Likely, from what others have posted here in the past, it is too hot down there now. Most any variety will work for you if planted at the right time - early spring and fall for you. Check out the thread here called "heat tolerant tomatoes" for some variety suggestions.

You are actually quite lucky as you get 2 growing seasons for tomatoes while most of us only get one. Unfortunately, right now isn't one of them.

Be sure to also check out the Florida Gardening forum here for good advice from your neighbors on planting times and varieties they have had success with.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Florida Gardening

Sunmaster, solar fire, florilina, homestead, are a few that will grow here in summer. Most cherries will also.
These are mostly determinates, so you will not get the large fruits of the other 2 growing seasons with indeterminates. But it can keep you in tomatoes for when you start seed in august for next growing season.
You also should try to keep them away from the afternoon west scorching sun if you can.

You might want to try some peppers, as they grow year round in this zone. st. pete, fl.

I have a friend in S FL who ships me fruits from time to time in the early winter and he grows ANY variety he wants to. But, he gets them in early.

Linda Sapp at TGS in Fort Myers has said that one should grow long season and midseason varieties for the Spring crop and short and midseason varieties for the Fall crop.

And many Floridians do. So I don't see why you can't grow almost any variety as long as your timing is right.

Carolyn

Eaglejohn has some good advise regarding heat-tolerant varieties, cherries, and the use of determinants.

Experiment in the summer if you like but do grow in the fall when you are not battling extreme heat, summer rains (if they ever start that is) , and increased bug pressures. You will be so much happier with the results. I pretty much give it a rest in the summer as fall, winter, and spring are our best seasons (despite the occasionally scare of too cold weather).

I plant the bulk of my tomatoes in Oct. and a few in Sept (and hope we don't get hurricanes). You can keep planting for months--as long as you can get everything harvested by the time summer kicks in.

I believe the Homestead commercial growers plant heat tolerant determinate varieties sometime in August/Sept?. But taste-wise these leave alot to be desired.

Carolyn, I just read your post re Linda's advice but S. Florida is different than Tampa area. Go with Mid and late season varieties in the fall--I then start ripping them out around Mar. / April depending on disease. They grow continuously for 7 or so months.

Where she is it gets much colder in the winter so that is a consideration-- to get them harvested before winter cold temps but it is different in MIami.

Way down here if you plant in the spring go with varieties that you can harvest before summer kicks in.

Catlover, I don't know why I assumed you were in Miami. Where are you located in Fl.?

Check out this link:

Look on the last pages for when to plant both warm season and cool season plants. TABLE 4. South Florda is the 3rd column. For TOMATOES tt says AUG through MAR for S. Fl but remember Aug is still very hot and rainy as is Sept. and it is still hurricane season. And in Mar I would go with a determinate or early variety to get it harvested before summer. But in all the other months plant whatever you like.

Here is a link that might be useful: Vegetable Growing in Florida

This really isn't the time to grow tomatoes down there; you'll most likely find it rather frustrating. The advice above about fall, winter and spring should steer you in the right direction. Having said that, the only things you could grow there right now for sure are the baby everglades maters, and Matt's and we have a saying about Matt's - friends don't let friends grow Matt's! The volunteers will take over and you'll have a hard time keeping them out of everything...wait til fall.

Sorry I didn't respond earlier; just caught up.

I am in South Miami. The heat here is horrible; and the white flies and mites, too. Meanwhile I went out and got Heatwave and Homestead toms. They shot up, flowered, and then proceeded to look forlorn and the bottom leaves yellowed, then turned brown. Some of the leaves curled downwards and some upwards.

I failed them. They are in 10 gall and 18 gall containers. I spray with milk, soap and water, insecticidal soap and blast with water. The bugs laugh. I am thinking I will wait until fall like you suggest.

I have one lonely fruit on the Patio tom plant.

Just saw the article about Growing in FLorida and warm growing veggies. Thanks. I am going to rip up ugly tomato plant and wait until fall to try again. Meanwhile will keep the eggplant (I have eggplants and collards)

I spray with milk, soap and water, insecticidal soap and blast with water.

When you do plant this fall please keep in mind that sprays can often do more damage to the plant than the pests. ;) Anything that coats the leaves interferes with photosynthization and transpiration which are vital to the plant's survival.

Thus the recommendation that you only spray lightly, never drench the plant, just the bugs, and never apply sprays in the direct sun or the high heat of the day.

Good luck this fall. ;)

Dave

I live in Miami as well. I had planted 25 tomato plants a while back but ended up with 2 finally after a neighbor dumped a cats litter box over the fence on 20 of them. I never have spoken to that person or anything. Anyway, the other ones got ate up by white flies and mealy bugs. I ended up with Two in containers! They split and were smaller but were really good to the taste. So I am having the tomato fight as well. I live in West Miami/Sweetwater/Fontainebleau area. I do have some tomato seeds to trade if you want to try more. I just bought some cherry tomato and beefsteak tomato seeds. I water every evening.

On a 3rd-floor East-facing balcony in Hollywood, FL, I tried topsy turvy tomatoes for the first time (2 hangers). I have full sun until 2:30pm. I transplanted store-bought small-container Early Girl and Better Boy and hung them May 20 (very late-season). Soil is standard MiracleGrow potting mix. I prune volunteers and remote branches about once a week and water thoroughly every 2-3 days (depending on rain).

First fruit buds (not flowers) were June 15. Through the end of July I've had 7 total medium-size tomatoes (Early Girl=2, Better Boy=5; all tasted great) with 4 still growing (2 of each). Beginning in late July, major yellowing and curling of leaves exists. Regardless of remaining fruit, I'll plant for the fall season in September.

There's a lot of misinformation in the threads and it's unfortunate, but the people that don't grow here in south Florida truly do not understand growing in south Florida. I have lived in the northeast, the mid Atlantic region, and Southern California..and this is a different bird all together. I don't claim to know how to grow tomatoes in Colorado, because I've never grown a tomato in Colorado. Farkee and eaglejohn are giving you good info but you can absolutely grow mostly any tomato cultivar you want down here, year round (I've produced fruit for around 35 so far). That being said sticking to things like Everglades and floridade cultivars is much easier. And I'm positive Michi lives here because that cat litter story is on par with the area :-). Growing in containers is your best bet because you have absolute control over sun, water and soil content. I'll get to the bugs and fungus in a second. I use a sand blend potting mix, mixed roughly 1:5 with an organic potting mix containing peet, perlite and all the other goodies...but the organic potting mix is light and fine so it becomes dense and heavy when soaked, that's where the sand blend mix comes in handy. I feed once every two weeks ....foliar feed (calc/mag) and alternate with a generic "tomato blend" or generic vegetable blend. Some chastise me for that but it works...they need nitrogen. I have had some sunscald on some tomatoes with larger surface areas but it is not the end of the world...as soon as you start to see it, turn your container around or pick the fruits when they start to have the color break (light pink starting on bottom of fruit) and allow them to ripen inside...you can look up the myriad of different ways people do that....I leave it on a table. My containers have a lot of holes...if you control the water here...90% of the time you will produce fruit...soil should be moist and it's ok to leave them go a couple of days without water....let the roots stretch out. I grow in 5gal buckets and some larger Tupperware containers with cages and it works fine...(a lot better than the $800 I spent on augmenting the soil inground and installing a sprinkler system with soaker hoses <----that's now all grass)...I do prune...but I cannot get around the septoria infections that happen here...I prune like 6" up and anything infected and have staved off ruining entire plants...ALSO...quarantine the sick plants by taking the ones showing septoria (or any other fungal/bacterial infections) away from your other plants. I know a lot of this is common sense, but with the amount of rain we can get and lasting humidity here..,your infections can spread quickly. I started spraying with a fungicide (which worked) but I decided to see how well I could handle it by just trimming and monitoring...and I've been able to handle it. Now to bugs...beware of hornworms....they're around and will take down the plants quick....leafminers are around but pose little threat to me...I had plants covered in white flies but sprayed once and keep my yard trimmed and they don't seem to be much of a problem anymore. Plum varieties like San marzano I let almost completely ripen or completely ripen on the vine (as well as cherries and grapes). Larger heirlooms I will wait until the break and pick them to ripen inside (usually). I have about 40 tomato plants right now...all are healthy and producing fruit.. (I have about 80 tomatoes and around 300 blossoms currently)...I will move the heirlooms closer to my bananas when the heat comes in a couple months and should get a couple of august tomatoes there...I have one Cherokee purple that will not die...he keeps chugging along. I don't know how...:the floridade and Everglades continue to produce (I'm convinced you can run over the Everglades with a lawnmower and still get tomatoes). So to sum up my insane rant...the difference between growing here in sofla and other places I've lived...fungal infections can be rampant because of the rain/humidity....soil is garbage and leads to over/under watering and keeping the plant off a regular schedule (so grow in containers) sun and temps can be horribly hot....but with proper management you can still produce year round without tooo much effort. If you follow the guide to when you should plant stuff during the year you will do fine....but I don't and still grow fruits, veggies and greens.

you bumped a 8 year old thread.. there is no misinformation here. although many think they are experts, they're mostly just opinions.

regarding the original topic from almost half a decade ago,. you can grow any type of tomato you want as long as you plant and grow it at the correct time.. and that time is called seasons.. people plant and start plants in the spring, not in the middle of the summer.