Gardening: My Tomatoe and Pepper Progress

[Evilgrin]

Reapers i grew last year where from CCN seedlings. Smaller than the Scorpion in my current pic but still good seedlings. I got lots of Reapers and Dragons Breath. Only had 2 of each. My Scorpion plant though out produced any of them. It got much larger too. Plant was probably twice as tall by the time the season ended.

Now ive got a brown ghost cross that is plain nasty. Plants get good sized too. Takes forever to get a ripe pods though. Pods are massive for pods in the super category. Most pods are a little hotter than a regular bhut. The occasional pod is some kind of evil freak that will make you wish you never tasted it.

Its a Pepperlover cross of unknown origins. A grower in Illinois had some of the old seeds. He grew them one year and sold pods/seeds.
https://lawrenceproduce.com/collections/seeds/products/seeds-brown-bhut-jolokia

 

[Apple_Jacker]

The weather in TN is beginning to cooperate. I got my bean seeds (pole beans in ground, bush beans in 3 gal. pots) and cucumber seeds in the ground/in pots last weekend.

I've been able to leave all of my tomatoes outside for the last 2 weeks, but had to cover them a couple of times due to the threat of frost. I got in 17 gallon buckets I ordered off of Target's website, that I'll be using for my Rutgers tomatoes and for my Marzinera. I'll get the Rutgers ones in the big pots this weekend, but I'm waiting on letting the marzineras to be more established before transplanting them into larger pots.

There's a chance of low to mid 40's at night still on Sunday and Monday, so I may put off putting my peppers in the ground for another week, but they all seem happy nonetheless since I moved them into larger temporary pots.

 

[Evilgrin]

These were originally supposed to be a gag gift that I would've already given away by now, but given our current environment I'm kind of stuck with them. But I'm to stubborn to just let them die. If I get a half dozen peppers from these, then I'll have have more than I personally want.

Many of these super types are just fun to grow. Pod shapes are interesting to watch them develop. Ghost peppers are about my limit and the flavor can be pretty good for the microsecond you have before agony sets in. C.Reapers dried or fresh sell for crazy amounts of money. 1 good plant will pay for itself a few times over. I get $7/100grams fresh at our farmers market and thats a deal for organic Reapers.

Plus many of us have the goofy friend or friend of a friend that thinks he can handle anything. Watching one of these guys munch down a super then endure the total agony for HOURS is sometimes amusing. Many of these guys dont know about the cramps that follow the burn. The hours of hot sweats and the flaming colon when it finally passes.

This is the new one im trying. Its called Death Spiral. I just thought it looked cool. Baker Creek seeds germinated pretty good and seedlings look nice now.

The Death Spiral or Death Pepper is a variant of the Naga Bubblegum Red cross from the United Kingdom originally made by grower Terry Smith. We first saw this on a number of plants in 2015-2016. It does not have the bleeding calyx like the Naga BBG 7. But it does have a reticulated pattern on its outer skin which look like grooves were etched into it.

The Death Spiral peppers are unigue in that they ripen in multiple color stages. They start out at light green but go to peach, then orange and finally red. The peppers get a pointy end but sometimes a tail as well. The heat is above most Naga types and flavor is floral fruity. It has an upfront burn so beware. Its consistency is not known so you may get many varied shapes and sizes. The Death Spiral chile plants grow over 4 feet tall.

 

[Evilgrin]

Brought more of the babies up today. The mutant brown Reapers from a friend are short little studs. Kinda like a dwarf from LotR. They should explode now in real sun.

4 Aji Amarillo, 2 Death Spiral, 1 NICE Aji Oro and 6 Antep Aci Dolma. Most of these have been in the window for a week or more. Anteps came up last since most annuums dont need as long of a season to produce. Plus it took forever to get the Antep seeds i wanted. What a PITA that was.

 

[Evilgrin]

Welcome to the jungle.

The crew and i still got about 7 upstairs. 3 Aji Amarillo and some spicy bells.

CCN seedlings....Dont know why i even bother because mine blow them away. 2 Chilhuacle Negro, 1 Chilhuacle Rojo, 2 Aji Panca (just in case mine crossed) and a Habanada. Good thing i got that last one because all the local guys didnt get them yet. Its a ZERO heat habanero and looks just like a orange hab when ripe.

CCN tomato starts were worse. Out of 6 only 2 looked nice. Luckily it was the two i most wanted and cant get locally. Vietnamese Coriander, Rosemary, 1 spicy bell above them and 2 Joes long cayenne below.

Lew's poor little mutant Reapers grow soooo slow. 2 of the 3 look nice but man they grow slow.

6 Numex Orange Spice MONSTERS in front and my Aji Panca from seeds i saved. The Numex already got little "podlets" on them too.

2 Baker Creek seeds Death Spiral (man they grow fast), 1 Aji Oro and 1 Aji Amarillo.

4 CARDI Scorpions, 1 Aji Oro and 1 Aji Panca..i think

Bonnie's Spicy Slice jalapeno and Early Flame (both new offerings i think). I planted them a few days ago.

Planting this weekend for sure
2 maters
Rest of the herbs but 1 might wait on the Vietnamese coriander....its very hard to replace it
1 Aji Amarillo
1 Spicy Bell (Antep Aci Dolma)
2 Joes Long Cayenne
2 Aji Oro...Got one more that is finally taking off under lights i need to bring up too.
1-2 NuMex OS...Thanks again Lewis...Mucho Nacho are no where to be found this year. Bonnie could not get the seeds.

 

[Evilgrin]

Rain dodged us today...well sofar anyway. Redneck shade cloths ENGAGED. The stress of waiting to plant out was killing me soooooo.

3 Aji Oro in their fabric pots. Man i hope i get a good yield like last year. One is still just a baby

4 Aji Amarillo on the steps under the burlap

Back row---1 Chilhuacle Negro, 1 NuMex Orange Spice, 1 CCN Aji Panca, 1 Chilhuacle Rojo and a Death Spiral. A few others that need more time to harden. I cant shade them easily in their final pots yet.

 

[bleme]

“Free” tomato plants really took off this week! Now I just have to figure some sort of cage for them...
I have some vinyl covered chicken wire - thinking about screwing that to the fence, then using twine to attach...

 

[Apple_Jacker]

Had a threat of frost last night....odd for Tennessee in May, but everything survived

 

[Evilgrin]

Nite before last got into the 30s. Covered everything and brought in what i could. Didnt lose any. Thats one of the nice things about most rocotos. They love cold nights. As long as it dont frost they are fine. For 2 years i struggled with 2 other kinds of rocotos. They dont like a lot of rain or hot/humid combined. Plants do ok but flowers just drop off. Aji Oro are doing a better than average job handling all of it. Plus they are delicious pods.

Not much left now to get in their final spots.

 

[501irishred]

“Free” tomato plants really took off this week! Now I just have to figure some sort of cage for them...
I have some vinyl covered chicken wire - thinking about screwing that to the fence, then using twine to attach...
View attachment 679572

I love these clips. Obviously it’s nothing that you cant get done with ties, but what the heck. You’re already $100 in on your free maters, what’s another $12?

https://www.amazon.com/LEOBRO-Suppo...uPWNsaWNrUmVkaXJlY3QmZG9Ob3RMb2dDbGljaz10cnVl

 

[bleme]

I love these clips. Obviously it’s nothing that you cant get done with ties, but what the heck. You’re already $100 in on your free maters, what’s another $12?

LOL! I was actually looking at those at Walmart (for $10) but figured I have about 200 tiny zip ties that would probably do the same thing...

 

[501irishred]

I love this time of year when the “youngins” come out to play!

 

[501irishred]

Our first 2020 harvest! Our first try with broccoli. So far it’s been a breeze to grow, but I’ll be a little mor selective where I plant it in the future. The plants get way bigger than I expected and The leave shade EVERYTHING!

 

[VApatriot]

Off to a slow start this year, the cold weather earlier this month delayed our progress. It may not be nice to fool mother nature, but she can sure piss in your wheaties even if you don't do anything to her in the first place. It actually snowed here in May. Ugh.

The raised bed gardens have mostly heirloom / indeterminate plants, but we did plant some hybrids for production. My wife also cut the root ends off some scallions from the store so we planted them as an experiment. There are also some baby swiss chard in the middle of the tomatoes, all protected by my electric fences that are hooked up to an outlet with a light sensor so they only come on in the dark. Take that you critters, don't worry they can't kill anything, just a little jolt to dissuade munching on my produce. There's also 2 red peppers, an eggplant, a husky cherry tomato, a bush tomato, a red chili pepper, a jalapeno, an orange bell pepper and the blueberry bush on the patio.

 

[z-bob]

All my pepper plants look smaller now than they did a month ago. They were overrun by aphids, which loved it under the bright lights in my basement, perhaps because it was so dry. Insecticide sprays didn't do much. I moved the peppers outside in the cold and rain and that took care of the aphid problem but the damage was done; also the peppers didn't like the cold. They are still not in the ground; I will plant them as soon as it dries out a little. My tomato seedlings damped off; I managed to save one and it is coming around but still pitiful. I bought 4 little tomato plants (2 Early Girl and 2 Jet Star) at Fleet Farm on Saturday and got them in the ground. By Sunday they already looked bigger. If I can keep it healthy, that little seeding ("Big Brandy") will catch up with the others in a few weeks.

There were all kinds of other seeds (mostly herbs and flowers) I was supposed to start indoors but was afraid to because of the aphid problem. So I'm starting to direct sow them and don't expect much this year.

 

[bleme]

This was from several years ago. My mom planted this heirloom pumpkin. A single plant took over her whole garden area. She says she used to have nightmares about falling asleep out there and waking up with vines wrapped around her neck.

 

[Kent88]

My peppers aren't taking off, but some of my tomatoes are flowering. How is everyone else doing?

 

[passedpawn]

I've got a shy tomato plant that very slowly produces the occasional fruit. Jalapenos are producing nicely. Banana pepper plant produced one baby and lost interest, but I see some small blossoms, so maybe there is hope. Basil is going nuts, which is great because I've been into breadmaking and that plant is my source for unlimited pesto sauce.

I was thinking about building a large vegetable garden this year, but I've got too many other inside construction projects to tackle it. But this winter I'll dig it out, and the spring will hopefully be epic.

 

[Hanglow]

My peppers are starting to take off a bit. Got a good few aleppos and aci sivri forming. "Early" Jalapenos though? Nope.

My tomato plants are just starting to show flower buds, no flowers though. I have five or so outside, three in a greenhouse

I'm trying tomatillos outside this year and some are flowering. Why some are doing so much better than others right next to them I don't know. Ground was prepared the same and they were the same size going in. Four on the right are tomatillos and the two far left are patty pan I think

 

[mbg]

I'm in the Chicago area and we planted one week too early in may. Even though I covered them I lost about 30 plants due to a deep frost. Re-planted and the garden it doing well this season:

Our raised gardens.

First tomato.

Peppers

Squash

And my big problem - tried hops in this box and they grew well but they don't want to grow around the trellises they want to go up so got orders to get rid of them. I dug like crazy to get rid of the roots - could have made a fortune selling rhizomes. They are still popping up! (Any help on getting rid of these appreciated)

 

[bleme]

My 'free' Early Girls are planted side-by-side. Both are over 5 feet tall now. One has 10 tomatoes while the other doesn't even have blossoms. The unproductive one also has a bunch of leaves on the lower half that are drying up for some reason. Google told me to add Epsom salt, so I did that 4 days ago. We'll see if it helps.

 

[passedpawn]

I'm in the Chicago area and we planted one week too early in may. Even though I covered them I lost about 30 plants due to a deep frost. Re-planted and the garden it doing well this season:

How do you like your raised gardens, vs one in the ground? I'm thinking about doing that just to protect from the rabbits, and save the back. But it's a ton of dirt to bring in, right? Did you get that soil in bags, or have it dumped on your driveway by a topsoil company? I'd guess that's about 100 x 1 cuft bags of topsoil for your gardens there ( ~ 10 cubic yards ).

Thoughts?

 

[HoppyDaze]

We have companies here that will blow it right into your garden bed.

 

[mbg]

How do you like your raised gardens, vs one in the ground? I'm thinking about doing that just to protect from the rabbits, and save the back. But it's a ton of dirt to bring in, right? Did you get that soil in bags, or have it dumped on your driveway by a topsoil company? I'd guess that's about 100 x 1 cuft bags of topsoil for your gardens there ( ~ 10 cubic yards ).

Thoughts?

Yes, rabbits! That's the reason I built these. They are tall because I searched their leaping height. I had the dirt, actually garden mix, brought in by truck and dumped in the driveway. Is lot of work using wheelbarrow but I was able to just dump the dirt out of the wheelbarrow and into the boxes using a small ramp.

We really like these but there are some issues to deal with. First, with the garden mix, the soil level drops about 4" per year. Second, I use soaker hoses but the water drains through the boxes quickly so they require watering often.

If you plan to build these I'm glad I did my research you need to seal the bottom with metal hardware fencing with 1/2" openings. This is to prevent your garden from being attacked from below!

BTW - for the past two years we have not seen a single rabbit. Seems the influx of coyotes has taken car of them.

Mike

 

[Deadalus]

How do you like your raised gardens, vs one in the ground? I'm thinking about doing that just to protect from the rabbits, and save the back. But it's a ton of dirt to bring in, right? Did you get that soil in bags, or have it dumped on your driveway by a topsoil company? I'd guess that's about 100 x 1 cuft bags of topsoil for your gardens there ( ~ 10 cubic yards ).

Thoughts?

I have raised beds too, a board shorter than mbg's. I haven't gone the route of delivery of compost/garden soil to finish filling so they are still shorter on the inside. One thing you can do to augment your beds is to take the topsoil from between the beds and add that to the raised beds. I compost heavily too, all leaves and lawn clippings go into a compost bin in the back and we have a tumbler composter for kitchen waste. I make a "lasagna" of last year's leaves and this years grass clippings which helps to speed decomposition. I've got a garden on the larger side so it's been slow getting the soil worked up the way I would like. Still have a few rows needing a good layer of compost.

Bad year here for peppers, even the local greenhouse was having trouble with pepper starts. I've had great luck for once with lettuce, romaine, and spinach this year, some small radishes, broccoli rabe, and peas are finally producing (super slow). Tomatoes too slow starts, I started indoors on heating pads, and transferred to a portable greenhouse but they wouldn't take off. Ended up getting a number of cells from the local greenhouse. They are getting going now.

 

[Deadalus]

I love these clips. Obviously it’s nothing that you cant get done with ties, but what the heck. You’re already $100 in on your free maters, what’s another $12?

https://www.amazon.com/LEOBRO-Suppo...uPWNsaWNrUmVkaXJlY3QmZG9Ob3RMb2dDbGljaz10cnVl

I use these too and recommend for indeterminate types. I grow my tomatoes on twine lines stretched between green fence posts. The clips are reusable as are the posts.

 

[bleme]

I use these too and recommend for indeterminate types. I grow my tomatoes on twine lines stretched between green fence posts. The clips are reusable as are the posts.View attachment 685675

I did end up buying those clips and they work great. My tomatoes are next to a fence that I nailed a sheet of vinyl covered chicken wire to. I zig-zagged butcher twine over that to clip the tomatoes to. So far it seems to be working OK, I just wish that one plant would start producing!

BTW, for my birthday this week, my wife got me a bunch of plants and pots from the nursery: oregano, rosemary, jalapenos, cayenne, padron and strawberries!

 

[Evilgrin]

Jalalpenos are producing and them damn Numex Orange Spice are scorchers. I sampled a tiny one out of curiosity. It has to be 3 times hotter or more than a typical jalapeno.

Store bought black jala(left) next to Spicy Slice(middle) and Early Flame(right). All got a nice jala flavor and average heat.

 

[Apple_Jacker]

Got lots of stuff popping up now. My first round of bush beans are ready to be picked.
Squash and zucchini (vine and bush varieties) are coming along.
My Rutgers tomatoes are beginning to produce.
The jalafuego, habenero, and cayenne are all starting to produce.
My blueberries are beginning to ripen.
I'm pretty sure that most of the tomato plants that seeded themselves in my garden are San Marzano, and one of them is a box car willie.

 

[applescrap]

Awesome gardens! Looks like everyone is off to a dashing start. Glad to see I think some new faces this year. It was cold or hail or something so we got started late too. Wanted to start everything from seeds but another year goes by without getting anything done. We have been camping and up in breck, but the person getting mail said that there was a lot of bunnies in our yard. Ugh!! Nothing new, except this beauty(shrub head to poly connector) , I am now watering my entire garden and flowers with the sprinkler system. Unbelievably one zone is running two different areas. I have two 100 foot or 50 or whatever plastic pipes running off shrub heads I found in yard. Something like 75 heads, which is another confirmation my vision was correct. It all started with a hydroponic pic that I posted maybe a year or two ago. Because the sprinkler runs a half hour it is tricky to get water right and essentially these get flooded every couple days. Dont want to see water bill.

But anyways so glad to not be using timer and seal cock this year. As the last 4 or 5 years no work other than planting. Watering is completely automated and food is slow release. Ill update when I get home from breck as these are from a week or two ago, plus initial planting. I used scots grubex in yard to hopefully slow japanese beattles this year. But wonder if neighbors dont use it, if it matters. Also proactively sprayed insecticide on plants this year.

 

[SirHC_]

Yes, rabbits! That's the reason I built these. They are tall because I searched their leaping height. I had the dirt, actually garden mix, brought in by truck and dumped in the driveway. Is lot of work using wheelbarrow but I was able to just dump the dirt out of the wheelbarrow and into the boxes using a small ramp.

We really like these but there are some issues to deal with. First, with the garden mix, the soil level drops about 4" per year. Second, I use soaker hoses but the water drains through the boxes quickly so they require watering often.

If you plan to build these I'm glad I did my research you need to seal the bottom with metal hardware fencing with 1/2" openings. This is to prevent your garden from being attacked from below!

BTW - for the past two years we have not seen a single rabbit. Seems the influx of coyotes has taken car of them.

Mike

Likewise have raised beds filled w a mix of log chuncks and large branches, soil i dug out from the bottom of the bed before placing the logs in, and topped w bagged soil from HD. As the wood and other filler materials decompose they add nutrients and really hel ppl w water retention.
Look up hugelculture. It's made a world of difference in my water usage.

BTW, I have 7 tomatoes and ~12 pepper plants. Just sweet banana peppers for the kids and "super chili" for me. Depending on how they produce, I'm going to try my hand at hot sauce this fall. 6 varieties of tomatoes including black zebra, Chapman, early girl, grape tomatoes for the kids, brandywine and a mystery one...?

 

[Deadalus]

Likewise have raised beds filled w a mix of log chuncks and large branches, soil i dug out from the bottom of the bed before placing the logs in, and topped w bagged soil from HD. As the wood and other filler materials decompose they add nutrients and really hel ppl w water retention.
Look up hugelculture. It's made a world of difference in my water usage.

BTW, I have 7 tomatoes and ~12 pepper plants. Just sweet banana peppers for the kids and "super chili" for me. Depending on how they produce, I'm going to try my hand at hot sauce this fall. 6 varieties of tomatoes including black zebra, Chapman, early girl, grape tomatoes for the kids, brandywine and a mystery one...?

I have two hugelkultur beds and plan to slowly convert the rest. I'll be doing one this summer. We collect a lot of sticks and branches in my yard, the ones we don't use for the fireplace are collected into a pile and I think it is big enough to convert the next bed. I also have some oddball firewood pieces to add in . I have a strawberry patch started on one this year and another bed is for pollinators with wildflowers and a couple of perennials in it too.

 

[benco]

My first Trinidad scorpion.

 

[bleme]

I’m redoing a brick planter and was thinking I should line the walls to prevent leaks, especially on the house side. Any suggestions on effective, cost efficient solutions? I've considered 4 mil plastic, Wonderboard or maybe Regard liquid waterproofing between 2 layers of Quikrete Wall Float, but currently leaning toward CompoSeal Blue PVC shower pan liner as it is super tough and $.88/sf.

 

[501irishred]

I used scots grubex in yard to hopefully slow japanese beattles this year. But wonder if neighbors dont use it, if it matters.

if you have a lot of grubs, I highly recommend using “milky spores”. I was told about it by our Cooperative extension when I was “invaded”. This is my second season with it and I think I only found 2 or 3 grubs while turning my beds this year vs hundreds before. We mostly had June bug grubs with a few Japanese beetle grubs thrown in for good measure. It seems to take em all out but didn’t hurt the earth worms at all. It is supposed to last up to 20 years per the bag instructions, but they (extension folks) recommend reapplying every 5-10 years “as needed”.
The only down side is my kids didn’t get to have a pet robin this year. They fed those birds so many grubs that a pair of robins would follow them around anytime they were outside.....

 

[Evilgrin]

Both Chilhuacle Negro are producing now.

Aji Amarillo

One Aji Oro is just loaded with small pods considering its early still

Joes Long Cayenne are both loaded too.

Antep Aci Dolma has a bunch of pods just starting.

This is why i love CARDI scorpions. They grow like mad and produce soon for a super.

Checkout the size of my mammoth sunflowers

Deck crew

Lower patio crew

Peno and panca patch. Also had some volunteer long beans pop so i made a cheap trellis for them

And drum rollllllllll please............late starts..3 brown mutant Reapers (back) and 2 extra Death Spiral. I should get at least a few ripe before the season is over.

 

[z-bob]

I'm about to pull put most of my tomatoes. the plants looked good until 2 days ago when a couple of them suddenly and profoundly wilted. They recovered a bit overnight, but then wilted even more. The one that wilted first looks almost dead. I had this problem last year, but I thought I had burned them with too much fertilizer; that's definitely not the case this year. My soil must have some kind of disease in it. If I them up now, maybe I can still plant turnips or something where they were.

*One *plant looks okay. It's a different variety (but oddly it's one without any disease resistance, and they all succumbed last year but at least it was later in the season so I still got a few) It gets to stay.

The peppers look good but they are still tiny and not blooming yet. Peppers usually do most of their growth here in August, so I might still get something out of them. This year has been miserable for gardening, just like it's miserable for everything else.

 

[bleme]

I'm about to pull put most of my tomatoes. the plants looked good until 2 days ago when a couple of them suddenly and profoundly wilted. They recovered a bit overnight, but then wilted even more. The one that wilted first looks almost dead. I had this problem last year, but I thought I had burned them with too much fertilizer; that's definitely not the case this year. My soil must have some kind of disease in it. If I them up now, maybe I can still plant turnips or something where they were.

*One *plant looks okay. It's a different variety (but oddly it's one without any disease resistance, and they all succumbed last year but at least it was later in the season so I still got a few) It gets to stay.

The peppers look good but they are still tiny and not blooming yet. Peppers usually do most of their growth here in August, so I might still get something out of them. This year has been miserable for gardening, just like it's miserable for everything else.

https://www.gardenmanage.com/status...sionally suffer from,leaf drop and fruit loss.

 

[z-bob]

https://www.gardenmanage.com/status...sionally suffer from,leaf drop and fruit loss.

Thanks. But none of those descriptions match my plants. There is no yellowing, no brown or black spots, no dropped leaves. The plants have plenty of water; the ground is damp from recent rain but not waterlogged. The leaves just shrivel up without discoloring, like they need water. The next morning, the plant looks almost recovered, then when the sun comes up (but it's not hot here, 70's this week) they wilt even more than the day before. After a few days, they don't recover overnight. The stems look fine, no dark streaks. And no insect damage. I think it's some kind of vascular disease.

 

[501irishred]

if you have a lot of grubs, I highly recommend using “milky spores”. I was told about it by our Cooperative extension when I was “invaded”.

Thanks. But none of those descriptions match my plants. There is no yellowing, no brown or black spots, no dropped leaves. The plants have plenty of water; the ground is damp from recent rain but not waterlogged. The leaves just shrivel up without discoloring, like they need water. The next morning, the plant looks almost recovered, then when the sun comes up (but it's not hot here, 70's this week) they wilt even more than the day before. After a few days, they don't recover overnight. The stems look fine, no dark streaks. And no insect damage. I think it's some kind of vascular disease.

So if you end up pulling them, dig up around them and see if you find a bunch of grubs. Your story sounds all too familiar. It’s possible they (the scourge) are eating the roots and basically starving the plants. At least that’s what appeared to be the case with mine in years past.