South Florida Gardening

cherry tomatoes

It’s always a little sad at the end of our regular (Fall-Winter-Spring) growing season here in South Florida when we have to pull out our withering crops. Of course we do have a few summer crops of unusual veggies to look forward to, as well as engaging in the exciting planning process for the fall!

Cherry tomatoes are a hardier crop than regular and heirloom tomatoes at any time in Miami, requiring a lot less care and giving continuously. We can start cherries from seed from August up until late December and harvest them all the way into June. One of the ironies in our garden is that our Everglades tomatoes, the smallest of the cherries, is the favorite – they’re the sweetest! And we don’t even start them from seed any more – they are all “volunteers” – meaning they sprout up from seeds left in the soil from prior seasons or distributed through our own composted soil.

Some of our favorite cherry tomatoes that we purchase seeds for include:

  • Chocolate cherry
  • Chadwick’s red cherry
  • Sugary red cherry
  • Any variety of the yellow or gold cherries (esp. “sungold”)

Our favorite places to order tomato seeds:

Writing and Photo by DK