Chill hours, Orlando area

Someone sent me this interesting calculation of chill hours in Central Florida, based on FAWN temperature data.

I have calculated chill hours for Orlando based on the FAWN weather data. I thought you may find this useful since you have posted similar information on your very informative and interesting blog.

Best,

Thomas

Chill Hours* for Orlando
Winter		Calculated
1997	1998	160
1998	1999	184
1999	2000	249
2000	2001	387
2001	2002	196
2002	2003	383
2003	2004	247
2004	2005	203
2005	2006	255
2006	2007	143
2007	2008	136
2008	2009	325
2009	2010	468
	Average:	257
	Minimum:	136
	Maximum:	468
* number of hours the temperature is below 45 degrees F and above 32 degrees F

Of all the complexities of Florida gardening, this one is particularly vexing: We cannot really grow much in the way of tropical fruit like mangoes and bananas. Sure, in a limited way, we have some success--some years, I get more bananas than I can eat. But, as has been the case for the past two winters, other years my bananas get burned down to the ground (delaying fruiting by a year or more), and my mango tree dies despite my best efforts.

So instead of tropical fruits, we try deciduous low-chills, like tropical peaches, persimmons, pomegranates, low-chill apples and pears, etc. Years with cold winters yield heavily, while years with warm winters result in low flowering and fruiting, sometimes no crop at all. This past winter was so cold that my pomegranate is still flowering in mid-July! My peach tree bore heavily, my apple tree set fruit for the first time, and so on.

Having done a lot of shopping for such trees, the sweet spot seems to be 250 hours or more--it really expands the variety of trees (if you believe the chill-hour requirements that growers list... I don't, mostly).

DeLand is a few degrees cooler than Orlando, so it's safe to add ten or twenty hours to the numbers above. That still means that every other year, or maybe every third year, is well under the minimum "ideal" of 250 hours.

So, just barely cold enough for temperate, not quite warm enough for tropical.

I guess there's always citrus!

Back in the game...

I spent most of May and June out of town, and am only now getting back into the gardening groove. I set up a micro-sprinkler system for my vegetables and fruits, but greatly underestimated how much water I needed on a daily basis... I think the wet season must have started late, and combined with hotter than normal temperatures... well, let's just say that my tomatoes and cukes didn't produce this year as well as expected. It didn't really matter to me, as I was gone and nothing important died... Apparently my peach harvest was first-rate this year--I missed it entirely, but friends made sure nothing went to waste.

Anyway, I'm back in the game again, though I'll be traveling extensively in late July and August, so who knows how things will work out.

Right now, I have a great crop of watermelons growing--six nice big melons in a very small area. It's "Asian Sweet" from Evergreen, and, if the melons are tasty, it will take a permanent place in my lineup for summer planting. My trombone squash (Tromboncino) is hellbent on world domination, and has started to set fruit. Metki (Painted Serpent, I believe, but we'll have to see) has finally started setting fruit. Limas are late this year, but starting to produce. Cowpeas (Mississippi Silver) are producing nicely. My eggplants nearly died while I was gone (watering issues), but now that I've been taking care of them, they've tripled in size and are finally setting fruit. Same goes for my peppers--it might be too late to get a crop, but they've started to flower and put on a lot of growth since I've watered, weeded and fed them.

Sweet potatoes are flourishing. Grapes are prolific and large--I guess they should start to ripen soon. Finally, I have several pomegranates of nice size--the first crop on this tree. We'll see how they taste. My experience with them in Florida hasn't been great.

One final note--when I got back, I found one large, beautiful apple on my Anna tree. I ate it at the beginning of June, and it was fabulous. A first-rate apple. I've got three of apple trees now (Anna and Dorsett), but only one, growing on a trellis, is large enough to produce fruit. Next year, I'm hopeful, with another summer of growth and some pollinators around, that I will get a nice crop.

While gone, I "solarized" half my garden, and I've just this past weekend gotten around to planting it with peanuts and okra for late summer and fall. I've started some tomatoes

Zuchs, beans, tomatoes, peaches

Last of winter's harvest

Ranunculs in FLA

What a pain to grow... but, so beautiful.

Squash in buckets...

My one apple...

Just one this year. My Anna and Dorsett bloomed at different times, so I didn't get much pollination... This is the second year it's been in the ground.

Another slideshow

Mid-April is a beautiful time in Florida, and this season, with its cooler temperatures and regular rainfall, has been particularly nice. We have yet to have a really hot day this season, so my dry-season blooms are really spectacular. Up north, delphiniums, foxgloves, snapdragons and freesia are summer blooms. Here we have to sneak them in between the last freeze and the first week of the wet season.

Click here for the slideshow.

Here are some highlights:

From lmid-april in the florida garden

This is a summer delphinium--I think it's Mediterranean Seas. I've grown it before--it lasts much longer than the more elaborate, larger-flowered delphs (like the one below).

From lmid-april in the florida garden

From lmid-april in the florida garden

These foxgloves start out as two-inch-tall seedlings that I get from DeBary Nursery in mid-winter. I fuss over them all winter, but they're worth it. I have only ever grown them in pots--I think being rootbound and well-drained makes them bloom better. They need to be carefully watered every day.

From lmid-april in the florida garden

A different delphinium.

From lmid-april in the florida garden

Hard to believe that I started these seeds only a month or so ago.

From lmid-april in the florida garden

Cucumbers, again, after only one month.

Edibles and flowers in the mid-April Florida garden...

A longish slideshow. Click HERE to go to a full-screen slideshow (much better!).

Florida gardening in April...

Fruit census...

• Citrus: Honeybell Tangelo, Hamlin Orange, Owari Satsuma (these all on Flying Dragon), Sambokan Lemon, a Kumquat in a pot, and a kaffir lime in a pot
• Figs: 'Alma,' 'Brown Turkey,'Celeste.' (I planted these in the ground after a year in pots.)
  
• Brambles: Bababerry, unidentified blackberry, unidentified raspberry (from tony_k), and a 'Brazos' blackberry
• Blueberries: Climax, Emerald, Sunshine Blue (four), Sharpblue
• Grapes: Nesbitt
• Pomegranate (Grenada)
• Pommes: Anna Apple, Dorsett Golden Apple, Hood Pear, Pineapple Pear
• Various pineapples
• Mulberry (Black Beauty)
• Carambola ('Sri Kambangum')
• Bananas (four kinds, mostly dwarf, including Oronico & Ice Cream)
• Mango (Cogshall)
• Three peaches (Flordabell, FlordaPrince, Earligrande)
• Fuyu Persimmon
• Gulf Beauty and Gulf Blaze plums

I had several blueberries die over the course of last year--all from the same grower, so I'll blame the source. I replaced them with Sunshine Blue, which, by all accounts, are well-adapted and prolific small bushes. Right now I've got them in a very large pot--I'll grow them out for a year and then transplant them into the ground. They're only about a foot tall right now, but covered in blooms and berries. I'll be surprised if my carambola survived the winter--I protected it, but there's only so much you can do for an immature tree. I'm displeased with my Flordabell (from Willis--I won't order from them again). It's grown much more slowly than my FlordaPrince did, and has yet to break dormancy this year.

A quick update in movies...

Apple blooms, potatoes, beans, blueberries... etc. This didn't come out well, but I'm too beat to do it again. Long day in the garden planting new apple (Anna and Dorset) trees, cukes, watermelons, melons, tomatoes, zuchs... Busy but beautiful day.

Vin Marquis

I made this earlier this winter with my mom's "organic" oranges. I used a cheap red boxed wine, not a white, but otherwise, same recipe as the one I got from the excellent book, Aperitifs. I tried it tonight--without waiting the six months or a year the recipe demands--and found it very tasty. If you've ever had Lillet Red, it tasted JUST like it, but a little fresher and more citrus-y.

Update... Nine months later, this vin marquis has been transformed--very smooth, hints of citrus, but mostly a warm, earthy, chocolate with hints of allspice and clove... It compares favorably to Lillet Rouge (one of my favorite aperitifs). More complex and muscular than a red vermouth. It has the body of a young port, and some of the flavor characteristics, but is much less sweet.

I have no idea why it tastes that way, but it does. (Presumably the breakdown of organic acids into different compounds.) The per-bottle cost was probably three or four bucks.

Cukes, melons, blackberries and potatoes

Cukes and melons are up.

First blackberry bloom of he season... very late.

All winter I stick sprouted potatoes into black nursery pots and slowly fill them with a mix of hay and used potting soil... Last year I was able to harvest in early April, but this year it might be a little late.

Beans.

Despite the rain and relatively cool temperatures, the beans I planted last weekend were up by Friday.

I started some Gaucho melon seeds and cucumbers sometime this week...

• Tien Chin Long--I got these from a friend who grew them with great success last year
• Cucino--Tried and true in my garden. Well behaved.

These mini Cukes make perfect snacks and canapes.46 days. The perfect size for a single-serving salad, a snack, and a canape tray, these charming 2- to 3-inch baby Cukes are a gourmand's delight. With smaller seeds, less water, and more "meat" than full-size Cucumbers, they have a crunchier, more satisfying bite. And two bites is all you get -- they're the perfect pick-up nibble!

Cucino is very adaptable to unseasonably cold or warm climates, and very easy to grow. It needs no pruning, and its fruit is a fat-free source of potassium and vitamin C. Pkt is 10 seeds.

• Pointsett 76

{als, an, dm, pm, spm} 67 days. [Developed cooperatively by Clemson and Cornell.] An improved version of 'Poinsett' having multiple disease tolerance. Produces dark green cukes about 7 to 8 in. long and 2-l/2 in. in diameter. The best open-pollinated variety for the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic coastal areas as a disease-resistant main crop garden variety.

Spring harvest, Sunshine Blue blueberries

What can you plant now?

I get this kind of question pretty often... Here's my quick answer... there are probably other things he could start now... feel free to chime in in the comments.

I have a small area 10x15 in my back yard & I'm looking to start some veggies for the summer. Would these be good as a start? Pole beans, Okra, a tomato plant? What else could I plant out back? consider buying one or two beefmaster tomatoes from lowes--i got a couple for $2 each. have you seen tomato prices lately? it's too late, probably, to start from seeds, so this year at least you'll need to buy tomatoes and peppers as seedlings from somewhere... for summer planting (rainy season, for crops that you HARVEST from mid-june until november) you should try: peanuts (buy some green ones from publix, open them, stick the beans in the ground), pole beans, sweet potatoes (buy slips, or start your own--google "sweet potato slips"), lima beans, yard-long beans, cowpeas, eggplant, okra, ANY hot pepper. if you have a tub, you can grow watercress in partial shade--buy some at publix, eat most of it, throw a couple shoots in the water, stand back! plant the pole beans in the next week or so. buy an eggplant or two from lowes (black beauty or an asian variety--they're all pretty much the same i've found). okra, peanuts, hot peppers (better done by april, but doable anytime), limas, cowpeas and sweet potaotes can be planted anytime the weather is hot. between now and the start of the rainy season--you don't really have time for anything from seed except salad (any cut and come again mix) and sweet peas. next year you can seed broccoli, caulfiower, kale, collards, potatoes--as early as mid-august.

Busy day in the garden...

Let's see...

• Planted beans--first week of March is a good time to plant beans, but this year, probably too early. We have a warm week ahead, and it would be great to get them out. I'll try to remember to remark on how long it takes them to germinate. Fortex (first in my garden) and old reliable Rattlesnake
• It's been so cold I haven't even bothered starting tomatoes. I don't have a greenhouse, and stupid kittens make growing ANYTHING inside impossible... so today I bought three good-sized seedlings (Better Boy and Beefmaster--good tomatoes, if a bit common). THey went into four-gallon white buckets filled with Al's mix.
  
• Planted Straight Slick Pic squash (Johnnys), Fast Break cantaloupes, and an Asian watermelon.
  
• Planted daturas, marigolds, and zinnias.
  
• I keep small sweet potatoes in the shed all winter, and then put them out first thing in March in buckets, under a bit of hay, to get them to produce slips. Then I plant the dinky potatoes later on.
  
• Lots of maintenance and potting up of plants.
  
• Harvested almost the last of the cauliflower.
  
• Bought some Boston pickling cukes from Lowes, potted them up into a larger container... Like the tomatoes, I would have started these earlier, but not this year.
  

Lot of things breaking dormancy--apple trees, pomegranate. Roses are budding nicely--they look great after a cold and wet winter, which seems to have encouraged a bushier growth and healthy leaves. I'm sure there are other things that I did around the garden today, but I've already forgotten them.

Spring blooms

A quick update in pictures...

The cold winter's made it ideal for growing broccoli and greens, but not much else...

FlordaPrince Peach blooms... I think I overpruned the tree this winter. Last year I spent several hours culling peaches, so this year I decided to prune out everything that wasn't 1) reaching distance and 2) thick enough to support a peach. We'll see if this was a mistake. My hope is that I get a good crop of large, sweet peaches with less hassle. Since this tree sits to the east of my main garden bed I plan to keep it very small (eight feet tall, no taller), it will shade out some of the prime areas in my plot. And as Dave always says, it's easier to keep a small tree small than to make a big tree small.

Blueberries look great this year.

Calendula from saved seed. I'm always fascinated by how variable the progeny are. This year I have red and yellow singles, dense doubles in orange and yellow.