Gardening: 2002-2009 Seasons

[Sony]

Well, as a container gardener, the herbs are doing pretty well this season! Ones that have made it this far are marjoram, purple ruffle basil, chives, dill, cilantro, and parsley.

Unfortunately, my purple Cherokee tomato plant was quite damaged during the transition to a new apartment last week.....and just as fruit was starting to appear! I've mended with tape and additional supports as much as possible, so we shall see.....

[hummingbirdkiss]

I was wondering if anyone knows

I have three pepper plants from a really unusual hot pepper my friend gave me from her family in the Bahama's .she made traditional Island hotsauce from it (peppers and vinegar!) ...I still have not figured out what type of pepper it is and I have looked and looked....asked and asked.

.anyway I dried one and saved the seeds then grew the plants ...well they are very healthy in pots and getting big! However ..no signs of peppers and it is August ...can I winter this over inside? Should I keep a grow light on it if I do?

I want to keep this plant growing and thriving the best I can through the winter if possible so I can figure out the species as well as get more of these peppers! ... so if anyone has kept pepper plants over inside can you tell me how you did it?

[christine007]

I was wondering if anyone knows

I have three pepper plants from a really unusual hot pepper my friend gave me from her family in the Bahama's .she made traditional Island hotsauce from it (peppers and vinegar!) ...I still have not figured out what type of pepper it is and I have looked and looked....asked and asked.

.anyway I dried one and saved the seeds then grew the plants ...well they are very healthy in pots and getting big! However ..no signs of peppers and it is August ...can I winter this over inside?  Should I keep a grow light on it if I do?

I want to keep this plant growing and thriving the best I can through the winter if possible so I can figure out the species as well as get more of these  peppers! ... so if anyone has kept pepper plants over inside can you tell me how you did it?

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I would certainly try, if I were you. The worst thing to happen is if they croak you can once again harvest seeds for spring 08.

This year has been so strange. We've pretty much been in a drought here since june, yet the vegetables are going nuts.

I've got pumpkins the size of basketballs, tomato plants laying down with the weight of the fruit, big cabbages, plenty of zuchini, everything seems to be in love with this hot, dry weather.

I'm watering, of course, and we did have major rain over the past weekend, but still, it's hard to believe how well everything's doing this year.

[jackal10]

They are short lived tender perennials

Yes you can over winter them inside or anywhere frost free

You can take cuttings in Jan for an early crop.

For really hot chili try http://www.dorsetnaga.com/

Over 1 million Scoville - ten times hotter than hot, Handle with great care!

[sparrowgrass]

25 pints of roasted tomato sauce, 5 quarts of green beans, 7 quarts and 4 pints of tomato vegetable juice. (And 30 pint bags of sweet corn and 5 roosters in the freezer.)

And the adventure will continue--I picked these yesterday morning. Green zebras, striped caverns, German pinks, a yellow, romas, Amish paste and jellybeans.

Lots more green tomatoes still on the vine, so salsa will be in production soon, as well as more juice.

With temps in the mid nineties, I am very thankful for air conditioning and a nice gas stove. My grandma canned everything her family of 12 kids needed on a woodstove. No electricity, so she didn't even have a fan to cool the kitchen.

[NikaBoyce]

With temps in the mid nineties, I am very thankful for air conditioning and a nice gas stove.  My grandma canned everything her family of 12 kids needed on a woodstove.  No electricity, so she didn't even have a fan to cool the kitchen.

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I bow to your green thumb (and what ever else you may be using).

It all looks simply delish and fantastic and I need some right now!

All my maters are green right now ... we got a late start.

by the way, one should definitely peel kohlrabi. It's very thin skin toughens up a lot!

[petite tête de chou]

I was wondering if anyone knows

I have three pepper plants from a really unusual hot pepper my friend gave me from her family in the Bahama's .she made traditional Island hotsauce from it (peppers and vinegar!) ...I still have not figured out what type of pepper it is and I have looked and looked....asked and asked.

.anyway I dried one and saved the seeds then grew the plants ...well they are very healthy in pots and getting big! However ..no signs of peppers and it is August ...can I winter this over inside?  Should I keep a grow light on it if I do?

I want to keep this plant growing and thriving the best I can through the winter if possible so I can figure out the species as well as get more of these  peppers! ... so if anyone has kept pepper plants over inside can you tell me how you did it?

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I wonder if they're goat peppers?

[hummingbirdkiss]

I was wondering if anyone knows

I have three pepper plants from a really unusual hot pepper my friend gave me from her family in the Bahama's .she made traditional Island hotsauce from it (peppers and vinegar!) ...I still have not figured out what type of pepper it is and I have looked and looked....asked and asked.

.anyway I dried one and saved the seeds then grew the plants ...well they are very healthy in pots and getting big! However ..no signs of peppers and it is August ...can I winter this over inside?   Should I keep a grow light on it if I do?

I want to keep this plant growing and thriving the best I can through the winter if possible so I can figure out the species as well as get more of these  peppers! ... so if anyone has kept pepper plants over inside can you tell me how you did it?

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I wonder if they're goat peppers?

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I think that is what they are do you know about them? the plants are getting HUGE! I remember a lot of peppers in the Islands but at home my folks used Scotch bonnets almost exclusively ...we did however buy hot sauces that had peppers in them I did not know the name of...

I think goat peppers could be right do you know if I can house the plant insde in the winter?

I just googled it goat peppers are scotch bonnets darn!!!

Edited August 6, 2007 by hummingbirdkiss (log)

[annecros]

I just googled it goat peppers are scotch bonnets darn!!!

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Are they Rocoto?

It is a South American pepper, but the Jamaicans and Haitians here love and use them.

They are unique, very different eating and tasting experience. I don't usually care for hot pepper, but these guys have a flavor that is out of this world.

Hubby is the pepper head in the family, I will ask him about overwintering.

[hummingbirdkiss]

No Anne but thanks! they are shaped more like a 2 inch red jalepeno (but the flavor is not at all like one) it tastes (to me) medium hot but nothing like a Scotch bonnet (I have an asbestos mouth and can eat any pepper) ... ..but since I only got them dry I am not sure and just guessing at what they would have looked like plumped up...I wish I had taken a pic but I opened them and saved the seeds right away so they are a mess now

I love peppers and usually can pin them and have spent years in the Caribbean and Panama but only one day in the Bahamas in my life so if this is really a "Bahamian pepper" I have no idea what that means!

I just dont know about this one and I can not get hold of her to ask her more ....she just gave them dried and moved!

so any help or ideas ...send me lots of fruitful enerty I have no flowers even yet on it but I have three growing really well they have nice sized pretty big leaves for pepper plants ..

I could post a pic of the plant but with out the peppers on it I am not sure if it would matter?

[hummingbirdkiss]

SPARROWGRASS!!!!! I am totally astounded what a beautiful thing to see in the morning!!!! congratulations!!!!!! and thank you for showing us your bounty!!!! YAY for you!!!!!! I am going to check my tomato plants right now and see if any have turned color!!!!

my figs seem frozen in time right now I hope they ripen!

[Kouign Aman]

A lot of people use pepper plants for indoor decoration in the winter.

If they ever flower, feel free to pollinate them yourself. I did it with the tip of a pencil (the plant was on my desk at work - very hard for the bees to find) and had several years of peppers before the plant decided it was done with life.

Good luck!

My bellpepper babies (outdoors) are just beginning to flower. Since I'm in SoCal, maybe just maybe there will be time to ripen the fruit.

[Anna Friedman Herlihy]

Pepper plants are super easy to grow inside in a hydroponic/grow light set up. The place where we get our grow lights, germination mats, organic products, etc. (Brew 'n' Grow in Chicago--but they also have mail order altgarden.com), always has peppers in their showroom display--every time I'm in there they are bearing fruit. The only thing is that you need different types of light bulbs for foliage versus fruit (you use metal halide for vegetative growth and high pressure sodium for flowering/fruit). We just use this equipment for starting seeds (we convert our front parlor into a nursery for three months out of the year), but if we ever do build that addition to the house, I'd like to incorporate a permanent growing room. But you could totally set up your pepper plants to keep growing through the winter (just be sure to use a high pressure sodium bulb to keep them flowering and fruiting)!

[hummingbirdkiss]

great! I feel better I do have a good grow light although I dont know that the bulb is as you described so I will go ask the guy who sold it to me to make sure I have the correct one when I take them in ... thanks so much for the info you guys I will try it and am happy to hear I can winter them inside (I wish I had a green house) ...It would have gotten some peppers this year..but I am sure it is too late because there is not even a bloom ..the plant is still growing... ..I am sure someone here knows this pepper..

I am a total pepper freak but this is a new one for me and the plant even is differant from all the other peppers I have ever grown ...

kind of exciting!

my curry plant is blooming now and my yard smells sooooo good!!!! the bright yellow flowers are pretty ..I love taking them to work in a bunch with other types of flowers and having people wonder where the food is

I have my first fig just hours from ready to eat and can not wait!!! the tree is loaded with fruit ...

I love to wander around looking at folks gardens now ..so many flowers!!!

I have cardoon plants they are HUGE with giant blooms how funny they are it looks like a Dr Seus plant ...does anyone grow those ..I have not actually eaten the cardoon ..but will next spring ..I hear it tastes like artichoke?

Edited August 8, 2007 by hummingbirdkiss (log)

[heidih]

I have cardoon plants they are HUGE with giant blooms how funny they are it looks like a Dr Seus plant ...does anyone grow those ..I have not actually eaten the cardoon ..but will next spring ..I hear it tastes like artichoke?

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My gigantor cardoon is done for the year. It was a fantastic sight, and the bees were really excited by those other worldly blooms. It does have a mild artichoke like taste and ideally should be bundled like celery to get tender stalks. It is, however, quite bitter and usually has to be blanched. I tried some raw and my tongue just curled up. I like the plant for itself so I just leave it to grow as it pleases. This year I harvested some stalks when they were still young and tender. I stripped the leaves and the stringy parts, blanched, and did in a gratin per recipe in e-gullet. It was good mostly for the cheesy gratin part of the dish rather than the vegetable standing out. Next year I plan to treat it like bitter melon and see how it takes to something like a fermented black bean garlic treatment.

[jackal10]

Cut your cardoons back to ground level when they have finished flowering.

When the new growth starts put a large bucket over them with abrick on top (like forcing rhubarb). Backend of the year harvest and treat like celery

[Anna Friedman Herlihy]

Speaking of cardoons (or a relative rather), I just (as in 15 minutes ago) ate the first artichoke from my garden!!! In Chicago no less! This was my second year trying to grow them here as annuals, and I'm so happy to have succeeded (one of my top 5 favorite veggies). Only one of the two plants that survived is flowering, so these will be a delicacy for sure, but there's already another little artichoke emerging next to the one I cut today. Counting the days until that one's ready!

[nakji]

The New York Times reports that Michelle Obama is planning an organic vegetable garden for the White House lawn. She hopes to use it as an opportunity to help educate children about fresh vegetables, as students from a local school will help dig and plant the garden. Included in the garden will be things like cilantro, tomatillos, and Thai basil. They are also going to keep bees.

Apparently, the Clintons were container gardeners, but this is the first lawn garden since Eleanor Roosevelt's victory garden.

What gardening are you planning this year? Anyone starting for the first time in response to Michael Pollan/ Global Economic Downturn/ zucchini fetish?

[Chris Hennes]

Having just moved to Oklahoma, I'm pretty excited by how early I got to start this year. The peas and onions are looking good, as are the strawberries (their first year, so I won't get any fruit this season). The blackberries are still dormant, and my tomatoes and peppers have not shipped from the nursery yet. I'm doing herbs in containers this year, so we'll have to see how that goes: I have not had a lot of luck with containers in the past, but I would not give up any of my flower garden for the herbs just yet this year and thought I would give it another try. Ah yeah, green beans go in in a couple weeks, I think.

[pedie]

The New York Times reports that Michelle Obama is planning an organic vegetable garden for the White House lawn.

What gardening are you planning this year? Anyone starting for the first time in response to Michael Pollan/ Global Economic Downturn/ zucchini fetish?

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I was very pleased to read the NYTimes article about the White House Garden. I think it sends a good message in keeping with her current comments about eating more nutritious foods.

I have had a summer vegetable garden for many years. But this is the first year that I took advantage of living in Southern California to plant year round and we are still enjoying winter peas, kale, rapini, and a variety of lettuces. Also, this year we altered the frontyard our house...it was a slope and we had it terraced and we have put in edible landscaping. Yes, Michael Pollan has been an influence. Also classes we have taken on the topics of Nutrition (thank you Marion Nestle) and Peak Oil (how dependent our industrial agricultural processes are on fossil fuels). Funny how it turns out that what is best for me (whole natural food) is also best for the environment and the world in general. Of course I probably wouldn't engage in the activity if I didn't derive so much pleasure for picking the food I am going to eat for dinner. :-)

[nakji]

I'm going to have access to a garden for the first time in a long time this summer. I'm putting in herbs for sure, although I can never seem to get basil to grow happily. And I'm death to rosemary.

I also want to get some Japanese greens going, like mizuna, perilla or mitsuba. Hopefully I can find a seed source in Canada.

[annecros]

Let us not forget Arbor Day, April 24th. Coming up soon.

Last year, grapefruit and orange went in - this year I think a Meyer Lemon and a Key Lime. I wish I could grow stone fruit here, but it just isn't going to happen - ever.

We are just now winding down our main growing season. Heat, humidity and pests are beginning to crank up. Last of the tomatoes being sauced. From here on out it will be melons, beans and (southern) peas. My marrowfat beans did better than expected over winter. Next year I will have the timing a little better, I think. I missed the window for rutabaga, but will try again next season. Root crops are kind of tricky in my climate. I've given up completely on corn. Takes up too much space.

I want to try peanuts this Summer as well. I have some red Valencia seed that a friend sent me. That was the typical type of peanut grown in dooryards when I was a kid.

[suzilightning]

well, first day of spring and the snowflakes are gently falling down.

herbs in the front container. putting in some raised beds for some peppers and, in a shady spot, some greens for me. oh, and two upside down tomato growers.

[Magictofu]

I also want to get some Japanese greens going, like mizuna, perilla or mitsuba. Hopefully I can find a seed source in Canada.

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I have seen mizuna and perilla in some of the seed catalogs I receive every year. Try Stokes, Veseys, Solana orThe Cottage Gardener. Otherwise, Seeds of Diversity is a great resource to locate seed providers. Hope this helps.

[sparrowgrass]

So far, I have planted peas (snow, snap and "English"), lettuce, spinach, onions, potatoes, carrots (purple, white and round little orange ones) and kohlrabi.

Of course, as soon as I planted, three chickens got out of the chicken yard and scratched around all day while I was at work, so I will just have to wait for sprouts to see how much damage they did.