Hey Fellow Floridians - Year 2

[Barb_FL]

Audrey, I know exactly what you are talking about with the tightly curled; I have had that too many times, and never get fruit.

I've done better when the foliage is more spread out.

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All - What is a realistic good count for large tomatoes on dwarf plants?

This season I've grew Wild Fred, Fred Tie Dye, and PBTD (not dwarf). PBTD and Wild Fred are parents of Fred Tie Dye. PBTD is NOT a huge plants and way more productive than either dwarf. Wild Fred was still a lot more productive than FTD. Fred Tie Dye tasted just like PBTD.

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This morning a raccoon or opossum reeked havoc on my low hanging fruit. The animal took out 3 of my Jazz full size beef stake tomatoes, took out LBB, and a dwarf that I'm growing for the DP, and Juane' Flamme.

I am inundated with tomatoes though. I've been giving so many away, made sauce once and need to again for all the ones I put in the fridge.

The tomatoes in the back with the writing on are ones I'm growing for the DP.

The beautiful cucumber plants is Snows - can't tell but it is huge; just 2 seeds - in an earthbox.

The other cuke plant is sweet success with the all female flowers. All females have set fruit. This plant was sown late. Definitely not a huge plant. 2 seeds.

[Fiishergurl]

Barb,

All those tomatoes look wonderful! What is your favorite? And what is DP?

My cucumbers today were bitter.

Ginny

[Barb_FL]

Originally Posted by Fiishergurl

Barb,

All those tomatoes look wonderful! What is your favorite? And what is DP?

My cucumbers today were bitter.

Ginny

I lost my post - laptop just shut off.

DP is Dwarf Project

Favorite - early on it was a Red Sweet Sue; just picked the 2nd one so see if it stands up. LBB and Brown and Black Boar were early and very similar tasting to PBTD, so that kind of took the thrill from the PBTD.

Boronia was really good too; I haven't tasted any of the Dwarf Project ones yet.
Maybe I just like the taste of the darks.

I regret not growing Kelloggs; has been an amazing spring. IT IS HOT NOW so I doubt too much fruit set; not that I have too many flowers to set.
What I do have, the bees can handle.

I forgot I'm also growing JD Special Tex - these look awesome; not ripe yet-SO HAPPY about that.

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I picked tons more tonight so the raccoon/opossum doesn't get them. Left the Garden Gems for them.

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Bitter cucumber and it is a burpless one????? that's weird; b/c they are usually bland/watery vs bitter. Try picking earlier.



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[Zone9b]

Barb,
What does the tomato look like when a raccoon eats on it? Do they tend to eat most of all of it? I had something take what appears as a few bites all in one small area of two large red tomatoes a couple of days ago. I assumed it was a squirrel but I don't really know. Therefore, I don't know what to try to trap. If you or someone else could explain what the damage looks like for these animals I would kinow much more than I currently do. Thanks.

Ginny,
I am very interested to hear how your JD Special C-Tex tomatoes turn out. I was very tempted to grow it but I read where it had huge cracking problems. If you do well with it I would give it a try. I've read that the taste is very good. Thanks
Larry

[Fiishergurl]

Larry - Barb is growing the JD Special C Tex... :-)

Barb - most of the reviews I could fined online for this Burpee Hybrid Burpless complained that it was bitter. I'm giing the pull the plant and put the Beit Alpha there.

Ginny

[Fiishergurl]

Larry - i had Raccons one year and they would take the low hanging fruit the was ripening. I had so many tomatoes that year that i started pulling some cherries off and tossing them on the ground so they would leave my big ones alone and it worked. I had tried to trap them with a racoon trap my dad had but only caught feral cats. But i saw them with a flashliggt a few times (the racoons) so I knew that was what it was. Once in a while a partially eaten tomato would be left on the lower parts of the plant still hanging but usually the tomatoes were just gone.

Ginny

[Barb_FL]

Ginny - I forgot to mention that Perth Pride (dwarf) was really good.

Raccoon/ Opossum - I picked most of the ripe fruit, and wrapped my containers that had fruit not quite ripe with shading cloth. One container (Big Beef) had 3 almost ripe really low tomatoes; I just wrapped them in a Walmart bag.
All of this worked well last night.

The animal was back because he took out another Dwarf Project tomato (on the pool deck) and 1 cherry in the back.

I'm thinking it is an Opossum; On the 3 Jazz tomatoes, he ate from the top down; one of the tomatoes wasn't even ripe but it was on the top. Big jagged edges of what wasn't eaten. Didn't rip anything off the vine.

I have bunches of Garden Gem F2 on the vine which he leaves alone. It is a short plant; they are all red. Seems to like the Beefstakes.

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Larry - will keep you posted re: JD Special Tex. Big tomatoes; none ready yet.

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Everyone - I'm saving seeds; I have fermented quite a few types already. Just let me know what you want. I have TONS of Lucid Gem seeds.

[Zone9b]

Beans a plenty this spring. 10 varieties planted, Picked 7 varieties yesterday late. Froze 16 quarts today and saved Tobacco Worm variety to try fresh. I Hope to have had frozen a minimum of 50
quarts total by the end of the season.
Larry

[Zone9b]

My Castle Dome Broccoli harvest is finished. The variety was extremely early for me. The variety is said to be 50 dtm. However, for me I picked the first head at 37 days and the last at 46 days. Head size averaged 10 to 11 ounces. Taste was quite good.
I should pick my first head of Lieutenant variety this week and Premium Crop variety is starting to head.
I you would like to read further details please see the thread My First Broccoli page 3.
http://www.tomatoville.com/showthrea...423#post556423

Larry

[Barb_FL]

Larry - Thanks for the broccoli update. I picked a few more shoots yesterday from the Packmans.

Great bean harvest; maybe next year; need to look into when to plant, etc.

[maxjohnson]

This is the end. Just after that one day of heavy rain whiteflies arrived in mass number in my garden, I guess it's the beginning of the season for them. It certainly wasn't from my garden, this is like a massive population that came out of nowhere and landing on every single plant I'm growing. I give up.

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by maxjohnson

This is the end. Just after that one day of heavy rain whiteflies arrived in mass number in my garden, I guess it's the beginning of the season for them. It certainly wasn't from my garden, this is like a massive population that came out of nowhere and landing on every single plant I'm growing. I give up.

Yellow sticky traps. They are highly attracted to the yellow color.

[alexita]

Originally Posted by maxjohnson

This is the end. Just after that one day of heavy rain whiteflies arrived in mass number in my garden, I guess it's the beginning of the season for them. It certainly wasn't from my garden, this is like a massive population that came out of nowhere and landing on every single plant I'm growing. I give up.

You had a great run! I loved your photos and I'm sure you loved eating all those tomatoes.

My whitefly numbers are surprisingly still manageable, but growing. And I had a bunch of transplant-sized younguns that are one-by-one succumbing to russet mites, but that's another story altogether. Tomatoes are on a death mission and S FL is all too willing to help them.

[Barb_FL]

After the huge rain, our temperatures went do to 60 at night (for 4 nights) but I don't see any new fruit being set. Beginning of the end of season here too.

I started pulling some plants; mainly dwarfs - if there isn't already a flower or bud, there is no way a tomato will have time to develop.

Found my first pickle worms this season in all the cukes on the Snow plant. Leaves of plant still look really good and healthy. The other 2 plants (the beta is much older, looks much worse, but no pickle worms), the Sweet Success is much younger and not even throwing off flowers - it had 8 cukes really fast and only a couple on the branch. No pickle worms there either.

Tonight I'm going to spray with BT and then cover the plants with Tulle.

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Marsha - I want to run something by you so stay tuned. I took a picture and will upload it later.

[Allisa]

Originally Posted by Fiishergurl

Here are the first of my larger sized tomatoes starting to ripen. The heart shaped are Sgt Peppers and i think they will turn more red.
Ginny

Amazing pics!!! I've never seen antho hearts. Could you tell, please, where you've got the seeds of Sgt Peppers? I'm in love with heart shaped tomatoes. How do they taste?