Desert Gardener:

TLC helps tomatoes survive late summer

Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2009 | midnight

Angela O'Callaghan

Late summer in Southern Nevada is generally not anyone's idea of a good gardening time. In fact, it can be somewhat melancholy – looking out at the summer crops showing the ravages of extreme sunlight and searing temperatures. While gardeners in other places are only now beginning to see their crops come in, ours are nearly past.

My tomatoes and peppers are still producing. The tomatoes are not pretty, but they continue to develop. As soon as I see a hint of color change, I am pulling them off to finish ripening on the window sill; otherwise they will cook on the vine and be destroyed. Once tomatoes have begun the color break, with a hint of pink, they will continue to ripen to full red. They have cracks, but are definitely tasty. This is not the same as commercial practice, where they are too often picked very hard green and gassed to redness. That technique results in red-skinned tomatoes that may or may not ripen to anything that tastes like a tomato.

Among the peppers I chose this year was the cayenne variety. They are still growing, although it is currently too hot even for them to produce new flowers. Because they are so tough, I am permitting them to ripen on the plant.

My bell peppers are long gone.

I wonder if there is a predictable difference between these two in the tolerance to summer stresses. The elements – heat and light – are uniquely intense in Southern Nevada, and plants have a range of adaptation to them.

My question is really whether the "heat" of pepper that we taste relates to the external heat that we feel. Since bell peppers have no intrinsic "heat," does that leave them more dependent on our gardening practices to survive a Mojave summer? Does the survival rate increase with increasingly "hot" hot peppers?

This has not been a big field of scientific inquiry; maybe gardeners in our part of the world can start the research by reporting on their own results. If you have grown both at the same time, have you seen differences in their survival as the summer progresses? I would like to hear from you.

When I teach the second class of "Growing in Small Places" on Aug. 29, we will not talk much about peppers and tomatoes.

This class will be concentrate on those vegetables that grow well as it becomes cooler, with shorter days.

The morning session is directed toward beginners who have little or no experience.

The afternoon is for the more experienced gardeners who are looking for more in-depth material.

Whichever you may wish to attend, it would be a good idea to call the cooperative extension office to reserve your place.

Angela O’Callaghan is the area specialist in social horticulture for the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension. She can be reached c/o the Home News, 2275 Corporate Circle, Suite 300, Henderson, NV 89074, or editor@hbcpub.com.