Fall & Winter Crop Update – Fruits & Herbs

The Tropical Grower features growing food.  It’s one of the main reasons for our existence, and  I personally find something immensely satisfying and joyous about harvesting and eating something grown with my own two hands, not to mention delicious.  There isn’t even a comparison in my opinion to eating something bought from the store, and we grow food here year round or at least try.

I absolutely love that our first post, the Fall/Winter Crop Update, about growing food falls after the Hurricane Ian growing season.  Did the sarcasm come across in that last sentence?  No?  Actually, it’s probably best.  Here’s what not to do . . . Don’t plant late . . . Don’t plant in bug swarms.  LOL!  Can you tell our fall/winter growing season was a struggle?

First, I want to say we have food.  There are lovely plants in rows and spattered throughout Our Garden.  Click to find the Veggies, Fruits & Herbs Photos.                

Unfortunately, our crop was planted late, very late.  We had bug infestations because that is just a fact after a storm.  And to top it off, our first cold snap came early.  All this while we are trying to accomplish hurricane restoration and clean-up.  Yea.

Yes, I know, I could have skipped the plantings, but I’m a grower.  Please refer to the first paragraph where I use the words satisfying and joyous about eating my own food.  It comes with the territory, and I do like a challenge.

When I started writing this post, it didn’t even occur to me how many varieties of things we grow to eat.  It got long, very quickly, and I realized I was going to have to break it up.  Since most of the fruits were harvested in the fall, those seemed like they should go first.  I included the herbs to even it out, and I’m never sure where to put tomatoes.  They are, after all, technically a fruit.  I’m still not sure I got everything.  Anyway, Welcome to Our Harvest! 

Fruits

Our Garden has an orchard.  We have sweet oranges, bitter oranges, key limes, Florida peaches, and lumquats growing there.  There is also a not-producing, young coconut palm and 3 empty beds, a dead orange tree, a dead plum tree and, confirmed kill 3, dead avocado tree.  

We also have a lemon tree, pomegranate shrub tree, a baby coconut palm, and plantain trees. These are grown throughout the garden. My Son and Hannah also have a Olive Tree growing in a pot. While the lemon and plantains produced this season, the others were not ready to fruit.

Oranges

Last winter one of our two cold snaps arrived while the citrus trees were in bloom, a hard freeze.  Blooms fell off the tree, and the crop was small.  The trees usually bloom sometime between January and February with fruit growing most of the year.  The limes start to ripen in the fall and oranges by December.  We pick key limes through the fall, winter if we’re lucky, and oranges through the winter directly off the tree, as needed, harvesting fully once the buds start to form.

Our smaller orange crop, both sweet and bitter, fell off the trees during the storm with only a couple left on the tree.  We ripened them in the windows, mostly, as the death toll was high, and made a large vat of orange juice.  Dang.  My Son was very disappointed we didn’t have fresh orange juice for Christmas morning.  He’s been pulling oranges off the trees, specifically for that purpose, since he was little.  At some point, it turned into mimosas.  When did that happen?

Key Limes

While we did have some key limes fall off the tree in the storm that made delicious key lime cooler cookies and a key lime pie, mostly they stayed on the tree to ripen, a bit early, but normal.  I’ve had a steady supply for my drinks since the storm, ending last week, when I bought a bag.  There are still a few on the tree, not quite ripe, that bloomed after the cold snap last winter.  I love this tree.  It is literally my best producer.

Lumquats

The lumquat tree bloomed through the summer and is currently in bloom.  It always produces fruit. 

They’re sour and find their way to the kitchen only about once a year.  The blooms, mostly brown and dead looking, are not one of my favorites either, but the big leafy tree is lovely.  My mom has requested I gather a batch once the ones on the tree ripen.  She’s considering a pie. 

Florida Peach Tree

Fall/Winter is not the season for peaches. I’ve included it with the crop because after Hurricane Ian, when it lost all its leaves, it bloomed and produced baby fruit. There is one left on the tree and nothing else.

It’s Graphed

I purchased the tree from a local grower a number of years ago, maybe 7. The tree is graphed on a Seville Orange trunk and roots. Yeah, crazy right? I bought a few different types, all dead at this point. The graph was prone to fungus and parasitic vegetation. I believe this one is also slowly dying. Sadly, it is my favorite eat from Our Garden. There is absolutely nothing like a fresh Florida peach, about 1/2 the size of other peaches.

The tree has been a very low producer with 2 peaches the first year, increasing a peach or two every year thereafter, until the year before last. I got about a dozen peaches. I thought, yes, it’s finally established and happy. Last year, I got close to 30 peaches. Wait. Don’t get too excited, a critter harvested every last one of them. I almost cut down the tree. Nothing should make me that unhappy in Our Garden. It’s also started dying like the other trees, so there’s that.

Hurricane Ian

Fall/Winter is an important time for the peach tree. Remember how I said the tree produced flowers and fruit because it lost all its leaves in the storm? Well, it’s a requirement for peach trees to flower. Sometimes it will lose its leaves in one of the cold snaps, not usually. Yes, that is correct, once a year I have to pick all the leaves off the tree sometime in January for it to bloom. Too early and a cold snap will kill the flowers. Too late and the tree will rush to develop leaves instead of flowers. Yeah, this is a time-intensive grow. The whole fruit season lasts Jan-March/April, and it has to be ready. I just removed all the leaves and gave it some fertilizer spikes for fruit trees.

Lemons

Our Garden also has a lemon tree.  When I worked in an office, one of my co-workers brought some lemons in from her neighbor’s tree, who apparently had a banner crop that year.  I took a couple home and planted a few of the seeds in the window after eating the lemon.  I got sprouts, 2 of them.  Woo Hoo!  

I transplanted the little beauties, taking the pot back to the office where I grew a couple of lemon trees.  In my office. 

Yup, actually laughing to an empty room here.  How crazy that worked, right?  That’s not even the best part.  They got big, too big.  I had to bring them back home to live in Our Garden.  One, I gave a little bigger pot where it has lived for a couple of years.  The other died in the ground.  I’m afraid to transplant the surviving one.  It’s happy in its little pot.

We got our first two lemons this year.  While they also bloomed in February – I like to call February tropical spring, the lemons ripened by the end of summer.  Those were off the tree right before the storm.

Dragon Fruit

Dragon Fruit cactus grows crazy in Our Garden.  It blooms like mad.  Some years we get big crops of fruit, some years we do not.  The thing about Dragon Fruit in Our Garden is it blooms after heavy rains, but those will only develop into fruit if there is a dry snap afterwards.  The best time for fruit is at the beginning and end of the rainy season.

Spring gave us around six or seven dragon fruit, and we had a whole dry week right after Hurricane Ian.  It was a good thing since everything was flooded, and every flower that did not fall off the cactus in the storm produced a dragon fruit.  Total, we had around 15 this year.  Pretty good considering all the unopened flowers I picked up after the storm.  But, we never actually have a good crop considering the amount of cactus in Our Garden. Based on that, we should have 50-100 fruits. Kind of glad we don’t.

Strawberries 

I am not a successful strawberry grower.  I admit it.  Spending most of my time trying to establish plants, I prune the flowers.  I’ve had two beds, planted at different times in different areas, that produced a decent crop for about a year before something killed them off.  Planting 15 plants last February with one additional survivor from a previous plant, we have two plants currently in Our Garden.  What?  I only bring it up because I looked down the other morning, and a strawberry, right there, ready to eat.  It wasn’t photographed, it was washed, and it was yummy.

The local farm grows them in these weird pots, a whole big area of them. I figured, couldn’t hurt to try, right? Our strawberries are usually taken down by fungus at the end of the rainy season, August, where everything gets drenched in the evening, sits wet all night, and gets pounded by wet heat all day. You would think things would dry out on the ground. They don’t. Think, Naked & Afraid trying to light a fire in the jungle. Fungus is a problem.

Plantains

We only had one bunch this season, about 40 plantains, there might have been more, I’m guesstimating and went low.  If you haven’t read the blog post, Righting Downed Trees, Palm Trees, the bunch along with the tree went down in the storm.  Harvesting it was one of the first things I did the morning after. 

While I dream of letting these ripen-up fully on the tree, normally, I never get to, pretty much ever.  I harvest as soon as the ants start looking interested.  Once they find them, the little buggers are relentless.  Cut into hands, or half-hands, these are the rows of plantains that actually look sort of like hands, they go into fruit bags.  I actually spray, with bug spray, the hook, around the hook and the chain to keep the ants away before I bring the fruit bags in to hang from the chain.  

Although the harvest was forced, it ran pretty normal.  The only difference was the rushed nature.  We had fried plantains and used the rest, ripened, just like we would bananas. 

Tomatoes

Tomatoes grow excellent in our area almost year round.  I base this not on just my experience, but there are commercial growers here.  As long as I don’t try to direct plant seeds, Our Garden produces big beautiful tomato plants and lovely tomatoes.  

For the Fall/Winter crop, we have Roma, Beefsteak, Flame, and Yellow Pear producing.  I also have a Large Cherry Tomato growing and blooming, yet to produce.  Three plants are about 5 and ½ feet tall.  I know because they’re taller than me.  They keep leaning the cages over.  One looks like a vine growing over the sides. Time to prune shoots.

It’s taken me years to feel confident about my tomato crop.  Planting the correct times of year, Sept-Feb, gives me the biggest, most healthy plants.  Last year, we had 2 beefsteaks, planted in Sept, producing into July.  This year, I had 3 tomato starter plants in the ground when Hurricane Ian hit.

Hurricane Ian

I had actually planted these a little late because the East Coast was under hurricane watch around Sept 15, the sliding scale fall/winter planting goal date, and we were expecting some heavy rain.  It was also still very hot and wet.  

They survived Hurricane Ian under gallon pots, with a giant rock on each, all under their tomato cage.  It was a crap shoot.  One little lift of air, and things could have gone so terribly wrong.  But these were so young and there were so many other things to worry about, investment was necessarily minimal.  It paid off with all surviving, mostly just soggy. 

Happy Healthy Producers

Finding Jobes’ tomato spikes, I’ve tried fertilizers of all shapes and delivery systems, but these work for us, and growing my own starter plants from seeds has made a world of difference.  The second set of plants: Flame, Beefsteak and Large Cherry Tomato went in the ground around the end of the first week of October.  I’m usually more anal about dates, but things got a little muddled after the storm.  Regardless, these are some happy healthy plants.

Doing a very good job of steadily making flowers, getting fertilized, and growing fruit as they climbed their cages, I could not ask for more from the Flame and the Beefsteak.  These have been awesome steady producers.  We started harvesting in early January, about the same time as the original plants.  My mom is considering frying up some green tomatoes, there are so many on the plants.

A Couple of Notes

Vine Ripen

We do not vine ripen.  I wish.  Ever wonder where the birds go when they fly south for the winter?  People are not the only populations that increase when things get frigid up north.  When tomatoes start to get color, they live in the kitchen window until fully colored.  Or until eaten, the window gets raided often along with the fresh cut basil in a vase. 

Large Cherry

The Large Cherry has been a challenge for me, not this plant particularly, but the species.  My first 3 seedlings did weird things, such as growing only one funky shaped leaf and never getting any bigger, no other leaves.  This one seems happy, just growing slower than expected.

Red Mulch

I read somewhere red mulch used around tomatoes produces more fruit.  Since I had some on hand, I’ve been using it on the tomatoes instead of the cypress mulch I use on food.  My yield has been very good, but I can’t say if I attribute it to the mulch.  Can’t say it doesn’t help.

Tomatillos

We planted 2 varieties of tomatillos in Our Garden for the fall/winter season, Rio Grande Verde and Cape Gooseberry.  This is my 2nd year for Rio Grande Verde.  It’s been kind of a joke around the house that I grow beautiful plants and flowers, just not fruit.  Same with sweet potatoes.

Rio Grande Verde

I’m happy to report I ate my first one last week, I’m pretty sure.  There was a fruit on the ground by the plant.  I washed and ate it, tasting like a not quite ripe tomatillo. 

You would think this would be enough, a definitive yes, but I’ve had fruit launched across the isle before, and the yellow pear tomato lives over there.  It’s possible a baby unripe, before the pear top forms, tomato landed there.  Probably not.

Regardless, we have several on the plants.  Waiting patiently for the skins to break on the fruits for harvest, these just look fun growing with their strings of slightly deflated balloon looking fruit and pretty unique yellow flowers.  They remind me of string lantern lights.  

Cape Gooseberry

The Cape Gooseberry plants are still small.  They look completely different from the Rio Verde.  Where the Rio Verde appears to be a cross between a vine and a traditional tomato plant with many long thin branches, the Cape Gooseberry have larger leaves and appears to be a cross between an eggplant and tomato.  It looks more like an eggplant growing up with only a couple of different branches off the main stem.  

Hurricane Ian

We had 2 of the Rio Verde in the ground when Hurricane Ian hit.  They survived the storm even with the Hong Kong Orchid tree and South American tree branches falling on them, but they did not survive the flooding.  Sad, but they were still small.  I sprouted some more seeds and got new plants in the ground about 3 weeks later which is why we’re still waiting on fruit.  We were lucky the cold snaps didn’t kill them.

Herbs

We eat fresh herbs from Our Garden with our meals, rarely dried.  These are available throughout the year, iffy in the fall.  I usually harvest some fresh as a prune when they start looking sad sometime in the fall.  Dried or surviving in the fridge for the holidays, hopefully coming back by Christmas.  Not this year, the cold snap right around Christmas delayed the whole process. 

Sweet Mint, Tarragon & Oregano

We have several perennial herbs, growing for about the last 7 years, in Our Garden.  They were planted the same year in the Traditional Vegetable and Herb garden.  Oregano, Sweet Mint, and Tarragon grow happily in their spaces, and the spaces around them.  Dying back in the fall, they usually start coming back in January.

These have been kicked, battered, covered and almost frozen, all this year.  There is a huge smile on my face.  They recover nicely. 

The tarragon has been sending out flowers, I’ve pruned mercilessly.  It’s currently deciding it’s ready to grow crazy.  The sweet mint is in 3 areas, it’s a walker.  I just pulled plants out of the red mulch area to transplant back into 2 of the beds.     

The Oregano has had a tough year, or maybe a sparse year.  I only harvested enough to prune for new growth.  Since it’s coming back, I didn’t do a shabby job.  I dried and sent the ground flakes packaged to My Dad as part of a Christmas pack.       

Rosemary

In addition, My Oldest Brother and his girlfriend at the time gave me a Rosemary bush.  It’s at the entrance to the Traditional Vegetable and Herb garden.  Big and happy most of the year, it dies back a bit, only in January.

Thyme

It has been a personal mission of mine to establish a Thyme plant.  We use Thyme almost as much as basil.  A steady supply is necessary.

We’ve tried it everywhere around Our Garden.  It will grow for a year or two and die.  However, I believe I might have found its permanent spot.  Maybe I just finally grew a super strong plant, or perhaps, it’s because our cold snaps did not include a hard freeze this year.  Either way, the results look promising.

Echinacea – Purple Coneflower

Indeed, we do grow it.  The flowers are lovely.  It took a few of years to figure out where it was happiest.  In Our Garden, it likes a shady area, dappled light, with a little sun exposure.  It grows fantastic next to the yellow trumpet vine, shaded by the Ligustrum shrub, growing as a tree.

It’s an immune booster, good for colds and sores.  I have not harvested it for that purpose, or any other.  Finding its spot and letting it seed was the priority.  I did, however, take pictures.  Now that I have its number for growing happy, I’ve got another set going under the Key Lime tree.  Yippy!  I do like the big purple flowers.

Lavender

I love lavender.  Period.  I use an aerator with lavender oil at night to help me sleep (the room also smells divine).  The oil I use on my skin, I make one with lavender, the other with rose.  It’s my night time scent.  It only made sense to start growing it in my bedroom, right?

I’ve also finally established a plant, in a pot, fancying up my front walk.  Lavender is almost impossible to grow as anything but an annual here in tropical climates.  It literally is the opposite of where it likes to grow.  It hates to have its roots wet, and it is not fond, at all, of the heat.  Pfff, that never stops me.  I’ve even bought specialty varieties for the heat.  They died.

In the end, I grew the established plant from seed, nothing special about them, just lavender seeds.  I used a very sandy garden compost mix, almost Black Sand, to keep the roots dry.  The pot sits for most of the day in the bright shade, sun adjacent, and it requires sticking the leafy parts back down in the ground when they start to look spindly, even though everything stays attached to the main stem.  The result is a trunk like stem, alive, not dead, and a lovely plant that doesn’t die. 

Basil

Yes, I can grow basil in Our Garden.  It’s also lived there since the first load of dirt went in the ground.  It however is an annual, growing big, bushy, and flavorful before dying in a single season.  Since we eat it pretty much everyday, the demand never met the supply, and/or it was out of season.  It hates the summer and is not particularly fond of the fall/winter. 

I currently grow basil indoors.  In fact, I have a single plant I’ve been growing for almost a year and a half.  Harvested once a week, we always have a surplus I dry.  If you haven’t tried an AeroGarden, I recommend it, especially for fresh everyday herbs.  I also have Lavender and Thyme planted in mine.

We keep a vase in the kitchen where I stick the fresh basil stems I’ve harvested.  They grow roots.  If there are any stems left when I harvest the next batch, I stick them in pots with dirt.  So, we tend to have little potted basil plants around the garden.  Sometimes I plant them, sometimes I just harvest them.  On occasion, I give them away.   

Fall/Winter Crop – Fruit & Herbs

Indeed, there was something immensely satisfying and deeply joyous this fall/winter munching on our crop.  It gave me motivation to continue planting, despite the exhaustion and lack of decent odds.  In some cases, it paid-off.  Others, not so much.  I have most of the next post complete on the vegetables.  We did pretty good with those.  Come join us next week!