Hey fellow Floridians...
 

How are your Fall tomato plants doing with all of this rain?

What tips and tricks are you using to keep them going?

My plants were so beautiful and healthy and setting fruit and then the everyday downpours started again and are still happening. I'm fighting off septoria and who knows what else. A friend of mine lost all her seedlings for Fall to blight.

We had the wettest September on record and its supposed to continue at least through mid October maybe longer.

Just wondering how evwryone else was fairing.

Ginny

Most of my tomatoes are in the 5 gallon self watering containers so the plastic mulch is keeping them from getting too wet. I actually have some tomatoes on them. I have been worried because I usually spray with Actinovate as a preventative but this rain has made that impossible. The ones in raised beds are looking pretty good but no tomatoes yet. They say Sunday is going to be sunny. I sure hope so. There is nothing worse than too much rain.

All mine are still in seeding tray/plugs.Now they are only at 8-12 inch.In anticipation and over the years I have adapted mobile miniture rolling scaffolds so as to wheel them in under a 12 foot overhang that is part of the screened in pool area.If left alone the rains would glue them to the ground.The damp/wet soil would have killed them off.Plus we are still fighting 85 plus in temps.Basically has been raining at least once a day here for the last couple of weeks or more.Not only do we get the ocean induced rains but the "Everglades"late condensation rains at night.

I'm amazed that you have tomatoes; I had lots of flowers and tiny toms underneath on lots of my plants but they never grew.

I went on vacation for a week over labor day so had the choice to leave the plants in the sun or on my porch with no direct sun. I always choose the porch and used drippers for watering; so my plants always have a big setback and some losses.

I have 11 Earthboxes; all on wheels (movers dollies) or casters; so have been rolling them in/out all summer; for heat/sun and now rain.

The Sungold and Black Cherry look really good; I have a few small tomatoes on the SunGold but that's it. The Kelloggs took a huge hit from snails/white flies but they are coming back (although really stunted for their age). The KBX succumbed. The JD Special Tex looked horrible/dead when I got back from vacation but has totally come back

4 of the earthboxes, have plants from last spring; which are not looking great; but not diseased. I don't spray. This weekend we should bet getting lower evening temps; if I don't see any fruiting, they will be replaced by some of my seedlings.

I also have tomato plants in root pouches that are on slats; which are doing fairly well despite taking in all the rain. The plants in rootpouches on the ground that were healthy all summer just shaded by Jacauda and Red Royal Poinciana trees now have that leaf spotioria disease.


I probably had more problems with snails; every night I do a snail check and this is on my pool deck; they have to make a long journey to get to my plants; then they have to climb up the wheels on dollies; then the plants;

White flies are going after my seedlings.

Does anyone plant in the ground?

What types of tomatoes are all you plantings?

FL tomatoes
 

I started my tomato and peppers seed around August 15th. The peppers really took off great. The tomatoes began to sprout after a few days. I start my seeds in 1/2 peat moss and 1/2 rabbit manure. I grow my tomatoes in 15 or 20 gallon containers. Have transplanted 25 so far. I gave up 30 years ago trying to plant in the ground. I prefer to mix my own potting mix and go that route. Been having late afternoon/evening rains. NO rain yesterday. I have rain buckets outside to catch all the runoff from the roof and patio. Had 2 plants ( Azoycha & Gary O Sena ) have curly leaf virus so I discarded those plants. My Black Cherry and Isis Candy are doing fine at the moment. I grow all indeterminate varieties. Usually over 40 or 50 different varieties. One of my Keystone pepper plants does have blooms. Last season was great production but also terrible for hornworms. Not really sure why. Suppose to be a cool front coming by Sunday...low of 67 here in south Florida. I hope to transplant another 10 by the weekend into their containers. Try adding some baking soda to your soil if you experience sephoria or any of the soil viruses. My grandfather taught me that. 1/2 tsp for 1 gallon of water. Do that twice a week. Baking soda helps with eliminating soil born viruses.

Gardenboy is that half a teaspoon or half a tablespoon?

Thanks for all the info everyone. Will post more when I get off work... :-)

Not gardenboy, but tsp is teaspoon.

Thanks for the info; I use rain buckets to capture the rain from the roof too; It really helped with my water bill over the last 2 months. Well, not that I had to water much; just the EBs and some HD buckets I made.

Gardenboy - Never heard of those varieties; Most varieties were new to me this spring since finding these forums and learning of sites other than Parkseed and Burpee (or the big box stores).

Tomatoes
 

Yes tsp = teaspoon. Sorry I should have spelled it out. I have over 200 varieties of indeterminate varieties. Check out my 2013 seed listing on forum if you are interested. Burpee is mostly determinate and hybrid tomatoes. I prefer the taste of indeterminate tomatoes. :)

Gardenboy - That seed list is impressive. Is growing tomatoes more than a hobby for you?

You are so right with Burpee and Park Seed writes the most amazing descriptions only to be let down again and again.

I have been growing tomatoes for years; just not heirlooms;

Do you think there is a big difference between growing for fall vs spring? I grew Kelloggs in the spring and they were amazing (the first big heirloom); but my plants have struggled so far; I was expecting big plants by the time Oct 15 rolled around and the weather cooled off.



One thing growing for the spring, is it isn't buggy; and when starting in the summer is the buggiest time of the year; I notice lots less moths lately though.

Barb I understand tsp is teaspoon, but 1/2 a teaspoon is such a tiny amount for a gallon of water I wanted to make sure it wasnt a typo.

Ginny

Tomatoes
 

1/2 teaspoon or 1 teaspoon really don't matter to much as long as you use 1 gallon of water. I also add 1 teaspoon of baking soda and 1 teaspoon of Epsom Salts when I transplant the tomato. I sprinkle it in the hole when I transplant my tomatoes into their 15 gallon containers.

Using baking soda is new to me. I always love hearing what old time gardeners recommend. I am going to have to try this. I had one tell me that he always used copper pipes for tomato stakes because it helped deter slugs and the vibration from wind and storms increased growth. I was really going to try it until I priced copper pipes.

I never grow any hybrids. I quit a few years ago and my heirlooms and open pollinated plants do just as well. The only exception is the trial ones I grow for the Dwarf Project that are still in the hybrid stage. Over the last few years I have become very fond of the dwarfs that have been released. I like having full size tomatoes on an indeterminate plant that is compact.

Even though we are all in Florida there is a lot of difference in our growing condition. I in the very north part of Florida so my conditions are different than someone in south Florida.

Tomatoes
 

Yes, I am in south Florida about 20 miles north of Miami Beach. I've only grown heirloom tomatoes or open pollinated tomatoes. Even "paste" tomatoes don't do that well for me. I grow in 15 or 20 gallon containers with peat moss and rabbit manure. I like growing heirlooms so I can save the seeds and they taste so much better than hybrids or store tomatoes. I make salsa, spaghetti sauce/ pizza sauce and freeze a lot of it. I also grow peppers. I grow basil and sunflowers in the summer months after tomatoes are done. Basil did not do that well this season. It rained to much and caused the basil leaves to turn black from to much moisture. Once my tomato plants are established in their home containers, about 2 weeks, then I fertilize with Tomato-tone or Garden-tone every 2 weeks. They also like fish emulsion. I use no chemicals on plants. I do use BT for hornworms which is an organic product that is sprayed on leaves and when the hornworms eat the leaves..it kills them from inside and they dry up. When I see them, I do pull them off and feed them to the bluejays. Any questions just PM me. :)

Hubby counted and I have 26 planted at our tiny RV spot on the intracoastal waterway. We are in Oak Hill which is about 10 miles South of New Smyrna Beach. Being just 30 feet from lots of water it usually doesnt freeze here and normally tomato plants will survive the winter.

I have all plants in Swcs except two which are in the coquina shell ground. The land we are on was created 100 olus years ago when the intracoastal was dredged. The two plants in the ground are a test.

I have so far two tomatoes growing on a PBTD, one on an Ugly Ripe, about 20 on Black Cherry, 15 on Sungold, and 3 on Stupice and Juane Flamme. But for each tomato on those plants, there were many more blooms that dropped or developed into those tiny tomatoes that dont grow.

We do have 2 Bloody Butcher plants that have about 20-30 tomatoes each. But those are from Summer starts and all those tomatoes set during a two week time fram that was drier and highs were below 90. Probably 50 blooms on eaxh plant have dropped. So not a good percentage of fruit set on any plants yet. We had some Juliets just as a trial during summer and they kept producing but they were so bland and ctunchy that we pulled them to make space for or others.

Hoping the plants will survive the rains and really pick up on production.

I got home after dark but will post pics tomorrow. Sorry for typos... sent from my phone.

Ginny

Floridians, I took one trip to Florida back in 1987. I was 22 years old. The trip was to move my AF Vet brother to Fort Lauderdale from here in Texas. I was newly married, but my brother was insistent that I view some of the cool things about Florida. Of course, my wife was by my side, and together we saw Disney world/land, a topless doughnut shop, and the Doll House in Fort Lauderdale. I wasn't impressed by any.

What did impress me was the white soil. We went down I 75 and up I 95 and everywhere was white soil. Back then, I only thought about my wife, career, and starting a new family. Yet, those white sands growing orange trees - really caught my attention.

Sorry it's a little TMI, but I was impressed. Do you guys grow tomatoes in that white soil alone or do you need to add other things?