You're welcome, Sammy. I haven't even reviewed the list myself, and it is an old list. I suspect I still grow some of the plants on the list now, but I also know that I have found even more that produce great here since 2008. With thousands of varieties to choose from, we have many options, and most of them will perform here in a typical year. It can be harder to get great production in an extremely dry year or an extremely hot year, especially if the heat arrives early. One factor that seems to matter more than the variety selection is simply getting them planted early enough that they have plenty of time to set fruit before the heat arrives. Brandywine Sudduth's is still my own personal favorite, but it produces erratically---great in cooler, rainier years and not very well at all in hot, dry ones. I tend to grow it anyway most years on the chance that maybe this year will be the year a cool, rainy spring helps it be very productive. Although it wasn't on my Grow List for this year, I saw them in a store yesterday and promptly bought two. I probably jinxed myself by buying them and we'll probably have an insanely hot spring, but I hope that doesn't happen.

When was Roundup last used at your place or nearby?

Since the search is not working right now, I'll try to answer some more of your questions for you. Like Bill said, I would put the drain pan back on for the benefit of the people below you. If it becomes filled with water you can just dump it into a bucket rather than just letting it drip onto the balcony. It also comes in handy for watering the plant from below rather than just dumping the water on top. Fill the dish and let the plant soak it up. Agin, either way will work - just avoid getting the leaves wet if possible. Sta Green Moisture Max is a good soil-less mix that already has some fertilizer in it and also has moisture control added to it to help keep the pot from drying out. So use the 'stick in your finger' trick Bill told you to decide when to water. patio tomatoes are also good to grow in containers is this true as well? Yes. The Husky will do fine in the container you have and the Bonnie will probably be ok too but the beefy hybrid will need a much bigger container than the other two. In Florida it is most likely warm enough to move the Beefy outside yet but keep it out of the direct sun for now. It isn't nearly as tough as the store bought seedlings so treat it with much more care for a couple of weeks. There are many good fertilizers available - both liquid and pellets, synthetic or organic. While it is true that many of us do not like Miracle Grow, many others do, so which you use is up to you. I do recommend using one that is formuated for tomatoes. Experiment and see which works best for you. I prefer the pelleted time-release fertilizer mixed in with my container soil because it doesn't leach out as quickly as the liquids. But either will work fine. Just don't over do it. I would not add any for a couple of weeks as there is already some in the mix. Let the plants adjust to their new home first. Then try 1/2 strength mix the first couple of times to see how the plants do. Hope this helps. Be sure to do some reading over on the Container gardening forum too and scan down the page here to see other messages about growing in containers. Good luck with your plants. ;) Dave

I'm no expert, but the cracking may be due to watering issues. How large are the pots? The don't look very large. Tomatoes have deep root systems. They start off well in small pots, but as they get larger, it gets harder and harder to give them the right amount of water and this stresses out the plant. At this point, I don't think there's a whole lot you can do, just try and avoid extremes (i.e. overwatering followed by getting too dry). You'll know when they're ripening: they'll blush and turn red. You don't need to wait for them to be completely ripe to pick them, but let them blush and ripen a bit before picking. You can cut off around the cracks, the rest of tomato will be fine.