In loving memory of Kenis D. Keathley 6/4/81 - 3/27/22 Loving father, husband, brother, friend and firewood hoarder Rest in peace, Dexterday

Gardening Gardening

Discussion in 'Hobbies and Interests' started by mattjm1017, Jan 18, 2014.

  1. Ron T

    Ron T

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    I'll have to get a picture of my peppers. 51 plants of all different varieties.
     
  2. JackHammer

    JackHammer

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    Got any pepper secrets? I found out you have to seed them in warm soil.
    I have some growing this year but I think the bugs are doing some work on them. Neem oil? Orange oil?
     
  3. Chvymn99

    Chvymn99 Moderator

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    Organic soap and water spray... underneath the leafs where they stay and breed...
     
  4. Eric Wanderweg

    Eric Wanderweg

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    Tomatoes are coming along nicely. As soon as the flowers start opening up I do my best to stay on top of hand pollinating them. Also with my limited space I’m constantly pruning back all the suckers.
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  5. Eric Wanderweg

    Eric Wanderweg

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    Peppers seem to be doing alright, although maybe a little sluggish. There’s mostly hot peppers again this year so they take a while.
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  6. Eric Wanderweg

    Eric Wanderweg

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    Zucchini is taking off fast, with some pickling cucumbers coming up too. Also in this bed is a row of carrots and a couple rows of green beans.
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  7. Eric Wanderweg

    Eric Wanderweg

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    What kind of peppers are you growing this year? This is my 5th year growing them from seed and I found that they're pretty heavy feeders. Besides fertilizing when they first go in the ground, I usually fertilize a couple more times throughout the growing season. Also I found it's possible to get a late season flush of peppers if I leave them in the ground well into October, rather than pulling them out in late September when nighttime lows start dropping into the 40s. They are semi tropical plants but even so, a couple nights in the mid 30s aren't a death sentence for well established plants. They'll bounce back when temperatures rise during the day and continue growing, albeit more slowly, well into fall. I wait until a really hard freeze to pull mine up and till them into the soil. Any fruit that is not quite ready goes on a window sill to carry it across the finish line.
     
  8. JackHammer

    JackHammer

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    That's good advice. I use chicken poop as fertilizer and stay away from the synthetics for food. I have a few varieties in. Hungarian wax, Fresno, fish, Wisconsin lakes... they are mostly hot but not all. This is the first spring with my greenhouse and that has been a big help. The last two years the peppers didn't come up, likely because it was too cold. I learned that lesson the hard way. I didn't think to leave the plants out until freeze but that is another good idea. I have heard something similar with carrots. You can leave them in the ground much longer than people think. They get sweet after the first frost but they start to get soft after midwinter. (But then the ground is frozen so what's the point?)

    Have you heard of tillage radishes? Those do the tilling and keep the beds full. They are done "tilling" around Thanksgiving.
     
  9. Eric Wanderweg

    Eric Wanderweg

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    I start my peppers indoors around the third week of March. They don't go outside until mid-late May. The hardening off stage is about a week when I'm slowly transitioning them outdoors. It's a big commitment though honestly. I can see where starting them outdoors in a greenhouse from seed presents it's own challenges but at least that way they'll already be more cold hardy. I never heard of tillage radishes. Sounds interesting. Are those kind of like a cover crop for the fall, like winter rye?
     
  10. JackHammer

    JackHammer

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    I think the goal of the radishes is purely to till everything. They are quick to grow so you can squeeze them in at the end of the season. The cover crops are nitrogen fixers and put nitrogen back into the soil so it is available for the vegetables in the next growing season.
     
  11. hovlandhomestead

    hovlandhomestead

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    Took the day off and had the morning in the garden:
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    Polyculture of onions, peas, dill, cucumbers and raspberry. I also have a borage in the mix that is starting to flower.

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    A few of my 17 tomato plants.

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    Carrots, beets, onions, sunflowers, beans with lupine around the edges. 1ABAD091-5A93-4270-B5A9-AD9E01D671E9.jpeg
    Beans, zucchini, tomato. I also see a self seeded asparagus, and the garlic
     
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  12. billb3

    billb3

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    two rows of peppers, 37 per row. The brown hose has emitters every 18 inches so that's the spacing on the plants. Hose is about ten feet short on the return side. 9 poblano, red,orange and yellow bell, red/green, orange and yellow jalapeno. In another row I have 9 habanero. And 11 anaheim peppers. I also have 2 no heat habanero but they are in a tub. The indeterminate tomatoes growing up the fiberglass poles are all beefsteaks except 4 esterina. Hoping the deer stay away at least until I get a fence up. Been a couple weeks since they ate some hostas.
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  13. Ron T

    Ron T

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  14. Eric Wanderweg

    Eric Wanderweg

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  15. Ron T

    Ron T

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    Yes, sunflowers. The wife is fond of them.
     
  16. billb3

    billb3

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    I keep trying sunflowers. The chipmunks find the sprouts and feast. First batch was in the greenhouse, they leave the cucumbers and squash starts be. 2nd time I put the starts in a wheelbarrow on the lawn. They got into them there too. I'm hoping third times a charm but I am taking them in every night or any time I'm not around as I'm sure they will get into them during the day when I'm not looking. Once they get true leaves they leave them alone, but it's then the rabbits turn as soon as they are in the ground and within their reach.
     
  17. Ron T

    Ron T

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    Two brittany spaniels keep all the critters run out of my place.
     
  18. hovlandhomestead

    hovlandhomestead

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    Basil/cilantro. On the left there is a second sowing of carrots and lettuces, with a couple cabbage plants behind them.

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    We made 12 pints of strawberry jam this morning. We are planning to make another 12 pints of strawberry/rhubarb, as well a batch of black raspberry.
     
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  19. woody5506

    woody5506

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    Got my garden taking off again this year, its my second year at it. This year I feel a bit more planned/thought out and not quite as nervous about crowding certain things in with eachother. Kept all my tomatoes in bag pots this year because I had a total jungle of them last year in a raised bed. It got to the point where I just gave up pruning, probably sometime in August.

    Any tips on pole beans? Pole dry beans specifically. Mine are going just fine, but I've never done them before. Do I wait for them to dry up while still on the vine and then harvest? Can you cook and eat them before they dry?
     
  20. billb3

    billb3

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    I haven't done pole beans for dry beans but most dry beans can be eaten green while the pod is still green.
    I did pinto beans one year and just let the whole plant dry up/ frost . Picked off all the dry pods in October, put them in a two baskets in the shed and then pulled the beans out sitting by the stove on a rainy day around Thanksgiving.
    I have Monte Gusto pole beans this year but I'll be eating them as fresh "string" beans.
    One nice thing about the pole beans I've tried is they keep blooming and producing until the frost does them in.
    I'll get a good crop off of bush beans and maybe a second but after that they lose productivity and usually are full of bugs. I pull them out. Could be just the ones I've tried too. Or I should dust for the bugs.
    Dry Beans are pretty cheap to buy and for the space they take I'd rather grow peppers or onions.