How do you grow tomatoes in South Florida?
Published on Oct. 14 2009
Source: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-8286-South-Florida-Gardening-Examiner~y2009m8d1-How-to-grow-tomatoes-in-the-subtropics-of-South-Florida
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To grow tomatoes in South Florida soils, first amend your soil at least 50/50 with organic matter. The easiest way is to layer it. For a tomato plant, dig a hole at least 18 inches wide and at least 12 inches deep, to accomodate root growth. Why so wide? Because of nematodes. When growing tomatoes in South Florida, nematodes are a tomato plant's worst enemy. Nematodes hate organic matter, so the more organic matter added, the better the nematode control.
A fantastic article by Deborah Aldridge can be found here:
-- Florida Gardening 101: How do you grow tomatoes in South Florida?
It's about:
Growing tomatoes in our subtropical climate
Type of soil, pH, soil amendments, and a fantastic technique for battling nemotodes that I'm using this year myself!
As she says: "Following these instructions will make growing tomatoes in South Florida a pleasant experience, and when you taste that first vine ripe tomato, you'll be glad you tried.."
I give this article a rating of five tomatoes!
The original page is located at http://free.naplesplus.us/articles/view.php/52604/how-do-you-grow-tomatoes-in-south-florida
Tomatoes won't blossom when it's 85 degrees out or higher.
For my tomatoes, my problems have been in past years:
nematodes
aphids
catipillers and other leaf chewers.
Sevin dust never worked for me. This year, I will try mathalon (but I need to make sure it's safe first).
I am also going to try gardening under where our pool WAS this summer, while meanwhile preparing the soil in the old garden area by:
1) mowing it down
2)rototilling and raking out old weeds + roots (where the nematodes live
3) putting down lots and lots of cheap bags of composted manure
4) setting down plastic to kill the nematodes for two months.
If I could bake the dirt, I would. on Oct. 14 2009