Hey Fellow Floridians - Year 2 - Page 26

kayrobbins · October 13, 2015

I now own a Veggiebee, got it as one of my 68th birthday presents last week. The inventor tells you to hold the black spoon under the flower you are vibrating and then rub the flower stigma in the collected pollen. From what I have learned from this group that should be necessary. I think just the quick vibrating should work. I did try doing what he said to see pollen did come out and it sure did but I do not want to do extra steps if it is not needed. Of course standing out there among the different tomatoes with that thing did make start thinking about try a do my own cross. I have not done that before.

Fiishergurl · October 13, 2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by kayrobbins

I now own a Veggiebee, got it as one of my 68th birthday presents last week. The inventor tells you to hold the black spoon under the flower you are vibrating and then rub the flower stigma in the collected pollen. From what I have learned from this group that should be necessary. I think just the quick vibrating should work. I did try doing what he said to see pollen did come out and it sure did but I do not want to do extra steps if it is not needed. Of course standing out there among the different tomatoes with that thing did make start thinking about try a do my own cross. I have not done that before.

Kay, what neat photos of the presentation. That is amazing how many pounds of food you all provided. Really such a good cause.

I remember seeing a video on the Veggie Bee. I will have to watch it again because I can only vaguely recall it. Wouldn't it be fun to make some crosses? We bred horses for many years and I was the one in the family that bought and sold the horses to try to get the lines that would cross well and produce what we wanted. The saying in horses is it takes two lifetimes to breed horses because the mare can only have one baby a year. I was so obsessed with breeding a certain type of horse that could win in conformation (halter) at Worlds. I have been trying to resist the urge to do the same thing in tomatoes. It becomes all consuming. Of course, my family said I was obsessed but I preferred the word "driven"... lol.

Still it would be fun to cross some and see what you get.

Ginny

Barb_FL · October 13, 2015

OK - hopefully 3rd time is a charm; keep losing my post

Kay - Happy belated Birthday; such a worthy project and think that those donations is likely the only fresh vegetables for the recipients.

---
TV observation - in the summer, being away from the computer all day, then logging onto TV, there were 200+ new posts. Now, there are 35 for the day and a lot of them are swap related.

And if you logged in early in the AM, there would be 85 new posts; now in the AM there are 7-8.

Not too much growing other than Florida, Texas, and some CA. I think we are the only one with our own thread.

kayrobbins · October 13, 2015

Barb I think we will donate even more for 2015 since we already have almost 900 lbs and still have a lot of good growing time. Sometimes I think one day a week is too much of my time since I am always behind here but I love the idea of people having real food that is not grown with bunches of pesticides and is really local food.

It does really slow down here in what is the off season for the rest of the members. When I hear people complain about how hard it is to garden in Florida I get really irritated. Yes we have challenges but as Marsha has pointed out once you adapt your growing methods to this climate it can be successful. Yes, we have lousy soil but lots of good growing weather. The people with great soil do not have the luxury of growing year round. You can amend soil or grow in containers, you can't change weather so I think we are the lucky gardeners.

I love our thread and am so glad it got started. I think all of us have learned from each other. At one of the Seed Savers Exchange events they referred to gardeners as Like Minded Lunatics. I think we all qualify for that.

ginger2778 · October 13, 2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by kayrobbins

I now own a Veggiebee, got it as one of my 68th birthday presents last week. The inventor tells you to hold the black spoon under the flower you are vibrating and then rub the flower stigma in the collected pollen. From what I have learned from this group that should be necessary. I think just the quick vibrating should work. I did try doing what he said to see pollen did come out and it sure did but I do not want to do extra steps if it is not needed. Of course standing out there among the different tomatoes with that thing did make start thinking about try a do my own cross. I have not done that before.

Thanks for posting this Kay.(Groaning) Now I have to go buy a veggiebee!

kayrobbins · October 14, 2015

We are all a bunch of garden enablers. Marsha I think you will like it. It is amazing to see how much pollen comes out of a single blossom. I compared it to the sonic toothbrush and it's vibration is different and it really does sound like a bee. I noticed on other posts that Feldon and Craig Lehoullier use them so that is enough to convince me they work.

ginger2778 · October 14, 2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by kayrobbins

We are all a bunch of garden enablers. Marsha I think you will like it. It is amazing to see how much pollen comes out of a single blossom. I compared it to the sonic toothbrush and it's vibration is different and it really does sound like a bee. I noticed on other posts that Feldon and Craig Lehoullier use them so that is enough to convince me they work.

Kay, that you like it is high enough endorsement for me.

Fiishergurl · October 14, 2015

Kay/Marsha,

I tried yesterday with the electric toothbrush and put a black serving spoon under the toothbrush and buzzed my plants. I could see a tiny bit of pollen every now and then but nothing like the video shows with the veggie bee shows.

Kay did you get close to the amounts the video was showing?

Ginny

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk

Barb_FL · October 14, 2015

Kay - Re: Vegebee; I see on Amazon that there are 2 models, a one speed and a multi-speed:

http://www.amazon.com/VegiBee-Garden...0_SR115%2C160_

http://www.amazon.com/VegiBee-Garden...ywords=vegibee

The 5 speed is $40.81 and the 1 speed is approx. $30. Which do you have?

This would be a good present to ask my daughter for my birthday; especially the less costly one.

kayrobbins · October 14, 2015

Yes I did get that amount of pollen. I think the way they said you were suppose to do it when the flower is fully open with petals curling back is key as well as doing it between 11:00 and 2:00. You can actually see it puffing out. Because I always have to test things I did it when the flower was not as open and also earlier in the day and did not get nearly as much. I can't wait until next summer when my Rocoto peppers are blooming.to see if I can get better production.

kayrobbins · October 14, 2015

I got the single speed version. My children love for me to do an Amazon wish list since they claim I am hard to buy for. It works for me too because I can add to my garden supplies and books without spending money.

Fiishergurl · October 14, 2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by kayrobbins

Yes I did get that amount of pollen. I think the way they said you were suppose to do it when the flower is fully open with petals curling back is key as well as doing it between 11:00 and 2:00. You can actually see it puffing out. Because I always have to test things I did it when the flower was not as open and also earlier in the day and did not get nearly as much. I can't wait until next summer when my Rocoto peppers are blooming.to see if I can get better production.

I've always wondered about timing. I wasn't sure so I normally do it morning, mid day, and evening when I can. Good to know. I'm thinking pretty soon the Florida group will all be buzzing around with Veggie Bees. I don't have any human children by but I do have an Amazon prime acct!! :-)

Ginny

Fiishergurl · October 14, 2015

Ok this post is out of no where but i was looking at the bloosoms up close and I just never realized how many hairs or roots or whatever these are were on a single bloom.

Here is the zoomed in picture. Taken with my cellphone.

Ginny

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk

ginger2778 · October 14, 2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fiishergurl

I've always wondered about timing. I wasn't sure so I normally do it morning, mid day, and evening when I can. Good to know. I'm thinking pretty soon the Florida group will all be buzzing around with Veggie Bees. I don't have any human children by but I do have an Amazon prime acct!! :-)

Ginny

Ginny, i have already been to the Vegibee site. They offer free shipping. Please, what is the advantage of Amazon Prime.
Kaynabler- look what you started.

kayrobbins · October 14, 2015

Marsha I do not feel one bit guilty. Thanks to our thread I not own root pouches, the deep cell planting trays Kurt recommended, tomatoes I had never heard of and the great Solo multi directional sprayer. Seriously it does help to have others recommend things they have found that works because face it, we will buy stuff and sometimes it is not good.

I use so many herbs and when I saw this herb stripper I thought it would be a great way to speed things up. Talk about a piece of junk from a company that usually has good if overpriced things. This has to be one of my worst purchases ever.
http://www.gardeners.com/buy/zipstri...t_Dept&start=5

Amazon Prime is $100 a year but you get free 2 day shipping. Many things they sell are so much cheaper than anywhere else you can buy. Many of our regular garden purchases are cheaper there. Back when I joined you could have 4 family members share that account so all 3 of my children enjoy the benefits. They stopped that for new members this year.

October 14, 2015	#384
Barb_FL Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2014 Location: Indialantic, Florida Posts: 2,000	Enable me: Kay - Re: Vegebee; I see on Amazon that there are 2 models, a one speed and a multi-speed: http://www.amazon.com/VegiBee-Garden...0_SR115%2C160_ http://www.amazon.com/VegiBee-Garden...ywords=vegibee The 5 speed is $40.81 and the 1 speed is approx. $30. Which do you have? This would be a good present to ask my daughter for my birthday; especially the less costly one.

October 13, 2015	#376
kayrobbins Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Dec 2013 Location: Jacksonville, Fl Posts: 820	I now own a Veggiebee, got it as one of my 68th birthday presents last week. The inventor tells you to hold the black spoon under the flower you are vibrating and then rub the flower stigma in the collected pollen. From what I have learned from this group that should be necessary. I think just the quick vibrating should work. I did try doing what he said to see pollen did come out and it sure did but I do not want to do extra steps if it is not needed. Of course standing out there among the different tomatoes with that thing did make start thinking about try a do my own cross. I have not done that before.

October 13, 2015	#378
Barb_FL Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2014 Location: Indialantic, Florida Posts: 2,000	OK - hopefully 3rd time is a charm; keep losing my post Kay - Happy belated Birthday; such a worthy project and think that those donations is likely the only fresh vegetables for the recipients. --- TV observation - in the summer, being away from the computer all day, then logging onto TV, there were 200+ new posts. Now, there are 35 for the day and a lot of them are swap related. And if you logged in early in the AM, there would be 85 new posts; now in the AM there are 7-8. Not too much growing other than Florida, Texas, and some CA. I think we are the only one with our own thread.

October 13, 2015	#379
kayrobbins Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Dec 2013 Location: Jacksonville, Fl Posts: 820	Barb I think we will donate even more for 2015 since we already have almost 900 lbs and still have a lot of good growing time. Sometimes I think one day a week is too much of my time since I am always behind here but I love the idea of people having real food that is not grown with bunches of pesticides and is really local food. It does really slow down here in what is the off season for the rest of the members. When I hear people complain about how hard it is to garden in Florida I get really irritated. Yes we have challenges but as Marsha has pointed out once you adapt your growing methods to this climate it can be successful. Yes, we have lousy soil but lots of good growing weather. The people with great soil do not have the luxury of growing year round. You can amend soil or grow in containers, you can't change weather so I think we are the lucky gardeners. I love our thread and am so glad it got started. I think all of us have learned from each other. At one of the Seed Savers Exchange events they referred to gardeners as Like Minded Lunatics. I think we all qualify for that.

October 14, 2015	#381
kayrobbins Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Dec 2013 Location: Jacksonville, Fl Posts: 820	We are all a bunch of garden enablers. Marsha I think you will like it. It is amazing to see how much pollen comes out of a single blossom. I compared it to the sonic toothbrush and it's vibration is different and it really does sound like a bee. I noticed on other posts that Feldon and Craig Lehoullier use them so that is enough to convince me they work.

October 14, 2015	#383
Fiishergurl Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2014 Location: Oak Hill, Florida Posts: 1,781	Kay/Marsha, I tried yesterday with the electric toothbrush and put a black serving spoon under the toothbrush and buzzed my plants. I could see a tiny bit of pollen every now and then but nothing like the video shows with the veggie bee shows. Kay did you get close to the amounts the video was showing? Ginny Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk

October 14, 2015	#385
kayrobbins Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Dec 2013 Location: Jacksonville, Fl Posts: 820	Yes I did get that amount of pollen. I think the way they said you were suppose to do it when the flower is fully open with petals curling back is key as well as doing it between 11:00 and 2:00. You can actually see it puffing out. Because I always have to test things I did it when the flower was not as open and also earlier in the day and did not get nearly as much. I can't wait until next summer when my Rocoto peppers are blooming.to see if I can get better production.

October 14, 2015	#386
kayrobbins Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Dec 2013 Location: Jacksonville, Fl Posts: 820	I got the single speed version. My children love for me to do an Amazon wish list since they claim I am hard to buy for. It works for me too because I can add to my garden supplies and books without spending money.

October 14, 2015	#388
Fiishergurl Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2014 Location: Oak Hill, Florida Posts: 1,781	Ok this post is out of no where but i was looking at the bloosoms up close and I just never realized how many hairs or roots or whatever these are were on a single bloom. Here is the zoomed in picture. Taken with my cellphone. Ginny Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk

October 14, 2015	#390
kayrobbins Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Dec 2013 Location: Jacksonville, Fl Posts: 820	Marsha I do not feel one bit guilty. Thanks to our thread I not own root pouches, the deep cell planting trays Kurt recommended, tomatoes I had never heard of and the great Solo multi directional sprayer. Seriously it does help to have others recommend things they have found that works because face it, we will buy stuff and sometimes it is not good. I use so many herbs and when I saw this herb stripper I thought it would be a great way to speed things up. Talk about a piece of junk from a company that usually has good if overpriced things. This has to be one of my worst purchases ever. http://www.gardeners.com/buy/zipstri...t_Dept&start=5 Amazon Prime is $100 a year but you get free 2 day shipping. Many things they sell are so much cheaper than anywhere else you can buy. Many of our regular garden purchases are cheaper there. Back when I joined you could have 4 family members share that account so all 3 of my children enjoy the benefits. They stopped that for new members this year.