Tomatoes -- How to grow them successfully in Tampa Bay

Tomatoes. There's nothing like that unique aroma of the crushed tomato leaves and the taste of a fresh garden tomato. The lure of the perfect tomato can be hypnotizing.

Here in Florida, things are a bit difficult. Ideally, you planted your tomatoes in February and are enjoying the fruits of your labors. If you got suckered into buying those tempting seedlings later than February, then you are struggling with the Spring heat and its affect on tomatoes.

Best bets for the lazy veggie gardener is the Roma tomato. It takes a lot of abuse and still produces. It is more cold hardy. It's more pest resistant. It's more prolific. But it will always be a poor cousin to the beefy tomato.

Tomato basics include keeping the pests off them, and proper nutrients. Caterpillars are an especially destructive pest.  Kill them organically with a microbial insecticide, bacillus thurengiensis, aka Dipel Dust, or Thuricide, the liquid concentrate. It's all natural and does not harm anything other than caterpillars.

Next, tomatoes need lots of calcium. When your tomatoes rot and turn black on the bottom, or you see flowers, but never fruit, it's a nutrient issue. Adding calcium will help. Acidic, sandy, or coarse soils often contain less calcium. You can add all natural gypsum powder (break up and use that old wall board) or lime. Only add lime if you have acidic soil because it raises the alkalinity of your soil and that may affect how happy your tomatoes are.  You can also spray a calcium additive on the leaves.

Finally, once the heat sets in steadily above 80 degrees, you will get the nice little flowers, but you won't get tomatoes. They don't like the heat. Your tomatoes will start to get that strange yellow/orange mottling and you're coming into the end of tomato season. When the rains start, you're done. They don't like their leaves wet. Last year I had tomatoes until the end of June. This year, the mottling has already begun because we've had so much heat. So I'll spend the time solarizng my soil in the hopes of killing more nematodes. Wish me luck.