Winter Tomatoes in Fl. (Plus veggies and garden pics)

[MsCowpea]

2020 Fall/Winter S Fla .

Garden marker pen update: see post 32422

Worse pen IN THIS TRIAL: Sharpie Extreme ( even repeated to double check), next worse Sharpie Regular
Over the years I lost many variety names with these pens.

Included pencil on wood. Used a few years ago and they molded and I couldn’t read them. Same thing in this trial.
Pencil on plastic tag is doing better.

Milwaukee Inkzall is fading.

IDentiPen (recommended by Marsha, ginger 2278). Small colored tag is hers—over 1 year old and still not fading. Not much point to look further-these are great.
Staedtler (expensive, don’t know if it writes longer or not. Nice pen.)
AM Leonard’s (wider tip)

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[Amateurinawe]

I agree with your conclusions on the sharpies, the plastic sticks ended up looking like new as everything wiped off in the rain. i shall not be using them again. I had to resort to identifying by sight my indigo rose, from yellow pear and alicante.......

[Labradors]

Ha ha Amateurinawe! If you were to grow varieties that were not so obvious to ID as Yellow Pear and Indigo Rose, a trick I have learned is to plant in alphabetical order, AND to have a master plan written on paper and kept in the house.....

Linda

[mikestuff49]

I ordered 3 of the Identapens on Amazon. Sometimes Amazon is a crazy place. One was $1.98 with free Prime shipping. Two were $39.60, three were $59.40, so I bought 3 at $1.98 each. Total $6.33 including shipping.

[Ginger2778]

I always buy the Sakura Identipens in boxes of a dozen, for around $20. I see the box of a dozen is $23 with free shipping at Amazon now.
And here with the shipping a dozen is $21.95. Or free shipping on this if your order total is over $45. https://www.officesupply.com/cart?c=hqP ... 8b2cdbQTD1

[Amateurinawe]

[mention]Labradors[/mention] I think this coming year, there will be a critical need for a plan and a backup copy....

If it wasn't for the difference in sweetness I don't know what I would have done

[MsCowpea]

Dealing with the after effects of ETA (?) 3 weeks ago. Never saw anything like that storm (and others that followed). Relentless torrential rains. And this is NOT our rainy season. The yard flooded and stayed flooded for a week, sorta went down, and then it happened again. It has continued to rain off and on depending on where you are in the county. In 20 years never had anything close to those floods, even during hurricanes. Even my raised beds went under. Earthboxes sat in moat of water off and on for probably close to 2 weeks. And they are on blocks. Just wouldn’t drain.

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[Amateurinawe]

[mention]MsCowpea[/mention] Oh my ! that is terrible looks devastating...

[MsCowpea]

Amateurinawe ,

Pretty destructive event, pulled many plants, but surprisingly the earthboxes continued to grow and now from a distance don’t look half bad. Unfortunately diseases set in almost immediately on tomatoes where normally they don’t appear until March or so. And with those diseases in a month the plant can look like death so will just have to wait and see.

By the way, I am addicted to UK gardening videos. Can’t get enough of them. And your garden photos in another thread look great.

[Barb_FL]

Elaine, I'm so sorry; I had no idea. Can you get cuttings from your plants so you can restart much quicker? Has anything been salvageable?

[MsCowpea]

Barb, I can’t tell where this will end up. I pitched a lot of diseased plants that were in the ground and some in containers, and one in earthbox though I am going to pull a few more. The rest of the earthboxes look pretty good EXCEPT some have bacterial spot which never happens this early. We have been picking off diseased leaves and sprayed a few times but I know where that gets me — doesn’t help once the disease has a firm hold. If any survive this unscathed they really are indestructible. I did replant 10 Mountain Magic’s as they are resistant to several diseases. Perfectly happy with just those and any others that may survive. Good idea about the cuttings. I also had about 60 + scotch bonnets and other peppers. My premier group of peppers in large containers were down in the main garden sitting in water and they are very diseased. Cut some back to twigs, others trashed. Others look like they will recover. Have some up on the patio in smaller containers -they look better but still have problems. Though it is not exactly a robust looking plant I actually have peppers on one of the Shishitos which I have never grown before. No disease on this one -others are looking a little rough. They all have been inundated with rain for weeks.

Anyway 2020 has been a memorable year — flooding seems an appropriate end. As long as the water didn’t go in our house we are happy campers.

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[DirtTherapy]

Oh my gosh, sorry for the devastating floods! It's been a tough year all the way around. I think by the time Eta happened, I wasn't even seeing many images. It might have been lost (in my media mix anyway) among the election follow-up and Covid stuff.

I hope you can save as many as possible. Even without the floods here, I've had worse luck so far this year than last year so far. Trying to start earlier has not been that successful.

Ann (Orlando)

[MsCowpea]

Ann, thanks, I think many will be OK, particularly the earth boxes. They have grown like gang busters in the last 3 weeks. I am surprised.
Hope to get tomatoes before diseases prematurely take them down. Most look pretty good considering. The inground ones suffered root rot to varying degrees as they were flooded for a long time. I had approx. 30 transplants that still weren’t planted in their permanent home but they were in large pots growing beautifully. (3 or 4 plants each pot). I was going to finally get them in the ground but the rains started and didn’t quit. I wanted to pitch them as they got diseased and stunted but DH rescued them and planted in pots and they are truly pitiful. But I have the 10 Mt Magic’s ready to go. Hope your luck improves for the rest of the season though I am not sure when Orlando gets too cold and you pack it up until spring.

[GoDawgs]

Wow, I'm just now seeing these pics. I am so sorry you've had to go through this. Descriptions never would have given the true picture of damage like these photos. The one with the water near the seat of a patio chair really shows the "depth" of the problem. I hope you can salvage something from the "funk".

[MsCowpea]

Thanks, GoDawgs. I liked that chair photo too. We sloshed around in the water for a week (up to our calves) but finally got rubber boots when it continued to rain. I kept supplementing the earthboxes so they have grown and finally cages were placed. The inground raised bed plants look stunted and some of their roots are gone.

I hope this doesn’t portend a future where this occurs on a regular basis.

From Raised bed that was flooded:

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[peebee]

Wow I hadn't visited this site for a few days so I had no idea what you were going thru [mention]MsCowpea[/mention] that's terrible! Keep us updated on your recovery efforts.

[MsCowpea]

Peebee, OK, will do.

[AZGardener]

Garden marking pen trial. Update.
The Sharpie Extreme started faded a few weeks back. (I actually did another tag with it to double check as it was doing worse than the Sharpie Regular. )
Marsha recommended Sakura IdentiPen. What is amazing is her little orange tag is holding up for a year and looks like it isn’t fading much. It is from Oct. 2019.
I included pencil on wood but that didn’t work for me at all. The one year I used it the markers got all moldy and I couldn’t read the writing.
Staedtler looks great and is a pleasure to write with but it is more expensive.
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I ran into the faded sharpie issue in the spring when I could no longer read any of my markers. Broke down and got a cheapish label maker (Brother), but I have yet to see how the labels hold up over time in the sun.

Same happened to me this year with sharpie fading to the point I couldn't read it. I then used the label maker and so far they have held up to the extreme heat and sunlight we have in the desert. My concern was they would fall off the tags, but that hasn't happened after a year.

I'm going to order an IdentiPen and give that a try. Thanks for the recommendations on pens that will hold up to the heat and sun.

[AZGardener]

Always carry this tote bag to tomato events.

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Love that tote bag!

[AZGardener]

Dealing with the after effects of ETA (?) 3 weeks ago. Never saw anything like that storm (and others that followed). Relentless torrential rains. And this is NOT our rainy season. The yard flooded and stayed flooded for a week, sorta went down, and then it happened again. It has continued to rain off and on depending on where you are in the county. In 20 years never had anything close to those floods, even during hurricanes. Even my raised beds went under. Earthboxes sat in moat of water off and on for probably close to 2 weeks. And they are on blocks. Just wouldn’t drain.

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That's awful, I hope the water has receded and you're able to save your plants. I'm still behind and reading ahead, but hopeful things are looking up after the flooding.
On the flip side, we've had one bit of rain since the Spring. It's extremely dry here this year.