Hey Fellow Floridians - Year 2

Thanks! It was hard to move away from soil/compost but I’m really liking this 5-1-1 mix.

I prefer the larger containers as they are more stable, plus the tomato cages fit into them nicely.

This has been the best spring growing season in a long time.

General tomato and pepper growing area, with pole and bush beans, cukes and remaining chard squeezed in.

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by PlainJane

This has been the best spring growing season in a long time.

General tomato and pepper growing area, with pole and bush beans, cukes and remaining chard squeezed in.

Everything looks so wonderful. Mine are all shriveling in the heat. And to make it worse, we had such a rainy weather February that instead of blooming, my mango decided to put out new limb growth, so no mangoes this summer. For a mango to bloom it needs dryness stress at just the right time. Bummer!

[ginger2778]

I started to cut down tomato vines, and I'm putting my garden to bed.

[Barb_FL]

Marsha - Overall, how was your season? and compared to other years.

Plain Jane, your garden looks great.

Mine looks good now, because from the time we had the hail storm in late March, I worked on clones and reviving plants. My SunOrange was cut back once from the Russet Mites, recovered, hailed down and is now recovered again.

Marsha, did you ever notice that on the SunGolds, other Tokita varieties too, the bottom will look totally dead but have new green growth and branches that fill out and produce like a new plant. I will try to get pictures of this tomorrow. Crazy.

I think I should have a lot of tomatoes in May.

Mangoes - Are you going to have any or just not many? My Kent looked like it was loaded until it got hailed. There are a few on the southwest side, but not many and they can still easily fall off.

The ChoK aNon on the other side of the house fared much better from the hail and has mangoes, but they are not Kents. They have been failing off regularly and there are so many squirrels from my next door neighbor (and friend) that feeds them.

Originally Posted by ginger2778

I started to cut down tomato vines, and I'm putting my garden to bed.

Wow! Too bad you didn’t have the cool, dry weather we’ve had here in last 6 weeks.

Sad about the diminished mango season.

[Barb_FL]

Here are mine taken on 5/1. My comments now make no sense. The first picture had such hail damage to the stem, I can't believe it made new branches and fruit.

Tomato is TomatoBerry - a hybrid shaped like a strawberry. Vendor Tokita - Seeds from Johnnys.

UGH - Only one came out the right direction. Will delete the others and try again.

The next post - plant is the same - it was started really late; a Japanese Hybrid and was small during the hail storm. All leaves were stripped and it was a stick. Tomato is Grandeur - I have no idea how they taste.

[Barb_FL]

Lettuce too.

Looking great Barb; you’d never know your garden was wiped out such a short time ago!
- Joyce

[Barb_FL]

Joyce - Are those Texas Tomato Cages in the picture with a lot of plants?

Also what is that cage in the last picture?

Keep posting pictures as your plants mature.

[ginger2778]

Joyce and Barb, you both are making this South Florida girl very jealous. Ivsm tearing down everything except the peppers, and putting the garden to bed.

Joyce - I am interested in your cages too, I have never seen those silver ones. The area to spray and prune, and pick fruit through is really large, but also the whole cage is so sturdy.

Barb, I'm so sorry for your hail damage, but they still look amazing. You are a wonderful gardener.

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by Barb_FL

Marsha - Overall, how was your season? and compared to other years.

Plain Jane, your garden looks great.

Mine looks good now, because from the time we had the hail storm in late March, I worked on clones and reviving plants. My SunOrange was cut back once from the Russet Mites, recovered, hailed down and is now recovered again.

Marsha, did you ever notice that on the SunGolds, other Tokita varieties too, the bottom will look totally dead but have new green growth and branches that fill out and produce like a new plant. I will try to get pictures of this tomorrow. Crazy.

I think I should have a lot of tomatoes in May.

Mangoes - Are you going to have any or just not many? My Kent looked like it was loaded until it got hailed. There are a few on the southwest side, but not many and they can still easily fall off.

The ChoK aNon on the other side of the house fared much better from the hail and has mangoes, but they are not Kents. They have been failing off regularly and there are so many squirrels from my next door neighbor (and friend) that feeds them.

Sorry Barb, I just saw this. I miss getting notifications, it was really helpful. I never noticed that about the SunGolds, but this season they outlasted all the other Tokita varieties, by lots. To me they are still the champs, well maybe Sunchocola is there with them. I loved the flavor and production on Sungreen and Sunlemon, but all of a sudden they died.
My Kent might have 10 mangoes forming if I'm lucky.

Originally Posted by Barb_FL

Joyce - Are those Texas Tomato Cages in the picture with a lot of plants?

Also what is that cage in the last picture?

Keep posting pictures as your plants mature.

The galvanized cages are indeed Texas Tomato cages. Several years worth of birthday presents, lol.

The yellow ones were an experiment from this place:
http://www.tomatohelpers.com/
They are not sturdy enough for tomatoes but work ok for peppers.

Originally Posted by ginger2778

Joyce and Barb, you both are making this South Florida girl very jealous. Ivsm tearing down everything except the peppers, and putting the garden to bed.

Joyce - I am interested in your cages too, I have never seen those silver ones. The area to spray and prune, and pick fruit through is really large, but also the whole cage is so sturdy.

Barb, I'm so sorry for your hail damage, but they still look amazing. You are a wonderful gardener.

Marsha, the TT cages are just fantastic. My first set from 9 years ago are still going strong and the best thing is they fold flat for storage.
Sticker shock can be overcome by Christmas and birthdays, lol!