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Post by pepperhead212 on Aug 7, 2014 23:46:51 GMT -5
I uncovered my pepper Earthbox today, and those poblanos and Big Jims are HUGE! I also have a Mustard Hab in there, which is huge, but the peppers are only half formed (the reason I started one VERY early, in case they are late, like that). It was getting dark, so I had to stop, but I'll have to tie them up, and also look for the Hanoi market in there, somewhere. Here's my pepper album, with the first 11 photos being taken today.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Aug 8, 2014 15:39:48 GMT -5
Nice pepper pics! Looks like you will have a bumper crop of peppers this year. I'm happy for you that you are not having trouble with pepper maggots so far this season. ___________________ My Hari eggplant is putting on a new spurt of growth, setting fruits daily. As long as I keep it watered, the heat does not bother it at all. My Ichiban eggplant is languishing a bit; this is not the first time I have seen this variety suffer in July and August. In the past it has rebounded in September and made a nice fall crop. Hopefully it will do that again this year. It looks as though Hari will more than see me through my eggplant needs during these hot months, though. (@materman, since the Ichiban eggplant has stopped blooming, I will save your Hari seeds from the fruits that are setting now. This way they won't be crossed with any other eggplants. However, Hari is a hybrid eggplant, so you may still see some variability when you grow the seeds out.) My peppers and okra are also producing steadily, though the bells are ripening at smaller sizes, I guess due to the heat. I ended up cutting off the Numex Orange Suave pepper plants at ground level. They were healthy plants, the peppers were beautiful and the plants made a LOT of them once the weather got truly hot. Unfortunately, I just didn't enjoy their flavor. Since I wasn't going to eat the peppers, I decided to let the Tiburon plants take over that whole Earthbox. My White Acre pea plants are taking off - they just love the sun and heat. I got one completely albino plant. I don't expect it to survive lacking chlorophyll, but it sure is interesting-looking. The Rattlesnake Pole beans and Diamant cucubmers are up, though I only got 5/9 cucumber seeds to sprout. Maybe another straggler or two will pop up late, but if they do well, even five plants should produce quite a few cucumbers this fall. My baby mater plants are doing really well; they have reached the stage where they grow so fast that I have to raise the grow light a bit every day. I will probably begin acclimating them to the outdoors in a week or so, and then plant them out as soon as they can handle the sun. Which means I need to get their Earthboxes prepped ASAP...but in this heat (mid 90s with heat indexes of 105+) the pool keeps calling my name when I am outside.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Aug 8, 2014 18:26:49 GMT -5
Laura,
My hari EPs have also taken off! Even though it really hasn't gotten very hot here, the ichiban has slowed down, and the hari has taken over. I just picked 6 yesterday, and 3 were on the EB, and there were countless started up, and many more flowers.
Speaking of eggplant, my pea eggplant is now producing! I'll have to take a photo of one of the clusters - there are at least 15, and it is growing constantly.
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Post by daylilydude on Aug 9, 2014 15:28:05 GMT -5
Pea eggplant... yes I would love to see pics and how you prepare them...
Sent from my M736 using Tapatalk
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Aug 10, 2014 18:53:15 GMT -5
I've been watching it rain today. But I am glad to finally have a good rain, so it's okay.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Aug 11, 2014 0:19:47 GMT -5
Today I uncovered my covered peppers, and sprayed them down again to get rid of aphids (usually, I don't have to keep repeating this, as they only seem to show up on covered ones, though the EB didn't seem to have any). Despite the pests, the plants are still loaded with peppers. I have to bag a few blossoms of some of the varieties, as these were the last seeds I had.
I harvested some more beans and toms today, then sprayed them down with a fungicide. Still relatively cool here, so I can still use the oil/bicarb mix, though a few I put some copper soap on, as they seem to be coming down with some blight of some sort. I'll see if it helps any. The UD ones seem better, so it must be one of those things from the soil getting on them.
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Post by bestofour on Oct 14, 2014 13:08:47 GMT -5
Nothing is going on in my garden today. I've decided not to plant a fall garden. Just don't want too.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Nov 19, 2014 12:22:40 GMT -5
As I mentioned in the weather thread, we had a hard freeze last night. Although the peppers and eggplants had survived Monday night's brief frost unscathed, they are quite dead today.
I have a fridge full of peppers to process from my frantic pre-frost picking. A plastic grocery bag of bells, a bunch of anchos, 2-3 lbs (guessing, haven't weighed yet) of jalepenos, dozens of Shishito peppers, about a pint of Tabasco peppers, and 9 Hari eggplants.
The only damage I see to any of my winter crops is some leaf damage to some of the Super Sugar Snap peas. I don't think it's serious. At least, I hope not!
Over the weekend when I was preparing some raised beds for my garlic, I found ~20 volunteer lettuce seedlings hiding amongst the weeds. They all look like the Green Ice lettuce I was growing there last spring. So as I prepped each bed, I rescued seedlings and planted them along the edges of the already-planted beds. Hurray! I am now a couple of weeks ahead on lettuce. I had been a bit worried about how small, recently transplanted seedlings would handle last night's hard freeze, but they seem perfectly happy this morning.
A couple of the garlic cloves that I planted over the weekend are actually peeking out of the soil now. Talk about ready to go! I expect to see the rest popping out over the next week, especially since we are expecting more seasonable temperatures over the next 10 days.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Nov 19, 2014 18:15:40 GMT -5
Last night pretty much killed the rest of my garden (19° last night), except the cold weather things I have covered in that hoop house. I was amazed that my peppers lasted as long as they did, through two other freezes. This seems early to many, but when I first started here, 30 years ago, I always considered myself lucky if it lasted until the end of Oct., and occasionally had to pull the tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers by mid-october.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Nov 23, 2014 16:59:31 GMT -5
Today I cleaned up about 95% of those leaves out there (I don't even try to get more than that! LOL) - I just ground them all up and started a new cold compost pile between my UD tomato posts and my neighbor's fence. It's sort of a PITA area, because it gets overrun with weeds, so I don't know why I didn't think of this years ago!
I also did some more cleaning up (that never ends), plus I did something that is a yearly Thanksgiving tradition with me: I trimmed off a large amount of my rosemary plant, so I can take it to work in a large bag, with a bunch of smaller bags, and others can enjoy that wonderful flavor at least once a year. I put the bag in my car, so I won't forget it in the morning!
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Nov 29, 2014 16:14:20 GMT -5
I sowed some carrots today - we are looking at 10 days of mild weather (low 70s days / low 50s nights and sun most days) so that should be perfect weather for them to germinate. All I have to do is keep them from drying out until they get going. I hope to sow more carrots tomorrow, plus some radishes and parsnips. Broccoli, collards and peas are coming along. The cold we had the week before Thanksgiving (26F one night) did some minor damage to the peas, broccoli & lettuce, but all of the plants except one tiny lettuce seedling have recovered. The collards and spinach were untouched by those temperatures, of course. I am definitely going to have to cut down my mandarin orange tree . Ever since last January's freeze it has declined, and in late summer the bark started spalling off all the way around at the base of the tree. Looking at it today, I see that the last few green branches are dying. Oh, well. When it was big and healthy it cast a lot of shade on my veggie garden in winter. I'll plant something shorter in that area - I've been wanting blueberry bushes so maybe I will get some of those. In better news, now that my cherry trees have lost nearly all of their leaves, I see what look like fruiting spurs on both trees. Will I have cherries next year, maybe?
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Post by pepperhead212 on Nov 30, 2014 18:50:21 GMT -5
I uncovered my greens, which I covered on 11-12, and the regrowth is incredible in those things! It's only been 18 days since I harvested last, and I trimmed many of them back to just a small core, and some, like the tatsoi, look like they haven't been touched! It has been quite cold here, since then, with two 19º nights, though there have been a couple of warm spells, as well. I didn't cut off quite as much this time, but I still got a 12 qt bowl overflowing with greens. The komatsuna was the only one I didn't cut - this variety is definitely not like the old kojisan, which disappeared from the market. The five photos before this one are closeups of the plants.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Dec 1, 2014 10:41:22 GMT -5
Those greens look terrific. I did get some more carrots and some parsnips planted. No radishes yet.
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Post by stratcat on Dec 31, 2014 13:36:49 GMT -5
Yesterday, I finally got around to doing some homework. I was given the job of planting two Amaryllis bulbs. The planting medium was very compressed. I added warm water and it really expanded. After fluffing the mix with a fork, I planted the bulbs in their pots and now they're sitting in the sun. That's about it for 2O14.
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Post by stratcat on Jan 3, 2015 17:45:03 GMT -5
Today, we're getting our first real snow. The ground was bare last night when I went to bed. Here is my winter wheat cover crop sticking up in the white stuff before 3p. I suspect now that it's under the blanket.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Jan 4, 2015 15:56:16 GMT -5
Amaryllis are a nice indoor project when you're cooped up inside. It makes a lot of sense to start some now to combat the post-holiday / pre-garden blahs. In just a few weeks you will have some lovely blooms.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Jan 4, 2015 19:41:34 GMT -5
It is supposed to get into single digits 4 nights from now, despite the fact that it is now 62°! So today I covered my rosemary, this time sort of for good, by making a hoop house over it, like I do with my Asian greens. I'll uncover it occasionally, and watch for mildew, since it is 100% humidity under there. The large plant I cut way back again (I cut off a bunch at Christmas and Thanksgiving, to share with those who have none), yet you wouldn't have known it! This time I only cut off enough to make it below the plastic, so it wouldn't poke holes, but I have a 12 qt bowl overflowing with it.
I also harvested some of those greens - the mizuna, senposai, bok choy, yu choy, and tatsoi. No komatsuna this time - I definitely need to try another variety. This variety - sharaku - is nowhere near as good as kojisan, which is not available any longer.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Jan 5, 2015 17:56:25 GMT -5
Brr...glad it does not get that cold here.
Normally we plant peas in January or February, but this year I experimented by planting some Super Sugar Snap peas in November. They are finally blooming and starting to set pods. But the current forecast calls for 26F on Wednesday night. I don't think this will be cold enough to kill the plants, but I might lose the blooms and baby pods. If the plants aren't badly damaged, hopefully they will start blooming again right away. With any luck I will be harvesting peas in January instead of just sowing them.
But it has been unseasonably warm here ever since the cold snap just before Thanksgiving. If we had had a cold December it might not have worked. And we could still get really cold weather here later this month that kills the pea plants....so time will tell.
My experiment with seeding the peas one long side of the Earthbox (with a string trellis to climb) and planting broccoli transplants on the other side of the EB is a partial success. The broccoli did quite well; I have harvested some of it already. However the broccoli plants got so big so fast that their shade slowed down the peas. I think it would work better if I gave the peas a few weeks' head start before putting in broccoli plants. Or next time I may use something more low-growing and somewhat shade-tolerant like spinach or tatsoi to plant in front of the peas.
Carrots are up, pretty good but not perfect germination. Parsnips are up, spotty germination. I am harvesting lettuce. Shallots and garlic look really good, except that just a few garlics failed to come up. One came up really late (earlier this week from a November sowing). Maybe the others will? But in any case after this week's freezes I am going to sow carrots in the blank spots.
The long warm spell has my Dorsett Golden apple tree confused - it's blooming. I'm pretty sure the blooms will be goners in the freezes Wednesday and Thursday. I hope we get some more consistent cold so none of the other fruit trees get fooled.
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Post by coppice on Jan 6, 2015 17:03:27 GMT -5
Providence is poo'ing white stuff on the garden today.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Jan 6, 2015 20:56:58 GMT -5
Providence is poo'ing white stuff on the garden today. Same here - got about 1 1/2" today. Very windy, too, and my new cover over my rosemary stayed on, so that was good.
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Post by coppice on Jan 7, 2015 9:07:55 GMT -5
Compound cotton-ball flakes.
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Post by daylilydude on Jan 7, 2015 9:13:07 GMT -5
Nuttin with this windchill of 5 degrees
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Post by timothyt on Jan 13, 2015 10:16:18 GMT -5
Not much going on outside. I still have not even got the raised beds cleaned up and turned. I do have a few things going in the containers that survived single digit temps last week-a few mustard and Asian greens, spinach, carrots, and onions. Rosemary, Sage, and Thyme herbs still green and going so far in beds and containers--tough guys.
Inside I'm down to 6 mater plants under lights that are doing OK, but not great. So I'm still collecting, fermenting, drying, and packing seeds. Handed the last 2 pepper plants to local gardeners to enjoy inside. Finally getting caught up with mailing out seed packages. Looking forward to March when I'll fire up the grow tables and start seeding again. But I'm ready for at least a few weeks break.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Jan 13, 2015 12:04:21 GMT -5
Last week's freeze got down to 22F and damaged my broccoli more damaged than I originally thought. It took a few days for the damage to show up. I think I may go to my local box nursery and grab some transplants and replace them. My peas look awful from the freeze also. They are technically alive, but looking worse every day. Maybe they will return from the root? Anyway, I am going to start more and hope we don't get that cold again. So much for a January pea harvest. Spinach, garlic, and shallots look good. There is minor leaf tip damage on some of the carrot seedlings, but I think they will be fine. I need to plant more carrots anyway. Parsnip seedlings also look good. The lettuce was damaged, but some of the plants look like they will pull through. The collards laughed at the cold, of course. My potted Meyer lemon tree looks pretty unhappy after last week's freeze. I should have brought it in or at least taken it to the south side of the house. I hope it pulls through. The Red Limes are also kind of damaged-looking, but I am not as worried about them. Sure enough, I lost a lot of the blooms on the Dorsett Golden apple tree to last week's freeze. So far none of the other fruit trees have broken bud. It was cold last week, but now it is warm again. So I am biting my nails hoping that none of the other fruit trees bloom yet. It looks like there are lots of fruiting spurs on my little cherry trees this year. I really, really don't want to have those trees bloom too early and then lose the blooms or baby fruit to a freeze! For that matter, I want to eat peaches and Anna apples this year, too. So I have my fingers crossed.
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Post by w8in4dave on Jan 13, 2015 12:06:20 GMT -5
Hope everything makes it Laura!!!
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Jan 13, 2015 13:03:10 GMT -5
Well, I knew the peas were risky to plant in the fall...normally they get planted in late January here, after the risk of sub-25F weather drops. Some years we never get that cold at all, and in some years we drop down to the teens.
What really messes with the plants is years like this when we get a cold spell (26F just before Thanksgiving), then we get warm weather for weeks (all of December was warm), then it suddenly gets cold again (last week's 22F). When we have regular cold spells or consistent cold for a few weeks, the plants seem to tolerate the hard freezes better.
But the weather is out of my control...all I can do is keep planting and replanting a variety of things that might grow. Some of them will do well and some of them won't. C'est la vie.
I do hope I haven't killed yet another lemon tree, though.
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Post by w8in4dave on Jan 13, 2015 13:18:07 GMT -5
Yea! I know what you mean... It's cold here to but we expect it! No lemon trees here! But It's so cool you can have them! I hope they do good for you!
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Post by daylilydude on Jan 14, 2015 13:04:33 GMT -5
But the weather is out of my control...all I can do is keep planting and replanting a variety of things that might grow. Some of them will do well and some of them won't. C'est la vie. Plant more collards...
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Jan 14, 2015 17:34:30 GMT -5
Heh, the few I have planted did come through the cold just fine!
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Post by stratcat on Jan 26, 2015 0:22:49 GMT -5
For the winter, I brought in six peppers and a petunia. They didn't make it. I have volunteers in those pots: one columbine, one lemon balm and four alpine strawberries.
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