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Old May 27, 2012   #5
horses4jess
Tomatovillian™
 
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Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Northeastern KS, Zone 6a
Posts: 130
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I'm from Kansas originally, in an area where tomato growing means tossing a few seeds in the ground in April and pretty much ignoring them until it's picking time from July. My first year in South Florida was a rough one too, Jan. Out of 5 plants, I had a handful of Sweet 100's before foliage disease finished off what the nematodes and caterpillars started. I found the UF website the next year, planted in September and moved to containers--both EBs and traditional 5-10G pots--and started preventative spraying. Much better production, but the whiteflies and TYLCV still really limited things. Insect netting was suggested to me since sprays, the yellow sticky traps and trap crops didn't work. After going through all that, I've finally got it down. At least, until the next species of horrendously-unmanagable-crop-destroying-invasive disease and/or insect arrives. Moral of the story is that adaption to your local conditions and pests is key to success.

Jessica

P.S.- You might give Better Boy or Atkinson a try for the eat-in-the-garden red tomato. I'm a bit south of you, but they were relatively low maintenance in my area compared to many other varieties I've tried.
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