Hi Chrissy There are probably a lot of causes for the tomatoes to be in decline. When the soil is new, tomatoes do well. The more organic material the better. In order to flourish they must have a good diet of nutrients. It is better in Florida to isolate the tomatoes to a spot or a container because of bugs and fungal diseases. I see some vines growing around it. If Vinnie likes to plant in the ground, it will help that he gets a soil test and add what is needed, if he does containers the problem is solved, again he need a good foundation for his plantings, good soil with the right nutrients. The seeds are probably very good, tomato seeds remain viable for a long time. Some cities free compost are very good he maybe should look into that option. Add some black cow and fertilizer. Silvia

Try to catch the culprit late at night, early morning. My guess is you'll find snails or slugs.

Sorry I haven't been around much lately---but here are the results for my tomatoes---which I covered during a snow fall last Saturday and pulled the crispy blankets off of them Sunday morning---they are still alive. They have some frost damage here and there, but not too bad. My favorites for canning this year: Campbells 1327---bright red, round fruit that resists cracking, and can handle sitting on the counter for several days. Flavor is good, good as a slicer, but since it can sit around it makes a great canner. Determinate Heidi---very productive bright red paste type, no BER, good flavor fresh, medium size. Handled the heat. Determinate Rio Grande---very productive large oval shaped paste type, no BER. Determinate Aker's Pink Plum---beautiful pink paste tomato, smaller than Heidi or Rio Grande, but peels easily and the perfect size for canning whole. Yellow Bell---pretty pale to bright yellow fruit with good flavor, about the size of Aker's Pink plum---on the smaller side, but got a little bigger later in the season, also easy to peel. My favorite slicers: Kellog's Breakfast: This tomato is so beautiful! It is large and tasty and very meaty! It started producing fairly early and is still producing huge bright orange beefsteaks. Burracker's Favorite: my first bi-color---stunning. It ripens to a deep golden color with a red blush on the bottom that extends in striped about half way up. When you cut it open it is golden with red marbling. Very large! Quite productive. Earl's Faux: a pretty pink beefsteak. Very tasty!!! Potato leaf variety that produced better for me than Brandywine. The fruit ranged in size from baseball to soft ball size. Consoluto Genovese: A small, bright red slicer that is fluted/scalloped and looks like a flower when you slice it. Very productive---no larger than a baseball,kind of flattened---looks like a red mini pumpkin. Good flavor and started producing early on---tolerated the heat well. Azoychka: A bright yellow, small beefsteak that is very early. Good flavor---a clean, tart flavor, but not too tart. Productive, fruit ranged in size from ping pong to soft ball sized, with most of the fruit in the middle. Noir de Crimee: A Black tomato a strain of Black Krim. Earlier than Cherokee Chocolate and a bit more productive. Great flavor, a very juicy tomato and beautiful to look at! Coustralee: a large red tomato---later than I like, but earlier than Big Zac, good flavor. It didn't produce very good for me, but I'll give it another try in a better spot. I'll have to do this in installments. Maybe I'll post a link to some photos too. I grew around 25 varieties this year! Later, Tyffanie

Even though you added holes to the bottom of your containers, you may still have issues with drainage, particularly if the holes are sitting flush against the tray the containers are sitting on. Note the container below with holes at the bottom is designed so that holes are elevated from the bottom of the container to assist in drainage. If you needed to add holes, I suspect that your containers weren't designed with drainage in mind and are flat on the bottom. If I were to add holes to such a container, I would have added them to the side of the container right near the bottom. Another thing I do is always add a small square (or circle) of newspaper crammed into the bottom of the container before adding growing mix. This tends to help prevent the holes from getting clogged up with the growing medium. Personally, I wouldn't worry about fertilizer at this stage of their growth. That won't fix the overwatering issue and the potting mix already has all the nutrients you need. I would only be bottom watering at this stage which will allow the capillary action to absorb the water without oversaturating the container. You certainly don't want them sitting in an inch or two of water. I'd suggest that you use your soldering iron to add two or three additional holes on the side of each container right next to the bottom. Definitely cut back (or stop) watering them and give them some time to see if they respond. The good news is, if they don't respond, there's still plenty of time to start up a new batch of plants.