pepperhead212's 2024 garden

[MissS]

@BlackKrim The Magellan series has large blossoms and get about 14" tall. They cost a little more but are gorgeous. The Queeny series get about 2.5 ft tall.

[BlackKrim]

@pepperhead212. Thanks! That colour, a sort of antique red, is gorgeous. I think I will order those seeds. The reviews are positive.

[BlackKrim]

@BlackKrim The Magellan series has large blossoms and get about 14" tall. They cost a little more but are gorgeous. The Queeny series get about 2.5 ft tall.

Many thanks. I'd never heard of the Magellan hybrid, but it sounds to be up my alley. Large blossoms on a short stalk - kind of unusual.

[BlackKrim]

but I only grow the tall Benary's Giants,

I grew them when I had a large garden. They are just magnificent and trouble-free. Got the seeds from Johnny's.

[pepperhead212]

I got even more cherries today, mostly from one Negro Azteka plant, that was late, because it broke off early, in a storm, so I just stuck it back in the soil, and re-rooted it! It was later, and I've been picking a few ripe ones from that every time, but this time I had a huge number of ripe ones on it, and it was spread out so much, through the eggplants, that they were hard to find. I only picked the tomatoes from 3 plants - that one, the Rosella, and the Ron's Carbon Copy, and at least 80% are the Negro Azteka. As I noted with the other two plants, they were not true bred, and this is even different, and better, in that I don't see all the splits; in fact, I didn't see any! So I bagged a couple of the stems, and I'll save these seeds, instead of the others, though I picked the better of the two plants over there.
Almost 4 quarts of cherry tomatoes from 3 plants, mostly Negro Aztekas, a few red Rosellas, and the larger ones are Ron's Carbons. 9-8 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Here's more I got from other plants 3 days ago, that I missed.
Close to 2 quarts of just the Sunsugar, 9-5 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Mostly tomatoes, but a few beans on the bottom, and the 3 eggplants one the top. 9-5 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

More of the smaller tomatoes, in addition to the Sunsugar, from earlier, and a couple of cukes. 9-5 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

A few eggplants today, too, plus the ones a few days ago.
Eggplant (and a few beans under them), from 9-8 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

And my last (almost) Thai peppers, plus some habs.
Almost the end of the Thai peppers, plus a few habs. 9-8 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[PlainJane]

What a haul. Lots of processing on deck, I imagine.

[pepperhead212]

Today I harvested the only 2 winter melons I had out there - the second vine had what looked like a butternut, and only one, on a really long vine, and never even saw another female flower! That long winter melon vine is getting more flowers, though I don't know if I'll get any more in this time. Those winter melons are heavy, for their size - 81 and 91 oz, and the butternut was only 28.5 oz.
2 winter melons, this variety is Snow Lady. The butternut was a seed from the same packet, and only one fruit on the vine. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[JayneR13]

By any chance did your butternut vine get powdery mildew? That'll definitely cut down on the harvest! But I've also grown many winter squash varieties that simply didn't produce. One year I had 5 vines and got 1 small squash! Of course I was growing them in containers with potting mix, and they likely weren't getting enough nutrients to do well. That was the year I learned that potting mix isn't actually soil LOL. Garden and learn, right?

[pepperhead212]

@JayneR13 That butternut, or whatever it was (the seed was in with the winter melon seeds, a different genus), didn't have powdery mildew, and none of the actual butternuts did either. But it came down with some blight, or something, that wiped it out, shortly after the fruit ripened. It reminded me of those butternuts I grew years ago, that were short vine, and I only got one fruit/vine, and they were wiped out by a similar blight, that turned them totally browned. I had sprayed that vine with that mix of Surround and potassium bicarbonate, as a prophylactic, which seems to work on the butternut vines, and that one on the trellis was easy to get the leaves coated top and bottom, yet whatever it was, the potassium bicarbonate didn't work against.

[BlackKrim]

That was the year I learned that potting mix isn't actually soil LOL.

I know, I know. It is a sad state of affairs.

[pepperhead212]

More tomatoes yesterday, mostly the Superfantastik, Early Blue Ribbon, and Amish Gold Slicer. I'm getting about the same amount of beans every day; the eggplants sort of slowed down, as far as how large they are growing, but there are still a bunch of them! Fall crops are starting to take off now, and before I know it will be time to put the garlic in!

About 8 qts of the larger tomatoes ripening, plus a few of the beans. 9-11 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[pepperhead212]

Today I planted some more of those brassica seedlings, that I had started about 3 weeks ago - a couple of the napa variety "Merlot" were replacements, as two of the first ones were in bad shape, and I figured they weren't going to make it. I also planted 6 bok choys, and 3 wu choy and 3 late choy sum. Later, I planted some seeds in the raised bed for the the wu choy, and choy sum, as well as some radishes, stem mustard (used for Szechwan preserved vegetable - bolted too fast in spring), and some green onions (for spring). I also cut the length of Agribon, to cover the hoops with, as soon as I started seeing sprouts, plus I have some kohlrabi seedlings, to put in before covering everything.

Soon, I have to figure out where I will plant my garlic and shallots this season. Also, I am going to do some experiments with half of some of the varieties, and do some vernalization, or chilling in the fridge for 4 weeks, before planting. I'll find out if the chilled ones do any better.

[GoDawgs]

I envy your ability to grow greens like that. Here they are a flea beetle magnet. It's like putting out a call for all the flea beetles in the world to come help themselves. Spraying plants and surrounding soil only helps temporarily as they will be back to shot hole everything. Covers don't seem to work either so I just don't grow any greens except the tougher ones like kale and collards. They even ravage greens I try to grow on tables on the front porch. That's a good 7' off the ground.

[pepperhead212]

Yeah, flea beetles are a problem here, but more in the spring, and certain greens, especially attractive to them. Napa can be one of these, and I've used it as an actual "magnet", in areas to attract them away from other plants, and after they would become covered, I'd spray them with some pyrethrin, to kill them, and in a short time, they would start covering them again, and I'd repeat it. Slowly, they would disappear in the area, and I wouldn't see them, and the plants they would be a problem on, in the warmer season - the eggplants the main ones - the Surround I use on religiously. Funny thing is, when those Napa cabbage plants get covered with those things, the purple varieties don't get touched, except by a stray bug here and there. Slugs I have to worry about more, but I put some sluggo down, frequently.

[JayneR13]

Better living through chemistry! And sacrificial gardens date back a few thousand years. Interesting that the flea beetles attack one variety but not the other. Cabbage moths are the same way. They'll attack green cabbage but not purple. Go figure. And plant more purple!

[pepperhead212]

Today I took up the 40' long 4' wide strip of plastic, that was solarizing that strip all summer, for my garlic, which is where that will go this fall, in 3 strips. I also sprayed some "safe" Weed Zap weed killer, on some things in the area - I'll wait a few days, maybe until after it rains here (finally!), and loosens it up, as it is rock hard now. I picked some smaller tomatoes, a few eggplants, but not much else.
About 3 quarts of Bronze Torch hybrid (left) and Juliet hybrid, 9-15. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

5 Ichiban eggplants, and 1 of each of the other varieties. 9-15 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

On the topic of herbs, and other seeds, yesterday I saw a PBS show by accident - it was on when I turned the TV on, so I rewound it to the beginning, and watched it all - Movers and Makers - City Of Soil: A look at Philadelphia's Urban Agriculture. I couldn't stop watching it, and how some of these people were getting people into farming, when they had "never touched any soil in their life"! And I noticed this seed company, I had never seen before, that is sort of a local non-profit company, that actually sells seeds from many different farmers, and when I checked the website, I saw a number of unusual seeds I have seen before, and some I've gotten before, but not had luck with, so I tried them again! Every seed pack is $5.00 - not super cheap, but most with a good number of seeds, and it was only $4.54 for shipping 8 packs. Here's the link:
https://trueloveseeds.com/collections/v ... and-grains

The unusual herbs I got are HUACATAY - a South American herb, that is in the Marigold family, and is also called "Black Mint", and has flavor similar to cilantro, with other flavors. Tried this year's ago, but no germination.
QUILLQUIÑA - a.k.a. Bolivian Coriander. Another South American herb, also used in southern Mexico, which is what interests me.

SHEVID - a.k.a. Persian Dill. Piqued my interest, to see if it will be more for leaves, than seeds.

LEBANESE ZA'ATAR - The true za'atar, I got from Baker Creek years ago, but didn't do well, so I'll try again.

Another unusual thing that I ordered, that I grew one variety of years ago, from Trade Winds Fruit, was Pea Eggplant this one is
DARK PEA EGGPLANT - this one from Central America, and only 4-5' tall, compared to the one I grew that was over 8' tall! Similar bitter flavor, which I only use for Thai curries.

Another thing I ordered was a MIZUNA LANDRACE - a broadleaf variety I've never seen before, so I had to try it. There were a couple of other things I just ordered as replacements, for old seeds, not unusual ones, like the rest.

[PlainJane]

I’ve ordered from True Love Seeds; good company.

[pepperhead212]

Good to know. It's strange I hadn't heard about it, and it's from this area. I like the way they describe the plants, and tell how the seeds are saved, and how far apart they are kept from similar varieties, when it matters, like the half mile apart for the brassicas. I've never seen a website like that!

Update - they just emailed me saying that the order is being shipped already!

[Wildcat82]

Last week I bought a Mexican Mint Marigold plant at a local nursery. I think it is the same plant as HUACATAY. According to the label at the Garden Center, it's supposed to stand high heat and drought so I figured I would give it a try. The leaves have an anise/cilantro/mint flavor that I find intriguing. Hopefully you get some seedlings to grow. I think you'll like the flavor.

I tried to grow Vietnamese coriander this past spring but it didn't like our hot dry climate so I figured I'd try something else.

BTW I love hearing from gardeners trying new plants from around the world so congrats to you. There's a lot of unique flavors out there people aren't aware of.

[pepperhead212]

Interesting that you mention Vietnamese coriander - I have some growing in my front flowerbed, in between some of that red epazote. Surprisingly, I saw it at a local nursery in spring, when I went over to get a habanero plant, since my seeds did not germinate well this year. Normally, I never even went there for anything, but a friend told me they get unusual things there, and not expensive. The hot summer I had didn't bother it, but not as hot as Texas! I took a couple of cuttings and started them in that box out on my deck, along with some basils, which I wanted some new plants to get some fresh cuttings from, late in the season, when I start my hydroponics late in October. I even tried the rau ram in the hydro years ago, but it was one of those aphid magnets, that aphids would appear on from nowhere, yet never once on it outside! Spearmint, sage, and a couple others this happens with, too.
Rau Ram, a.k.a. Vietnamese coriander, in my front flowerbed. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Rau Ram, Sawtooth basil, and Dolce Fresca basil, in the Jr Earthbox, all started from cuttings in early August. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

I planted a few kolibri seedlings out there today, but that was all that was ready.