening process,” Marr says.

I will split the unripened tomatoes between the shaded windowsill and a paper bag to determine which ripens better.

It’s hard to believe in this heat that a freeze will ever arrive; it might take a couple of months, but it will get here. Four weeks before the expected freeze, cut the tops off your plants to discourage further growth. Remove any blossoms and tiny developing fruit. Four weeks is not enough time to grow an edible tomato. Let the energy of the plant focus on the development of the fruit and not blossoming or growth.

Before the freeze, you could dig up or pull up the tomato plants that are still producing. Hang them upside down in the shed or garage. The tomatoes will be protected from the freeze and will gradually ripen. As an alternative, pick and store them in brown paper bags. Don’t pile them thick. A couple of layers will allow a gradual ripening, too. Be sure to remove all spent tomato plants and leaves from the garden before winter.

It is not too late to get in a fall crop. The first freeze is expected in mid-to-late October. As you are assessing which seeds to plant now, add together the days to germination and maturity. Then you need weeks for the plant to produce. The greater number of weeks, the greater the increase in the quantity of produce. Be sure to include fall and winter greens and root crops in your planting. Consider increasing the productive season by using a cold frame or a tunnel. A killing frost eliminates above-ground growth.

Now, just for gardening fun, the Tennessee Environmental Council is running the Compost Recruitment Challenge through Sept. 22. By recruiting your friends, family and followers to compost and join their program, you could win the Compost Recruitment Challenge grand prize of $250. Further info can be found at tectn.org/comepostyourcompost.html.

As we still need to amuse ourselves more than ever, consider watching some informative videos posted on the Rutherford County Extension and RC Farmers Market Education Series YouTube channels.