My First Starter attempt...

[somegeek]

Well the voles munched the roots on that bed; acorn squash, cukes and wax beans all took a hit. Also the Fingerling taters are in that row and suffering; probably what drew the furry b***ards in the first place "Still limping along, but getting fungal diseases even fasterr than the healthier plants (quite a challenge this year; haven't had two consecutive days without rain in weeks). A few cukes and nothing to write home about; your English looks much better than anything I've harvested so far.

Squash I am killing with right now; eating daily and just barely keeping up. Zucchini bread in the near future. Lots of green maters, but almost no red ones. Need sunshine. 'Sposed to rain tomorrow again. Well, haven't had to water, like at all...

HG

Weather sounds like our late/Spring early/Summer - summer didn't seem to want to start for us. Great to hear your squash is performing.

These cucumbers were grub. Went ahead and pulled the two large ones and made a cucumber salad(sour cream, dill, onion, lemon, salt) to go with our burgers tonight. Damn good.

Found an easy way to get the small prickly things off - a few passes with a scotch brite pad under running water.

[splat42069]

Looks like them Cukes could have been pulled alot earlier. They almost look old. (like a old mans vajajay) lol.

Looks like you have your garden all around your property, Thats what I'v been doin too. Using all the appropriate space available .

I really cant wait to start a bunch of things indoors. Especially for next summer.

Those clones are still alive. BUT still havent rooted. I just changed the water in the cups because it was getting kinda murky. When I did soil clones a few months back, They didnt take this long. Next time I clone anything I'm goin the soil way. Water just takes wayyyyyy to much time!

Take care man and keep that garden green

[somegeek]

The cucumbers cut really nice. I left them on there until they were roughly the size of the ones you buy at the store. They made for a killer cucumber salad. Seems like they straighten out as they mature.

I wish we had more room for a garden but we're making due with using our beds around the yard and it's working well enough. Growing the cukes on a trellis is saving a lot of room.

[applestar]

Found an easy way to get the small prickly things off - a few passes with a scotch brite pad under running water.

I wet the cuke, scrub with about 1 tsp of coarse Kosher salt in my hands, then lightly rinse off. Salt acts as abrasive, seasons nicely and supposedly helps to remove bitterness in the skin.

[somegeek]

Found an easy way to get the small prickly things off - a few passes with a scotch brite pad under running water.

I wet the cuke, scrub with about 1 tsp of coarse Kosher salt in my hands, then lightly rinse off. Salt acts as abrasive, seasons nicely and supposedly helps to remove bitterness in the skin.

Thanks, applestar - I will have to give that a try. Will have many more opportunities to do so.

Jalapenos(from seed) are starting to produce...

[img]https://somegeek.home.comcast.net/somegeek_seedling_167.jpg[/img]

Red Chili pepper plant(from seed)...

[img]https://somegeek.home.comcast.net/somegeek_seedling_168.jpg[/img]

Bell pepper plant from seed taken from a store bought bell pepper... one of those "eh, what the heck - give it a try" plants.

[img]https://somegeek.home.comcast.net/somegeek_seedling_169.jpg[/img]

Sweet pepper plant(from seed). One pepper just starting to turn red...

[img]https://somegeek.home.comcast.net/somegeek_seedling_170.jpg[/img]

Another Jalapeno plant(from seed) starting to take off fruit-wise...

[img]https://somegeek.home.comcast.net/somegeek_seedling_172.jpg[/img]

Beefsteak tomaotes(store bought starter)...

[img]https://somegeek.home.comcast.net/somegeek_seedling_176.jpg[/img]

Roma tomato plant(store bought starter) putting on a lackluster performance...

[img]https://somegeek.home.comcast.net/somegeek_seedling_177.jpg[/img]

My healthiest beefsteak plant(store bought starter) - near 6' tall - lots of nice large fruit...

[img]https://somegeek.home.comcast.net/somegeek_seedling_178.jpg[/img]

Beefsteak from seed - not matching what was on the packet... maybe these seeds came from some cross-polinated variety?

[img]https://somegeek.home.comcast.net/somegeek_seedling_179.jpg[/img]

Loaded up Roma plant(store bought starter)...

[img]https://somegeek.home.comcast.net/somegeek_seedling_171.jpg[/img]

Red potatoes(store bought seed potatoes) doing well... looking forward to digging these up to see how we did.

[img]https://somegeek.home.comcast.net/somegeek_seedling_173.jpg[/img]

Sword Cucumbers(from seed) - these are doing very well. Each of the four plants has two or three runners running up the trellis. Enjoying the following cucumber salad with these:
****************
Slice two large English cucumbers thin(~1lb 4oz) - potato peeler works well to get thin consistent slices)
Toss in a bowl with 1 tsp kosher salt, dump into a strainer, and place in bowl in the fridge for 1 hour to bring out excess water.

While cukes are sitting, combine in a bowl:
1 oz diced onion
2/3 C sour cream
1 heaping tsp dill
1 tsp sugar
2 Tbsp lemon

After the cukes are done in the fridge, combine with the sour cream mixture and scarf. Tastes better after a few hours so flavors can marry/develop.
****************

Every day or two I check them to make sure they're training up onto the trellis correctly. Next year I will space four plants a little better in anticipation of training them up onto the trellis...

[img]https://somegeek.home.comcast.net/somegeek_seedling_174.jpg[/img]

Strawberries (store bought starters)- planted a little late but growing well. I rearrange the runners every few days for even coverage and to keep them on their side of the bed...

[img]https://somegeek.home.comcast.net/somegeek_seedling_175.jpg[/img]

Couple of our basil plants(from seed)... they're coming back nicely after being cut back roughly 2/3 for a harvest...

[img]https://somegeek.home.comcast.net/somegeek_seedling_180.jpg[/img]

Potted up some habenero seeds and also have some bhut jolokia seeds on order. Will winter these plants over in our home. Looking to try some real heat.

somegeek

[Rambo 09]

The Green Sword cucumber(similar to English) seeds we sowed on Sunday(six days ago) are very much up!

[img]https://somegeek.home.comcast.net/somegeek_seedling_15.jpg[/img]

I'm blown away by how quickly these have sprouted. Time to start hardening these to go into the garden?

somegeek

I have always loved cucombers but it is such a hastle for me, do use thouse lights and starting system fur the cucs to?

[somegeek]

The Green Sword cucumber(similar to English) seeds we sowed on Sunday(six days ago) are very much up!

[img]https://somegeek.home.comcast.net/somegeek_seedling_15.jpg[/img]

I'm blown away by how quickly these have sprouted. Time to start hardening these to go into the garden?

somegeek

I have always loved cucombers but it is such a hastle for me, do use thouse lights and starting system fur the cucs to?

These cuke seedlings did well by the window but did very well under the lights. Didn't get leggy at all while they were putting out their second set of true leaves. Using a grow light, for me, was indispensable. You can get setup with a few CFLs, a socket splitter and clip-on lamp for around $15 which would cover roughly 1/2 a flat for a few seedlings if you have some problem children with regards to starting seeds.

[Rambo 09]

I will have to get a little room going just for seed starting.

[somegeek]

Six days after potting, my EBay purchased habanero seeds are starting to germinate...

[img]https://somegeek.home.comcast.net/somegeek_seedling_181.jpg[/img]

Each pot has three seeds and one sprouted per pot. Figure I'll get these under the grow light now to give those that sprouted a good chance. Looking for at least one viable plant for these six seeds total. Anything after that is extra.

I had these sitting in my computer closet on top of a server to germinate. They like the heat coming off the case and don't need light at that point so it worked well.

somegeek

[Rambo 09]

I wish I could start some cool peppers and all that but I just don't have money for seeds... oh well...

[somegeek]

You could raid your refrigerator or pantry for seeds from fresh peppers. I've also heard of folks germinating seeds removed from crushed red peppers. Worth a shot.

[Rambo 09]

ill look into it...

[Trouble]

Hey somegeek, I have a question. Would I get the same effect of you putting the seeds over a server with me putting the seeds over a drying machine? I repositioned them from the kitchen to the machines last night. I thought since all of the plants I'm trying to grow are heat lovers that trhey'd appreciate it.

[somegeek]

Hey somegeek, I have a question. Would I get the same effect of you putting the seeds over a server with me putting the seeds over a drying machine? I repositioned them from the kitchen to the machines last night. I thought since all of the plants I'm trying to grow are heat lovers that trhey'd appreciate it.

Is the drying machine a source of heat or does it blow into your pots as well? The heat is good thing but you don't want too much airflow as it will dry things out. This is substituting for a [url=https://www.google.com/products?hl=en&q=seedling%20heating%20mat&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wf]seedling heat mat[/url] essentially until they germinate. You could also place some saran wrap over the pots to prevent drying out while the seeds germinate.

[ThaiChili]

wow!! SG your garden is awesome. I am new at gardening and having some trial and error myself. For soil we used some compost we made from our ComposTumbler--and did have a few extra plants growing too
We have a raised 6'x6' box garden. Next year, we plan on having a few more box gardens. Love love the raspberries, and great idea.
Can you post a pic of your whole back yard with all the planters--trying to see what we need to do for garden next year.
Thanks!!

[somegeek]

Thanks, TC.

I don't really have a vantage point to get a shot capturing our backyard in it's entirety. The two planter boxes are on the north end of our yard for maximum sun exposure. The raspberries on our West fence with all of the tomatoes/peppers/basil against our house(East side of our yard). Our house siding (hardi plank)holds a lot of heat into the evening hours which our plants there like.

[somegeek]

Made a little haul today...

[img]https://somegeek.home.comcast.net/somegeek_seedling_182.jpg[/img]

The Siletz beefsteak tomatoes are phenomenal! Great tomato taste but not too sweet. We sliced one up last night for Caprese to have with our pesto from basil we harvested yesterday. Man - I love this time of year with a garden. Lots of fresh goodness in your own backyard. My largest tomato so far has been 9 7/8 oz (upper left in the pic). We have a few more tomatoes to harvest in the next day or two and then we're making a batch of roasted veggie salsa.

5 out of 6 Habenero seeds I potted up 11 days ago have sprouted and a few have their primary leaves shooting out.

[img]https://somegeek.home.comcast.net/somegeek_seedling_183.jpg[/img]

Hoping that 6th one will come up soon.

Happy gardening.

somegeek

[applestar]

The tomatoes look beautiful! Are the elongated ones paste type? What variety are they? I'm DEFINITELY growing more varieties of peppers (hot ones too) next year. All I'm growing are red and yellow sweet peppers Quadrato d'Asti Rosso and Giallo, that so far, I've picked green because I couldn't wait!

[somegeek]

The tomatoes look beautiful! Are the elongated ones paste type? What variety are they? I'm DEFINITELY growing more varieties of peppers (hot ones too) next year. All I'm growing are red and yellow sweet peppers Quadrato d'Asti Rosso and Giallo, that so far, I've picked green because I couldn't wait!

Hrm - pics aren't showing up at the moment... /me glares at Comcast.

I neglected to keep my labels for these Roma plants so I don't know the variety - sorry. They're good sized though for sure.

Is there a rule as to which tomatoes you can save seeds from and produce the same fruit without worry of cross-pollination?

I hear you on those peppers... I pulled some chilies early as I wanted some heat but they weren't red yet.

[somegeek]

Most of our small Walla Walla onion crop...

[img]https://somegeek.home.comcast.net/somegeek_seedling_184.jpg[/img]

Unfortunately, some early wind knocked down the majority of the onion tops and they died off before the onions could get to a good size. Kinda thinking next year we can put up a few strings to support the onion tops?

These are a very sweet mild onion. We do have one still hanging on in the garden with a nice top which is forming into seeds! So hopefully, *knock on wood*, we can get some seeds for next year and have a large onion for onion rings.

somegeek

[Diane]

Everything looks great. Your onions look much larger than mine.
Don't be surprised if when you pull that onion that's growing a flower full of seed there isn't much left of it.
I have three of them and the onion part looks more like a scallion after flowering.

[NaeMo]

All I'm growing are red and yellow sweet peppers Quadrato d'Asti Rosso and Giallo, that so far, I've picked green because I couldn't wait!

Those are the peppers I am growing! Mine are only flowering at the moment, but I love the deep green foliage, it is beautiful. I can't wait to get the fruit! I bet it is very tasty.

I very much enjoyed reading this thread. A lot of fodder for next year. This year was my best garden so far, normally at this time of the season we are overrun with weeds. This forum inspired me to do better. Thank you!

[somegeek]

All I'm growing are red and yellow sweet peppers Quadrato d'Asti Rosso and Giallo, that so far, I've picked green because I couldn't wait!

Those are the peppers I am growing! Mine are only flowering at the moment, but I love the deep green foliage, it is beautiful. I can't wait to get the fruit! I bet it is very tasty.

I very much enjoyed reading this thread. A lot of fodder for next year. This year was my best garden so far, normally at this time of the season we are overrun with weeds. This forum inspired me to do better. Thank you!

Good to hear!

Are the Quadrato d'Asti Rosso and Giallo peppers similar to bell peppers?

somegeek

[NaeMo]

Yes, they are supposed to be 4 lobed sweet bells. I love colorful peppers, if I can leave them to ripen that long.

[somegeek]

Lobed... learn something new every day.

One of our few bell peppers is turning colors... pretty cool to see...

[img]https://somegeek.home.comcast.net/somegeek_seedling_187.jpg[/img]

Our Jalapeno plant went ape this last month or so and stands roughly three feet and is loading up nicely. Looking forward to making Jalapeno poppers with these for the most part.

[img]https://somegeek.home.comcast.net/somegeek_seedling_185.jpg[/img]

Red Chile pepper finally has a red pepper on it!

[img]https://somegeek.home.comcast.net/somegeek_seedling_186.jpg[/img]

somegeek

[somegeek]

Cilantro bolted and now drying into seeds (coriander). The plants are around 3-4ft tall now at their final height...

[img]https://somegeek.home.comcast.net/somegeek_seedling_188.jpg[/img]

Cucumbers trellis is filling up nicely. We continue to get a cucumber about every 2-3 days.

[img]https://somegeek.home.comcast.net/somegeek_seedling_189.jpg[/img]

Our raspberries are putting out their 2nd batch of berries... these are some bigguns compared to our first batch...

[img]https://somegeek.home.comcast.net/somegeek_seedling_190.jpg[/img]

Four habanero seedlings and my first Bhut Jolokia(ghost pepper) seedling in front...

[img]https://somegeek.home.comcast.net/somegeek_seedling_191.jpg[/img]

somgeeek

[SP8]

I've been in a constant battle to try to avoid this for the last month or so. I even got to the stage where I cut it back to stems just out of the ground only for it to immediately send out long shoots that are flowering. Maybe I should just give up and take a leaf out of your book and collect some seeds to plant.

[oldschoolvdub]

ok I have a couple questions... First off, I have a pepper plants that looks exactly like your red pepper plant. I don't know if thats what they are because I bought them in a random 6 pack. So how long did they take to turn red?

Then I'm also curious about the cilantro. How do you know when you can use the seeds off your cilantro plants?

[somegeek]

SP8 - is it warm where you're at at the moment? I've read that plants can go to seed quickly if they're in a warmer climate/area.

oldschoolvdub - regarding the Cilantro seeds (corriander) I'd think you can pull the seeds once the plant dies off at the top and turns brown. Harvest the seed and bag them. Keep it in a cool dry area until spring or until you're ready to use them.

I don't recall how long my peppers took to turn red but note it was a while - few weeks at least after fully mature.

I got lucky and my single Walla Walla onion that produced a flower ended the season loaded with seeds! Just need to figure out when to germinate these and get the starters going...

[img]https://somegeek.home.comcast.net/somegeek_seedling_192.jpg[/img]

[img]https://somegeek.home.comcast.net/somegeek_seedling_193.jpg[/img]

somegeek

[SP8]

SP8 - is it warm where you're at at the moment? I've read that plants can go to seed quickly if they're in a warmer climate/area.

Yeah mate the last two weeks of 'winter' here on the Gold Coast included many 30oC (86f) days! Makes me wonder what we are in for come summer

[somegeek]

I planted six Bhut Jolokia (Ghost pepper) seeds in a pot, covered it in saran wrap and put it in my server closet. After 3-4 weeks, I got a single seedling.

I planted six Bhut Jolokia seeds in another pot, covered with saran wrap and put it under my grow lights. Three sprouted in four days and five total in seven days. They seem to like the light. This is a pretty proven method for me to germinate seeds.

The four large seedlings are Habanero whilst the six smaller are Bhut Jolokia seedlings. These will grow indoors this winter under grow lamps. A few will, most likely, get put into the trash bin if I don't have room... given a few grow large enough that is.

[img]https://somegeek.home.comcast.net/somegeek_seedling_194.jpg[/img]

Our cucumber plants continue to put out a cucumber every 2-3 days it seems. Lots of tomatoes too. Our basil is ready for harvest again. We were able to harvest some carrots too. They came out great. Large with good flavor. We didn't thin so they were a bit crowded but I'm happy we didn't since the quality didn't seem affected.

I'm pondering a cold frame top for one of our planter boxes... also kicking around the idea of removing our potato box, downsizing one of our planter boxes and building a small green house. Kinda on our wish list.

somegeek

[somegeek]

The starters grew well into plants and I had to prune them a few times to keep within the constraints of my office grow shelf. They put out a bunch of habanero and bhut jolokia peppers. Here's four of the six plants I grew...

[img]https://somegeek.home.comcast.net/somegeek_seedling_196.jpg[/img]

[img]https://somegeek.home.comcast.net/somegeek_seedling_195.jpg[/img]

Since these were indoors and I don't have bees in my office, I had to give them a shake every few weeks to get the flowers to pollinate. I almost think the pollen from a habanero plant got onto a bhut jolokia plant with the red colored habanero shaped pepper which came off of a bhut jolokia pepper plant(upper right corner above).

Gonna let them go now and get them into the ground in a month or so. Imagine they'll go nuts then. Gave the other two to my mom. I'll prolly trim back a single habanero in the fall to bring indoors over the winter. May do some herbs indoors this next winter as well.

I have (6) 26Watt CFLs (100W equivalent) which did well for these plants to grow indoors over the winter. They're in small containers but that didn't seem to hinder them.

Regarding our veggie garden this year, we're only planting tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, lettuce, basil, onions in our garden beds. We figured anything else we want we'll buy at the farmer's market or at the store. Last year we did more of a variety but we'd rather use the space to plant stuff we know we'll get a good yield out of and use.

Last year was a good learning experience and I'm pretty comfortable this year knowing we're doing things which will work well.

Hope everyone is in full spring swing with their dirt covered green thumbs.

somegeek

P.S. - This is my last post in this thread for the most part. I'll post new and let this one go into the archives accordingly.

[applestar]

Welcome back and thanks for the update! The plants and the harvest photo look fantastic!

See you around

[Halfway]

geek, can you go into some detail on the environment you grew these peppers indoors? temp etc. Pretty impressive for the size of pots they are in!!

BTW, great photos.

[somegeek]

geek, can you go into some detail on the environment you grew these peppers indoors? temp etc. Pretty impressive for the size of pots they are in!!

BTW, great photos.

Thanks for the kind words.

[img]https://somegeek.home.comcast.net/~somegeek/somegeek_seedling_81.jpg[/img]

Mylar lined shelf area (TV position in an old shelving unit). Got the mylar from Walmart ($3 emergency blanket). My office stays a solid 75ºF due to monitors and computers. The lights were on for ~12 hours per day. (3) 6500k 26W(100w eq) CLFs and (3) 2700k 26W(100w eq) CFLs. The 6500 helps with vegetative growth while the 2700 helps for the blooming/fruit growth. Watered from the bottom every other day(filled tray 1/2"). Water was all absorbed later in the day. Some miracle grow once a month or so.

[Halfway]

Thanks for the info on the lights. I was wondering if you had any red spectrum to facilitate fruiting.

Any reason(s) for not going larger on the pots?

Did you change the photo period to stimulate fruiting? If so, how did you determine the timing?

Thanks!

[somegeek]

Thanks for the info on the lights. I was wondering if you had any red spectrum to facilitate fruiting.

Any reason(s) for not going larger on the pots?

Did you change the photo period to stimulate fruiting? If so, how did you determine the timing?

Thanks!

I didn't change pots mainly as they were low profile and the headroom on my shelf is limited... and they were growing well enough to put peppers out. Also thinking they'd go into the ground eventually.

I didn't think to change the period for the fruit. Would this make a significant difference?

[Halfway]

Thanks for the info on the lights. I was wondering if you had any red spectrum to facilitate fruiting.

Any reason(s) for not going larger on the pots?

Did you change the photo period to stimulate fruiting? If so, how did you determine the timing?

Thanks!

I didn't change pots mainly as they were low profile and the headroom on my shelf is limited... and they were growing well enough to put peppers out. Also thinking they'd go into the ground eventually.

I didn't think to change the period for the fruit. Would this make a significant difference?

I've been reading about the ability of peppers and tomatoes to fruit under blue only, but forced by amount of light they are getting each day, ie., increasing/decreasing to force fruit.

Yours must have run their normal cycle since you have both spectrums.

I am looking to extend the use of the lights (and the work area I created over the winter for starts) through the summer. Lettuce is going under the lights as soon as my starts go in the gound (couple weeks).

I am now entertaining pepprs. Basement stays below 60, so I'm not sure I will get the pepper growth or specifically HEAT!!!!

[Annemieke]

What a wonderfull diary in pics and comments! Thank you for sharing it!

[barbelle]

Wow! What a great journey! Everything look amazing. Can't wait to read more and see more about your garden