Gardening: My Tomatoe and Pepper Progress

[passedpawn]

Actually it's a terrible pic. That's $2000 worth of camera/lens that took that picture. Not sure why it completely f'ed up the exposure, but I brightened it in Lightroom.

Not sure if you know this, but those anoles are EVERYWHERE down here. They get in the house all the time. If you put your finger near their mouth, they bite (no teeth) and hold on - you can let go and they just hang their by their mouth. I've seen kids down here put one on each ear lobe like earrings

[edit] check out the video of you're not familiar with anoles

 

[BrewinBromanite]

Actually it's a terrible pic. That's $2000 worth of camera/lens that took that picture. Not sure why it completely f'ed up the exposure, but I brightened it in Lightroom.

Not sure if you know this, but those anoles are EVERYWHERE down here. They get in the house all the time. If you put your finger near their mouth, they bite (no teeth) and hold on - you can let go and they just hang their by their mouth. I've seen kids down here put one on each ear lobe like earrings

I was in Orlando for 3 years, they are everywhere. Walking along any sidewalk, just about every step you take they take off running. Watching my in-laws old chocolate lab try to get them was hilarious. Too fast for him.

 

[applescrap]

Ahhh, i want one.....your lense that is! Jk, no really the lense. Ok lense aside i fell in love during that video. Feisty little suckers ehh. I can relate. I will reserve my existential lizard conversations for a later tbd date.

 

[applescrap]

Some first fruits. Made a scramble this morning with them. The rest will probably end up on a pizza. The eggplants coming and almost ready. Will use it and tomato with peppers to make ratatouille all summer. I don't know why we make so much Ratatouille, its a good way to use everything at once I guess. I use the movie recipe.

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[Stillraining]

You guys all seem to have green thumbs...I'm just trying to keep it all alive while my wife is in Alaska for 2 weeks..

About the only thing harvested yet is strawberry's and some Zucchini...Don't even know if we will get any peppers to ripen.

Sort of started out with bad soil in the raised beds so it will take a few years to bring that around. But it is already doing better then last year. I think it had road salt in the soil or something as the place I bought it from takes in everything and mixes it all together.

I'm better at growing flowers then vegetables, the ones you can forget to water and still be OK.

 

[Staestc]

You guys all seem to have green thumbs...I'm just trying to keep it all alive while my wife is in Alaska for 2 weeks..



About the only thing harvested yet is strawberry's and some Zucchini...Don't even know if we will get any peppers to ripen.



Sort of started out with bad soil in the raised beds so it will take a few years to bring that around. But it is already doing better then last year. I think it had road salt in the soil or something as the place I bought it from takes in everything and mixes it all together.



I'm better at growing flowers then vegetables, the ones you can forget to water and still be OK.

It looks fantastic!!!

 

[Stillraining]

thanks man...but its all the wife's doing.

I have to say that the raised bed's and the green house really changed her interest/participation in gardening...We would work the soil in the same foot print every year and then she would plant, but daily weeding on her hands and knees is not her thing so it never produced well. Now I come home from work to find her futzing around in the garden all the time now. Should have done this for her years ago.

 

[Oldskewl]

Never really researched it but what are the advantages of the raised beds? I was gone over the holiday weekend and the cucumbers are coming on strong.

 

[Oldskewl]

Whipped up some fridge pickles with my abundance of cucumbers. Made some ape rose Sausage clones while I was at it. I haven't had them for a looooooonnnnnnggggg time.

 

[applescrap]

Never really researched it but what are the advantages of the raised beds? I was gone over the holiday weekend and the cucumbers are coming on strong.

I think less bending over and the ability to add Fresh dirt. Awesome cucumbers man.

Still raining the gardens are beautiful and nice. I wonder if you get less Sun than we do and that affects the garden.

The tomatoes will be coming soon

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[HarborTownBrewing]

Do you guys water your hot peppers much? I guess my thought process is they usually grow in a dry warm climate so maybe I'm over watering.

Occasionally my tomato plants look a little wilted when I wasn't able to water them for a few days. A little water helps right away though.

 

[passedpawn]

Do you guys water your hot peppers much? I guess my thought process is they usually grow in a dry warm climate so maybe I'm over watering.

Occasionally my tomato plants look a little wilted when I wasn't able to water them for a few days. A little water helps right away though.

Mine are in buckets, so I have to pay pretty good attention to them (they can go from soaked to crispy pretty quickly here). Although I water every day, they definately dry out by then. Not the most convenient system I have, but mine are still bursting with amazing amts of peppers.

I read that peppers like to dry out a bit, that you should wait until the leaves start to droop before you water. That might be true, as that's apparent by the end of the day. Anyway, completely by accident I did something really right with these plants.

Need any peppers?

 

[Stillraining]

I think less bending over and the ability to add Fresh dirt. Awesome cucumbers man.

Still raining the gardens are beautiful and nice. I wonder if you get less Sun than we do and that affects the garden.

The tomatoes will be coming soon

Yes for us this is exactly the benefit..and thanks for the compliment! .... they do make planting and weeding a snap. Doesn't really seem to dry out all that much faster then just in the ground planting either. I may incorporate drip or at least soaker hose irrigation in the future though. As over head watering is sort of wasteful 1/2 of which landing between the beds.

Our tomatoes are looking about the same as your right now at least on a couple plants anyway ( in the green house). As far as sun go's, it gets basically 6am to 7 or 8 pm worth this time of year. But this is the PNW after all, so we are more famous for tulips and daffodils then heat loving plants like peppers..:fro:

When I built them for her last year I didn't just want raised beds I wanted RAISED! beds...so that's what I made her. Fell a big ceder tree in the back yard and went to town.

What mashed grain that doesn't get fed to the horses has been going in her beds to add organics to the soil....So is this technically a beer garden now?

 

[Staestc]

When I built them for her last year I didn't just want raised beds I wanted RAISED! beds...so that's what I made her. Fell a big ceder tree in the back yard and went to town.

That's just plain awesome!! Cedars don't get anywhere close to that size here. And amazing saw and mill.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

When I built them for her last year I didn't just want raised beds I wanted RAISED! beds...so that's what I made her. Fell a big ceder tree in the back yard and went to town.

What mashed grain that doesn't get fed to the horses has been going in her beds to add organics to the soil....So is this technically a beer garden now?

You da man! Really!

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

Mine are in buckets, so I have to pay pretty good attention to them (they can go from soaked to crispy pretty quickly here). Although I water every day, they definately dry out by then. Not the most convenient system I have, but mine are still bursting with amazing amts of peppers.

I read that peppers like to dry out a bit, that you should wait until the leaves start to droop before you water. That might be true, as that's apparent by the end of the day. Anyway, completely by accident I did something really right with these plants.

Need any peppers?

This is good to know; I need to look into this more. I had been watering them daily, and that was fine and whatnot. But I left town for 5 days and didn't water them. When I came back they had grown significantly.

 

[passedpawn]

Another thing, if you want real production remove red peppers ASAP. My experience is that the day after I remove the red ones, the next batch of green peppers immediately change to red. How does it know?

 

[Stillraining]

Thanks guys

 

[estricklin]

I'm on vacation in San Diego and am heading home today. Looking forward to seeing my garden's progress while I have been gone. I definately water my peppers every day basically, if not they burn up quick in AR. If you want your peppers to be hotter, try to stress them by denying them much water, this doesn't favor production though. I had a house sitter water mine every day the past week, but I think we had about 10 inches of rain while I was gone.

 

[Oldskewl]

I water my peppers about an inch of water a week. Normally every 3-4 days is when I water. They love the heat. Went gang busters the last week as we have had a few 92-95 degree days and high humidity. Anyone have issues with Blight on their tomatoe plants and do you have any advice for stopping/preventing it? I always have 1 or 2 plants that get it every year. I noticed 3 plants with it already this year.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

I have a couple container gardens tomatoes and herbs. So far it seems to going pretty well.

 

[Staestc]

I'm filling my 5 gallon reservoir about every 2 days now that it is 99° everyday. That's supplying 6 plants. 4 peppers and two rather large tomato plants. All are planted in Walmart bags, so some water is lost to the air around the soil.

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

Anyone know why I may have these spots on my one tomato plant?

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[applescrap]

Sorry, I don't know but I got something like that last year. This year too. Look for bugs do you see them? Could be disease of some kind. For me I think the Tomato pool is keeping the level a little too high. Should have started with fresh bags and fresh soil too. I sprayed mine with fungicide other day. Figured if anything it was hurting them not to spray on. daconil is what it was, I think that's a good product to use. I'm thinking now about going out there and cutting it out to. Maybe it came from having a lot of rain. I'm going to go prevention next year.
They're getting big, super big.

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[Staestc]

Wow! Tomato plant is huge!

 

[Staestc]

My little 6 plant self watering sewer pipe Walmart bag system is now producing food! Lol
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Harvested these guys today.
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[passedpawn]

Just pop of those orange ones in yer mouth. Like candy.

BTW, I was concerned that my habaneros turned red, and didn't stay orange like most others. Even the seed packet shows orange habs. Well, I guess there's red habanero plants and that's what I've got. No complaints, they get the job done, but orange would have been better.

 

[Staestc]

Just pop of those orange ones in yer mouth. Like candy.

BTW, I was concerned that my habaneros turned red, and didn't stay orange like most others. Even the seed packet shows orange habs. Well, I guess there's red habanero plants and that's what I've got. No complaints, they get the job done, but orange would have been better.

They did not go through orange on their way to red? I've noticed the seed catalogs show both orange and red. But jalapenos go from green to red. So do Poblanos for that matter. Curious.

 

[passedpawn]

They did not go through orange on their way to red? I've noticed the seed catalogs show both orange and red. But jalapenos go from green to red. So do Poblanos for that matter. Curious.

1 day. Maybe a little less. They are orange for the briefest of time. Reminds me of a sad poem by Robert Frost (about lost innocence, I think):

Nothing Gold Can Stay
Robert Frost, 1874 - 1963

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.​

 

[StonesBally]

First ripe tomatoes of the season here in SE Michigan. These are called white currant tomatoes, but they came out more pale green/yellow than white. Only about a half an inch across. Very sweet and tasty though.

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