Tomato plant almost dried out - summer strikes

In hot climate locations, tomato as a crop is planted in winter and typically fruit starts growing during spring and early summer. As the heat of summer becomes more severe, the leaves start drying up and pretty soon the entire vine starts dying out. From that point onwards, it is a race to ensure that the entire crop of ripe tomatoes is harvested before the plant finally dies out. In the video, one can see that the plant is almost dry, but there are fruits that are ripe and red. They can last for another few days on the plant if they are not picked, else they start getting wrinkled and will soon dry out if not picked. And that would be the end of one season for tomatoes.

Tomatoes getting ripe - while the plant starts to die

The tomato plant, especially in places where summer can be quite harsh, has a quick end. Constant watering can only keep the plant alive for so long. The plant goes through a point where the fruits are starting to turn yellow / red and slowly ripen; while the leaves are starting to dry up. The struggle is that the plant is dying while we are waiting to collect the fruit. Now, if we are doing this professionally, then there is a proper process to collect all the tomatoes as they ripen, maintain them with all the proper process and so on. However, doing this on a terrace garden means that one is a part-time gardener and one can only spend so much time on the plants, so it's good to get such a harvest.

Okra fruit developing on the plant

The okra plant is fairly easy to grow, but it does require warm to hot weather (of course not so very hot as in tropical summers, direct in the sun, because that could burn the leaves). In this case, this is my plant with the young okra fruit starting to develop. These develop in clusters, so within a few weeks of seeding or transplanting, you start to see fruit developing. Okra loves organic potting mix, so I keep on adding mulch and this mulch keeps on decaying and enriching to the potting mix. However, monsoon rain can cause problems, atleast my plants stop providing good fruit when there is a prolonged wet spell. Okra fruit need to be cut when the fruit is still tender; it grows very fast so you have to be careful. If you feel the seeds in the okra fruit, then the fruit becomes hard and bitter and not good to eat. And there is a belief that if the okra fruit starts developing hard seeds, the plant stops producing more fruit while that pod is on the plant.

Lemon plant full of flowers - struggle for fruits

via IFTTT

This is my lemon plant. The plant is full of flowers, and looks so promising. However, my history over the past few years with this plant has not been so promising. Most of the flowers drop after stiff breeze or a storm or just with the heat. I have tried multiple methods after reading - tried to keep the leaves moist, different types of fertilizers, a rich organic potting mix, and so on. And on the other hand, I have a couple of friends whose plants produce a lot of fruit and they claim not to do anything much. Will update once I learn more.