Hey Fellow Floridians - Year 2

[Zone9b]

Originally Posted by spyfferoni

Hi, I thought I would post here. I moved to Puerto Rico after gardening in Utah for 17 years. I thought that maybe Florida and Puerto Rico have similar issues. I would like to try growing some tomatoes and peppers here. I am not sure what other vegetables would do well. I'm sure I will be dealing with funguses, viruses, bugs, and etc I never had to worry about in dry Utah.

I have a fair amount of knowledge of what grows in Leon Nicaragua which is at a fairly low elevation. However, they grow quite a lot of crops including none grain crops such as beans, hot peppers and peanuts. I believe Nicaragua is more tropical than islands in the Northern Caribbean such as Cuba, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. These islands get a greater temperate effect during the winter than Nicaragua or other countries closer to the equator. So like South Florida the winter presents an opportunity to grow vegetables during this period. I'm guessing October thru March. I asked a person familiar with crops grown in these islands and they assured me that tomatoes and peppers are grown on all of them. Also, I was told that these vegetables grow at lower altitudes but obviously would grow better if you could get higher but higher is not always available. Also, because Puerto Rico is a much smaller island you may be close enough the the ocean to get a significant moderating affect on the temperature.
Also you may want to start with tomato varieties that offer you the best chance of success. This may include heat set varieties such as Tycoon, Skyway 687 and there are others.
Also, there are a number of other issues as to whether you grow in containers, raised beds or soil and what you use as a grow medium: soil, compost, etc. Nematodes will be an issue to deal with if you grow in the soil or your grow medium comes in contact with the soil, however many hybrid tomato varieties are nematode resistant.
Oh, and yes I think I could even grow tomatoes in Leon, Nicaragua but it wouldn't be easy.
PS: Also, you may find that you can even grow Cherry Tomatoes in the summer and they should be very easy in the winter. You may get additional information by Googling something like: "Growing tomatoes in the Yucatan". The Yucatan is also on approximately the same latitude as Puerto Rico but I'm guessing Puerto Rico is a bit better place to grow tomatoes and peppers as far as temperature goes.
Larry

[kayrobbins]

I always like to refer to information from colleges that support the extension office services. Usually if you type the college name and the subject you want you can get the document you need. But when I typed UPRM vegetable planting guides and some other things I only pulled up a few documents and not what I was trying to find. I did stumble across a Farmers Almanac article that has planting guides for different cities in Puerto Rico. It might be a place to start.
http://www.almanac.com/gardening/planting-dates/PR

[Fiishergurl]

Originally Posted by Don_Saunders

I glanced down and nearly dropped my phone. Wouldn't that be a nice set-up for my backyard! Thanks for the shock!

Hahaha... me too when I first saw it. It was all in Italian or Portuguese but I used google translate and read the details.

Welcome to the Florida thread Don!

Ginny

[Zone9b]

Originally Posted by kayrobbins

I always like to refer to information from colleges that support the extension office services. Usually if you type the college name and the subject you want you can get the document you need. But when I typed UPRM vegetable planting guides and some other things I only pulled up a few documents and not what I was trying to find. I did stumble across a Farmers Almanac article that has planting guides for different cities in Puerto Rico. It might be a place to start.
http://www.almanac.com/gardening/planting-dates/PR

Kay,
Did you give the tool available at almanac.com a try. I plugged in San Juan, PR but months given seem a lot more usable in NJ or some such place.
For example for San Juan and Tomatoes it shows:
to plant indoors mid Mar to Mid May
to plant outdoors mid May to end of June
to harvest 1st of June through the end of Oct.
I'm going to guess that normally there isn't much tomato picking going on in Puerto Rico in the middle of Summer. That's why I'd go for picking tomatoes in Puerto Rico during the middle of Winter like in South Florida.
But of course there is always the chance that somehow I am using the Almanac's tool incorrectly.
I have to give the tool a shot for Central Florida with 2 seasons, that should give it's algorithmic brain a test.
I did enter Orlando, FL and it seems to understand there are 2 seasons for Tomatoes.
Larry

[kayrobbins]

I did pick a few cities and scrolled down to look at when they said to plant tomato seeds, set them out and then the harvest period. They are all about a month later than I would plant and I was surprised to not see 2 seasons for tomatoes like we have. I also looked at their weather history for the month of July and it seems like the heat and humidity is very much like what we have.

[efisakov]

Originally Posted by kayrobbins

I did pick a few cities and scrolled down to look at when they said to plant tomato seeds, set them out and then the harvest period. They are all about a month later than I would plant and I was surprised to not see 2 seasons for tomatoes like we have. I also looked at their weather history for the month of July and it seems like the heat and humidity is very much like what we have.

Same here, I plant my tomatoes almost a month earlier than the recommended date.

[Zone9b]

Originally Posted by kayrobbins

I did pick a few cities and scrolled down to look at when they said to plant tomato seeds, set them out and then the harvest period. They are all about a month later than I would plant and I was surprised to not see 2 seasons for tomatoes like we have. I also looked at their weather history for the month of July and it seems like the heat and humidity is very much like what we have.

Kay,
When do you transplant most of your tomato plants into the garden for the fall season?
Last year I put most of mine in around September 15th. This year they will be ready a bit earlier. I have a few heat set plants that are ready and I may transplant them this weekend. The rest I was thinking about the end of first week in September, but I would like to know what you or others are doing. I'm not hung up on the dates I put them in, it is just when I got to it. Maybe earlier or later would be better. I'd like to hear what you are doing and when others transplant their tomatoes as well.
Larry

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by Zone9b

Kay,
When do you transplant most of your tomato plants into the garden for the fall season?
Last year I put most of mine in around September 15th. This year they will be ready a bit earlier. I have a few heat set plants that are ready and I may transplant them this weekend. The rest I was thinking about the end of first week in September, but I would like to know what you or others are doing. I'm not hung up on the dates I put them in, it is just when I got to it. Maybe earlier or later would be better. I'd like to hear what you are doing and when others transplant their tomatoes as well.
Larry

Do you still get frosts where you are Larry, and Barb, and Ginny? We haven't had a frost in 7 years here. I plant mine out in October to go straight through until May, or even June.

[Zone9b]

Originally Posted by ginger2778

Do you still get frosts where you are Larry, and Barb, and Ginny? We haven't had a frost in 7 years here. I plant mine out in October to go straight through until May, or even June.

In the winter of 15/16 light frosts but nothing heavy enough to do any damage. In the Winter of 14/15 we had 1 freeze hard enough to damage plants. A couple of places in my general area lost their Banana trees. If we get La Nina this winter it may keep us on the warm side.
Larry

[ginger2778]

I just found a very great price on ebay for my favorite indelible markers. I have been using these for years and they don't fade. Here, less than $2 each plus free shipping. I have been paying about $3.50 each at my local garden store.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/271558382969

[Barb_FL]

Originally Posted by ginger2778

Do you still get frosts where you are Larry, and Barb, and Ginny? We haven't had a frost in 7 years here. I plant mine out in October to go straight through until May, or even June.

No freezes here either; I can't remember the last one so 7 years might be right for us too.

I'm starting a few seeds while I'm away on 8/20 but will sow the rest when I get back prior to Sept 1.

I do the final transplants in October. Last year my first fruit set was around October 15, 60 days after sowing. It was Garden Gem.

I want to try to keep at least half my plants going for one long season like Marsha does. This makes me think, why the rush sowing so early.

I also want to grow less plants but there are so many I want to try. How many container plants is everyone growing?

[Fiishergurl]

Originally Posted by ginger2778

Do you still get frosts where you are Larry, and Barb, and Ginny? We haven't had a frost in 7 years here. I plant mine out in October to go straight through until May, or even June.

Marsha I Have only had very light frosts that do not do any damage in the 4 years at Oak Hill. No freezes or hard frosts.

My main reason for not being able to grow the same plants all winter is the RV Park fills up in winter and there is nothing but shade and with the humidity the dew on the plants stays wet for hours on end almost every day. If I put them out closer to the water in the back yard where there is full sun, the relentless howling winds damage them too much no matter how well they are caged or staked or tied. The blossoms get blown to bits. The bay across from us has the wind effect of a large lake. So I do better growing two seasons and starting a second round of new plants in December to set out in February as the winter plants get too much leaf disease by about January.

Ginny

[Fiishergurl]

I cant wait to go home... :-)

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk

[Fiishergurl]

Barb,

I'm growing about 20 plants myself and then neighbors grow about another 10 to 15 that I set up for them.

How many are you growing?

What are your faves to repeat and what are new exciting ones?

Ginny

[kayrobbins]

Larry, I plant my tomatoes around mid August. I use to wait until September but we do get occasional freezes here so I like to get a head start to get as many tomatoes as possible. As long as I have them properly hardened off I don't worry about the heat because that is not an issue until they are blooming.