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.

 

[AMKuska]

The moon beam grape tomatoes were up this morning! I only planted them Sunday. That's some fast germination!

 

[digitS']

regional peppers

THAT would be great!

moon beam grape tomatoes

Well, the New Moon was on the 1st so ... there you go.

 

[AMKuska]

I have such a wonderful neighborhood! I followed the advice of my neighbor and plucked a sucker off my Tiny Tomatoes and got it set in a pot. If it grows too big, he says to just take a new cutting and start again until it's time for it to go out.

He also showed me his pineapple plants, gave me a giant Serano, and his overwintered peppers so I know how to trim mine. Here's some pictures from today.

Pepper prepped for overwintering in my storage area.

New Tiny tomato some day?

Moon beans! Barely 3 days since planted!

 

[AMKuska]

More little tomatoes are up! I'm planning to go through my seeds today and see if I have anything else I want to plant. It's so exciting.

 

[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.

Going back to this @flowerbug I've had a chance to look into this, and I think you may be on to something. I think we humans tend towards extremes. We learn that 'organic material' is what we need and that rocks in the soil block root growth or something, and we go crazy trying to eradicate rocks and pile on organic material.

I think striking a balance between all things could be what the soil needs. According to my research, adding some rock dust to the soil might help. I'm going to try and focus on balancing everything this year, not too much of anything, and record everything in this thread daily to try and pinpoint when things go wrong.

 

[ducks4you]

EWW, ERR, you take the cake for early 2025 posting!!

 

[flowerbug]

Going back to this @flowerbug I've had a chance to look into this, and I think you may be on to something. I think we humans tend towards extremes. We learn that 'organic material' is what we need and that rocks in the soil block root growth or something, and we go crazy trying to eradicate rocks and pile on organic material.

I think striking a balance between all things could be what the soil needs. According to my research, adding some rock dust to the soil might help. I'm going to try and focus on balancing everything this year, not too much of anything, and record everything in this thread daily to try and pinpoint when things go wrong.

i still recommend using some of your subsoil as a trial if you can. rock dust will be ok but it isn't clay or loam and you do want some water retention capabilities that come with them. mostly sandy soils get dry too fast, hmm, but then again perhaps that is ok where you are at!?

i dunno, that's why i encourage people to try things and see what happens. my ideas of what your garden soils and conditions might be like may be off enough that i could be missing something important. and that is also why if i can i prefer to be able to visit someone's garden before giving them advice. they may not be telling me about the possibilities of tree roots, shade from a tree or other issues that a site visit would make clearer.

oh, and of course organic materials do help sandier soils hold more moisture so you are probably covered by what you already have available in that regards...