2016 Summer Florida Garden

[Starlight]

Very nice haul! My oh my! That some huge peppers. Makes a person want some stuffed peppers for dinner. : )

[kayrobbins]

Now that I see the Ajvarski I am so anxious for mine to be ready to harvest. I am glad you found that pepper because I overlooked it when I was doing my Baker Creek order.

Marsha, Beit Alpha has become my only cucumber. I love the fact that it has such little seeds and the skin is tender so you don't have to peel it. My fall cucumber usually do better than the summer one.

[ginger2778]

Barb- fantastic! Those cukes and peppers make my eyes pop out. I am a little jealous.

[Barb_FL]

Thanks for the kind words.

If anyone wants Ajvarski seeds let me know.

I'm tracking how many cucumbers I'm picking and since Sunday evening until Weds morning, I picked 13. In the past, I knew I got lots more than we could eat or give away and what was left became worm food for my composting worms.

[Don_Saunders]

I got on and can see posts! YAY!

[Don_Saunders]

I have my first cukes in EBs right now. They are about 1' high and have not started to flower yet. I did not know these did not self-pollinate. I guess I will keep then inside the pool enclosure until they start to flower and then move the outside to give the bees something to do - Right? I have never been able to grow these in my RBs because the bugs eat them up right away. So I will use Sticky Fly Traps during this pollination ritual. Any other ideas about how to best keep the bugs off and the bees on?

[Barb_FL]

Hi Don - Glad to see on TV. Some Cucumbers DO Self pollinate; it depends on the variety. If the package states parthenocarpic, they don't need further pollination. There are several kinds - Sweet Success and Diva plus more.

If they need pollination, you could always leave them in the screen porch and self pollinate. Just remember the male flowers come first - lots of them. The female flowers look like a little cucumber. I grew cukes in a tulle room one entire season without bees. They were Parks All Season and grew year round.

The sticky traps won't help with moths but will with other bugs especially leaf miners. Mine still get some of those black flat footed bugs but so far no moths and none of those cucumber beetles which are shaped like a ladybug but wrong color. I'm wrapping them at night with tulle as you can see in one of those pictures; your screened porch is like a giant tulle.

[Barb_FL]

Update: Picked Cucumber count from Sunday through Thursday was 19.

Ate my first grown pineapple of the season.

Have a mango in the fridge for later; picked 10 Kents and many from the other tree when I saw another was partially eating and still hanging on the tree.

Picture of Kents; I picked some because they were hanging in my young blueberry plant.

[ginger2778]

Yep. Those are Kent's all right. I have a batch dehydrating today. I pick them green, then counter ripen, great results. Barb- they can get to 2 lbs. by August.

[Barb_FL]

Marsha - do the fruits get larger even after they change colors?

My other tree is a choc-anon; it is NOT fibrous so that's a plus.

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by Barb_FL

Marsha - do the fruits get larger even after they change colors?

My other tree is a choc-anon; it is NOT fibrous so that's a plus.

Kents are also not fibrous. The bigger they get, the better the taste too. 2 lbs by mid August if the birds and squirrels don't get them first.
By change color, do you mean when they get the red half moon at the top, or the complete color change?
Mine have usually got the red half moon, but if I pick, give them their soap scrub, rinse,dry, spray with Lysol top half, turn after dry and spray bottom half, then put into a closed paper sack, they will soften in 5-8 days, and color up fairly well. The in the dark and closed together ripening allows the color to come out, but they still really never turn orange. I go by softness for the ripening.
The scrub and Lysol is to keep anthracnose away, and it does a very good job.

[Barb_FL]

I don't know about the Lysol, I give the skins to the composting worms; DH was totally against it.

I guess I will leave them on the tree awhile longer or before birds/squirrels take them. So far they are hard as rocks. My Kent tree isn't large; you can see the diameter of the base in the picture posted upthread.

====
Included a picture of the AJI Grande Pepper - it has HUGE leaves. Still waiting for it to set fruit.

Other pepper plant is Yellow Marconi - my favorite so far; every fruit is big and perfect even on the old plants.

Recent shots - side and front of my cucumber plants. Still totally healthy without the crispy leaves. Total weekly count for the 3 seeds was 27 with a bunch harvested today not included in the count.

[ginger2778]

Barb- Does your husband realize Lysol is almost completely ethanol, that's the active ingredient, and ethanol is what we drink as vodka, rum, scotch, etc. For that matter, you could just coat the skin with vodka and let it evaporate, probably have the same benefit.
As far as it touching the fruit, or even seeping in, have you cut a Kent mango skin? That is thick thick thick, and tough, totally sealed.
The idea is safely killing anthracnose fungi, because they make ugly boils on the fruit, and ruin the shelf life, and Kents are famous for getting anthracnose.

[Barb_FL]

Thanks Marsha - so far we have not had antracnose on the mangos I picked. I haven't picked anymore since; mine take > 1 week to ripen in the brown bags. Ate 2 mangos so far and a bunch of pineapple - yum.

Picked peppers are the shi★★★★os - seeds were originally from Ginny (Fishurgiirl); EOY pepper dropped and germinated. I pulled the seedlings, separated them and gave clusters of plants away. These were from my 2 plants that I kept.

Next experiment is leaving plants when I go away in August. I will use parthenocarpic cucumbers (cucumbers that do not need pollination) because plants will be permanently covered in tulle while I am away. The plants also need to be big enough to withstand the intense sun and 90 degree temperatures.

This is the most amazing part; I wrapped 2 seeds in the wet paper towel late at night on 7/3. The next afternoon (12-18 hours later) they both had germinated.
On 7/4 I planted the 2 seeds in ProMix and both popped up by 7/5 AM. The power of humidity I guess.

Cucumber count as of this AM is 56. Who said you couldn't grow cucumbers in Florida after March?

[efisakov]

Originally Posted by Barb_FL

Thanks Marsha - so far we have not had antracnose on the mangos I picked. I haven't picked anymore since; mine take > 1 week to ripen in the brown bags. Ate 2 mangos so far and a bunch of pineapple - yum.

Picked peppers are the shi★★★★os - seeds were originally from Ginny (Fishurgiirl); EOY pepper dropped and germinated. I pulled the seedlings, separated them and gave clusters of plants away. These were from my 2 plants that I kept.

Next experiment is leaving plants when I go away in August. I will use parthenocarpic cucumbers (cucumbers that do not need pollination) because plants will be permanently covered in tulle while I am away. The plants also need to be big enough to withstand the intense sun and 90 degree temperatures.

This is the most amazing part; I wrapped 2 seeds in the wet paper towel late at night on 7/3. The next afternoon (12-18 hours later) they both had germinated.
On 7/4 I planted the 2 seeds in ProMix and both popped up by 7/5 AM. The power of humidity I guess.

Cucumber count as of this AM is 56. Who said you couldn't grow cucumbers in Florida after March?

You go girl. Nice peppers too.