They're ALIVE!!!! 2011 Edition -- Garden growing tips, tricks, pron

Wampus

Wampus

somebody shut me the fark up.
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So, since it's officially springtime I....the tradition continues!

After being hooked on this thread last year.....
http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=83169&highlight=They%27re+ALIVE+2010
....I PM'd brother Dave (82muchhomework) and he was gracious enough to send me some seeds from his pepper harvest last year!
IMG_1424.jpg


There were 4 varieties: Chilhuacle Negro, Chilhuacle Rojo, Yellow Jalepeno and Tepin peppers. The 2 former were originally from brother Smokejumper in San Francisco and the 2 latter were from brother BobBrisket in El Paso -- his family heirlooms!! So Smoke and BB....your peppers have made it all the way to Indiana!!!

I'm probably getting a little late start (what that fark else is new?!?!:rolleyes:), but yesterday I picked up 2 of these seed starting kits. It was highly recommended by Dave:
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Here's what it looked like after the pellets soaked up the water:
IMG_1722.jpg


On top of the peppers, I also sowed some herb seeds to see what happens. Here's what I've got:
IMG_1723.jpg


IMG_1724-1.jpg


Really looking forward to seeing what grows! Sowed a total of 100 pellets with seed. 50 peppers and 50 herbs. We'll see what happens!!!
 
Lookin good. I've been trying to decide what I'm gonna grow in my limited space. I'm too lazy to start indoors though so I usually end up buying baby plants. Have you grown cilantro before? I use it a lot but most of what I've read makes it out to be pretty tough to grow.
 
Lookin good. Hope they all come up. Be prepared to transfer those to larger pots soon after they come up. My experience with those pod starters in that the roots outgrow the pods fast.
 
This year I'm gonna find some good peppers to grow. I've been simply regrowing what I buy in the store... but that's boring.

Any suggestions on a good heat/good flavor pepper?
 
I can't wait!! Hope they all come op as well. My first batch of Chihuacles don't seem to want to sprout, so I'll be doing a second planting this weekend. I already have some mater, peppers (yellows, jalaps, and a hab), along with some onions, dill, basil, and my corn seeds are already sprouting. I also tossed in some watermelon, sunflowers, okra and squash. Let's see what happens.

One tip with the tepin........put those in a place where you will want them permanently. They grow back each year. If your winters are cold, snowy, etc you will need to cover the cut back and root area with something to keep the roots from getting killed off. They grow okay in planters/pots, but not as nice as in the ground. I'm afraid the freak cold snap we had here with minus temps may have killed off a few of my plants. We shall see.
 
I just started mine about a week ago as well. Some have sprouted. I will be transplanting them into 4" peat pots and then into 5 gallons buckets. I have 8 different varieties of peppers and a couple maters. I have never gown anything before so I don't have the highest expectations for this year.
 
One big key with peppers..........they don't like wet feet! Over watering will rot the roots and quickly kill off the plant. The plant will let you know when to water. It's called stressing the plant and peppers seem to do well with this technique as it postively affects the heat level in the pepper. At the slightest sign of leaf wilt, water em. Even in the ground, too much water will do em in.

From what I've seen maters are the opposite, but I'm hit or miss with maters. Some years I'm drowning in maters, other years............the plant drowned!:doh:
 
Thanks BB.....I've not grown from seeds successfully yet. I tried last year, but NOTHING sprouted. Think I overwatered.

Dave (82muchhomework) said that the tepins were ATOMIC hot, so I'm curious to see. I hope to grow as many as I can get to take off and dry a lot of them at the end of the season.

PLENTY of questions to come for sure.

One question that I alread have is this: the pellet kits I bought said to add 2 qts of water to the pellet tray and after the pellets swell, to pour off the excess water (which I did). So now the pellets are plenty moist. From here on out, do I just add water in the tray when the pellets dry out? Should I always keep a thin layer of water in the tray? How will this be different with my herbs than the pepper seeds?

OK.....guess that was 3 questions.:becky:
 
great thread! I keep saying I am going to do one of these, but I always seem to get too lazy..not this year though!
 
So we ended up sowing more seeds last week. We had 2 kinds of lettuce, radishes, 4 kinds of tomatoes and some flowers for the beds.

Following advice from 82muchhomework we soaked the seeds prior to sowing them (to help with germination) and within 24 hours, we had growth!!! I am NOT chitting!!! I couldn't believe it.

I was starting to get worried about my pepper plants as they'd not shown any green yet, but LAST NIGHT they were starting to pop up!!! Hard to see in the photos below, but I've got a few of each of the 4 pepper varieties coming up!!! Here's where we are right now:

These 3 pics are of the ones we sowed last Thursday, 3/31. These photos were taken last night. After only 4 days in the dirt......
IMG_1865.jpg


Hard to see in this photo, but there are a bunch of maters just starting to sprout. Most aren't quite peeking above the top of the dirt pellet. They all look like the one in the very lower left of the photo.
IMG_1867.jpg


IMG_1866.jpg





Here's the herbs that were sowed with the peppers on 3/26:
IMG_1868.jpg


And finally......the hot peppers!!!! Hard to see, but there are sprouts just starting, like the maters. Took them a couple weeks, but they're here!!!
IMG_1869.jpg




WOOOOHOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


So, for anyone who knows, here's a question:
I know that you have to trim out most of the plants if they come up in multiples so they don't choke each other out. Do I also need to do this with herbs? They are doing so well, I was planning on putting each type of herb in a long 'window box' sized planter and letting them go crazy. Do I need to thin the herbs too?

Also....Bob: Would you say that pepper plants would do OK in a pot? Dave suggested that I could maybe pot them and then bring them in over the winter. I'll probably put some in the ground (I've got so many!) but wouldn't they also do well in a large pot, properly fertilized?


I'm so excited it's not even funny!!!:becky::clap2::thumb:
 
I'd thin the herbs too. The peppers will grow in a pot. With pots, the key is that it drains properly. Don't use those setters that go under the pot to catch the water. Pepper roots do not like to stay wet for long and they rot very easily. I put the pots on soil so that the water drains out of the pot but will also help water any other plants I have in the soil so I get more use out of it.

On another note, the severe freeze we had this winter, below freezing temps for 3 days, took it's toll on many trees, palms, oleanders, in our area. Sadly, I lost 6 of my oldest tepin plants(7+ years old.) My dad lost even older plants too. This was only with 3 or so days of cold weather. Those of you that have weeks and months of it, will need to make sure you can bring the tepins in during winter. Luckily I had one plant survive. It was a stray plant that grew in between a concrete slab and some stones. The concrete insulated the roots underneath it.

And, I have one Chihuacle sprout coming up and I also planted MANY more Chihuacles and they should be coming up soon as well.

I need to take pics of this year's early progress. Got some really nice boxwood basil, pineapple sage, okra is coming up. Corn shoots are up. Cilantro is out, as are the squash seedlings and maters and peppers. I hope this year is a good one.


Bob
 
Cool. Yeah I was wondering about leaving anything out for the winter as we get weeks at a time (sometimes longer) with below freezing temps. I've seen frost in the ground 2 or 3 feet deep before. I wasn't sure just covering them would protect them.

OK, well should I thin the herbs NOW or wait until I transplant into pots?
 
Wampus said:
Cool. Yeah I was wondering about leaving anything out for the winter as we get weeks at a time (sometimes longer) with below freezing temps. I've seen frost in the ground 2 or 3 feet deep before. I wasn't sure just covering them would protect them.

OK, well should I thin the herbs NOW or wait until I transplant into pots?
Click to expand...

I would thin em starting now since there are so many in one starter. The headstart you can give the bigger seedlings the better. I like to use a nail clipper or small scissors to thin em out. I try to leave the tallest ones. The reason for cutting em instead of pulling em out to thin, is that sometimes at this point their roots are all tangled up and when you pull up a few, they all come up with the ones getting thinned and upsetting the roots hurts em. You can even just gradually thin em out over a few days too.

Plus, in those starters, all those roots are going to run out space fast.
 
OK, will do. Leave just one single plant at the end of thinning or a few?

I know on the maters, radishes, etc I'll need to thin them, I'm just mainly wondering about the herbs.
 
Wampus said:
OK, will do. Leave just one single plant at the end of thinning or a few?

I know on the maters, radishes, etc I'll need to thin them, I'm just mainly wondering about the herbs.
Click to expand...

I think you could get away with two or 3 plants per starter with the herbs till the go into the ground or pot. At that point you could thin one last time and leave the biggest one. I think herbs tend to do well in bunches though most times.
 
Great thread! I just bought one of those starter kits and a bunch of herbs last time I was at walmart. I figure I'll put a couple large pots outside and have fresh herbs. I hate buying dried and the fresh make the dried look cheap! So far what I've read is to consider putting thyme and mint in separate areas or they'll try to take over.

Thanks to the person that posted the pepper guide too, Jalapeno is usually more than I care for heat wise, maybe I'll try some milder varieties too.
 
plants

those look great. We have 3 trays we have started too. Most are peppers, but we have a few rows of tomatoes too. The problem we have, is we have started them and they are growing great, but we might possibly move to martinsville on June or sometime in the summer. So we can't plant them as we wouldn't be there to harvest. But, we can't keep them in their little tray either. We are growing some very cool peppers this year. I hope we don't have to give them up this year.

Jason
 
Pepper like it hot , For Z6 about mid June is good time to set out. If you do set them out early it will stunt their growth
 
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