Check out this link.

Here is a link that might be useful: UFL Starting Dates

...for a summer tomato crop here.

Too hot and buggy to grow tomatoes in Zone 10 during the summer (July - August), central and north Florida can grow cherries but about the only thing you'll get to produce maters during the hot months are the currants; Matt's or Everglades.

Tom

garf,

I've grown both Solar Fire and Solar Set in June but not had much success with bloom set when night temps are above 80F, that's why I stated you'll probably not be very successful in July or August. If you'd actually like to grow some maters during those months drop me a line and I'll send you some Everglades seeds, they're the original currant wild tomatoes of Peru, genetically the origins of all other tomatoes. They grow wild and will take over if you let them, can handle both the heat and cold (frost) and will set tomatoes virtually the whole year around, the only thing that will get them is a freeze and even then you'll have volunteers come up in the spring. There is an old saying about these tomatoes, "Friends don't let friends grow Everglades/Matts", because if you put one in they'll be popping up all over you yard for the rest of your life :-) :-( They're only about the size of a marble but the taste is amazing.

Here's a batch I picked this afternoon off one plant that's thrown out 5-6 vines approximately 6' each. I have to pick this many about once a week.

No recent pictures of the plant but here it is 12-11.

Tom

Yikes Tom! I don't think I've ever seen a tomato so...vigorous in Florida.

Yup Amber, it's truly a wild type vine. The tomatoes are so small that if picked individually they split and have to be eaten immediately, that's why I pick the whole truss so they can be eaten when desired...whopping flavor for such a small tomato.

I don't plant these, just wait for them to come up where ever, then I decide how to "tame" them. Here's where they came up two years ago.

Tom

Tom, looks like these take full sun?

I had not heard of those wild toms before! I would love to have a hot season tomato for salads. I guess I would grow them in a pot but I wonder if these buggers are unaffected by rootknot nematodes since they are a wild variety?

WOW! TomnCath your vine tomatoes look superb. You are offering seeds?

After the first planting, in containers, mine now come as volunteers all over the yard, can handle either full sun or shade. I've not noticed nematode problems but surprisingly I have had them get TYLCV.

Anybody that wants seeds just drop me a line, I only have a few thousand :-)

Tom

TYLCV = Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus

Many thanks to you Tom for sending the seeds. They went from the mail box to a pot full of soil. Well, at least four seeds did. The rest are in the fridge waiting to see how the first try turns out. I'm amazed at how small each seed is and I'm excited at the prospects of enjoying tomato flavor all year! Yippi!

Tom, I'd LOVE some seed!

I don't trellis my tomatoes. I find that they're much better producers if I just let them grow naturally.
I got so stinking mad at my Roma last year that I took the pruning shears and chopped (not nicely either) the whole thing down...This particular plant did an "I told you so" and came back like a hedge! 2 weeks ago, I finished canning 5 quarts of spaghetti sauce from that ONE plant,lol.
Got 17 lbs to ripen on the vine, and after that first freeze, got another 6 lbs to the gold stage and ended up picking them and letting them ripen on the counter!

Trying to figure out how to post pics. There were more fruit than leaves on this thing, and because of my honeybees, everything got pollinated!

I have no cherries though and would LOVE to have something that grows where it will...My whole yard is like that!

Thanks for the generous offer!

Garf: Checked my FL growing guide...for Miami: Says the last dates for tomaotes is March...says best time for planting is August-March, both straight seeded and plants. Sorry, this was your post! Didn't mean to turn it into "how I grow tomatoes",lol

Hi Tom. I'll send you an email. I would love some seeds. Thank you so much for offering to share!

I'm out of seeds now :-) :-( I'll collect some mature fruit this weekend and start another batch of seeds so those of you that have contacted me in the last 3-4 days sit tight, I will respond to your messages by then but in case a request slips through the cracks if you don't hear from me by then post another message....

Tom

Tom- Are your tomatoes the same as Matt's Wild Cherries?

Tom- Are your tomatoes the same as Matt's Wild Cherries?

I think so Amber, folks have wondered about this for quite a while and the consensus is they probably are one in the same.

Tom