Hi everybody. I’m an amateur gardener from central Florida and wondered if anyone had any suggestions for seasonal crops? I don’t have a ton of property, but I’d love to grow some foodstuffs for the family.
I’ve successfully grown and harvested tomatoes, jalapeno peppers, and green bell peppers. I’d love to grow onions, shallots, asparagus, and a multitude of herbs, but I’m not sure if they would be appropriate for our clime.
Any links for research or friendly advice would be very much welcome.
When I lived there I planted lettuce, and any other cool weather crop that didn’t need pollination. I found that most of the greens worked.
Check out seed companies which specialize for your area of Florida :
Kilgore Seed Company
1400 West First St.
Sanford Fla. (407-323-6630)
Tomato Growers Supply Company
PO Box 2237
Fort Myers Fl. (941-768-3476)
Both companies specialize in Tropical and Sub-tropical vegetable varieties.
The first thing you need to do is make a list of what you like to eat.
Your seed catalog/web site will tell you the planting times for where you live.
Well, if they can grow Vidalia Onions in Georgia, I don’t know why they wouldn’t do well in FL.
I’ve gardened in CA, TX, WA, and WI, so i know nothing about FL.
Varieties of various veggies for Florida. There are three pages you have to click around.
I'm just getting started and trying to figure out what works, where and when. I don't know much, but I'll share what I do.
Tried onions last winter. Now that I think of it, I wonder what happened to them. Have seeds, but no room left in the garden. Never tried shallots. Planted asparagus last winter and about half of them seem to be doing well. From what I've read we're too far south, but I really like asparagus so I thought I would try. I've got sweet basil all over the place, partially to keep down the mosquitos. Onion chives, thyme and oregano all thrive (I'd keep the oregano in containers so it doesn't take over everything). Sage and dill have done okay, but not like the thyme and oregano that grow a lot faster than I can use them.
I really like my hydroponic setup. Compared to growing in the dirt, it's just not even fair. You might be interested in the place on Linebaugh.
I, too, am quite limited on space, so I'm looking for stuff that produces well, and then determining just when to plant it (and, harder for me, when to yank it out). In addition to the tomatoes and peppers, so far I've had good luck with Ichiban eggplant, okra, New Zealand "spinach" (not a big fan, but it grows like a weed and I need greens for the dog food anyway), parsley in semi-shade (again, dogfood), Simpson Black seed lettuce, Southern Curled mustard (yuck, only plant I ever pulled up and composted just because I wouldn't eat it), Kentucky Wonder pole beans, and asparagus beans.
Calabrese (or something like that, seed package is gone) broccoli and Snow Crown cauliflower did okay last winter. I'm planting a lot more of them this year just because they tasted so good. I'm also trying a bunch of different greens this year, a lot of which I've never eaten but are healthy and I know if I grow them I'll eat them. Maybe I'll find something I really like.
I've been putting in some fruits as well. I've learned that we need to be careful with varieties. Different varieties need different amounts of chill hours to produce fruit, and our location just doesn't produce enough of those for a lot of the varieties I've seen in the store.
Think I'll cut down most of the palms in the front yard this winter to make room for some more fruit trees. Oh, and because they suck.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2799079/posts?page=145#145