official veggie gardener's thread

[Gooberlx2]

Had some hot banana peppers on my burgers this weekend. Damn great taste and spice. The jalapenos were tasty too, but completely mild. :\

Is there a pruning guideline for spices - specifically dill, oregano and basil? My dill plant is starting to look like a tree. I just don't have enough use for it. My others are essentially flowering bushes at this point.

...makes the box look nice and full though. :awe:

 

[BoomerD]

Where would one get seeds for bhut jolokia?

x2. id be real interested in these.

http://www.google.com/search?source...TF-8&rlz=1T4GGLL_enUS336&q=bhut+jolokia+seeds

 

[spidey07]

Had some hot banana peppers on my burgers this weekend. Damn great taste and spice. The jalapenos were tasty too, but completely mild. :\

Is there a pruning guideline for spices - specifically dill, oregano and basil? My dill plant is starting to look like a tree. I just don't have enough use for it. My others are essentially flowering bushes at this point.

...makes the box look nice and full though. :awe:

Those you'll want to prune back to promote a bushy growth otherwise they'll bolt straight up and start flowering. You're trying to prevent it from flowering. I'll normally nip the flowers with my fingers but if it really starts flowing I'll prune the stem the flower is on but go down a leaf junction or two.

Basil really loves to be pruned. I've only got 5 plants but they are about 3 feet tall and 3 feet around.

 

[bignateyk]

Had some hot banana peppers on my burgers this weekend. Damn great taste and spice. The jalapenos were tasty too, but completely mild. :\

Is there a pruning guideline for spices - specifically dill, oregano and basil? My dill plant is starting to look like a tree. I just don't have enough use for it. My others are essentially flowering bushes at this point.

...makes the box look nice and full though. :awe:

I think dill just naturally goes to flower, and there isnt much you can do about it.

I prune the hell out of my basil though. I use a ton for pesto and stuff, so I naturally prune it alot. I have 10 basil plants, and I just prune off the top of every stem that starts to flower.

I've never pruned my oregano or thyme though beyond what I pluck off for use. Sage needs to be pruned pretty heavily though or it will become pretty woody.

 

[TraumaRN]

Going to start pickling tonight after dinner. Have enough cucumbers that almost my entire veggie bin is full in the fridge and that just what I picked from the last 2 days...not counting today at all. Going to make bread and butter, kosher dill and spicy dill.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Thanks for the advice. Sounds like I need to attack my box with some pruning shears.

 

[ElFenix]

once basil gets woody it stops producing the fragrant oils that make it so nice.

 

[meltdown75]

pulled off 4 jalapenos, some tomatoes and a green pepper last night. diced up a jalapeno and put it in my veggie stirfry... simply awesome flavour

i also cut off the peppers with BER. looks to have affected roughly half of the fruit. i threw down some plant food which contained 9% calcium... i haven't stopped into the store to pick up something specific yet so I am hoping this will do as a tie-over until I do.

my tomatoes got too tall... they're basically a giant wall of vegetation. 0_0

 

[TraumaRN]

my tomatoes got too tall... they're basically a giant wall of vegetation. 0_0

Two of my tomatos are as tall as my 8foot high privacy fence. Totally insane.

So I've put all my cantaloupe fruit into nylon slings so they dont break the vine or trellis. So far about 9 cantaloupe at least softball sized.

And made 7 jars hot pack pickles last night. Only problem is that hot apple vinegar kinda stinks up the house...but hopefully it'll be worth it.

 

[TraumaRN]

Up to 14 jars of pickles now. First batch turned out pretty good slightly salty but good. Very crisp.

Should be able to pickle another 6-7 quarts of pickles by Thursday. Currently selling them to neighbors and gave a couple to my parents and inlaws.

 

[spidey07]

I learned the hard way about brandywine tomatoes. This is my first try with them. I had a bunch that rotted on the vine, what a waste of 10-12 2 pound tomatoes. I was talking to my farmers market buddy about how yummy my brandwines were, incredibly sweet with no acid at all.

He immediately said - "yep, they be tasty but you have got to keep on them, one day they are ripe and ready to pick, the next they're rotten. You've got a pretty small picking window on the fruit, maybe 2-3 days.

Lesson learned, as soon as they have good color, regardless of how they feel, pull them. I normally pick my maters based on feel but with these I'll be picking them on flavor. I still follow my "store them in paper bags at room temp" and my maters keep for a week or longer just fine.

 

[BoomerD]

95% of the SunSugar tomatoes have been picked. We canned 6 quarts of pasta sauce and stewed tomatoes last week and I ate most of the rest. The Early Girl is still steadily producing. Those maters are ok, but just ok. Not nearly as good as the SunSugar ones. My German Johnson is starting to throw a few maters...finally. So far, only one has ripened, but a couple more should be ready in the next couple of days.

Cucumbers are coming fast and furious now. I get anywhere from 2-5 per day... I have to stay on them and pick them before they get too big, or the seeds are large and tough.

 

[DrPizza]

Ditto on the cucumber quantity per day. Beans! I finally had beans for a meal today. Tons of them are really short, but in a few spots, they were long. Gonna be a pita to pick them, because I'll have to go through multiple times. Watermelons are getting much bigger. Squashes finally set whatever kind of squashes they are. Lots of zucchini. I'm running out of people to give it to.

But the tomatoes. Okay, I was getting a couple of yellow tomatoes a day, for a few days. Suddenly, they've stopped ripening. The romas - I get about 1 ripe tomato a day, and have never seen a half ripe tomato. What gives with that? What's ideal tomato ripening weather?

 

[meltdown75]

i have too many cherry tomatoes 0_0

took off about 12 jaleps so far... also fixed my BER on my green peppers, they look fine now.

sweet 'nanner peppers are starting to turn a bit orange. i think they're ready

 

[HydroSqueegee]

the green beans grew fast. way too fast. by the time i picked the first batch they were pretty stringy. Still lots on there to pick. Gonna cook some up in butter tonight. mmmmm.

tomatoes are still going strong, but the critters have finally figured out they're there. Found quite a few half eaten ripe tomatoes sitting on the ground the past couple weeks. Getting tons of cherry tomatoes.

Finally got a couple good sized cucumbers. The plants came back from near death, but are starting to do what they did before; all the blossoms are gone and only a couple new fruits have started. I need to dig up the potatoes and the carrots have been ok. the first couple bites taste nice and carroty, but then it leaves a funky aftertaste in your mouth.

Just gonna ride out the tomatoes till october. Blight hasnt gotten horrible yet, but still present.

cant wait till the fall when i can throw a couple inches of compost on top of the soil. It needs the nutrients.

 

[BoomerD]

the green beans grew fast. way too fast. by the time i picked the first batch they were pretty stringy. Still lots on there to pick. Gonna cook some up in butter tonight. mmmmm.

tomatoes are still going strong, but the critters have finally figured out they're there. Found quite a few half eaten ripe tomatoes sitting on the ground the past couple weeks. Getting tons of cherry tomatoes.

Finally got a couple good sized cucumbers. The plants came back from near death, but are starting to do what they did before; all the blossoms are gone and only a couple new fruits have started. I need to dig up the potatoes and the carrots have been ok. the first couple bites taste nice and carroty, but then it leaves a funky aftertaste in your mouth.

Just gonna ride out the tomatoes till october. Blight hasnt gotten horrible yet, but still present.

cant wait till the fall when i can throw a couple inches of compost on top of the soil. It needs the nutrients.

Why wait until fall to add the compost? Unless you have no access to the soil, (plants too full/crowded) an addition of compost should be ok at anytime...OR, make some compost tea and water with that.


I get at least a dozen jalapenos and serrano peppers every week, and the unidentified little atomic peppers are very prolific...but they're so dammed hot I can barely eat them.

They LOOK like pepperoncini...but they're motherfucking HOT!

Edit...added photos of actual peppers

 

[TraumaRN]

Boomer-

I'm about 80-90 percent sure thats a Habanero pepper. Only reason you can probably eat them is because they don't look totally ripe yet in those pics

My garden I've got some Anaheim peppers but still very very mild. Not hot yet at all.

And another day another dozen+ cucumbers picked. Will pickle more tomorrow probably another 8 quarts or so. At the rate I'm making pickles I'm starting to sell them to co-workers/neighbors. $3 a quart seems to be a fair price. And they are very yummy, very crunchy pickles.

I ordered some Romanesco broccoli(fractal pattern FTW!!) and some watermelon radish, and romaine lettuce seeds for fall crops.

 

[Anubis]

i have too many cherry tomatoes 0_0

mine just started ripening, and they are gonna come fast and furious this year. last year they were quite insane. id seriously pick them before i went to work and then again when i came home

and yes thats either a Habanero or bonnet

 

[BoomerD]

Boomer-

I'm about 80-90 percent sure thats a Habanero pepper. Only reason you can probably eat them is because they don't look totally ripe yet in those pics

My garden I've got some Anaheim peppers but still very very mild. Not hot yet at all.

And another day another dozen+ cucumbers picked. Will pickle more tomorrow probably another 8 quarts or so. At the rate I'm making pickles I'm starting to sell them to co-workers/neighbors. $3 a quart seems to be a fair price. And they are very yummy, very crunchy pickles.

I ordered some Romanesco broccoli(fractal pattern FTW!!) and some watermelon radish, and romaine lettuce seeds for fall crops.

In spite of the heat, they're still very flavorful...and the flavor is unlike any habanero I've ever eaten...but it's been suggested before that they might be a green scotch bonnet.
When they first started producing fruit, I thought they might be an anaheim pepper...very similar to a small anaheim...but not the same.

edit...in spite of my denials...it's beginning to look like these ARE habanero peppers...they just haven't ripened yet.

Dammit! I like HOT, but I don't like nuclear hot.

 

[HydroSqueegee]

we moved into a new place and my compost is still cooking... so to speak.

 

[spidey07]

That pepper does look very habenero-ish. It's the folds.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Well, my Cherry Tomatoes are growing like crazy, but the damn birds are getting to them first. "The owls and pinwheels! They do nothing!" Oh well, I'll build a cover for next year.

My Roma and "Big Boy" tomatoes aren't doing well at all. I've tried adjusting the watering but they just continue to shrivel up. There are a fair number of green fruits, but I have a feeling they won't ever turn. :\

My pumpkin's vine has grown like 8 feet in the last 3 weeks. I swear I can almost watch it grow.

This has been my first year, and I'm fairly happy to how things turned out. I'll be building more beds for next year, tilling the shit outta my soil and mixing good stuff in. I plan on building a long trellis to grow grapes along the back fence and using strawberries for ground cover.

 

[meltdown75]

took a much-needed day off work today and am about to go tend to my garden.

:thumbsup:

my Heinz 1439 tomatoes are looking excellent, i've pulled several beauties off.

i let my Mom and Aunt do the first big harvest out of my garden last Wed... jaleps, sweet banana peppers, and 3-4 bags full of cherry tomatoes. it's a jungle right now but now that i have a couple hours to tend to it, it's going to look a lot better!!

 

[BoomerD]

I posted pics of the "mystery pepper" and plant on a dedicated "hot pepper" forum. At first, folks said "habanero," but once I posted pics of the plant, those same folks said the plant does NOT look like a habanero, and is possibly a habanero hybrid of some sort. I've had multiple requests for seeds...to which I responded..."Are we still talking about peppers?"

There are a couple that are turning yellow, almost lemon yellow. We'll see what they look like when they fully mature.

Much to my surprise, the sunsugar tomatoes have generated a new batch of blossoms and new maters. NOT what I was expecting from what seemed to be a determinate tomato.

I was all set to pull the plants and plant a couple of second-season crops such as beets...now, that's on hold.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

I got this organic fungicide/pesticide spray that I put on the garden last weekend. This seems to have contained the tomato fungus and quelled the attack of pests.

The cherry tomatoes are going crazy, picking every day.

The roma tomatos have done awesome as well. harvest probably a 1-2 dozen of those .

The big boy tomatos are ok. I've pulled 4 great ones but their aren't many other fruits although the plant itself is huge and healthy. I'm sure these are going to go crazy soon enough. I'm thinking the intense heat in july could have prevented some flowers from fruiting.

Peppers are looking big and health but not much fruit so far aside from about 6 cayennes.

I've pulled off only 2 squash so far but one of the two plants looks huge with a bunch of flowers so I may have 4 more squash by the weekend.

The bush cukes are just about dead. I've gotten about 6 out of them. but they never really "thrived" . I'm thinking too much heat.

The eggplants! oh my these are the biggest plants i've had. I've pulled to eggplants already and will have two more ready by the weekend. The second plant hasn't fruited yet but looks great with a few flowers right now.