Hey Fellow Floridians - Year 2 - Page 130

ginger2778 · October 9, 2016

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zone9b

Orlando forecast low for tomorrow morning 66 and tomorrow afternoon forecast high 79 and in the next 9 days forecast a lot more sun and very little rain forecast..
Let the tomato setting begin! Well actually it started a time back, but it would sure be nice if it were to pick up speed.
Glad to hear everyone is getting back to normal.

Larry

That is some beautiful cool weather, Larry. We are supposed to cool down too. Can't wait!

twillis2252 · October 10, 2016

When the storm was coming through early AM in Ga/SC I heard someone call in with a way to tell if your freezer has lost power, thawed the contents and refroze when power was restored.

Take a cup of water, freeze solid, place a quarter on top of the frozen ice, leave in freezer. If you evacuate or leave for an extended period and return to find the quarter at the bottom of the cup, you know the contents have thawed, refroze and should not be used.

Some of you may already use this method. I thought it deserved repeating...

Fiishergurl · October 10, 2016

Great tip! Thank you!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk

Fiishergurl · October 10, 2016

Ok, so I am worn out and it's sooooooo windy and pretty late in the year for me to be getting the tomato plants just getting going. In 2014 I had ripe tomatoes at the end of October from my tomato plants. I have a different situation than most of you... too much shade in winter because of all the RV's that come in and the sunny area is in the howling winds so my plants get worn out from leaf diseases by Dec/Jan time frame from all the moisture, shade, etc.

So I am thinking about not replanting my earthboxes with the other teenagers and just going with peppers/lettuce and maybe some herbs.

I have plenty of sauce and salsa to last a long while.

What do you all think? I'm afraid I might feel like I made a mistake but right now I just don't feel like messing with them.

Ginny

ginger2778 · October 10, 2016

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fiishergurl

Ok, so I am worn out and it's sooooooo windy and pretty late in the year for me to be getting the tomato plants just getting going. In 2014 I had ripe tomatoes at the end of October from my tomato plants. I have a different situation than most of you... too much shade in winter because of all the RV's that come in and the sunny area is in the howling winds so my plants get worn out from leaf diseases by Dec/Jan time frame from all the moisture, shade, etc.

So I am thinking about not replanting my earthboxes with the other teenagers and just going with peppers/lettuce and maybe some herbs.

I have plenty of sauce and salsa to last a long while.

What do you all think? I'm afraid I might feel like I made a mistake but right now I just don't feel like messing with them.

Ginny

Ginny, why not compromise. Do 1/3 of the tomatoes you normally would, then the rest with the other stuff. Do you get frosts up there? We dont, so its not too late at all down here.

Fiishergurl · October 10, 2016

Thats a good idea. No frosts here. Just wet from dew a lot and hard to find sunny spits out of the wind when the park is full and the days are short.

I will probably do that.

Thanks
Ginny

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk

ginger2778 · October 10, 2016

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fiishergurl

Thats a good idea. No frosts here. Just wet from dew a lot and hard to find sunny spits out of the wind when the park is full and the days are short.

I will probably do that.

Thanks
Ginny

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk

You might as well. You went to all that trouble to bring them down.

maxjohnson · October 10, 2016

I wonder if I'm insane to do this, but I'm starting tomato seeds. I just have a hunch from all I'm hearing that this winter will be warmer than usual thanks to global warming. Normally I start them around January and transplant them in mid Feb. I get harvest before April. I guess it would have to be a prolonged growth. Worst case scenario I'll be starting seeds again in two months.

I can't start any sooner than now with the whiteflies around and I don't have space to put all the plants inside, especially with kids around which will result in a mess on the floor.

Zone9b · October 10, 2016

Quote:

Originally Posted by maxjohnson

I wonder if I'm insane to do this, but I'm starting tomato seeds. I just have a hunch from all I'm hearing that this winter will be warmer than usual thanks to global warming. Normally I start them around January and transplant them in mid Feb. I get harvest before April. I guess it would have to be a prolonged growth. Worst case scenario I'll be starting seeds again in two months.

I can't start any sooner than now with the whiteflies around and I don't have space to put all the plants inside, especially with kids around which will result in a mess on the floor.

From what I can see of NOAA’s forecast on Sep 15 is for normal temperatures for Oct, Nov and Dec for all of Florida. However, October alone appears to be forecast as modestly above normal. If your concern is it may be a bit too cold you could possibly try some of the varieties said to be good in cold weather such as Glacier.
Larry

Zone9b · October 10, 2016

For your scrap book. The History of Hurricane Matthew:

Zone9b · October 10, 2016

Better yet the Long Version:

Barb_FL · October 11, 2016

Has anyone heard from Kay?

Ginny - I agree with Marsha; just do some. Maybe choose the cherry tomatoes, they seem to be less picky about the amount of sun.
You did great in PA and had a lot of shade.

Today was NOT hot; but it was so windy.

----
I started transplanting again today; the last time was on October 3rd; then I stopped b/c of the storm. All but 2 of my plants did fine inside but since they have been brought back out, a lot especially the dwarfs are collapsing. This is just like last year; totally good coloring, and not wilt because they are stiff; I guess they look mangled. I had previously only transplanted 4 of the dwarfs so some won't be grown at all.

I think the heat and water change affected the collapsing ones. They were all already super rootbound too.

ginger2778 · October 11, 2016

Barb, can you show us a photo of whats going on with your seedlings collapsing?
I haven't heard of that.

I will be planting out today. I am up to 47 Earthboxes now, that gives me space for 94.

The rest will go into 7 gallon pots, and this year the pots are going to have the plastic bags from the promix and Tomato Tone under them, as a physical barrier to nematodes.

I use zip ties now to reclose the bottom of the cages we made for the Earthboxes.

I have to go to the community garden at 4 to organize things for the swap on Saturday. Some of my transplants are already over 1 foot!

kayrobbins · October 11, 2016

This has been an interesting few days. I did loose power on Friday which happened to be my birthday. Since I am on a well that meant no water also. My trusty generator would not work and several friend tried to figure out what was wrong. T-Mobile had damage to their towers in my area. I could text but could not make phone calls and what data I could use reminded me of dial up. Since there were over 200,000 without power the electric company has done a good job restoring power. I think there are only 10,000 without power right now. The internet has been down this whole time and Comcast has not been good about keeping customers informed of progress. It is up for a few mintues at a time now so I guess they are working in my area.
My refrigerator decided to die and I had to buy a new one. I thought it would be hard to travel on busy roads with so many lights not working but people were very good about treating non functioning red lights like a 4 way stop. Since I lost all of my food I had to go grocery shopping and the stores are out of so many things. I did have a lot of large limbs fall but they were all away from the house. Some people were not so lucky.
And not one my outside tomato plants were damaged. It is hard to understand how they survived so well but I sure am happy they did.

Barb_FL · October 11, 2016

Kay - So glad to hear from you and find that you are OK. Drag on losing electric for so long your food went bad.

Unbelievable that your outside tomato plants survived. Mine definitely would not have survived and since we are still in cleanup mode, I don't get to transplant the ones that should have been transplanted before the storm.

Ella - If you are reading this, the trees that really did do great were the MANGOS!!!!! The plants that did the best were the PINEAPPLES.

Marsha - I saw WHITEFLY eggs today. I have been so faithful with the yellow sticky cards too. I had 8 when they were seedlings and now 1 per transplant. So over 30 altogether. You think that would be enough. I'm convinced you get the fungal disease more and I get the bugs diseases.

Anyway, I don't know if I should bring the pepper plants; I want to be cautious and not spread any disease. Is there anyway to tell? I have something that I could bring for the sponsors if there aren't too many - it's not live or food. Besides you, how many other sponsors?

I will take a picture later

October 10, 2016	#1937
twillis2252 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2016 Location: SC & NC Posts: 258	When the storm was coming through early AM in Ga/SC I heard someone call in with a way to tell if your freezer has lost power, thawed the contents and refroze when power was restored. Take a cup of water, freeze solid, place a quarter on top of the frozen ice, leave in freezer. If you evacuate or leave for an extended period and return to find the quarter at the bottom of the cup, you know the contents have thawed, refroze and should not be used. Some of you may already use this method. I thought it deserved repeating...

October 10, 2016	#1938
Fiishergurl Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2014 Location: Oak Hill, Florida Posts: 1,781	Great tip! Thank you! Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk

October 10, 2016	#1939
Fiishergurl Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2014 Location: Oak Hill, Florida Posts: 1,781	Ok, so I am worn out and it's sooooooo windy and pretty late in the year for me to be getting the tomato plants just getting going. In 2014 I had ripe tomatoes at the end of October from my tomato plants. I have a different situation than most of you... too much shade in winter because of all the RV's that come in and the sunny area is in the howling winds so my plants get worn out from leaf diseases by Dec/Jan time frame from all the moisture, shade, etc. So I am thinking about not replanting my earthboxes with the other teenagers and just going with peppers/lettuce and maybe some herbs. I have plenty of sauce and salsa to last a long while. What do you all think? I'm afraid I might feel like I made a mistake but right now I just don't feel like messing with them. Ginny

October 10, 2016	#1941
Fiishergurl Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2014 Location: Oak Hill, Florida Posts: 1,781	Thats a good idea. No frosts here. Just wet from dew a lot and hard to find sunny spits out of the wind when the park is full and the days are short. I will probably do that. Thanks Ginny Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk

October 11, 2016	#1947
Barb_FL Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2014 Location: Indialantic, Florida Posts: 2,000	Has anyone heard from Kay? Ginny - I agree with Marsha; just do some. Maybe choose the cherry tomatoes, they seem to be less picky about the amount of sun. You did great in PA and had a lot of shade. Today was NOT hot; but it was so windy. ---- I started transplanting again today; the last time was on October 3rd; then I stopped b/c of the storm. All but 2 of my plants did fine inside but since they have been brought back out, a lot especially the dwarfs are collapsing. This is just like last year; totally good coloring, and not wilt because they are stiff; I guess they look mangled. I had previously only transplanted 4 of the dwarfs so some won't be grown at all. I think the heat and water change affected the collapsing ones. They were all already super rootbound too.

October 11, 2016	#1948
ginger2778 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: Plantation, Florida zone 10 Posts: 9,283	Barb, can you show us a photo of whats going on with your seedlings collapsing? I haven't heard of that. I will be planting out today. I am up to 47 Earthboxes now, that gives me space for 94. The rest will go into 7 gallon pots, and this year the pots are going to have the plastic bags from the promix and Tomato Tone under them, as a physical barrier to nematodes. I use zip ties now to reclose the bottom of the cages we made for the Earthboxes. I have to go to the community garden at 4 to organize things for the swap on Saturday. Some of my transplants are already over 1 foot!

October 11, 2016	#1949
kayrobbins Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Dec 2013 Location: Jacksonville, Fl Posts: 820	This has been an interesting few days. I did loose power on Friday which happened to be my birthday. Since I am on a well that meant no water also. My trusty generator would not work and several friend tried to figure out what was wrong. T-Mobile had damage to their towers in my area. I could text but could not make phone calls and what data I could use reminded me of dial up. Since there were over 200,000 without power the electric company has done a good job restoring power. I think there are only 10,000 without power right now. The internet has been down this whole time and Comcast has not been good about keeping customers informed of progress. It is up for a few mintues at a time now so I guess they are working in my area. My refrigerator decided to die and I had to buy a new one. I thought it would be hard to travel on busy roads with so many lights not working but people were very good about treating non functioning red lights like a 4 way stop. Since I lost all of my food I had to go grocery shopping and the stores are out of so many things. I did have a lot of large limbs fall but they were all away from the house. Some people were not so lucky. And not one my outside tomato plants were damaged. It is hard to understand how they survived so well but I sure am happy they did.

October 11, 2016	#1950
Barb_FL Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2014 Location: Indialantic, Florida Posts: 2,000	Kay - So glad to hear from you and find that you are OK. Drag on losing electric for so long your food went bad. Unbelievable that your outside tomato plants survived. Mine definitely would not have survived and since we are still in cleanup mode, I don't get to transplant the ones that should have been transplanted before the storm. Ella - If you are reading this, the trees that really did do great were the MANGOS!!!!! The plants that did the best were the PINEAPPLES. Marsha - I saw WHITEFLY eggs today. I have been so faithful with the yellow sticky cards too. I had 8 when they were seedlings and now 1 per transplant. So over 30 altogether. You think that would be enough. I'm convinced you get the fungal disease more and I get the bugs diseases. Anyway, I don't know if I should bring the pepper plants; I want to be cautious and not spread any disease. Is there anyway to tell? I have something that I could bring for the sponsors if there aren't too many - it's not live or food. Besides you, how many other sponsors? I will take a picture later