Hey Fellow Floridians - Year 2

[elight]

Originally Posted by Barb_FL

I love PBTD but never really read anything too positive about BTD so I've never grown it.

What I don't remember about PBTD is how late it is. Same with GGWT. I've had 2 PBTD tomatoes so far; No other PBTD and GGWT are ready.

Another one that taste similar and much earlier is Large Barred Boar. Not a huge plant either.

DH and I did a taste comparison today with LBB and Black from Tula and LBB won hands down.

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Need opinion: Do you think it will be too late to start seeds for spring on January 9th? I already started a bunch of dwarfs on December 1.

Barb, where exactly are you located? I'm on 9b and planning to start my seeds in mid-January to plant out in early-to-mid February, forecast depending of course.

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[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by captnkirk

Has been a few years since i last posted on Tomatoville but have checked in a few times and have enjoyed reading this thread.This fall was the first time in a few years i put out some tomatoes.I had 4 in a raised bed and 2 in one of my old earth boxes.Was really happy with the production and taste of 4th of July from Burpee.The other one i grew out this year was Tribute from TGS which is a TYLCV resistant variety that did produce a lot of nice baseball size tomatoes with decent flavour to me.I didn't get the dreaded virus on any plants at all this year of the 6 plants i had out.Will be growing 4th of July again in the spring.I also have 3 BushSteak from Burpee that are about 8 weeks old that i am going to try and grow through the winter.

Meet the best of the staked tomatoes—a standout for exceptional taste, size and quantity. This surprisingly compact (20-24") plant is just loaded with large, flavorful tomatoes. Well-suited for a patios, small gardens and containers, the dwarf plants offer big meaty fruit (8-12 oz.) and early maturity.

Will let you know how they do for me.

Welcome back! I remember you, yours was the first post I ever read here at Tville, in the other Florida thread from years ago.

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by elight

Barb, where exactly are you located? I'm on 9b and planning to start my seeds in mid-January to plant out in early-to-mid February, forecast depending of course.

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Down here in 10b, we start seeds around the first of December for a mid January plant out. Otherwise it gets too hot too soon to get much of a harvest. Of course this year, I am harvesting, but meager comparatively. This morning at 6:49am it was 76 degrees. The weather lady said it was 15 degrees above where we should be. And it will stay there for at least through the weekend.
I have to go out and spray, not only lots of fungus, but because the season wasn't bad enough, I now have Tomato Russet Mites. Gonna douse them( drown them) in Neem.

[captnkirk]

Originally Posted by ginger2778

Welcome back! I remember you, yours was the first post I ever read here at Tville, in the other Florida thread from years ago.

Thank you Ginger and yea the old Florida thread from years back i was just going through seems like it was not so long ago.

Barb it is good to see you still here and growing the fall toms.

Ginny i sure hated to see you lose the CP that plant was doing so well.Oh and by chance would you be a member of crappie.com?

[Barb_FL]

Welcome Captnkirk - keep us posted on your varieties. I am so glad I planted hybrids this fall.

Elight - I'm in zone 9B also; Indialantic is a coastal town off of Melbourne.
Until last year, I always sowed my spring seeds on January 1. But last year I was growing dwarfs for the first time and sowed them December 1. (I was leaving Florida for 10 days over Christmas). I sowed the rest of the seeds just before I left (inside, only natural light but a lot of it, fan on timer, had watering covered). The dwarfs did great but the other seeds must have germinated really fast and were so leggy when I returned.

The dwarfs did great and produced a lot of fruit; we only had 2 cold days in 2015 anyway.

This year I am going away even longer. I've sowed dwarfs on 12/1. And it is still so hot outside that nighttime temperatures are still not low enough for much fruit set.

Last spring my fruit set ended in early April (due to heat) when usually it is end of May. I'm hoping with the veggie-bee it will help prolong it since it seemed to work on a lot of varieties this fall.

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Marsha - is your fruit set a lot less than prior years? I actually did much better this fall than Fall of 2014 but I'm sure it was b/c I planted more hybrids.

[ginger2778]

Barb, fruit set, got cracks in the rain and heat, got worms be ause my BT was too old, then more rain snd heat- many just rotted before maturing. Now Tomato Russet Mites, so spraying with Neem, and hating this season soooo much. The seed offermight not take place if I cant get enough fruit, and from healthy plants. This stinks!

Originally Posted by Barb_FL

Welcome Captnkirk - keep us posted on your varieties. I am so glad I planted hybrids this fall.

Elight - I'm in zone 9B also; Indialantic is a coastal town off of Melbourne.
Until last year, I always sowed my spring seeds on January 1. But last year I was growing dwarfs for the first time and sowed them December 1. (I was leaving Florida for 10 days over Christmas). I sowed the rest of the seeds just before I left (inside, only natural light but a lot of it, fan on timer, had watering covered). The dwarfs did great but the other seeds must have germinated really fast and were so leggy when I returned.

The dwarfs did great and produced a lot of fruit; we only had 2 cold days in 2015 anyway.

This year I am going away even longer. I've sowed dwarfs on 12/1. And it is still so hot outside that nighttime temperatures are still not low enough for much fruit set.

Last spring my fruit set ended in early April (due to heat) when usually it is end of May. I'm hoping with the veggie-bee it will help prolong it since it seemed to work on a lot of varieties this fall.

---
Marsha - is your fruit set a lot less than prior years? I actually did much better this fall than Fall of 2014 but I'm sure it was b/c I planted more hybrids.

[MarlynnMarcks]

Picked 3 Bloody Butcher yesterday. As I am from Michigan, this was unheard of. Tomatoes in December!! Wow. My Homestead is full of green tomatoes and I'm looking forward to tasting them. I can't believe tomatoes in Florida can taste as good as in Michigan. I must say they are harder to grow here. No nematodes in Michigan and hardly any tomato diseases.

[Fiishergurl]

Originally Posted by captnkirk

Thank you Ginger and yea the old Florida thread from years back i was just going through seems like it was not so long ago.

Barb it is good to see you still here and growing the fall toms.

Ginny i sure hated to see you lose the CP that plant was doing so well.Oh and by chance would you be a member of crappie.com?

Hi Captnkirk,

Yes I am a member on the Crappie.com... :-) I love that forum too. I've learned lots of good places to Crappie fish from those guys and also had fun at some of the slab fests.

All my tomato plants took a huge hit from the TYLCV this fall but I hope I have the garden back in shape now... I've been working on it. I just started seeds for spring so time will tell.

Welcome back to T Ville!

Ginny

[Fiishergurl]

Originally Posted by elight

Barb, where exactly are you located? I'm on 9b and planning to start my seeds in mid-January to plant out in early-to-mid February, forecast depending of course.

Sent from my SM-G925T using Tapatalk

Hi Elight,

I'm 9B also. I have started seeds in mid December and mid January and by mid March you couldn't tell which were which because the later ones caught up in size so quickly once it warmed up in March and the plants all really took off then. So the earlier sowed ones didn't really benefit from the earlier sowing. But with this weird weather who knows what will happen. I just started mine yesterday for spring just in case January and February are unseasonably warm... :-)

Ginny

[captnkirk]

Originally Posted by Fiishergurl

Hi Captnkirk,

Yes I am a member on the Crappie.com... :-) I love that forum too. I've learned lots of good places to Crappie fish from those guys and also had fun at some of the slab fests.

All my tomato plants took a huge hit from the TYLCV this fall but I hope I have the garden back in shape now... I've been working on it. I just started seeds for spring so time will tell.

Welcome back to T Ville!

Ginny

I am not sure if you remember me but i was at one of the slab fest at Mount Dora 2 or 3 years ago.I was the one that didn't know anyone as that was the first time i met everyone.I fished a few events with them after that but then i started fishing with the Fl.Crappie Club.I am like you have learned some new honey holes and new ways to bring in more specks.

[captnkirk]

Originally Posted by Barb_FL

Welcome Captnkirk - keep us posted on your varieties. I am so glad I planted hybrids this fall.

Elight - I'm in zone 9B also; Indialantic is a coastal town off of Melbourne.
Until last year, I always sowed my spring seeds on January 1. But last year I was growing dwarfs for the first time and sowed them December 1. (I was leaving Florida for 10 days over Christmas). I sowed the rest of the seeds just before I left (inside, only natural light but a lot of it, fan on timer, had watering covered). The dwarfs did great but the other seeds must have germinated really fast and were so leggy when I returned.

The dwarfs did great and produced a lot of fruit; we only had 2 cold days in 2015 anyway.

This year I am going away even longer. I've sowed dwarfs on 12/1. And it is still so hot outside that nighttime temperatures are still not low enough for much fruit set.

Last spring my fruit set ended in early April (due to heat) when usually it is end of May. I'm hoping with the veggie-bee it will help prolong it since it seemed to work on a lot of varieties this fall.

---
Marsha - is your fruit set a lot less than prior years? I actually did much better this fall than Fall of 2014 but I'm sure it was b/c I planted more hybrids.

Thank You Barb will do.Have you moved across state?I was thinking you were on the gulf side back then.

[Barb_FL]

Originally Posted by captnkirk

Thank You Barb will do.Have you moved across state?I was thinking you were on the gulf side back then.

Must have been a different Barb. I've been at TV for < 2 years.

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Ginny - I think hedging your bets on starting some early is a good idea.

Larry - I finally have a broccoli head; and it was an F2 runt that was put in a Root Pouch that I didn't even clean up after pulling a pepper plant. The Root Pouch had a bunch of real earthworms in it.

[Fiishergurl]

Originally Posted by captnkirk

I am not sure if you remember me but i was at one of the slab fest at Mount Dora 2 or 3 years ago.I was the one that didn't know anyone as that was the first time i met everyone.I fished a few events with them after that but then i started fishing with the Fl.Crappie Club.I am like you have learned some new honey holes and new ways to bring in more specks.

Yes, I totally remember. I thought I recognized your user name... :-)

I get those email updates about the Fl Crappie Club and always enjoy looking at the results of the tournaments. Have you been to Harney this year? We've heard it's been on fire but we haven't tried it yet (keep meaning to). We did fine at Monroe a few times this year.

Good to see you here!!

Ginny

[elight]

Yeah, I agree that seedlings put out early in 9b don't seem to have much advantage and just run the risk of being lost in a late frost. I had to scramble to cover everything this past February when temps got down to 33 one night. Of course in the fall, I also had to bring everything in when I was leaving for vacation and we were supposed to get a direct hurricane hit while I was gone (we didn't).

Anyway, my plan is to start seeds around Jan. 10 and plant out between Feb. 5-15 depending on the forecast. In the past when I've started seeds more than 4 weeks ahead of time they just end up getting leggy.

Going to go with many cherries this time around due to the short spring season (learned my lesson). The fall has been a bit of a disappointment due to a combination of the very hit weather and battling pests and disease. I think after 2 years here, I finally have the disease, bug and fertilization programs understood, though.

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[Fiishergurl]

Originally Posted by elight

Yeah, I agree that seedlings put out early in 9b don't seem to have much advantage and just run the risk of being lost in a late frost. I had to scramble to cover everything this past February when temps got down to 33 one night. Of course in the fall, I also had to bring everything in when I was leaving for vacation and we were supposed to get a direct hurricane hit while I was gone (we didn't).

Anyway, my plan is to start seeds around Jan. 10 and plant out between Feb. 5-15 depending on the forecast. In the past when I've started seeds more than 4 weeks ahead of time they just end up getting leggy.

Going to go with many cherries this time around due to the short spring season (learned my lesson). The fall has been a bit of a disappointment due to a combination of the very hit weather and battling pests and disease. I think after 2 years here, I finally have the disease, bug and fertilization programs understood, though.

Sent from my SM-G925T using Tapatalk

You reminded me why I start seeds in January in addition to December. I almost wasn't going to this year (thinking I had everything under control). Silly me! Thanks for bringing this question up as a reminder. I will plan on starting another round in January, just in case!

Ginny