Hey Fellow Floridians - Year 2

[Barb_FL]

$5 for one sweet potato?

Here's what I have:

1. Green beans - picked 7 crockpots full already. Sowed my neighbors seeds 30 minutes after mine, but hers are in the ground and mine are in raised beds. Then a few weeks ago she pulled her tomato plant from the EB and I sowed 4 green bean seeds in her EB. They look great; tons of flowers.... So I sowed some in my EB where I had pulled my plants. They are young so who knows.

2. I picked 2 Kent's and put them in brown bags a few days ago. I am impatient too.

3. My other mango tree (Choconon) had one of the main loaded branches break during one of the storms. I left it to let the mangoes ripen on the tree. Anything I picked so far went bad.

3. I picked a pineapple yesterday - it flopped over; my largest ones should be ready this week.

4. My pepper plants, Yellow Monster and the Amethyst are going strong.

5. Still have some tomato plants but have to pull out more. I'm just not very motivated at the end of season.

6. Kohlrabi - ALERT - I grew out 2 from micro greens and gave the fruit away. The people cooked them and loved them.

7. I oven roasted some cherry tomatoes. DH is looking at getting a dehydrator again so he can prepare food for his hiking trip. Is the Excalibur 3900B-9 still the way to go?

[efisakov]

Originally Posted by Barb_FL

Is the Excalibur 3900B-9 still the way to go?

I think so, Barb. That is what I got from Walmart about two years ago. Make sure it has 600 watts instead of 440. And fan is 7 inches and not 5. It is $193.24 at Walmart right now. The other is $179.99, which is just a bit less money but huge difference in power.

Last summer I dehydrated with it my tomatoes and had about 10 pounds of great tasting snacks. We shared with family and close friends. It is super tasty.
You will love using it.

btw One time we got watermelon that was so so, not sweet at all. I dehydrated some (cut into 1/2 inch by 1/2 inch by 2 inches pieces). It turned to be a super sweet snack.

Ask Marsha what to do with it, she is an expert.

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by Barb_FL

$5 for one sweet potato?

Here's what I have:

1. Green beans - picked 7 crockpots full already. Sowed my neighbors seeds 30 minutes after mine, but hers are in the ground and mine are in raised beds. Then a few weeks ago she pulled her tomato plant from the EB and I sowed 4 green bean seeds in her EB. They look great; tons of flowers.... So I sowed some in my EB where I had pulled my plants. They are young so who knows.

2. I picked 2 Kent's and put them in brown bags a few days ago. I am impatient too.

3. My other mango tree (Choconon) had one of the main loaded branches break during one of the storms. I left it to let the mangoes ripen on the tree. Anything I picked so far went bad.

3. I picked a pineapple yesterday - it flopped over; my largest ones should be ready this week.

4. My pepper plants, Yellow Monster and the Amethyst are going strong.

5. Still have some tomato plants but have to pull out more. I'm just not very motivated at the end of season.

6. Kohlrabi - ALERT - I grew out 2 from micro greens and gave the fruit away. The people cooked them and loved them.

7. I oven roasted some cherry tomatoes. DH is looking at getting a dehydrator again so he can prepare food for his hiking trip. Is the Excalibur 3900B-9 still the way to go?

Yes $5 for this large fancy shmancy purple flesh one, but now I'm glad I bought it, getting lots forming, and they just laugh at nematodes. Never had such a firm not watery great tasting sweet potato before.Nice to use my natural soil for something.
I adore my still working great Excalibur 3900T. Excalibur is the way to go. If you are going to make fruit leathers, be sure to get some silicon tray covers too.
Barb, my dehydrator was cheaper by googling "buy Excalibur 9 tray " than I could get it for at Excalibur company. I think it was Wal-Mart with free shipping and $30 less than at the company itself.

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by efisakov

I think so, Barb. That is what I got from Walmart about two years ago. Make sure it has 600 watts instead of 440. And fan is 7 inches and not 5. It is $193.24 at Walmart right now. The other is $179.99, which is just a bit less money but huge difference in power.

Last summer I dehydrated with it my tomatoes and had about 10 pounds of great tasting snacks. We shared with family and close friends. It is super tasty.
You will love using it.

btw One time we got watermelon that was so so, not sweet at all. I dehydrated some (cut into 1/2 inch by 1/2 inch by 2 inches pieces). It turned to be a super sweet snack.

Ask Marsha what to do with it, she is an expert.

It comes with a recipe book, and lots of recipes are online, plus YouTube videos. It's my favorite toy.
Mangoes, dried, they are like crack!

[efisakov]

Yes they were!

[Zone9b]

Originally Posted by ginger2778

This is a purple flesh sweet potato that I am delighted to find out that I can grow in our native soil, Nematodes and all!. I bought the original sweet potato at an Asian market and it cost $5! On a whim I just buried it in our soil and now I am harvesting several, this one was quite large. It also was quite possibly the very best sweet potato I have ever eaten!
Also harvesting some mangoes although it's still a little early and they're not up to their full potential yet, I'm just impatient LOL. Several pineapples are forming in a few are getting ready, and I've got a very large banana stalk that just started about 3 weeks ago.

Marsha,
I enjoy reading about your sweet potatoes. I bought 12 slips of Marasaki Sweet Potatoes in April of 2014. I’ve allowed them to keep growing volunteer in one bed since then. After harvesting the last broccoli in the bed I encouraged the sweet potatoes to take over. I have found that if I pull a section of vine, then place the vine beneath the soil with leaves sticking out of the soil, it will take root. Also I pull and replant tiny plants around in the bed. From my experience which I didn’t document well, it takes approximately a year to get a decent yield of s. potatoes. I don’t fertilize them. They’re somewhat on their own. I’ve grown them both in raised bed filled with compost and in native soil. They grow either way, but digging them with a fork in native soil is tedious while in the soft compost I can just plunge my hand in the compost and feel around for the potatoes. Whenever I get any amount of freezing weather, the vines all die, but they come back eventually. They seem to require lots of water to get much of a yield otherwise I get only nice vines. I know my methods are very crude but hey I do get some potatoes once in a while. Maraski variety is said to be resistant to Fusarium root rot and southern root knot.

[Zone9b]

I have grown 5 different varieieties of Rutbaga to-date. They were all very productive. The problem is that I really don't like the taste of any of them. I'm guessing that when the Spanish brought the Potato to Europe the growing of Rutabaga was signicantly reduced. I wish potatoes did better here in Central Florida then they do. Maybe it's just me. I know they used to grow a whole lot of them in South Dade west of Perrine.

[Barb_FL]

Thanks for the lesson on the sweet potato. I didn't know that you would eventually get a harvest from 1 potato; so $5 is a good deal.

Thanks for the info on the dehydrator and silicon sheets. Just ordered; would have not ordered the sheets.

[efisakov]

Originally Posted by Barb_FL

Thanks for the lesson on the sweet potato. I didn't know that you would eventually get a harvest from 1 potato; so $5 is a good deal.

Thanks for the info on the dehydrator and silicon sheets. Just ordered; would have not ordered the sheets.

I am excited for you, Barb.

[efisakov]

It is only mid June. Today by me is 84, than 89 on Sunday, and 94 on Monday. I am almost in Florida.
I wish I was.

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by efisakov

Yes they were!

I forgot!

[Zone9b]

Our Cockatiel bird is a very finicky eater. I've been saving seeds from tomatoes recently and Cosmnaut Volkov variety produced a huge amount of seeds of fairly good size. I put a few of these Cosmo seeds in to the bird's feeder and he ate them right up. Maybe he liked them so much because they were fresh? If you have thoughts on this or know of a tomato variety with many large seeds and is easy to grow, please let me know.
Larry

[Barb_FL]

Cherry tomatoes are really easy to grow and have a lot of seeds. The wild birds seem to like the red ones the best, followed by the dark ones and last of all the SunGolds.

[ginger2778]

That's so odd, I have never seen a bird, or a squirrel eat any of my tomatoes cherry or otherwise . What I have seen are rats overnight and also possums they both love tomatoes a lot. Squirrels on the other hand and birds both seem to love my mangoes, I guess I can't blame them lol.

[Zone9b]

Recently had something eating many of my peppers. My wife stuck a live catch trap in the garden and put a pepper in it for bait. I said he's never going in there. Next morning a large rat was in the cage. So much for my trapping knowledge.