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Re: North Florida Gardening
Posted: Sun May 23, 2021 6:33 am
by PlainJane
Akers West Virginia and Solar Flare (striped one) getting to size.
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Re: North Florida Gardening
Posted: Sun May 23, 2021 6:40 am
by PlainJane
Green Bee and Atomic Sunset. I’m crazy for Green Bee for its completely unique texture, plus it hangs on the vine forever.
Atomic Sunset was my favorite out of the similar Wild Boar Farms small fruited antho tomatoes. Produces really well and not a strong antho flavor. Good shelf life whether on the vine or counter.
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Re: North Florida Gardening
Posted: Sun May 23, 2021 8:34 am
by Ginger2778
PlainJane wrote: ↑Sun May 23, 2021 6:33 am
Akers West Virginia and Solar Flare (striped one) getting to size.
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Looking gorgeous. Well done!
Re: North Florida Gardening
Posted: Sun May 23, 2021 10:23 am
by Growing Coastal
PlainJane wrote: ↑Sun May 23, 2021 6:40 am
Green Bee and Atomic Sunset. I’m crazy for Green Bee for its completely unique texture, plus it hangs on the vine forever.
Atomic Sunset was my favorite out of the similar Wild Boar Farms small fruited antho tomatoes. Produces really well and not a strong antho flavor. Good shelf life whether on the vine or counter.
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How does Atomic Sunset compare with Brad's Atomic Grape?
and
What is the purple brassica? It's gorgeous whatever it is!
Re: North Florida Gardening
Posted: Sun May 23, 2021 3:33 pm
by PlainJane
[mention]Growing Coastal[/mention], those are the Red Bull Brussels sprouts, still chugging along. Nice taste and very easy to grow.
I found Atomic Sunset to be just a touch sweeter and smoother than B.A.G. and Atomic Fusion. The other 2 look really cool though.
Red Bull:
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Re: North Florida Gardening
Posted: Sun May 30, 2021 7:44 am
by PlainJane
First couple of Chocolate Stripes. I picked the big one at first blush out of paranoia.
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Re: North Florida Gardening
Posted: Wed Jun 02, 2021 11:57 am
by PlainJane
Claude Brown’s Yellow Giant picked at first break. It seems bigger than a pound with its crazy wingspan, lol.
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Re: North Florida Gardening
Posted: Fri Jun 04, 2021 10:06 am
by PlainJane
Well, the humidity is here with a vengeance. I can practically see my tomatoes groaning and complaining.
Beans are pacing along nicely though, and the flowers of eggplant Louisiana Long Green are such a pristine white.
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Re: North Florida Gardening
Posted: Fri Jun 04, 2021 11:09 am
by Seven Bends
Everything looks great, especially the eggplant! Humidity has arrived here in northern Virginia, too; now we sweat and whine until mid-September.
Re: North Florida Gardening
Posted: Sun Jun 06, 2021 10:24 am
by PlainJane
Quick morning haul.
STILL getting Red Bull Brussels sprouts. After a solid month of hot weather only now are the sprouts starting to ‘loosen’ a bit.
Tomatoes are from the kitchen counter where they’ve been ripening for a couple of days. These are Pineapple, Solar Flare, Big Cheef, Aker’s West Virginia, Butterworth’s PL and The Thong.
Having to pick beans at least daily, and got the first few jalapeño.
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Re: North Florida Gardening
Posted: Sun Jun 06, 2021 11:32 am
by Ginger2778
So nice gathering our own healthy food. Your tomatoes look great!
Re: North Florida Gardening
Posted: Sun Jun 06, 2021 12:56 pm
by GoDawgs
Very nice! And now a few questions. Inquiring minds want to know...
When did you start yours? The description says it's 120 DTM. Direct seed or started indoors? First harvest date?
What were your temps like during the growing season? Steady or vacillating between hot/cold?
I'm asking because I've quit trying to grow them. Made a vow not to again, I did. But you know how that goes. Wherever there's a glimmer of hope that pops up, we gardeners get pretty tempted to break such vows! I've tried about four varieties but not this one.

Re: North Florida Gardening
Posted: Sun Jun 06, 2021 3:54 pm
by PlainJane
[mention]GoDawgs[/mention], I was pretty haphazard about it as it was a wild experiment. I started all my cole crops and fava beans in November, I think towards the end of the month. Now that I know they’ll grow I’m going to keep better track.
Started outdoors in seed trays; transplanted to grow bags once a few inches high.
We had a warm December, cool January and February. Several nights in the 30s but no 20s. Daytime temps were 50s and a few 60s.
March and April temps were very good - most days in the 70s with a few 60s or 80s thrown in. May was really hot and dry - mostly 80s and 90s although down in the 60s at night. Now it’s 80s and 90s and really humid, nights around 70.
I picked Red Bull both for the color and the claim that it was only 100-110 days to harvest. My best guess is mine came in somewhere around 110-120.
https://www.kitchengardenseeds.com/red- ... routs.html
More than happy to share some seeds with you so just pm.
Re: North Florida Gardening
Posted: Tue Jun 08, 2021 2:44 pm
by PlainJane
Trying again to get a decent picture to show what a gorgeous tomato is Brad Gates’s Solar Flare. This is the ‘XL’ seed strain he still shows as available on his website. I’m a bit prejudiced towards black and GWR tomatoes for flavor but Solar Flare is pretty darn good.
Almost all fruit are a pound or more and my 2 plants have been loaded top to bottom.
Very very little splitting or cracking.
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Re: North Florida Gardening
Posted: Tue Jun 08, 2021 2:48 pm
by MissS
That is a very nice looking tomato and you say it's good too. I just might have to put this one on the grow list. Even if I don't grow a plant to maturity, I know that those that I start tomatoes for would be thrilled with it.
Re: North Florida Gardening
Posted: Tue Jun 08, 2021 2:58 pm
by PlainJane
MissS wrote: ↑Tue Jun 08, 2021 2:48 pm
That is a very nice looking tomato and you say it's good too. I just might have to put this one on the grow list. Even if I don't grow a plant to maturity, I know that those that I start tomatoes for would be thrilled with it.
It’s worth getting the Solar Flare XL strain, imo.
https://wildboarfarms.com/product/solar-flare-xl/
Drat - they’re out of stock right now.
Re: North Florida Gardening
Posted: Tue Jun 08, 2021 3:57 pm
by MissS
[mention]PlainJane[/mention] Yes, I already looked.
Re: North Florida Gardening
Posted: Thu Jun 10, 2021 9:20 am
by PlainJane
Another Wild Boar Farms tomato - this is the recently released ‘Summer of Love’.
Most of my fruit is showing a sort of ‘teardrop’ shape instead of a flattened beefsteak.
Gorgeous colors, light freckling and very good flavor. Roughly 8 to 10 ounces, maybe a couple were slightly bigger.
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Re: North Florida Gardening
Posted: Tue Jun 15, 2021 2:06 pm
by PlainJane
Today’s quick haul.
I was tired of fussing with carrot seed so I got some pelleted Adelaide F1 from Johnny’s as an experiment. Pretty good!
So mad - Sunday’s torrential rain made a whole batch of big tomatoes split. I was out of town so nothing I could do.
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Re: North Florida Gardening
Posted: Tue Jun 15, 2021 2:27 pm
by Ginger2778
I hate it when rain splits my tomatoes. So frustrating.