A penny a pepper

[jackb]

The Marconi seeds were $4.10 for thirty seeds. One seed was planted on Christmas, and in early March there are fifteen peppers on the plant. The average seed cost was fourteen cents each, so each pepper costs about one cent each. And, the plant still has a long way to go. Ya gotta love gardening.

 

[digitS']

LOL

Jack, you surprise me and should inspire all of us! Knowledgeable and high tech . . . And yet, you admit on your gadget thread that economizing was your initial motivation to get into greenhouse production and hydroponics.

What you are showing us is that gardening is all about growing . . . GROWING!



Steve

 

[jackb]

LOL

Jack, you surprise me and should inspire all of us! Knowledgeable and high tech . . . And yet, you admit on your gadget thread that economizing was your initial motivation to get into greenhouse production and hydroponics.

What you are showing us is that gardening is all about growing . . . GROWING!



Steve

Steve,

I spent my entire working career as a purchasing agent, charged with cost reduction, and getting the most bang for the buck. It is just in my blood. My wife, however, says I am just cheap.

Jack

 

[so lucky]

jackb, I may have missed a post explaining this, but is Marconi a special pepper for greenhouse/hydroponic production? I seem to remember from years back that certain veggies don't pollinate in the greenhouse unless it is a special hybrid bred for that purpose. Is this a "phantom" memory, or has technology overcome that? Great job on the pepper plant. You inspire us.

 

[digitS']

Jack will have to answer your pollination question, So Lucky. I can tell you that I have had Marconi peppers many times in my outdoor garden and, there is a nice little stand of seedlings right here at my elbow (in the south window) right now!

I wish TEG would allow us to control text size. Then, I could go from the tiny, nearly-impossible-to-see word -- up to a HUGE, 4 letters/line word! GROW!

There aren't all that many things in the world that we can start with and not use up the resource. What do they say? "If it can't be grown, it must be mined."

Grab it, use it, burn it, grab some more, use that, burn that . . . . . Growing plants isn't like that. (Unless we are mining the nutrients in our soil.)

We wouldn't be able to stay around to watch it but a quick search turns up the information that a million seeds from a sequoia weigh only 8 pounds (.000128 ounce/seed). One sequoia tree from one of those seeds may weigh 2,600,000 pounds! If the sequoia is 2,000 years old, it has gained an average of 1,300 pounds each year. Jack, imagine if you could grow 1,300 pounds of food each year from one of your seeds!

digitS'

 

[so lucky]

It never ceases to amaze me when I look at the sheer volume and weight of all the WEEDS that grow in a season!

 

[jackb]

jackb, I may have missed a post explaining this, but is Marconi a special pepper for greenhouse/hydroponic production? I seem to remember from years back that certain veggies don't pollinate in the greenhouse unless it is a special hybrid bred for that purpose. Is this a "phantom" memory, or has technology overcome that? Great job on the pepper plant. You inspire us.

The Marconi is not a hybrid, but the Giant Marconi is. It is not specially bred for greenhouse production, but to be large and prolific. Peppers have perfect flowers, and need little, if any, help pollinating. I do nothing at all to pollinate the plant. As for tomatoes, I simply tap the trusses when the flowers are open, like a trumpet. The cucumbers I plant are parthenocarpic, bred for greenhouse growing, and need no pollination. Eggplant do need pollination and are, in my opinion, the most difficult to grow.

Jack

 

[so lucky]

Aha! I guess it was cucumber I was remembering from years ago, when the parthenocarpic type became available. Thanks for responding.

 

[jackb]

Aha! I guess it was cucumber I was remembering from years ago, when the parthenocarpic type became available. Thanks for responding.

There are varieties bred specifically for greenhouse growing, but that is because they do best in greenhouses. Tropic and Trust tomatoes are two that come to mind, as well as European forcing cucumbers, like Telegraph.