We had a cold snap, which stopped everything growing for a few days. The tomatoes are barely a foot tall now, and I'm thinking they'll probably die before I get any tomatoes off of them. I did get a couple of cherry tomatoes off of the Sweet 100 that is still in the pot.
The Ichiban eggplant that I transplanted into the ground is still adjusting. I added lots of compost, but I'm still having to water it almost every day. Maybe it's the wind that's drying it out.
The bean seeds that I planted just as an experiment are coming up. These are Blue Lake Bush beans, and the seeds are about 13 years old. SERIOUSLY! I had them in SC before I moved here, bought them at the feed and seed store, and they've been in the freezer all this time. I was surprised that nearly all of them germinated. I planted them only about an inch apart, thinking they wouldn't germinate well. Guess when they get bigger, I'll have to thin them. Not counting on getting beans from them before the real cold hits, but it's nice to know they're still viable. I'll plant more in January.
The Ice Cream and Dwarf Cavendish banana trees are getting established nicely. The Praying Hands out front has a pup. Most of the bananas out back aren't doing too well, so I may just move them all up front, make sort of a hedge out of them.
The pineapples are o.k., I guess. They aren't showing much growth, but then, they're probably making roots. It will be at least a year before I get pineapples on them anyway.
The starfruit (carambola) has stopped making fruit, probably because the bees are all gone now. I still have about a dozen fruits on the tree, though. The ant poison seems to be working, because the ones I brought in yesterday don't have any ants in them.
The Loquat is in full bloom. I'm thinking of giving up fruit this year and cutting it back. It's really too tall, and I can't get to the fruit at all.
There are still a few Peanut Butter Fruits left on the bush. Taking their sweet time getting ripe with this cold snap. I'll be cutting back the Surinam Cherry this year, so no fruit next year on that.
If I don't get citrus fruit next year (if the blooms all get blown off again) I'm going to give those trees away and plant something else, or maybe just move a couple of them to the front yard. If the longan doesn't bloom this year, I'm going to take it out as well. Eight years is long enough to wait for blooms.
Well, I guess this is long enough. I doubt anyone read this far. Happy Homesteading!
Monday, November 3, 2008
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4 comments:
Hey great site. I commend your progress and hard work. I also started home growing in Florida. Please, if you have time check out my videos here
www.youtube.com/UrbanHomesteadFl
Adam
I was reading a post yesterday about growing tomatoes (http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/2008/11/growing-tomatoes-from-seed.html)
I thought she had a good idea - harvesting green tomatoes and ripening them indoors, which promotes more blooms, etc. I'm not sure the taste would be as good, though the writer says it is. I was tempted to go out and cut some of mine after reading the article.
That's interesting that your beans lasted that long.
I just added you to my Florida blog list. :)
You have veggies I've never heard of...do you have pictures? Thats amazing that those seeds germinated...I had some old seeds that were less than 5 yrs old and they did squat...amazing that they were frozen and still germinated after so long.
Adam, enjoyed your videos!
Mary, thanks for adding me, I'll add you too! I'm not a big fan of tomatoes picked too early. I like them vine ripened, they just taste better. I find that if I only let one or two tomatoes grow from one bunch of flowers, they keep on producing. You get bigger tomatoes, too.
Patrice, most of what I talked about on this post isn't veggies. Most of them are fruits. I'll try to take some pics this week.
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