A: Mine were stunted because of the hot and dry streak we had in June/July. Flowers failed to get pollinated, and it was too hot for chemical reactions to happen where the tomatoes ripen. But since the weather has cooled a bit, I have noticed new flowers and fruit, beginning back around the end of August. As long as the tomato plants are ‘indeterminate’, they could produce for another few weeks. These are the types that put out vigorous growth, almost as vines, whereas ‘determinate’-type tomatoes stop growing upon reaching a certain height and bear fruit all around the same time.

Joe Lamp’l, who is highly skilled in growing tomatoes, poses another possibility: “It is possible they are mislabeled. It happens more than we’d like to think. They are commonly sold at box stores, and label switching happens all the time. Also, if they are the Better Boy variety (versus Big Boy), they don’t get huge. Not all tomatoes grow to list-sized fruit.”

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