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

[MsCowpea]

Marsha:

#340 Post: # 29306Post Ginger2778
Fri Aug 28, 2020 4:24 pm
Elaine, those crosspieces are simply genius, and I'm stealing the idea! I love that!

Your welcome to that idea born out of necessity. One thing it helps with besides the heat is it increases the useable space because the curved
frame isn’t as useful as one with straight up sides so I am trying to increase the area in another way. There are probably better ways to do it
but this is what we do. Since you can’t attach the plastic tightly to the curved frame on the sides the drip line of the rain would also beat down on the outer edge of plants unless the plastic went passed
the level of where they sit. But then it became a sauna inside as no air got in. Hard to explain it all - but the cross pieces helped.
We use zip ties to attach but this year Derek was gong to drill holes where the zip ties are to make sure they didn’t move but they held before without that so we will see.

[Ginger2778]

Drilling holes is a very good idea. I'll pass the info on to Wayne, it makes sense.

[MsCowpea]

Drilling holes is a very good idea. I'll pass the info on to Wayne, it makes sense.

Derek wanted to drill holes but we didn’t. They stayed put before but if they shift around we will drill the holes. I may try to lift them a bit higher too.

[Ginger2778]

Can they just be straightened?

[MsCowpea]

Marsha:

Can they just be straightened?

Once they are curved it would be a pain to straighten them and they wouldn’t stay straight. A long piece of skinny pipe naturally curves down. They stayed put before and I told DH since we have used them for several years the plastic is brittle and attaching zip ties through holes may cause it to break up some. When it curves you also don’t have the plastic poking through at the ends.

Your cross beams would be shorter so would be straighter I think. You could also use wood to build a trellis like structure over beds that would be much higher and work toward eliminating the heat issue. I have thought about doing that. The frame pieces would just be bolted together.
I wanted it on my patio but never got around to it.

I also can move my trailer around so they only get morning sun but usually it just stays put. It was driving rain that I needed some protection from for a short time. I used to just carry the trays out of the rain and put them next to the house. But if you weren’t home they could get flattened when tiny.

I have a big metal frame structure by the garden and I did rig up plastic over it one time but it was hot underneath it and I like the plants by the house. I sometimes carry them in at night where it is much cooler and haul them back out again but not possible with a lot of trays.

What did you do before with all your trays of plants? Did you carry them back onto your covered patio or just let them get rained on. That is certainly the easiest option.

[MsCowpea]

Hot peppers:

2756A846-AD1E-4ECF-A38E-F3E47078BB1A.jpeg

[Ginger2778]

Hi Elaine. What potting mix are you using? I went to the promix HP, and it's so much better than last year's debacle Tomorrow is the real test, transplanting tomato seedlings into the 3.5" pots.

Are they all scotch bonnets?

[MsCowpea]

Here is the saga of buying potting mixes. I know pro mix is a very good mix but I had not used it for years and years (except for an experiment).
Instead I used and loved Fafard 3 B. But Fafard was sold to Sun Gro and they duplicated 3B and call it MM 830.
I don’t know if it is as good as 3 B , plus this year, the 10 bags I bought are water logged from (I guess) sitting on their lot uncovered. You need a crane to lift them.

Anyway, I only used pro mix last year as at the time it was all I could get quickly but I am not over last’s year seedling disaster.
( I am sure the problem (if it was the promix) is fixed so there won’t be any issues.). But I ordered some Lambert’s and a company called Berger from Am Leonard.
I got the straight potting mix -no pine bark (ADDED: as I have plenty of bark/peat mix.)
I could have also gone with another metro mix but would have had a long drive to get it.

I also got that Promix in the red bag at Walmart a while back and it seems OK but it really holds a lot of water. Very little perlite. I used it in big container over the summer and it tooK longer to drain. I think I will mix with 830 as still have 3 red Promix bags.

[MsCowpea]

The peppers are in Metro Mix 830. I am sure peppers would also appreciate the high porosity pro mix.

I Did take 9 peppers and transplanted:
-3 in MM 830
-3 in straight Lambert’s
-3 in half and half.

95% are scotch bonnets but I also have :
Lantern
Jamaican hot chocolate
Trinidadian 7 Pot ( to be given to Trinidadian neighbor.).
And Cappuccino Scotch Bonnet
(ADDED: Forgot I am trying to germinate a chocolate bhut jolokia but no luck so far.)

A Guyanese friend of DerekS just gave him some pepper pods and said to grow them . I will grow some but wish I could taste them first
to see if they have nice flavor or just blow your head off. . Still working up my courage.

(I ordered a few more varieties , not here yet. May try them next year. )

[Ginger2778]

I'll be totally interested in hearing your results of the metro mix 830. So far I'm liking the HP, and wondering why I didn't use it years ago.

[MsCowpea]

I think it was Raybo who eventually went with the HP one and liked it.

I went with Fafard 3 B years ago—it didn’t hold as much water as a predominantly peat based mix.
Introduced to it at a class at Mounts Botanical Garden on Container Gardening. The man who taught it did all the beautiful, gigantic containers
at very expensive and famous Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach. They were stunning. He said he used Fafard 3B. Still wish it was available but MM 830 supposed to
same formula.

[MsCowpea]

Raybo’s mix uses Promix HP.

The 3-2-1 combo mix is comprised of 3 parts ProMix HP; 2 parts mini Bark Chips; and 1 part Perlite.

Thinking HP would be great straight up with no additions as well.

[MsCowpea]

Guyanese friend of DH said these were wiri wiri which is one I purchased but don’t have yet.

Online they are red but maybe there is a yellow version cause these don’t seem to turn red. They only look a bit red in pic once dried.

Tasted half of one- pretty good as it is very very peppery and hot but not over the top.
Still love that distinct Jamaican flavor of scotch bonnet.

3665353C-B316-4BD8-B9DC-52A879FBFF4F.jpeg

[MsCowpea]

Definitely cutting back on tomato plants this year. This is round one and have just seeded some more.

C16A2511-8D40-4964-BFCD-3F50C68B24AE.jpeg

Seriously, I AM cutting back. Some of these are destined for other gardens.

[Amateurinawe]

It's such fun, you can always foster them out later. Not like children, there are always people who will take a free plant off you

[Ginger2778]

Definitely cutting back on tomato plants this year. This is round one and have just seeded some more.
C16A2511-8D40-4964-BFCD-3F50C68B24AE.jpeg


Seriously, I AM cutting back. Some of these are destined for other gardens.

Uh huh.

[Barb_FL]

Are they ALL tomato plants? even in the orange tray? That looks like a lot of plants.

What variety of tomato plants do you plan to keep for yourself? Do you just do fewer varieties and just a lot of them? I didn't see any labels.

The better boys are probably those small ones in the round tray - haha.

Getting caught in the downpour the other day didn't seem to hurt them at all.

----
Marsha - I ordered the pens.

[MsCowpea]

Barb, Those didn’t get caught in the rain. I moved them immediately or they were already in the house.

The Better Boys are in the 9 pack. Kinda of spindly.
The round containers are peppers. Shishito, Lemon Drop, and a few Aleppo. All new to me.

The other are all tomatoes, marked according to the cell or a line of seeds on the container itself instead of labels. I didn’t even make a master list first- just got out the seed packets and went to town.

I tried not to plant so many but couldn’t help it. Unfortunately, they are all pretty lanky from lack of light and too much heat so will bury them deeper.

I get most of my seeds from seed companies, many of them small ones which helps to support them. But when I read all the descriptions I am hooked. I have way, way too many seeds. Used to peruse actually seed catalogs , now it’s all online.

I hope to narrow down what I grow , maybe 10 varieties and grow 8 each? Or something like that. But that isn’t happening this year. I am regrowing many older heirlooms I liked to help narrow down the choices. And several disease resistant ones as well. Some from Cornell.

[MsCowpea]

I never got into the dwarfs. I only grew one heirloom dwarf years ago. But I thought I would move some Earthboxes onto my patio and didn’t want the big cages so I ordered
lots (too many) dwarfs. Plans changed. Now I am not moving any EarthBoxes. Can they go in 5 gallon container with cheapy Home Depot cages?
I usually use much larger pots but want to go smaller if I can.

[Barb_FL]

I use to grow a lot of dwarfs and they were productive; then every year it got worse and they only one that did well for me was Wild Fred. This season, I'm just growing one, Mr. Snow. I tried it last year but caterpillars got all the fruit.

You could definitely grow them in 5 gallon containers; that would not be a problem at all. For cages, I like the square ones. I'm sure you could use the HD cages though.