I have read everywhere that determinate tomato plants grow to a certain size, produce a concentrated bunch of fruit that ripen all at the same time and then die. Both the cherry tomato and regular tomato are determinate, so when all of the tomato plants produced a bunch of fruit in July that ripened very quickly in the endless heat, I thought the vegetable plants were done and contemplated pulling them out and planting something else in their containers. Well I'm glad I never made up my mind because the plants eventually grew more flowers and produced a 2nd wave of fruit. The cherry tomato is actually on it's 3rd wave now. Admittedly the later fruit is not as flavorful as the first set, but the taste of any garden grown vegetable still far surpasses anything you can buy in a supermarket.
In regard to early blight the cherry tomato plant is doing well. It went through some defoliation due to the disease, but it continues to grow more leaves to replace the ones lost. The 3rd of wave of fruit is much smaller quantity wise than the 2nd wave, but considering I never even expected a 2nd or 3rd set of fruit I'm happy with whatever this plant produces.
The Orange Blossom tomato plants are not doing as well. The vegetable plant on the right side of the container was hit particularly hard. I already harvested most of the 2nd set of fruit and I doubt there's enough time left in the growing season for the plants to bounce back, like the cherry tomato, so it's unlikely a 3rd set will ripen before it gets cold.
The cucumber plant is surprisingly still hanging on. The spider mites have really worn this vegetable down, but it's still producing cucumbers so I'm leaving it be.
The cantaloupe have been devoured and the plants removed from their container. I stuck some snow pea seeds leftover from last year in their place. I only got 3 fruits from the 2 plants, and they took forever to mature, but they were so incredibly sweet and awesome that they're definitely worth the space and time. Next year I'll plant a variety with a shorter growing time.
The eggplants and other peppers are doing great, no complaints from me.
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That is so awesome that you got 3 waves of fruit from your cherry tomatos. My cucumber plant looks like yours, still hanging on despite mites and powdery mildew.
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