Hey Fellow Floridians - Year 2

[Barb_FL]

Originally Posted by Fiishergurl

Barb,

Why do you have the grow bag in the collander?

The pictures are very helpful.. .. :-)

Ginny

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I have the colander in the grow bag so there is less wicking. I'm adding the colander now on all bottom watering.

I have the Walmart bag in the laundry basket so I can stake better (hard to believe - haha ) and better support.

Laundry basket and colanders both bought at Dollar Tree $1 each. Laundry baskets don't last more than a couple of seasons. However, the $.50 Walmart bag seems to last several years.

I ran out of Root Pouches when that was planted so it must have been January/February.

Going forward, I'm just staying with the root pouches since the Laundry basket doesn't last and looks like crap. Together they are the same price as a 3-4 year root pouch.

On the cheap, I've also taken the Toll House Cookie Dough Tubs and drill holes on the bottom and side and used these as the 'colander'. They last forever...

====
Cucumber update - picked #223 - 230 today. DH said plant 100 seeds and can stop world hunger.

Marsha - the Sweet Success plant has grown past the 4' cage. I can no longer tell which plant was the runt. Lots of tiny buds (future cucumbers) on them. I did not notice the last time I grew SS. I hope they hold off from flowering for 4 more weeks. Picture to follow in my Florida Gardening thread.

[Fiishergurl]

Barb

You have the magic touch with cucmbers. I havent had much luck with them.

Ok thats was a laundry basket that I thought was a collander... :-)

I understand now.

Ginny

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[Fiishergurl]

Canned some salsa....

Made two batches. 8 cups of tomatoes in each bowl draining the juices...



Firgot to take a picture of both plates of diced up goodies but here is one of them


Cooked it all for 10 minutes


Filled the jars and boiled them for 10 minutes..


Finished product..
Sweet & mild salsa on the right. Spicy, no sugar on the left.




First time I canned anything. It was pretty easy.

Thanks again Marsha for the recipe.

Ginny

[ginger2778]

I've been canning for 3-4 years now. It opens up so many doors once you get that skill. OK, Ginny, time to graduate to homemade ketchup, sweetened mostly with blond raisins? This recipe also has ginger. It's so much better than the store bought high fructose corn syrup stuff, once you try it, you'll never go back. Excellent on those rosemary oven fries when they are crisped up in the toaster oven the next day.
Posting now so I don't lose this, I'll be right back with the recipe.

OK, here it is: http://www.vegrecipesofindia.com/tom...-tomato-sauce/

I use a food mill on the large holed disc much faster than straining, I don't add any sodium benzoate.
Great recipe, I have made it 4 times.

[Zone9b]

Originally Posted by Barb_FL

I have the colander in the grow bag so there is less wicking. I'm adding the colander now on all bottom watering.
I have the Walmart bag in the laundry basket so I can stake better (hard to believe - haha ) and better support.
Laundry basket and colanders both bought at Dollar Tree $1 each. Laundry baskets don't last more than a couple of seasons. However, the $.50 Walmart bag seems to last several years.
I ran out of Root Pouches when that was planted so it must have been January/February.
Going forward, I'm just staying with the root pouches since the Laundry basket doesn't last and looks like crap. Together they are the same price as a 3-4 year root pouch.
On the cheap, I've also taken the Toll House Cookie Dough Tubs and drill holes on the bottom and side and used these as the 'colander'. They last forever...
====
Cucumber update - picked #223 - 230 today. DH said plant 100 seeds and can stop world hunger.
Marsha - the Sweet Success plant has grown past the 4' cage. I can no longer tell which plant was the runt. Lots of tiny buds (future cucumbers) on them. I did not notice the last time I grew SS. I hope they hold off from flowering for 4 more weeks. Picture to follow in my Florida Gardening thread.

Barb_FL,
You have to be one of Tomatoville's most enterprising gardeners.
Larry

[Fiishergurl]

Marsha,

Thanks for the ketchup recipe. Will have to try that one also. And i still have to find time to get a smoker and smoke tomayoes and cheese... lol. And work full time and take care of family and so on and so on.. lol.

Hey do you have any notes or remember how productive Wes has been for you?

I'm asking because the one I'm growing here had about 15 tomatoes then quit setting fruit. Most of my plants here did that due to low sunlight. But after i pruned and topped them and left only the mature yellow blossoms but got rid off all suckers and green blossoms it set 24 new tomatoes so far which are growing.pretty quickly now. The 15 previous tomatoes are mostly all mature green ready to break color any day. I'm wondering if this is an excessive amout of tomatoes for a plant like Wes that has such large fruit. Thinking of trying this pruning suckers and topping thing at home when my plants slow down on setting fruit and timing it for when there are a lot of mature yellow blossoms. In the past I mostly just pruned for air flow.

Most of my plants here set a whole new round of tomatoes when i topped and pruned the suckers and they had petered out and were not setting new ones for a while prior to doing that. Things that make you go hmmmm.

Ginny





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[Fiishergurl]

Originally Posted by Zone9b

Barb_FL,
You have to be one of Tomatoville's most enterprising gardeners.
Larry

Totally agree.. :-)

She is our experiment/lab person too and so good at it!!

Ginny

[Zone9b]

[QUOTE=Fiishergurl;583125]Marsha,

Thanks for the ketchup recipe. Will have to try that one also. And i still have to find time to get a smoker and smoke tomayoes and cheese... lol. And work full time and take care of family and so on and so on.. lol.

Hey do you have any notes or remember how productive Wes has been for you?

I'm asking because the one I'm growing here had about 15 tomatoes then quit setting fruit. Most of my plants here did that due to low sunlight. But after i pruned and topped them and left only the mature yellow blossoms but got rid off all suckers and green blossoms it set 24 new tomatoes so far which are growing.pretty quickly now. The 15 previous tomatoes are mostly all mature green ready to break color any day. I'm wondering if this is an excessive amout of tomatoes for a plant like Wes that has such large fruit. Thinking of trying this pruning suckers and topping thing at home when my plants slow down on setting fruit and timing it for when there are a lot of mature yellow blossoms. In the past I mostly just pruned for air flow.

Most of my plants here set a whole new round of tomatoes when i topped and pruned the suckers and they had petered out and were not setting new ones for a while prior to doing that. Things that make you go hmmmm.

Ginny

I'd very much like to know how topping and pruning suckers, etc late in the season works here in Florida.
Thanks,
Larry

[Fiishergurl]

Larry,

I'm definitely doing to try it if leaf diseases dont take the fall plants down first. The fall in Oak Hill is normally very wet. The difference here is I have no leaf diseases yet so the plants are super healthy but I guess werent getting enough energy to set more fruit untill I got rid of all that excess baggage. I know people say thats the case anyways but I was surprised at how much new fruit they set so quickly. And i would think that topping them meant no more tomatoes but it was the opposite.

Ginny



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[Fiishergurl]

Barb,

I had left over ingredienta after canning so I made the fresh and salsa recipe you had sent me. It is delicious and so easy! The picture doesnt do it justice. We are going to have it this afternoon with home made guac and a movie... :-)



This forum and all its peeps are so awesome.. :-)

Ginny

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by Fiishergurl

Marsha,

Thanks for the ketchup recipe. Will have to try that one also. And i still have to find time to get a smoker and smoke tomayoes and cheese... lol. And work full time and take care of family and so on and so on.. lol.

Hey do you have any notes or remember how productive Wes has been for you?

I'm asking because the one I'm growing here had about 15 tomatoes then quit setting fruit. Most of my plants here did that due to low sunlight. But after i pruned and topped them and left only the mature yellow blossoms but got rid off all suckers and green blossoms it set 24 new tomatoes so far which are growing.pretty quickly now. The 15 previous tomatoes are mostly all mature green ready to break color any day. I'm wondering if this is an excessive amout of tomatoes for a plant like Wes that has such large fruit. Thinking of trying this pruning suckers and topping thing at home when my plants slow down on setting fruit and timing it for when there are a lot of mature yellow blossoms. In the past I mostly just pruned for air flow.

Most of my plants here set a whole new round of tomatoes when i topped and pruned the suckers and they had petered out and were not setting new ones for a while prior to doing that. Things that make you go hmmmm.

Ginny

Ginny, Wes was very productive for me, but I never get the amount of frui set that you do. Even with my vegibee.
About the pruning and more fruit setting, most of my tomatoes quit setting new fruit until the previous round is off the plant. But not all.....

[Fiishergurl]

I dont think last year was a good test for the vegibee because your weather was so bad. If your weather is better this year I'll bet you will get a much better result with it.

Thanks for the info on Wes.

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[Fiishergurl]

Heres the fruit set Im going for... lol. Just kidding. This is a hydroponic, hermetically sealed, climate controlled, gas controlled, greenhouse operation over seas some where. (Not really hermetically sealed... just made that up for effect).

Ginny

[maxjohnson]

Too excited not to post this. Sungold growing in Dr. Earth potting soil and part shade.

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by Fiishergurl

I dont think last year was a good test for the vegibee because your weather was so bad. If your weather is better this year I'll bet you will get a much better result with it.

Thanks for the info on Wes.

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I really do hope we will get better weather, but the forecast is for hotter than normal winter due to La Nina, and the Bermuda high pressure zone.