Gardening: Tomato Plants

This is the third year I have planted cherry tomatoes. I live in a one story condo with an HOA that does the landscaping. So I have to plant them in containers and hide them among the other landscape so the HOA can't complain too much. The landscapers think it is funny that I grow tomatoes and jalapeños in containers. Their interest also mean they give me some good information when they see some issues (like an invasion of white flies). For now, I will discuss cherry tomatoes.

I buy them when they are about 6 inches tall from the local hardware store. The last 3 years I have bought them in early October. They grow really well over the winter here up until about January or February. In a gardening book, I learned that Florida's first "frost" can be in December, and then last "frost" is in January. So this year I am going to try to get 2 growing seasons in. The summer is so hot that i just don't think they will live through the summer, but we shall see. 

I have never tried to grow them from seed...that will be this February. I use moisture control potting soil because I am not disciplined enough to water everyday, don't trust myself to not overwater, and South Florida is very unpredictable with rain amounts. I generally water them well every other day.

The first year, I started in smaller planters (clay) and then transplanted them into bigger planters (clay). This shocked them and also made me lose a lot of tomatoes to the ground...too much shaking. 

The second year I experimented and did half of my plants in plastic and half in clay but started them all out in larger pots so I didn't need to transplant them. The plants in plastic were shorter and not as fruitful as the ones in clay pots. So no more plastic planters for me.

This year, I used all large planters and bought extra plants (4). Usually I do 3 cherry tomato plants. I bought 3 Super Sweet and 1 bush type (not supposed to be as tall). Within 2 days, 2 of the Super Sweet were eaten by an unknown insect. It left the leaves alone, but ate the stems right at the base. A friend at work thinks it is a tiny caterpillar that loves tomato plants. I think it is snails. I didn't see snails in the pots in the aftermath, but I did a night inspection and 2 snails were discovered in the 2 remaining pots. I had this problem last year with my jalapeño plants so I have left over snail killer. I am going to replant the 2 Super Sweet tomatoes soon.