😊

definitely use shade cloth, at least 30-40%. i’ll sometimes go 65% for weaker plants. (as a floridian i also wonder how to over summer instead of overwinter which is what i always hear)

You’re welcome! Yes I would definitely give them shade over the summer. I think around (at least) 40-50% shade cloth would be good. You also want to make sure they get enough water and don’t dry out. However, since we usually get a lot of rain during the summer, you could end up having the opposite problem of too much water. Some varieties are more susceptible to fungus and disease and the rain and humidity may be too much for varieties that aren’t resistant. When you do water, it’s best to do it in the morning so the leaves have time to dry off in the sun, but obviously you can’t control when it rains. Hopefully there’s good airflow where they are planted since good airflow also helps them dry quicker and not spread diseases. Also some varieties produce more runners than others. You could try feeding them a couple of times with some fish fertilizer that’s a little higher in nitrogen during the summer to see if it promotes runner growth. I’m planning to try that. I think it helped when I did it last year, but I wasn’t very scientific about it. Just don’t keep giving high nitrogen fertilizer in the late summer and fall. Switch to a more balanced fertilizer in the fall to encourage berry growth and not just foliage growth. Good luck!

You’re welcome!

You’re welcome! I’m glad they are helpful 😊

I don’t know of another name for them. You could try googling “zipper cream southern pea seeds”. I got mine from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange.

@@floridavegetablegardening Thanks. I planted what I thought were zippers and they've made and I did find the right ones apparently. They are called cow peas in my area. Anyway, they are so delicious. My grandmama and dad grew them for years and now I can finally continue the lineage.

Hi. Thank you. Yes, this is a great recipe for potting soil for use in containers. I use it to grow vegetables in containers and it works very well. Yes, Black Kow brand is a good one. I use it a lot and have used it in my potting mix with good results. However, high summer temperatures can be too hot for a lot of vegetable plants even if you grow in good soil. I don’t know how it is in Texas, but here in Florida, we don’t grow many common vegetables during the summer because it’s too hot for them here in summer. For example, lettuce gets bitter in hot weather and will quickly go to seed, so in Florida we grow lettuce in the fall, winter and spring, but not during the summer. I would suggest checking online for Texas planting guides that tell you the best times of year to plant your vegetables, so that you can avoid planting crops during summer that might not do well in the heat. I would follow recommendations like this for Texas: aggie-hort.tamu.edu/archives/parsons/earthkind/ekgarden14.html Happy Gardening! 🙂

@@floridavegetablegardening thank you so much for your wonderful advice😊😊😊

We have very mild winters. It doesn’t go below freezing every year but we usually have at least a few nights when it’s predicted to frost or potentially freeze. Some years we will get a few freezes. Last year we didn’t. Nights will typically drop into the 50s and 40s during the coldest couple of months, but a lot of nights it’s only in the 60s. Garlic has done fairly well for me but it’s because I put the bulbs in my refrigerator for 10 -12 weeks before I plant to vernalize them.

That’s sad 😞. How long were they growing before they died? Mine don’t live forever, but they usually self seed and new plants grow in various places around the yard.

The same every year gets 3 or 4 feet lots if tomatoes then looks like sunscald.. I have regular to notes in same area they are fine

Hi! Thanks so much for subscribing! I have not tried using finely chopped pine bark in my mixture, but I think it would be worth experimenting with, depending on what you’re growing. I have used it in store bought mixes for tropical houseplants that like chunky mixes (like orchid potting mix for example). However, the big batches of potting mix l make in the video, I use for vegetable plants and also for making soil blocks. I don’t like to have chunks in the base mix because it isn’t good for making soil blocks, but I would consider adding pine bark to my base mix for use in pots. From what I understand, pine bark helps the mix to be light and aerated, which is good, but it doesn’t hold water very well. That can be good or bad depending on what you’re growing. I use a lot of peat moss in my mix and peat moss does hold a lot of water. Most of my container grown vegetables are in grow bags, which can dry out quickly and my vegetables need a steady supply of water, so I like using the peat that is light and has good water holding capability. I hope that makes sense. I think it would be interesting to experiment with adding varying amounts of fine chopped pine bark to your mix and comparing the outcomes. Good luck! 😊

@@floridavegetablegardening Makes sense to me. Worth noting is that I have recently un potted around 100 small trees and shrubs and am shocked at the difference in potting mediums and their water holding qualities. I see pine bark in all of them but some are heavy on the pine bark (fine chopped) and stay very dry and get so root bound that they won't even accept water. For those I had to remove the containers and pre soak the roots in tubs of water periodically until I could plant them and again at planting time. Now some other ones I had were root rotted and soggy with a very dark compost and just would not dry out at the bottom. Poor root development. I got some of those in the ground already and many more need to be planted soon. Those had some pine bark but not much. In this case, I'd much prefer the ones that were heavy in finely chopped pine bark and root bound.

That is a concern I have too. I only use food grade plastic buckets and drinking water bottles, so given that I am already drinking water out of the bottles (and presumably eating food that gets stored in food grade plastic buckets), I wouldn’t think it’s any worse for me to consume something that was grown in these containers. However, in general, it doesn’t seem especially healthy that we store food and water in plastic containers, even if they’re food grade. This is the main reason I mentioned at the end of the video that I would like to find alternatives to using plastic for these types of self-watering containers. I would love to hear about safer (affordable) alternatives that can function as well for this same purpose, but I have not heard of anything yet. One person suggested using rocks in the container instead water bottles and I think that is a good idea if you have a cheap (or free) source of natural rocks. However, that only replaces the water bottles and not the bucket. I keep trying to figure out some way to use a grow bag for a container and some other natural material to set it in that holds water, but I haven’t really come up with any solid ideas yet. If you have any suggestions for an alternative to plastic, please feel free to share.

Right around the 6:55 mark I showed that I added 2 cups of an organic fertilizer. That’s is all that is needed for pretty much the whole growing season. Sometimes I will add a little fertilizer near the end of the growing season if the leaves start to get pale or the fruits are getting smaller but that’s usually only for peppers since they can live for several seasons. If add additional fertilizer at a later time then I usually just sprinkle a couple of tablespoons of the same organic fertilizer around the top of the pot and lightly scratch it into the top layer of soil. Occasionally I might fertilize with some liquid fish and seaweed emulsion mixed in water, but I don’t always do that and I don’t do it often.

Correct. I tried to make it clear that these are different varieties by listing them separately. I listed which varieties of Alpine Strawberries I grew between about 5:04-6:16. Red Alpine varieties start at about 5:04 and White Alpine varieties start at around 5:47. Mara Des Bois isn’t listed as an Alpine, it just happens to be the next variety I reviewed after the Alpine varieties.

I have grown zucchini in one of these containers and it worked out ok but zucchini plants get so big I usually prefer to grow them in the ground. It’s been a few years since I grew zucchini in a bucket but if I recall correctly, I think I wasn’t completely happy with the results. For one thing the zucchini plant starts falling over the side of the bucket when it gets big so it would be helpful to have a way to stake it up or have something to lean it on.

Thank you! 😊

You’re welcome. We don’t live too far apart. I’m a little Northeast of you. Sorry to hear about your worm invasion. The ones that go after plants in the squash and melon family are my worst foes. You may have already seen this, but I did a video (link below) on what I do to control those types of worms. They come every year so it is a constant battle. Good luck! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-9eEwFmxjh64.htmlsi=fggyepCL87MDtXb8

I’m so glad! 🙂

You are correct. I don't add anything that changes pH from the neutral 6.7-7.0 of my mix. Don't you mean Sulfur, rather than Bone meal?

Thank you! 😊

Wonderful! I hope they do well for you! 😊

Yes, that’s the ideal timeframe.

You’re welcome! I have not tried to grow blueberries yet. It’s funny that you ask about blueberries because I just went to a local u-pick farm and picked blueberries this weekend and was trying to decide if I like blueberries enough to make the effort to grow them myself. The guy who grows them in my neighborhood has 4 varieties and they seem to do well in FL, but only some of them do I think taste good enough that I would want to grow them. I’m pretty sure the ones I picked this weekend were the variety “Emerald”. They are large berries and decent tasting, but a little too tart for my liking. The other varieties he is growing are Jewel, Abundance and Spring High. They don’t all ripen at the same time (which I think is why he grows several varieties) and I haven’t had a chance to taste the other varieties. I think Spring High might be the best tasting one, but I haven’t been able to confirm it. I know a lot of people struggle with growing blueberries in FL, but they are supposed to be a native crop and it seems like it shouldn’t be that hard. His blueberries are planted in the ground and do very well, but they are the only thing he grows and he is retired and has time to tend to them. Once I figure out which one I like the taste of the best, I might decide to try growing a few myself. Also, “highbush” and “rabbiteye” varieties are supposed to be native to FL and may be easy to grow, so I have considered trying to grow those as well. We’ll see. 🙂

Lol, that’s funny. Great minds think alike?😁 Thanks for the variety suggestions. I will check those out. I am 10a so I have been told blueberries are pretty tough to grow here but not impossible. As they are my favorite fruit I thought I would give it another go. My soil is pretty alkaline so I may try a large grow bag with amended soil. If you do decide to grow some it would be cool to hear how it goes. Thanks again for all the info.😊

Brilliant

Hi. No, I’ve never put the pipe into the water jug. I think it would be harder to fill the bucket if the pipe was in the water jug, but maybe not. I collect the Spanish moss from my yard. We have lots of it. 😊

@@floridavegetablegardeningthanks! I live in north Tx and have no moss here but I too am looking for other type containers besides plastic. I’m saving to purchase the higher raised beds because the buckets are ‘work’ and my family doesn’t like the white color so I painted them. Your videos are easy to understand and I hope you can make a few more as time and life permits. 👍🌻🌿

You’re welcome! Yes, birds can sometimes be a problem for me too.

You’re welcome 🙂

Yes I’m in west central Florida. I start tomatoes twice a year. I start my spring tomatoes in early January (indoors) to plant out in late February/early March and I start my fall tomatoes in late July/early August.

Thank you! 😊

Yes, I think rocks would be great to use. The only drawback would be that they are heavy if you wanted to move the container around. Otherwise, I think they would be perfect! 👍😊

No. The plastic bottles have holes drilled into them to allow water to wick up the soil. Rocks won't work. All water will drain out drainage holes

Thank you! 😊