Firsts of The Season - A September Recap

Our daytime temperatures are in the middle 80F and it's cooling off at night at a balmy 75F so consequently the growth in the veggie garden has really accelerated. The abundant, daily rainfall is kind of helpful too.
As a 'recap' to my previous post,

To View Go here: Firsts of The Season - A September Preview

today.... I am showing a progress report on what is shaping up to be a bumper crop this year aka 'a whole of digging going on.'

First up Tomatoes:
Sweet 'n' Neat Hybrid Tomato (Determinate) has lots of little blossoms and vigorous, healthy growth. This little tomato can be grown on a patio in a 10" pot, but I transplanted mine in in a 3 gallon pot for optimum root development.

Sweet n Neat

Early Girl 50 Days

The Early Girl - 50 days - Hybrid (Indeterminate), has grown another 6" since my "September Preview" post and, true to its name, has little tomatoes developing, which I anticipate harvesting maybe last week of October.

Tip Time: I want to pass along two tips that I think have contributed to the rapid and vigorous growth of the above two plants. I dig in used coffee grounds around the plant and have watered the whole plant (leaves and all) with a diluted solution of Epsom salts. Bonemeal incorporated into the soil at planting will result in good yields.

Heatwave II and Brandywine

Cherokee

I planted Cherokee, Heatwave II and Brandywine tomato seeds on 9-13 and they are already up, although are a teeny bit spindly, so I will have to remember to brush my hand over the seedlings to strengthen them. I have also taken to sprinkling a little cinnamon powder over the tiny seedling to prevent damping off. Evidently Chamomile tea is also a preventative for this fungal soil disease. More information regarding this can be found by clicking here: Damping Off Problems

I didn't have a great deal of luck with the Cherokee last year, but I'm game for another try. I will not be growing either Roma or Solar Fire this year. Heatwave II and Brandywine are new and exciting additions to our garden. We also have my favorite Lemon Boy coming along nicely.

Eggplant: A pretty flower of two weeks ago has developed into fruit.

Ichiban Eggplant

This hybrid variety is a prolific producer. The skin is quite thin and the flesh is sweet and delicious.

I'm not sure why the lizard decided to pose on it.

You can buy transplants now at any big box outlet and plant them for a reliable crop within 2 - 3 weeks.

Burpless Cuke with Radish Seedlings

On the left we have Burpless Cuke with seedlings of Radish - Cherry Belle -surrounding it. The Radishes have a two-fold promise, they should be ready in 22 days and are reported to keep the dreaded cuke beetle off...

Calabaza

The Calabaza I mentioned in my previous post was a mere 5" back then and draped all over the bottlebrush. Now we need two hands to hold it and it's evident by the 12" ruler how fast these grow. I did removed the vines since the dinner plate size leaves were filtering the sunlight much needed for the tomatoes.

After

Our raised veggie bed installed last month now has transplants of Broccoli and Blue Lake Beans. The Ichiban Eggplant also shares the space. I have Nasturtiums planted in there because they look lovely in the vegetable garden.

Here's a photo of the raised veggie bed - before and after.

Before

For planting times of some popular Florida vegetables visit my post: Ready Pot Grow....

In Zone 10, you can get going now seedlings of all Peppers, Broccoli, Radish, Brussels sprouts, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Corn, and Eggplants. 

Probably better to wait on sowing cooler vegetables like Spinach, Lettuces, Peas, Celery and Arugula until last week in October.

Firsts of The Season - A September Preview

My Florida Gardening Season is now underway and I wanted to highlight some of my ‘firsts’ of the season.

Left: Seedlings of Lemon Boy tomato (seed planted 8-20), and Ichiban Eggplant (seed planted 8-3). Both from seeds I harvested myself.

Left - Sweet 'n' Neat tomato that I bought a month ago as a transplant now has some little buds on it. It's a Determinate variety and will grow in a 10" pot, so ideal for a patio veggie garden. 

The Early Girl is flowering (right). This tomato is really thriving at almost 14” taller than when I bought the transplant. Early Girl is an Indeterminate variety and we should have some yummy tomatoes before Thanksgiving.

The Ichiban eggplant has one pretty, little flower.

The Sweet Bell Pepper below is showing signs of vigorous growth. I can almost taste that salsa I'll be making soon.

Now the temperatures are around 75F at night, I have also planted seeds of broccoli (Packman), and also some Oak Leaf lettuce - both from self harvested seeds.
In addition I have Cherokee, Brandywine and Heatwave II tomato seeds waiting to germinate. I bought the Heatwave II from Reimers.
View my previous blog for seed sources - link below.

Ready, Pot, Grow......

But my piece de resistance is the abundance of little Calabaza squashes (below) that are draped all over the bottlebrush. They are about 5” long.

This very hot pepper plant (read scorching hot) has revived itself. The label at Home Depot reads Jalapeno, but I don’t think so. I believe they are Tabasco. We can’t eat them anyway, but a certain type of bird visiting in the summer (now since migrated) just couldn’t get enough of them. I really don’t know what to do with them, but they remind me of little Christmas lights on the tree for some reason.




Have you started your Florida Vegetable Garden yet?  What "firsts" do you have  going growing on in your garden?

My Summer Veggie Garden Rests - A Summary

I was pleasantly surprised this year by the amount of produce the garden yielded. Between whitefly infestations, aphids, powdery mildew, ants in my pots, munching lubbers and hornworms, squash borers, flea beetles, and sparse rainfalll, 2012 was a winner...No really it was!

The above picture is an example of a twice a week picking (March through June.) Just double the tomato and broccoli count.


As a general guide for other Zone 10 South Florida gardeners, my garden harvests were ready to pick as follows:


Nov - May      Broccoli (Packman)
Dec - June     Ichiban Eggplant, Sweet 100 Hybrid Cherry, 
                   and Lemon Boy Tomats
Jan - May      Bush Beans, Cherokee Tomats, Roma (Juliet) Tomats,
                   Big Beef Tomats, Black Beauty and Hansel Eggplant
                   varieties, Red Leaf Lettuce, Oakleaf Lettuce, Arugula,
                   & Bok Choi
March           Cauliflower              
April - June    Radish (Riviera)
June - Aug     Finally the onions I planted back December ripened.


What didn't do well at all this year: Spinach, Zucchinis, Carrots, Squash, Solar Fire (variety Heirloom) Tomat, and Cucumber. The Artichoke failed completely - although, while it lasted, it made an attractive accent to the garden with its spreading, silvery gray and feathery foliage. I think I'll just consider it an ornamental next season.


Eggplant: This was my first year growing eggplants. I tried 3 varieties: Ichiban, Black Beauty and Hansel. Next season I will just grow Ichiban and Black Beauty.

Six things come to mind immediately.

Black Beauty

 1) They need a really big pot 2) Lots of regular feeding with fish emulsion 3) Plenty of water 4) A large tomato cage right from the start, cos they grow BIG, and the vines with fruit on are heavy, and need to be supported 5) Watch for whitefly infestations 6) Have plenty of friends and family that love eggplant because you will probably not be able to eat them all!

Ichiban

Millet: We have three birds, two Maroon-bellied Conures and a Lovebird. So May and June I grew our own millet. Take store bought millet and sprinkle seeds in the ground/pot and watch those grasses pop up. They didn't grow as large as store bought millet, but the birds loved them, even in their slightly green stage. But then my birds love everything, including, but not limited to: shredded cheese, sea grapes, apples, strawberries, scrambled egg (with cumin), cheerios, bacon, marigolds, hibiscus, coriander seeds, peanuts, yoghurt, pizza crust, and sips of orange juice...whew!

Tomatoes: I tried four different varieties of tomato this year. In addition to my prolific producers Lemon Boy, and Roma Juliet, I added:
Sweet 100 Cherry -----  fruits are so sweet and juicy and makes for great snacking while working in the garden. No problems with this tomato. I grew it in a pot and it was fine.
Big Beef -------- great tasting tomatoes, deep red, very juicy - watch for hornworms early, it was nearly wiped out by them and took a month to come back. Fruit is a little slow to set but worth it. I'll just plant two or three next time. I also grew this one in a pot and was very pleased with yield.
Cherokee ------ an Heirloom, yet not a producer in my garden, although the flavor is amazing, so I'll persevere. Grown in the ground with plenty of compost, feeding and mulch.
Solar Fire ----- an Heirloom and supposed to be well suited to warmer climates. We had maybe 3 little tomatoes and it faded away. Grown in the ground, as above.
Next season I will be dropping Solar Fire and Roma Juliet and growing Brandywine (Heirloom) Yellow and Red varieties and Heatwave II.


Peppers: In previous years we had bumper crops of Sweet Bell and Banana type peppers, not so this year. My consolation prize was that we had hundreds of Jalapenos, but they were so darn hot, we couldn't eat them. Luckily they did not go to waste. A unknown, migratory bird of a gray and black coloring, with a creaky-door sound as bird song goes, came to the garden every day and picked them off, one by one.


Broccoli: We had a seemingly never-ending crop of Packman broccoli from November onwards. Cut and come again with those little side shoots, divine in stir fries or omelets. My son would walk around the garden, snap off those little side shoots and eat them raw. See below for his cheeky face.

"Guilty, as charged!"

This year I am going to try another couple of Florida recommended types: Waltham 29 (large heads up to 8" across and good for freezing), and DeCicco,(whose leaves are edible like collards), maybe Calabrese too. Yep, we eat a lot of broccoli.


Onions: The onions that I planted in December 2011 were very slow to develop. I need to be more patient and give them time. I have been pulling them up in their scallion phase and chopping up for stir fries. We have a bumper crop though. Well worth the wait. Some sources online suggest pulling the earth away from the emerging bulb.

Onions

We are also growing Peanuts this year, although the pesky squirrels think they belong to them.


The Calabaza pumpkin has taken off again, although I must confess it's a bit of a nuisance and is trying to smother the Bottlebrush. The leaves are at least 5 - 8" across. I think it's very tasty, but the boys don't care for it at all.

Calabaza

The Mammoth Dill is still growing and attracting the black swallowtail, also I have Red Leaf Lettuce still thriving (who knew), along with Culantro, and hoards of Mint, Basil and Rosemary. The Marigold reseeded themselves, as did the Pineapple Sage.


I'm getting the soil ready and purchasing supplies and seeds for the upcoming Florida Veggie Season. I will be installing some raised beds this year, and of course my broccoli-eatin' son will be assisting me with that project.. yes you are!


Next Up: What I'm Planting in My Zone 10a Garden this August and Sept.

Hope Grows Day: June 2011

Hanni over at  Sweet Bean Gardening

hosts this meme and I always manage to be a bit late with my contribution.

The Frangipani has gotten too tall to photograph with any real evidence of progress. These small 'fleshy' trees root easily if a "limb" is cut off and just planted into the ground. Two years ago, I received a 6" cutting and just stuck it in some potting soil in the garden, it took a year to start growing.

Frangipani May 2011

Cane Orchid May 2011

Amazingly the Cane Orchid is still blooming! To deter the ants (that I believe were beginning to farm aphids) I used some garlic cloves and the "paper" coating from garlic cloves and that seemed to take care of the problem.

Now the temperatures have reached the 90's the Gardenias have done blooming, but we enjoyed their brief visit to our backyard paradise.

We continue to have a severe lack of water in these parts and I don't think the water from the hose is sufficient enough to aid the plants' best growth.

We will soldier on and hope our summer rains begin soon.

Armenian Cuke May 2011

Cuke June 2011

In May's post I reported on the Armenian Cucumber.  Since then this cuke has developed powdery mildew - which I have read is a combination of very hot days and cooler nights. I used a remedy which basically served to fry the cuke's leaves. The cukes still developed though and they taste great!

The peppers and tomats however survived the spray with no ill effects. 

Here is the powdery mildew recipe if you wish to give it a go.

Take a gallon container, put 2 Tablespoons baking soda and 2 Teaspoons dish soap and fill the container to the top with water and then transfer to a spray bottle. Spray leaves upside and underside on a cloudy day.

Moving right along with my June Hopes post...the Boniato (Ipomoea batata) is a member of the morning glory family. 

Boniato

Boniato May 2011

It loves to climb and climb! It is like a sweet potato that can be baked, roasted, boiled, fried, mashed et al. I tried mine as a baked potato and it was delicious. So I just picked one up from Publix, I cut it in half and kept it in the dark pantry until it had "eyes" (also known as chitting in other parts of the world), then I planted it in the first week of May and 2 weeks later a little stalk popped up. I kid you not when I say that it is currently scrambling up the trellis one inch per day.

Calabaza

Calabaza Seedling

The Calabaza is a Cuban winter squash, and is also known as Seminole Pumpkin. It is my first time growing this and it might be a little early to have started but it takes 4 months to develop. I scooped the seeds out and dried them for 5 days. Then I planted the seeds in a pot and they were up really quick. This pumpkin needs a lot of room to grow.

Last but not least, is the Chayote (Sechium edule). Aka: vegetable pear, mango squash and mirliton this vegetable is good for Florida's hot and humid climate. Plant the whole plant since the fruit is the seed. Leave the crinkled bit (the stem) exposed. They need a trellis or fence to support the 1-2lb squash. They can be creamed, buttered, fried, stuffed or baked. According to a report I read the vines are edible and taste like asparagus. I started mine off as you would a advocado seed. When I transplant it to the garden it will need protection with a cage from our (blank) gang. Fill blank with mouse, raccoon or whatever loves to eat these. When the stalk gets underway it should still be OK. The leaves are a dark green with a vining habit - like peas, beans, cukes and the boniato.

Chayote Squash

Coming soon: Cantaloupe, Fordhook Lima and Corn.

....And then an exciting update on Owl!