Dragonfruit Flower

After much anticipation, our dragonfruit plant finally bloomed! The first was in July and the second late August. Thankfully it waited until the day after we got home from a trip to Illinois. These blooms only last one night and are stunningly gorgeous. I was surprised that they have a nice, slightly sweet scent as well. We were disappointed when the first one didn't develop into a  fruit. There were hundreds of tiny insects down inside the drooped flower the next day and the whole thing finally just fell off the stem. This time we made sure to pollinate the flower well by picking up the pollen on our fingers and depositing it on the female part. Fingers crossed!

Racing the Bugs and Mildew

I'm growing a variety of cantaloupe called Minnesota Midget, and the first one was delicious! Contrary to what you would think, I'm learning that early varieties of things, if they are not too heat sensitive, actually work really well in the warm climate. This is because they can sometimes out race the rampant bugs and mildew. In the summer, I'm basically always working with the goal of producing a crop before the plant dies off, which is the same goal gardeners have the far north with the short summer.

Start of Summer

Going into June, I'm trying to stay positive by focusing on the plants doing well instead of the ones decimated by the alternating heat and downpours as well the exploding pest population. (Thunderstorm gardening interruptions are great for blog posting though!). Our first cantaloupe, an early variety called Minnesota Midget, is finally ripening. Hopefully it will finish before the dastardly worms have killed the plant completing. The peanuts are growing fantastically and there are a few baby watermelon on the trellised vines. We also just harvested our second ever successful sweet corn crop and beat out the worms and beetles. It is so scrumptious to have a few ears of fresh corn on the cob night, and they cook so quickly in the microwave! It is difficult making decisions now about what to plant and how to work on improving the soil over summer. We are definitely going to add a bunch of greensand. Greensand is amazing for Florida gardens! It supplies potassium (which our plots have even less of than nitrogen) to help create green, sturdy stems. The greensand also helps bind the sandy Florida soil and provides several micronutrients. What I love the most is that, even though it looks like sand, it can hold ten times its weight in water. Talk about useful in the Florida heat! This can prevent leaching of nutrients, a common. during all the watering (sigh....so much watering...all the time...never-ending). We will probably continue to add more soybean meal and coffee grounds from Starbucks as well. More on those garden amendments in future posts!

Awesome May Weather

This morning I woke up to an amazingly beautiful day for the middle of May in Florida. Low sixties that took their lazy time warming up into delightful mid-seventies. There was a strong, cool breeze to top it off. My sister sent me a picture of snow on the grass up in Illinois so I guess we weren't the only ones below average today! The rain and cooler temps brought a full 20 blooms out on my rose, and me sky a brilliant blue. No matter how hard I tried, pictures could not do it justice. The dragonfruit plant had finally pushed out a bunch of new growth and it was time to top it off. I lopped of the growing tip with a sharp knife so hopefully it will now send out multiple branches flower. Up until now, only one fig tree had any figs on it, but today they all finally had some. I'm so excited to try all the different varieties! I was also glad to see the peanuts I planted a week ago had come up. This is my first time growing them and love the idea of watching something new develop (and an dreaming of LOTS of homemade peanut butter!).

Strawberries in the Heat

Florida is known all over for its delIcious strawberries, a fruit associated with the first warm days of summer. Interestingly, here they are grown as annuals in the winter. This is because the strawberry plants have difficulty setting fruit from the flowers when temperatures go above 80. However, my plants just keep on chugging even though it has been close to 90 everyday. You can tell from the pictures that the fruit isn't as high quality as the huge ones we got in March (that one was almost 4 inches across!). Quantity is still high though - this was 4 lbs picked on Monday. We had runners form in December and the new batch of plants from these are producing the best. This leads me to believe that decline is from plants getting worn out, not just the weather. Hopefully they will continue for at least a couple of weeks. I love to freeze then to use in smoothies and it would be nice to have enough for the whole summer!

Cucumbers!

So exited that it looks like we are finally going to get some cucumbers this season! Our fingers are crossed because we have not had luck with them in the past. Unfortunately, they need warm weather to do well and warm weather in Florida means mildew. Cucumbers are even more susceptible to mildew than zucchini are. Covering the leaves in neem oil has kept it at bay for the zucchini but has  never been enough for the cucumbers. This spring the timing finally seems right. Since the plants have needed a lot of water, we've been using kelp fertilizer at every watering. We're seeing blossoms and will hopefully be able to post about the first cuke soon! It would be great to get enough to use them for my homemade pickles. 

Nematodes - Know Thy Enemy

One of the biggest threats that plants in the Florida garden face is the root knot nematode (often abbreviated rkn). Nematodes are tiny and live in the soil. Some benefit the soil ecosystem and the plants growing in it. Root knot nematodes, however, do nothing but harm. They feed on the roots and cause blockages. This means that the roots cannot take up water or nutrients, no matter how much you water or feed them. Leaves turn yellow, and whole sections of the plant eventually go limp and die. After first learning about nematodes, I checked a dead tomato plant when I pulled it out to confirm. Sure enough, the roots were very blocky, short, and covered with little modules. Uggggh!!! This news frustrated me because I had read that nematodes are pretty much impossible to eradicate. There are definitely remedies that keep them somewhat at bay (post coming up), but no cure-all. If you're gardening in Florida, chances are you too will deal with nematodes because they LOVE sandy soil and heat (nematode damage is worse in the summer).

Dragonfruit - New Growth

Finally! New Growth!

I'm excited to try my newest experiment in Florida gardening - Dragonfruit! I've always found the bright fushia fruit with it's black and white interior intriguingly delicious. Because there are a limited number of fruits and veggies that can provide during the sweltering, humid, buggy Florida summers, the tropical dragonfruit seems like it might be a good bet. Supposedly, one plant can produce 300lbs of fruit! They need to be grown up sturdy posts and then encouraged to branch out and blossum. I bought a 3 foot plant about 4 weeks ago. I put it in rotted pine fines and compost with some soybean meal mixed in for nitrogen. I let it work on getting its new, little roots established for about 2 weeks and then started giving it some water soluable fertilizer. It slowly became less yellow and more green. Finally, I was so happy to see the first new growth today!