Hey Fellow Floridians - Year 2

[efisakov]

I finally ordered my Excalibur Dehydrator! 9 trays with 7 inch fan and 600W. So excited.
I was not home for almost a week (just came back from Pompano Beach, checking the weather during summer time, was ok). Spider mites are back and out of control. I sprayed again.
O well. This year was not as productive as last year but better than one before it.
Ginny, nice harvest. Canning is lots of work but it is so great to open that jar later in the year.
Marsha and Barb, I hope your vacation is great. You deserve it. At home the are so many things to do, can never rest.
Larry, you are pushing your season! I do that here almost every year. Our planting time for tomatoes is Mother's day and I plant at least 2-3 weeks earlier.

[Fiishergurl]

Ella glad you had a chance to go to Florida before school starts.

And I'm sure you will have lits of fun with your new dehydrator. So cool!

Ginny

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk

[JaxRmrJmr]

I love my dehydrator. I have one modeled after the Excalibur - I think it is labeled Browning, but exactly like it. You will love it! Remember you can do more than fruits and veggies.....
beef jerky comes out great. Also, I use mine to culture yogurt. The pot is covered so the there is no drying out, but I use it because it will hold my milk at 115 degrees for the time it takes for the cultures to develop. A gallon of milk yields over a half gallon of yogurt which is a big money saver when all the kids in my house start making smoothies.

[Barb_FL]

Just wanted to post some before and after vacation pictures.

First one is my sweet success cucumber plant. I scheduled it to start producing flowers when I was away or first got home. However, it started setting fruit EARLY. I asked my neighbor to pick the cucumbers while I was away. She didn't come over until the day I was driving home.

I picked 5 large cukes before I left. I gave 4 to my neighbors and kept the 5th.

This plant grew 100% in tulle; not really suited for it because it got so tall and then stunted at the top.

The last picture is my cuke plant that I came home to. Shocking.

I pulled it today and it looked like root rot. Barely any attached roots. However, the reservoir was just over 1/2 full. The mix was not soppy either.

I popped 2 Diva seedlings - really small in an EB before I left. I normally would not have transplanted when they were so small but in the EB I wouldn't have to worry about watering them. Fill it once and two small plants are not going to need much water. One completely died but the other is taking off and has new growth and doubled in size.

[Zone9b]

Today I transplanted the remaining tomatoes which go into into Raised Beds. Containers come later.

1 Esterina Cherry F1 Tomato (60 days to maturity)

1 Fourth of July F1 Tomato (49 days to maturity)

1 Brandywine Cherry Dark OP Tomato (69 days to maturity)

3 BHN1021 F1 Tomato (76 days to maturity)

3 Tomande F1 Tomato (68 days to maturity)

1 Champion II F1 Tomato (65-70 days to maturity)

3 First Prize F1 Tomato (75 days to maturity)

3 Jetsetter F1 Tomato (64? days to maturity)

1 Granadero F1 Tomato (75 days to maturity)

3 Grandma Pick’s Hybrid F1 Tomato (75-80 days to maturity)

I hope I have something here that works well. I'm crossing my fingers.
Larry

[ginger2778]

Oh no Barb. Sorry that it died like that. I hope my caretaker took better care, I am still on vacation. I am using tulle too, and have 4 muncher plants, and one sweet success. Caretaker said they were producing.

[maxjohnson]

I just tasted some fresh muscadine grapes now I want to grow some.

[efisakov]

Originally Posted by JaxRmrJmr

I love my dehydrator. I have one modeled after the Excalibur - I think it is labeled Browning, but exactly like it. You will love it! Remember you can do more than fruits and veggies.....
beef jerky comes out great. Also, I use mine to culture yogurt. The pot is covered so the there is no drying out, but I use it because it will hold my milk at 115 degrees for the time it takes for the cultures to develop. A gallon of milk yields over a half gallon of yogurt which is a big money saver when all the kids in my house start making smoothies.

Thanks, my first dehydrator is not as powerful. It takes sometime to dry tomatoes or fish. This are the only things I tried so far.

Barb, sorry for your cucumber plant.

Marsha, hope you are having great vacation.

[Ricky Shaw]

Planted Diva cukes this year, beautiful and tasty, and didn't go bitter mid-summer when Asian King F1 and Burpee Garden Sweet Burpless F1 both did. They were slow to start and now they're like a bubble machine you can't turn off. Five-Stars for Diva.

[Zone9b]

Transplanted 100 Castle Dome Broccoli plants into a Raised Bed. Plants bit on the small size with 5 true leaves.

[efisakov]

Larry, 100? Boy, that is a huge number.

[Zone9b]

I don't expect them to do real well because of the earliness, but I should get a fair amount to eat and who knows maybe a bit to freeze. The second and third crops should do much better as they will be grown during the winter. Hoping for four crops in succession in the same bed and an outside chance of five.

[efisakov]

My broccoli grew tall, about 3 feet. Stem is wide but a little to harvest from the florets. The store bought broccoli I usually cut the thick skin off. The muddle of the stem is crunchy and tasty. I am thinking of just cutting one stem and trying this. Have you done that?

[Zone9b]

Yes, I cut a fair amount of the stem with the head. I cut the outside of the stem (the green part) leaving the white interior of the stem. I actually like eating the stems more than the florets. Also, they are said to have similar food value and nutrients as the florets.

[Okami0731]

Got my EarthBoxes ready and 13 seedlings are in. 12 are in the EBs and one in a 10 gal container, I have a second container but need another bag of Jungle Growth.

Here is my grow list:
Lucky Cross
Lillian's Yellow
Cherokee Chocolate
Brandywine Red
Cherokee Green
Cherokee Purple
Mountain Gold
Black Cherry
Black Krim
Black Sea Man

The only one's giving me trouble are Mountain Gold and Chrokee Purple. The seedlings are much smaller than the others and Mountain Gold just does not look real healthy. The Cherokee Purples look healthy, just small.