If you haven't seen it, the U of F's IFAS ( Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences) has an excellent guide to growing vegetables in FL. What vegetables do you want to grow? What do you like to eat?

Here is a link that might be useful: Florida Vegetable Gardening Guide

At this time of year, I'm growing/propagating only the most heat tolerant vegetables--okra, basil, garlic chives, Okinawa spinach, Chaya, moringa, currant tomatoes, yard long beans, Malabar spinach, sweet potatoes, hot peppers.

This is also a good time to start tomatoes and peppers from seed if you want to have them for the fall garden. I find that almost all the other "normal" vegetables need to wait, and I'm in zone 9. I know some people here have luck starting greens in August, but I always have better luck if I wait a bit longer.

Bill

Not much will grow here in the way of traditional veggies in the summer, okra, hot peppers and field peas such as Zipper Cream are just about it. Yardlong beans will grow too but I don't consider them anything like pole beans :-(

I'm growing just enough okra to make pickles, Baby Bubba below.

Tom

And here....

Baby Bubba looks very manageable and tidy. I'm growing Jing Orange and it is considerably taller.

It is, at 2' tall it makes a nice ornamental plant....

The Baby Bubba is really cute. I have bigger varieties and they all need to get around waist-high to start producing. They will be a forest by the end of the season.

About the Baby Bubba --

Am I too late to plant seeds?

Where can I get seeds?

How much okra does each plant produce (estimate)?

Do you have recommendations on soil preparation for a container one like yours?

About the Baby Bubba --

Am I too late to plant seeds?

Where do you live? If the "10" in your header indicates Zone 10 then my experience is that okra is perennial, I've grown it year around, but flowering does slow down for me from November until March.

Where can I get seeds?

At HD, seed packets distributed by Burpee. But you can grow any variety you want in containers, doesn't have to be a dwarf plant like BB, I just like the fact the plants don't take over the areas I place them in.

How much okra does each plant produce (estimate)?

If, as above you can grow it as a perennial as long as you feed it and control the bugs you'll potentially have an endless supply.

Do you have recommendations on soil preparation for a container one like yours?

I use a modified Al's Mix. My microclimate is extremely humid so I use less peat in my mixes.
(5 gallons of peat, 2.5 gallons of perlite, a 2CF bag of pine fines, one cup each of dolomite pellets and 180 day CRF with minors, and a quart of chicken manure for a quick boost).

Tom

BTW, I start three seeds in each container and then remove any weaklings. Some containers will have two plants and some containers will still have three plants, all BB will bear just as much as taller plants.

Tom

This post was edited by tomncath on Thu, Jul 10, 14 at 18:39

Just noticed Cathy's panicked voice, look what I had to rescue from inside the pool cage. Now he's protecting my okra :-)

Yes, I am in Zone 10. I may even be 10a, like you (Fort Myers). I would really like to try okra. Can you recommend a place to get inexpensive/bulk perlite, peat moss, pines fines (what are those?), and so on. The cost of these things in those small bags kills me. I can get chicken manure from a friend. I really appreciate the help.

... Can you recommend a place to get inexpensive/bulk perlite, peat moss, pines fines (what are those?), and so on....

Find a farm/feed store, they will have 4CF bags of coarse perlite for $18-20. HD carries either a 3.0CF or 3.8CF block of peat, ACE hardware usually carries the 3.8CF block, and may also have or can order the 4CF bag of coarse perlite. Pine fines are crushed pine bark, usually down to the size of a dime or smaller, I'm not sure down there where you'll find it - many find it at Wally World but I've never seen it at any of my local stores, I have to get it from a nursery. Here is what you want.

Tom

If you can't find pine fines closer to home a quick search indicates Wally World #819 in Cape Coral carries it.

Tom

The Spanish pumpkin grows like a champ through the summer. It produces a lot of vine, so make sure you give it enough room. I just bought some at the local market and saved the seeds and grew it.

Wow, great responses. Where can I find Spanish Pumpkin seeds? I assume these can't be grown in a container.

Also, if you all have any recommendations on seeds I can start now, I would appreciate it. Tomatoes and peppers are already on the list. Thanks!

I got the calabasa or Spanish pumpkin from a local farmers market and saved the seeds to grow my own. I do that often, like with spaghetti squash. Calabasa is a huge vine that will root at the nodes, so give it plenty of room.

If you love hot weather veggies, yeah, you can plant them now, but I'd remember that it's not long till it will be time to start seeds for fall/winter crops, so if you're a container gardener with limited space I'd consider what you most want to grow more than just what will start right this minute.

Also, if you all have any recommendations on seeds I can start now, I would appreciate it. Tomatoes and peppers are already on the list. Thanks!

Sweet peppers will suffer in the heat until we cool down a little more in Zone 10....Tomato blooms won't set fruit until night temps. drop below 75F, too hot and sticky, for Zone 10 that is around the first week of October so counting back six weeks seeds should not be started earlier than 8/15. September is always a crap-shoot anyway, hurricanes and tropical depressions can drown and/or blow away plants set in the garden earlier...just my experience.

Tom

There are a number of plants you can start now: roselle, eggplant, okra, yardlong beans, hot peppers, herbs (rosemary and oregano, mint).

I have also included the link to a website with more suggestions.

There are a number of places with Pinebark fines around here (Echo- call about availability, Riverland Nursery- more expensive, and a place in Naples- cheaper, but father away).

The best source for Vermiculite/ Perlite is Forestry Resources.

Here is a link that might be useful: sproutrobot.com

Huh? Start tomatoes indoors now? Two weeks inside under lights, four weeks outside with morning sun and afternoon shade, then into the garden, started now would be a garden set around 9/1 and the plants will be 3-4' tall 10/1 before they first start setting fruit, if we don't have significant September storms and they survive.