Hey Fellow Floridians - Year 2

[Barb_FL]

Our night time lows were in the mid-70s as well; that was 15 degrees warmer than historical average.

Now we are in the mid to upper 60s. I think tonight and Saturday night might get to 60 but then back up to mid-upper 60s.

These night time lows cut the spring season short for a lot of us in 2015.

[kayrobbins]

I am trying a new yellow cherry that seems promising. It is Gold Nugget and I selected it because it has a compact size. I keep hoping the Dwarf Project will come up with a good cherry so far they have released one that I like. I am impressed with the compact size which is actually smaller than some dwarf plants and it is producing like crazy. I have not had one ripen yet but if the taste is good it will go on my must grow list.

[Barb_FL]

That's good to know; Keep us posted re: taste. I actually have that variety from a hot/humid container collection I bought from Tomatofest a couple of years ago.

Kay - How do you load your pictures, get them that size, and side by side?

I want to load my cucumber pictures. I have 3 plants.

Thanks,
Barb

[Fiishergurl]

Originally Posted by Barb_FL

That's good to know; Keep us posted re: taste. I actually have that variety from a hot/humid container collection I bought from Tomatofest a couple of years ago.

Kay - How do you load your pictures, get them that size, and side by side?

I want to load my cucumber pictures. I have 3 plants.

Thanks,
Barb

Barb,

Do you have any of the plants that get all male flowers first? Do they always get female flowers later?

Ginny

[Barb_FL]

I grew Lemon Cucumber in the fall and let it get huge; I think it ONLY had male flowers; it wasn't b/c of lack of bees either. and the few cukes had worm holes (catepillars) in it. I finally yanked the plant I was so disgusted.

I use to grow Parks All Season and it didn't need bees. Had a ton of cukes.

[Barb_FL]

Originally Posted by Fiishergurl

Barb,

Do you have any of the plants that get all male flowers first? Do they always get female flowers later?

Ginny

I think that is common; On Beta Alphas I was worried b/c Male Flowers and lack of bees and flowers under the leaves. Some how the bees found it and there are a bunch of cukes now.

Picture coming later when I can figure it out.

[kayrobbins]

Barb I use a free program I downloaded to my computer called FastStone Photo Resizer and I selected 400X300 as the size. When I upload them to Tville it automatically puts them side beside. I guess that it because they are small enough to fit.

How is the Ajvarski pepper doing? After you told me about it and I read how great it was suppose to be I decided to order seeds but they were sold out.

I love Beit Alpha cucumbers, only one I grow now. Like most cucumbers the male flowers come first and then the females appear. I have never had a problem with them getting pollinated but the pickle worms are a battle.

[Barb_FL]

Here are the cukes. The first 2 pictures of Beta Alphas. I posted a picture of them last week; grew and set a lot of cukes since then.

The next picture is Snow Cucumber; Traded seeds with Luigiwu. This plant got beat to death from wind the day after I planted it. I put the sun shade on the cage to protect from the win and it toppled over from wind onto the plant. The blue bucket has the bottom removed and I kept it on the plant to protect the 2 leaves that remained. Here it is today; probably about 10-14 days later. It was sad looking.

The last picture is Sweet Success in my version of the kiddie pool. In Florida, I found the Kiddie pool gets too much water. I put an inverted colander in the grow bag so there will always be air and less water. Seeds were purchased really recently when Burpee had the free shipping. Plant is not very old at all.

[Barb_FL]

Kay - The Ajvarski peppers are doing fine. I sowed 3 seeds; 2 germinated and last one germinated much later with a helmet head; ignored it while waiting for the 2 seedlings to get bigger to transplant, and the last seedling outgrew the helmet head. Now I'm waiting for the newest seedling to get true leaves to transplant all 3.

That's funny b/c I went back to Bakers to look for the seeds you recommended. Can't remember why I didn't buy them....maybe they were out or I could get some from you after you get peppers...haha.

I can spare a few (5?) Ajvarski seeds now or if you want to wait can give you more seeds from the actual peppers. Didn't get that many seeds in this pack.

[Barb_FL]

Last year had 2 Sweet Sue Plants (seeds from the MMMM 2014 swap). Neither were big producers AT ALL. One had the yellow tomato and one with a red. Save seeds from the Red (didn't even ferment).

Sowed some of the reds and some summertime gold while testing sowing methods. Neither were labeled or got good real estate.

This was the first fruit of any of the plants to ripen. All are PL and have big fruit.

Thinking the plant must be Sweet Sue.

The best tasting tomato this year including the fall season.

[kayrobbins]

Barb, that was the Buena Mulata also called Purple Pippen. I am so in love with this pepper. The purple flowers are beautiful and the purple peppers are striking. I took 18 of them to the plant sale and they were $6 each in a one gallon pots that was already loaded with peppers. I sold out with in hours and people were trying to see if I could bring more.

It was a new release from the William Woys Weaver collection and I knew it would sell out. My problem with saving seeds this year is with growing over 20 peppers isolation it hard. Now that I see how great they are I am going to remove all the blooms from three that is a different area and cover them so I can save seeds.

I do have a few seeds so why don't we just do a trade now so I know for sure you will have good seeds. BTW, it is a cayenne so it is not too hot and you can let it turn red if you wish.

[JaxRmrJmr]

So, being new to the forum, and in JAX. What would you recommend? I'm trying Brandywine Pink, Cherokee Purple, German Stripe, Black from Tula, tomatillos, San Marzanos, big beef and letting one better boy go nuts as I have always pruned.

[Barb_FL]

Originally Posted by JaxRmrJmr

So, being new to the forum, and in JAX. What would you recommend? I'm trying Brandywine Pink, Cherokee Purple, German Stripe, Black from Tula, tomatillos, San Marzanos, big beef and letting one better boy go nuts as I have always pruned.

I've never had any luck with Brandywine (any color) except the BW Cherry dark and I've tried growing the beefstakes several years. Beautiful plants with just no fruit.

From your list, I've grown Cherokee Purple, Black from Tula, Big Beef. I haven't grown CP in awhile though - switched to GGWT or PBTD.

[kayrobbins]

I always have had problems growing Barndywines, they tend to split. I grew Cherokee Purple for years until I tried Black From Tula and like it so much better. This year I am only growing dwarf full size tomatoes and have many cherry tomato plant because they always do well for me. This is my first year to grow tomatillos. I plant 2 in a raised bed and two in root pouches. One of the ones in the raised bed died but the other 3 are doing well. It is an interesting plant.

[Fiishergurl]

So i have tons of cucumber flowers. They've been blooming about a week maybe 10 days and I am impatient so I check every day and always there are more male flowers. Probably 100 so far.


Above is just some of them from one section.

So i looked and looked and looked and all male. Seems a waste to have so many male flowers. I was just about to give up and i saw it! A female!! I hand pollinated it because i dont see any bees. I hope its not going to be the only one... lol.



The dill is growing like crazy and i need some cukes to go with it.

Ginny