I shoot for mid-October depending on the heat and rain. If it's still hot I'll keep the plants semi-shaded in pots either on the north side (still plenty of sun there) or on the lanai.

The main thing I want to avoid is having them get attacked by bugs including whitefly.

The timing is really a challenge to hit the sweet spot between too hot and the first frost. Fall seems harder to time for me than the winter/spring season.

Imagardner, thanks for the info.

I moved here in Oct. last year and planted my tomatoes the first part of Nov. They did ok, but I think I'll take your suggestion this fall and plant earlier.

My summer tomatoes never made it out of the gate. They bit the dust early on before they even set one tomato. I've been buying tomatoes and they are so awful. Be glad to have some of my own again.

Last year I started mine August 1 wicked and under lights and planted out very nice transplants Sept 15th. Had some production but the plants were loaded when the cold and frost got them......soooo this year thanks to Silvia I will start them July 1 and plant out Aug 15th.....or so. Just seems it would be so hot then but what the heck will try it.

Bamboo, I was lucky I guess because the cold didn't ruin mine last year.

Bamboo, when grown in the heat tomatoes will be sort of lanky, they will have to be planted deep and eventually they will take off, this picture was taken in August last year.

Silvia

Bamboo,

I also plant them deep, the lowest leaves just above the soil level. The buried stalk will also root out giving the plant extra growing strength, the lowest leaves just above the soil will drop off, by then the heat of summer has tempered and the tomato plants will take off setting many tomatoes that turn red before the first frost hits. When the frost hits... it's Fried Green Tomatoes time YUM YUM

Sylvia,

I had to think long and hard about what my favorite tomato is because I like all the different tastes of the various strains and I guess I enjoy the large sweet juicy tomatoes the best, just picked from the vine fully ripe and eat it like an apple with the juice and seeds dripping into my beard. Now that's heaven to me!

Lou

Mammie,

We live right on a lake so that helps us some and the first few frosts that the surrounding areas got we avoided thanks to the lake "bubble". Sadly that didn't last long with the winter we just endured and in the end a freeze got the plants not a frost.

Silvia,

I trust you and if it works it will be a extra month of tomato production. I will just do preemptive spraying which is not something I normally do.

Lou,

I much prefer ripe to green:) I also always plant the fall plants deep. Heck who knows maybe the tomato plants I have now will still be producing come fall ( yeah right) but seriously these plants are not giving up and are once again loaded with green tomatoes. I will take a picture and make a post later.

Mammie,

Since your zone is warmer than mine your schedule should be close to Denise.

Bamboo,

If you do some succession planting you can have tomatoes for a very long season, I remember giving away jars of salsa at Christmas time.

Lou,

I am waiting to see an updated picture of you and your beard eating a juicy tomato, lol. And to let you know, my favorites are the hearts and the bi-colors.

Silvia

I just finished planting my tomato seed pots with 17 different varieties of tomato to see which does the best for fall planting in my screened-greenhouse.

Lou

Lou
Don't tease us, you know we want to see more of your wonderful screened-in garden you built by hand.

Pretty please.

Denise

Denise,

The spring/summer growing season is over and right now it's pretty much in shambles from the summer heat. I'm busy yanking up dead vines, cleaning the earthboxes out and revitalizing the soil in them, and getting ready for my fall/winter planting. So the pictures wouldn't be pretty, I have been taking snapshots of little areas I've cleaned and re-potted & replanted. When things start growing again rest assured I will be taking more snaps of whats growing.

Lou

Silvia is a tomato savant! Seriously, no tomato has a right to look that good in central Florida in August.

Papa Jim

Lou, we'll all be happy to see your pictures.

Papa Jim, I agree. My tomatoes have never looked like Silvia's in the best of conditions. :)

Thank you Papa Jim and Mammie, you are very kind. I am going to show you a few pictures of the last fall tomato season, I assure you that it can be done and I wish everybody get a lot of tomatoes this coming season.

August, yellow submarine is showing fruit.

September

{{gwi:37414}}

October

{{gwi:60429}}

Silvia

Great place y'all have here, first post. I am assuming that these dates are transplant dates. Had a miserable summer for tomatoes, plants just wilted and died. I think that I will try growing in containers or *seriously* add compost etc to the soil (or more properly, sand.)

If we had a significant number of days in the last year in the 60s, 70s, or 80s I don't remember them. Here's to a better fall season:)

bradenriverrick,

My tomatoes were seed started, Jun 30, transplant date of approx mid Aug.

How I just love edible gardening in Fla... I'm sitting here eating fresh picked lychee's while I type. My Japanese Fuyu persimmons not far behind the lychee's.

Lou

I'm getting tomatoe seeds tomorrow, Yes, FL gardening beats SW Oklahoma

Hi Bradenriverrick

Welcome to the forum! And yes it is a good idea to gather your supplies now for the fall season.

I would advice you to grow in containers due to the lack of nutrients in sandy soil and nematodes. Later on you can amend the soil or put raised beds for other crops.

Keep us updated on your plans for the fall garden, if done correctly can be very rewarding, we can grow a lot of crops.

Another important thing is to remind you to update your location, different zones have different starting dates.

Amber- Yes, let's hope for a good season! This season went from cold to hot, nothing in between.

Silvia

Bradenriverrick,

Take Silvia's advice, she has the best of all our gardens, we only strive to catch up with her.

The summer season here just changed from sunny hot 100's to cloudy and almost constant rain the last few days from the hurricane bands.

We have three growing seasons here;
Spring - we grow veggies.
Fall - we grow veggies.
Winter - we grow quilts and bedsheets. LOL

Lou

Hi Lou

Thank you. But in winter, we grow more veggies!

The garden in February

{{gwi:26189}}

Tomatoes in February

And May tomato harvest

{{gwi:50014}}

Silvia

silvia,

I was making a joke about last January when our plants were all wrapped up in bedsheets from the cold snap we had.

Lou

This fall I'm going to try planting in large pots as I'm in Hollywood and the soil is sandy and the heat is worse. I planted too late in spring this year and just got leggy, bare plants with very small fruit.

Is there a special formula for soil? I will also be planting bell peppers. Any advice is appreciated by all I'm sure.

Lou

If you look at the picture above with the tomatoes, I have blankets and a heater for the cold nights. I had all my tender plants in the open porch and everything survived. :) Did you have your fortress built it or not yet?

Reallyrandy

If you go to the container forum there is a good mix 5-1-1 by Al Tapla he described in detail what goes in it.

I also have used a mix of 3 parts miracle grow soil for containers, 2 parts pine bark fines and 1 part perlite.

The 5 parts bark mix is more economical but you have to pay attention to fertilizer issues to be successful.

Julia

If you look at the picture with the February tomatoes in the porch, I have the containers about 18 inches wide and 15 inches deep, and the plastic bins for starting the seeds. Pretty much I have the same set up now for the fall tomatoes.

Silvia

Sylvia,

Yes it was built for 2 years now, this is now my third year of screen-greenhouse gardening, but I still have to learn how to do everything the best way. I bought three 6'wide by 8'long & 8' high plastic greenhouse tents that I put up inside my screen-greenhouse for my winter garden as a test last year. They worked very good with a little heater inside but one broke and crashed down on top of my plants and made a mess when my fat cat(feline) jumped up on top. I will buy some more this fall for my winter gardening and make them strong with wood braces.

Lou

Outside of building a screen-house to put your 'maters in, how on earth do you-all keep the whiteflys from ruining them ? I had some gorgeous 'maters in pots, last Fall, and practically overnight the whiteflys ruined them, Tom pointed out to me what had happened ( thanx Tom) and that was the end of it all.... I tried spraying with everything on the shelf at HD, but it didn't seem to help..... do I just give up on growing 'maters, or is there some secret you folks have ? please let me in on it ! ........ thanx, sally

Lou- It sounds like a good plan, let us know how it works.

Sally- I don't have a greenhouse or anything like that, and I grow enough veggies for the family and to give away every season.

I do few things with the tomatoes that it might make a difference:

I grow them from seed, paying attention to the health of the seedling, stronger plants can resist bug attacks.

They get started outside in the porch, I don't have to harden them off.

Early on I spray for disease and bugs.

I have not had a problem with whitefly and if I did they are varieties of tomatoes resistant to virus, I would grow those.

So for me there is no secret, even my neighbors are growing tomatoes and they are beginners!

Silvia

Planted mine today.

Silvia, how about giving me the name of company across town that you get the pine fines from. Will be picking up the grandson at the orlando airport on the 19th and will take him to deland to play golf with my brother for a couple of days. Can get them as I go North.
Also , are most of your tomato containers plastic or clay?
I am going to start a Jetsetter in a SWC with my old Ed Smith type mix and give it to my neighbor to put inside her pool screen. Her sweet 100 is still producing and looks good but the tomatoes are really small. If it works, may have to build a screen house, but not as big as Lou's. If we have a hurricane ( God forbid) , I'm sure I can buy some aluminum structural parts from damaged pool enclosures.

Lou, what size mesh do you use on your screen?? TIA

bernie

Bernie,

If you are going to make the trip, call them first. When we go they always have it but just in case, I think they are under $3 a bag.

My containers for tomatoes are all plastic, when I am only growing a season I prefer plastic because is cheap and lightweight enough for me to lift them. Fruit trees and longer term plantings I prefer in clay containers because they breath better.

Let us know if you decide to build Lou's type of fortress, lol

Silvia

Here is a link that might be useful: pine bark fines

Bernie,

I used pet resistant screens because I have 8 cats and they love lying around in the shade of the plants on hot days. Cats like chewing and eating grass so they help me weed the garden. The pet screen only came in one mesh size and I cannot remember what size that was.

I started with my two cats I brought down from up north when I moved here but since then I have taken in six more stray cats that people come out to the country and just dump them.

Lou

Nice to see many of you folks can start seeds now but you're much cooler at night than I am here...if I set earlier than 9/15 the heat and bugs will do everything in. I will start some pepper seeds 7/15 since I give them 8 weeks before set, but I won't be starting tomato seeds until 8/1 for a 6-week set 9/15.

Tom

Hi Tom

Welcome back! And I hope that you enjoyed your vacation.

About the starting dates for fall planting tomatoes I made the suggestion of different zones, different times. We have to go according to the best planting times in our area since we all want to be successful.

Silvia

I planted some seeds yesterday. Silva I did a few of the yellow submarine you sent me earlier in the year. I actually lost the envelope and recently found it! I planted 4 different kinds of seeds so crossing my fingers!

What are pine bark fines? I've got a lot of pine trees in my back field. Are they the brown things that fly off the tree? If so, I can pick up tons of those!

Julia

Julia

Here are the pictures for the pine bark fines that I use in the containers. I get them from the same place that I told Bernie in the post above.

Cherry tomatoes will do well for you this coming season, and you can always practice and plant more seeds every week. Remember practice make perfect.

Here is a link that might be useful: pine bark fines