Gardening: My Tomatoe and Pepper Progress

[Deadalus]

Sorry to hear that @bwible .

Harvested so far: scapes, garlic, brocolli, brocolli rabe, swiss chard, kale, spinach, y. squash, collards, kohlrabi, bok choy, slicing cukes, lemon cukes, and a good year for pickling cukes!

On deck: beets, pattypan and acorn squash, zucchini, 5 types of tomatoes, jalapenos, thais, and bell peppers. Going to make basil pesto later maybe. Waiting on the tomatoes and peppers to turn red!

Later fall: lettuces, brassicas, leeks.

I've got about 6 gallons of pickles fermenting. I used my brewing experience to make some 2 gallon fermenters out of food grade buckets from Lowes. Cheaper than a crock.

Here's some lemon cucumbers I started fermenting this morning. Going to make some water bath pickles later and some sauer-kohlrabi (like kraut).

 

[bwible]

Sorry to hear that @bwible .

Harvested so far: scapes, garlic, brocolli, brocolli rabe, swiss chard, kale, spinach, y. squash, collards, kohlrabi, bok choy, slicing cukes, lemon cukes, and a good year for pickling cukes!

On deck: beets, pattypan and acorn squash, zucchini, 5 types of tomatoes, jalapenos, thais, and bell peppers. Going to make basil pesto later maybe. Waiting on the tomatoes and peppers to turn red!

Later fall: lettuces, brassicas, leeks.

I've got about 6 gallons of pickles fermenting. I used my brewing experience to make some 2 gallon fermenters out of food grade buckets from Lowes. Cheaper than a crock.

Here's some lemon cucumbers I started fermenting this morning. Going to make some water bath pickles later and some sauer-kohlrabi (like kraut).

Oh I forgot about the garlic - yeah my wife grew a bunch of that. This was the first time we ever heard about scapes. The garlic we got this year was bigger than last year because we took off the scapes. We tried frying some scapes but I’m not really a fan.

 

[Deadalus]

Oh I forgot about the garlic - yeah my wife grew a bunch of that. This was the first time we ever heard about scapes. The garlic we got this year was bigger than last year because we took off the scapes. We tried frying some scapes but I’m not really a fan.

I like the scapes a lot but my wife isn't a fan. They are a little tougher than they look and need extra time to cook. I made scape rings out of them this year. Also stir fries.

Lots of garlic this year, all hardnecks so lots of scapes too.

 

[Jonakr]

We have basically three mini-pepper plants and two larger fruit ones. I wasn't able to keep up with all of them, even pickling some as we went along.

 

[bleme]

One thing I have noticed about having my garden on drip this year is that it makes it a whole lot easier to neglect. My wife said we were having tacos last night so I went out to get salsa makings and realized that I haven't harvested in a week as there was an abundance of red on all my pepper and tomato plants! I'll have to rope the whole family into helping pick this weekend or I won't have time to brew...

 

[Hanglow]

After a record breaking hot june, despite it being wet for the final week, we have now had almost two months of relentless rain and lower temps. Slugs wiped out my summer lettuce. I've not had to water anything outside, including pots, for all that time . Toms and peppers slower to ripen but good harvests from the greenhouses., at least i had overwintered chillis that I have been harvesting and making hotsauce from. Celeriac and leeks welcome the rain though

 

[Deadalus]

One thing I have noticed about having my garden on drip this year is that it makes it a whole lot easier to neglect. My wife said we were having tacos last night so I went out to get salsa makings and realized that I haven't harvested in a week as there was an abundance of red on all my pepper and tomato plants! I'll have to rope the whole family into helping pick this weekend or I won't have time to brew...

It's such a time saver though isn't it! I like to do a morning walk-thru of the garden with a cup of tea, could be first thing or if I am taking a break. It's a bit like meditating, I get to see everything growing bit by bit. I pull a few weeds here and there, try to get them when they are small. It took a number of years to exhaust the weed seed bank and switching to no till but I don't get a lot of weeds anymore. I also use grass clippings for mulch and I square foot garden. The garden does compete with weekend time for brewing though! Picking, cleaning, preserving.

 

[Deadalus]

After a record breaking hot june, despite it being wet for the final week, we have now had almost two months of relentless rain and lower temps. Slugs wiped out my summer lettuce. I've not had to water anything outside, including pots, for all that time . Toms and peppers slower to ripen but good harvests from the greenhouses., at least i had overwintered chillis that I have been harvesting and making hotsauce from. Celeriac and leeks welcome the rain though
View attachment 826877View attachment 826878View attachment 826879View attachment 826880View attachment 826881

NIce tomatoes! Plants are looking good, I can't get the celeriac past the seedlng stage. They germinate but don't grow. Started them three times, twice in cell packs and once in the ground. Fennel too, same deal.

 

[Hanglow]

Locotos and aji limon/orange pepperonicini fermenting

 

[GreenEnvy22]

We’re getting terrible results this year. Mostly haven’t had time to take care of the garden. Almost no peppers, few tomatoes. My wife is growing a couple fig trees that are in their second year and those are getting bigger and about the only thing looking good. The biggest one has 2 tiny figs we’re hoping will have time to grow fully.

Same here, my peppers have done almost nothing this year. I've only picked a couple jalapenos and a couple Cayenne.
My reapers, scorpions, and ghost peppers stayed small 3 to 4-in plants for like 2 months after they were in the ground, only in late July do they start actually growing.

We did have a good year for onions, garlic, beets, cabbage. We're also drowning in pole beans.
I accidentally killed my cucumber plants earlier in the season when I sprayed them for bugs but messed up the ratio, The Replacements are three or four weeks behind where they should be. Tomatoes are doing okay, but definitely not as many as most years.

Our apple tree is useless this year, it has a total of eight apples on it.
My grapes look like they're doing really well though, I'm hoping to get at least a couple hundred pounds off of those for wine in the fall.

 

[Abrayton]

Purple Peach Snake fermenting next to the Orange/Yellow Torpedo.

 

[Abrayton]

Torpedo and Kraken Red. This is going to hurt in the morning.

 

[Hanglow]

You are braver than me! I stopped trying to grow superhots, can't take the heat

 

[Abrayton]

Pickled beets with purple peach snake and orange/red torpedo peppers.

 

[Abrayton]

Any fermentation experts know what this white glob floating in my jar of fermenting peppers is?

 

[Hanglow]

No idea, not sure I'd want to eat what's in the jar

Some of my tomatoes, zucchini massive as i was away for a couple of weeks, peppers

 

[Deadalus]

Canning, fermenting, and pickling up a storm the past few weeks.

 

[Deadalus]

Started my first pepper ferment this season. Red jalapenos and some tiny red thai peppers. Had some orangish bigger thais ready but not sure if they were going to go to red. Also what I think are fresno jalapenos but those are still a pale green so I will wait.

 

[Hanglow]

Autumn and winter veggies are doing well for me, all the rain in July and now has done them good. Just planted spring onions followed/ interplanted salads. Hope they make it overwinter, i also planted a few in the greenhouse.

Picked the Bramley apples, largest was 580g

 

[DBhomebrew]

Not a bad harvest for a free plant that had started as a volunteer in the middle of my colleague's lawn. Sat in a pot at his house for a few weeks *watered* by his dog. Another couple of weeks in the pot at my house until I finally got around to putting it in the ground. Not a lick of tending.



Not sure what monster this might be...

 

[Cheshire Cat]

 

[Deadalus]

Not a bad harvest for a free plant that had started as a volunteer in the middle of my colleague's lawn. Sat in a pot at his house for a few weeks *watered* by his dog. Another couple of weeks in the pot at my house until I finally got around to putting it in the ground. Not a lick of tending.

View attachment 830009

Not sure what monster this might be...

View attachment 830010

Tomato hornworm. It will chew the hell out of your tomato plants! Probably more than one. You'll want to remove it at the very least or kill it.

 

[Deadalus]

I was planning on using the pineaplle in my latest batch (left) but didn't have room. So I added them to a batch (right) that I started last week. First time trying anything sweet in the mix.

 

[Tartan1]

First time trying anything sweet in the mix

Sounds like an interesting combination, let us know how this turns out.

 

[Hanglow]

This was the last harvest of peppers I made before trimming back my plants and overwintering them. I'm overwintering 7of the this year, capsicum baccatum and pubescens varieties, I'm not bothering with annuums as I get reduced harvests from them in subsequent years.

Still producing salads although it will be pretty small harvests due to reduced light levels till February or so. We've had a few frosts now, the lowest was about -4c which was lower than predicted.

 

[passedpawn]

So you plant your own garden
and decorate your own soul, instead
of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.

 

[Deadalus]

I received my pepper seeds last week. I'm doing the mild end of the charts with early jalapenos, giant jalapenos (free sample), fresnos, and anaheims. Then red and yellow bells. I bought from the same company as last year. He's probably making up for the free Thai pepper seeds they gave away last year by giving out the giant jalapenos. The free Thai peppers was so tiny. The regular Thai peppers aren't particularly big either being skinny. Put in the rest of my seed order today too but I won't be doing starts until mid-March! I think I had 6 tomato varieties I'll update those another time.

 

[passedpawn]

I received my pepper seeds last week. I'm doing the mild end of the charts with early jalapenos, giant jalapenos (free sample), fresnos, and anaheims. Then red and yellow bells. I bought from the same company as last year. He's probably making up for the free Thai pepper seeds they gave away last year by giving out the giant jalapenos. The free Thai peppers was so tiny. The regular Thai peppers aren't particularly big either being skinny. Put in the rest of my seed order today too but I won't be doing starts until mid-March! I think I had 6 tomato varieties I'll update those another time.

Maybe save seeds from superior plants. Use those next season.

 

[Deadalus]

Maybe save seeds from superior plants. Use those next season.

I grew several pepper varieties last year plus there's several gardens neighboring, too much hybridization. If I had more space between I'd do it but my neighborhood is residential. I'd have a huge garden out in the country if I could but at least no deer here.

 

[Oldskewl]

I just received my order yesterday from Johnny's select seeds. First time ordering from them. My biggest battle in my garden is with Late Blight on my tomato plants. They had a nice variety of highly resistant Late blight seeds. We will see how it goes this year. These are the seeds I went with

Tomato
Marmalade Skies
Abagail
Defiant
Plum Regal

Cucumber
Cool Customer
Unagi

Pepper
Hungarian Wax
Jumbo Jalapeno

 

[Agent]

Early blight just tears my stuff to shreds every year. Though it is kinda easy to just pick tomatoes off a leafless plant.

That reminds me, I gotta get my onion and leek seeds started like yesterday!

 

[Deadalus]

Leaf spot septoria is my main nemesis. I ordered from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange last year and this year so I could try out their West Virgina '17A and '17B varieties that are resistant. Interesting story in that they were developed from West Virginia 63 (Centennials), which were bred for late blight resistance. The breeder who developed the 63's decided to work on the new variety. I tried the '17B's last year and am trying the '17A's this year. The Roma VF's also have resistance to leaf spot septoria which I can confirm having grown them last year.

Barnes Mountain Orange
Green Zebra
Roma VF, Virginia Select Paste
Costoluto Fiorentino
Black Cherry Tomato
Mountaineer Pride (West Virginia ‘17A)

Planting these later in the year.
Reverend Morrows Long Keeper Winter Storage

 

[SoCalPlumber]

I've been growing peppers for the past few years, both hot and sweet. This past year I made and bottled a green and a red fermented hot sauce.

The red is paint thinner. Red Cayenne, red Serrano and red Jalapeno. Fermented in a brine solution for a week with onion, garlic, cumin, Cilantro and peppercorns. It'll take the paint off tables. The green is the same other than the mix of the Serrano and Jalapeno. I put it on everything Mexican we eat and we do Taco Weeks sometimes

One ingredient they both shared is some home grown cilantro..

I've tried cloning this with no luck but fortunately it continues to grow. We love home made picante or what we refer to as salsa and this stuff takes it to another level.

I'm currently using the red on gopher holes. They don't seem to like it much either

I found the simple fermenting interesting and then read an article on making apple wine with juice, sugar and yeast. Switched it up to cider and now I'm hooked. Doubt I'll ever try adding those peppers to cider like the beer craze (I personally wasn't thrilled with Scorpion's version) but gonna keep making the green sauce forever. I gave a bunch away and everyone loved it.

 

[Deadalus]

Probably because I was looking this up earlier today but this article showed up today in my FB feed. Looks like Mr. Gallegly has developed yet another variety resistant to leaf spot septoria, fusarium wilt, verticillium wilt and late blight. If you read to the end, seeds may be requested from the university through the greenhouse manager.
https://wvutoday.wvu.edu/stories/20...2AxhQVf9p1ICLTjq_g5RVrbRoyhL8FJMSEhs4SDc-zktA

 

[jrgtr42]

I'm probably a month or so out from starting my seeds, but I'm definitely in the planning phase. The past couple years I've started the plants out inside, they get going pretty well, up to a few inches tall, second and sometimes third set of leaves then most of them just die on me. Can't figure out for the life of me.
I want to get a heat pad this time around, and maybe try a different starter medium - I've been using the peat pellets for a while, then transplanting into regular garden soil when they've been established.
PLanning on a few different peppers - jalapeno, habanero and cayenne for sure, maybe a couple others.
Tomatoes will be cherry, beefsteak, Cherokee Purple and Black Krim, and maybe Eggdrop (eggyolk? I forget, but they're bright yellow when ripe.)
We'll see about other veggies; I have a limited space for them, but I also have some herbs going, cilantro, dill, rosemary, sweet basil. I'm looking for Thai basil seeds or even plants to get that going.

 

[Deadalus]

A heating mat is great for seedlings, particularly tomato (70-80F) and pepper (80-90) starts. It greatly improves germination. Then afterwards, don't let them go under 50F at least at night but I need to better check the proper range myself. The seed starter mixes sold in stores are most always crap. An easy mix that I use that's been very successful for me has been 50% sphagnum moss, 25% perlite, 25% vermiculite. You'll get a lot more mixing it yourself. That ratio has markedly more perlite and vermiculite in it than any store product. They put a bunch of nothing in their mixes and those mixes in my experience hold too much water and the seedlings later peter out. The store variety also is not loose enough, that's what the perlite and vermiculite do. I've tried the peat pellets too, they are kind of cool to watch expand but they get too wet as well. A half strength liquid fertilizer when they have 2 sets of leaves is needed. No fertilizer to start with. Don't over water, it can be a little difficult to get it right. I make sure to water from below and I leave just a small amount of water in the tray underneath and then wait about 2 days usually. You want the roots to start seeking out the water. I grew my whole garden from seed last year, a mix of starts and in ground seeding.

I do have a greenhouse though, it's 6 mil plastic and tubing, nothing expensive but it keeps the water out so the timers don't short. I put a fan or two in there too so the seedlings are stronger. I only had two lights last year but I picked up more of those this year. So I supplement, but in fairness, I am in partial shade with it so it's necessary for the seedlings to max them out.

 

[Hanglow]

This year I'm growing some that I overwintered, Locoto, Aji limon, Aji mochero, aji norteno. And I've got seeds for Poblano, jalapeno Telica, Serrano, Rokita, Sweet california wonder. I'll sow them next week I think.

Tomatoes for outside a couple of wild ones to try for fun and blight resistant ones, as I always get late blight from late june.

Inside the greenhouse, Bloody butcher, banan krasnyi, purple Cherokee, sun gold for sure. Maybe two others

I've also got melons and aubergine which I have to grow under glass to get anything edible.

I'm still harvesting parsnips, swede, brussèls sprouts, winter salads from the greenhouse, winter cabbage and have purple sprouting broccoli to come. I planted another 110 garlic on Friday, that's maybe 250 in total and 8 varieties. I'll sow many other brassicas and salads at the end of next month when I have 10 hours of light, no point in doing it earlier.

Happy growing everyone for 2024!

 

[Deadalus]

Bottled up these three different ferments. One has added pineapple along with the Thai and jalapeno blends and the other two are just Thai and jalapenos. I had four half gallon ferments but lost one to infection. I haven't tried the pineapple yet...

Question: These have added vinegar in them and are fermented. How long might they store in a cool basement vs the fridge? I am actually going to put them in a ferm fridge but just to have an idea to tell the people I am giving them to. Plus wondering if I need to ship before I see some people.

 

[PCABrewing]

This year I'm growing some that I overwintered, Locoto, Aji limon, Aji mochero, aji norteno. And I've got seeds for Poblano, jalapeno Telica, Serrano, Rokita, Sweet california wonder. I'll sow them next week I think.

Tomatoes for outside a couple of wild ones to try for fun and blight resistant ones, as I always get late blight from late june.

Happy growing everyone for 2024!

I had great crop of Pink Brandywine so it is a definite repeat for 2024. Then I think I will add Early Girl for early harvest and Husky Cherry.
Peppers will be Bell, Thai, Jalapeno and Habenero. I have been getting great results with "Bonnie" brand green and red bell sweet peppers, some softball sized with great aroma and flavor, so those are sure to be included.

For the last three weeks I have been harvesting curly Kale that I thought was dead, we had a week of -10f that should have finished it. But to my delight it has started producing new growth.

Still several weeks away from outdoor sowing.

 

[z-bob]

I planted some pepper seeds a little over 2 weeks ago. "Mad Hatter" mild peppers, Murupi Amarela which is a long white habanero-type very hot pepper, and some seeds that I saved from a chiltepin x "Lemon Drop" cross that I really liked. All the seeds were a couple of years old, and they should have been coming up after about a week because they were on a heating mat. So I assumed they weren't sprouting because they are too old, and yesterday I ordered some new seeds. "Bahamian Goat", "Smooky Rainbow" (yes, it's really spelled like that, not "smoky"), large jalapenos, and something called sriracha peppers that I think are just another smaller jalapeno variety. This morning the Mad Hatter seeds started coming up

It's way too early to start tomatoes up here, but I'm planning to grow San Marzanos this year. That probably a poor choice because they are indeterminate and I'm going to try growing them in 5 gallon buckets to keep them safe from the neighbor's walnut tree. Last year I had the most beautiful healthy tomato plants growing in raised beds with new soil. When they were about 5 or 6 feet tall they suddenly wilted and died; I think the roots grew through the bottom of the beds into the old garden soil underneath and met the walnut roots Peppers and squash and tomatillos did okay, they are not nearly as susceptible to juglone poisoning as tomatoes.