Strawberries, a Cold Hardy Delight in Florida

Strawberries, a Cold Hardy Delight in Florida

Who doesn’t like strawberries, right? Backyard gardeners grow these low-growing herbs throughout the state and there is a significant commercial industry too, as Florida’s climate is ideal for cool season production.

Strawberries like well-drained sandy soils, so they’re a perfect fit for many areas in the Panhandle. Strawberries should be planted in the months of October or November as the plants are quite cold hardy. Shorter days and temperatures between 50°F and 80°F are ideal for fruit development.

Photo Credit: Cristina Carriz, UF/IFAS

Strawberries are also very versatile. You can plant them in the ground, in raised beds or even containers. Transplants should be planted 12” to 18” apart, with 12” row spacing. For best results, use a rich soil balanced with compost and sandy soil and both fertilize and water regularly. Mixing in 2 ½ pounds of 10-10-10 fertilizer into a 10’ x 10’ bed space should be sufficient to start. A sprinkle of fertilizer applied monthly throughout the growing season should also help ensure a solid yield.

Berry production begins to ramp up roughly 90 days after planting, but plants will continue to produce throughout the spring. When the weather gets warmer, the plants start to expend energy into producing runners instead of fruit. These runners will be new fruit producing plants for next season.

Transplants can be purchased from most garden centers. There are many varieties on the market, but “Florida-Friendly” cultivars include “Sweet Charlie”, “Camarosa”, “Chandler”, “Oso Grande”, “Selva”, and “Festival”. “Camarosa” has proven to be the most productive variety in North Florida. Any of these varieties are capable of producing two pints of fruit per plant.

As stated earlier, Florida has a significant strawberry industry and UF/IFAS has a supporting role. The UF/IFAS Gulf Coast Research and Education Center (GCREC) is home to the Strawberry Breeding Program. Cultivars are developed by traditional means, for the Florida commercial industry on an 11,000+ acres research site. Appearance, shelf life, sweet flavor and disease resistance are just some of the areas of selected breading research that is conducted on site. There is also a white strawberry soon to be released!

Photo Credit: Cristina Carriz, UF/IFAS

For more information, contact your local county extension office.

Supporting information for this article can be found at the website: https://gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/plants/edibles/fruits/strawberries.html

UF/IFAS Extension is an Equal Opportunity Institution.

 

Romaine: Lettuce of an Empire

Romaine: Lettuce of an Empire

Who doesn’t enjoy a fresh, crisp bowl of salad? Lettuce happens to be a vegetable that is easily grown in Florida for fall & winter gardens. In Florida, four types of lettuce are commonly grown: crisphead, butterhead, leaf, & today’s topic, romaine.

Photo courtesy of Tyler Jones, UF/IFAS.

An interesting, little known fact about romaine lettuce is that it was cultivated extensively by the Roman Empire. By the fourteenth century, the Catholic Hierarchy had moved from Rome to Avignon, France bringing their prized lettuce along with them. During this period, the plant was known as “Avignon” lettuce. In England, romaine is called “cos” lettuce named after the Greek islands from which the lettuce was originally distributed. Of course, in the U.S., the name we give, Romaine, refers to the time when it was grown extensively in the Roman Empire.

Romaine is grown both commercially and in backyard gardens across the state. Like all lettuce, this is a cool season vegetable. September through March is a generally the extent of the growing season. Romaine can be grown from seeds or by transplants. If you are going the seeding route, just remember these seeds are very small and should be sown shallow and in a tight pattern, with 12”-18” row spacing and a light sprinkle of soil over the top. Newly planted seeds may require burlap or straw to help retain soil moisture for successful germination. Once plants reach a few inches in height, rows can be thinned to where plants are 8” apart.

Romaine needs adequate soil moisture throughout the season. Mulching around plants to retain moisture and adding a complete fertilizer such as 8-8-8 will help ensure a good yield. Lettuce is vulnerable to the usual suspects of garden pests. However, gardening in cooler months helps combat that threat.

Romaine lettuce is fun and rewarding to harvest, as well. You can pick a few leaves off a plant or harvest the entire head.

For more information, contact your local UF/IFAS County Extension office.

Supporting information for this article can be found in the UF/IFAS EDIS publication, “Romaine – Lactuca sativa L.” by James M. Stephens, Emeritus Extension Vegetable Crops Specialist, UF/IFAS: https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/mv125

UF/IFAS Extension is an Equal Opportunity Institution.

It’s the Little Things in Life, like Mini Vegetable Gardening

It’s the Little Things in Life, like Mini Vegetable Gardening

Whether it’s the warm or cool season of the year, vegetable gardening is as popular activity as any. In writing articles, I usually discuss best management practices on a backyard garden scale. But, what if you don’t have much of a backyard?

Many Floridians live in apartments, condominiums, mobile home parks, or simply homes built on small parcel lots with little open gardening space. This doesn’t mean you can’t grow vegetables. You just have to be a bit creative and that’s when the fun starts. In addition to being an enjoyable activity, mini vegetable gardening can be practical and ornamental. Containers can fit almost anywhere in the landscape, such as porches, balconies, roof tops and that spot on your property where nothing seems to fit.

Tomato Bucket Gardening. Photo courtesy UF/IFAS Gardening Solutions.

There’s practically no limit to the kinds of containers one can use for mini vegetable gardening. Some examples are pots and pans, milk jugs, hollow concrete blocks, bushel baskets, trash cans, barrels, buckets and even plastics bags and “to go” food containers. As long as the container will hold soil and let excess water drain, you’re good to garden.

So, what can I use as a growing medium? Traditional garden soil will work fine. Mixing garden soil 1:1 with mushroom compost is also acceptable. Adding lightweight components to the soil mixture such as perlite or vermiculite will make it easier if you need move the container from time to time. This will also help with drainage. Sprinkling a handful of 6-6-6 or 8-8-8 fertilizer and gardening lime into the mixture will give plants much needed nutrients for development.

This growing medium will not require fertilizer applications very often. A small amount every two to three weeks should be adequate for most vegetable plants. Whether the fertilizer you choose is solution or dry form, be sure to use small amounts and water the product thoroughly into the root zone. A heavy application of fertilizer may cause plant burn.

So what vegetable crops grow best in containers? Most any crop will do well in containers. Some examples are tomato, pepper, eggplant, collard, cabbage, turnip, mustard, strawberry, broccoli, cauliflower and many herbs. Container gardening is a fun and rewarding hobby. You’ll enjoy both the activity and the delicious produce you’ve grown.

For more information contact your local county extension office.

Supporting information for this article was provided by Extension’s Emeritus Vegetable Specialist Jim Stephens of UF/IFAS Extension. More information can be found at this website: http://gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/plants/edibles/vegetables/growing-vegetables-in-containers.html

UF/IFAS Extension is an Equal Opportunity Institution.

Yellow is Not a Normal Sago Color

Yellow is Not a Normal Sago Color

Photo by: Sheila Dunning

The first sign that something is going wrong in a plant is often a loss of the color green.  When a sago is forming all new yellow leaves it is a matter of concern.  Typically, this a common nutritional deficiency – manganese.  Sandy soils of the Panhandle have a hard time retaining nutrients.  Manganese and other micronutrient availability is highly influenced by soil pH.  Being an essential plant nutrient, manganese is critical to growth.  More specifically, it is the base of the metalloenzyme cluster of the oxygen evolving complex (OEC) in photosystem II (PSII).  I hope that means more to you than it does me.  Basically, manganese is part of the photosynthetic activity and since it isn’t very mobile in the plant, the new growth of sagos turns yellow.

If the nutrient deficiency isn’t corrected, the newly-formed leaves will become deformed and turn brown.  In a sago this is referred to as “frizzle-top”.  Many people believe the plant has a disease when they see the symptoms and may apply fungicides to no avail.  Keep in mind the discoloration of the affected leaves cannot be reversed.  However, manganese replacement in the soil will enable the sago to form normal leaves with the next growth phase. Damaged fronds can be removed later to improve the appearance of the sago over time.

Begin this process by determining the soil pH through a soil test.  Your local Extension office can help you obtain lab submission forms and explain the collection procedure.  Manganese is most available for uptake by sagos when the soil pH is between 5.5 and 6.5.  If the pH is above 6.5, larger amounts of manganese will have to be present before the plant can utilize it.  When the soil pH is below 5.5 the nutrient is quickly leached out of the soil during rain events.

To correct a manganese deficiency the sago plant will need to receive manganese sulfate.  The product is readily available at local nurseries, garden centers and building supply stores. The amount needed for each plant will vary with the size of the sago and the existing soil pH.  Sagos growing in sandy, acidic soil will require less manganese sulfate than those in high pH soils.  Refer to the package label for application rates.