Dan Tomatoes look okay. lol That is because I always grow them in pots to avoid soil diseases. Okra the same, I have it in small pot since we only eat it sometimes. All the figs that I have ever owned were pretty much care free, till I came here and I got what I believe a bad variety or maybe just a bad tree. I am going to fix that with all the advice I got here in this forum. Dan, I will be very interested about the heirloom figs that you talked about...keep us posted. Sal The variety that I remember from my childhood is probably going to be very hard to find it, since I don't know what it is. My father always had rare plants in the garden, we had a huge fig tree that gave many crops and had big purple figs, pink inside. We ate them sometimes green and candied. In the morning, when I got up I had figs for breakfast... I have raised beds growing veggies now with no signs of problems, and fruit trees are in the ground. The ones that have to be protected during a freeze are in containers where I can move them around. When I take down the Brown Turkey fig, I am going to look at the roots and see what I find. It is kind of big considering is only 2 years old. And has fruit that did not ripen, they are still green. Silvia

Seems we all have too many sad stories of lost seed Susie. My grandfather built a house in Opa Locka and leased property on your side right on the edge of what was then the Everglades, now it's solid housing developments... you and I both know how far in developers have pushed the glades from what they used to be :-( M, there's lots of scientific literature out there on this but here's the quick and dirty from the FAQ over at the Growing Tomatoes forum. Tom

Hi Delta. When I planted them, a little growers mix, composted cow manure, Espoma fertilizer, and epsom salt went into the growing holes. They are mulched with grass clippings over newspaper and lightly side dressed with compost and an occasional dusting of Espoma fertilizer. Their growing area spent about five weeks prior to August under black plastic hoping for some control of the nematode population. They do seem to be kicking into some fruit set now. I occasionally have given them a light spray of an organic insecticide containing "spinosad" which is supposed to help with the leaf miners as well as some worms. Good luck with you plants. In gardening you never know how the season will go!

I know your climate is a little different than mine (later frost date for one) but I'll chime in anyway... Ideally, I like to grow many or most of my fall plants in containers so they can be moved around, but I have gotten a bit lazy about that in the last couple of years. That way I can give them a little afternoon shade when they need it, and move to a better sun area later in the season. Plus it provides more flexibility if one needs to protect for whatever reason (frost, storms). I don't have the hurricane problems here, but I do have the intense heat to deal with when they are planted out, plus the same concerns deltacharlie mentioned with the sun angle changing and the days getting shorter later on. A poorly sited fall plant can take *forever* to ripen some fruit (at least for me in my area). Even a well-sited plant can take quite a bit longer to give me a ripe fruit than it would in the spring. Most of the vars I tend to like to grow in the fall are early to early-mid season, although I make some exceptions and grow some mid to even mid-late vars if I've personally found they seem to set well in the heat. After all, earlies may not be so "early" if you can't get them to start setting fruit when you need them to. Also, just about any cherry type is a go for fall crop because they set better in heat and can (usually) tolerate a bit more shade and still produce. Another general comment/suggestion I'll make since you're new to growing in a warm climate would be to plant out transplants that are on the large side. Those little plants that are grown in six packs, two inch pots, etc. usually don't tend to do as well. Short window of time in the spring to get fruitset before mid-late spring heat kicks in (at least here), and also those bitty ones can burn up in the heat if planted out for fall crop if you're not careful. I like to pot up once to at least 4" pots and grow nice, stocky 10-12" tall transplants before I even think of subjecting them to the tender mercies of the garden. A few vars I like for fall crop include: Sweet Quartz F1 - Very vigorous, fast growing (tall) plants, easy to grow, extremely productive. Good nematode tolerance in my experience. Sungold F1 - see above. Black Cherry - love the taste, probably my favorite cherry type. Marizol Korney - Sets well in heat, productive, very good to great taste. Moskvich - very good taste for a decent sized early red. Good for containers, plants get no more than 4.5 to 5' max for me. Black and Brown Boar - great taste, sets well in heat, productive. Mountain Princess - not exactly early, but sets well in heat. Very good flavor, extremely productive. 4-5 ft plants, good for containers.