Florida Growers Thread

[gardenhappy]

hi everyone i'm soooo gald to find this post!!!!!! Somehow i missed it. We moved here from michigan last year in september had a wonderful garden planted tomato's and everthing in september,wonderful flavior in tomato's no problems thur spring,then came april,all of a sudden my plants we're dieing like fly's,could not figure out what was wrong everyone down here kepts saying heat,noop,MOLE CRICKETS!!!!! We don't have those in michigan,took my fall garens,jumped to the new spring gardens took 19 packets of seeds!!! We tried everything then one day i found one in the soil,got it identified and we just sprayer those mole cricket nematodes onthe whole yard and small garden area,it's exspensive!! We're organic so i won't use chemicals,now,i have about 30 tomato's growing in hot beds,yes,hot beds and they are doing great! Put them in about 2 months ago,have small tomato's,they are :red current,homestead,my.stripy,amish beef steak,yellow pear,and opaka,my tomatoe's peppers and beans are getting atttacked latly by those green worms everywhere!! So i made a spry up of 2 garlic cloves,2 red hot peppers,2 yellow habano ,in 1 gallon of water with a squirt of dish liquid,that works if i spray everday because of all our rain,we're in the Lithia area,we love Florida,i had to move to a hot climate and i am 99% better but i never thoght gardening could be so hard!!

[annecros]

We have mole cricket issues here as well gardenhappy. Nasty little beasts. I had to move to a warm climate as well. Reynaud's.

I haven't seen a horn worm in almost a month now. Almost ate one of my Earl's Faux before I found the sucker and squished the life out of him! I better knock on wood.

Lithia is great tomato country. Do you go to the tomato festival in Ruskin? I wonder sometimes if it would be worth the drive.

[gardenhappy]

You know more than i do about my area,everone we ask does not garden here!! Where is ruskins?? I"ll drive anywhere to talk to a gardener!!!!! I was really loney for the first 9 months down here noone had a garden !!!! I could not for the life of me figure out why!! Then i found the seed swaping forum which led me into a whole new world!!! I found a big fat tomato worm this morning eating all my Jalopeno peppers!! If it's not little green worms,it's tomato or mole crickets!!! Nasty things!! I have never had to thump a blossom,how do you do that?? I think i need to learn! I feel like a baby gardener down here,i have gardened 45 years but in Michigan zone 5 and we are 10 here,whole new world!! Do you swap seeds? Have you tried the pole tomato's?Such as organic beefsteak pole,www.tinyseeds.com has all there seeds on sale right now and i bought afew organic ones to try.My son grows hot peppers,and 2 of the other one's love pumpkins,sunflowers,and cukes,my daughter loves egg plants(found new little black bugs all over the under leaf of those this morning) Garlic sprayed everything first thing!!!And i love all heirloom anything but my passion is tomato's ,squash,eating pumpkins,garlic,onions and herbs,i just love to live and breath gardening!!!!!!

[annecros]

hehe, I know how you feel about the pests here. But, that's the price we pay for living in paradise!

Ruskin is south of Tampa on the bay. Here's the website for the 2007 Festival:

http://ruskinfoundation.org/festival.html

First week in May - Maybe the Florida growers should all plan a road trip about that time? You live in a very fine agricultural area. Lovely berries, and a lot of U-Pick places up there.

I don't thump my blossoms, unless I am just bored and frustrated and want to give my stakes a shake, but there are some very interesting posts on the forum on various methods - brooms, toothbrushes, you name it. We have such a nice, long growing season though - so I just let nature take it's course most of the time.

Zone 5 and 10 are incredibly different. Although, like you, I wouldn't know what to do with myself without some dirt to dig in!

Sure, I'll swap seeds. Limited in number though, as I do not grow or purchase for market or anything, just a hobby. We'll PM each other. I also do not save seed. Not into bagging blossoms and all that rot - so what I have is purchased commercially and I like to keep it fresh. What I do have spares of I am happy to share, and love to try new varieties from time to time. I will have to review and see which are organic. I try to be as organic as possible - but the climate and the critters make it very hard.

I want to grow some English Peas - the frozen ones don't cut it. But still haven't sussed out when to plant them - if I can grow them successfully at all. My parents in Southwest Georgia were successful with them about every other year.

[captnkirk]

Welcome aboard gardenhappy glad you found tomatoville.Im surprised you havent mentioned anything about whiteflys in your post as of yet,seems like everyone here has them around these days.I am just trying to keep the numbers down seems impossible to get rid of all of them.

Anne i am having some foliage disease on several of my plants to.Am also getting alot of blossums dropping for some reason.I had sprayed with daconil untill the plants got to big for the little hand pump type bottles you get at walmart.So yesterday i went to a couple places to try get a bottle that i could mix with water for my 1 gallon sprayer ,all i could find was neem concentrate so i sprayed with it hope it does some good.It is supposed to kill whiteflys as well as being a fungiside and it is organic.I havent heard much talk about it on any threads here so it might not be that good of a product.Anyone else ever try it?

I had to leave out on the road again today so i wont be home for a few days.My neighbor finally made it down for the winter and he is going to spray and keep a eye out on the maters while im gone.I wont be without maters though i brought a few with me for the trip.

flipt keep the pics coming looks like a fine set up you have there.

[gardenhappy]

Hi Anne and captinkirk? I may have messed thst up sorry, I dident mention the white flies because thats the least of my problems,green worms and mole crickets have had me plenty busy spraying garlic and hot pepper spray daily!!!! This is not zone 5, if the heat don't get me the bugs are!! i have them believe me!! But at least the mole crickets apear to be under control!! I WOULD LOVE A ROAD TRIP !!!! My husband is working a ton of hours and we both would LOVE a road trip,just have to give a few weeks notice at his job. If i chatter on to much ,so sorry,it's just so GOOD to be talking with florida gardeners!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!

[captnkirk]

Not sure i ever saw a mole cricket yet.I have only been in florida about 3 years and this is my 1st time growing tomatos or any other veggies,so im not sure i would consider myself a gardener yet,but im working on it.

My road trips are way to often wish i could stay home and play with the plants all day .

Do them mole crickets make little holes in the ground that look like snake holes?maybe i do have them around.

[annecros]

If you live in the Southeastern US, you probably have mole crickets. They eat the tasty bit between the roots and the plant. They are real jerks, and are invading the eastern seaboard and the gulf states.

http://www.molecrickets.com/

They are sneaky, sneaky. I have discovered them most often in my turf when breaking a new bed. They love to ruin the lawn. Sort of brown spongy usually circular areas. Easily mistaken for fungal disease.

For some reason the big box stores only carry daconil in the spring. I stock up and buy double when I find it on the shelves. Maybe in your travels captnkirk you run across some feed/seed stores? I bet they keep it year around. Neem oil actually has a good rep, but I think it is for pest control. gardenhappy would be more familiar with it than I am - but I do know its recommended for roses.

I really do want to go to that tomato festival in Ruskin in May. Will consult with hubby.

[annecros]

Oh, oh. I just found the 2008 Festival page.

http://ruskintomatofestival.org/

May 3 and 4.

Maybe I should enter the cook-off? I always wanted to compete in one of those, and this might be a good starter competition.

[gardenhappy]

I found my mole crickets by seeing tunels running straight down my corn ,bean,squash rows took out a whole garden in about 3 to 4 weeks.I lost 19 packets of seeds in 1 month ans here we was so proud we got all that garden in!!!! I bet those mole crickets loved us!

Anne ,count my husband and i in on the road trip!!!!! I have already marked my calendar!!!

[MargeH]

I have been out of town for a week and left a friend to water my tomato pots. Looks like they all survived but I do have some foliage disease starting to set in that I have to take care of. I also am starting to get ripe tomatoes on just about everything. So far, Earl's Faux has been the best.

Kirk, Inbar and Polina are hybrids but I am going to save seeds anyway to see what I get from them. I have enough seeds of both of those to last a little while, but I may play with then anyway.

Ruskin isn't that far from me. I may put that down on my calendar, too, for next year. It says the give away tomato plants. In May??? That seems a little hopeless.

_____
Marjorie

[annecros]

Well, I guess they give away the tomato plants to the snowbirds! They are probably all Ruskins anyway. Nothing wrong with Ruskins, I would just as soon have an Early Girl though. We can have our own little seed swap in private. Actually Marge, it sounds like a day trip for you. Maybe a couple of others will join.

We are drying out, and the weather has been absolutely glorious since Saturday. So much sun, and the house is wide open! I think hurricane season is over, and looking forward to a mild and moderately damp winter, but not too damp!

[flipt]

Hey Anne - Daconil is the active ingredient in Ortho's Garden Disease Control, found at any Home Depot or Lowes all year long. This is less harmful to the plants/environment than most organically certified foilage sprays. And, it works very well. I use it on my plants every 2-3 weeks to prevent foilage problems as much as possible.

The weather has been great down here - I spent much of the day yesterday weeding and staking tomatos.
Flip

[captnkirk]

Welcome back Marge,you must of come in with the cold front.How did your polina and imbar taste and what size fruit do they have.What about production on the EF does it have alot of fruit set.

[captnkirk]

Flipt i was at lowes the other day and must have over looked the ortho garden disease control,and i looked at everything there they had there.I did see a few products that were for fungis but they didnt say they were for tomatoes or other veggies so i didnt get them.Do they sell this in a spray bottle are is it in a bottle that you can mix with water in a 1 gallon sprayer.the little spray bottles just dont cut it for me.