There are several so-called heat tolerant varieties but how much heat they will tolerate and still produce is debatable. Very few if any will actually set fruit during the worst of the summer heat - be it in Florida or anywhere else. The pollen just isn't viable.

Plus none of the heat-tolerant are really known for taste. Many of those varieties have 'sun' or 'solar' in their name such as Sunfire, Solar Fire, Heatwave, Sun Master, etc.

Since you have 2 planting seasons in FL it seems to be more an issue of when you plant rather than variety. Your spring planting season is so early that some seem to have good luck using only the early varieties in the spring and waiting to plant the regular tomato varieties in your fall season. Other Florida growers over on the Florida Gardening forum recommend planting only cherry varieties in the spring and any other types in the Fall.

Have you check the many discussions about growing tomatoes in Florida on that forum? Several really informative ones it appears.

Another good source of info is the U of Florida Extension service as they have developed several varieties bred specifically for growing in Florida.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: U of F extension

I live in orlando, and take full advantage of both our warm seasons. I just put my germinated seeds into their containers, and will transplant in about four weeks, then once june rolls around I bring them inside until august (I use containers so I can move them). If I feel lazy, I'll just let them die off and transplant more in august/september. The trick is starting them early, if you do it right then there is plenty of production time even for my heirlooms.

Depends on your night temps during the summer here. If you get down below 73F consistently you can grow most if the cherries through the summer, that's about it. If not then the only tomatoes that will set fruit through the summer are the currants, small but prolific and mighty tasty. I've grown the UF heat tolerant tomatoes as late as June in Zone 10 but they really didn't have much taste.

Tom

Currants

UF heat-setting

I live in south west florida and we can't grow tomatoes in the summer except for currants. Not even the cherries do well down here in the summer due to the nighttime temps being too high. Our nighttime temperatures average 75 in July and August, which is too hot for fruit set even for cherry tomatoes.

The humidity and rain that time of year increase the chances of bacterial and fungal leaf infections and root rot, too. Those can be ameliorated somewhat by spraying and using fast draining mixes in raised beds or containers, but it is a lot of work for currant tomatoes IMO!

The other problem we have down here in the summer is that the daytime temperatures are too hot to allow for even ripening. I believe what happens is that the hot temperatures heat the soil to the point that it is too hot for the plant's roots to take up potassium and this impairs the ability of the fruit to produce lycopene and carotene. The end result is blotchy ripening. So even if you can get some fruit set, you won't get nicely ripened fruit here in the summer at least for the regular sized tomatoes. I have found if the daytime temps are consistently above 85, as is true in May down here, this problem occurs in the regular sized tomatoes.

Like Tom said, if your nighttime temps where you live are consistently 73 or below, you should be able to grow cherry tomatoes in the summer. The only cherry that I have grown is Sun Gold and I grew it this fall. I liked this one if I kept it underwatered and let the fruit ripen on the plant. If I watered regularly, the fruit tasted watery and sour. If I underwatered - let them get to the point they just started to wilt a bit - they were sweet and fruity but they cracked. They are awesome producers, though!

What you can do to figure out the best planting times is find out the average highs and lows in your area by month. Then use the days to maturity (which is days to maturity FROM TRANSPLANT) to calculate when you need to get your seedlings into the ground.

As an example, the average daytime temps in my area in May are 89 so I need all of my fruit ripened by May 1st. If I want to grow a late season variety like Brandywine with a days to maturity of 85 days, I must transplant it no later than February 1st to get the first fruits ripened before it gets too hot. However, since it is an indeterminate and I want to be able to harvest more fruit than just the first fruit to set, I would go back at least a month and get them in the ground/containers by January 1st. However, our nighttime temps in January average 54, which is too cold for fruit set, so I would go back to December 1st for that reason.

I allow 2 months for germination and potting up to get them ready for transplant, so to get them in the ground/containers by December 1st, that means starting my seeds October 1st.

For my fall crop, nighttime temps here in September average 74, which is too hot for fruit set. So I aim for a transplant date of no earlier than October 1st.

Of course I don't have to factor in freeze dates, which you will have to do.

Below is a link to a UF table listing planting dates. I have found this to be a bit too optimistic in stating how long our growing season is at least for the regular sized tomatoes. Cherries and currant varieties you will have better luck with, but even the cherries won't set fruit when the nighttime temps get consistently above 75 in July and August here.

Here is a link that might be useful: Florida Planting Dates