I cant believe you're still getting tomatoes! How awesome! Mine died out when it was raining almost every day this summer. Im gonna do them in pots next year ~sigh... I do still have hot peppers and 2 varieties of basil that made it and are still going strong.

Sultry, that is the convenience to have them in pots, you can move them around. When small I keep them in the porch and when strong I put them in the garden. It never fails, I always get a good crop of tomatoes.

This season is somewhat different in the garden, I am having 3 bunches of bananas ripening at the same time from the same plant. This morning I got some ripening figs for the second crop. A lot of flowers on the peaches. An abundance of ripening citrus. Kale, cucumbers and radishes are used daily.

Your tomatoes look great..... Mine not so hot this year..... it seems I have lots of white flies.... What do you guys use to keep them off. Neem oil doesn't seem to do the trick... Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

We have a blog about food , traveling and gardening of course. I am the gardener in the house and I always have been, no matter where I live. And I am also the cook that love vegetables and fruits and I usually look at recipes as ideas and I finally make my own.:)

tomatoes

Thank you Sharon, we had more insects this season than any other and I think because of the rains and the weather not cooling down around this time. I put the pictures on my blog about growing them from seed and pots, the blog has the same handle name, somehow I put a link and is not showing.

I look at the garden as a whole and during the tomato season I see everything around, I sprayed the fruit trees with horticultural oil one time. The tomatoes when young, I sprayed with Serenade, Neem Oil and Spinosad, once a week. Now that they are ripening, I don't spray anything and let nature takes its course.

Thank you Sultry, you are being very nice. To write a book is very enticing, I just have to put the thoughts together, the experience is there.....:)

Yum! They look SO delish!

My tomato season has been over for a while, but I still have some greenies ripening in the basement.

Linda

Thank you Linda, we love tomatoes and here in Central Florida we get 2 seasons to enjoy them fresh or cooked.

Fresh Tomatoes for Thanksgiving

Your tomatoes are also so beautiful, Silvia. Mine are just starting to come in now.

I always enjoy your blog but I do have one suggestion for you--you need to add a search function to it. There should be a widget available for your template, I think.

Thank you Writersblock for your nice comment and suggestion for the blog. We will look into that, we are kind of new to this but any help that we get from gardening friends it is very welcome. Your wish is our command.:)

Your blog is so interesting and sometimes there are entries I'd like to send to friends later on, when we've been talking about the places you mentioned, but it's not really possible to find posts once they've rolled off the first page as you have it set up right now.

Nothing is ever taken off the site. We have added the Archive so that all individuals who want to can view past posts. There is also a Share button for you to send past posts to your friends.

I have a good tomato review today with my tomato salad for lunch, the green when ripe tomato Chef's Choice, the pink one that I tried the other day is also good.

Thanks for adding the search. That makes it much easier to find specific older posts.

Beautiful salad!

Salads are the family's favorite things to eat, so healthy and tasty!

Another tomato sampling, a true yellow tomato, great flavor, a good balance of acids, not too sweet. A keeper for sure, it is the Rose Beauty.

Do you also grow grapes? What varieties do well for you?

Sultry, I don't grow grapes because there are a lot of grape orchards and wineries in the area. Different varieties do well, depending on what you like. That reminds me it is time to visit the wineries....

Pasta salad for dinner, good use of the roasted tomatoes.

how boring meals must have been for the Old World back in the days before the tomato came onto the scene. I don't think there are too many delicious dishes that one can eat again and again w/o some element of the tomato.

Otcay, I so much agree with your words and you have put it better than anyone else.

Tomatoes are so versatile and add color and flavor to any dish, if I was going to collect tomato dishes from different cuisines, I think that I would never finish...

It is warm in Central Florida again, good time for my big sized tomatoes to ripen in the sun.

otcay, I actually don't like tomatoes too much. I only grow them for snacking in the garden (cherries) and to have a few tomato sandwiches. Tomato sauce is one reason I don't like Italian food that much. What is so strange is that I was born and raised in the south, where tomatoes are like the most popular vegetable ever and are served at almost every meal. Maybe I just got tired of them.

to make my point, it's not even "fancy" italian dishes or "exotic" french fries we're talking about. Whether it's the homely meatloaf, the all-American burger or the no-fuss hotdog, none is quite right until you have the tomato ketchup!

The tomato is a jack of all trades, lol

It can be humble and it can be rich, your choice.

Lovely food pics! I like salsa better than ketchup. If I eat ketchup, I like the spicy kind like Whataburger has lol. They started selling that brand in the grocery stores now, so I buy it sometimes. You can also add a few jalapeno slices to ketchup and stir then it will taste about the same as the Spicy Whataburger ketchup. I was born in So Cal and also lived in Phoenix for a long time so I grew up on Mexican food lol. I still cook a lot of Mex dishes but have adjusted all my 'recipes' to use healthier ingredients and use as much fresh organic stuff as possible. I also try and use fruit and fish etc when I can.

I like a reasonable amount of heat in my food like jalapeno hot. Unlike my hubby who likes ghost pepper salsa etc. or anything that burns the taste buds off lol. I like to be able to taste my food :D

Silvia,

Which varieties of tomatoes do you grow the most? Which do the best?

I never had issues growing tomatoes until I moved here. Here it depends on the year and how dry the summer is. If its drier, then I have a great tomato season, if it rains every other day in the summer, like usual, then it sucks. My hot peppers seem to do well but the Bells not so good if its really humid.

I would like to move a little further south, I think, so I can have a more year around growing season. It freezes here in winter and then the rains start in May-ish so the summer is not so great for a lot of things. So that only leaves spring and fall or growing warm loving veggies in a cold frame or green house. Not acceptable LOL!

Some of the tomato plants today

Those are beautiful tomato plants. I am still having major problems with whiteflies...... I read somewhere there is a new whitefly that is resistant to pesticides..... but it was supposed to be in the Tampa area... I am in Palm Beach , but I wonder if that is what I have.... I have tried organcide, neem, sevin, bugbgone and bayer..... still have them. GRRRR.

Sharon, I am sorry about your whitefly problems. It looks like you tried many things, did you look around in your garden for ornamentals maybe bringing them in?

When I lived in Arizona, whitefly was seasonal and it was around the grass, there was a product made specifically for them but I don't remember the name.

I have a light weight cloth that I bought many years back and I use it in the beginning when the plants are small to protect them from the sun, maybe if you put something like that around your tomato plants, might help.

Hope that they leave alone your tomatoes soon and you get a nice harvest.

FWIW, spiral whitefly has been a huge pest in PBC for a long time. It's why a lot of the houses in PB proper are switching to other kinds of hedges these days.

I hope the problems get solved for the whitefly problem soon...

One day, I had a tomato party at my house.

Your tomatoes are always so gorgeous, Silvia.

I should have mentioned that I get a lot of whitefly in St Lucie where I live, too, but it doesn't seem to affect tomato production.

Thank you Writersblock. I do get the whitefly from time to time also, but it does not stay long or affect the tomato plants either.

Sultry, I don't know how it happened but I just read your post now.

You and I have a lot in common, I prefer salsa any day over ketchup. I tried to make my own condiments when I can, and I usually play with the spices in the food, spicy but not too much so I can savor the dishes. And healthy food is very important to me.

I have been growing tomatoes for a long time, since I was a child and in many different climates. Cold climates like up north, hot climates like Arizona, everything in between, and here in Central Florida for about 10 years.

I like many, many tomato varieties, it all comes to what you like and has a decent production in the garden. Also categories, always grow beefsteaks of different colors, a couple of mediums and a variety of color cherries, they do make great Christmas baskets for this time of the year and plus they are always photogenic, no splits or cat face of any kind, perfect and very tasty!

I like to plant more than I need, this way I make sure there is a decent harvest for us and to give away. And I am addicted to buying tomato seeds.:)

There is no 2 seasons the same, that is the reason that I plant the same variety for a few times before I keep it in the rotation or not.

To make you feel better, I visited gardens in a lot of places in this world and there comes the time that none of them look good or photogenic but still produce good tomatoes, you would be surprised to see a perfect tomato plant with the perfect tomatoes anywhere!

After the rain last night, I went to pick some tomatoes and have some review for those interested on varieties.

The always photogenic and tasty variety of cherries, some of my favorites, Sun Gold, Sweet Baby Girl, Sweet Treats, Chocolate Sprinkles

I picked some beefsteaks also, they are all good.

The heart is a Kosovo, Chef's Choice Pink, Neves Azorean Red (one of my favorites) Amana Orange, always productive in my garden, and Girls Girls Weird Thing is the one with multi colors.

Silvia -- stunning tomatoes, and superb varieties!

You always impress!

Tony

Hi Tony! Thank you for your nice comments, you are very nice. And for varieties, next season I am trying your highly rated Bolseno, with your good reviews, it has to be great!

And I just thought about the farmers market in Rome and the lovely tomatoes that they had...

Tony, I forgot to tell you that yesterday I made a pasta BLT, instead of bread, uses pasta, instead of lettuce, I used the spinach from the garden, bacon and to top it all roasted tomatoes with salt and aleppo pepper. It was tasty!

Today it is cold outside but I have more tomatoes for the oven, the reds and pinks, the multicolors, the yellows and the cherries.