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flyingfish2

Springtime veggie garden pics

17 years ago

This being my first year at "gardening", currently experiencing all the horrors of heat and humidity in S Florida :>) If it is isn't stinkbugs eating a hole in the ripening tomato and then the little hardshell black bugs digging in and planting eggs that then make maggots to gnats attacking the wound. Only cherries currently setting any fruit.YUK!!

Just now getting the first post freeze plant's tomatoes. they seem to be much prettier fruit than the plant's fruit that suffered through the Jan freezes. Here is a pict of one from a 2/15/09 planting.(notice the dollar bill underneath) It is from a HD brandywine seed.

{{gwi:21521}}

This guy measures over 5.25 inch across and almost 4 inch tall. Must weigh well over a pound, but did not weigh it.

I am totally sold on SWC's made from surplus 5 gal buckets. Benefits include; saving the landfield from these buckets, no excess run off of nutrients, min water usage, no weeds, almost totally renewable soiless mix for growing medium, less splitting of fruit when the rainy season hit. Sure I forgot something. Here is a pic of the bucket which produced the above tomato.

{{gwi:854634}}


Can't wait til next fall for "our" real veggie growing season.

In addition to tomatoes, have eggplant, onions, okra, cukes, peppers, and some Tom mystery plants. Here is another one for you to ID please Tom ( got to have a better system of keeping up with seed to plant ID)

{{gwi:854635}}

The Vero swap was fun,

bernie

Comments (15)

  • 17 years ago

    Ok Bernie put all us BLOOMIES to shame!

  • 17 years ago

    I've got bacon and lettuce Bernie! Good gowing!

  • 17 years ago

    Bernie, Great looking tomatoes! One slice fills a whole sandwich. Are you saving the seeds from the brandywine? I'm curious to hear what Tom says the cucumber looking fruit is. It looks real good and healthy even in the heat.

    Christine

  • 17 years ago

    Christine, the mystery fruit smells just like a cuke. It is from one of Tom's seeds at ECHO. Lost the code to my seed box is why I do not know what it is.
    bernie

  • 17 years ago

    Hey Bernie,

    I'm with you, I've lost most of my stuff when my bunkers flooded after five days of rain so I'll be 100% BWB's by the fall, got to control that soil moisture level to diminish PM/DM and water intoxication.

    Picked my last 10lbs. of maters yesterday and pulled the plants :-( Still have the cherries but only the Sungold are flowering right now.

    That sure looks like the Metki Painted Serpent (Armenian) cuke, but if not it's the Metki Dark Green Serpent cuke, one or the other.

    Tom

  • 17 years ago

    Bernie, can you let us know how the cuke tastes?

  • 17 years ago

    tom, how large should I let the mystery get before harvest. I had both of those seeds and they and both of those plants in the BWB. Jo picked it yesterday at about 1 foot long.

    Christine , we will eat it today and will post results.

  • 17 years ago

    They can get to be about 18" but are supposed to be picked earlier if you want them relatively seedless.

  • 17 years ago

    I said the tomato at the top of this thread probably weighed over 1 lb. How about 1 lb and 9 oz :>) got it to a scale this morning and gave it to a friend who had given me a bunch of lychee's.

    love those BWB's, everyone should try at least one next fall! Tom doesn't do things in a small way, he is going to have 80 5 gal BWB's next fall.

    bernie

  • 17 years ago

    Tom doesn't do things in a small way, he is going to have 80 5 gal BWB's next fall.

    SLOWLY! We're moving to succession planting Bernie, so it should only be about 20 BWB's at a time, about every 6 weeks.... :-)

  • 17 years ago

    Tom, what do you plan to put in the 20 buckets? Mostly tomatoes? or what? My friend I gave the 1.5+ lb brandywine can not stop talking about how much better it is than the tomatoes they grew in a raised bed this year :>)
    bernie

  • 17 years ago

    Christine, sorry to be so long in replying regarding taste of the unidentified plant. It looks like a big hairy cuke. Taste like a very good cucumber. My cukes off my pickling cuke plant have tended to be bitter.

    Are you out there and well Tom?

    bernie

  • 17 years ago

    Are you out there and well Tom?

    Sorry buddy, GW Florida was down for two days, yesterday I went to a rain barrel workshop and today was the Tampa swap. In addition, I've been finishing my 30' cattle panel arbor to grow these long-vined things on....

    Tom, what do you plan to put in the 20 buckets?

    Tomatoes - 5 buckets
    Pole beans - 5 buckets
    Squash/zukes - 4 buckets
    Cukes - 6 buckets

    Tom

  • 17 years ago

    Tom, next ??, what mix are you going to use in your buckets. Boy, Ed's mix certainly seems superior with tomatoes to me. Will try my on horse compost next fall, am afraid the cow compost from HD may be loaded with antibiotics from feedlot cattle.

    Bought 3 blueberry bushes off craig's list; brightwell, premier, powder blue. Figured to put them in 5 gal non-SWC with lots of pine fines to keep acidity up. If they do not set fruit from lack of cold, will give them to someone up north!

    bernie

  • 17 years ago

    ...what mix are you going to use in your buckets

    For the first round I'm probably going to try the local topsoil companies potting mix, my only reservations are that I don't know where their topsoil comes from (what might be in it) and who knows what the horse poop has in it....

    Bought 3 blueberry bushes off craig's list; brightwell, premier, powder blue. Figured to put them in 5 gal non-SWC with lots of pine fines to keep acidity up.

    I'd put them in mini-nuggets of pine bark if you can find them, it'll drain better than the stuff we use for Al's mix.

    Tom

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