This is a pic of the whole plant growing in a cage.
BocaBob is back (current neat pics)
This is a sweet success cuke plant reaching for the sky
All the pros say you can't get grow any good tomatoes in the summer here. I just keep trying. I hate to give up!!!
Please remove the word "get" from the last post.
This is a Heatwave ll in a 5 gallon grow bag (I'm hopeful)
A Sure Thing Hybrid squash. It's self pollinating, and I need that because there just ain't any bees buzzing around these parts.
And lastly, my strawberry patch looking pretty and doing nothing in this heat.
Keep goin! Prove the pros wrong about the tomatos. LOL
Watching your progress very close. Built a raised bed this spring and have not had the produce I expected. Very large beautiful plants without much of anything. By the time we had the bed built and all of the specialty soils installed, it will take us five years to recoop our investment. Real inspiration was for good, homegrown produce. The food chain is not what it used to be, as you well know.
See you are now using the grow bags. Do you feel it is superior or about even with the EB?
Thank you for sharing with us.
Clhristi
I see a strawberry!
LouC - Time will tell. This fall I will go 50/50 (earthboxs /growbags) for all major veggies. I will only use the hydrostackers for lettuce and strawberries. The growbags are very inexpensive but more work. I have to mix a fresh tank of nutrient/water mixture every morning (which I don't mind at all) Just hope I don't have to take a unexpected trip somewhere!!!
Here's a sunrise pic of the mini-English cucumbers I'm growing. THEY are great!!!
BocaBob
LTilon - YES! One (1) Time to start making strawberry jam (LOL)
Bob - where did you get the seeds for those cucumbers? What is the official name? I want to grow them on a trellis on my deck. Amazing all that is growing even in that FL heat and humidity. No fungal problems?
-Kim
Kim - These seeds are bought by the EACH from Hydro-Gardens in Colo. Springs, Co. (Hydrogardens.com)
(800 -6346362). I bought 10. Expensive- about 50 cents each, but the production is great. And English cukes are selling for $2.50 at the grocery store right now. I have 8 almost ready to pick right now. Do the math. No fungal problems as of today, but I do spray with JMS Stylet-Oil (organic) from day one. Also from Hydro Gardens. The name of the cuke variety is "Manar".
You won't be disappointed.
Bob
VEELLLLLY INTERESTING!! Nice goin Bob. I like those cukes. The spray that you are using to protect them really seems to work as cucumbers, especially at this time of the year, (humidity factor) are extremely susceptible to powdery mildew! I've always got a few good batches of cukes before the mildew hit. I gave up trying at this time of the season and wait for cooler weather.
Your plants and pictures are incredible. I gardened in Orlando for years and never had results like you've achieved, everything so pristine and lovely looking, each one a blue ribbon specimen, and I know what that heat and humidity can do. Cucumbers were one thing I never could get going. The vines would do great, then I'd get one or two cucumbers and the plant would just go limp over a few days and that was that. Your pictures are inspiring. Best wishes and keep gardening.
Thanks everybody! You all keep me going!
We finally pulled up most of the plants in the raised bed. I'm thinking of buying some of the grow-bags in the coop that is currently underway. This Texas sun bears down so relentlessly that we have a whole flower bed that looks like it has been hit with a torch. Our water bill is atrocious but it is worth it. Sure missing the tree we had to cut down. At least with the bags and/or earth boxes things can be moved to some shade. Yesterdays Dallas News had a whole article on a knockoff EB and how to build it. Sounded like way too much detail to me. I would just as soon buy the original. Eagerly awaiting your next chapter.
Christi
Christi - I'm pretty well convinced, and Tplant agrees that growing within my pool screen enclosure is what is allowing me to grow now, because it is blistering hot outside the screened area, and I'm sure everything would be fried by now. Another reason why I like the grow bags is I'm using only 15 gallons of water per day to feed about 30 plants. And of course the Earthboxes are very little water users.
Bob
I would like to know how you came to try your hand at English cucumbers.
Have you grown any Armenian cucumbers?
Post more pictures, pleeeeeeeez.
darlindeb - I started growing English cucumbers because they are self pollinating and don't need bees, which are very scarce around here, and I love cucumbers. I have tried regular and pickling types with complete failure. But as the picture shows, no problem with the English types. The ones on the left are mini-types. The large one on the right weighs in at one pound.
Every node produces at least one, mostly two females that develop. They do say to prune one of the two so the one develops nice.
I'm shutting down my garden next week for the rest of July and August. I'm pooped and I need a break. Like Tplant, I'll start my tomato seeds around 8/15 for a late Sept planting. Then during October go nuts, planting lettuce, cabbage, Chinese cabbage, carrots, onions, peppers, English cukes, winter and summer squash, beans, peas, and strawberries.
I hope everybody up north has a wonderful growing season with a super harvest.
I'll still be around, but no pics.
BocaBob
I will miss your garden, Bob. It is a wise person that knows everything takes a rest.
LouC
Not to mention the heat is so bad it just takes everything out of you. I have my okra and red rippers still going, other than that, it will be the fall before I get going again as well. Just get in that pool and float and dream of the garden in cooler times.
Even my okra, a heat loving plant, are getting wispy and little production. My roses will be keeping me busy at this time. All sixteen of them.
Question Bob before you "hang up?" About the English cukes! Where did you buy your seed and I assume they are climbers. I've always grown bush type such as "Diva" and must say they are really good and juicy although subject to powdery mildew and must be sprayed every ten days mimium but well worth it. They have small seeds and thin skin with a high luster shine. Real pretty and can be eaten at any size. However those English cukes are very interesting. Are they seedless?
Hi Ted,
Hydrogardens.com (Colorado Springs) is where I bought the seeds. I looked them up yesterday and they upped the price to 75 cents each. Based on the production I got though, I think it is cheap. I planted 1 seed and can't eat them fast enough. Every node has a female flower (or 2) on it and they are self-pollinating. They a climbers. The variety is called Manar and is a mini cuke. They are thin skinned, seedless, crisp, and yummy. They have other kinds also. I did spray weekly from day one with an organic mineral oil fungicide just in case of powdery mildew which did not develop. The two long English cukes on the right in the picture above are Sweet Success (from Burpee). I prefer the Manar mini cuke.
See ya soon
Bob
Ahhh, I do not miss July, August and September in Florida that is for sure! We shall await your return in the fall!
-Kim
Hope to catch up on your gardening adventures later.