Anyone doing a garden?

[CT Jim]

Quik pepper update.
The Puya and Alcadre peppers are still doing well, and ripening nicely.
The Jimmy Nardello plants have exploded. One plant is doing ok, the other is just off the charts. I just picked 33 red Nardellos from ONE PLANT.
If only zucchini would do something…..

 

[LHorn]

Yesterday was a bitter note in my case for the pepper season. Last night dropped to 32°F with frost on everything this morning. I had about 25 plants still loaded with golf ball sized peppers that needed to be baseball size...but that wasnt in the cards. I picked the larger ones even if they were still green and threw the little ones in the pile with the cut down plants...the little ones are just too bitter and tastes like grass.

Tons of these...this was just one branch of a plant...



Biggest ones on on the bottom...not sure what I will even do with these.

 

[CT Jim]

Are those the Lesla peppers?

 

[RickeyM]

My Bell peppers grown from supermarket pepper seeds have done well this year. They've been smaller than expected but they've been producing well. It dropped below 50* for a bit here last night and more >50* temps next weekend. The plants probably will go dormant after that.

 

[LHorn]

Are those the Lesla peppers?

Yeah the heart shaped ones are. There's some Boldog and a couple others mixed in as well.

This is the Lesya...thick walled and sweet. Hands turn red just cutting them up. Most of them get to the size of a tennis ball or baseball even.

 

[imready]

A mighty harvest considering I didn't plant my raised beds until I renewed them in late June/early July. I had no harvest last year, and suspicions were realized when I removed all dirt and found tree root up to an inch think had migrated 15-20ft to get to the water. Did a hatchet job on said roots , put down two layers of landscaping cloth, refilled the beds and added a bunch of local compost. If I had any harvest at all, I would be happy with such a late planting. I used a different fertilizer this year, "Marine Cuisine" and had many beautiful squash in about a month! I did buy plants mostly at Menards, but had a few starts from seeds I harvested from store bought peppers. I always share what I have, most often with strangers, and enjoy watching their eyes get big when they see the beautiful squash I have just given them, especially the 90 year old woman who clutched them to her breast. My three tomato plants were huge, with the cherry tomato spreading over 6', the black Crim and Brandywine had foliage so thick that their were probably 7-8 of tomatoes I never saw until I removed the dense foliage. Potato harvest was just as awesome, with probably 40 lbs in my 40"x 9' raised beds. I never expected to have such a harvest planting so late, global warming certainly helped giving me three more weeks to grow. Some plants needed more time, which they will get next growing season. Looking forward to next year now that I have 2/3 of the work done to grow like I did the first 5 years I put my beds in, gardening is more fun when you get results. Next is to try some indoor veggies!

 

[2N697]

Greetings all! I don’t know that I have a good reason for not finding the time to visit here more often?? With the weather beginning to change, and garden season ending, I hope to share a bit more, and also to learn even more from others who post their experiences.

I am down to the last of the last of it. A few more peppers to pick, some smaller, not so great fall tomatoes, a cucumber vine the rodents missed, and some barrels with mixed greens that I am nursing along.



This year; I learned how to grow peppers a little better, although weather was against me, and I also tried out some of those “bags” you can buy to plant things; some kind of porous fabric. The bigger ones I need some kind of skid to drag them around- really hard on the back for me. They were a gift, and I was reluctant to use them (I guess being somewhat of a traditionalist). I was surprised by the success I had with some of the bagged plants. One added benefit is that the smaller rodents and even insects don’t seem to like to climb in them. We are battling rodents of all sizes this year, from voles and moles to groundhogs and armadillos. There is a lot of “container gardening” in my future. I am hoping for a good period of cooler, wetter weather before the freezing stuff sets in, so I can have some greens and a decent amount of herbs to dry over the cold months. Hope all is well with each and every one of you!

 

[CT Jim]

SEED OFFER withdrawn! 11/14- Sorry

PEPPER SEEDS

I have more than enough harvested chili peppers, making different levels of dried crushed pepper flakes/powder. Like many gardeners, I grow too much of some things, and issue verbal commands to the garden when some things don't pan out......but its still cool to see ripening chilies all over some plants. This could be a FUN exchange effort!

I have saved some pepper seeds in the past, mostly for the trial and error part of the game. But I have a boatload of some types so I thought I would mail seeds to fellow AK gardeners if they want to experiment. Some of these I will plant again, some are too hot for our menus, but none are nasty hot which is something I don't understand growing! To each their own, but having your butt cry out next day just isn't my thing.

Puya Chili- Marvelous producing chili, I have posted pics previously and include a couple more today. About 5' high, and loaded! Makes a great dried pepper flake with a somewhat strong bite, to be used carefully. Data says these run 5-8K scoville, so there is some heat. Can also use green for a bit less bite.

Alcaldre Chili- Currently drying a batch for flakes/powder. Good production. This is a more moderate chili, in the 2.5-3K scoville range. should make a useful everyday type of dried pepper flake or powder accent. My pics of Alcaldre might be mixed up so I didn't post any, but a 4' plant, multi-branching...

AJI Fantasy- Neat looking little yellow butt kickers, around 10K I would say for this batch. Too much for our use.

These are original seeds from New Mexico, grown here in NC. I did read somewhere that peppers acclimate to conditions and areas where they are grown so these may work well in more mid to northern states?

Right now I can mail ripe Puyas so you can dry your own seeds, easy enough to cut peppers open, put on a paper towel, and let dry for a couple weeks. The alcaldre I may dry, and some may still turn ripe, just need to see. The AJI I can pick and mail peppers anytime because I won't be replanting it.

I had a banner year with Jimmy Nardellos, and have dried some seeds for my use. cannot promise I'll have seeds to send?

I am willing to mail seeds and/or peppers free so others can have fun. I am looking for some seeds for Lesla, Poblano(larger? size), have pretty much everything else. PM with questions, and address and I'll try to give everyone some seeds to grow and enjoy. I grow Olly and Sheperd bells, and over-wintered last year's Olly, which did well for a bell!

I'm also going to experiment with a couple Greenstalk stacking planters, so dwarf size plant seeds are welcome?

 

[RickeyM]

The season's basically over for the warm weather crops though the strawberries are still soldering on albeit much more slowly. I planted some onion sets a few weeks ago. I planted some earlier this year but they got shaded by the carrot tops and didn't grow. Surprisingly after I pulled what was left of the carrots some of the previous onion sets started growing again so I said why not and planted some more. I also sowed some Romaine in the same bed and there's a bunch if tiny sprouts now. Hopefully they'll get going enough to survive the cold. I know it's late but I may still try to get some kale and carrots going.

 

[CT Jim]

Yes, the season has slowed quite a bit, my peppers finally are trimmed and a few put away over the winter.
But, I do just finished planting my garlic, dropped down from 125 to 85. Some of my half-assed stored garlic got away from me so I’m peeling them and will dehydrate for granular garlic, way better than store bought. Peeled a 100, but still have probably another 150.
Some of my harvest, Lorz Italian and Montana Giant provided very large cloves for this fall planting, but I always order early in April extra selections so I’m covered if I lose too much. Hard to store properly here, no basement so I have to juggle between beer and garlic in the garage mini fridge.
But it sure is fun and satisfying to plant those giant red Montana cloves knowing that another jumbo head will be harvested next year!
I’ve already ordered and received 3 seed orders so I’m ready for late Jan seed starting.

 

[RickeyM]

Garlic, interesting. I might make some space and try some. I really need to pull those pepper plants and clear out that raised bed.
I've got some seeds for flowers that will benefit from Fall sowing so that should be done soom.

 

[BillyTheKid]

I planted some garlic a few weeks ago. Second season.

Arugula is still going strong. Chard was picked yesterday, we left the plants in to see what happens.

Everything else has been ripped out and carted away. Winter is on the way...

 

[RickeyM]

I got about 20 garlic cloves planted (buried?) yesterday. Mother Nature obliged by watering them in with rain overnight. It may be too late for kale but I'll try anyway and carrots too. I noticed some carrot volunteers in the flower bed I cleared. A result of letting some carrots go to flower I guess.

 

[2N697]

We hit single digits here the other night- that's enough for me to start whining about spring. My last ditch effort at gardening was to try my hand at making a little hot sauce, so I thought I should share the results. I did a 3 week fermentation using the vacuum bag method.


I think it turned out pretty well. I had to heat it outside on the grill to keep from choking everyone out. It was mostly a mixture of Jalapenos and Serranos in various stage of ripeness. There were also some of the smallish cone-shaped chili peppers, a few Poblanos, and some small "Thai" types.



The pH measured pretty low on this particular batch. I added some vinegar to be safe, since this is the first time I have done this. The only cheap bottles I could find were a little large, so I ended up with 2 full ones and 1 half full. I will probably experiment with adding a lot more vinegar to the half full bottle to see if I can tone it down to the point that I can handle it. The other two will be gifts for my kids. At any rate, it was a fun experiment and I like the idea of getting another use out of the things I grew in warm weather.

Looking forward to seeing what others are up to in these winter months!

 

[orsen]

just put delphinium and milk weed seeds in the bar fridge for cold stratification.
will be germinating many flower seeds over the next few weeks.
our grow season is so short i start indoors.

 

[hjames]

Winter garden update. After a 1 shot herb grow, I repurposed the gear for indoor tomatoes. Every time we grew them outside in the past, either the squirrels or birds would peck every single one and ruin them.So a few years ago I grew a pair of tomato plants in the living room under a grow light - 1 Early Girl plant, and one heirloom cherry tomatoes. Anyway, I've got a new batch going in the TV room downstairs under a double width grow light - and I spotted these clusters in the plant today!
Yield is generally a couple a week as long as I water them heavily (1/2 gal daily)





Not bad for early Feb in Northern VA with the outside just starting to melt from the Snowcrete storm we got Jan 25th

 

[RickeyM]

What size pots are you using? I always wondered if I could pull off growing tomatoes indoors over the winter. After tasting some store bought strawberries this morning I wonder if I could grow those indoors too.

 

[hjames]

Downstairs 2 plants (and on the left, a tropical hibiscus a neighbor gave us that we bring indoors in late fall.)
Pots are maybe 2 gal or so each?


Tomato pot upstairs maybe a 13+ month old plant, but still yielding!

 

[RickeyM]

I've got pots, soil and seeds

 

[hjames]

I've got pots, soil and seeds

Sprout some seeds and go for it! I usually put 2 or 3 plants per pot, and start them in september ...
In a few months, your taste buds will thank you!