Pellet Fan
All Things Considered => General Discussion--Non food Related => Topic started by: Kristin Meredith on March 01, 2022, 11:33:45 AM
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March 1 -- vegetable gardening begins in earnest with the start of various seeds. I have 2 different tomatoes and 3 different peppers I am starting. Bent has 1 tomato and 3 additional chilis, including a Hatch chili from New Mexico, that he is starting. We will see where we are the end of the month. Hope is to transplant about mid-May.
Also starting the clean up of beds (got the weeds out of the asparagus bed) and will be rototilling some beds and planting some snow peas this week.
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You can see what my early concentration is going to be. BLT's & Clubs, Hatch Chili Cheeseburgers, Chorizo and and Adobo sauces! Heating blanket is on, grow light is ready in about 2 weeks!
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Looks like you're getting a good head start.
Mine hasn't changed, just sand.
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I need some of the Super Sioux plants. Hot and dry is what it will be here soon. The deer would eat them though.
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Faster then I thought! Already have the grow lights on!
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Status report at one week -- all my tomatoes and Bell Peppers have sprouted.
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I had to do a bit of planning with my garden this year due to knee replacement surgery on February 22. My garden was weeded and amended two weeks before my surgery and tomato seeds started a week before. Last weekend, I transferred my seed starts to 5" pots with a special soil mix. I discovered the soil mix last year and it is like rocket fuel for tomato plants. The soil is from EB Stone and is called "Recipe 420". It was developed with another crop in mind ;).
My plan is to put do the final planting right after tax day after the last frost has passed. If I'm lucky some fruit will set by mid May and a first harvest by mid June. Tomatoes in my area come in waves. The temperature here in the summer can be 90-100 F in the daytime and in the 50s at night. Tomatoes need several night above 55F for fruit to set so. This happens about every 2-3 weeks in my area.
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I have not had a garden for about 40 years. My wife wants some tomato and pepper plants so this year we will go the wine barrel route. My soil is very rocky, so I have to buy bags of soil or buy a truck load which would be more than I need.
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I had to do a bit of planning with my garden this year due to knee replacement surgery on February 22. My garden was weeded and amended two weeks before my surgery and tomato seeds started a week before. Last weekend, I transferred my seed starts to 5" pots with a special soil mix. I discovered the soil mix last year and it is like rocket fuel for tomato plants. The soil is from EB Stone and is called "Recipe 420". It was developed with another crop in mind ;).
My plan is to put do the final planting right after tax day after the last frost has passed. If I'm lucky some fruit will set by mid May and a first harvest by mid June. Tomatoes in my area come in waves. The temperature here in the summer can be 90-100 F in the daytime and in the 50s at night. Tomatoes need several night above 55F for fruit to set so. This happens about every 2-3 weeks in my area.
A quick update on my tomato seedlings. My plants came along a little better than expect. Most were 18-24" tall on April 2. That's just under 3 weeks from when I put them in the 5" pots. My plan was to put them out in the garden around tax day but they have gotten a little too large to handle. I planted them over the weekend. The weather here has been unseasonably warm (over 90F today) so I'm getting a good head start on my growing season. It is usually low to mid 60's this time of year.
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I think I am seeing at least 15-20 tomato plants? To me that would be hundreds of fruits over the course of a growing season. Do you eat that many a week? We have like 8 and I know my AA friends are gonna get a lot!
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I think I am seeing at least 15-20 tomato plants? To me that would be hundreds of fruits over the course of a growing season. Do you eat that many a week? We have like 8 and I know my AA friends are gonna get a lot!
Actually, there are 40 plants there. I only plant the 36 best ones. We give 3/4 of the tomatoes away. They come in waves here like I said before because of our sub 55deg F evenings so our yields aren't great. I count on heat waves happening every two to three weeks that result in stagnant evening air needed to set fruit.
Most folks that live around me look forward to our tomatoes. My neighbor next door tells me my home grown fruit is far better than what is sold in the local farmers market. It is sad that most commercially grown tomatoes that you find in the grocery stores are not vine ripened. My son refused to eat tomato slices on his food because he was used to the commercially grown ones. He now eats my homegrown ones.
Speaking of tomato yields, I am amazed at what Charles H Wilber was able to do with his plants. I saw pictures of 30ft tall Better Boy plants that yielded hundreds of pounds of tomatoes. All of my plants are of the Better Boy variety. We are frequently hitting days during the summer with temperatures above 105deg F. Last year was the first year I grew Better Boys and they seem to withstand hot days better.
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April 11 2022, 4 inches of snow this morning. Wet heavy snow in the PNW wrecked havoc on trees. And I tried to get pumpkins and tomatoes started yesterday. Pictures to follow.
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I am planting half my crop on May 1. Back ups if we get a frost!
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I am planting half my crop on May 1. Back ups if we get a frost!
I am curious if you are experiencing a longer growing season in Virginia. My target date for planting used to be April 15 and now it is close to April 1. Our frost is pretty much over in March.
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Next week the lows will be in the 50's for about a week. This is when my wife will plant her veggies. I did the grunt work to build the cinder block 4' x 8' raised bed. She has to do the rest, but I still have to put up some deer fencing.
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We are still watching from when the local strawberry patches uncover their strawberries so we can follow their lead and uncover ours. I am putting up fencing around stuff this year because of the abundance of rabbits.
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Some things are robust, others seem depleted to me.
This is the tomato I planted back in November to se if the grow lights would work. It survived the Winter indoors and I am hoping will have fruit available by end of June. It and the other tomatoes seem to be doing pretty well.
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The Chili's & Green Peppers seem like they are struggling!
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Everything else seems pretty hearty! Snow Peas and Cucumbers, Tomatillos, Sage, Oregano and Dill. The melon's and squash.
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Peppers look like they need water
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They have had plenty. I am not sure why they are yellow, it is something year after year with our garden!
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If you do your own string trimming, I highly recommend the Darwin Grip. Just installed and used it today. At $70 I thought it was quite expensive, but was tired of my back being put out of shape. Have a lot of trimming to do here! Usually I have to go to one hand and rest the head on the ground several times as I am doing my rounds. Not with this, great control of the Husqvarna!
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Looks like I'll have two tomatoes to harvest next week. They're turning orange. My area is terrible for harvesting tomatoes because of our cold evening. It was 100 deg F today but I suspect we will be around 50 deg F tonight. The fruit won't set. I've going through the garden helping pollination with an electric tooth brush. It actually helps.
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I have 2 coming in, not sure which variety, but they will probably be 2 weeks away!
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I don't know if we want to call it climate change or simply a very wet spring. My garden is a month behind normal growth. Washington State. Not much fun happening yet. The lawn however looks pretty good!
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My first half dozen tomatoes should be ready this weekend for Caprese Salad for Fathers Day. However, two of my plants were attacked by some vermin this week. I normally keeps my tomatoes fenced in to keep the woodland creatures out. My fence was not totally up this year while I was convalescing from my knee replacement. It's up now.
The photo shows that something ate the core of the stalk from ground level to a foot above the ground. I'm thinking mice, rats, opossums, or rabbits.
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I will try and get some photos up this weekend. No real fruit or vegetables yet, but it is finally starting to look healthy!
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My first tomato harvest for the year
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First cantaloupe of the year. Probably needed another 48 hours, but everything is real wet and also have some bugs starting to invade. Not been a real great year for the garden -- cold and wet May, a couple of horrific windstorms, and then hail a few weeks ago. Only starting to get a few tomatoes, peppers aren't doing much and it looks like no watermelons. Bummer!
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It was pretty tasty, but really hard fruit!
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Harvested, cleaned, baked and prepped our first pimento harvest. All those pimentos only made one small jar. Then made homemade pimento cheese with an Allrecipes "Southern Pimento Cheese " recipe. Had to use nearly the whole jar just for this small amount of pimento cheese.
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And I thought we were going to be over run with 3 pimento plants, wont be enough!
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I had no idea what a Pimento looked like. Now I know.
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Sandia had 2 varieties, Sweet & Pimento Sheepnose. When I ordered they had only the later. The sweet look more like a smaller bell pepper.
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Sandia had 2 varieties, Sweet & Pimento Sheepnose. When I ordered they had only the later. The sweet look more like a smaller bell pepper.
They look similar to what I have seen called a Cherry Pepper. I know the flavor of a pimento in olives has no spice at all. Cherry peppers are apparently 5x-10x a pimento, and closer to a jalapeno heat ranking.
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This year crop grown around us was Corn. It will not be planted again for at least 2 years as it deplets nitrogen from the soil, and the Soybeans that will be planted it its place will add nitrogen. So had to get next years "crop" this year. I have a mower with a bagger, so I have collected grass trimmings all year and try and turn it into compost/mulch. The last photo is the corn & grass clipping, you can see the different color on the right side. The other 2 will be used for next years trimmings. Have never had enough brown matter to add to the green matter to do a good job with the compost. Will see this Spring if the corn waste works. Corn is technically a grass, but I am hoping it is going to act like leaves. Will try and take a photo each time I turn it to show you how it breaks down. 1st photo has had no water applied, and will only get rain water.
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From right to left. Poblano top, Pasilla & Jalapeño bottom, Guajillo center and Paprika top and Hatch bottom on left.
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That amount of peppers would last me 20 years.
That is a lot of heat.
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That amount of peppers would last me 20 years.
That is a lot of heat.
Lots of peppers but mild for the most part. I'm curious to see how they are utilized.
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When they are dried they dont go very far. The paprika on the left, when that is dried and ground it will probably be 1 cup!
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We inherited a garden with the new house.
Lots of chilies, some cherry tomatoes, broccoli, and cauliflower.
Also have peach, apple, and pear trees (one of each).
Next year no broccoli or cauliflower. They take up too much space for such a small area.
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Those are nice beds!
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Considering I didn't have to do the work to build them, they are really nice. Haha
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When they are dried they dont go very far. The paprika on the left, when that is dried and ground it will probably be 1 cup!
What variety of Paprika are they. Do you know their heat level? I used to grow a variety called Paprika Supreme but it can't be found any longer so looking for a new one.
Thanks
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They did not even list variety. It was from Sandia seed and they just called it Paprika. No heat at all.
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They did not even list variety. It was from Sandia seed and they just called it Paprika. No heat at all.
Thank you, Ever look at ChilePlants online? They have an amazing array of Seeds, live and fresh chiles and Tomatos available.
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Thank you, Ever look at ChilePlants online? They have an amazing array of Seeds, live and fresh chiles and Tomatos available.
I've seen that site before and I'm intrigued with the fact that they are in New Jersey. You would think it would be here in South Texas since we don't get as strong of weather as they do up there. I need to set a reminder to order stuff after the first of the year.
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Thank you, Ever look at ChilePlants online? They have an amazing array of Seeds, live and fresh chiles and Tomatos available.
I've seen that site before and I'm intrigued with the fact that they are in New Jersey. You would think it would be here in South Texas since we don't get as strong of weather as they do up there. I need to set a reminder to order stuff after the first of the year.
That place is only 60-90 minutes from my house. I just read about it a few weeks ago.
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About 2 weeks in! Bad lighting in garage.
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Coming up on a month later. I think you can see which has green matter added to it an which don't!
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Getting closer each week. The pile with all the grass clippings is much further along. They were both smoking when i turned them this morning!
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