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Old October 2, 2014   #16
kayrobbins
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Most of us that are not on the coast do not have the white sand but Florida soil is not the best. I haul in loads of horse manure and add lots of compost. When my gardening friends that have lived in other places start whining about how hard it is to grow in our soil I have to remind them we can amend soil and there is not a day of the year that I cannot walk out to my garden and have something fresh to harvest. I can't grow tomatoes all year but there are only about 3 months that I have to go without.
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Old October 2, 2014   #17
carolyn137
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Try adding some baking soda to your soil if you experience sephoria or any of the soil viruses. My grandfather taught me that. 1/2 tsp for 1 gallon of water. Do that twice a week. Baking soda helps with eliminating soil born viruses.

&&&&&

Just a couple of comments that I hope will help.

I think you meant Septoria Leaf Spot, not Sephoria and Septoria is a fungal foliage disease that is spread by wind and embedded in raindrops. It is not a soilborne disease although if plants in a previus season have had Septoria the spores can drop to the soil and then the next season can be splashed back up on the lower foliage. But all new infections are airborne.

Viruses are obligate intracelluar parasites and need a live cell to infect and replicate. They are spread by various insect vectors depending on the specific tomato disease and are not soilborne.

Most viral tomato diseases are found in the warmer regions since the insect vectors are not present in the northern areas. And the presence of them in any region can vary for any season, depending on whether or not the insect vectors are present.

Summary? Septoria is transmitted via air and is not a soilborne disease and viral diseases are not soilborne either for they are transmitted by specific insect vectors depending on the specific disease.

Hope that helps,

Carolyn
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Old October 2, 2014   #18
Fiishergurl
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Here are some pictures of my plants that I took this morning...

uploadfromtaptalk1412259589801.jpg

Bloody Butcher.... about 50 tomatoes total on 2 plants. More dropped blossoms than tomatoes. The tomatoes that are there all set during a two week "good weather" phase a few weeks ago.

uploadfromtaptalk1412260041521.jpg

Black Cherry


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Lettuce.... first time ever growing lettuce... :-)


uploadfromtaptalk1412260248140.jpg

PBTD and Ugly Ripe

uploadfromtaptalk1412260335760.jpg

Everglades and Surpriz planted in the ground on top of fish heads and carcasses, earthworm castings, eggshelles, bonemeal, aspirin, organic fertilizer, dirt, and mykos michorryzae (sp?).

We have lots more plants but most of them are at about the same stage as the PBTD and Ugly Ripe posted above. Not much fruit set yet besides a few here and there.

Thanks Carolyn for the explanation and thanks everyone for the input and feedback. Love to see what everyone is doing and compare notes.

Ginny

Last edited by Fiishergurl; October 2, 2014 at 11:40 AM.
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Old October 2, 2014   #19
Fiishergurl
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Hey Gardenboy - do you have any pictures of the early stages of curly leaf virus on your plants? I have some with leaves curling some at the top but wasn't sure if it was something to worry about or just from all the rain making the leaves grow funny because they are wet too much of the time.

Ginny
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Old October 2, 2014   #20
Fiishergurl
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AlittleSalt View Post
Floridians, I took one trip to Florida back in 1987. I was 22 years old. The trip was to move my AF Vet brother to Fort Lauderdale from here in Texas. I was newly married, but my brother was insistent that I view some of the cool things about Florida. Of course, my wife was by my side, and together we saw Disney world/land, a topless doughnut shop, and the Doll House in Fort Lauderdale. I wasn't impressed by any.

What did impress me was the white soil. We went down I 75 and up I 95 and everywhere was white soil. Back then, I only thought about my wife, career, and starting a new family. Yet, those white sands growing orange trees - really caught my attention.

Sorry it's a little TMI, but I was impressed. Do you guys grow tomatoes in that white soil alone or do you need to add other things?
I agree with you. I don't like those parts of Florida either. But we are right on the water and we can dip net for shrimp and the shrimp here are some of the tastiest anywhere. We eat some of the shrimp we catch and use some for bait. We catch fish that we eat and then we use the carcasses in our crab traps to catch fresh crab. We don't even eat seafood at restaurants anymore because there is no comparison to the freshness we have. Kind of like comparing home grown tomatoes to grocery store. We also have stone crabs here. We follow all the laws for catch quantities and only keep what we will eat and try to use the remains some way too. I know a lot of people think why bother with the fish carcasses in the ground but we put ours two feet down a few weeks ago and so far the racoons have gotten into our outside garbage but left the plants alone and they are growing great so far.

Anyways, I digress. It's the parts of Florida that many people don't get to enjoy that my husband and I really love. We love to go camping on the pretty rivers around here too.

The soil... well basically it is bad and even when it's good because then you still have all the bugs and diseases. Nematodes, cut worms, soil diseases etc. My mom has a raised bed and we tried to grow tomatoes for years and never knew what we were doing wrong. Thanks to this site and others, this year I planted disease resistant plants in her raised bed and they are doing great so far. In years past when we would plant tomatoes they would keel over not too long after planting. The sting of defeat would stay in our memory a couple of years before we would forget and then try again with the same results.. lol.


My moms tomato harvest thia morning from container tomatoes.




My moms plants in her raised bed. Just planted two weekends ago.


Of course she isn't on the water. She is in the center of the state in Orange Grove territory and she has good soil... composted horse manure mixed in, etc and with the disease resistant hybrids I put in there, we are hoping she will get some nice tomatoes.

Ginny

Last edited by Fiishergurl; October 2, 2014 at 12:15 PM.
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Old October 2, 2014   #21
Gardenboy
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Default Curley Leaf Virus

Sorry, I don't have a way to take any pictures at the moment. Curly leaf virus usually affects the top of the plant. Stems become very thick and the leaves are curled and almost thorny like in appearance. Some of the leaves will even turn a light purple color. U can google curly leaf virus and check out some of the pictures online to compare. Curly leaf virus will stop the growth of the plant and the top stems will become very thick.
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Old October 2, 2014   #22
Fiishergurl
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Yeah I did look but the pictures I found showed the plants more in the advanced stages.

My problem might be these two plants arent staked yet. They both have septoria so thats why so many bottom leaves are pruned off. Mulch is going on them this weekend and I will stake today... not enough time

See pictures... the stems are double and fused

One is a Daniel Burson and one is a Cherokee Purple.... both grown from seed...

uploadfromtaptalk1412272209876.jpg

uploadfromtaptalk1412272239191.jpg

uploadfromtaptalk1412272262248.jpg
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Old October 2, 2014   #23
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Here are 8 Earthboxes and 2 home-made containers (sitting on bricks in the bottom of the bunny cage) with the netpots giving water: they were pushed out of the sun; 4 have the OLD plants from last season; After days of rain, they are hiding from the brutal sun.

My backyard is SOOOO hot; it is 20 degrees hotter than the front yard; now I know why I can grow cukes in Jan/Feb.

On the 3rd pic, there are 3 more Earthboxes (one not shown) and another home made one in the bunny cage.


Ginny; How did you get the comments in between the pics?
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Old October 2, 2014   #24
Fiishergurl
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You're plants are so big! Way cool.

As far as the pictures, after I insert one, I click at the end of the url or attachment (depending if you are doing it from your computer or phone) and press enter a couple of times. Then type some info, then post another picture, etc.

Ginny
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Old October 2, 2014   #25
Fiishergurl
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Barb

I blew up your last picture... yellow sticky traps will get rid of the leaf miners (thanks Marsha!) and you can make home made ones really cheap.

Ginny
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Old October 3, 2014   #26
Fiishergurl
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uploadfromtaptalk1412333915199.jpg
I'm so excited. Just in the last couple of days the petals have been dropping and leaving behind beautiful little tomatoes rather than tiny pin head toms or blossom drops. The rain has slowed down and the highs are below 90. Yay!

Pictured above is Blush with its first tomato. And the PBTD had 5 toms on it now instead of just 1. Black Cherry, Bloody Butcher, Stupice, Juane Flamme, and Sun Gold are winning the race with quantity.

uploadfromtaptalk1412334886531.jpg

The plants pictured above would be twice that thick if I hadn't thinned them for better airflow.

Ginny

Last edited by Fiishergurl; October 3, 2014 at 07:18 AM.
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Old October 3, 2014   #27
Fiishergurl
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Barb - how do you keep your plants going through the summer. Do you move tty hem out of the rain? My summer plants all bit the dust.

Ginny
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Old October 3, 2014   #28
Barb_FL
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Hi Ginny,

Excellent on the tomatoes; It just must be a couple of degrees cooler at night where you live to have the fruit set. Do you live by Daytona? Daytona is 1.5 hours from me; but it takes 20 minutes to get to I-95.

Yes, the Earthboxes and the homemade sw containers are dragged in and out. I really try not to let the leaves of the old (last year's plants get wet). So if it starts pouring and they are out; they are the first to go in.

Everything else gets wet; my pepper plants just in root pouches or raised bed live for years; same with eggplant. I have eggplants in a raised bed that was covered with some bug and ants everywhere; the ladybugs came in and cleaned them up. The plant is so healthy now;
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Old October 3, 2014   #29
Barb_FL
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Besides the tomatoes, I have 8 raised beds - 2 are dedicated to asparagus, a bunch strawberries, peppers, eggplants. One is empty and will grow cauliflower when it gets cooler. I grow cauliflower and broccoli in the ground too; they were much bigger than container grown so I won't bother with that. Lettuce and BokChoi are so easy to grow; I grew Malabar and NewZealand spinach this summer; I prefer Malabar. The bugs got the NZ.

I'm always trying something new in the garden;
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Old October 3, 2014   #30
kayrobbins
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Barb I am so glad to see another Floridian growing asparagus. So many people are convinced we can't grow it. It has done well for me. I talked the local extension office into letting me plant a small bed a few years ago as a test. It did well enough that I got to plant asparagus in 12x28 area in their demonstration garden. I think that will help visitors see they really can grow it.

Fishergurl, I am glad you started this thread. It is so nice to talk with other Florida gardeners about our challenges and successes..
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