Hola Maria, Last winter was very cold in Cordoba (Spain) too. Temperatures dropped and a lot of plants suffered and some of them died. I think, in any case, that it was not a normal winter and it has not influence in my choice of plants. In the protected area where I have the heliconias the temperature dropped to -1ºC/30ºF, with almost no water and with windy protection and the result is the next: H. "Pedro Ortiz": no damage and it is continuing growing now. H. rostrata: light damage it is continuing growing now. H. stricta Dwarf Jamaica: died, at least the aerial part. H. latispatha cv. Distans from rhizome: died, at least the aerial part H. latispatha cv. Red-Yellow Gyro: died, at least the aerial part H. latispatha Distans from seed: no damage and it is continuing growing now. I hate especially the situation with H. latispatha cv. Distans and Red-Yellow Gyro (from rhizome) because I have tried them two times and always they have died when the temperature were not too low. This year they died before the cold waves arrived when the minimal temperatures were 4ºC/39ºC. Their leaves began to curves and the aerial plant die very fast (the substrate was almost dry)). They have new growth in spring from the rhizome but it need two year to flowerï. In any case I will try againï. Hasta luego, Fernando

I find it strange that so many people are trying to grow northern vegetables following a northern calendar in FL. No wonder you're having so much trouble! I'm in central FL 9B and I grow stuff all year round - but what I grow changes with the temperatures. For example, this past year in the cooler months (late fall/winter) I grew lots of leafy greens like lettuce, chard, cilantro, garden and red sorrel, bok choy, radishes, carrots, and peas. I've got a few pigeon pea "trees" (they live for ~5 years and produce pigeon peas year round. They are drought tolerant and infertile sand tolerant). I've got straight Myakka sand and I haven't been amending. To my surprise, quite a few plants were very happy in my infertile sand. The only thing I do is occasionally add some coffee grounds once in a while or some diluted urine. I'm now in the process of making and charging biochar to long term improve the fertility of my sand since any compost I added in the past disappeared almost immediately (to be honest, it disappears in my compost bin before I even really get a chance to use it). In October I started tomato plants from seeds - now that it's March they are flowering and fruiting. Everglades tomato is a FL native tomato that can perform even during our crazy hot and humid summers. There's also Floradade tomato, which was developed in south FL specifically to cope with the brutal summers and can handle up to 100F. I've got those sprouting now (mid March) so we'll see how they do. There are at least 10 other tomatoes I know of that purportedly thrive even in FL summers but they will not be the tomatoes everyone knows in the north. If you want to grow northern tomatoes, just do it in the spring; most tomatoes will drop flowers by June due to the heat. If you can keep the plant alive through the summer (usually by shading it from afternoon sun) they will start producing again in the fall when temps cool down. I've also got sweet and hot peppers, sweet potatoes, cowpeas, eggplant, callaloo (amaranth), garlic chives, lagos spinach, New Zealand spinach, Ethiopian Kale, Malabar spinach, Roselle, Cranberry Hibiscus, Chaya, and Moringa for the summer. Rule of thumb for FL gardening: Southeast Asian + Caribbean veggies do particularly well in FL summers and "northern" veggies grow well here in the winter. As for fruit trees... stop trying to grow what does well in the north and grow what does well here. I've got a monster guava that I never fertilize or water and can deal with the occasional cold snap. Mulberries also do particularly well - they are basically zero maintenance (no extra watering, fertilizer, thrive on neglect). They fruit multiple times a year (mine are flowering now). There are plenty of other options if you look.

Some wilting in the heat of the day is normal. It is when they don'tperk back up in the evenings or when they are already wilted early in the AM that you have to worry. That usually means the plants are root bound in their containers - a common problem with 5 gallon buckets. When plants are root bound there is little soil left to absorb and distribute the water and the only way to save them is to transplant them to larger containers. But in your location I would think your first tomato growing season is almost over anyway and it is time to get ready for the fall planting. Root some healthy cuttings from those plants and get them ready for replacing those you have now for the second season you have. Dave Edited to add - the rotting and splitting tomatoes are being left on the vine too long. Learn to pick them with early color and let them continue to ripen inside on the counter,

Thanks for your responde, Mike! Yeah, I noticed today more leaves have brown spots, "dead" spots... so I've hung the pot out the kitchen window with a wire! Not the most elegant solution but clearly just temporary. Even so, it's only getting about 1 hour of direct light (well, not continuous, as we're having a lot of clouds flying over these days) and then about a couple of more hours of indirect light. Which I think is not enough, so I really need to find a good plant light that I can just pop over this plant (also so I don't need to move it around all the time, or put it out the window because I have negligent neighbours that sometimes like to drop stuff out their window!).