Hey Fellow Floridians - Year 2

[Zone9b]

Originally Posted by Fiishergurl

Merridiel,

Is it challenging to grow tomatillos here? Love the pictures!
Ginny

I thought the same thing when I saw them. I tried once and didn't get a single Tomatillo.

[kayrobbins]

I tried both spring and fall to grow tomatillos. I had lots of flowers and it set fruit just fine until it got fungused up. None of the things that worked with tomato plants stopped it and I pulled them up. I would love to have any tips on how to grow them here.

[Merridiel]

I figured out how to tell when the Fahrenheit Blues are ripe, haha. I found a spot where I can see green or red under the leaves.

Originally Posted by ginger2778

Merridiel, great photos!
I got what was supposed to be chocolate cherry, but looked just like that. Bought from an eBay vendor, before I learned my lesson. It tasted mealy and disgusting, I cut the plant down. I wonder if yours will be that same gross taste. I have real chocolate cherry seed if you would like some, and I can send them to you along with Kiss The Sky, a fantastic purple large cherry with great taste and great vigorous growth and production. KTS is a stable outgrow of Purple Haze F1, the stabilization was done by our own Tatiana K.
Cool to know the name of Purple Oxalis, my neighbor has them growing in the yard, and keeps mowing over them. I will ask if I can dig some up, they don't seem bothered by nematode soil.

I got my seeds from seedsnow.com . I wonder how they'll taste, too. Thank you for the offer, I'd love to try them! Maybe I have something that I can send you. I'll send you a PM in a few minutes.

The purple oxalis I got off of ebay. Here's what they looked like, so you know what you're looking for if your neighbor lets you dig. I read that the leaves are edible.

Originally Posted by Fiishergurl

Merridiel,

Is it challenging to grow tomatillos here? Love the pictures!

Ginny

Originally Posted by Zone9b

I thought the same thing when I saw them. I tried once and didn't get a single Tomatillo.

They're not self-pollinating, they need a buddy in order to set fruit. I grew yellow tomatillos last year and they did great. They've been a pain lately, though. I had 2 yellow, 1 purple, and 1 giant green going into the winter. The first frost killed both yellows and the green, so for a while there, I had loads of flowers on the purple with no fruit. The bees loved it, though. The giant green came back, and both started forming fruit after it flowered. Then the second frost came along and killed the purple one. Now I have powdery mildew on the green one.

[Barb_FL]

I asked DH to take a picture of this broccoli head; He hesitated b/c he was not impressed because there was nothing remarkable about it. Not big, not one of the first, nothing. UNTIL I said, that broccoli head is 2nd head from the same plant. And that same plant has another head that isn't ready yet but looks like it will be about the same size. I have another plant that has 3 more heads growing.

I think all of my Castle Dome broccoli is putting out 2nd/3rd heads. Even the ones where the stem starts rotting and stinking.

Early on, I sowed both CD and Premium Crop and the ones that are putting out side shoots and Florets must be the Premium Crop.

It's getting hot though - it would be cool to pick broccoli heads up to May.

[efisakov]

Barb, that is impressive. So, which broccoli would you prefer and why?

Larry, thanks to you, so many of us are growing broccoli. My DH likes to add it to an omelet.

Ginny, I like your flower patch/oasis.

Merridiel, nice pictures. How do the FB taste like?

About oxalis, it is an invasive plant. Watch out.

[Barb_FL]

Ella - I've been growing broccoli for years and have experimented with different types but I mainly grew Packman. Larry introduced me to Premium Crop last year. I think we both bought Castle Dome independently.

Last year I grew 14 plants and thought that was a lot; I depended on those florets. Larry was the one that did the tight planting and I followed suit this year. I ended up growing 100 plants in my 8 - 4X4 raised beds and did 6 more heads in EB early on.

The first raised beds were both Castle Dome and Premium Crop. When a head matured, I replaced the plant with a seedling. After the first group of seeds, I went totally with Castle Dome because everything about them was faster. I had no idea they would produce multiple heads at the time. I will be delighted if we get 30 extra heads from the remaining plants.
I will keep track.

Larry is the broccoli king.

[Merridiel]

Originally Posted by efisakov

Merridiel, nice pictures. How do the FB taste like?

About oxalis, it is an invasive plant. Watch out.

I'm not sure how to answer that. I'm still new to this and don't really understand the words people use to describe tomato flavors. People say words like "tangy" or "mild" or "rich" or "balanced" and I kind of just sit here and scratch my chin. All I know is that I liked them and will keep growing them. I'm sorry, I know that's not helpful.

About the oxalis, thank you for the warning. Luckily, I'd planned on growing it in containers anyway.

And since I'm here, I'll leave another picture. This shedding anole was catching some shade on one of my potato plants today.

[Zone9b]

Originally Posted by Barb_FL

I asked DH to take a picture of this broccoli head; He hesitated b/c he was not impressed because there was nothing remarkable about it. Not big, not one of the first, nothing. UNTIL I said, that broccoli head is 2nd head from the same plant. And that same plant has another head that isn't ready yet but looks like it will be about the same size. I have another plant that has 3 more heads growing.
I think all of my Castle Dome broccoli is putting out 2nd/3rd heads. Even the ones where the stem starts rotting and stinking.
Early on, I sowed both CD and Premium Crop and the ones that are putting out side shoots and Florets must be the Premium Crop.
It's getting hot though - it would be cool to pick broccoli heads up to May.

Barb,
Your photo looks like Castle Dome and the characteristics you describe, I have witnessed when growing Castle Dome. I've gotten as many as 4 more heads after cutting the original head on the plant. Also, as can be seen in your photo some can be quite large. One can actually have two crops of Broccoli out of 1 set of transplanted plants. I have a hard time calling these second heads side shoots because they are so much larger than side shoots I have harvested on other varieties.
In spring of 2014 I harvested my last head of Broccoli on 06/06/14.
In spring of 2015 I harvested my last head of Broccoli on 05/25/15.
However Broccoli here in Central Florida does get pretty stressed late in May.
Larry

[Zone9b]

I am now completing the harvest of Broccoli from my 4th successive crop in the same Raised Bed in a single season. I have already started the 5th crop in the RB. The 5th crop will not occupy the entire RB but 25 plants in one end of the RB. The 5th crop should be completely harvested by mid May.
So I’m going out on a limb here and say, It is definitely possible to grow 5 successive crops of Castle Dome Broccoli, from Sep thru May in a single RB here in Central Florida.
And Lord have I eaten a lot of Broccoli!
Thanks Barb and Ella,
Larry

[efisakov]

Great pictures, Larry and Merridiel.

Thanks all for responses.

Barb and Larry, that is a lot of broccoli. Wow.

[Barb_FL]

Originally Posted by Zone9b

I am now completing the harvest of Broccoli from my 4th successive crop in the same Raised Bed in a single season. I have already started the 5th crop in the RB. The 5th crop will not occupy the entire RB but 25 plants in one end of the RB. The 5th crop should be completely harvested by mid May.
So I’m going out on a limb here and say, It is definitely possible to grow 5 successive crops of Castle Dome Broccoli, from Sep thru May in a single RB here in Central Florida.
And Lord have I eaten a lot of Broccoli!
Thanks Barb and Ella,
Larry

Who would have thought possible? So how many heads do you estimate total?

ETA - I couldn't read your scale - how much did it weigh?


Larry - So did my inoculation on the beans and have plants now. Do I need to feed them anything or does the inoculation cover it? No sight of any beans yet - I expected really fast growers. Are you still sowing bean seeds?

I'm growing Provider beans.

[Zone9b]

Originally Posted by Barb_FL

Who would have thought possible? So how many heads do you estimate total?
ETA - I couldn't read your scale - how much did it weigh?
Larry - So did my inoculation on the beans and have plants now. Do I need to feed them anything or does the inoculation cover it? No sight of any beans yet - I expected really fast growers. Are you still sowing bean seeds?
I'm growing Provider beans.

Barb,
From the first 4 Broccoli crops from a single bed I estimate I harvested 360 heads. But I did a single crop in another bed and grew some broccoli in two other beds. So, all told I estimate I have harvested 500 heads of Broccoli this Broccoli season and I have a bit more to go.
The larger Broccoli head was 24 oz and I guess the smaller at 18 oz. This fourth crop was good given that temperatures were not high enough to be detrimental. The fifth crop will result in heads of Broccoli but I guess the heads will be a bit smaller and not hold up in the garden quite as well, however they should be harvested by mid May so it shouldn’t be too bad. Broccoli suffers much more towards the end of May and early in June.
I fertilize beans even though I inoculate them. I do this not so much that I know what I’m doing, but because I don’t know what the result would be if I didn’t fertilize. Last spring I grew mostly Espada and Crockett, both said to be continuous producers. Therefore, they produced over a longer period of time and I fertilized with 10-10-10 3 times.
I side dress both sides of a row but not particularly heavy.
This year I’m growing quite a few varieties but mainly Cassidy and Pike. Neither one of these is said to be continuous.
Given that they will produce over a shorter period of time, I may only fertilize twice.
Normally I plant snap and pole beans over a short period of time but this year is different. I am succession planting. not so much by design, I just wanted to get as much beans in as possible, so every time some space became available I planted more beans. I planted Cassidy first on 2/20/17 and have continued to plant more Cassidy and Pike and other varieties.
The Cassidy’s are flowering now.
On 3/27/17 I planted more Cassidy, a bit of Contender and Dixie Speckled Butter Peas.
I plan on planting more snap beans in the middle of April. U of F says it is ok to plant snap beans thru April.
However, if I get my 5th crop of Broccoli harvested by early 2nd week of May I may push the envelope and plant snap beans in their place. Possibly Contender. I am not a big fan of Contender but they are early at 49 days, said to be disease resistant and I have found them to be productive. Also, unusual among snap beans they are said to be nematode resistant. The thing I don’t like about them is their plant habit. For me they tend to sprawl on the ground making them difficult to pick. A little secret, I found packages of Contender seeds at dollar tree for 25 cents. The one I tried only had 26 seeds but they germinated well.
Larry

[maxjohnson]

So I review most of the tomatoes I grew this year here.

And the shocking best tasting variety is: Green Giant.

I'm going to continue to grow into the summer in containers now.

[Southfl]

I am growing the following tomatoes:
Bradley x6
Super Sioux x6
Solar Flare x5
Solar Fire x6
Heatmaster x6
German Pink Wonder x2
Megabyte x2
Big boy x1

I started from seed in late January. I have about 8 plants in my screened in patio on rain gutter system. I few in home made earth box and the rest in raised beds.

All the plants have set fruit and now just waiting for my first harvest.

[Barb_FL]

SouthFl - Great to have you join us and share your pictures. You will have to let us know how they taste.

Larry - 500? Plus the others and the 2nd/3rd/4ths that Castle Dome is providing. It looks like 600 to me. That must be a record.

Thanks for the fertilizer tips on the beans. On my weekly broccoli foliar feeding, I sprayed the beans this week.

----
Finally got some rain late this afternoon. We are expecting lows in the 50s starting Thursday. We've been hovering around the 70-72 # lows for the last couple of days.

The wind has been horrible all season. I think the mango season is not going to be good at all. I didn't have the # of blossoms as last year and with the constant wind some of the shoots (whatever they are called) don't even have anything left to set fruit.

OTOH - My Choc-anon produced 7 mangoes; the 2 biggest ones were partially eaten and the rest I have ripening in a brown bag. Last summer the Choc-anon produced hundreds - they are way smaller than Kent so no comparison. I don't see any blossoms on the tree to have a harvest in the summer.

It must be the lack of rain; we have only had rain 4 times since the hurricane.