Hey Fellow Floridians - Year 2

[Southfl]

Getting some color on the heat master or solar fire both are in same planter.

The raised beds are getting hit by blight and lost some fruit to BER mostly on the solar flare and one of the pink wonder is starting to show BER on a few.

[Fiishergurl]

Originally Posted by Barb_FL

So how is everyone's garden doing?

I'm in process of pulling most of my broccoli plants out. I'm pretty much picking the last head and pulling up the plant.

My Beans are flowering and I saw a few string beans too.

Tomatoes are still going strong even with the russet mites. I started just hosing the plants down during the day (I know - bad, bad - don't get the leaves wet) but it really seemed to help.

Lettuce is going gangbusters too. I haven't even bothered to sow my Jericho Lettuce seeds yet.

Pictures: Chocolate Lightning - Fruit from one plant - All ripe fruit is picked and plant set a bunch more tomatoes since. Chocolate Lightning and Wild Dwarf are by far the best producing dwarfs for me. Did I mention no fused blooms.

My young pepper plants. I'm hosing them down daily too.

Brad's Atomic Grape - geez these fruits take forever to ripen. My slowest tomato to date.

Garden Treasure F2s - this plant produced the best tasting tomatoes. I cut back most of the plant and it is flowering galore. This is just one vine I let go; now it is co-mingled with my mango tree. I previously picked my largest fruit this year - need to weigh it. AKMark is growing out the F3 seeds.

Barb,

Great pictures and amazing job you are doing growing everything. All looks great!

Ginny

[Barb_FL]

SouthFL - Your tomatoes look good and healthy. Have you tasted the heat varieties yet? Be sure to let us know how they taste.

Here's a Garden Treasure F2 that we ate tonight. Plant is from September and still pumping out large ones.

DH has been off tomatoes all season - due to food allergies and just started introducing them back.

Some Froggy pictures too; lots of tadpoles - I'm not going to feed them anymore; let the strong ones survive.

Night time low temps have been 70-72 for days now even though it was suppose to be in the high 60s. It's the beginning of the end.

[AKmark]

Originally Posted by Barb_FL

SouthFL - Your tomatoes look good and healthy. Have you tasted the heat varieties yet? Be sure to let us know how they taste.

Here's a Garden Treasure F2 that we ate tonight. Plant is from September and still pumping out large ones.

DH has been off tomatoes all season - due to food allergies and just started introducing them back.

Some Froggy pictures too; lots of tadpoles - I'm not going to feed them anymore; let the strong ones survive.

Night time low temps have been 70-72 for days now even though it was suppose to be in the high 60s. It's the beginning of the end.

Hey Barb, I planted 20 F3's in their final home today, should be able to get a great F4 selection to send back your way in a couple of months.

[Barb_FL]

Originally Posted by AKmark

Hey Barb, I planted 20 F3's in their final home today, should be able to get a great F4 selection to send back your way in a couple of months.

Cool - If they taste as good as the F2s, I can grow the F4s during your off season and give you F5s.

BTW - My matsu plants in the root pouches are loaded up again. Plants are very strong and vigorous.

[ginger2778]

Barb, great pictures. I am still getting large fruit, and lots of new buds. The new buds are only setting a fewer amount than the plants did all season, due to our hotter overnight temps, of 71-74 now, about 8-9 degrees hotter than we should be. It's pretty normal to have this decline starting in April. I have lost maybe 10 plants to TRMs, but that's OK, I had the best season ever, and I think I got about 1500 tomatoes this year not counting the cherries, so I can't complain. I am ready for the decline, might even welcome it! I am getting lots of large cherries that are fantastic from the KARMA F4s, thank you Barb for encouraging me.Thank you Karen for allowing me the privilege to grow these fantastic PL cherries.

The Broward Rare Fruit Council is having their annual sale this year, I am getting a Cacao, which Gerardo suggested to grow under my mango tree, and also a Nam Doc Mai mango, very highly rated in all categories, and it says a manageable size if kept pruned. I hear lots of good things about it. I think I will also get a pomegranate.

Barb, your 3 pineapple pups you sent are well rooted and growing quickly, I think there will be fruit next year on them. Pineapples seem to like crowding. I have 6 forming now, pretty large too, how many do you have this year? I know it's usually more than me.

My mango tree is loaded again too.
Back with photos in a few minutes.

[ginger2778]

Here's some odds and ends
Top- broad view of mango with lots of bloom spikes and tiny fruit setting.
2)- closer view of a section with baby fruit showing.
3)- If you look carefully you can see all 6 pineapples growing. Closest one bloomed 6 weeks after the others.
4)- Barb, this one is showing the 3 small pineapple plants you sent me, sorry, I need to weed.
5)- orchids on the mango tree, can you see all 3 spikes? All I ever do is water them and I tied a teabag full of Osmocote to the top. They seem happy.
6)- Bleeding hearts are showing off.
7)- Tibouchina blooms.That is my nutso Rosemary now 14 years old behind it.

[Southfl]

Barb fl, I just did a taste test of the heatmaster and solar fire. I like the one with green sholders i think that the solar fire. Good flavor and smooth texture. The heatmaster is a little bland and mealy texture. Still better than store brought.

[Labradors2]

Nice pics of Mangoes, Pineapples and Bleeding Heart. Funny, I had a little one of those Bl. Hearts in a pot in my office years ago. It put on quite a show!

Could you please send us northerners some of your lovely Florida warmth?

Linda

[Barb_FL]

For those of you who requested the Chocolate Lightning, I have plenty of seeds fermented now and ready to mail. Let me know if you 'need'/want anything else. I know there is no rush since they won't be sowed until August at the earliest.

I'm growing Brad's Atomic Grape this spring - it tastes really good and not a huge plant by any stretch. I'm not going to ferment the seeds but will take off the gel in the strainer.

Also have Garden Treasure F3s - the F2s were dynamite - I posted a pic earlier in this thread and others in the Garden Gem thread.

Also have plenty of Matsu Express F6 seeds. (AKMarks creation) - Cole_Robbie supplied a lot of the F5s that are being grown out now.

You can PM me or Post here.

[ginger2778]

Southfl, that is a good looking plate of BLT makings. Yum!

[JaxRmrJmr]

Originally Posted by Barb_FL

So how is everyone's garden doing?

I'm in process of pulling most of my broccoli plants out. I'm pretty much picking the last head and pulling up the plant.

My Beans are flowering and I saw a few string beans too.

Tomatoes are still going strong even with the russet mites. I started just hosing the plants down during the day (I know - bad, bad - don't get the leaves wet) but it really seemed to help.

Lettuce is going gangbusters too. I haven't even bothered to sow my Jericho Lettuce seeds yet.

Pictures: Chocolate Lightning - Fruit from one plant - All ripe fruit is picked and plant set a bunch more tomatoes since. Chocolate Lightning and Wild Dwarf are by far the best producing dwarfs for me. Did I mention no fused blooms.

My young pepper plants. I'm hosing them down daily too.

Brad's Atomic Grape - geez these fruits take forever to ripen. My slowest tomato to date.

Garden Treasure F2s - this plant produced the best tasting tomatoes. I cut back most of the plant and it is flowering galore. This is just one vine I let go; now it is co-mingled with my mango tree. I previously picked my largest fruit this year - need to weigh it. AKMark is growing out the F3 seeds.

What type of lettuce do you grow doesn't bolt in the heat? I'm in Jax and I grow butter/bibb lettuce in the winter, but it doesn't like the heat.

My plants are mostly looking good with plenty of blooms and setting fruit. Except for one... my Cherokee Purple is lagging way behind the others (all sowed at the same time) and it's starting to wilted and/or curled. I think I'm going to pull it this afternoon and replace it with Sungold Cherry that I picked up.

Here is the Cherokee Purple beside my Striped German:


Sorta looks like the same thing is happening to my German Queen. That's a New Big Dwarf beside it:



Anyone have any thoughts about what might be happening?

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by JaxRmrJmr

What type of lettuce do you grow doesn't bolt in the heat? I'm in Jax and I grow butter/bibb lettuce in the winter, but it doesn't like the heat.

My plants are mostly looking good with plenty of blooms and setting fruit. Except for one... my Cherokee Purple is lagging way behind the others (all sowed at the same time) and it's starting to wilted and/or curled. I think I'm going to pull it this afternoon and replace it with Sungold Cherry that I picked up.

Here is the Cherokee Purple beside my Striped German:


Sorta looks like the same thing is happening to my German Queen. That's a New Big Dwarf beside it:



Anyone have any thoughts about what might be happening?

Can you post some photos?

[JaxRmrJmr]

I did. They are showing up for me. Not sure why you can't see them. Anyone else having trouble seeing them?

[whistech]

The pictures are not showing up for me either.