Hey Fellow Floridians - Year 2

[Fiishergurl]

Originally Posted by 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.

Kay those are soooo pretty.

Ginny

[Barb_FL]

Ginny, The bees will come; I've never hand pollinated a cucumber. My first group of flowers were under the leaves and somehow the bees managed to find it.

What kind of cucumber are you growing? Are you over fertilizing it?

I'm more sad when I see a female flower fall off because it didn't get pollinated.

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The only time I had mainly/only males were on the lemon cucumbers and I definitely was over fertilizing it.

===========================
Kay sounds good; but I think the pepper was Albino Bullnose. Will PM you for your address.

[kayrobbins]

Barb I guess I was confused. I do have the Albino Bullnose. It is the sweet pepper that is never green. It goes from cream to orange. It was started later and has not set any peppers yet so I have not seen what it will do.

[Zone9b]

In Orlando our average low temperature at the beginning of April is high 60s and at the end of the month low 70s. This April the temperatures are running lower than the averages. For the next 10 days the forecast lows are between 64 and 66. My hope is that May follows this cool trend but that is probably too much to ask for. My broccoli crop would like the cool trend to continue also.
Whoops! This post may seem out of place because it is. When I clicked in from the email alert I was on page 62 reading posts that I had not seen before. That is what I responded to, but now I see that was not in fact the end of the thread.
Larry

[Fiishergurl]

Originally Posted by Barb_FL

Ginny, The bees will come; I've never hand pollinated a cucumber. My first group of flowers were under the leaves and somehow the bees managed to find it.

What kind of cucumber are you growing? Are you over fertilizing it?

I'm more sad when I see a female flower fall off because it didn't get pollinated.

---
The only time I had mainly/only males were on the lemon cucumbers and I definitely was over fertilizing it.

===========================
Kay sounds good; but I think the pepper was Albino Bullnose. Will PM you for your address.

Barb,

I grew some from seed but started them too early and when i was gone it got cold and they died. So i bought some and I cant remeber what they are. Isnt that too bad? I alwasy like to know what I'm growing. But hubby was really sick the last 6 months but is on the mend now and so maybe i can get myself back together a little better.

I watched a video on how to pollinate with a tiny paint brush so i gave it a try.

Ginny

[Barb_FL]

Larry - no problem re: temperatures; I'm loving the night time lows. I started shading the broccoli yesterday.

Last April was SO hot; I actually think this is more normal. When I check historical weather, the night time lows are not low.

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Ginny - your plant is looking good. What tomatoes are you growing?

I'm actually picking lots of ripe tomatoes daily now. I have a kitchen table worth; some due to them being determinate like all the F2s Garden Gem which will become sauce.

Kay - I brought over a plate full to my neighbor and her company from up north and they liked Painted Pink the best. I even had some Tasmanians in there.

I ate my first Black and Boar tomato today; excellent. Like Large Barred Boar but smaller.

FWIW - In the fall I pulled my only Bulgarian Triumph plant after eating 1 tomato; then regretted doing that since there were other tomatoes on it. I left the other plants since they were producing normal fruit (TYLCV). I saved a few seeds from the BT plant and sowed this spring; There is NO evidence of TYLCV - plant is very productive. Growing in a root pouch.

[AudreyFL]

Hi all-

Any recommendations for mulch for containers? I haven't used plastic because of heat retention and difficulty hand-watering. I have been trying pine bark and seems like there are lots more creepy crawly critters now. Especially tiny white things I can't identify online that can jump.

My first year with this so maybe it's unrelated but am wondering if the bagged stuff is bringing in more bugs. Also found army worms in the mulch past few days.

Any help is appreciated!

Thanks - Audrey (Jupiter, FL)

[Fiishergurl]

Hi Barb,

Definitely not over fertilizing the cucumbers. I just put them in an old SWC that wasnt solarized or cleaned out. I really dodnt expect them to grow at all but they are doing well. What do you fertilize with? How much and how often. Can they be sprayed with fungicide? We went back and looked agaim and found about 10 more females. They didnt have open blooms yet but now they are easy to spot. And i saw a bee... :-)

Tomatoes... growing PBTD, Sgt Peppers, Not Purple Strawberry, Brads Black heart. Orange Minsk Heart, Reinhard Kraft Purple Heart, Rebel Yell,
Neves Azorean Red, painted Pink, black cherry, brandywine pink, brad gates small mix, cows tit, san marzano redorta, cherokee black heart, lucky tigers, some crosses, some peppers. And a few others that i probably forgot.

I dont like the earthboxes as much as the home made swcs. The swcs are so much deeper and have more root room for bigger sturdier plants. Just better overall in my environment.

Sgt Peppers and PBTD both have the most tomatoes so far, about 30 to 40 each with about another 50 to 100 blossoms coming on each. I didnt plant out until March because it was so cold here for so long.

Ginny

[Fiishergurl]

Some of the baby cukes. One is missing the top so it wont make it. These have not bloomed yet. Ive never grown cukes before. I started some last summer but we went to Kansas City for 3 months and i left them behind.










And some Petunias


Ginny

[JaxRmrJmr]

Originally Posted by Barb_FL

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.

Originally Posted by 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.

Thanks for the replies. Kay, do your tomatillos sort of look like a cross between a pepper and tomato plant? I'm getting blossoms at the forks like a pepper.

I had never even heard of dwarf varieties before joining this forum, but I am planning on trying New Big Dwarf this fall. Also, going to try GGWT since I have heard so much about it. Same with Brandywine dark cherry.

My Cherokee Purple is setting tomatoes like crazy as is my better boy and big beef. However, my Bradywine and Black from Tula are dropping blossoms with few sets? Not sure what is going on as they are all in the same area and hooked into the same water system. Maybe just the temps and when the blossom blooms?

What is PBTD?

[Barb_FL]

Welcome Audrey!

I'm not much help; I think most of my containers I didn't even bother to mulch. I didn't use any of the bags of mulch; Kurt posted about HD having Pine Bark Fines and got a bag but when I took the bark out I saw crawly things too.

For the ones I did mulch, I just put a thick layer of straw which really only helps with watering.

I also had some really thick coco chips; the kind in the block. Expand them with water and then put in a cloth bag and rinse them so that the water runs clear to removes the salts. I was using these on top until I ran out. They look nice but a really hassle with the rinsing if needing to use them right away.

Ginny - happy to hear your husband is recovering and you're back.
That is something having 30-40 fruits on PBTD. Mine are no where near that.
Take a picture. I've never grown Sgt Peppers.

For cucumbers in the EB, I used Plant Tone. I can't remember on the first one, but on the 2nd and peppers I just mixed the Plant tone - no fertilizer strip.

[Barb_FL]

Originally Posted by JaxRmrJmr

....

I had never even heard of dwarf varieties before joining this forum, but I am planning on trying New Big Dwarf this fall. Also, going to try GGWT since I have heard so much about it. Same with Brandywine dark cherry.

My Cherokee Purple is setting tomatoes like crazy as is my better boy and big beef. However, my Bradywine and Black from Tula are dropping blossoms with few sets? Not sure what is going on as they are all in the same area and hooked into the same water system. Maybe just the temps and when the blossom blooms?

What is PBTD?

PBTD - Pink Berkley Tie Dye ; Very similar to GGWT.

That what would happen to my Brandywines when I grew them; would blossom and nothing would come of it.

I'm surprised you are having that issue with Black from Tula though.

[JaxRmrJmr]

Originally Posted by Barb_FL

PBTD - Pink Berkley Tie Dye ; Very similar to GGWT.

That what would happen to my Brandywines when I grew them; would blossom and nothing would come of it.

I'm surprised you are having that issue with Black from Tula though.

The Brandywine has been a totally different experience. It's my first potato leave. It has grown great - thick stalks, big leaves, lots of blooms, then one or two tomatoes per truss. There are even small pea sized tomatoes that have sat there for weeks now with no change. Blooms that never bloom. They must not fit this climate or my fertilizer.

Black from Tula... the plant looks like a bull! The blooms get really big and engorged like they took, then fall off. No yellowing at the joint that holds that bloom onto the truss either. I just come home and it has dropped. No idea. That's not happening to any other variety. Any idea?

[Don_Saunders]

Hey Barb,

This is Don Saunders. I do not have full access yet but I was able to find you here. This is really cool, just as you said. I feel like such an amateur!
TTYL,

Don

[JaxRmrJmr]

Originally Posted by Fiishergurl

Some of the baby cukes. One is missing the top so it wont make it. These have not bloomed yet. Ive never grown cukes before. I started some last summer but we went to Kansas City for 3 months and i left them behind.

Ginny

Seems like you will wait forever for the first one, then you won't be able to keep up picking them.