2021 Garden Thread

[clancey]

That might be a real good idea..I will check that out "among other ideas"---too much thinking--lol But that is another thought....Love the taste of peppers if not too hot and one thing i truly love --something that is somewhat hot is: jalapeno jelly--oboy oboy..thanks clancey

 

[Dan Freeman]

I usually pick the shishito's before they turn red or just as they are beginning to turn color but have eaten them red as well. I like the taste of the green ones better.

Those other peppers on the left are a combination of pepperoncini and fushimi. The ones in the jar are pepperoncini that I pickled.

I'm not a hot pepper fan, so I grow mainly sweet peppers.

I like to grow bells as well that I use in sausage and peppers.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

I’ve about given up on bell peppers. I just can’t get enough peppers per plant to make it worth it in my small garden. Because the fruit is larger, it’s also easier for it to sunburn down here. It takes me a lot of more time to cut up smaller peppers to use in their place, but I think that’s probably what I’ll end up doing. I haven’t fully made my garden plans for next year, and I need to decide what varieties I’ll grow. (My current plan is shishito, dwarf Ajicito, and sweet banana along with one fish pepper, but I really need to draw my plans with all my other plants in place, too.)

We aren’t major hot pepper fans here either, but we seem to have great success with our hot peppers. I grew fish peppers and hot banana peppers this year, and really have had more than I can handle. I’ve given bunches away and dried and fermented them. The banana peppers were way hotter than we expected but they grew great. Next year I hope to grow a sweet variety and see if they can do as well. We like a little heat, but I do want more sweet peppers. The fish peppers are very productive as well, and I love their beauty (the plants and peppers are beautifully variegated because of genes for albinism).

I had to look up fushimi peppers to see what they were.

I need to get outside either today or tomorrow and harvest the last of the peppers (for real this time, I think, as @begreen’s cold weather is supposed to dip down here by Saturday night) and get some compost spread on the garden beds where we want to plant onions. Crazily enough it’s super high cedar pollen time here, and I’m very allergic. A face mask helps with that, but my eyes really suffer. I asked my husband to see if he can find any of my children’s swim goggles that haven’t broken to see if that will help. I’ll look crazy, but I need to do something so that I can be in my garden.

 

[Dan Freeman]

I had to look up Fish Peppers; I never heard of them. They are real pretty, but I don't think I would grow them since they "are medium-hot with a fiery bite that falls somewhere between a jalapeño and a cayenne." Every once in a while, I'll get a hot green shishito; usually one that I pull off and pop in my mouth while I am picking others.

Too bad about the pollen allergies. I used to have a lot of allergies as a kid, but then I got desensitization shots (4 each week for 3 years), and the pollen only bothers me when we have an extreme spring season.

I got my raised beds topped off with a few inches of mushroom compost that I had left over. I had it under a tarp up at the top of my driveway and figured I better get it spread before the plow guy pushes it all over. Luckily, we have made it through December with only one storm of 2 inches that melted the next day. I wouldn't mind it at all if we didn't have any more, but I know that's a pipe dream!

I picked tomatoes from my indoor plants today. I do it every two days. Since December 17th, I've picked over 160 tomatoes. The plants are starting to look a little funky, so I fertilized them the other day and I have powdered eggshells from our chickens soaking in a gallon of water that I plan to apply to them today.

Plant catalogs are pouring in. 80 days until I start my seeds for 2022. I always do it on March 21st. I can start them earlier, but then some get too big before I can put them outside and not worry about frost. Our official last frost date is May 30th, but I usually cheat by a few weeks. I start so many seeds that I have backups in case we get a late frost.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

I think that this is the third time that I have done my “last harvest” of peppers. There are hot banana peppers and fish peppers together, then some new potatoes, some hibiscus calyces for tea, and some sweet peppers and tomatillos. I’ll need to make some salsa verde this weekend.

I keep leaving the plants with smaller peppers just in case it doesn’t freeze when expected, and so far the plants have survived. We’re forecast for freezing temperatures tomorrow night and a hard freeze on Sunday. I want cooler weather to come, I’m not excited about a hard freeze when the perennials plants haven’t had a chance to acclimate to low temperatures at all this fall and winter. I was even looking at an actually blushing blueberry while I was watering today. I would be glad for more seasonal weather.

 

[Dan Freeman]

Thought I would share a good product I found.

I started noticing fungus gnats on my indoor tomatoes a few weeks ago. Trying to eradicate them on the cheap, I used small pieces of yellow paper smeared with vaseline and hung them from the grow lights (read this on a website). Two weeks later, I couldn't find one bug stuck on any of these, and they were multiplying, so I started looking online for something else. I decided to take a chance on these.

Gideal 20-Pack Dual-Sided Yellow Sticky Traps for Flying Plant Insect Such as Fungus Gnats, Whiteflies, Aphids, Leafminers,Thrips - (6x8 Inches, Included 20pcs Twist Ties) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QKLHH5X/

I cut two of these 6 x 8 pieces into 4 pieces each and hung them from the grow lights. WOW! Within an hour, I noticed about 2 dozen gnats already stuck. They are now loaded with them, and I have not seen any more flying around when I pick tomatoes. Recommended for indoor and outdoor use.

 

[clancey]

Its nice you have the second floor or room to have a garden like that and so interesting and if I had more room and convenience I would like to try something like what you are doing..But would have to be away from the main part of living because of those little gnats--would not like that--lol.. Great product and nice to know about.. I had one tomato in the yard last summer and believe it or not--it kept me busy--either picking tomato's off of it or giving it shelter in bad storms--became like a pet..lol..Looking forward to the Spring to see what I might grow this season..--just one or two plants we will see...Then I will be asking our forum members a lot of questions--lol...first time garderner..--one of those--having fun---nice set up...clancey

 

[Dan Freeman]

With those traps, there is no more gnat problem.

Yes, grow more tomatoes, a few different varieties. I usually grow 4-6 varieties each summer, a total of 24 plants. We eat them almost every day, dehydrate a bunch and freeze dry a bunch for the winter. Whatever we can't use, we give to friends and neighbors who don't grow them; they are always very happy to get them. We also always grow a sauce tomato, either San Marzano or Roma. As we pick them, we freeze them. At the end of the season, we have up to a dozen large bags. We than make a huge pot of sauce and freeze it in smaller containers for use during the winter.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

@Dan Freeman , I’ve used those sticky traps with success as well, though I’ve used mine outside. I got them for thrips, though it was too late for my cucumbers when I first tried. My worry was whether beneficials would be attracted to them, but I haven’t observed that. I used them last year on some camellias from a nearby nursery that had a huge fungus gnat problem. It was amazing how quickly they became filled, and I had to change them out. (I was cutting the pieces into thirds or quarters, I believe.)

It was really 2022 when this happened, but on New Year’s Day our temperatures in this part of Texas hit 80 degrees. By the next morning, they had dropped to 24 with strong winds. It had been predicted to hit thirty that night, and we usually run warmer than the forecast, so that was a surprise. Even my cold-tolerant plants couldn’t handle it, and just about everything in my garden seems to be dead (kale, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, and my one artichoke and rhubarb.). It was too depressing for a picture. Thankfully the citrus doesn’t seem to have been killed.

I have a few replacement plants inside, but it’s tricky down here in winter. I had thought my rhubarb needed more cold this fall, but now it might be too late to grow the two seedlings that I have, but I can always give it a try.

I have onion transplants that I hope to get in the ground this weekend.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I had found basil seeds a couple days after I started looking. At Home Depot of all placed! 3 pots were planted with basil. I've seen it sprout in 2. The big pot with aloe hasn't sprouted yet. Maybe it's alellopathic.