Gardening: My Tomatoe and Pepper Progress

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Pain Train rolled in yesterday
MhG6fwp.jpg

gcRcgZJ.jpg

yLVugNM.jpg

c6UBN4p.jpg

lt5CvVy.jpg

I will gladly purchase any unused peppers from you if you are willing to part with them.
 
Some of the summer harvest, as well as a pic standing by my out of control tomato plants. Been getting bumper crops of peppers, tomatoes, blueberries, onions, asparagus, peas, cucumbers, zucchini, raspberries all summer....
118258564_3308275829228873_2986671201328224256_n.jpg
116248093_3230580923665031_6293778940509072216_n.jpg
116339772_3227347327321724_2614327262158636416_n.jpg
109539834_3210863088970148_1021705604307127289_n.jpg
118046989_3308275745895548_7508471777291885359_n.jpg
117238603_3255917201131403_4544776763614099275_n.jpg
 

Attachments

  • 117238603_3255917201131403_4544776763614099275_n.jpg
    117238603_3255917201131403_4544776763614099275_n.jpg
    14.5 KB · Views: 19
  • 118046989_3308275745895548_7508471777291885359_n.jpg
    118046989_3308275745895548_7508471777291885359_n.jpg
    13.7 KB · Views: 19
I'm getting just enough red Fresno peppers to eat and share a few. I picked my first reddish (I picked it a little early) biquinho pepper today. I picked a green one last week just to see what they taste like and it was hot! Not habanero hot, but more like a good jalapeno. I thought they were supposed to be mild.

Overall, peppers were a failure this year and tomatoes were a dismal failure. But I had volunteer tomatillos come up, and I recognized the leaves and I transplanted a few into huge tomato cages. I picked a couple today that are larger than a baseball; almost as big as a softball. Gonna go make some salsa now with them and some storebought serranos, and a little chopped Fresno for color.
 
We had a relative offer for us to come over and pick as many tomatoes as we wanted today, so we got a whole bunch, and combined with what we had from our garden.
Made 8.5 gallons of tomato sauce this evening.
Tomorrow I've got a whole ton of hot peppers to make into another hot sauce.
 
When my mom was little, she remember's her uncles coming by every once in a while with bags of "Texas peppers", probably better known as chiltepin. I just got some seeds today and will try growing a bush or three. I've heard that if you start them inside now and transplant in the spring, they should be strong enough to over-winter next year.
1600210033041.png
 
Those look like fresno peppers. Usually they are a little hotter than jalapenos but less than a serrano. But they could be "mirasol" Or something else ;)
Thanks, I’ve never seen a Fresno pepper. After reading a wiki on them, I have to agree. They have been great to cook with. Relatively thin skin and wall. I may grow 1 next year. I miss having Anaheim this year. My starts were left out in the wind and didn't survive. Bought these at HD with an Anaheim tag in the flat.
 
My Fresno produced like mad but they kinda suck green compared to a jalapeno. Ripe they are great. I had 2 pheno from saved market seeds. One was mild and the other was just slightly hotter than the jalapeno. Shape was a little different too which was nice because you could tell the hot ones from the mild.

If you like a flaming hot jalapeno, just get Numex Orange Spice. Every last damn one has been brutal green or ripe. You can buy seeds directly for about $6 for around 30 seeds. They got good Anaheim seeds too.
https://chile.nmsu.edu/details/1030
 
On my first batch, some of the jalapeños molded before I had enough for a full jar. Will the wild lacto survive if I start freezing peppers or am I better off storing them in the fridge?

Any why does fridge have a ‘d’ but refrigerator doesn’t?
 
I’d put them in the freezer, but that depends on how long before you have enough. When I pulled all my peppers, I froze 8 gallon bags of Jalapeños. I made sure they were in a single layer and stacked them in there. I had some that I couldn’t use. I did order seeds for next year from NMex.
 
Frozen work. If you want to make sure you have a live lacto culture, just make some kraut. Add a couple tbs of your homemade kraut juice to the ferment. Works fine.
Good to know, I’ve never frozen my peppers. My peppers were gang busters this year. I have to find more uses for them. Planted too many. A Plus is the deer won’t eat them. Everyone here made me realize I need some heat varieties for fermenting sauce.
We are having our first heavy frost/light freeze tonight. All I have left is Napa Cabbage under the row cover. It needs another month. I think it will make it. Have to figure out how to combat the deer for next year. Doesn’t help with all the nearby neighbors feeding them.
 
I only had 3 plants this year (I'll remedy that for sure next year!), and while they are still loaded with green peppers, they aren't ripening nearly as fast as they were a month ago.
 
Just picked the rest of my jalapenos. The last ones are all small. They have been for the last month or so. I dried the last of my Numex Orange spice for extra hot jala powder. Cut the pods into rings so they dry fast. Then put the dried rings in just about anything with a lid like a quart plastic container. Fill it about 1/3rd of the way.

SHAKE THE HELL OUT OF IT.....At least 3/4 of the seeds will fall out. Either save the dried rings or grind into powder. Ive got 2 other milder jalas so im drying those too then combine all the powders. Numex by themselves are crazy hot for jalapeno.
 
Some of my Alleppo peppers which are now being dried. These have been struggling to ripen. Still to pick a fair number more and a lot more biquinho and jals, which I will pickle

also my grapes are ripening slowly and unevenly, hopefully make about 10 bottles of wine from them this year, I managed five last year - I will mix them with some grape concentrate as I very much doubt I'll get them sweet enough on their own.

wP287Cfl.jpg

VpQ52eTl.jpg
 
Just picked the rest of my jalapenos. The last ones are all small. They have been for the last month or so. I dried the last of my Numex Orange spice for extra hot jala powder. Cut the pods into rings so they dry fast. Then put the dried rings in just about anything with a lid like a quart plastic container. Fill it about 1/3rd of the way.

SHAKE THE HELL OUT OF IT.....At least 3/4 of the seeds will fall out. Either save the dried rings or grind into powder. Ive got 2 other milder jalas so im drying those too then combine all the powders. Numex by themselves are crazy hot for jalapeno.
About 2 years ago I had a bumper crop of serrano peppers ("Hot Rod" hybrid). They were as big as jalapenos, just skinnier. I sliced and dehydrated lots and lots of them; red ones, green ones, and mixed. I have about a quart and a half left; they are awesome. It's amazing how hot they are, I have to be careful not to add too many to a pot of soup or beans or whatever.
 
Hot Rod is a great variety of serrano. The Numex Orange Spice jalapeno i grew this year are probably as hot or hotter. Hottest jalapeno i have ever tried and they were all scorchers. Ive been getting commercial sauces like Crystals and adding a couple Orange Spice to them. Adds a nice amount of heat and thickens them up a bit too.

Next year its going to be Numex Jalamundo. Supposed to be larger and about as hot but they ripen red instead of orange. When i get really hot jalas i like to mix them dried and powdered into Anaheims or Hatch ive dried. Makes a nice powder that is not quite as brutal for stuff like beans. Its a 1 to 1 mix...1 jala to 1 mild Anaheim.
 
My pepper plants are still popping out a lot of peppers but they seems to be awfully slow to ripen. Would it help to put a grow light on them for a couple hours a day?
 
I did my first fermented hot sauce, after doing years of canned.
Turned out well. I'll certainly do again.

My tomatoes and most of the garden is dead now, had some Frost. Peppers i covered and had a space heater going overnight so they are ok. The next week will be warm so should still get some more peppers.
The stuff in the greenhouse is going well to.
 

Attachments

  • IMG-20201101-WA0000.jpeg
    IMG-20201101-WA0000.jpeg
    602.7 KB · Views: 20
  • IMG_20201013_171253.jpg
    IMG_20201013_171253.jpg
    2.6 MB · Views: 20
There are seeds in probably 2/3rds of the pod. They dont seem to be as seedy this year vs last but they are still fairly seedy. That last one i saved just for seeds. Its sort of a pain to make a nice cut in them for a good pic.

Next year im going to try at least 1 plant in a grow bag with fresh media. Production however is great just in a hard pot. I just want to see if i can improve plant size a little. They have been very heavy producers 2 years in a row.

This was last years plant
PbmPNqy.jpg

NTcnu76.jpg


And this is the Thunder Mountain that was less than 3ft away
hH0kWPO.jpg


This years plants look like they might be a cross
EaxcGJd.jpg

gYjFw66.jpg

sGCVS5z.jpg

How is the flavor of these cayenne compared to the smaller size? I'm going to be building a garden this winter and cayennes are my #1 plant.
 
We ate our last real salad from the garden last night-tomatoes, spinach and carrots. We're still gonna eat carrots and spinach, but our tomatoes got wiped out by a snowstorm a couple of weeks ago. I picked most of the green ones the day before and have been ripening them in a box in the garage. Better than half of the greens ones ripened and were good. On an odd note, one branch of one tomato plant wasn't killed by 23F temps and had 2 big, ripe tomatoes on it a week after all the other plants were a rotten mess on the ground.
 
4ACB134C-FD2F-459F-809B-092E2780E9F7.jpeg

I’m cutting my Chinese cabbage tomorrow. I got it in the ground late, but still plenty without heads. I learned how to transplant this fragile plant. I’ll have it down for next year. The row cover was great. The only downside it is retarded the growth. Looks like I’ll be making a ton of Kimchi come Monday. Good way to look out and watch it snow. 2020 garden is a wrap!
 
I did a vac pack ferment of some peppers about a month ago. It was only supposed to be for a week or so, I assume they will be allright? I've only just remembered about them. The bag is nicely inflated.
 
I’m trying out this 100 gallon grow bag this year. Hoping it does well.

That is huge!

I just ordered 5 yards of garden mix. I made these four 6' square boxes that surround a round one. They are pretty tall to keep out the rabbits. The plants grow well in the mix but it decomposes quicker than I thought it would. I'm in the Chicago area and have a while before I can plant.
 
I've got a bunch of peppers and tomatoes started in my greenhouse. Also some overwintered peppers (not all survived, but most have some new leaves forming now), and our figs, which already have some fruit on them.

I've got a brew fermenting in there too, the plants should like the CO2.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20210330_194513.jpg
    IMG_20210330_194513.jpg
    1.7 MB · Views: 22
I’m trying out this 100 gallon grow bag this year. Hoping it does well.
i like the compostable weed barrier! We used to use newspaper layered 1/4” thick then till them in at the end of the season. It got too hard to collect enough papers to do the job, but never considered cardboard would do the trick.
 
Back
Top