In the Greenhouse, April First

Just an update: what's going on in the greenhouse.

Tomatoes, Last Year & This Year

Well, this was my goal this winter. 2021 tomatoes on the vine before 2020 tomatoes were done. 

These are the last (so far) blossoms on the 2020 tomato plant in the greenhouse. There are maybe a dozen flowers across the plant. 

This is a yellow cherry tomato.

And these are the very first blossoms on the first tomato plant of 2021. 

In all fairness, I don't know what kind of tomato this is; it's a weed that sprouted among the earliest hot peppers from very early this year. 

 

(Well, it might be a Brandywine.)

New Growth on Old Plants

I'm surprised this winter by how much new growth is popping out on the peppers and fuchsias from last year. 

 

I was expecting them to die. These are reportedly annuals. They're clearly not dead. 

Mid February Update

My to do list says that February 15th is time to plant some of last month's brassica starts into the garden. I put one out there (under a dome) a couple of days ago. We'll see if it survives.

I don't think I'll be able to plant things into the garden this weekend. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The other thing on the list for this weekend was to start tomatoes and sweet peppers.This is a little early, but I want really strong starts come early May, when it's time for them to go into the garden. And I'll probably give a few away, too.

 

These are on a heating pad, under a dome, inside the greenhouse. I'm looking forward to these, too.  

Choices this year: 

Slicing Tomatoes:
• Brandywine for flavor, even though they're low producers. Indeterminate.
• Cherokee Purple, also for flavor. We'll see how they produce. Also indeterminate. 

• Delicious. I hope they live up to their name. Indeterminate heavy producers.
• Legend: Determinate. For in the greenhouse, where indeterminate gets out of control pretty quickly.

Cooking Tomatoes: 

• San Marzano. Is there any reason to try anything else? Indeterminate, heavy producers. 

Cherry Tomatoes: 

• Chocolate Cherry, because it's yummy. 

• Unlabeled red cherry tomatoes from previous years. 

(I'm planning to restrict cherry tomatoes to pots this year, particularly hanging pots.)

Sweet Peppers: 

• Poblano. I've never grown these before. Looking forward to it. 

• Big Jim. For roasting on the grille. 

• California Wonder: just your basic bell pepper. 

• Big Ol' Bell. Not sure what this is; seeds from online somewhere.

February Tomatoes

I'm still getting cherry tomatoes from a 2020 plant. They're pretty good especially for fresh tomatoes in February. 

My goal is to have tomatoes from a 2021 plant before the 2020 plant is done. 

 

This is my leading candidate. I don't know what variety this is, since it's a weed; I suspect that it's a cherry tomato of some sort. 

The End of January

 Mid-January, I ran into a fellow who explained that he was going to start his brassicas mid-January, and put them out into his garden mid-February under protective cover. 

That sounded like a good idea, so I joined him. All the brassicas I could think of, and a fair bit of lettuce as well. Some of it is pretty small. Some of the starts How are a couple of inches. 

Clearly not ready to go out quite yet.

This is going to be interesting. If I'm not careful, I might actually learn something new!

Last weekend, I let one seedling bad to get a little dry, and all of my Scotch Bonnets got dried out in wimpy. So I watered them, of course. 

Then I plant a bunch more. By that time all the wimpy ones had turned around, We're going to have a good harvest.

This weekend, I realized I had no red habanero peppers. So I harvested one of the last ripe red Habaneros, took the seeds out of it, and planted them. 

I've got a dozen red Habaneros coming, if it all goes well.

I also picked up some poblano pepper seeds this weekend and planted a dozen poblano peppers. (Poblanos are called ancho peppers when they're dried.)

I've been looking for something that is not as spicy as some of the peppers, something that I can cook with, that I can grill with. This looks like it might be that answer.

Peppers Update

Middle of January. Hot peppers are doing pretty well. Ghost is very successful. Lemon drop is very successful. Have a few Scotch bonnets a few Jamaican scorpions. Got a fair number of miscellaneous Chiles for sharing; should not be quite so hot. Average size, between 1 inch and 3 inches.

Also pruned back last year's potted peppers.

Christmas 2020 Planting

On December 23rd, I planted more.

- purchased Ghost pepper seeds. 

 

- purchased Jamaican Red Hot seeds. [A little research suggests that these are actually a red Scotch Bonnet.]

 

- purchased yellow Scotch Bonnet. [I've recently learned that these are twice as hot as habaneros. Half the heat of Ghost.]

 

- Ed Hume chili variety pack. ["Included, depending on availability, are cayenne, Hungarian wax, serrano, habenero, hot cherry, and other hot chile types."] I'm thankful for more moderate heat in the pepper mix. 

 

- also started some spinach and lettuce, and some flowers for in the greenhouse.

December 2010: the 2021 Garden Begins

First week of December, planted some peppers.

- Ghost peppers from seeds left over from dehydrating.

 

- Lemon Drop from dehydrator seeds 

 

- Purple Serrano from fresh peppers 

 

- Ghost peppers from very fresh peppers 

 

- Fresno peppers (jalapeño variety) from seeds I'd saved. 

 

- Habanero from seeds I'd saved 

Fresh Ghost pepper seeds sprouted immediately. 

 

Fresh Serrano and saved Fresno also sprouted quickly. 

Hydroponic Fun! Why.

I've been learning a thing or two about how to take advantage of hydroponic gardening, without a full hydroponic rig.

(I'll document HOW I'm doing this in this post.)

Advantages of hydroponics, compared to growing in dirt:

• Starts are reported to grow MUCH faster.
• If you set them up right, they don't need watering nearly as often, which means less work for me.
• I'm led to believe that I can leave peppers and other (small) veggies in these small hydroponic containers forever: no need to up-pot. (I'm guessing that tomatoes will be too big, but we'll see.)
• I can grow stuff in the winter. More specifically, I can work on growing stuff in the winter.
• It's new and different and cool. I get to try new things.


Disadvantages of hydroponics, compared to growing in dirt.

• I'll need to be careful transplanting hydroponically started plants into dirt.
• I don't know how to make hydroponic nutrition, and buying them is more expensive than making compost from grass and leaves and chicken poop.
• A full hydroponic system (which I do not have) will be far more complex than dirt gardening.


So far I've started some tomatoes and some lettuce (romaine) in hydroponics pots. The real goal is the pepper plants, but they're being slow to germinate.

Hydroponic Fun! How.

I've been learning a thing or two about how to take advantage of hydroponic gardening, without a full hydroponic rig. This system works for a simple, low-maintenance (not maintenance free) hydroponic system.

(I'll document WHY I'm doing this in another post.)

You'll need:

• Hydroponics Net Cups. I use a 2" size.

• A (plastic?) container with a lid. (More on this in a minute.)

• Spray paint (dark-ish) to make the container opaque.

• Rock wool cubes that fit the cups.

• A hole saw that fits the cups size you're using. 

• Hydroponic nutrients. (More on this later.)

Here’s how I did it. (The pictures show a lot of it, but probably not every step. You can figure it out.)

1.       Gather your lidded containers. These need to be opaque (to keep algae from growing in the nutrient solution), so paint them if you need to. Have fun with the paint if you like. The plants won’t care.

2.       Guy your supplies: You’ll need the net cups and the paint sooner than the rock wool.

3.       Use the hole saw that fits your net cups and cut a hole in the lids for the net cups to fit comfortably into. (Or cut them first and paint them later, if you like them prettier.)

4.       Mix your hydroponic nutrients according to their directions. Fill the containers up to the bottom of the net cup.

5.       I generally cut out the center of the bottom of the net cup, so that the seedling’s root will fit through easily, and also so that if/when I decide to plant these in the garden, I can get the roots out.

6.       Cut your rock wool cubes to fit the net cup if necessary. Slice it open. Nestle the seedling in the rock wool. Put this into the net cup, with the roots dangling below the net cup.

7.       Put the lid with the hole on the container. Stick the net cup / rock wool / seedling into the hole prepared for it. Ensure that the roots are dangling in the nutrient solution. Set them in a well-lighted place. 

8.    Check the levels of the nutrient fluid every week or two. You'll want to keep it up to the bottom of the net cup. If it develops funny colors, pour it out and replace it with fresh nutrients.

9.       Congratulate yourself on successfully starting hydroponic gardening.

A word about the nutrient solution:   Starter nutrition is sometimes different from Ongoing nutrition. The seedlings need a gentler solution, a different solution, and it will take care of the plants from seedlings (or cuttings, if you’re cloning) until they’re six or eight inches tall. At that point, you’ll probably want to graduate to the more mature nutrient solution.

The 2019 Garden Season Started Today

And so it begins...

Last year, I started the hot peppers between Christmas and New Year's. That was too late.

The Lemon Drop peppers started fruiting in October, but the Reapers started blossoming in November. It's now December and they are still plugging (slowly) along.

Might have fruit by spring. Or they might start over with blossoms in spring. Who knows. One Lemon Drop that produced a mediocre crop last year survived over the winter and gave me eight or nine crops this year.

I'm getting a little bit more of a running start this year. I started eight batches of peppers today, December 16th. Some of these are not as slow as the "super-hots," and I'm just getting a terribly early start this year. 

 

About half of these are seeds I've saved from the last couple of years; the rest are from growers around the country. Some came as a gift.

I also started some Impatiens this week. They took so terribly long to mature last year. It might have been better to start these in January or February, but it's too late now. I got excited. 

I also started a batch of Schizanthus. I was in a hurry and the package looked like an Impatiens package. Well, this will be interesting.

Also, I picked some lemon drop peppers and a lemon this week.

Lemons are Lemoning

For the first time, I have lemons that are lemoning, turning yellow.

They're small.

But they're ripening. In November.

This could be really cool.

I hope they make it.

Reapers In the Fall

I was given some seeds for some "super-hot" peppers last winter. I had a heck of a time getting them to germinate.

Seriously, I started them during the last week of December 2017 for the summer 2018 growing season. Apparently, that wasn't early enough.

Yellow Reaper

Out of five varieties, and maybe a dozen seeds each, I got one plant from each of two varieties.

I have been told that super-hots mature more slowly. But this is ridiculous.

It's now the middle of October. I'm tearing things out of my garden, getting it ready for winter.

Carolina Reaper

And only NOW do these guys begin to blossom.

OK. Well, they're in the greenhouse. Maybe they'll produce something.

I plan to keep it from freezing this winter, so it's very likely that the plants will survive to next year.

And if they do, then they'll have a running start on next year's growth.

So I still have time to buy the gas mask and asbestos gloves.

Indoor Raised Bed

This will hold starts on top of it for right now, and in a week or three, will be filled with tomatoes and peppers (mostly peppers).

 

Eventually:

March Greenhouse Status

Just journaling about the progress of stuff in the greenhouse.

Hanging pot full of alyssum.

No idea how this will turn out, but they've germinated.

They're reported to like acid soil, so I've given them some lime (in water). Might have over-done it.

One of the warm beds.

The front is impatiens flowers. The white did great. the colors are mostly a fail.

Got little bits going on: some lemon cuke, some squashes, a little bit of basil.

Observation: Most things that I started early did not benefit from the early start. Tomatoes are the exception. And Impatiens.

Lots more has not yet germinated.

In the center, sunflowers. Looking to have enough for cut flowers.

In the back: not a clue. I think it may give me a flower later. I forgot to label it.

Other, fresher, sunflower seeds have yet to germinate.

This is amazing. This is a licorice mint. It smells as much like licorice as it does mint.

I plan to harvest leaves and try to make tea.

I also plan to start several more of these.

The other hot bed.

Lots of tomatoes in front. These are mostly slicers (Legend)

In the back, some starts: licorice mint, rosemary, etc.

Oh, and the Frankenflower seeds are soaking there, on a warming mat.

This is the part under the plastic.

The tray on the right: one row of petunia seeds, one of rosemary seeds.

The tray on the left: lavender seeds, lemon pepper seeds (the really important one!), chinese lantern seeds, and some more impatiens (colors). 

You can probably tell, I'm tired of paying lots of money for annuals; going to try to get a bunch from seed here.

Embarrassing. I don't remember what these starts are. I think Swiss chard is among them.

It is completely ridiculous to have such good tomato starts this early in the year. They are almost ready to go into the garden, but 8 weeks early. That's what you get when you start the seeds in January. It's going to be interesting to see if this is good or bad in the long run.

First hanging pot full of tomatoes. Most of them are chocolate cherries. One is a mystery. We'll see what that turns into.

Going to have a pot full of nasturtiums, too. For grazing.

More tomato starts.

Yellow zucchini, more sunflowers (red ones), and some cantaloupes.

Some pepper starts, several varieties. Many of them are bell peppers, but there's a cayenne pepper there, and two yellow reapers.

Some globe amaranth was included with a seed order. Gonna try that. And some tubs ready to plant later.

One of my favorites: schizanthus (the poor man's orchid) in a hanging pot. I love these beautiful flowers.

Onions sprouting.

The super hot peppers didn't do terrifically. So I replanted them. The back is San Marzano peppers, the front is Fresno peppers.

 A variety of seedlings. Dill (on the left) is the most successful. One pattypan squash. No sign of the Anaheim peppers or the bench peppers. Last year, the bench peppers were habaneros.

Some of the more successful starts.

Some Legend (slicing) tomatoes. And some sugar peas. I'm planting some of those outside every day.

Romaine lettuce and swiss chard are doing well.

Spinach and coriander are not.

Salad. A variety of lettuces. These won't be transplanted. These will be harvested from this container. Micro-greens.

On the left: feldsalat vs corn salad.

On the right, flowers: marigolds, blackeyed susans, cardinal climbers.




We discovered some purple potatoes sprouting in a cupboard (from last year's harvest). So I planted them. Potato sack is indoors for now. It'll go out shortly.

And they're sprouting!

This is one of the more exciting photos on this page: buds on the lemon tree.

Two young avocado trees.

Hold it. This is one of the more exciting things on this page.

This is a lemon drop pepper plant that's survived through the winter, and is budding again.

I wonder if it will give me more fruit this year. That would be really cool.

Lemon drop peppers are my favorite spicy pepper to grow: hard to find anywhere, and incredibly delicious! My daughter discovered them.





This is the 4-year-old (or so) avocado tree. Strong and healthy.Turns out it needs lots of water over winter. It's putting on a lot of new growth.






And the olive tree is fruitful, too. Thirty or forty. I haven't picked them. What would I do with them?