South Florida: An Early Harvest
 

Fruit set has been incredible so far this FL season. Cool nights and mornings and bright sunshine during the days with low humidity. Hope everyone is getting a taste of this beautiful weather so far. Last year it rained 9 inches in Jan. and my plants didn't fully recover. Will keep my fingers crossed. :) I guess the strawberries think its Spring !

Just gorgeous! I am having a fantastic season too.

Wow! The dark tomatoes?

Great season and weather here too. It took a hurricane but weather and fruit set has been incredible since. Actually, I don't even remember a fall being this nice. We are not even running the A/C - a first in over 2 years.

Everyday we are bike riding or walking the beach/causeway and say "This is why we live in Florida".

I sowed part of my tomato seeds on 8/18, more on 9/1, and last ones was 9/6 (or 9/8).

What is the red cherry?

Wow. Garden envy going on here.

Very nice!!
Someone's gonna steal that picture of those cherry tomatoes and use it to sell their seeds. It's picture perfect.

Hey Barb, Nancy and Rajun...The cherry tomatoes are Jasper and Garnet. The dark tomatoes are Amazon Chocolate and Cherokee Purple. Have lots of other black varieties but they are not blushing yet. :)

Great pics. Are you growing in the ground, or in raised beds?

What variety of strawberries are those. They look amazing!

Hey Cole Robbie..I grow in 15 and 20 gallon containers. That way I can control my own potting mixes and fertilizers. Florida sand is full of nematodes.

Hey Ginger2778.

Don't know the name of the berries. Got seedlings from nursery last year and planted them. I know strawberries take a year or so to produce berries. Not sure what is going on...tried to contact you 7/11/16 via PM and it was marked "ignored. Tried all summer but no success...not sure what I did wrong to have U "ignore" me all summer. I still can't send U any PM's.

Wow! I will check my settings. Maybe I clicked a button by mistake.

I just checked. No names at all on my "ignore" list, I didnt think there were. I will try to contact Mischka. Wow!

What is the tomato growing season in South Florida?

I start my seeds around August 10th. Usually get my first ripe tomato around December 15th...early this year by almost a month. I've all ready had 15 or more beefsteak tomatoes and now tons of cherry tomatoes are ripening. :) Should have tomatoes until Mother's Day or whenever nighttime temps go over 85 degrees. So Aug. to May or June depending on weather mostly.

Looking Good Gardenboy!

Very nice. I might could live on firm fish and juicy tomatoes.

What do you do to your strawberries to make them so abundant and great looking? Any special ferts? Are they in regular pots or self watering? They are beautiful! :yes:
I finally got strong lush plants by putting them in a self watering type container but spider mites have hit them hard. I am not treating them tho. Hoping the colder temps and the recent rains have scared them off a bit.

First time with strawberries. Bought seedlings last year and let them mature for over a year. I transplanted them in 20 gallon containers...3 in each....added some bone meal, wormcastings and some rabbit manure to the hole. Watered. After 2 weeks I fertilize with Espoma Garden-tone and top dress with more rabbit manure. Having good weather also helps. Cooler nights and lower humidity. Tomatoes I do the same except I use Tomato-tone. Last season, we had over 9 inches of rain in Jan. and my plants didn't recover. I usually have tomatoes until Mother's Day. Last year, everything was ruined by February due to fungus and rot from all the rain. Good fruit set now and great weather so far...will wait to see what Mother Nature has in store. :)

Keep the tomato art coming! My basement growing keeps me from being overly envious of you Florida folks.