Amkuska's 2025 Garden

[flowerbug]

Thank you for the tips! I could probably be more familiar with soil types. what can I do to make my soil more mineral based? Right now I imagine it's pretty heavy in organic materials, thanks to the abundance of chicken compost, vegetable compost, and fallen leaves I have.

This year I'm growing Magnum Habaneros, pablanos, and bell peppers. (Bell peppers, in particular, never do well.) I have had great success with "Grandpa's Home" which is a siberian pepper that is not at all bothered by growing in the PNW. It'd probably grow in a crack in the sidewalk and produce a giant haul.

more mineral based would mean less organic materials. does your area have garden soil deeper than a shovel? dig down a shovel and take the soil from below that depth and perhaps that would have less organic stuff in it. use that to plant some of your starts into of each variety and see how it goes.

i also wonder how much influence your general area has - if you don't get enough heat and sunlight some peppers aren't going to do well with those kinds of conditions. i'm glad you've found some that work and that's a good start.

i've definitely had some green pepper plants that did not like being heavily amended with my worm castings - i got plenty of leaves but very little in the way of production at first - i think they came around later in the season and did ok eventually, but it was nothing like what i would consider a normal year for those plants. it was not a disaster because it was not all of them. i'm very happy that the groundhogs pretty much ignore the pepper plants - they're the plants i worry the least about out in the gardens other than the garlic.

 

[AMKuska]

more mineral based would mean less organic materials. does your area have garden soil deeper than a shovel? dig down a shovel and take the soil from below that depth and perhaps that would have less organic stuff in it. use that to plant some of your starts into of each variety and see how it goes.

i also wonder how much influence your general area has - if you don't get enough heat and sunlight some peppers aren't going to do well with those kinds of conditions. i'm glad you've found some that work and that's a good start.

i've definitely had some green pepper plants that did not like being heavily amended with my worm castings - i got plenty of leaves but very little in the way of production at first - i think they came around later in the season and did ok eventually, but it was nothing like what i would consider a normal year for those plants. it was not a disaster because it was not all of them. i'm very happy that the groundhogs pretty much ignore the pepper plants - they're the plants i worry the least about out in the gardens other than the garlic.

It may well be the area. We've gotten some hot, sunny days, but mostly it's pretty dismal. My husband was able to grow his Carolina Reapers (from a healthy sized purchased plant) to enormous trees by keeping them in my grow tent. I wonder if I could make regional peppers a breeding project.