The Happy and the Sad

It’s been a very hectic three months since my last post. Taking a two week vacation meant that I had a lot to catch up on when we got back. I spent the two weeks after double timing it with school, which then rolled right into the next week where I had to write several papers and put together a few major presentations. Then I rolled right into finals after that. I finally got a small break mid-December when classes were finished, but then I had a “to do” list that was a mile long comprised of all the stuff I had put off during the school year.

And then my husband came home for the holidays and I sucked up every minute of time with him that I had. I also ended up having to do our books, which I did not look at since we filed the last business return in 2010! Ugh what a nightmare – never again will I let them go for that long! My husband left just after the first of the year; the last of the whole 61 days he was home this past year. I know this since I just finished our books yesterday, yay!

So today I am finally ready to get caught up with my gardening blog. I’ve been keeping records and taking pictures (not as frequently as I would have liked though). So here it is – three months of data, wow!

Last blog I left off with, we were getting ready to leave on vacation. So I will start with an overview pic of the garden plot after we returned from vacation. Thankfully everything made it through my absence.

We opted to take the shade cover down on 12/24/11 since the tomatoes needed some room to stretch. We left the conduit structure up though and actually added to it to create a roof arbor. I’m glad we did, because when the freeze came to us on 1/2/12 (low of 34) and 1/3/12 (high of 55, low of 31), it was pretty easy to just wrap the whole darn thing in sheets! It made such a huge difference in temps inside, so I made out with very little freeze damage.

The pic below was our first attempt at wrapping and it did well on 1/2/12, but then on 1/3/12 we had winds steadily blowing between 20 and 30mph and the billowing of the side sections blew portions of the roof open. Since the highs were only 55 on 1/3/12, I figured we could leave it wrapped up and see what would happen during daylight. Luckily the seriously cold temps weren’t supposed to hit until that night – test runs are a good thing!

So we went to the big box store during the day and picked up some more clips to better secure the sheets to the blocks. And then we ran twine around the whole thing a few times to stop the billowing of the side sheets. It worked like a charm – and yet I didn’t take pictures, doh! We had three people working on this though and will need to come up with an easier plan for next time. My Mom has some good thoughts.

I was able to leave the sheets on the plot during the day on 1/4/12 but opened the roof section, so the plants could get some sun and the heat inside could be released – which was good since the temps went up to 65 that day. When the temps started to drop down into the low 40s that night, it took me all of 5 minutes to close the top. It was a good thing, because we had frost the next morning. I was able to unwrap the whole plot around 10am on 1/4/12 and was very pleased to see only minor damage where tomatoes had rested against a pole or where the sheet had smacked a vine around a bit too much before we got that sorted out.

The next big challenge for me - WHITE FLY = my arch nemesis!!!! These guys have just been a royal pain in the behind!! I went on a 5 prong plan of attack on 12/8/11 after they had just completely taken over my pepper plants. It was like they appeared overnight in a swarm. So I did some research and here is what I ended up doing.

• I bought fly traps to place in the plot, which have not really done much, bleh.

• I sprayed everything with fish emulsion, because I read that the flies don’t like to lay eggs on leaves that are sprayed with it. I’ve been adding fish emulsion to the roots all along, just was not using it as a foliar spray.

• The next phase was pulling the infested pepper plants – man did they love those!

• I then pruned the tomato plants, removing any that had the white haze on them or were just really dense and creating pockets for them to hide in. That's why you will notice in any of the pics dated after 12/8/11 that my plants have some pretty naked legs. The flies seem to like the lower leaves a lot. Not sure if this is because the cement block lip actually acts as a wind block or if these guys are hanging out in the pine needles when not laying eggs on my leaves. I have to do a spot check weekly now and keep up with pruning the low leaves. The only plant that they seem to like going up into the high leaves on is the "Beefmaster" variety of tomato plant. This plant produces a lot of dense foliage and I think they hide in that.

• I finished my battle by pouring worm tea over the whole plot in order to soak the soil and roots.

Conclusion:

The serious populations have been eliminated, but I need to go out and prune the plants at least once a week to prevent any more major hatches. This really stinks! But my plants are healthy – and ready for this – that could be why the flies are so attracted to them!!!!

Now onto the happy side of things over the past two months:

I had some extra seed starts that were doing very well and survived during my vacation absence. I absolutely hate throwing away a healthy plant.  I’m very happy to say that a garden buddy came by and picked these up for dispersal in his garden as well as a few friends. Yay!

The Herbs

Upon the suggestion of an online garden buddy, I decided to pick up some herbs before we went away that I planned to plant in the holes in the cement blocks surrounding the garden when we got back. I’ve since planted them and am very excited to say that they are growing successfully! It’s going so well that I’m even going to try to grow some onions in a few of the blocks. It’s such a nice thing to harvest our own fresh herbs. I’ve been cooking a lot more and you just can’t beat the taste of fresh herbs.

I really needed to expand since my herb pot was reaching out of control status

So here we are today with a bunch of happy herbs. Most made it through the frost ok. It was difficult to wrap the plot and not hurt them. One basil looked pitiful after uncovering, but I cut it down and am hoping for the best. Some of the oregano also shows slight damage.

I’ve learned that the blocks where I am not planting anything, if I shove some pine needles in them (or twine) then it stops the weeds from growing up through them. Pulling those weeds was a chore since they were very happily fertilized, which meant they were strong! And I never knew what creepy crawly thing was going to be in that dark hole I was shoving my hand into. We’ve got scorpions running around here and luckily I was not stung, but now I need not worry!

The basil in the herb pot gave up its last breath around the end of November and so we refreshed it with some new plants. My Mom was totally bummed by the prospect of a drop off in her pesto consumption. So I needed to get some transplants in right quick!  The one in the middle there is on its way out and will need to be replaced soon, too.  We were able to harvest a ton from these plants, yet I am not sure what their life span was exactly since my neighbor was about to toss them out when I rescued them.  I'll have to try growing these from seed in the future to get an idea on what exactly we can get out of each plant in terms of harvests.

Pollinator Update

I’m very happy to report that the potted flowers we brought into the plot really attracted the bees, butterflies and wasps. The flowers were very hard to keep up with watering though. When my school schedule gets hectic, I really need for that plot to run itself and the 2 to 3 times a week hand watering was just not feasible.  I did lose a few flowers as a result.

So I decided to try planting some salvia in the ground next to the plot as a test. The theory is that it will receive water runoff from the plot; so far so good. The flowers all dropped off during the freeze, but luckily the leaves look absolutely fine, so I think it will bounce back. The bees go CRAZY over the salvia. So there will definitely be more in-ground flower plantings in the future.

Before the freeze

After the freeze – the cage is there so I wouldn’t step on the plant. Hard to break some developed habits! I was used to walking around the plot very closely on that edge. Luckily this has stopped me from doing that lol. And it came in handy when I sheeted the plot.  I was able to wrap the sheet right around the cage when I wrapped the plot.

Watermelons

The watermelons were a big hit here. Just before we left on vacation in November I gave them a boost of Fox Farm ferts and they went crazy while we were gone.  When we headed out the vines were about half way down the weed fabric and I had 1 modest size melon on each vine .

When we returned two weeks later, we found that the vines had extended beyond the weed fabric and the existing melons had grown considerably. I had to double the vines back in on themselves in order to still maintain the grassy area around the plot. It looked like a beautiful jungle out there!

Notes: We were able to harvest the first 2 fruits on 11/20. Both were 97 days from seed and 50 days from pollination (which seems to be this variety’s growing cycle based on the two harvests thus far).

Knowing when to harvest melons is tough. Lots of sources say to wait until the bottom turns yellow – well that did not happen, especially on the very dark sugar baby variety. Other sources said to wait until the curly cues closest to the stem died back – this did happen. And a fellow experienced melon planting buddy said to give them another week even after you think they are ready to harvest. I followed all of these instructions and happy to say I harvested ripe melons on my first try!

The crimson sweet weighed in at 17 lbs and the sugar baby weighed in just under 5 lbs, the perfect icebox size and plenty of melon for two people.

We also found that 2 more crimson sweet had set and 1 sugar baby had set.

By December 1st, all of the vines had almost completely died back. We harvested the second batch of melons on 12/16 approximately 50 days from pollination. The sugar baby had grown to the 5lb mark, but the crimson sweet melons were about half the size of the first harvest and not as sweet; probably a result of the vines starting to die off mid growing cycle. They were completely dead by about 12/20.

These turned out to be the only fruits we were able to grow and harvest before the vines died out, but we were very happy with the harvests. So was my neighbor who received a large crimson sweet to go with his Thanksgiving feast.

Notes: We will definitely be growing melons again in the future. I’m thinking of trying them in pots next time though, since they consumed a lot of room in the garden. While the fruits were fairly sweet, I was not able to control their water supply separate from the rest of the plot. I’ve read and heard that if you withhold water in the week before harvest that you can increase the sweetness of the fruit. So, I’ll try the pots in February (next melon planting date for us) and see what happens.

Tomatoes:

I am ecstatic about my successes with the various tomato plants. They were a real challenge and continue to be, but I am gaining a lot of pleasure out of these guys. All the babying in the beginning and weekly pruning and vine training has resulted in some stupendous plants now. I seriously have a tomato jungle out there!

Towards the end of December the plants started to overwhelm the small cages and were getting really unruly. So I made the decision to take down the shade cloth and create an arbor for them. I have been training the vines up to the arbor by using soft ties around the vine and then twine from the vine up to the poles creating the arbor.

You can see in the progression pics where more and more support has been necessary. It’s turned into a weekly chore – I combine the tomato wrangling with my white fly pruning, so I am all up in these plants’ business on a regular basis. They are seriously high maintenance, but hopefully the rewards of harvest will be worth it.

All of the tomato plants started showing blooms around 11/7/11 – approximately 84 days from seed and 33 days from transplant.

The cherry tomatoes started setting fruit around 11/18/11 – approximately 95 days from seed, 44 days from transplant.

All of the rest (except the super beefsteak) started to show fruit around 12/1/11 – approximately 108 days from seed and 57 days from transplant.

I’ve been helping them along in the pollination department. Almost every day I go out and peruse the garden. While I am there inspecting, I softly flick or jiggle the blooms where the flowers have curled back. It is at this point in the blossom stage that there is quite a bit of pollen tucked up in the flower. All it takes is a little flick or jiggle and a whole burst of pollen comes down to coat the stamen and bam, you visibly have a little tomato growing a few days later. Not every flower pollinates as a result of doing this, but my success rate is very high. This may sound a bit OCD of me, BUT I have over 100 tomatoes on the vines out there and that is not even counting the cherry tomatoes.


“Sweet 100” Cherry Tomato

I’ll start with the “sweet 100” cherry tomato plant, lovingly called the beast! We were able to start harvesting cherry tomatoes on 12/21/11. This was approximately 40 days after the fruit had set.

The plant is an indeterminate variety and has proven to be quite a challenge to contain. It started out so small that I am still in shock over what it has morphed into. Here are some progression pics.

Photo taken 11/10/11 – 87 days from seed, 36 days from transplant

Photo taken 12/25/11 – 132 days from seed, 81 days from transplant. As you can see this guy is a monster and was in desperate need of further support. It’s like the Hulk busting out of its cage.

Another view from the side on 12/25/11

The fruit are thin skinned and if you don’t let them ripen fully they are very seedy. The taste is not as acidic or vibrant as a grape tomato variety. But they do have a very nice tomato taste, just not as sweet as a grape variety. The thin skin and lack of acidic kick makes up for it in my opinion. Overall, we like this variety and will plant again in the future. Photo taken 12/25/11.

The harvesting started slowly with only 27 tomatoes picked between 12/21/11 and 1/9/12, but the amount of clutches that are starting to ripen now mean that the harvests will soon be picking up.

My estimate is that we will be harvesting at least 30 cherry tomatoes per week, probably starting within the next week or two. I have been keeping harvest totals, so it should be interesting to look back and see if I am right.

The fruits grow in clutches of 14 to 18 and by my best estimate there are at least 35 clutches on the plant now. Honestly, it’s overwhelming to even think about trying to accurately count all of them. I counted what I could easily see! This plant throws up blossoms non-stop. There are new clutches of blossoms developing on a daily basis. Photo taken on 1/8/12.

Here is the beast today 1/9/12 – 146 days from seed, 95 days from transplant. It now takes up the space of 3 tomato plants!

Note: I had originally planned to plant a “sweet million” cherry tomato variety next to it in the plot and I am so glad that I decided against it. Since the sweet million is a variety that was derived from the sweet 100, I imagine it would have been just as large, if not larger, and the plot would not have been able to handle both of them in close proximity to each other. While I lucked out and had enough space for this plant after pulling the watermelon vines, I need to keep in mind that this variety of tomato will require the space of at least three tomato plants in the future.

“Beefmaster”

The way this guy started out, I thought it was going to be the beast of the plot as it is a very thick stemmed plant that really likes to vine.  At the start of things, it grew much faster than any of the other plants in the plot.  While it is one of the larger indeterminate plants of the bunch, it’s only half the size of the “sweet 100.”


Photo taken 11/10/11 – 87 days from seed, 36 days from transplant

I thought this plant was twice the size that it is. Turns out, not so much once I pulled the cherry tomato vines out of it. It was still in need of some serious support because the fruits are very heavy and it likes to grow decently long vines. It is one of the largest plants in the plot.

Photo taken 12/25/11 – 132 days from seed, 81 days from transplant.

These tomatoes look very similar to the ugly ripe tomatoes found in the grocery store. I really hope that they are or are a close relative at least, since those are our favorite in this house; the flavor is incredible!  Photo taken 12/25/11

Currently there are 32 fruit set. They grow in clutches of 2 to 4 and the blossoms develop in spurts, but on a pretty regular weekly basis.  Photo taken 12/25/11

Photo taken 1/09/12 – 146 days from seed, 95 days from transplant.

Note: The whiteflies seem to LOVE this plant. I have even found them laying eggs on the topsides of leaves. I seem to be able to control the situation if I can keep the plant from becoming too dense – by pruning and by spreading the vines as far from each other as possible to increase light and air to the leaves.

This was also the first plant that I found a tomato horn worm on. Luckily I caught the little tomato destroyer after he bored into only one fruit.

“Ball’s Beefsteak”

This was the first plant to develop fruit and will be the first of the full-size tomatoes we will get to harvest.

I found one caterpillar on this plant so far, but was able to pick him off before he created any fruit damage.

This plant is an indeterminate type and also likes to vine everywhere, but not nearly as much as the sweet 100 or the beefmaster. Out of all of the beefsteak varieties, this plant is the easiest to contain and is the most compact of the beefsteak plants. It has been relatively easy to train the vines since they are not as long as the ones on the other plants.

Photo taken 11/10/11 – 87 days from seed, 36 days from transplant

I started to train this guy up to the arbor on Christmas day. It was getting all tangled up with the beefmaster on its opposite side.

Photo taken 12/25/11 – 132 days from seed, 81 days from transplant.

The fruit appear to be huge and have a smooth round shape. Currently there are 22 fruit set and the blossoms develop regularly in small batches. The fruit grow in clutches of 2 to 3, but most frequently set in 3s.

Photo taken 1/09/12 – 146 days from seed, 95 days from transplant.

I can’t wait for these redish guys to get totally ripe!

“Super beefsteak”

This plant was very slow to mature and very slow to set flowers, my guess being that it is a late season variety. It did not set fruit at the same time all of the other plants did and the amount of fruit it set were much reduced. However, it has hit its stride and is blooming. Nowhere near as much as the other beefsteak varieties though. Hopefully taste will make up for this. If not, we will not be planting this one in the future. I guess time will tell though.

Photo taken 11/10/11 – 87 days from seed, 36 days from transplant

Photo taken 12/25/11 – 132 days from seed, 81 days from transplant.

This is one of the larger plants being an indeterminate variety, so requires quite a bit of space for not so much fruit set thus far. The fruit that has set shows characteristics of an ugly variety, but not nearly as much ugliness as the beefmaster variety. Photo taken 12/25/11

Currently there are only 13 fruit set on this plant, which is taking up the same amount of room as the beefmaster. Yet the plant has produced half as much fruit thus far. The fruit grow in clutches of 1 to 2. I lost a lot of blooms on this plant in the freeze. This will probably cause a serious dip in the production as the plant does not seem to put up blooms all that often.

Photo taken 1/09/12 – 146 days from seed, 95 days from transplant.

“First Prize Hybrid”

This is one of the slicer variety tomato plants and seems to be more manageable than the beefsteak varieties. However, it is an indeterminate and does like to produce some long vines.

Photo taken 11/10/11 – 87 days from seed, 36 days from transplant

Photo taken 12/25/11 – 132 days from seed, 81 days from transplant. I started training this one up to the arbor on this day.

This is the first of the slicer tomatoes to set fruit and should be among the first of the slicers we harvest. The early set fruits have started to turn a light yellow and will hopefully be turning red in the next few weeks. They are very large fruits for a slicer tomato. They are smooth and round. Photo taken on 12/25/11.

Currently there are 22 fruit set. I lost 6 in the freeze. They were resting up against the poles and/or had come into contact with the sheets I used to cover the plot. The fruits grow in clutches of 3 to 5 and the blossoms grow in spurts. I may have a week or so where there are no blossoms, but then a whole mess of 6 to 12 will show up. Should make for some very bountiful harvests – it almost acts like a determinate in the way it blossoms, but it is not labeled as such.

Photo taken 1/09/12 – 146 days from seed, 95 days from transplant.

“BHN640” slicer tomato

This is a determinate plant and I am still skeptical of it because of its name. It just sounds test tube created, but this plant (as well as others from its line) are sold at the big box stores regularly, so they must be popular. I will say that I am impressed thus far because of its nice compact determinate size and the fact that it has set a considerable number of fruit regardless of its small stature.

Photo taken 11/10/11 – 87 days from seed, 36 days from transplant

Photo taken 12/25/11 – 132 days from seed, 81 days from transplant.

The fruit are on the medium side and roundish - more teardrop like actually - as well as smooth. The fruits have that Christmas ornament look that the Florida Tomato Council loves and uses as a “standard” for the desired shape of any fruits shipped out of Florida (no ugly ripes for the rest of the country, which really is sad). All of this screams commercial growing variety to me, but we’ll see. If the taste is right and it’s not some horribly genetically altered mutant plant, then it will certainly have a spot in the garden in the future. Photo taken 12/25/11.

Even though this was the first of the slicers to set fruit, the quantity of fruit set was slow at first. But then it really kicked into high gear setting about 6 fruit at once and then slowly adding another 7 for a total of 13 fruit on the plant as of yesterday. The fruit grow in clutches of 2.

Photo taken 1/09/12 – 146 days from seed, 95 days from transplant.

I was very sad today when I walked out to find a very decent sized tomato lying at the base of the plant. I had done some whitefly pruning yesterday and apparently cut off a support vine that the fruit was resting on. I’m going to keep it around and see if it ripens, but I don’t have much hope since it is still pretty green. And if it does ripen, I won’t base my “taste test” on this fruit since it came off the vine so prematurely.

Note: The whiteflies also seem to adore this plant and I really have to keep up with pruning. I really wonder if all the pruning has dampened the possibility for even more blossom development, since I have to keep the base of the plant so clean.

“Solar Fire” slicer variety

This guy is also one of the determinate varieties and has been fairly easy to control. It has been vining recently and has required slightly more effort to train it than the BHN640 slicer variety; it’s probably twice the size of the BHN640 at this point though.

Photo taken 11/10/11 – 87 days from seed, 36 days from transplant

Photo taken 12/25/11 – 132 days from seed, 81 days from transplant

I think that this plant will be the second of the slicers to come to harvest – possibly a mid-season variety. The fruits are large, smooth, and round. The plant has set twice as much fruit as the BHN640 variety, so I would say they are comparable as far as production goes. The fruit on this plant are not as “perfect” as the BHN640 though, which actually has me thinking they will taste better – another one where time will tell. Photo taken on 12/25/11.

Currently there are 22 fruit set. I lost 3 in the freeze. They grow in clutches of 3 to 4 and approximately every other week will throw up a new set of blossoms.
Photo taken 1/09/12 – 146 days from seed, 95 days from transplant.

Eggplant:

After my eggplant start from seed stalled out, my Mom came home with a transplant for me. I was bummed that I would not have enough time to grow my own, but was happy that with the addition of the transplant I would at least have a hope of home grown eggplant this season.

I planted this guy on 11/18/11. Here it is on 12/25/11 – 37 days from transplant. I love the leaves, they are like velvet. I have to seriously resist the urge to pet this plant!

Photo taken 1/09/12 – 51 days from transplant.

I just saw the first blossom developing on this plant. It’s not open yet, but things are moving along smoothly!

Photo Taken 1/8/12 - 51 days from transplant

Broccoli:

I have learned with broccoli that transplants are better than direct seed. I started some plants inside under the lights two weeks after I started some plants by direct seed out in the garden. The differences between them are incredible.

I started these direct seeds on 11/11/11 and they did not sprout until 11/24/11. Here they are on 12/25/11 – 44 days from seed.

I started these on 11/23/11 under the lights and transplanted them on 12/2/11. Here they are on 12/25/11 – 32 days from seed and 23 days from transplant.

Here are the direct seeded plants on 1/8/12 – 58 days from seed.

And here are the transplants – 46 days from seed, 37 days from transplant. I expect to be seeing heads form on these soon.

Cauliflower:

I have also learned that cauliflower make better transplants. I direct seeded two in the garden and one died off. Not sure what did it. I used starter fertilizer in the soil – the same stuff and soil mix that I use for starting seeds inside. The one just did not make it. And since I direct seeded on 11/11/11 and they did not sprout until 11/24/11 it was depressing. I missed taking a picture of the one that survived.

The good news though is that I started two more on 11/23/11 under the lights and transplanted them on 12/2/11. They are doing much better, but seem to be taking forever to really get some growth to them. Here they are on 12/25/11 – 32 days from seed and 23 days from transplant.

Here are the transplants on 1/8/12 – 46 days from seed and 37 days from transplant.

And here is the one that I direct seeded 58 days from seed – as you can see, it is way behind the transplants that were started under lights 12 days later.

Corn

The corn has been a fascinating experiment. Early on I had one corn ear worm that I was able to get out of the plant. And since then I have only had one other, but I harvested and shucked the corn before the little bugger did any damage to the ear.


When we got home from vacation, I was super excited that the stalks had survived the tropical storm that blew through here while we were away. I was really concerned about them since we went through the same storm in Mexico, but it was a hurricane then (and it was an 80+ mph doozy)!

To our utter surprise, not only had the stalks survived, but they flourished to the point of touching the roof of the pool screen!  I am still happy I decided to plant these in the pool cage though.  They never ended up growing taller than this.  The squirrels actually sit on the screen and try to figure out a way to get to the stalks!  Ironically, that is how I know that the corn is close to harvest.  It's like the little buggers can smell it.  I get real joy out of watching them puzzle over the barrier between them and the delicious corn they want so badly!

They also had an amazing amount of ears on. Each stalk was putting up 2 to 3 ears - and I even had one that produced 4 ears, which I hear is very uncommon. So, I can apparently grow some corn!

The only problem was – I apparently could not pollinate the ears properly just by shaking them each day.

Our first harvest on 11/16/11 was pretty much a dud. Out of the two initial ears harvested, we only got one where it was partially formed. But we used it on our salads and it was SO good that I was determined to get this right. They took about 92 days from seed to harvest.

A garden buddy came by and suggested that I hold a plate up to the stalks when I shake them in order to catch the pollen. Once I had the pollen on the plate, I was then to use a paint brush to brush the pollen on to the silks.

Well I am still getting the hang of this, but I am happy to report that each of the ears of corn that have been harvested since the pollen brushing started on 11/12/11 all have fully formed kernels. The ears; however, are not fully developed. They are about the size of a cobette. The taste is phenomenal though. So I have kept on with it and have even added another bin to be able to grow more stalks and have more pollen to “paint” with.

My rotation was thrown off by vacation. I did not want to start any new seeds before we went away and then once we returned, I was so busy that I did not get any more started. I was finally able to pull the stalks that were done on 11/23/11 and started another 3 seeds in their place after refreshing the soil and adding some blood meal to it in order to pump more nitrogen back into the depleted sections. Corn is a very heavy nitrogen feeder. I have a feeling I need to add more nitrogen than I have been in order to get those ears to fully form. Even if they don’t, we are quite happy with our cobettes!

So here we have 2 stalks that were started on 11/17/11 – 52 days from seed. Then we have 2 stalks that were started on 11/23/11 – 46 days from seed. And finally we have 3 more stalks that were started on 12/21/11 – 18 days from seed. I have two more transplants that were started in cups under the lights on 11/23/11 that will be planted into this bin tomorrow.

I also have another bin ready to go where I will plant more seeds tomorrow. Hoping to keep up a steady supply of pollen.

Avocado Trees

In other good news, the avocado trees seem to be pulling through the damage they suffered during our rainy season. The new growth looks fabulous and the brown curling leaves are dropping now to make room for more healthy growth! I was so concerned about these guys.

And my Mom found an added bonus when she was weeding – 3 baby palm trees! We’re not sure which palms they are – the sable or the Christmas tree – but we’re going to try to pot them and see what happens. Palms are a seriously long term growing project, but we’re going to give it a shot!

The sad side of things over the past two months:

Cantaloupe

The cantaloupe vines that had begun to flower before I left for vacation had at least 10 fruits on when I returned. One of the fruits had set and was about the size of a golf ball when we left and the size of a softball two weeks later.

Notes: Unfortunately some sort of disease moved in and I was not able to harvest any of them (you can see the start of it in the pic above). Think it may have been some sort of powdery mildew; possibly caused by the plant’s location next to the soaker hose connection. Spraying with a spinosad/serenade mix did not stop the disease from eventually taking over the whole plant. I opted to pull the vines for the sake of the rest of the plants in the plot – did NOT want disease spreading!

Very depressing, but I will try again in the future, perhaps with a resistant seed variety if I can find one suited to South Florida conditions. I have also since worked on the soaker hose connections and will plant in a better location next time (can start planting again in February for our South Florida area) – possibly a pot.

Peppers

I ended up having to pull all of my pepper plants. I had a serious whitefly problem develop and they attacked the peppers with a vengeance. I had to pull all of the plants and have been fighting a battle with the darn flies ever since. My neighbor says he has them, so I have to wonder who infected who. 

It was a very sad day when I pulled them, but the plants were definitely stunted and the fruits were not growing beyond a small size. I love to look at peppers growing. They are one of the most vibrantly colored fruits IMO. I was really looking forward to the dazzling colors – not to mention fresh salsa!

Radishes

I cannot grow radishes to save my life! I’ve failed three times now in the plot. All I pull up are scraggly roots with barely any bulb development. This puzzles me, since I keep hearing my Mom say “anyone can grow radishes, they’re the easiest things to grow.” Apparently not for me! I let them go beyond their growing period – well beyond in one batch’s case – and I still get nothing. Meanwhile at the farmer’s market, they're selling almost fist sized radishes! I know you’re not supposed to let them get that big, but seriously, when you can’t get beyond root phase, you start to covet them!!!!

Cucumber

I had a great looking cucumber plant in a pot in the pool cage. It was transplanted on 10/7/11; however, by 12/6/11 it was showing disease. I was able to harvest one cucumber on 12/16/11 that I was very happy with, but then it went south quick for a multitude of reasons.

It started when my dog decided chewing on it was a perfect remedy when her stomach would get upset. She would not have a stomach problem if she would just keep her scavenging butt away from the grill and quit licking it AND if she would quit eating my bees! She’s lucky she is so darn cute and we put up with her thick-headedness.

Then some sort of disease moved in. I was surprised since the variety I planted had resistance to all sorts of diseases and wilts and I made sure to include it during my weekly spinosad/serenade sprays. When that was not showing any signs of working, I tried trimming all of the leaves off, but it has not recovered.

My neighbor’s plant also looked pitiful, so it’s hard to say what happened. His went south before mine did.

He’s not very honest with me about what he’s doing over there. I believe we are in competition – me with my newfangled raised bed techniques and him with his old world in ground Italian techniques (he’s 70+ and from the “old country” where he gardened regularly).

At first he told me he didn’t use any ferts on any of his plants and was completely organic, but then I see him out there with a bag of miracle grow. He does not practice crop rotation, and only adds a bit of new soil each yer.  So his soil has to be depleted of the good trace nutrients and lord knows what has been able to grow in there.

Then this past week, he wandered over to tell me he burned up all of his tomato plants spraying them with something for a caterpillar infestation. I use all organics with anything that goes in or on my garden and I’ve yet to burn anything up, so I have no clue what my neighbor is doing.

I just hope he doesn’t get too bummed by my successes while he has failed and un-grant me permission to use his lot for growing! Hopefully I can keep him in supply with fresh produce and he’ll be happy.

Beans and Peas

This part of my garden is part success and part failure - more heavily leaning toward failure though.

I was seriously struggling with rusted beans and peas before I left on vacation. I was very depressed about the southern peas rusting because the harvests we had were SO delicious!

So I mentioned my troubles on a gardening forum and a wonderful woman out of Tampa who is a gardening goddess IMO – I drool over her successes – well, she sent me some bean seeds that she has had success with in the past. So I pulled all of the old beans and peas out before we left on vacation and started 6 different types of beans, as well as one of my own (just to make sure it wasn’t the rains that did them in). One type was a bush lima variety, some were bush bean variety, while others were pole bean varieties. I had an amazing assortment to work with.

Here’s what I had sprout when we came back from vacation

Bush Lima

And then here we have them on 1/09/12 (look to the bottom of the pic - the bulk of the plants you see in the pic are the southern peas)

Southern peas

Here they are after we returned from vacation - 11/14/11

“Contender” and a single “Wando” Bush bean

These I have had success with these and will continue to plant them. I was only getting about 10 beans per plant though, so will need to increase the amount I plant.  The harvest amounts may increase if I can get on a better feeding schedule with them as well.  The package of seeds says 10 - 50 pods per plant.

I was able to start harvesting them on 12/14/11 about 46 days after direct seeding. I harvested the last of these on 12/21/11 and pulled the plants.

The “wando” variety was a late season bean and won’t be ready to harvest for a while yet. I only planted one of these to see exactly how far apart they are and the timing is very spread out.

I have also found out that I can reduce my spacing on these, so I will be planting much more in future. Especially since I have found a balsamic caramelized onion and bean recipe that we all adore, which we make on a regular basis now.

Photo taken 1/09/12 – the last of the bush beans in the plot – the “wando” variety. I have 6 more seed starts in the hardening off phase that will be planted into bins.  That weed there was yanked after the picture.  The pine needles really do cut down on them and the ones that grow through are so soft rooted that they are a piece of cake to pull out.

Pole Beans

Somehow, I missed taking a picture of the pole beans, probably out of depression! I ended up having rust issues very quickly with some of the pole beans, as well as the southern peas.  And I have a continuous ongoing battle with aphids. These two things probably go hand in hand – to get rid of the aphids, I blast them off with a stiff stream of water; but then the water probably brings on the rust. Frustrating circle!

Out of the 5 new pole varieties, only 2 seemed to be more resistant to rust – the blue marbut variety and the rattlesnake variety. So I pulled all the other varieties and replanted more of those two in their place on 12/8/11.

They are very interesting beans. The rattlesnake beans are a large butter bean, whose shells are almost fat flat green pods streaked with red. The blue marbut are a purple long thin pod that turns green once it is cooked. Both are tasty.

Here is a shot taken on 12/25/11 of the established plants and you can see all of the new plantings coming up.

Rattlesnake bean

Blue Marbut bean

The more established rattlesnake bean plantings are starting to show rust and possibly some mildew. I’m going to continue the spinosad/serenade sprays and hopefully contain it.

Since the rust appeared on the rattlesnake beans, production has dropped off. I harvested about 10 beans and then they just fell off on producing flowers. Our temps did drop some during the overnights from 60s down to 40s, but I am not sure that that has anything to do with it or not. What a learning experience!

The southern peas have just been taken over by rust. They got to the point of producing pods and then went south. Here they are looking deceptively fabulous on 12/25/11

BUT if you look under that top canopy, you can see something just taking over the stems of these plants and the lower leaves are just starting to develop spots.

And then here they are just completely rusted today on 1/9/12

Not only have I had issues with Southern Peas, but I’ve also been failing miserably with English peas.

I’ve since decided that I am going to pull all of the bush beans and peas out of the plot and plant new ones in bins in the pool cage. I am determined to grow some rust free beans darn it!

I’ve done some massive soil mixing and filled several bins – bought a round trash can that I can dump all the ingredients in and then flip the thing over several times and swirl it around a bit and voilà beautifully mixed soil! Man has that made my soil mixing task SO much easier!!!

I have done some research and it appears that people dust their legume seeds prior to planting with an inoculate that contains rhizobia bacteria. The inoculate is supposed to help the legumes form nodules on the roots that will convert atmospheric nitrogen to usable ammonia nitrogen for the plant. Basically, the plant will feed itself, or need very little input from me.

I’m thinking that I was not properly feeding these guys, which helped them succumb to whatever has been going on with them. So if I can get them to sufficiently feed themselves then maybe I have a fighting chance at some healthy plants. I’ve ordered some inoculate (it was pretty cheap - $5 for enough to cover 80lbs of seed). Hopefully I’ll be posting more positive legume news next time I do a blog post.

Conclusion

So there it is, almost three months of Southwest Florida gardening in the Fall! With so many things in the ground and having to start so many seeds on a weekly basis, it is difficult to keep up with writing about the garden while trying to take care of it! And crazy me, just wants to expand even more. My Mom mentioned looking into celery the other day and I have a new addicition - edamame.  So I will also be looking into trying to grow some soy beans.

Since things are going so well and the blogging for journal purposes is really helping me out, I think I will be looking at some sort of program to make this go easier and more efficiently. It just took me well over 24 hours to complete this! So, if you've made it this far, I'm sure you're just as happy as I am that this blog has finally come to an end.

It's my first day back to school today and I need to get a TON of fertilizing done, get some seeds inoculated, do a bunch of direct seeding, a handful of transplanting, and it looks like I need to do 33 seed starts under the lights this week!! Busy, busy, but the happy results really do make it all worth it!

Happy Gardening all!!