Gardening: My Tomatoe and Pepper Progress

[applescrap]

Finally home will update tomorrow. The family left some nice-looking fruits. Too dark to tell

 

[Oldskewl]

We've been on vacation in Alaska the last 2 weeks. Went to clean and harvest the garden tonight. I'm whooped! Cucumbers are getting eaten by cucumber beetles, but still producing. I've never had cucumbers still alive in August before. Trellising is where it's at. Lemon boys and orange tomatoes are coming on strong as well as early girls. Many of my San Marzanos have blossom rot, but I will still get a nice crop. Cherry tomato plants arena pain in the ass. I grow them for my kids, but they vine out all over the garden and if you don't pick them every day or two they split and rot. Here is what I harvested. Sadly I threw away almost as much that was not edible.

 

[applescrap]

Wowza, oldskewl. This is all I got but don't know what the family got into. They shared it was pretty cool really.

Ps, the broccoli and brussel sprouts have pretty much taken all of the garden and not produced. You get a little broccoli and it's over. I think I'm doing it wrong. I should plant some, grow it, when it start to sprout cut it, redo.

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[Homercidal]

Watered the garden last night. LOTS of Roma tomatoes, but nothing is changing color. I'm disappointed by the peppers. The tomatoes are so tall they are shading them I think.

Time to plan a meal with garden beans for tonight. Probably just cook them in a pan with some bacon grease and salt and pepper. Fish should be thawed and ready to cook as well. Too bad nobody else in my family is into fish... =8D

 

[passedpawn]

Planted two kinds of basil (Genovese and Thai), Jalapenos, heirloom tomatoes (I'm a gluten for punishment!), and mint. Seeds. Should germinate in 2-3 weeks, then into dbl buckets for winter growing season.

 

[Staestc]

It's cool that you even have a winter growing season. Here in north Texas we are too hot or too cold, with little in between. I may try, but given we have had 6 days or more of rain and cool weather I'm thinking we will have a cold winter this year.

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

My habs have taken on a brilliant orange color in the last week.

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[BrewinBromanite]

Hey pepper gurus. Been snatching tomatoes, jalapeños, cayennes, and these little orange dudes all summer from my parent's raised beds for salsa. Any idea what the orange guy is? My dad doesn't remember what he planted...I thought initially they were habs or some hybrid, but they are very mild. Like not hot at all. View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1471990148.149462.jpg

 

[botigol]

I would say that it is a ripe jalapeno.

 

[passedpawn]

Yellow looks like Hab to me. Red is the ripe jalapeno

 

[BrewinBromanite]

Haha. Thanks... Not those. A couple more pics from the vine. View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1471992087.823744.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1471992136.747824.jpg

 

[BrewinBromanite]

Yellow looks like Hab to me. Red is the ripe jalapeno

That's what I'm saying. I planned a whole recipe for a hot salsa with them a few weeks ago. Completely mild and fruity tasting. The green (and red when we had the patience to let them turn red) jalapeños and cayennes (now dead) both had good heat. The mystery orange peppers - which I assumed before tasting were habs - had no heat. I've heard of a variety that looks similar, but void of heat. Wondering if this is of that variety? Tastes good, just not hot.

Edit - also, this one is more orange than the pic appears, but earlier in the season they were much more yellow and translucent. Probably not the peppers' fault rather than the growing conditions.

 

[Littletimmy]

The orange pepper may be in the habanero family but not all habs are hot. There is "Trinidad Perfume" and "Pickergill's Orange" that look like the common habanero, but have minimal scoville heat units. I've grown lots of the TP's and love the classic smoky w/o the heat. Did your dad start them from seed or did he buy transplants from a local DFW nursery? I saw a limited number to Trinidads at North Haven gardens this spring.

 

[BrewinBromanite]

Transplants probably from Calloways in McKinney. Like I said, they taste good, just no heat, and was curious. Very similar to looking to habs. The jalapeños and cayennes make up for the heat in blended salsas.

 

[Littletimmy]

If you want, I should be able to confirm if Calloways carried that type of pepper this year, I have two former students who work as managers for the company!

 

[BrewinBromanite]

If you want, I should be able to confirm if Calloways carried that type of pepper this year, I have two former students who work as managers for the company!

Sure! Would be fun to know, I see some pranks in order using these vs the real thing...[emoji51]

 

[Staestc]

Indeed!

 

[applescrap]

I think they are the little sweet peppers. My wife buys them all the time at Sam's Club to dip in ranch for parties. Or some other version of small sweet pepper.

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[BrewinBromanite]

I think they are the little sweet peppers. My wife buys them all the time at Sam's Club to dip in ranch for parties. Or some other version of small sweet pepper.

I don't think these are those.. I'm familiar with the little sweet peppers. These are "crinkly" and oddly similar to a traditional habanero appearance. Don't taste like baby bells either. Also fruitier than sweet like baby bells. Texture's way different also. More thin skin and waxy if that makes sense.

 

[Homercidal]

I've got a ton of Roma tomatoes, but so far none of them are turning red. I'm afraid they will all hit at the same time. I better call my friend's mom and ask her for her famous spaghetti sauce recipe!

Hopefully they won't all be green by the end of growing season...

Oh, and I got 1 bell pepper out of 4 plants. WTF?

Several Jalapenos, though. Probably enough to make some ABTs for friends and that's it.

 

[Oldskewl]

If you end up with green tomatoes at the end of the season make some green tomato relish. It is great on crackers and cheddar or hot dogs or burgers or what ever else you can think of. I used to go to the SCCA races in Summit Point, WV and a lady used to bring canning jars of this stuff. Goes great with BEER!

http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/pickled-green-tomato-relish

 

[VApatriot]

I noticed a few other people here are growing eggplants. Ours are doing really well and this year we wanted to try something new with them. We found the recipe below for eggplant sandwiches they were really good and are pretty easy to make.

Here's the recipe:

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9qmPVlc1uA[/ame]

 

[passedpawn]

The whiteflies are getting worse and some of my plants are starting to suffer. Yellow spots, blackened leaves, leaves dropping, smaller fruit.

The telltale sign is white powdery stuff on the bottoms of the leaves, with black oily deposits in it. Apparently these deposits are sweet, which attracts ants (I've wondered why I've seen so many ants climing around the plants). Control of whiteflies is not simple, aparently. I've been using Neem Oil, but that isn't doing the trick. I'm going to grab something else from HD today.

More info. I think these are mostly a southern concern (FL).
http://www.lawnpestcontrolservices.com/whitefly-florida/

 

[Staestc]

The whiteflies are getting worse and some of my plants are starting to suffer. Yellow spots, blackened leaves, leaves dropping, smaller fruit.

The telltale sign is white powdery stuff on the bottoms of the leaves, with black oily deposits in it. Apparently these deposits are sweet, which attracts ants (I've wondered why I've seen so many ants climing around the plants). Control of whiteflies is not simple, aparently. I've been using Neem Oil, but that isn't doing the trick. I'm going to grab something else from HD today.

More info. I think these are mostly a southern concern (FL).
http://www.lawnpestcontrolservices.com/whitefly-florida/

OMG! I'm glad I haven't had to deal with that here!

 

[passedpawn]

I got some stuff called Organocide and sprayed the plants (mostly the underside of the leaves). This product from HD smells like fish; in fact, it's made from fish oils and sesame oil. We'll see what happens. The flies are easy to spot. In the top picture above, the whitefles are the 6 or 7 white things on the right side of the leaf, along the spine.

 

[Oldskewl]

The whiteflies are getting worse and some of my plants are starting to suffer. Yellow spots, blackened leaves, leaves dropping, smaller fruit.

The telltale sign is white powdery stuff on the bottoms of the leaves, with black oily deposits in it. Apparently these deposits are sweet, which attracts ants (I've wondered why I've seen so many ants climing around the plants). Control of whiteflies is not simple, aparently. I've been using Neem Oil, but that isn't doing the trick. I'm going to grab something else from HD today.

More info. I think these are mostly a southern concern (FL).
http://www.lawnpestcontrolservices.com/whitefly-florida/

Wow! They don't mess around. They about cover the whole leaf. Good luck!

I just got finished canning 12 pints of fresh salsa. Everything was out of my garden except for the cilantro and a few seasonings. I was in Alaska when I should have planted the cilantro to harvest for salsa.

 

[passedpawn]

Those aren't my pics, but I do have some leaves that are almost that bad.

BTW, they only do that on the bottoms of the leaf. So, you might not even know they are there until you really start investigating.

 

[Littletimmy]

@#!$%$# Whiteflies. The #1 problem in our annual poinsettia crop at the school greenhouse. We have tried everything to control them but are limited by restrictions on what chemicals can be used to "try" and minimize the damage. Systemics like imaclopyrid work ok, but most whitefly populations have developed resistance over time. Contact insecticides only work if you spray all the time and completely cover the leaves to kill the adults. Controlling the eggs and larvae is the long term issue. We use yellow stick traps to monitor and scout the greenhouse every 2-3 days. If we find an infected plant, out it goes!! This seems to help with large population outbreaks.

 

[Littletimmy]

BrewinB
Sent ya a pm, the source of the "mild" habs was probably not Calloways....

 

[brewerJase]

Cherry tomatoes are coming in like crazy. Seem to be getting a pint or two everyday. Good thing I eat them like popcorn

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