Florida Growers Thread

[MargeH]

I see one or two, but never a swarm.

Sounds like I have made you paranoid about the virus. I have 5 friends who are growing my seedlings. Only one of them has ever seen the virus and another one lives less than a mile from me and has never seen it.

I just have had bad luck. There is a weed somewhere around my house that harbors the virus. A drainage ditch into Phillippi Creek runs behind my house and it is full of all kinds of vegetation. It's probably something there.

The two resistant plants have set a couple more and I have a Sungold F2 that is starting to color.
_____
Marjorie

[captnkirk]

Marge i have a neighbor that has 5 plants 2 in a earthbox im letting him use and both the plants in his eb have the virus.He is about 100 yards from me.If what i am seeing is whitefly and there is that many there isnt much chance of me not getting the virus is there? Atleast i got alot of tomatos allready good size.

Oh and 3 of the NBD have germinated out of 6 and all the SC and RR have.

[captbobs]

whiteflys are a pain here in Puerto Rico--I go nuts--I make a funnel out of paper and put it on my shopvac and shake the plant and vac up those little suckers !! ( my wife thinks I am nuts) I also take a piece of scrap wood -paint it bright yellow-- put pine tar on it and they flock to it--they love anything yellow!!

[captnkirk]

Well i think i got rid of most of the whiteflys only bad thing is i just about killed the cucumbers and some of my younger tomato plants.I sprayed with a mix of dishsoap.cooking oil and rubbing alcohol that i saw somewhere for killing whiteflys.I think it must have been the alcohol that burnt the leaves.On my smaller plants i lost most of the leaves,the older 9 plants i have are losing some but i think they will be ok.I counted 130 toms on the 9 plants today,2 sunmasters 2 heatwave,4 rutgers and 1 red beefsteak.

So far i see no sighns of tylcv on anyplants,the one i was worried about seems to be doing fine.

Marge looks like 3 out of 6 of the NBD is all i am going to get to germinate.How big of container do you use for NBD and SC.Im planning on using 2 gallon ones for red robin but was thinking SC and NBD might need 3 gallon.

[MargeH]

I used 4 gal. self-watering containers for both of them in the spring. NBD should get bigger than SC. I think my NBD plant last year was about 4.5 ft. tall. SC doesn't get that tall, but it spreads out. I would use something a little bigger if you have it. The smaller the container, the more often they will have to be watered.

That's a good sign that you aren't seeing signs of the virus. I have found that with most of mine, it only takes about a week from the time I begin to suspect it and it really starts to show.

Did you spray your plants early in the morning? I burned some of mine slightly in the spring with Safer Soap. I think it says on the label that it can burn the plants if you spray when they are in strong sunlight. I make sure it is very early or an overcast day when I use it now.

_____
Marjorie

[captnkirk]

http://s213.photobucket.com/albums/cc53/captnkirk2112/

Some new pics taken 10/14 of my plants

[captnkirk]

Marge i think that was part of the problem to,it was around 10 am when i sprayed them on a pretty sunny day.I was out looking at the younger plants this morning and they are starting to get some new leaves so i think they might survive this time.Next time i spray it will be just the soap mixture with out the alcohol and will be in the late evening once they are in the shade.

[GatorStamp]

North Lake County here. I just transplanted 2-Cherokee Purple 2-Greater Baltimore and 2-Super Sioux. No fruit blossoms yet, but I'll keep y'all posted.

[flipt]

Hey folks - I'm fairly new here and just saw this Florida thread. About 2.5 weeks ago I planted out the following varieties: Red Penna, Chapman, Aunt Gertie's Gold, Ashleigh, Wes, Large Pink Bulgarian, Russian Bogatyr,
Green Doctors, Lucky Cross, Akers West Virginia,
Cherokee Purple, Rostova, Marianna's Peace, Red Brandywine (Landis strain), Mexico , Coustralee, German Red Strawberry, Neves Azorean Red, Dr. Lyle, Dr. Neal, Pineapple, Reif Red Heart, Brandywine OTV, Omar's Lebanese, Aunt Ruby's German Green, Sudduth Brandywine,
Yellow Brandywine (Platfoot strain), Tidwell German,
Brianna, Pink Potato Top, Jaune Flamee, Galinas and
German Johnson.

Later this week I'll fill in the remaining holes with: Giant Belgian, Sandul Moldovan, Prudens Purple and Aunt Ginny's Purple.

This should keep my three gardens, several pots and an eb occupied for the fall/winter season, along with my normal planting of beans, peppers, radishes, lettuce and herbs.

My biggest problem here are the whiteflies - I have to spray fairly often to keep them down. I suffered thru a season of TYLCV. I really hate them very much.

I have a few pics of the just-planted gardens that I'll post later. Good luck to all!

Flip

[annecros]

Potting up Green Zebra, Striped German and 1884 today, will transplant in a couple of weeks. Gardener's Delight is still the only one in the ground from the earlier planting with fruitset. Earl's Faux was eaten about a third up by a hornworn - but is recovering. Marianna's Peace is budding and blooming.

[MargeH]

Flip, What are you spraying for the whiteflies? I really hate them, too. If I didn't have such a horrible time with TYLCV, I'm not sure that I would spray at all. It really doesn't seem like I have that many of them.

That shows how contagious the virus can be. I hope you stay virus-free in the fall. I am too far north to wait this late to plant anything but small plants I can bring inside if the weather turns cold. It can freeze here the end of Dec.-beginning of Jan.

About half my plants have the virus now. Most of them have at least 10 tomatoes, and the two varieties I have that are resistant are starting to set now that the temps have dropped below 90. I have two that have the virus and no tomatoes. I will probably pull them this weekend to put Extreme Bush and Sophie's Choice out. The seedlings are getting too big for my lights and I can't wait any longer. I only saw two whiteflies this week, so I am keeping my fingers crossed for them.

I have a Manasota plant that was the first one outside and it still isn't showing any signs of TYLCV. It is really loading up with tomatoes. I hope that they taste decent. I got seeds for it because of the name. Had to grow a tomato named Manasota here.

____
Marjorie

[flipt]

Hi Marge - I've tried several types of spray for the whiteflies: dish soap, safer soap, Neem and other oil types and a few others. For me, the only thing that seems to stem the tide of live whiteflies (not the larva) is Ortho's Bug BGone Max. I'm not a great fan of non-organic solutions but it's the only one that's worked for me. For the larva, I just inspect the leaves and wipe them off while they're smaller plants; once the plants get large it's a real challenge.
Last year was kinda weird as out of 40+ plants and a lot of whiteflies, only three picked up the virus - the rest remained virus-free.
So far this year I've had the flies here but have yet to see any symptoms of the virus. Hopefully, these flies aren't carrying the virus.
What are the two types you have that you know are virus resistant? How do they taste?
Flip

[MargeH]

Safer soap and Bug BGone are what I have been using, too. I have had the virus for two years. I expected to see it in the fall, even though I didn't have plants out in July and most of August. I sprayed but not aggressively. I'm pretty sure it's in some other plant or weed near my house that the whiteflies are picking it up from.

In my spring crop, it seems to start showing up on the plants in early to mid May. I plan to get aggressive with my spraying this spring in April, even though I don't see that many. I hate to spray, too. But if it can hold off the virus a little longer, then I guess I will have to do it.

The two resistant ones I am growing now are Inbar and Polina. They are from seeds someone on GW got from Hazera to try. A friend who has had the virus, too, is growing Shanty. I have seeds for two more varieties that I will plant for spring. They were all bred for commercial growers so I'm not expecting great taste. I don't have any ripe ones yet; I will report on taste when I do. They are both finally starting to set well and don't show any visual signs of the virus.

I tried Sun King last fall. The two plants I had never showed signs of the virus, but the tomatoes were just OK. I got them from TGS. They seem to be the only variety out there commericially for the home gardener that has resistance. I only have 10-15 seeds of each of the resistant Hazera varieties. I am going to save seeds from Inbar and Polina to see what I get in the F2.

____
Marjorie

[captnkirk]

Welcome aboard GATOR,and FLIPT.Glad you two found tomatoville and this thread.I knew there were more florida growers out there.

Gator arent you planting them just a little late or do you have a way to keep them from frost.

flipt i have the flys here to but havent got the virus yet. Seems they like the cucumber leaves more than the tomato.I had hundreds of them on my cucumber plants,only see a few on the tomato plants.

Marge thats good news about the 2 resistant plants ,hope they make some good tasty ones.I migtht try sunking in the spring just to see if it taste good to me,maybe because of sunking being late for you in the fall ,the cooler weather might have had something to do with the taste.,[just a thought]

Marge hows your sungold coming along.I saw your post in the other thread about them being bigger than normal,have you gotten any ripe ones yet?

anne you putting out plants every month all fall and winter long? wish i could

oh and marge is your new big dwarf toms fusing toguether again?

Has anyone tried growing cukes and had any luck.I still have no cukes on any of my plants.

[MargeH]

New Big Dwarf is one of the two plants that got the virus before it set. I will probably pull those two this weekend. The other one is the only seed from 6 that I got to germinate. I have been waiting to be sure that nothing has set on it, but I am about to give up. I have to put the ones I have under lights out NOW. In the spring, the last few fruit that NBD set looked more normal. I think it was discussed that cold weather affects NBD and promotes fused fruit.

Gator, I was wondering the same thing. I grew up in Clermont and lived in Leesburg. I had to scrape frost off my windshield a number of times during the winter then. I haven't had to do that since I moved to Sarasota. Has Global Warming changed things?

I probably should give Sun King another try in the spring to see if it makes a difference. If I didn't have these other resistant seeds, I know that I would. Kirk, I have plenty of Sun King seeds left. If you want to try it in the spring, I can put a few in the mail to you.

The Sungold F2 has ripened 2 so far. The taste is similar, though not quite as complex, as Sungold F1, but the skins are tougher. That might be a good thing the way Sungold splits. I have a few seeds fermenting now.
_____
Marjorie