Hey Fellow Floridians - Year 2

[Barb_FL]

Ginny - Welcome home. Please take after pics once they are all planted.

My Jimmy Nardello plants never took off; germination was fine and as small plants were fine too; after transplant they just had funky leaves. Maybe this is what you were talking about growing peppers in the heat. I will try again in the winter.

AJVARSKI - it's sweet, crunchy, broad top that tapers down and stayed fairly large all summer, not picky about conditions.

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I have my first fruit set today; on ICD (Indigo Cherry Drops - Thanks Kay). I have another ICD plant in a 4" cube that has lots of blooms.

[Fiishergurl]

Barb,

Congrats on the first fruits!!

My peppers grow fine in the spring and summer but not in the fall. So I'm going to try watering less this fall on your advice and see if that makes a difference. I grew Jimmy Nardellos last spring and they were growing like crazy but didnt ripen until after I left.

I think I am only going to grow 14 tomato plants and try for more herbs, peppers, lettuce and chard.

I hate to admit this, but I am tired of tomatoes at the moment. And I still have some ripe ones from the green ones I picked off the philly plants plus fruit set on ICD, Sgt Peppers and PBTD already. I guess there is a good reason we don't normally grow them year round. Gives us time to miss them!

Ginny

[maxjohnson]

I didn't need more fertilizers, but saw these at a garden shop for $11 so I had to grab the two the was left.

[Fiishergurl]

Originally Posted by maxjohnson

I didn't need more fertilizers, but saw these at a garden shop for $11 so I had to grab the two the was left.

Always good to find a deal... :-)

Ginny

[Fiishergurl]

Below is how I planted the teenagers. The stems were so long I laid them across so the root ball is on the opposite end of the EB from the plant. I put Mykos all along the root ball and stem and then buried it.





Ginny

[efisakov]

You will have lots of roots. I would have done the same. Hopefully tomatoes will adapt soon. After transplanting, my usually take a week to adapt.
Nice job, Ginny.

[ginger2778]

Ginny, that is the way I would have done it too. You will most likely have a better season and more fruits than anyone else, because you just always do.

[Fiishergurl]

Thanks Ella and Marsha... :-) It's so good to be home. And the place is starting to look clean and neat again.. mowed, pulled weeds, transplanted, etc.

Oh, and Ella, I even did some fishing this morning to see if the Flounder are in yet. They come through in October/November to spawn and also follow the mullet. But I didnt get any today.

Ginny

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[Zone9b]

Tomato setting seems to be improving, with Fourth of July, Skyway, BCD, BHN1021, Tomande, Tycoon, Granada, Bloody Butcher and Bush Early Girl at some level of tomato setting. But the variety that is far ahead of the rest is Esterina Cherry. This is a tomato that heirloomtomaguy seemed to like at lot. I have one Esterina Cherry planted in a raised bed and it is going wild. The plant is an animal and out growing every other variety I’ve planted. It is producing a huge number of blossoms and it is setting a lot of tomatoes. I also have a couple of ECs in 6 gallon containers and they seem to be doing well there but the smaller containers keep it throttled to much greater degree than in a RB.
Larry

[Fiishergurl]

Larry,

Esterina Cherry sounds like one to watch... :-)
Hey what is a climbing green bean that will do well in the ground? There is a fence line that Ive been dumping old conatiner soil and rabbit manure along. Nothing was growing there when I started but now weeds galore are thriving. My neighbors want to pull the weeds and grow something that will climb the fence.

Ginny

Ginny

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[Zone9b]

Originally Posted by Fiishergurl

Larry,

Esterina Cherry sounds like one to watch... :-)
Hey what is a climbing green bean that will do well in the ground? There is a fence line that Ive been dumping old conatiner soil and rabbit manure along. Nothing was growing there when I started but now weeds galore are thriving. My neighbors want to pull the weeds and grow something that will climb the fence.
Ginny

At this point I would say Rattlesnake. It is known to be resistant to heat and very productive. It has strings but tastes good. Probably not extremely disease resistant but I suspect many pole beans aren't. I planted 6 varieties of pole snap beans in Sep and Rattlesnake was among the first to germinate and by far the first to get started up the poles. For me it is harder to grow snap beans in the fall than in the spring. And yes I am growing Rattlesnake and 3 other varieties in the Native Soil. I hope to have a better idea of which varieties to grow in seasons to come at the end of this season.
Rabbit manure! Do you raise rabbits? I would like to and did so a long time ago.
Larry

[Fiishergurl]

Originally Posted by Zone9b

At this point I would say Rattlesnake. It is known to be resistant to heat and very productive. It has strings but tastes good. Probably not extremely disease resistant but I suspect many pole beans aren't. I planted 6 varieties of pole snap beans in Sep and Rattlesnake was among the first to germinate and by far the first to get started up the poles. For me it is harder to grow snap beans in the fall than in the spring. And yes I am growing Rattlesnake and 3 other varieties in the Native Soil. I hope to have a better idea of which varieties to grow in seasons to come at the end of this season.
Rabbit manure! Do you raise rabbits? I would like to and did so a long time ago.
Larry

Ok i will try rattlesnake and maybe some sugar snap peas.

No rabbits here but i wanted to try the rabbit manure and a lady was selling it for $3 per 40-50 pound bag. So I got a couple of bags a couple of years ago and then found out it wouldnt necessarily be good to use in swc's. So it sat around and finally this past spring I dumped both bags along the fence line and also dumped any used soil there from old swc's that i was throwing out with the plan of trying to grow something up the fence.

Ginny

[FLGardener]

Hey all,

Do any of you grow melons (rock melons and watermelons) down in South Florida? I tried growing them at the recommended time from Jan-Mar and got 1 watermelon from 2 plants and 0 rock melons from 3 plants. I've always though that late Aug-Nov, or sometimes even later in the year, seem pretty ideal in terms of temperature to grow them in SFL, and was just wondering if any of you have tried growing them at that time. Also would love to get some tips on growing melons down here. I've heard it's easy to grow, but along with squash these have proven to be my green thumbs achilles heel xo

[ginger2778]

These are the replenish steps I do on my Earthboxes
First photo shows the EB after 2 months of solarization, and the plastic removed.
Next is showing removal of about the top 1/2 inch of soil, using my garden hand spade.
Then how it looks with the mix clean, now that the salts have been removed.
Next starting to dig out the old fertilizer strip, which went across the front parallel to the fill pipe. You can see the brown stuff, it's the old Tomato Tone.

[ginger2778]

These are the next steps:
This view shows the entire fertilizer strip removed.
Next is digging up and loosening remaining soil from top to bottom (not shown), then putting a cup of dolomite lime over the top, which is mixed thoroughly with the remaining older soil.