Hey Fellow Floridians - Year 2

[ginger2778]

I for one am NOT TIRED of your gorgeous photos, Max. Not a bit, I love them.

[maxjohnson]

Originally Posted by Barb_FL

Never too many pictures. Keep them coming? Pictures of plants too. It really makes me want to grow cherry tomatoes since most of what I grow I give away. What are the orange ones? What are the pointy red ones in the bowl? What are the red ones with the green shoulders?

I recognize the Pink Bumblebee. I am definitely going to grow PB next fall. I'm growing Maglia Rosa now; this is the first time the plant has done well for me too.

Max - Are you in the Miami area?

I'm closer to Coral Springs. I have stock photos of each variety and will present them later when they are all available.

Orange ones are Jaune Flamme. The beefsteak are Delicious.

The oxheart (pointy) one is Curtis Cheek (It became very controversial when mentioned so I'll won't be talking about it again, but I made a thread about it in the Photo section).

[maxjohnson]

Originally Posted by Barb_FL

Pictures of plants too.

Many of the soil plants are at the end stage, but the container plants are doing better.

Delicious was very big, but got bacterial infection which I saved by stripping most the leaves, now it's dying from wilt.

The potato leaf plants seems to be more disease resistant, except for curly leaf virus.

[maxjohnson]

This dark orange salad tomato seems to come from an Ambrosia Orange UBX seed I planted. At first, I thought it was a misplaced Jaune Flamme that got crossed, but after thinking about the color and the spicy aroma from the foliage typical of Ambrosia plants I realize it's not JF.

Unlike Ambrosia cherries, it does have a small amount of acidity. It's not zesty and too acidic like JF, and is smaller and sweeter. Slightly prone to cracking though. It's even more prolific than JF I think, I've harvest a few pounds from this one plant already. Also very disease free.

[Jimbotomateo]

Originally Posted by maxjohnson

Sorry if I'm posting too many of these, but it keeps coming.

I haven't eaten a real tomato in months.. Wished there was some way to bite all of those tomatoes at one time! Then I'd line em up and eat them one at a time.!. . Thanks for the pics max!. Jimbo

[Barb_FL]

Max - That plant looks really healthy. Is it grown in a container?

Jimbo - We go through those long stretches too; but ours are generally July though October with November getting some Cherry tomatoes and December 1 getting the big ones.

Someone in S Florida posted Cherokee Purple tomatoes in November this year. That must be a record. Was it you, Max?

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Max - Did you save any seeds from Pink Bumblebee? I definitely want to grow it in the fall.

Did you find Pink BB to be prolific? I'm growing Purple BB now and it's not prolific for a Cherry.

[maxjohnson]

The PBB I grew was a stray seed mixed in with a package of Solar Flare. However, I bought some actual PBB seeds and growing them in containers now and the plant so far looks similar. It wasn't prolific and not great tasting to me either. But I admire it for crack resistant and look.

The cherry I like best this season was Blue Ambrosia, the juice is actually sticky from the sugar content. I will probably grow them most next season.

I did grew Cherokee Purple in early 2016. They're very prolific, but their thin skin and being popular with the squirrels so I didn't grew them again. It'll probably be Paul Robeson from now.

[Barb_FL]

I need to find the before picture (from the fall) but this is the AFTER picture of Champion 2 and Big Brandy that were sowed 8 months ago. Just some topping off and severely lacking in the pruning department but no spraying.

Cinderblocks, etc are there b/c I have regular 20 MPH wind a few times a week with 35MPH gust are not uncommon. Taking the casters off the EB with mature plants was challenging but really helped with keeping the plants from tipping over.

[efisakov]

Looking good, ladies.

[ginger2778]

Max, your plants look beautiful and healthy. Mine are getting a "third wind", I trimmed off all the spent long upper vines, and beautiful new growth is coming from underneath. Happens every year, so I get a last hurrah, most of the plants produce smaller but a few more fruit this time of year.

Did everyone find that this year they were getting large fruit even up to now at the tail end of March? This wonderful season is amazing.
Barb, I had Cherokee Purples early, might have been November, by then I was getting lots of thing so producing.

[Barb_FL]

It was Douglas (GardenBoy) who was eating Cherokee Purple in November. I looked and he posted pictures. I sowed a couple of seeds LATE and plants already have some tomatoes with the plants still being short.

Marsha - I stripped back a few plants and new growth / flowering / fruit production is quick. Except with an Aussie plant, I'm not seeing smaller fruit size yet.

Does everyone realize we are finishing our 6th month of good night time lows for fruit setting? We will probably still have good lows through April too and then it will be hit or miss for early May. This season is amazing.

[maxjohnson]

Another good harvest. Bicolor is Dragon's Eye, which is from Wild Boar's Farm, it was supposed to be salad size but some unripe I have are beeafteaks size. Very very sweet and worst tomato ever grew, 6 fruits out of the entire plant after months. Blue one is Black Beauty, also another low producer.

As for dwarf tomatoes, it was a spectacular failure, grew 8 plants, 4 months after transplant and this is what I got (see below). Although I feel they will do much better in nematode free containers.

[Barb_FL]

Max - Which one was dragon's eye? I grew it last spring - super productive and salad size but even though I got seeds from a reputable vendor, I thought the color was all wrong. Then looking back at varieties at WBF, I'm not sure of what I actually grew. Never shared seeds b/c of this. Everyone I gave them to liked them.

[ginger2778]

I also grew black beauty. In the Earthbox the production was off the hook. Taste? Meh! I won't grow it again.

[maxjohnson]

Originally Posted by Barb_FL

Max - Which one was dragon's eye? I grew it last spring - super productive and salad size but even though I got seeds from a reputable vendor, I thought the color was all wrong. Then looking back at varieties at WBF, I'm not sure of what I actually grew. Never shared seeds b/c of this. Everyone I gave them to liked them.

It's the striped bicolor green/orange medium beefsteak on the right. Some are double that size. It's very sweet. The seeds were directly from wild boar's farm.

It grew very tall and straight, I've never seen a tomato plant growing so straight vertically without pruning. It seems perfect for squarefoot gardening if it only produces more.