Hey Fellow Floridians - Year 2

[Zone9b]

Originally Posted by ginger2778

That is a lot of hybrids, Larry. I hope they do well for you. Did you get mostly hybrids because of nematode resistance?

Marsha,
My goal in general is to grow a lot of tomatoes at a low cost and not a huge effort. A bit like a commercial grower, I want to achieve maximum production at minimum cost. I want to fill my freezer with tomatoes, green beans, broccoli, peppers etc. I want vegetables to be the major part of my diet, I don’t want them to contain pesticide, fungicide, etc residues and of course I don’t want to buy them.
I like a good tasting tomato and I try to gravitate to those that taste better but first and foremost I want to produce a sufficient amount of tomatoes.
It is my opinion that those who are most likely to help me achieve my goals are plant breeders and it appears the technology they have available today is going to make for tremendous advances in tomato plant breeding.
For this reason I gravitate to the most modern tomato varieties in general. As I have said before I grow in both Raised Beds (RBS) and containers, but for me the RBs are far more productive and growing hybrids with their disease resistance and heterosis (plant vigor) in RBs is the most productive way to go, however, I have grown some OPs that have done fairly well there as well. When choosing a new variety to grow in a RB I look for an F1 with good disease resistance including nematode resistance, however, I do a lot of search for comments from others on how well the variety has done for them, that is if I can find any comments. Also, just finding an F1 variety that has a good disease package, nematode resistance and positive comments certainly doesn’t mean it is going to work for me here in Central Florida. One example is Goliath F1 indeterminate, looks like it would have everything I would want but when I tried it, performance was very poor.
Once again this fall I will be trying a few new varieties which are F1, disease resistant and nematode resistant but I’m sure not all will make the cut. Skyway 687 F1 looks great for Central Florida. One seed vendor says,” heat-set tomato and set fruit well over 90 degrees”.
I especially have a hard time finding tomato varieties which work well in containers. Tycoon F1 looks like a possibility. I don’t like the fact that it is 80 dtm but it is said to also be a heat set tomato. I plan to give it a try.
Thanks for the question,
Larry

[Barb_FL]

Larry - I loved your explanation. It makes total sense; Which of the F1s include White Fly resistance?

Ginny - You have the magic tomato touch in Philly or Oak Hill....it doesn't matter.

[Zone9b]

Originally Posted by Barb_FL

Larry - I loved your explanation. It makes total sense; Which of the F1s include White Fly resistance?
Ginny - You have the magic tomato touch in Philly or Oak Hill....it doesn't matter.

You know, I don't think I would know a White Fly if it were to land on my nose. Hopefully when I stick my mustard container smeared with Tanglefoot on a stake I will know if I have any.

[Fiishergurl]

Thank you Barb... :-)

Skyway F1 and Charger F1 both have intermediate resistance to TYLCV. I grew them both this spring but didnt get to taste them. I have one set of neighbors that like anything red and they have been eating them and love them. I have plenty of seeds of both (leftover, not saved) if you want to try them.

Ginny

[Zone9b]

Originally Posted by Fiishergurl

Thank you Barb... :-)
Skyway F1 and Charger F1 both have intermediate resistance to TYLCV. I grew them both this spring but didnt get to taste them. I have one set of neighbors that like anything red and they have been eating them and love them. I have plenty of seeds of both (leftover, not saved) if you want to try them.
Ginny

Ginny,
I have Skyway F1 seeds but not Charger F1 seeds. Charger looks interesting only 24" high. Looks like a good potential 10 gallon container tomato, which I really need. I would love to have a few of the seeds if possible.
Many thanks,
Larry

[Fiishergurl]

Larry,

Yes of course I would be happy to. I have to go to the post office tomorrow to send out some other things so pm me your address again and I will send them out tomorrow. I brought all of my seeds with me so should have them in my seed stash ... :-)

Ginny

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk

[Zone9b]

Originally Posted by Barb_FL

Larry - I loved your explanation. It makes total sense; Which of the F1s include White Fly resistance?
Ginny - You have the magic tomato touch in Philly or Oak Hill....it doesn't matter.

Barb,
Thank you for your kind comment.
Larry

[kayrobbins]

This year was the first time I have ever had a whitefly problem. They loved my kale. The plants looked healthy but when you started to harvest leafs it was suddenly like a cloud of them flew out from the underside of the leaves. But I have had almost no problem with stink bugs that have been my biggest problem for 3 seasons. I think all the plants I have growing to attract beneficial insects is being to have an impact.

[Zone9b]

Originally Posted by kayrobbins

This year was the first time I have ever had a whitefly problem. They loved my kale. The plants looked healthy but when you started to harvest leafs it was suddenly like a cloud of them flew out from the underside of the leaves. But I have had almost no problem with stink bugs that have been my biggest problem for 3 seasons. I think all the plants I have growing to attract beneficial insects is being to have an impact.

That is interesting Kay. The reason I say that is that I grew quite a bit of Kale this past season. I grew Red Winter and Lacianto. This was the first time for Lacianto and I liked it a lot. But I had no pest issues with either variety. That may be an indication that I don't have a whitefly problem.
Thanks,
Larry

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by Fiishergurl

Larry,

I brought all of my seeds with me so should have them in my seed stash ... :-)

Ginny

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk

Yep! We gardeners have our priorities in order.

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by Zone9b

Marsha,
My goal in general is to grow a lot of tomatoes at a low cost and not a huge effort. A bit like a commercial grower, I want to achieve maximum production at minimum cost. I want to fill my freezer with tomatoes, green beans, broccoli, peppers etc. I want vegetables to be the major part of my diet, I don’t want them to contain pesticide, fungicide, etc residues and of course I don’t want to buy them.
I like a good tasting tomato and I try to gravitate to those that taste better but first and foremost I want to produce a sufficient amount of tomatoes.
It is my opinion that those who are most likely to help me achieve my goals are plant breeders and it appears the technology they have available today is going to make for tremendous advances in tomato plant breeding.
For this reason I gravitate to the most modern tomato varieties in general. As I have said before I grow in both Raised Beds (RBS) and containers, but for me the RBs are far more productive and growing hybrids with their disease resistance and heterosis (plant vigor) in RBs is the most productive way to go, however, I have grown some OPs that have done fairly well there as well. When choosing a new variety to grow in a RB I look for an F1 with good disease resistance including nematode resistance, however, I do a lot of search for comments from others on how well the variety has done for them, that is if I can find any comments. Also, just finding an F1 variety that has a good disease package, nematode resistance and positive comments certainly doesn’t mean it is going to work for me here in Central Florida. One example is Goliath F1 indeterminate, looks like it would have everything I would want but when I tried it, performance was very poor.
Once again this fall I will be trying a few new varieties which are F1, disease resistant and nematode resistant but I’m sure not all will make the cut. Skyway 687 F1 looks great for Central Florida. One seed vendor says,” heat-set tomato and set fruit well over 90 degrees”.
I especially have a hard time finding tomato varieties which work well in containers. Tycoon F1 looks like a possibility. I don’t like the fact that it is 80 dtm but it is said to also be a heat set tomato. I plan to give it a try.
Thanks for the question,
Larry

That does make a lot of sense. If you will be kind enough, I hope you will post your results from the F1s.

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by Zone9b

That is interesting Kay. The reason I say that is that I grew quite a bit of Kale this past season. I grew Red Winter and Lacianto. This was the first time for Lacianto and I liked it a lot. But I had no pest issues with either variety. That may be an indication that I don't have a whitefly problem.
Thanks,
Larry

Larry, did you have any tomatoes with dark and light green swirly patterns and stunted growth, that just quit producing? If not, you might not have a whitefly problem. Look at the underside of tomato, pepper, and brassica leaves, if you see very tiny white insects, or not quite so tiny white clusters, or if your broccolis have silvering color on the leaves, or if you see tiny black flies on your sticky traps, then that's whiteflies.
They have gotten much better in the last 3 years down here( ground central for them).
Whiteflies are basically aphids with wings.
There are 34 varieties of whiteflies in S. FL.
The MGs say that now predators have found them to be good to eat.

[Fiishergurl]

Originally Posted by ginger2778

Yep! We gardeners have our priorities in order.

Hahahahaha... yes we do!

Ginny

[Fiishergurl]

Originally Posted by kayrobbins

This year was the first time I have ever had a whitefly problem. They loved my kale. The plants looked healthy but when you started to harvest leafs it was suddenly like a cloud of them flew out from the underside of the leaves. But I have had almost no problem with stink bugs that have been my biggest problem for 3 seasons. I think all the plants I have growing to attract beneficial insects is being to have an impact.

Kay,

They love cabbage and kale! I love Kale but not growing it again for a while after the TYLCV issues last fall. Even when the tomato plants no longer seemed to have any white flies, the kale always had a puff of them no matter how many stickies i put around them. I didnt want my spring seedlings to risk getting TYLCV so I pulled up the Kale and havent seen anymore white flies since.

I'm not saying to pull the Kale. Just mentioning that i couldn't get rid of them until I did. But i dont have an infestation of whitflies yet like some areas. Mine came in on a few plants. Some areas no matter what you do they will always be there due to what neighbors are growing etc.

Ginny

[efisakov]

Around me there are tens of miles of water and cities. No farms around. I had 2 containers with potatoes at the beginning of a season. Few days ago found couple Colorado potato beetle on it. Go figure.