Gardening: My Tomatoe and Pepper Progress

[applescrap]

Have peppers on most every plant (about 3 dozen!) and tomatoes on over half. I have fertilized more frequently this season than last and the results show. Cukes have slowed a bit but look healthy.

My two peppers that I am trying to "air prune" are my strongest in terms of size. Should have quite a harvest by month's end.

Yep, that's why mine are in Walmart and root pouch bags. Take a look back on this thread and check out the results! That said I know the real thing that helps is fertilizer. The Walmart bags are big, durable, and cheap. The root pouch bags are much nicer and thicker. When I got them they were harder to find but are easy to find now, I'm sure. I have found the bigger the bag the bigger the plant but check out some of the 1 g bag results on the web.

 

[Brettomomyces]

Jumping in this thread, but if anyone is looking for beneficial insects for their IPM I strongly suggest checking out Evergreen Grower's Supply

https://www.evergreengrowers.com/

They sell many different beetles and mites for a variety of control. They also have a great selection of organic pesticides. Suffoil-X is what I use personally, along with Monterey Garden Spray and Azamax. I don't use neem oil any more because emulsifying it is such a pain in the ass.

 

[Apple_Jacker]

Garden is filling out. I can can 2 pint jars with the first of the tomatoes I picked. I lost a lot to blossom end rot though[emoji35]


The Chinese red noodle beans are sprouting out now too.

 

[LuckyBeagleBrewing]

After much toil and many mistakes, my Orange Pepperoncini plants are starting to produce some peppers.

OrangePepperoncini

• LuckyBeagleBrewing
• Jun 15, 2019

Hoping these are as good as the regular Greek Pepperoncini. Now the battle with the ants begins. Been fighting them the last two seasons.

 

[Apple_Jacker]

Finally picked the first bean. These things are ridiculous!

 

[user 211287]

Im growing Liana Asian long beans this year. Ive grown the purples and another variety in the past. Mine are just starting to climb now.
http://www.southernexposure.com/liana-asparagus-yardlong-bean-7-g-p-537.html

You want to pick them before then are larger around than a pencil. Very tasty stirfried with a little ground pork, garlic and some chiles or Pixian chile bean paste. Just use the oyster sauce if you dont like spicy http://seonkyounglongest.com/spicy-stir-fried-long-beans/

If they get too large and go to seed just leave them until the pods start to dry a little. Then save the semi dried pods for the seeds. Finish drying them inside.

 

[catdaddy66]

Finally picked the first bean. View attachment 631447

When my son was born and I held him, he stretched from my fingertips to my elbow!

"Congratulations, it's a bean!"

 

[HoppyDaze]

Early peppers

 

[MaxStout]

Got my hot peppers going 2 weeks ago. It's never safe to plant anything before about Memorial Day here.

I don't even like eating the things--way too hot for me. I harvest them and give them to a local brewery where they make an awesome pepper porter every fall.


L-R: 2 Carolina Reaper, 2 different varieties Bhut Jolokia, 1 Trinidad Scorpion, a 7-pot Douglah, and a sweet bell pepper for good measure.

2 different Habanero (brown and red)

Carolina Reapers

 

[estricklin]

I plan to dig potatoes this evening if the rain holds out. Corn is growing fast now, along with all the watermelons and cantaloupes. Pintos need to dry a bit before I pick them. Almost all of my 20 or so peppers, or producing or have lots of blooms.

 

[applescrap]

Gardens look awesome everyone. Man some of you got a great jump this year. Not so much here. And it has hailed 3x since putting them in let alone before. And yeah it snowed too iirc. Just got back from vacay and i dont believe where those small plants are at now. The auto drip worked, great.

 

[user 211287]

These rocotos can be a major PITA to grow here when the summer heats up. I got a good head start on a variety that had issues last year.

I got a new variety to try this year and its looking great. Pretty much every bloom has produced a good looking pod sofar. It appears to be far more tolerant of our weather. This little guy didnt even get going until about late March or early April. Its growing like crazy now. Germination though took nearly a month.

 

[z-bob]

None of my rocotos germinated. I planted them twice. They were from seeds collected from fresh peppers at Fiesta market. I wonder if they might have been irradiated?

Summer here so far has been cold and wet. (the farmers' corn crops are about 4 or 5 inches tall if they have any up at all. It should be 2 feet tall by now) The peppers I've managed to get in the ground look good but they're not growing yet, although one of the puya plants was pretty big when I set it out and it is has lots of little pods. And the tomatillos look good even tho' they are not very tall yet.

 

[user 211287]

Most rocotos like cool nights and minimal rain. They grow fine but blooms just drop off or pods fall off shortly after forming. If you have a climate controlled porch just bring them in each night and blast the AC.

The "problem child" is a Peruvian Mini Red. They grow fine most of the time but last year i think i got a couple ripe pods. All the others fell off the plants. I also tried a Miraflores Market yellow rocoto...Same thing but it was even more fussy about rain. I sent the exact same seeds to friend in Idaho. He got tons of ripe pods off his. His summer climate is drier and much cooler at night.

The new one is Aji Oro. They are supposed to be a hot weather rocoto. I already got pods almost thumb sized and the plant looks super healthy. We have been pounded by late rains this year. I was just about to trash the peat pellets when i noticed this guy sprouted after a month. For about 2+ weeks he had nothing but 1 set of baby leaves. I thought for sure it would die.

I got a Naglah Brown that did something very similar. Took forever to germinate and now its really packing on the leaves. I got 1 seed to germinate from i think 6 or more of each.

 

[catdaddy66]

My only ghost pepper plant is dropping its leaves. I thought it wasn't getting full sun so I moved it but today 60% of the foliage drop off as I watered it this morning. [emoji44][emoji51][emoji19]

 

[user 211287]

Picked a couple Mucho Nacho and hot wax. Mainly because the plants are rather small. They hate all the rain.

Bolsa De Dulce pheno looks like they will be the longer variant and it looks like its gunna crank out pods too.

First Scorpion pod

JPGS has probably 6-7 pods like these but its still tiny.

I REALLY love these Aji Arnaucho. Pods look killer and its not a fussy plant.

TFM bonnets

SRP are bulking up. A few nice pods buried in there too. The 2 side by side up top are the Bolsa's for a comparison.

My only Naglah Brown

My fubar that were supposed to be Anteps. No idea what it is but the pod i tried had no heat at all.

The Aji Oro today

 

[MaxStout]

None of my rocotos germinated. I planted them twice. They were from seeds collected from fresh peppers at Fiesta market. I wonder if they might have been irradiated?

Summer here so far has been cold and wet. (the farmers' corn crops are about 4 or 5 inches tall if they have any up at all. It should be 2 feet tall by now) The peppers I've managed to get in the ground look good but they're not growing yet, although one of the puya plants was pretty big when I set it out and it is has lots of little pods. And the tomatillos look good even tho' they are not very tall yet.

It would help if we could get some sun here. I know Minnesota is the State of Clouds, but it would be nice to see the sun shine more than a few hours. They forecasted sunny skies today and it clouded over before noon.

 

[applescrap]

None of my rocotos germinated. I planted them twice. They were from seeds collected from fresh peppers at Fiesta market. I wonder if they might have been irradiated?

Summer here so far has been cold and wet. (the farmers' corn crops are about 4 or 5 inches tall if they have any up at all. It should be 2 feet tall by now) The peppers I've managed to get in the ground look good but they're not growing yet, although one of the puya plants was pretty big when I set it out and it is has lots of little pods. And the tomatillos look good even tho' they are not very tall yet.

Same here, cold and wet.

 

[applescrap]

@Evilgrin, I love the work you do, dang man. Wow. Beautiful gardens this year. I see the root pouch bags, awesome, are you sub irrigating, with those trays? They work pretty cool.

My gardens are sprouting considering where they were a couple weeks ago. Check out the lettuce growing out of this net cup. The drip was money over the trip. I put all the flowers on the line so nothing needed water and they did well.

 

[passedpawn]

Carolina Reaper means business. Took several off plant just now.

 

[passedpawn]

This year I also grew banana peppers and Anaheims. I mistakenly thought both would be mild. The bananas are about on the same level as jalapenos, which is to say they are fairly hot. I just sliced up and ate half an Anaheim. Damn it, had me running for a beer.

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

My tomato plant was growing wonderfully. I watered Thursday morning just before leaving to go out of town, and then on Sunday the entire pot was waterlogged and the plant was badly wilting. I heard we got a little rain last Thursday, but I wouldn't have thought it was *that* much...

I'm worried it got over-watered. I got rid of all the surface water and I'm trying to see if it'll recover.

Has anyone had that happen due to over-watering?

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Yesterday after getting home, I decided to pop a couple of holes into the bottom of the tomato pot. Water started gushing out. So the plant was definitely drowning.

Hopefully I caught it in time for the plant to start to make a recovery, and the roots didn't rot.

Otherwise, I think at least here in SoCal it's still early enough in the season to pull it and re-plant a new one, which will be the plan this weekend and lesson learned...

 

[user 211287]

This year I also grew banana peppers and Anaheims. I mistakenly thought both would be mild. The bananas are about on the same level as jalapenos, which is to say they are fairly hot. I just sliced up and ate half an Anaheim. Damn it, had me running for a beer.

View attachment 632359

Most Anaheims ive tried are pretty mild but there are some exceptions.
Numex Lumbre....very hot and thin walled...not good for much besides drying
Barkers X hot or XX Hot....a lot more meaty and pretty hot too
Sandia Select...meaty and a little hotter than a typical jalapeno. Mine were pretty mild but delicious
Big Jim Heritage.....normally not hotter than a jalapeno but occasionally you get a zinger

If i had to pick one to grow it would either be Big Jim Heritage or Sandia Select. Not the regular Numex Big Jim or standard Sandia if possible but they are good too.

Ive had hot wax/banana that were easily hotter than most jalapenos.

 

[user 211287]

Couple more days and i get to sample this lil guy. Jay's Peach Ghost Scorpion.

He has a couple friends too.

 

[passedpawn]

Most Anaheims ive tried are pretty mild but there are some exceptions.
Numex Lumbre....very hot and thin walled...not good for much besides drying
Barkers X hot or XX Hot....a lot more meaty and pretty hot too
Sandia Select...meaty and a little hotter than a typical jalapeno. Mine were pretty mild but delicious
Big Jim Heritage.....normally not hotter than a jalapeno but occasionally you get a zinger

If i had to pick one to grow it would either be Big Jim Heritage or Sandia Select. Not the regular Numex Big Jim or standard Sandia if possible but they are good too.

Ive had hot wax/banana that were easily hotter than most jalapenos.

My Anaheim tag only says "Anaheim Hot Pepper", no mention of variant - I just looked. Lots of new peppers on there.

I left the first green peppers on there for quite a while and they never turned red. They got to what I thought was maximum size, and after a couple of weeks stayed that size and didn't turn color. Odd. Also, mine do not have a tough outer skin. I've seen people blanching them in hot water, then chilling, to remove the skin, but I ate mine raw with no issue at all.

Also noticed that the hot banana pepper plant is growing rapidly and has a lot of fruit on it. And, my tomato plants look sad.

 

[user 211287]

I like them roasted and peeled. Over a grill taste best but the oven works. Let them sweat in a bag as soon as you take them off. Peel after they cool enough to handle. It takes a little practice getting them charred just enough to loosen the skin.

Both the Big Jims and Sandias ive eaten without peeling the skin. The lumbre however is so tough and the flesh is so thin its better just to dry them and grind into a powder....Green Anaheim makes a really really tasty powder too. Fantastic with great white northern beans or to zip up a chili verde.

 

[HoppyDaze]

Yeah, blister and peel those big green peppers! delicious!

 

[applescrap]

Yeah, blister and peel those big green peppers! delicious!

Killer on hamburgers. Down here the pueblo or dynamite green are hot. And they are really hot. The mild greens not so much. But yeah, even the basic green peppers have some heat. We put the green, and wax with eggplant, tomatoes, and zucchini for the ratatouille. They are great on pizza too. Chilli verde is king around here. I think that is a mainly new Mexico, Colorado thing though?

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

It's dead, Jim.

Replacement plant procured.