Florida Thornless Blackberries

Thornless Blackberries are probably the easiest fruit crop that I have ever grown, and the rate of return is phenomenal. 

Flowers in spring

Immature fruit

Daily fruit harvest when fruit matures in mid Summer

Care and maintenance for thornless blackberries is extremely easy: provide supplemental irrigation during dry periods, fertilize once a year with a balanced slow release formula like 10-10-10 and mulch around the plants to reduce weed competition (and keep tidy). I have experienced no pest or disease issues, which is remarkable considering this is Florida (I love this state, but it is literally a hotbed for pests and disease vectors). 

Pruning advice was confusing when I researched it online, so I did my own thing and it worked out pretty well for me. The plants were put in the ground in the fall of the first year, the plant had numerous shorter canes or branches, and a couple of longer ones, I believe these are referred to as primacanes. I left them as is when the plant went dormant through the winter. In the early spring new foliage emerged and flowering occured shortly thereafter. The flowering was sparse, but all the blooms were pollinated and a decent berry harvest took place mid summer. Within a few months of the fruiting being complete, the old canes began to die and new incredibly long canes emerged which I believe are called floracanes. Therefore I pruned off the old primacanes and trellised the new long floracanes. These then went dormant in the winter and followed the same path of leafing, flowering and fruiting the following year. Simple and easy.

The research on pruning wasn't entirely in vain, I did learn that trellising the canes will make it easier for pollination and fruit harvest. The thornless varieties do not grow dense and bushy like the thorny blackberries you find growing in the wild. Looking at the 5' and 6' long floracanes my plants were producing just laying on the ground getting stepped on and broken convinced me there was merit to the trellising tactic. So all six of my blackberries are trellised on coated wire attached to 6' t posts. 

This summer was our first real harvest from the canes, last year the fruit from the primacanes was somewhat meager. The canes this year produced so many flowers that I did not truly believe that they would ALL produce fruit. Happily I was wrong. The plants produced so much fruit that we were at a loss of what to do with it all and finally ended up letting the birds take it. Next year I will be better prepared and am already getting the hang of homemade wine making! 

Pumpkins in Florida

This summer is the first time I tried my hand at growing pumpkins in central Florida, and it has been a learning experience. Powdery mildew is a nemesis that I fight all through the year with cucurbits. I always use seeds for varieties that are resistant or tolerant, but still will have minor issues. So for the great pumpkin experiment I purchased 'Seminole' pumpkin seeds, despite the fact I am a UF alumni and thus avoid anything remotely supporting our north Florida rivals. The reputation for this variety is that they are practically bullet-proof, resistant to pest and fungal issues.  The other tidbit of advice I read was to trellis the vines as they will take over your garden otherwise. Usually I plant my summer garden seeds by early April at the latest but delayed with these because I did not have a trellis constructed yet. I finally put 4 pumpkin seeds in by early May and did they take off! I swear these vines can grow up to a foot a day.

Dutifully I wound the vines through the trellising to keep them off the ground, which became a daily occurrence  as new vines kept growing off the original plants and running along the ground into other crop beds. Sadly, on Memorial Day weekend a massive hail storm hit our area and beat the absolute hell out of my garden, including the pumpkins. The quarter sized hail tore through the large soft vegetation of the pumpkin leaves and even scarred up the vine itself, which by this point was as thick as my index finger. Within a few days of the hail storm though, I found new vines growing out of the existing plants, and without any hesitation the vines just kept going.

Pumpkin leaf shredded by hail

Pumpkin vines beaten by hail storm

By early June I am about burned out on gardening and the heat and the garden receives little to no attention. Therefore my attentive vine trellising came to an abrupt halt. In addition, the summer rains have been especially active this summer and are usually pouring down just as I am coming home from work in the evening so several days would go by before I would make it into the garden to check on things. Within 2 weeks the vines had run away to the point that I was too intimidated to attempt to corral them. So they were given free reign. Not content to confine themselves to the garden they are now running into the yard and are only held in check by being run over by the mower when they hit the turf areas. All this from 4 seeds!

The vines on the trellis never did rally, but check out

all the new vines that have escaped their designated bed

Pumpkin vine escaping the garden and 

taking over the Pentas

I have established that these vines are indeed prolific and unfazed by Florida's dramatic climatological mood swings. But in terms of fruit production, I am less impressed. It is now the beginning of July and I have found the first evidence of fruit production. Unfortunately they are outside the safely fenced confines of the garden, and my labrador mistaking the young round fruit for balls has been trying to steal them.

Young pumpkin, I am hoping the tomato cage keeps my 

dog from stealing it

I'm not quite sure what I will do with these fruit if they actually make it to maturity, but it's mostly for fun.

Garden Additions

My husband finally said those 6 words I've been dying to hear, "can we add to the garden?" The garden is primarily my area, and in the past it has been a minor battle to convince my husband to dig up perfectly good turf in the name of garden expansion. So this was a delightful turn of events.

Phase 1 of the expansion began approximately 2 months ago when I cleared an area along the fenceline to create a potato bed. I first planted  'Yukon Gold' seed potatoes, and they are growing very well ... at least above ground. Hopefully all this wild green growth will yield plenty of  delicious edible tubers in a few months. This past week I purchased some 'Georgia Jet' sweet potato slips which necessitated doubling the size of the potato bed.

'Georgia Jet' Sweet Potato slips in new bed

Potato bed, with new Sweet Potato slips on left, 

and 'Yukon Gold' Potatoes on the right

Phase II began last weekend my husband finally noticed that I don't have any corn growing in the garden this summer. When I told him that I didn't have any room for it, that's when he asked if we could add to the garden to grow some. This resulted in his 'Field of Dreams' moment where he identified an area about 20' x 30' that he wanted to clear, till and plant. So that was our projecct for this weekend.

Field of Dreams, 20' x 30' area with probably 80 baby 

'Golden Bantam Cross' corn plants just starting to emerge. 

Yes, my husband and I like to sit and watch our corn grow

Summer Garden Status Update

At this point I have the bulk of the garden established, but still can't resist adding more stuff. Especially since I just harvested the last of the Kale (definitely planting this again next winter) and still have carrots in the ground.

So far, the tomatoes are doing great. Have had some minor insect issues with leaf miner, whitefly and aphids, but nothing that an application of spinosad can't cure.

The summer squash have already yielded 2 squash with several more ready to harvest by this weekend. However, I am already seeing signs of powdery mildew, my main garden nemesis.

Vermont Cranberry beans are going great, plants are already loaded with tons of pods and I am considering planting more when I pull the last of my carrots.

'Cossack Pineapple' Tomatillas are doing great and are loaded with fruit, so I am just waiting for the first one to ripen.

The Pepino's are ....growing.....sooo.....slowly. But I can't complain because the plants look healthy so I will just have to be patient.

The Yard Long Beans are not doing as well as expected, but I think the reason is that they are not getting enough water. My micro-irrigation system does not seem to reach the center of the beds very effectively. I will rectify this over the weekend. We also had a couple of late frosts which definitely impacted these as seedlings, not enough to kill them but enough to set them back.

The 'Seminole' Pumpkins are doing surprisingly well. No sign of powdery mildew, but we'll see how far into summer they will last.

The 'Pike' Muskmelon did not make it, they were hit with powdery mildew fairly quickly, which is a shame because their growth rate was phenomenal. I garden organically and will treat occasionally with organic pesticides and will occasionally use Neem oil for fungus. However, powdery mildew is not cured only controlled, and I refuse to spend all my time in the garden treating my crops. Especially there are so many other crops to grow that will thrive in our environment. Needless to say I ripped out the Muskmelon and replaced it with the Malabar spinach seeds that I forgot I purchased.

'Roma' Green Beans doing great, small pods already forming. I am hoping to have something to eat in another week.

Garden Fruit Production

It's late April and I am very pleased with the progress of my fruit plants and trees.  For Christmas of 2012 I received 1 almond and 3 cherry trees. I know this sounds like the beginning of a Christmas carol, or a fairy tale considering I live in central Florida. However, I found two varieties of cherry trees that were purported to fruit in extreme low chill environments. I followed this up with some research that yielded mixed reports of success, but since I am Super Gardener, I made a Christmas present request for these trees. Therefore I became the happy owner of 1 'Minnie Royal' and 2 'Royal Lee' Cherry Trees, as well as a 'Garden Prince' dwarf Almond Tree. They came bare root and were planted into 15 gallon pots. Then in July I put them in the ground. Anxiously I waited all winter through their dormancy to see if I would have any blossoms this spring. And they did! But only 5, and all on one tree. So I doubt they will result in actual cherries. I am gratified that they received enough chill hours to bloom their first spring in the ground, and will wait patiently for next spring.

The thornless blackberries are doing great and I anticipate having a great harvest. I bought the first one 5 years ago from a nursery that actually specialized in trees. I bought it and never even asked what variety is was, and have been uable to find out ever since. Whichever variety it is, is very prolific. It rooted through the bottom of the pot and has produced 5 additional plants. I have all 6 plants trellised and based on the number of blossoms I'm seeing, I am anticipating a good crop.

Under the blackberries, I planted 'Tri Star' Strawberries, which I rarely get any fruit from between the birds and the dogs (yes, my dogs eat strawberries). But they are doing very well, and I often see small birds, maybe wrens, eating bugs off the veggies in my garden. So if they are the same birds eating the strawberries then we are square.

'Tri Star' Strawberries

The 'Florida Belle' Peach I purchased last year in August has already almost doubled in size.  This spring it produced numerous blooms which were all successfully pollinated. Realizing that the tree was still too small to support all that fruit, I removed all the young fruit except for 2.

'Florida Belle' Peach

Peach tree in front of the garden, the multi-colored blob 

is Callie the Garden Cat

The 'Gulf Beauty' Plum that was also purchased in August 2013 is doing great as well. It has tripled in height and bloomed successfully this spring, but I did not allow this tree to keep any of the blooms though.

The 'Clayton' Mulberry took a bit of a beating this winter as my dogs insist on brushing past it while running through the yard. But it has numerous blooms on it and is thriving.

The limequat is doing great. I wanted a lime type of citrus to utilize in my Corona beers, and found that the limequat which a hybrid of a lime and a kumquat is extremely cold tolerant. And it was fortuitous that I soon came across one at Lowe's a few weeks later. I have it in a pot so that I can move it into the greenhouse in the event of a hard frost and have already harvested several limes from it.

The Kiwi vines 'Vincent' and 'Tomuri' are just coming out of dormancy, but are not very photogenic yet as the leaves are just emerging. I am hoping that the vines will bloom this spring. I also have some 'Sunshine Blue' and 'Missy' Blueberry plants I recently purchased that already had blooms and fruit on them at time of purchase. From my research, these two varieties are the most tolerant of pH fluctuation so I am curious to see how they produce next year.

'Sunshine Blue' Blueberry

Baby Veggies

It's only the beginning of April but I already have baby veggies forming! It won't be long now.

Red Bell Pepper

'Cossack Pineapple' Tomatilla

'Fancy Crookneck' Summer Squash

Tomato Update

I am happy to report that the tomatoes are doing great! I have found that the minimum threshold that tomatoes can take is around 38 degrees F.  Although I did have minor leaf damage to some very small tomato plants at this temperature, more mature specimens came through just fine. Even the blossoms were not affected.

'Chianti Rose' Tomato at 2' tall

'Beefmaster' Tomato between 20" and 21" tall

My husband and I have a bet going. I say that due to planting early and the frost protection I have given these plants that I will have an edible tomato ready by the middle of May. He says that no matter what measures I take, there will not be edible tomatoes until the first week in June. I think I'm going to win.

Protection for Tomatoes During a Late Frost

So last night we had a frost and my husband got his chance to tell me 'I told you so'. The weather predictions kept saying the low would be 40 degrees F, but fortunately I am a born pessimist. 40 degrees would be fine to leave the babies unprotected if you had some assurance that temps would not go any lower. Planning for the worst, I rushed home from  work to cover my baby tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, tomatillas, muskmelon and beans (did not know if they would be sensitive to the frost but I was on a roll).  First, I used frost cloth to form a tent over my Armenian cucumbers which was tedious and time consuming. As I was poring over the best solution for the rest of the veggies my husband, kicked back, drinking a beer and watching my shenanigans, suggested covering the plants with pots. My first inclination was to disdain this suggestion because he is, after all, a non-gardener. But I had to admit the idea had merit. I was cold, tired and a glass of wine was calling my name. So I took out all my plastic pots and buckets (I have many) and in 5 minutes flat had all my babies covered with their own black plastic greenhouses.

This morning we woke up to 37 degrees at 8:30 a.m., so who knows how low temps dipped at sunrise. I was nervous. I had visions of all my starts being a mushy, wilted mess, and having to start all over again. So I waited until temps were over 40 to uncover everyone, and......they all looked fine. It absolutely worked.  So hopefully we are done with frosts but if not I am good to go with my nursery pots.

Covering baby tomato plants with nursery pots

Not fancy but it worked

Healthy, happy tomato plant the next day

Review -Winter Garden

As I am tearing out my the last of my winter garden, I thought I'd share a few things I learned with this garden.

Purple Carrots: I do not particularly like carrots, I grow them for my mother to eat (she loves raw carrots), for juicing (health benefits, not taste), and to use in stews (they are easy to freeze and store). My mom's opinion on the purple carrots was that they were not as good raw as the orange varieties I grew. She said they were not as sweet, and had a stronger carroty flavor. Reading up on the domestication of carrots, it would appear that the purple colored variety is less domesticated than the oranges and yellows. However, I found that in the garden the purple variety grew twice as fast as the orange, which is probably due to their more primitive nature. wink. In the future I will plant a small area of the orange, sweeter varieties, for momma's fresh eating. And then do a larger area in the purple as the sweetness is less of a factor for juicing and cooking.

Purple Haze Carrots mixed with orange varieties

Apollo Broccoli:  This was the best variety of Broccoli that I have ever grown and/or eaten! I could pick enough sprouts for dinner for two people every three days. The flavor and the vigor of this variety was phenomenal. It broke my heart to pull them this weekend, but with the warmer temps, the sprouts were going almost straight to flower anyway. In the future, I will not waste time or space on any other Broccoli variety for eating.

Apollo Broccoli covered in shoots

Romanesco Broccoli: I was intrigued to try this variety as it looks really cool, and is pricey to buy in the grocery stores, if you can even find it. This variety of broccoli is not vigorous... at all. I waited all winter, watching these plants grow...ever...so...slowly.  Finally, I was rewarded with those beautiful, geometric, chartreuse Romanesco heads, and they were delicious...but very small.  In the future, I will skip growing this variety unless I have a bed with nothing else planned....and time on my hands.

Head of Romanesco Broccoli about 4" across

There is no denying that this is one pretty vegetable

Early Jersey Wakefield Cabbage: This variety of cabbage, despite being an early variety, seemed to take forever to form heads. Although this may be attributable to how warm the winter season began. Then in early February the heads were looking really good and ready to harvest. On a Friday I walked through the garden planning to pull the heads the next day. Saturday morning I walk out to find one of the heads had split. This never happened with Flat Dutch. The Flat Dutch, which is supposed to be a late variety, formed heads earlier and I could leave those babies in the garden forever without them splitting. In the future, go back with Flat Dutch for cabbage.

Beautiful heads of cabbage one day

Split cabbage head the next

Tomatoes, Peppers and Squash... Oh My!

This weather seriously needs to warm up...right now! I have a greenhouse full of veggies ready to go in the ground. And my beds are cleared, prepped and ready to go. All I am waiting on is to get past the last threat of frost. To be honest, I am probably just going to take my chances and plant out the majority of my veggie babies this weekend. If we get a late frost, I'll end up doing like I did last year. Rush home from work, pick up frost covers and run around the garden in the dark covering up all the babies, with my husband standing nearby saying 'I told you so'.

Right now in the greenhouse I have several varieties of tomatoes ready to go: Chianti Rose, Beefmaster, Wapsipinicon Peach, Bush Big Boy, San Marzano, Coure de Bue, Roma, Pink Brandywine, and Black Krim. I also have the 'Vermont Cranberry' Beans, 'Pike' Muskmelon, 'Seminole' Pumpkin, 'Fancy Crookneck' Summer Squash, and 'Cossack Pineapple' Tomatilla.  I typically grow everything from seed to reduce disease introduction, except for the Bell Peppers. For some reason it takes too long to grow peppers from seed. Therefore I cheat and buy starts to grow out in the greenhouse for a few months. This way I'll be eating peppers by May.

Bell Peppers and Tomatoes

Tomatoes and Muskmelon

Vermont Cranberry Beans and Tomatillas

Tomatoes in the foreground

Messy Greenhouse                                        

                                           
My other motivation for planting out some of my stock is to free up some room in my tiny greenhouse. I mostly use it for storage during the warmer months because it does not have ventilation fans and gets HOT. But then during the winter when I am doing all my starts to get a jump on the spring/summer garden, I end up running out of room.

Taking Care of My Pollinators

It's difficult this time of year to have flowers to support my pollinators, to keep them interested enough in my yard to hang around until my Spring garden. The winter garden does not have many vegetables that require pollination, mostly greens and  root vegetables. And most flowering plants cannot survive both the occasional frost as well as the typical central Florida heat and humidity. But I do have a couple of species that work, and are low maintenance.

Borage grows great during Florida winters, I love the beautiful purple blooms and even the hairy leaves have visual interest.

Surprisingly the African Bush Daisy was not even fazed by the worst of the frosts in the 20's this winter.

But my best flowering plant for keeping the pollinators around is Broccoli that I let bolt and go to flower. I discovered this last winter unintentionally. I tried a sprouting variety of Broccoli called 'Pericicaba'. A sprouting variety does not put out just one big main head but several smaller sprouting heads. Unfortunately the 'Pericicaba' variety is not good for eating here in Florida as it bolts quickly in our warmer winters and goes to flower. So last winter I was just too lazy to pull them and discovered that the bees love the flowers and these plants were continuously covered in flowers.

Spring Seeds Ordered

I'm getting restless for my spring/summer garden and the seed catalogs have been showing up in the mail, one a day, for the past week. So I gave in and placed my first order. I may have to expand to plant all the stuff I've got coming in, and I don't know who is going to eat it all since it's only the two of us.

Pinetree Garden Seeds and Accessories:
Vermont Cranberry- dried bean variety, I haven't grown dried beans before but it would be nice to grow something that is easily stored. I just don't have time for the whole canning thing, and am so-so at freezing my excess veggies.
Yard Long- Asian bean that is also referred to as Asparagus bean. Very heat tolerant and productive, which would be great to have in the garden in the middle of summer when everything else is burned out. And you can never have enough fresh eating bean varieties, so easy to harvest and cook.
Painted Serpent Cucumber- this is odd as it is sold as a cucumber but is really a type of melon, but tastes like a mild cucumber. It's a snake shaped Armenian variety and supposed to be a prolific producer and I am always curious to try new varieties (besides if I don't like it I can feed it to the chickens). I'll also be planting my usual cucumber variety 'County Fair' which is incredibly resistant to powdery mildew and produces good amounts of tasty fresh eating and pickling cukes.
Pepino- I am so excited to try this melon. It produces 2 - 5" fruit that taste like a pearish melon.
Minnesota Midget- a small early variety of muskmelon that grows on compact vines. Since I am always battling powdery mildew on my cucurbits I seek varieties that either have good resistance or are early so as to beat the heat and rains of a Florida summer.
Strawberry Spinach- a variety of greens that grow during the heat of summer and taste like spinach. How awesome would it be to have spinach tasting fresh greens to make a salad with my summer tomatoes.
Wapsipinicon Peach Tomato- a small sized tomato that is supposed to be fruity tasting, with a peach fuzz skin.

 Tomato Growers Supply Company:
Black Krim
Pink Brandywine
Jubilee 

Southern Exposure Seed Exchange:
Pike Cantaloupe- produces large fruit, and has excellent disease resistance.
Seminole pumpkin- highly productive heirloom native pumpkin variety with incredible resistance to everything that afflicts cultivated vegetables in Florida.
Ground Cherry Cossack Pineapple- yellow, fruity tasting tomatillo.
Monarda- great flowering herb for my pollinators.