Hey Fellow Floridians - Year 2

[efisakov]

Ladies, you are killing me with all this beautiful looking fruits.
BTW, how long is the actual harvesting season on average 3, 4, or 5 months?

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by efisakov

Ladies, you are killing me with all this beautiful looking fruits.
BTW, how long is the actual harvesting season on average 3, 4, or 5 months?

Ella, it's from November to May in my yard. Seeds started in LATE august.

[Barb_FL]

Some more pics:

Sliced tomato is Chocolate Lightning - (from Dwarf Project). Grew for spring; Lots of tomatoes already picked. Over 25 tomatoes set vs Chocolate Champion has 2 tomatoes. Not a champion in my book. Tomato was delicious.

You know it is a great season when I actually have TOMATOES on Sweet Scarlet; Only a few but they have size and look perfect. I have failed with trying this in the last 6 seasons.

Other picture is Esterina. I have 2 monster plants and one runt that I ended up planting anyway. To say that I'm impressed with Esterina is an understatement.

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Ella - My harvest goes from November through June. I typically do 2 seasons though; this year I kept some plants going all year. The spring season is much shorter b/c the night time lows are too high for fruit set later in the year.

In 2014, I picked my last tomato on August 10, but I was rolling EB in and out of the shade. Definitely NOT worth the effort and never attempted again.

[efisakov]

Thank you, ladies. Nothing comes without an effort and plenty of work. And you do put lots of hard work in it. Kudos to you.
Thank you for your answers.

[AKmark]

Keep the pics coming, I love visiting this thread.

[Fiishergurl]

Hi Everyone,

Loving the pictures. I haven't had time to visit much. Hubby is working on a project in Jax so we are here during the week and home on weekends. All my plants are on timer with automatic irrigation, even my flowering plants and herbs thanks to my sweet husband. Still getting lots of tomatoes.

Thanks to you guys recommendations, I have dehydrated a ton, oven roasted a bunch and froze them, and also got almost a 5 gallon bucket of green tomatoes off a single black cherry plant that I recently pulled and made green tomato salsa and jarred 16 pints of it. It's delicious! I bring the tomatoes to Jax with me and process during the week in between working. Then feed and prune the plants when we get home on the weekends.

Barb, Esterina is a good one isnt? Thanks to Larry and the other guy (sorry I cant remember his name) that posted about it. Also excited to try Brandy Boy and Large Barred Boar that you sent me seeds for. I have Brandywine Sudduth growing side by side with Brandy Boy for taste comparison... :-) i have several plants of each and they are all really productive.

Marsha, I really wanted to send an SASE for some multiflora heart seeds but with all the back and forth and work and such the time got away from me. I cant even imagine what you have done with all your tomatoes. Between the tomatoes and mangos... amazing!

Hope everyone is doing well. No pictures as I'm in Jax right now and the plants are in Oak Hill. I'm missing them so came to this thread for a tomato fix.

Ginny

[kayrobbins]

Barb, I have not grown Chocolate Lightening but after seeing that picture that has to go on my fall grow list. I don't even have ask how it tastes, you just tell from the picture that it is delicious.

For some reason I quit growing carrots several years ago. One of my friends gave me seeds last fall. Today's harvest was 8 lbs. and that is from the 2nd harvest. I will grow again next fall but I want to try some of the purple one at Baker Creek too.

[ginger2778]

Those look fantastic, Kay. I can imagine a carrot pineapple raisin salad.

[ginger2778]

Well, my cucumbers have several hundred thousand spider mites. Pretty hard to get rid of, but I am spraying daily with the permethrin. I see them die instantly but so many must hatch every day. Maybe not worth the battle. I did get a lot of cukes though after BVV helped me out.

Barb- those little pineapple babies you sent me took off, and there are 6 of my own making pineapples now. The mango is FINALLY blossoming up, it's quite late this year. I did just harvest a whole stalk of bananas, those are usually very sweet. Another banana tree has a stalk forming now too.
Going to get some photos, I'LL be right back.

OK, back now.

Top picture, our bananas cut off the stalk, we do this do they won't all ripen at once. We gave away 2 clusters/"hands" already.

Our mango starting to get some blooms

2 pineapples, the red kalanchoes, and a tropical milkweed by the fence for the monarchs.

4 more pineapples- look carefully to the far left for the 4th.

Better view of the pretty but invasive tropical milkweed.

Peppadews getting ripe.

A marigold that was coming up in the yard as a volunteer, so I saved it ftom death by weedwhacker. It seems happy.

[Zone9b]

Originally Posted by kayrobbins

Barb, I have not grown Chocolate Lightening but after seeing that picture that has to go on my fall grow list. I don't even have ask how it tastes, you just tell from the picture that it is delicious.
For some reason I quit growing carrots several years ago. One of my friends gave me seeds last fall. Today's harvest was 8 lbs. and that is from the 2nd harvest. I will grow again next fall but I want to try some of the purple one at Baker Creek too.

Kay,
Yes, I like the looks of those carrots. I've tried them a few times, but without a great deal of success. I was thinking I would try them again in the Fall. However, this time I will try growing them in 10 gallon pots. If you know of a variety which is somewhat of a no brainier, please let me know.
Larry

[maxjohnson]

I can finally understand why people wants to grow microdwarf, I've taste Tiny Tim, Red Robin and Totem so far and the taste is amazing, very citrusy. Totem might actually be the best one even though it's larger.

[Barb_FL]

Kay - Your carrots look great.....What did you grow them in? I grew mine in ProMix and they were nubby on the sides - I thought it was from the perlite. I grew the cosmic purple ones (Victory seeds) - they were easy but didn't look like Kays.

Kay / Anyone else - Let me know if you want the Chocolate Lightning seeds. That Beauty line certainly has a lot of good ones.

Marsha - Once the cucumber plants has significant issues, I just start over. They are so quick to produce fruit I usually am sowing seeds once the plants first start producing. I treat them as determinates.

[BigVanVader]

Love this thread. I agree on the cukes. I have found they only produce optimally for around 2 months, after that it's best to pull and start fresh.

[kayrobbins]

Barb, I sure do want Chocolate Lightening seeds. I do love the Beauty line of dwarfs and that one looks so good.

I grew those carrots in a raised bed with my own soil mix that I make for my Grow Buckets. I also grew some in root pouches. They did not do as well as the raised bed but that is my fault because I planted too many. When it light outside I will check the name on the one that did so well for me.

[kayrobbins]

Nantes Scarlet is the one that did so well for me.
http://www.rareseeds.com/nantes-scarlet/