Gardening: My Tomatoe and Pepper Progress

[Homercidal]

Not all varieties of hops grow well in certain areas or conditions. Better to use that space and effort for something useful.

 

[applescrap]

Aghhhh, it has been raining, i hope not hailing, since I put them in. They are already going nuts.

 

[Homercidal]

Got some stuff in my garden yesterday between rains. I planted Cucumbers, Peas, Beans, and some tomatoes. I held off on the peppers until they get bigger and it's warmer out. And because I don't have enough spaces for all of it! I still want to build long boxes to hang on the back deck and plant some green onions, kale, etc. Smaller stuff that don't need a lot of depth.

I am seriously considering building one more 4x8 box and picking up another load of soil. I have to buy more anyway since my wife and I made some flower boxes to hang under the living room and family room windows out front.

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

Sounds like a lot of us have been struggling with a lot of rain.

I was late to get things planted but bought a pre-potted Strawberry plant. Had a berry last night that was already ready, and it was just delicious - you can't beat a fresh strawberry.

Hops are already about 6 feet tall and looking great. I'll have to post some pics once I get the patio area cleaned up just a little. It's not nearly as nice as what you all have setup, but it does us well considering the space we have.

 

[applescrap]

Lots of rain, but garden is already going nuts.

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[corkybstewart]

Sounds like a lot of us have been struggling with a lot of rain.

We got an inch of rain in 30 minutes one day last week, bringing our total for the year up to 1.25 inches. Unfortunately it came with 15 minutes of hail. All my tomato, squash, egg plant and cucumber plants got beat down badly, but after a few days new leaves started popping up so my garden has survived.
My hops were completely stripped of leaves but are now putting out laterals so I should actually get a huge harvest this year. Pistachios, pecans, apples and peaches are 90% destroyed.

 

[BowAholic]

sorry to hear about your garden/hops damage corkybstewart... my brother was in Carlsbad last week and said it was dry. We are having the opposite problem here in Arkansas... I think our May total was a little over 12"... and it seemed to come 2" at a time instead of nice soaking rains.

 

[applescrap]

Man that sucks corky. So glad to hear some of them survived. I have a tomato cage on most plants and tarps fit unexpectedly, awesomely, right on top. Wife gets in there too. We aren't playing anymore. If we think its going to hail or starts we are like civil war soldiers marching into doom with reckless abandon, bent on our cause. Check out this hail that devistated west denver a couple weeks ago.

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[brewcat]

Planted some radishes and beets around the hops. Should be coming up pretty soon. Hardening off some peppers and eggplants. Plan is to grow those in containers. Finally looks like the weather will be decent. Possibly will build some raised beds for other stuff.

 

[estricklin]

Lots of growth since the wife took this photo about a week ago. Was going to start staking things today, and building a fence for the cucumbers but of coarse.........a summer shower.

My pepper plants were a hot pepper mix, and I'm sad now that I read the package again, there are no habs in there. Long Slim Red Cayenne, Hungarian Wax, Anaheim, Ancho and Jalapenos. I was trying to save a few bucks by only buying one pack of seeds, in the past my peppers haven't done so well starting from seed and I usually loose a few and then have to buy some. This year they ALL grew fine. This year we changed some techniques and now that I'm more confident about this I will spend the money to get some varieties I want more next year.

 

[z-bob]

Lots of growth since the wife took this photo about a week ago. Was going to start staking things today, and building a fence for the cucumbers but of coarse.........a summer shower.

My pepper plants were a hot pepper mix, and I'm sad now that I read the package again, there are no habs in there. Long Slim Red Cayenne, Hungarian Wax, Anaheim, Ancho and Jalapenos. I was trying to save a few bucks by only buying one pack of seeds, in the past my peppers haven't done so well starting from seed and I usually loose a few and then have to buy some. This year they ALL grew fine. This year we changed some techniques and now that I'm more confident about this I will spend the money to get some varieties I want more next year.

If you want to save a few bucks, buy ripe fresh hot peppers at the grocery store and save the seeds. They grow just fine. Also the seeds from dried peppers sometimes grow (that's where I got a start of Dundicut peppers a few years ago)

 

[estricklin]

If you want to save a few bucks, buy ripe fresh hot peppers at the grocery store and save the seeds. They grow just fine. Also the seeds from dried peppers sometimes grow (that's where I got a start of Dundicut peppers a few years ago)

That's not a bad idea, the varieties I planted weren't hybrids anyway. I only worry about planting commercial varieties because of disease resistance and other unknown factors, but for the cost of practically free (seeing as how the seeds were gonna get tossed anyway) I'd be willing to do it. Another trick I've used to save money on peppers is to save the seeds for 2-3 years, or buy them at the end of the season at a discount. Still, I only saved myself $3 or so and now I have no habs! Thanks for the tip!

 

[applescrap]

Starting to take off, check out the lettuce.

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[brewcat]

Got the eggplant and peppers in containers. I think I have room for a few more. Hmm... Tomato? Jalapeno? Different eggplant variety? Hmm... Finally the weather has me excited. Maybe still can get one or two beds built.

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

Man that sucks corky. So glad to hear some of them survived. I have a tomato cage on most plants and tarps fit unexpectedly, awesomely, right on top. Wife gets in there too. We aren't playing anymore. If we think its going to hail or starts we are like civil war soldiers marching into doom with reckless abandon, bent on our cause. Check out this hail that devistated west denver a couple weeks ago.

That's some crazy sized hail. How did your garden do?

 

[applescrap]

^^luckily hadnt planted yet.

 

[applescrap]

Check out these tomatos already coming in and peppers

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[HarborTownBrewing]

Apple, when did you plant yours? Mine haven't done much the past few weeks, though I expect my peppers to take off the next few days with hot weather

 

[applescrap]

May 21st, these guys were in good shape when i got them, they always are from this place.

 

[estricklin]

Everything is coming along, nothing is producing yet but it's getting close. The wife planted the sunflowers.

Getting ready to start weed control now that it's about dry enough to get out there.

 

[Apple_Jacker]

I need to take some pictures, but my San Marzano tomatoes are getting huge and I have 2 dozen or so tomatoes forming between the 8 plants I have. I've also got cayenne peppers sprouting already. The bell peppers and habeñero peppers are taking their time again this year.

 

[estricklin]

Watching the sunrise this morning over my garden as I get ready to cycle a half century, this photo was from yesterday evening though. I finished this book a few days ago:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PWX7S4G/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

and it really inspired me to think more about seeds as living things with a rich history. I definitely recommend it to anyone who loves gardening.

I often wonder if maybe there's something in our DNA passed down for thousands of years that causes us to look upon our gardens with so much gratification?

The weeds are more or less under control for the moment thanks to my tiller/cultivator. There are a lot of herbs you can't really see in the photo. I'm going to plant some more purple hulls in some of the gaps.

 

[applescrap]

I cultivated some lettuce and held the big black plastic strainer next to the swiss chard to give some perspective on size. They are getting huge and everything is budding. There are tomatoes on plants and peppers too. Should I pick this early unripe fruit so plant can grow? Always wondered that.

Happy birthday estricklin and a nice post. Maybe it is in our dna and perhaps we were all connected somehow a million years ago. Ancient gardeners, so to speak. Good work with the tiller, that grass is persistent.

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[Apple_Jacker]

San Marzano tomatoes coming in. I had some signs of early blight but hopefully I have it under control now.

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[z-bob]

I have a few tiny serrano peppers and grape tomatoes on my plants (that's really early up here.) The Thai peppers and the other tomato varieties look good but are not fruiting yet. The eggplants have not started blooming but the plants look good.

I still need to plant some cucumbers, and replant runner beans to fill in where half the seeds didn't come up; the ones that did have just started growing rapidly and will need supports soon.

I saw a rabbit in the garden this morning; I need to finish caging all my plants with chicken wire (most of them are wrapped in chicken wire, I have no idea why a rabbit would be interested in my garden)

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

its my entertainment, I have a beagle that tracks the rabbets but cant see worth a crap so he has his nose the the ground yelping all over the yard tracking the path and the rabbit just moves to the other side if the yard, it knows its safe its so funny he can be 10 feet away and never see him

so after 5 years of chasing and yelping I have to say it was a glorious moment for my dog which finally caught the rabbit, "or did he" I saw him grab the rabbit and carry him to the corner of the yard under a bushy tree, I was busy mowing and going around the house, came back and the rabbit was gone and my dig was laying on the deck, I can only assume the rabbit was playing dead and ran off once drooped, I guess ill find out tomorrow in the front yard when I l leave for work and its right there in front every day :}

 

[brewcat]

Sitting here planning out a raised bed I just built & filled over the weekend. I know more eggplant (I probably bought too much) will be planted. Then okra, beets and carrots. Even then I have some spots to fill.

Container peppers and eggplants are looking good.

 

[z-bob]

Sitting here planning out a raised bed I just built & filled over the weekend. I know more eggplant (I probably bought too much) will be planted. Then okra, beets and carrots. Even then I have some spots to fill.

Container peppers and eggplants are looking good.

Is five eggplants a lot? (I haven't grown them in years) I bought a 4-pack of tiny ones a month or so ago, and potted them up in 4.5" pots and kept them under lights for a couple of weeks. There was an extra seedling in one cell and I pulled it up and potted it too, and it survived; hasn't caught up with its siblings yet but it will. They are about a foot tall now; in the ground and look very healthy. They really liked the hot humid weekend we just had.

The 4-pack just said "Eggplant" (no variety name) and had a picture of the long skinny Japanese kind.

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

I grow everything from seed, anyone else do this, most I see here are way ahead of me and that maybe why, why don't we say this is from seed or bought already started?

 

[z-bob]

I grow everything from seed, anyone else do this, most I see here are way ahead of me and that maybe why, why don't we say this is from seed or bought already started?

I grow most of my own stuff from seeds. The eggplants were an impulse buy when I was getting a bunch of those cheap little tomato cages (to put around everything this year except the tomatoes)