Howdy neighbor! I live in the boonies between Englewood and North Port. Did you say you're going to have a raised garden? That would be best because the soil is mostly worthless here.
Sarasota County gives away free compost. It's pretty good stuff, everything seems to grow in it okay.
Maybe it's just me, but I haven't had much luck with root crops. I've tried carrots and onions and both failed miserably. Will beets and radishes grow here? I don't know.
Those mangoes will give you some scary moments when our few-and-far-between January cold snaps arrive. The last one wiped out my entire tomato crop.
Welcome to the board. You'll get lotsa good advice around here.

I live a bit north of you in DeLand, so there are a lot of folks who can give you better advice than I about when to plant. There are some things I can add. Tomatoes.... get ones with as much disease resistance as you can find, and with nematode resistance. Yes, to the question about transplanting tomatoes, that is the best way to do it. Peppers also and eggplants. A good source for seeds for Fl is Tomato Growers Supply in Fort Myers, they are online of course. Keep asking questions, there is a lot of good advice and experience on this forum.

good luck john

Hi Jofus,

I think you're getting too late to start from seeds now, even for Zone 10. You should be planting sets probably between 9-1 and 9/15, which means you would have needed to start seed 8/1. This season I'd bite the bullet and buy some sets from the big box store for tomatoes and peppers, and since you said you like beefsteaks I recommend Beefmaster, wonderful taste, hearty, good producer.... Sow the other stuff, but wait until October first for the radish seed, still too hot now for it in Zone 10. If you're interested I can send you some icicle radish seed, just drop me a line.

For the next season start your tomato seeds mid-December and plan a set date of 2/1, unless you inland Zone 10 and subject to frost, in which case I'd shift the dates 2 weeks further out.

Tom

brute: Thanks for the advise, seeing as how I missed the seed planting date, I will forego any root plants this time around, and will only try radishes in Dec.

John : I appreciate the name of that website, have added it to My Favorites.

Tom : Thanks for the planting dates, had no idea I was late. I went out today and bought topsoil and manure, and also beefmaster tomato plants along with peppers, cantelope and romaine lettuce at Home Depot. Will leave it at that for this time around and see how I do. I would like to try your radish seeds in Dec, how should we do that ? My normal addr is : donjose102@aol.com.

way too early for romaine. keep it in pots, well watered, in the shade. it'll burn up down there this time of the year. move it into full sun when the days get no higher than, say, low 80s.

stupid bigbox stores.

Thanks " ill-mannered", am sure glad I discovered this forum. Will simply transplant the romaine into larger peat pots when appropriate, and wait for the daily high temps to come down.

peat pots aren't a great idea... they work ok for small seedlings, but i've found them 1) expensive 2) they tend to wick the moisture away from the plant. you'd be better off with shallow pots, buckets... i use window boxes to house my seedlings. the long, narrow, and shallow nature of the boxes is perfect, tho you need to be sure to water frequently and, every once and a while, drench the soil heavily to remove salts. use a really loose mix--half perlite, half potting soil or the like. lettuce thrives in those conditions if fertilized regularly and in small amounts. you can transplant it out into the garden, tho you might find (like me) that a couple window boxes with cut and come again lettuce produces enough salad to keep everyone happy. try these lettuces (from seeds) when things cool down: red sails, jericho, appollo arugula. all of them are very heat tolerant and prolific.

Thanks again " ill-mannered". I will indeed try a couple of your lettuce varieties, but in December, as I think I have enough on my plate right now, for a beginner anyway. I planted the Beefmaster tomatoes in the raised banana bed this morning, will plant the cantaloupe tomorrow. One question, I have been hearing a lot about " trellising" cantaloupe, is this the way to go ? Was just going to let them creep along on the ground, but have a ready made trellis at the rear of the banana bed, - a 6ft high chain link fence. What are the pros & cons of trellising ?

definitely trellis them--less prone to critters, less prone to molds and fungi... they'll twine themselves up, but you might want to use old pantyhose to tie the 'loupes to the fence once the fruit is set. (gentle!) that said, i grew mine up a trellis and they hung on fine all on their own.