Pepper Planting Time :) 2 of 2

March 7 -

I'm growing 2 Fresno Peppers and started 3.  I grew last year only because I'm from Fresno so I thought it would be cool to grow.  They ended up being so good and the plant was extremely prolific.

I'm growing 2 bell peppers and planted 3.  I learned last year that a green and a red bell pepper are the same thing.  If you leave the green pepper on the plant long enough, it will turn red.  Notice in the grocery store that red are more expensive than green.  I bet it's because it takes longer to grow.

Yummy!  I'm growing 8 and I planted 10.  There's nothing better than when my husband fires up the grill and says, Honey, will you pick some Jalapenos?  Last year I had 2 plants I every weekend this summer I was able to grill up at least 4-5 peppers, plus I canned and dehydrated several as well.  I'm so excited to have 8 plants this year.  :)

Anaheims are the peppers you get on the side of the road when they fire roast and you make green chili (chili verde) with.  Last year I planted 1 and it died.  I have no idea why.  This year we are planting 2 and I'm growing 3.

The was pepper is so good when you can them in rings and put them on sandwiches.  Last year I grew 1 and it produced and produced and produced.  I'm hoping that's how this plant usually behaves so I'm sticking with just 1 again this year.  I'm growing 1 and planted 2.

Poblano are so good to stuff with meat...yummy.  Last year every pepper was either sun scaled or had a disease so I never ate any of them.  This year I'm growing 2 and planted 3.

Here's something new I bought for gardening.  If you know me well, you know I'm cheap and will not buy everything at once.  So when I do buy something, it's super exciting.  I got this pressure sprayer to spray the tops of the pellets or plugs BEFORE the seedlings appears.  I'm also going to use it outside for my carrots and radishes...again, BEFORE the seedlings appear.

Here's a picture of the whole thing :)

So I took my plugs and cut them with scissors and placed them into these cells.   I used my new pressure sprayer and sprayed the tops and poured some warm water into the bottom of the green house.  I placed the clear dome on top and placed on my heat mat.  I left it for about an hour.  Long enough to get everything nice and warm.  I placed 3-4 seeds into each hole and then labeled.

Here's a closer look.

I then took some extra bark off the edges of a couple of plugs and placed a tiny piece into each hole.

Remember I started 3 Habaneros last week.  Well one germinated.

You can see my set up how it looks today.  

Cabbage Planting 2 of 2 and Pepper Planting 1 of 2

February 28 -

Cabbage
Started my 2nd cabbage.  Seems silly starting another one when my first one is so tiny.  I'm wondering if 2 weeks really makes a difference.  We will find out. :)

Habanero

It's -10 weeks before the last frost and you can start peppers indoors between -10 to -8 weeks.  Most seem to opt for -8.

I noticed last year that my habaneros took a lot longer to grow and a lot longer to harvest than all of my other pepper plants so I decided to start my habaneros earlier than the others.

Well, I just read the back of the package and compared it to all of my other peppers and boy don't I feel dumb.  These take 100 days to harvest while all my others are around 70 days...so...with my little 7-day head start, not thinking that's going to make a difference!

I have done so much research, why haven't I seen something out there saying to start these 2-3 weeks before your other peppers?  Everything I've seen just has you starting all of your peppers at the same time.  (perhaps that's why they have the information on the back of the packet?)

Last year I started all of my peppers on week -10 (notice the 2/29/12 written on the packet) so I'm disappointed that I forgot to start the habaneros on week -11 or week -12 and all other peppers on week -10.  Oh, well.  It will be fine.

This year I'm going to allow for two plants to grow next to each other and treat them like one plant.  I read that by doing that the leaves from each other's plant helps to shade each other and the fruit so you end up with stronger, healthier plants.

My plants were amazing last year so I'm nervous to try something new but you don't know unless you try.  I'm thinking I'll split it up and test half of my peppers with twosies and the other half by themselves.

I'll do the tests so you don't have to.

It's a Cabbage!

February 26

Well, my research was correct:  celery is harder to germinate than cabbage so the one plant that came up that I was unsure of (because I didn't mark them!) really is a cabbage.

See how there is a little tint of purple on the seedling, that tells me it's a cabbage and not celery.
Celery -
I'm still waiting for my celery to germinate.  My initial planting was on February 14th (which means it's been 12 days) and my 2nd planting -- because I'm thinking the seeds got cooked by my heat mat -- were planted on February 21st (which means it's been 5 days).

So if any of you are interested in growing celery, think twice.  If anyone has successfully grown celery, what am I doing wrong?

Bok Choy - Planting 3 of 6

February 21st

Planted five Bok Choy today using the rapid rooter plugs I only need four but am planting an extra just in case.  My first planting has one plant that is growing pretty slow and another that's turning yellow.

You can see the two on the right are growing strong and the ones on the left, not so much.

See how yellow one of them are?  Do you think if I keep adding fertilizer to it that it would green up?  Why would plants grown in the exact same environment turn out so different from one another?  Is this typical? (Yes, I ask a lot of questions...it's in my nature) I guess these are things you learn through the process.

Even the leaf is getting crispy-fried.

Look how beautiful the one next to it is.

I read that if Bok Choy turns yellow that it needs nitrogen fertilizer.  I don't know what to use?  I have some of that blue-powdered Miracle Grow (not organic so I need to figure out something) and made a batch at half the recommended strength.

Since these are still pretty young, I was afraid to give it full strength.  Let's see if it makes a difference.

I also transplanted all four of the first planting into small containers since I was starting to see the roots come through the netting of the peat pellets.

I first cut the netting off then planted with my favorite soil: roots organic.

Ingredients: are the ingredients:

Coco fiber, peat moss, perlite, pumice, premium worm castings, bat guano, kelp, fish bone meal, soy bean meal, feather meal, greensand, leonardite, and alfalfa meal.       

Confused...is it a Celery or a Cabbage?

February 21 -

So I only planted one celery and one cabbage.  Just one of each...and now I have NO idea which is which.  I didn't mark them and I thought I would remember.  So always remember to mark your plants no matter how confident you are that you will remember.

I planted them on February 14th and today is the 21st and neither one has germinated.  I had them on the heat mat and I'm wondering if it's just too hot for them so I moved them off the mat.

I ended up opening up the soil in both and one of them has a little root...not sure which one??  I'm guessing that tomorrow or the next day I should see something poke its head out.

I read that celery was the hardest to germinate so I'm going to assume that it's the cabbage that's coming up.

I decided to plant 2 celery today:  one in the peat pellet and one in the rapid rooter plug.  I want to see which one works best.  I am not placing on the heat mat.

Cabbage

February 14 -

(Select to view My Garden Plan)

I'm planting 2 squares of cabbage.  Each square gets 1 cabbage.  I'm only planting 2 because I'm uncertain if this is something I want to grow.

I plan to plant each cabbage 2 weeks apart.

I planted my first cabbage on February 14th.

Celery

February 14 -

(Select to view My Garden Plan)

I am planting 3 squares of celery:  each square gets 1 plant.  My plan is to stagger the planting in two-week intervals.  Not sure how it will work out.

I have never grown celery before and just read that it's pretty hard.  GREAT!!

I planted one plant on February 14th

Bok Choy

(Select to view My Garden Plan)

I saved my Bok Choy seeds from last year and started four plants inside on January 20th.  They germinated in three days and true leaves started on February 1st.

I'm planting 6 squares with 4 plants each...I'm spacing my planting by planting 4 plants every 2 weeks. I'm freaking clueless if I'm too early or too late??

 Can you guess which photo I didn't use a tripod?  My husband said I had to use one and I didn't believe him so I tested it.  I hate it when he's right!

(photos taken February 4th.) 

February 7 -
Here are the seeds I saved from my garden last year.  I have tons of them, this is just a sampling.  I purposely let one Bok Choy flower and go to seed for this year's planting.  If you do this every year, you will never have to buy seeds.

Today I planted four more plants for my second square out of six.

 I moved my existing plants into a separate container so that I could place the dome on this container to get the seeds to germinate.  I bought several of these little HydroFarm green houses.  I'm not crazy about using the peat pellets but I didn't want to throw them out.  My preference is what I used last year:  Rapid Rooter Plugs.  The plugs stay moist much longer.  (Did I really just use the word "moist"?)  I only had to water every few days and with these I have to water twice a day...no thanks!

February 10 -

Yesterday I lifted the clear dome and saw nothing.  This morning I was quite surprised to find this:

Again, it took only three days to germinate.  I immediately removed the dome and placed under the lights as close as possible.  You can see how the seedlings are thin and long.  If I kept the dome on and did not move the light closer, they would become so leggy that they would just fall over.  I've seen where people grow stuff under the dome for long periods of time but I have never had any luck with that technique.  I only use the dome for germinating.

I still have these on the heat mat but now they are separated with canning rings so that the bottom of the tray is not directly on the mat.  So heat mat, two levels of canning rings, then tray.

  I do this so that the soil doesn't get too hot and so the roots aren't as close to the heat source.

I removed the first batch from the heat mat altogether.  I read that Bok Choy bolts quicker if it's in constant warm temperatures.  I figured I can use the heat mat for the first two weeks then move them off the mat completely.
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February 14 -

Update - The four plants in front were planted exactly seven days ago.  The plant in the back was planted 25 days ago.

 All four from my first January 20th planting

Making so many changes...

I love this comparison.  They are only 18 days apart.  You can see how every day when you look at your seedlings you can see physical changes.  I love that about gardening.

June 24th Update

Basil, Oregano, and Rosemary - I am harvesting the basil and making basil ice cubes.  Each cube has one teaspoon of fresh basil.  I will add this to my pasta sauce towards the end of cooking...yummy.

Basil Cubes - Picture is not real clear but you get the idea.

Pole beans - June 24th - my husband was making me a trellis like the one for my peas and cucumbers but he didn't get it finished in time.  I grabbed a tomato cage, opened it up and then added some twine.  This will not be tall enough.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do??
I hope I get more beans than I am peas.  I have four squares of beans planted so I'm thinking we will be good.
(8 plants/square => 32 plants)

Finally - I have cilantro.  Better late than never :)  I need to till the soil around the plant...I was afraid to touch anything until I could get it to come up.  I tried unsuccessfully several times.

Compost Tea - I have dozens of good and bad things about it...I've heard many ways of making it.  I just threw some compost in a five-gallon bucket, I'm letting it sit for 24-hours then I'm going to water my tomatoes and peppers with some tea and then follow up with water.  If my plants die then I guess it wasn't a good idea.

My Fresno Pepper plant is looking awesome!

I was already needing one more tomato cage then I took another one out for my beans so I had to figure out what to do.  I found an amazing link on YouTube called Sucker and String Tomatoes.  I only had some tall bamboo to use.  This is only going to last for so long.  My husband is going to have to help me move it over to something a little taller and more substantial but it's working right now.  I tied twine on the bottom and across the top, then tied twine from the top to the bottom.  I'm pinching these three plants to a single vine and then twisting around the twine.
The rest of my tomatoes I'm pinching suckers but not worrying as much about how many vines there are as I am these three.  I want to compare the difference in the tomatoes.
The theory is if I have e plants in a 9-foot area and let the plants grow without pruning, I would get X amount of tomatoes each and the would start ripening on X date and the last crop usually has to be picked and ripened indoors.
If I string my plants, I would have 9 plants instead of 3.  My 9 plants would produce less than the 3 plants but 9 times Y will be more than all of X.  So I actually end up with more tomatoes for my 9-square-foot area.  Yes, I had 9 plants compared to 3, but I'm trying to get the highest yield in a small area.
I also should get ripened tomatoes faster and not have to bring so many tomatoes indoors at the end of the season.
 If I end up liking this approach, then I will have my husband build something for all of my plants for next year.

Here's a closer view of the twine which I wrap around the tomato plant...Actually you wrap the plant around the twine.

Look at my tomatoes!  My other plants which are growing in the cage do not have tomatoes like these yet.  They are just starting to emerge.  So far I'm impressed with this method.  I will keep you posted.

GardenBox 3 - Everything is getting so big -

9 tomato plants - 1 cilantro - 1  basil - 1 oregano - 1 rosemary

GardenBox 2 - 2 potatoes  - 1 eggplant - 16 cucumber - 16 peas - 16 green onions - 9 pepper plants.

GardenBox 1 was my cold weather garden - I still have some carrots, radish, onions, and beans are starting to grow (32 plants)

 My mom bought me this pot and I didn't know what to put in them.  I just got to Maui Pepper Plants.  Since my garden is full and this pot is empty, I planted the peppers in this pot.  These peppers start off a bright purple then change to red.  I'm excited to watch these grow.

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First Peppers - June 19th

Here are my first peppers!  I picked a Hungarian Hot Wax Pepper and an Anaheim Pepper.  I originally planned on canning my peppers but I think I'm just going to eat them with my husband as soon as they are ready :)
Well - you can see my usual pea yield...ugh.
This is the last of my lettuce.  There's a little bit left in the garden but not enough to do anything with.  I'm sad that the lettuce and spinach season is over :(

Peas - June 12th-24th

My first harvest - I'm not sure if the harvest increases through the season or if this is it.  I have two squares planted which equates to 16 plants

Blanching for 90 Seconds

Icing for 90 seconds

Drying before freezing.
Well after freezing these and then using in a stir fry a week later, I discovered that a lot of the pods were stringy.  I decided to find my seed packet to ensure the type of peas I planted.  They are Frosty peas not snow peas!!  LOL  these are shelling peas.  Oops.

Every other day I've been picking, shelling, blanching, icing, the freezing this amount of peas.  It's going to take until the end of the season for my family to have one meal.  Everything I research says I should have plenty.  We will see.

Here's how many peas I have now - June 24th.  This is a small jar.  My plants keep giving me the same amount of peas every other day.  Maybe I should have planted eight squares instead of two squares???

Lettuce - June 6

I have lots of lettuce in the fridge.  I've even given some away.  My original plan was to plant four squares of spinach and four squares of lettuce.  I was going to plant one square of each two-weeks apart until all squares were planted.
Well, I planted two squares of lettuce and spinach and one square of a mixed variety timely.  The other squares I waited too long.  I still had plenty of lettuce for our family.  Next year I will plant three squares of lettuce and three squares of lettuce.  This frees up two squares which is perfect because I need them for my Bok Choy :)

Today (June 24 - it is now too hot for lettuce and spinach - I picked the rest of the lettuce and spinach and now I have to wait to plant again at the end of the summer.  I had fresh lettuce and spinach for a little over a month.  I have lettuce in my fridge which I'm sure will last 2-3 weeks longer?  So I'm guessing from my spring and fall plantings I will have my lettuce for almost four months out of the year.  I wish it was more, but four is better than none.  I'm going to hate having to buy lettuce and spinach once this runs out :(

June 4 - Bok Choy

June 4 - Harvested my Bok Choy - I have never used Bok Choy while cooking.  I'm making stir fry tonight.

Picture does not look at good as it looked in person and as good as it tasted.  I LOVE Bok Choy!  I only planted two squares and it wasn't enough.  I want to start some plants indoors next year and plant at least four squares.  I will start 8 indoors then once planted outdoors, plant the remaining 8 by seed.

I had planted two plants later in the season purposely to collect seeds.  I knew it would get too hot for the plant to grow to full size before bolting.  Right now (June 24) they have lots of flowers.  I hope the seeds are ready for my fall planting.