Curtis's 2011 Grow Log :)

[csvd87]

I actually started most of my pepper seeds on the 20th of December and about 9 have sprouted. Dare I list everything I will be attempting to grow? ( Might not have room for it all) In my garden I mean

Well here goes... In as alphabetical as I can manage

Beans - French Filet Bush, Scarlet Runner, Beer Friend Edamame
Beets - Blankoma, Early Wonder, Touchstone Gold
Broccoli - Green Magic, Natalino
Brussels Sprouts - Red Bull
Cabbage - Derby Day
Carrots - Ingot, Deep Purple, Nutri-Red, Purple Haze (from the seeds I have leftover), White Satin, Yellowstone
Cauliflower - Cheddar
Celery - Victoria
Corn - Peaches and Cream (maybe), Sweet Argent White (maybe)
Cucumbers - Lemon
Eggplant - Black Beauty, Gretel, Listada de Gandia, Turkish Orange, Thai Yellow
Leek - American Flag
Lettuce - Baby Star, Chartwell, Oak Leaf Green, Pandero, Red Ice Berg, Skyphos
Melons - Densuke, Musk Melon, Sugar Baby
Peas - Sugar Ann
Peppers - I'll do a seperate list...
Pumpkin - Small Sugar
Radishes - Cherry Belle, Long Black Spanish
Rutabaga - American Purple Top (justa few of these)
Spinach - Vancouver
Squash - Butternut, Summer Scallop
Swiss Chard - Bright Lights, Flamingo Pink
Tomatoes - Brandywine Yellow, Green Zebra, Pineapple, Sun Gold, Red Currant, Galapagos Island
Turnips - Purple Top White Globe
also growing Hamburg Half Long Rooted Parsley, but not sure where to place it. Oh and a mix of Asian salad greens

Herbs:
Basil - Amethyst Improved, Italian Large Leaf
Borage - Blue, White
Cilantro - Calypso, Santo Long Standing
Dill - Tetra
Epazote
Lovage
Mint - Spearmint
Oregano - True Greek
Parsley - Large Leaf
Rosemary
Sage
Stevia
Thyme - German English

Ok so there it is, I'd say a pretty ambitious list for a first timer, but hey I gotta keep myself busy , and I can only learn from failure.

Pepper List next

[csvd87]

As for peppers

Aji Benito
Aji Brown
Bhut x Bell F3 I think...
Bhut Jolokia CPI
Black Pearl
Bonnet x Bell F3
Brazilian Starfish
Bulgarian Carrot
Cajun Belle F1
CAP 1478
Cappuccino Habanero
Cherry Pepper
Chile de Arbol
Chile de Onza
Chocolate Fatali
Clavo
Condors Beak
Costco Hybrid F?(Ok, so I grew some seeds I took from a long red sweet I bought from Costco, these produced short red sweets about 3 inches in length, see what I get next year)
Fidalga Vermelha
Filius Blue
Fooled You Jalapeno F1
Italian Pepperoncini
"MA" Wiri Wiri
Monkeyface Yellow
Morouga Blend Yellow
Mustard Habanero
Numex Heritage Big Jim
Numex Pinata
Numex Suave Orange
Numex Suave Red
Padron
Peru White Hab
Peter Pepper Red
Poblano
Prik Bra Dap (Charming)
Prik Bra Dap (Fak Thong)
Prik Ki Nu Suan
Prik Sri Num Khao (F1)
Prik Wiang Ping
Purira
Ring of Fire
Rocoto Orange
Short Yellow Tabasco
Sweet Chocolate
Tobago Seasoning
Trinidad Perfume
Tunisian Baklouti

Guess I'll see how it goes, should be fun to test the different flavors and heats

[farmerlon]

Good lawd ... that's a lot of Peppers.

May I ask why you started them so early? in Canada?...
will you be growing the plants in a heated greenhouse?

[csvd87]

Boredom mostly, I can grow them indoors slowly with cool temps, never drops below 55. but I didn't start all of them, just the long maturing ones, most peppers 100+ days, but a couple under I did start for fun, like ornamentals (Filius Blue, and Black Pearl) But whatever, I will try and keep as many as I can alive until plant out, which will be all containers for the peppers as I need the ground space for other veg.

[The Bearded Farmer]

If this is really your first time, with a list like that I predict failure . Canada has a pretty short season for a lot of those veggies. Your garden better be HUGE, corn/pumpkins/melons/squash/and tomato all take up some serious space. That is a whole lot to keep up with without some good tools too.

Why don't you start with a smaller list but grow more quantity .

[applestar]

Be sure to choose your favorite hot peppers and Winter them over at the end of the season. Several threads going on on that topic right now. [url=https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=31055]Winter Pepper Torture[/url] being one of them.

Good luck!

[csvd87]

Well, compared to the rest of Canada, we in BC and especially on the coast have a growing season around 200 days (still not quite that of the south, but still long enough, that all depends on the year, last year our last frost was around may 1st if I remember correctly, and our first was around November 10th ish.. For the Vining crops I plan to go vertical. Those our my original plans, and plans change, so I'll see what happens.

[garden5]

Curtis, how big is your garden....I'm sure it's bigger than mine. How many of each pepper variety are you growing? Your pepper list is awesome! I think you have more peppers than all of your other crops combined! Are you going to freeze or can a bunch?

I see you both the buht jolkia and the bhut bell. You have the CPI strain jolokia, is that the slightly hotter strain? Oh, and what, no naga viper ?

How do you start your peppers?

[csvd87]

Hmmm I would have to measure it actually. But all my peppers will beg in containers on my back deck which gets around 8 hours of sun. My front porch can handle around 20 containers.

I will most likely dry and powder a bunch, pickle a few, salsas, stuffed, wrapped, fresh in salads. And freeze a bunch. Oh and sauces. But for the most part this is a test year for peppers to see which ones do well, which I like and which I will grow again or not.

I went with the CPI strain to male sure I got the real thing instead of Caribbean Reds like others have fallen victim to. No Naga viper because of space mostly, but others are doubting the trueness to which the seeds will grow. I have already dealt with seeds not growing true. Like my chocolate beauties, and long red slim cayennes. Stupid eBay.

[ThePepperSeed]

I like that list of peppers I'm going to get my peppers going (the ones that I'll plant out in the spring) this weekend. Started about the same time last year and the timing was almost perfect.

[csvd87]

Change of plans... our deck collapsed during recent snowfall and that was where most of my peppers were going... so no corn.. want exotic peppers much more than corn, lots of corn available in the valley.

[garden5]

I'm sorry to hear that, CS.

I think you're making the right choice skipping over the corn in favor of the peppers. Corn is a lot more prevalent and cheaper than exotic peppers .

Maybe you can sell some of your peppers to pay for the deck

[csvd87]

I could do that g5, I might grow a few extra of the varieties I have lots of spare seed, like Inferno or Tunisian Baklouti, maybe the Super Colossal... Just trying to remember what I have extra of. My hydro grown Fidalga Vermelha and Short Yellow Tabasco are flowering right now, so I might have fresh seed by late March. Most of the varieties I have only 5 to 10 seeds for. People should like the purple varieties like the Filius Blue or the Black Pearl. My hydro grown Gretel F1 Eggplant is flowering Maybe I'll try and grow a few Eggplants for sale. I'll most likely have to plan for private sale. I might sell off a few tomato plants, Green Zebra is awesome, and I have like 30 or so seeds for that. However, my space is limited for starting plants, and I have a few overwinter projects taking up space, also have a Lemon tree and a Avocado taking up space, and I don't know where else I can put those that they will survive, maybe next to my Pineapple. Right now my Onion starts are taking up most of the room, But I'll be giving about half of them away. I just started all of the seeds I had sitting in the cupboard and I got probably 80 to 90% germination which I wasn't expecting. anyways there's my latest ramble.

[garden5]

CS, glad to hear things will be working out.

I know this is kind of off-topic, but how big are your onion seedlings? I grew some from seed last year, but they never got as big as the ones you find in the stores. How are you growing yours?

[csvd87]

I think they are a bit leggy right now, they are a couple inches tall, I started them in peat pellets, and when I transplant them into 4 inch pots I will slice the side of the pellet to open up the cloth bit. They took about 5 to 6 days to sprout. I am growing Walla Walla, they are delicious.

[garden5]

I tried growing them from seed last year. I grew them only in window light for about 2.5 months. When I planted them, they were not half the size of the store-bought sets I get from the store. They still produced some good-sized onions, just not as many good sized ones as the store-bought plants produced.

I'm thinking that if I grow them under lights next time, they will be bigger when I plant them out in the spring.

Do you cut yours back as the tops grow out? I cut mine back to 4 in. tall about every 2 weeks or so.

[csvd87]

I have them under lights right now, about 16 hours... sharing light with my peppers. I never really thought about cutting them back, I haven't grown them from seed except some I threw in a bot last summer hoping to overwinter at least a couple to flower for some seed, I think they all died... So far they are doing good, but seem leggy, but I'm not sure as they are onions and grow a bit tall and spindly anyways, I think they might be too far from the lights.

Just realized its pretty well February now.. I need to get planning otherwise its gonna be just peppers... I need lumber... and some daylight to work with.

[csvd87]

Well I got my garden plot staked out, I just need some fence material, and some lumber for beds, trellises and other things I may need. I've been meaning to start my leeks for a while now, but kept getting caught up doing other things, but they are sowed now, not doing too many leeks, only about a dozen maybe, see how they do, but I did plant a bunch for a friend as well, and will be giving away a few onions to the same friend.

So far, most of my peppers are started (started so early because they are very slow growing in the cool environment in the mudroom) waiting on a few seeds, I'll wait a few weeks and start my Toms, its so hard resisting the urge to plant them.

I just made the decision to toss out my 1 gallon squash experiment, it took up too much room, I need to harvest my chard for the space, and find a window for my papaya, avocado, and lemon to make space for seed starting. Maybe next to my pineapple, that seems to be doing fine.

[csvd87]

I just found this site, some great varieties, they even offer free seeds

[url]https://www.regalpeppers.com[/url]

Also, I just potted up my onion seedlings, that took all my space, now I have to give out a few to a friend so I have a little more space for the peppers I am currently growing. My Trinidad Scorpion Morouga Yellow has very fast growing roots. Outgrowing my other peppers, which is quite surprising for a long maturing Chinense, next closest in growth is my Aji Benito, it needs a pot up soon, as well as my Condors Beak. I'll check my Bonnet x Bell tomorrow as well. Things are going well so far, except my yard is under snow I finally got my order from west coast seeds (backorders...) So I sowed some celery asap. thats about all for now, oh, my Hydro plants are fruiting now, HPL Hab has a couple, 1 on my Short Yellow Tabasco, and 1 on my Gretel Eggplant, I have flowers on my Chile De Onza, and Piri Piri but no fruits. I am hoping to get some isolated seeds from these (except the eggplant) ok, now I'm done

[csvd87]

Yay, my horseradish experiment worked I just thought I'd try and slice a piece off a root I bought from the grocery and put it in a pot with the potting mix, after just over a week there are little green sprouts poking up Needs to go in a big container, maybe a 10 gal. Also I need more space Sweet Onion starts are taking up lots of room, and now I have some leek sprouts... The best spot I can think of is where my hydro setup is, it has the lights already hanging. Not much sun comes through our windows, but the leek sprouts did come up green in my bathroom, so they are getting sun through that window. Other thing taking up all the room is my Peppers, but they get Priority and in 2 or 3 weeks I'll be starting my Tomatoes. Also we have frozen snow on the ground (if you don't know what I mean by frozen snow, we only usually get really wet snow, then it clears up and freezes the top layer into a hard shell.) So with that I can't work on the plot, also a question, we have a deer infestation, and we can't discharge a firearm in our area legally, what size fence do I need, 6 or 7 feet? so that means 8 or 9 foot posts? Anyways, maybe I can setup a spot in the garage with a workbench and some fluoros for some added seed starting space without having to scrap my hydro projects which I don't want to do, they are all flowering/fruiting... Which will give me a chance for some pure seed.

Thats all for now.