Gardening pics, hacks, successes, and or failures

[wildmanyeah]

 

[Alex_c]

Made a batch of cowboy candy with the Jalapeno and Black Hungarian peppers. 4 plants yielded a full gallon bag of peppers which turned into 4 pint jars of candy. The leftover syrup is absolutely killer on wings and everything. I attached the recipe, if anyone is looking interested. I added a tsp of salt and didn’t add celery seed.


We also made a good sized batch of tomato sauce with the surplus that we couldn’t eat. Still have another 15 lbs ripening in boxes that will get turned into sauce.

 

[JWS]

Picked approx half the sweet potatoes last night. First time growing them, I’m calling this a win.

 

[JWS]

Picked approx half the sweet potatoes last night. First time growing them, I’m calling this a win.

@tubber asked for a little write up on the sweet potatoes….

As I mentioned, this is the first time I’ve grown them, so I may not be the best source of info, and anything I know I picked up from a Google search.

I took 2 grocery store sweet potatoes last January and suspended them in a mason jar half full of water, using tooth picks. They sprouted roots and eventually shot up slips (short vines). I just left them in a south facing window next to the woodstove and made sure the jars didn’t run dry. Once the slips were about 6” long you pop them off, give them their own water jar and they’ll grow legs. I kept growing slips until may, I think. Once the slip jars got overloaded I would transplant the oldest ones into potting soil, and put under small LED grow lights, still next to the woodstove. I forgot exactly, but sometime in late may or early June all the slips got transplanted into the the garden, loose rich soil. I really had no idea what to expect, but the vines took off, some 12’ long. I’ve read sweet potatoes can be quite pest deterrent on their own, but I also had a bunch of marigolds planted with them.

We’re on gabriola, with full southern exposure, so we get pretty warm in the summer, which is critical (I read) for sweet potatoes. After pulling half of what I planted and yielding what I did, I’ll be doing these again. If I ever get to building a greenhouse I’d think they’d do even better in there. The remainder of this years crop will stay in the ground until we get a light frost.

tubber, feel free to PM if you have any specific questions, but like I said, Google knows more than I do

 

[Aces]

My better half with her summer project

 

[Sea Chaser]

My better half with her summer project

My wife has tomato plants that look like that too

 

[JWS]

My better half with her summer project

What flavour?

 

[Aces]

What flavour?

Bigger 3 are Blueberry delight and the short one is Texada time warp

 

[Alex_c]

Another pic of most of this year’s pepper haul, not including the 4 lbs that got turned into cowboy candy. These will be going into the fermenter today. Still have a couple more lbs on the plants, but first frost is approaching fast. Hopefully the rest will ripen in time. Either way, they’ll be fermented for sauce too once harvested. 11lbs total in that picture. Total yield this year for 15 plants should be over 20 lbs.

2x Aji Rico
3x Red Habanero
2x Black Hungarian
2x Ghost
2x Jalapeño
2x Mad Hatter (were supposed to be Scotch Bonnet - thanks a lot Westcoast Seeds! )
2x Super Chili (the birdseye looking ones)

 

[walleyes]

Another pic of most of this year’s pepper haul, not including the 4 lbs that got turned into cowboy candy. These will be going into the fermenter today. Still have a couple more lbs on the plants, but first frost is approaching fast. Hopefully the rest will ripen in time. Either way, they’ll be fermented for sauce too once harvested. 11lbs total in that picture. Total yield this year for 15 plants should be over 20 lbs.

2x Aji Rico
3x Red Habanero
2x Black Hungarian
2x Ghost
2x Jalapeño
2x Mad Hatter (were supposed to be Scotch Bonnet - thanks a lot Westcoast Seeds! )
2x Super Chili (the birdseye looking ones)

Those look awesome, man thats a nice harvest. None of my hot peppers worked out this year, they didn't even flower. Our garden didn't produce overly well on anything this year other than the root crops as was common in our area this year. Many have said it was do to the heavy smoke we were under most of the summer and thus the sun was not able to get through and do what the sun has to do.

Would be great of you could walk us through and post us through that fermenting process and then into the sauce. I would really like to see that.

 

[ChilliSpoons]

So I harvested all my pepper plants last weekend. A bunch of jalapeños, sweet banana peppers and a few other sweet peppers. I had them sitting on the window sill to finish ripening. I had made a few jars of pickled jalapeños but want to know what to do with the remaining peppers? The skins are now starting to go soft.

 

[Alex_c]

Those look awesome, man thats a nice harvest. None of my hot peppers worked out this year, they didn't even flower. Our garden didn't produce overly well on anything this year other than the root crops as was common in our area this year. Many have said it was do to the heavy smoke we were under most of the summer and thus the sun was not able to get through and do what the sun has to do.

Would be great of you could walk us through and post us through that fermenting process and then into the sauce. I would really like to see that.

Working on it now. Will post some pics and a write up of the process!

Sorry to hear your peppers didn’t work out. They’re definitely a labour of love, because in the end it’s a lot cheaper to just buy them at the grocery store! We were lucky to not get too much smoke in the lower mainland, and great pepper growing weather. I fed them frequently with bone meal, alaskan fish fertilizer, organic granular all-purpose, and a liquid 0-10-10. First year of experimenting with heavy fertilizer use, and I have to say it was worth it.

 

[Rain City]

Another pic of most of this year’s pepper haul, not including the 4 lbs that got turned into cowboy candy. These will be going into the fermenter today. Still have a couple more lbs on the plants, but first frost is approaching fast. Hopefully the rest will ripen in time. Either way, they’ll be fermented for sauce too once harvested. 11lbs total in that picture. Total yield this year for 15 plants should be over 20 lbs.

2x Aji Rico
3x Red Habanero
2x Black Hungarian
2x Ghost
2x Jalapeño
2x Mad Hatter (were supposed to be Scotch Bonnet - thanks a lot Westcoast Seeds! )
2x Super Chili (the birdseye looking ones)

Have you ever come across calabrian chilies in your search?

 

[Alex_c]

Have you ever come across calabrian chilies in your search?

Like these?

Rosetta's Calabrian Pepper

Capsicum annuum This variety came to us in the form of a few dried peppers in a box from Rosetta Costantino in California. She generously shared some of her summer harvest with us after we long searched for the seed. A local chef had been asking about a Calabrian hot pepper he has worked with in...

kitchentableseedhouse.ca

 

[Rain City]

Like these?

Rosetta's Calabrian Pepper

Capsicum annuum This variety came to us in the form of a few dried peppers in a box from Rosetta Costantino in California. She generously shared some of her summer harvest with us after we long searched for the seed. A local chef had been asking about a Calabrian hot pepper he has worked with in...

kitchentableseedhouse.ca

Yes

 

[Alex_c]

Found them with a quick google search, do you want me to grow them for you too?

 

[Rain City]

Found them with a quick google search, do you want me to grow them for you too?

I've never ordered seeds online. We usually just buy plants from the store every year. My family always grew these though and I've never been able to find the seeds or the plants at the store.

 

[Alex_c]

I've never ordered seeds online. We usually just buy plants from the store every year. My family always grew these though and I've never been able to find the seeds or the plants at the store.

Pepper seeds seem to always be a gamble. A lot of people got hosed on their jalapeño seeds this year, and I heard of people in the states getting mad hatters instead of scotch bonnets like I did. Makes me think there’s probably a handful of seed producers that supply the rest of the sellers.

Luckily, if you only grow one type of a given species (in this case C. Annuum), you don’t have to worry about cross pollination and can save seeds.

Buying plants is a crap shoot in terms of selection. From talking to the folks at Garden Works, they don’t know until the start of the season what varieties they will get from their suppliers. I will usually get some plants after I have started my seedlings, depending on what I have growing, what’s available, and what plants look healthy at the nursery.

 

[Alex_c]

Here’s a pic of my homemade fermenter from last year. I used a gallon jar, an airlock, a sanitized jam jar full of brine as a weight, and a plastic food container as a lid. This year I have 4x the amount, and I will be posting a thread detailing my process soon.

 

[Sea Chaser]

Hey garlic growing experts . I planted some garlic maybe 2 weeks ago? I see a few of them starting to sprout . Is that an issue ? Did I plant too early ? What do I do now?
Thanks In advance