Peppers

[digitS']

Six hours from where you live, @Crazy Gardner ??

I commute to a garden (minutes) and used to live one place and work weekends two hours away with a couple of overnight stays ... surely, you must have quite a bit of help at the other end of the road and infrequent visits ...

We usually ask about a person's general location but six hours suggests very different environments.

Steve

 

[Ridgerunner]

I agree, too many variables to guess a quantity, but I find hot peppers tend to outproduce the sweet peppers by a lot, especially if they are kind of small peppers. With any luck, a lot.

My son had a sweet pepper that overwintered outside down here and is producing pretty well. If you can bring those potted peppers in over winter they should do well.

 

[Crazy Gardner]

Six hours from where you live, @Crazy Gardner ??

I commute to a garden (minutes) and used to live one place and work weekends two hours away with a couple of overnight stays ... surely, you must have quite a bit of help at the other end of the road and infrequent visits ...

We usually ask about a person's general location but six hours suggests very different environments.

Steve

I live in Southern Ontario, and my Dad's camp is on Manitoulin Island. I drive about 2.5 hours and take a ferry from Tobermory to the island and am left with an hour and 15 minute drive to the camp. It's a short season, we got lucky and had everything in the last week of May, which is likely a couple weeks early, our last frost date was May 17th this year, but it was cold when we planted, so lost about 1/5th of my peppers early on, then battled against an infestation of flea beetles which devastated my beans, and were attacking my tomatoes and potatoes and peppers, along with my broccoli, Brussel sprouts, and cauliflower. Was really hard to get rid of them once they were established.

 

[seedcorn]

I put the plastic tags by every variety as I wanted to find out which bell did better for me. One is significantly better.....think I can find tag one?
Melrose doe bear heavy. Wish I had the patience to allow them to turn red. Once full size, they are eaten.....

 

[Crazy Gardner]

My 8 year old son and I just spent half an hour counting blossoms on those 2 potted-together chilli pepper plants. 417.

 

[Crazy Gardner]

More waiting from afar. Having separation anxiety, I miss being around the patch. Dad came back today, giving it water sure makes a difference, he's been dosing it every couple of days for a couple of hours. Really the biggest change over almost a 2 week period that I've seen.

Peppers have really sprung up. Should be a good crop.

Tomatoes are thickening up, Dad had a hard time getting in between rows to prune down low.

Potatoes were between Dad's waist and chest, I think this is the highest I've ever had them grow.

Beans & carrots doing well, dad said some carrots were almost half an inch.

Maturing sweet banana peppers.

Looks like a jalapeno.

 

[thistlebloom]

That's absolutely beautiful @Crazy Gardner .

 

[Crazy Gardner]

That's absolutely beautiful @Crazy Gardner .

Thanks very much, it has been a long drawn out effort, after our garden failed so badly from the drought we had last summer, I wanted really badly to correct the problems and build on the successes we did have, gardening can be such a simile for life sometimes.
I just can't get over the change in the peppers, they have come the farthest since transplant, I wasn't sure any would survive the low 40 degree temps at the end of May. I had a hard time hardening a ton of my plants, but mostly the peppers. I think if I look back, I have pictures of the day after transplant, and almost every pepper was 2 to 4" high with 4 to 6 leaves. They all had sunburn, and I was most certain I had killed them, almost cried when I saw how badly they looked the day I had to come home.

I don't want to delve too deeply into my beliefs of where society is heading, but for me, having a pantry full of food in the fall is more then just a blessing, it's what we should all strive towards. My great great grandparents farmed the land I'm gardening on about 150 years ago in what must have been the worst conditions imaginable. Stones everywhere. Manitoulin is well known for its debris fields of moraine, left over from galciers past. Every square inch of land had from pebble sized to boulder sized stones. It was all cleared by hand back then. Our lot is the cleanest of the stretch of 5 lots on our road, and I am thankful for it. I still removed 25 or so wheelbarrow loads last year and at least that many more this year, we have a 3' high wall about 50' long at the back of the property now.
Many of you wouldn't be familiar with Manitoulin Island, but it is the world's largest fresh water island. It is an almost magical place to me, last spring driving back and forth so much, I got to see the changes in the colours of the leaves bit by bit. I told my Dad, that there seems to be a kind of green unique to the area, it's such a fresh, vibrant colour that only last a few short weeks, but it is so nice to know that nature is telling me that it's nearly planting time with its built-in clock.
This June, I was able to take my middle son up with me, and mentioned to him my theory, which he didn't seem all that keen on. We did have a great time, got fishing even, and my son caught a 4 lb lake trout. On the way back home, out of the blue he was looking out the window, and said to me, how I was right about that special colour of green. I really smiled inside and out.

Evan proud of his catch.

Me, proud of my boy.

A couple of Manitoulin sunsets from my Dad's porch.

 

[Crazy Gardner]

Amen! I also don't like the monopoly they have on the home gardening industry right now....can't find a single commercial outlet that doesn't stock only Bonnie plants. I go to small mom and pop nursery owners now if needing bedding plants.

Hungarian wax always does well for us here and I love jalapeno as well. Last year tried habaneros and they produced around 100 peppers per plant! Going to try a few of those again this year, as they added such a good flavor and just the right amount of heat to my fire jam.

This is fantastic to hear! I have habaneros this year, I don't know how many plants I have, but the salsa recipe I use calls for them, and I skipped them last year because I didn't grow any, and heard a lot about how they had as much flavour as heat to many dishes.

 

[seedcorn]

Happy son, happy dad. Life doesn’t get any better.