Devv-2018-Loving life in the dirt

Devv · Apr 20, 2018

TrentL said:
You have peppers.. like, actual peppers, on plants... We still have ... frost.

I was getting some equipment ready at the farm today and it was BITING cold. Wind was gusting 40+ mph and it was in the lower 30's this morning. Nasty, nasty, NASTY.

I might as well just build more buildings and grow everything indoors. I don't think winter is ever going to end up here!

Plants look very healthy, man. Those are doing fantastic. Love the 1 month comparison shots!

Thanks Trent!

Glad to see you're doing well with the farm venture! Gotta give you credit, you doing this with an already full plate and all. But I feel this may be a good brain release for you. My garden certainly is

Devv · Apr 20, 2018

Walchit said:
Yeah the one month shots are crazy. And I too like looking at tomatoes, mine are bout 2-3 inches tall right now!

Thanks Andy!

I did a quick walk through between work and running LB into Lytle (2 towns over) for a few groceries. The maters are starting to grow out of the cages

I may just trim them back this season; but I need to read up on that.

Devv · Apr 20, 2018

Thegreenchilemonster said:
Those Aji Limo pods will initially turn a very dark purple, then go through a bunch of color changes to finally end up turning a dark red. It is possible for them to end up as yellow for the final color, but that is pretty rare, based on my experience. The only person I know that happened to is Tcten. Aji Limo sold commercially in Peru is primarily red, but a bag bought at an international market imported from Peru, will usually have a few yellow pods in it.

Thanks for the input Dale, you may well have sent me the seeds

Devv · Apr 20, 2018

Masher said:
Dude...
Now that's an update. Congrats you're killing it!!!

Looks like I better pop on over to that soil amendment thread.

Happy growing

Thanks Dan!

Rick, AKA Stickman got me going in this direction. I expect better results over the next few years as the soil Ph gets into the sweet zone, allowing more nutrients to become available to the plants. I Not only do the plants look better but I'm seeing larger peppers. I've never been able to get close to the huge bell peppers they sell in the store. If thing continue nicely we'll hit it this year...

Devv · Apr 20, 2018

Bhuter said:
Hey Scott! Are your Pumpkin BBG's getting big? I'm hoping they grow true for you because they are an awesome pepper. Fruity and darn hot!!!

Hi Adam!

I'll have to go look. I have 65-80 plants, most in the dirt. If no pods have set yet, they should this week. The weather forecast looks great

Devv · Apr 20, 2018

stettoman said:
Dale, Mine were starting out the purple, but out of 3 plants only one wound up red. The seeds were stowaways with a pack of Peruvian-sourced Aji Amarillo seed from PaulG. These were the most popular peppers out of my garden to my friends and family, They were excellent, the powder continues to be!

Scott, so impressive! Looks like you finally cloned my black-muck primordial ooze!!

Thanks Eric!

My first time for these and quite a few of the varieties. Good to know you liked them! I have 2 plants going

Devv · Apr 20, 2018

Thegreenchilemonster said:
Niiice!

Aji Limo is one of my favorite peppers, I'm glad to see them making an appearance in Devv's garden this year.

I'm now stoked about these peppers! I can't wait to see how they do. Thanks for the input as to how they ripen

Devv · Apr 20, 2018

I have 3 pics from last Sunday that got bumped, and am just now posting them. I don't know where the week went.

Having a job is a good thing, but it gets in the way of my fun...LOL

Adam's 7 pot Cinder Caramel.

LB grows Pineapples, she has 5 plants with babies this year! She re-potted most of them over the last 2 weeks.

stickman · Apr 20, 2018

Devv said:
Thanks Andy!

I did a quick walk through between work and running LB into Lytle (2 towns over) for a few groceries. The maters are starting to grow out of the cages I may just trim them back this season; but I need to read up on that.

Hope this'll be helpful with figuring out suckering your 'maters.

I usually start suckering when the plants are about as tall as the fellow shows in the vid. He mentions some don't seen to grow well for him... I'd check and see if there's something chewing on the roots like Crickets or Grubs.

Devv · Apr 20, 2018

stickman said:
Hope this'll be helpful with figuring out suckering your 'maters.

I usually start suckering when the plants are about as tall as the fellow shows in the vid. He mentions some don't seen to grow well for him... I'd check and see if there's something chewing on the roots like Crickets or Grubs.

Hi Rick!

I did do that to them when they were that size; and of course they got away from me now. They grow so fast! That and I've been busy with side projects, new roof on the shed. The rain water system. Keeping up the maintenance on 3 vehicles....I need to mow the acre, plus shred 19 more...it never ends here...we bought paint for the outside of the house in November, it's still in the shop...LOL.

One thing is I'm never bored

The plants are approaching the 3.5 to 4 foot height now. And I know they hit a spot, or a time in their growth period where they're still setting maters that never will reach maturity. I want to stop them soon from the continued setting, so they will put the rest of their energy into the existing fruits. Now, none of the growth is hanging down after growing over the top of the cages. I'm guessing 2 more weeks before I top them. It will be my first time trying this...

stickman · Apr 20, 2018

Devv said:
Hi Rick!

I did do that to them when they were that size; and of course they got away from me now. They grow so fast! That and I've been busy with side projects, new roof on the shed. The rain water system. Keeping up the maintenance on 3 vehicles....I need to mow the acre, plus shred 19 more...it never ends here...we bought paint for the outside of the house in November, it's still in the shop...LOL.

One thing is I'm never bored

The plants are approaching the 3.5 to 4 foot height now. And I know they hit a spot, or a time in their growth period where they're still setting maters that never will reach maturity. I want to stop them soon from the continued setting, so they will put the rest of their energy into the existing fruits. Now, none of the growth is hanging down after growing over the top of the cages. I'm guessing 2 more weeks before I top them. It will be my first time trying this...

Ah... see, the thing about Indeterminate tomatoes is that they'll put out a sucker at every node and each sucker will become another stem. The trick is to pick your ideal number of stems... I'd say no more than three but you pick your own number... and just keep removing suckers as they pop out. Also, just because you removed them once before doesn't mean you won't be back later to pick off more. Tomatoes are as bad as zucchini for being the plants that keep on giving. [emoji6]

I get that you've got a full plate brother, we're in similar circumstances here. Cheers!

Sent from my SM-S327VL using Tapatalk

Bhuter · Apr 21, 2018

Devv said:
I have 3 pics from last Sunday that got bumped, and am just now posting them. I don't know where the week went.

Having a job is a good thing, but it gets in the way of my fun...LOL

Adam's 7 pot Cinder Caramel.

LB grows Pineapples, she has 5 plants with babies this year! She re-potted most of them over the last 2 weeks.

Beautiful pineapples and that Cinder...gorgeous! What a nice looking little bush. Not tall and lanky. Nice and round/uniform. I can't wait until mine grow up. Fantastic!

Wow, you have a lot of things going on...maintenance-wise. Soon enough, you'll be painting the house. Lol. (I can't stand painting. Lol). I don't know how you find the ambition. But I'm glad you do. Nice stuff!

Walchit · Apr 21, 2018

I was gonna do little to no suckering on my tomatoes this year and see what happens. I'm gonna put them in the dirt this year and see how they do. I have burpees long keeper, Independence day, early treat, and big mama. Just grabbed seeds at the box stores cause I didn't want to flood my brain with which tomatoes to grow lol

Sawyer · Apr 21, 2018

Great growing update, Scott. I can barely keep up with 2 acres (and some would say my definition of "keeping up" is an exaggeration), much less 20. And I'm with Adam on the painting, can hardly stand it, though I'd rather paint outside walls than inside.

Not that you want or need more plants, but those tomato suckers root incredibly easily. Just stick them in a glass of water. I've even had them root in the row middles where I've dropped them after pinching them off.

Devv · Apr 21, 2018

stickman said:
Ah... see, the thing about Indeterminate tomatoes is that they'll put out a sucker at every node and each sucker will become another stem. The trick is to pick your ideal number of stems... I'd say no more than three but you pick your own number... and just keep removing suckers as they pop out. Also, just because you removed them once before doesn't mean you won't be back later to pick off more. Tomatoes are as bad as zucchini for being the plants that keep on giving. [emoji6]

I get that you've got a full plate brother, we're in similar circumstances here. Cheers!

Sent from my SM-S327VL using Tapatalk

I agree, and a week of not keeping after them leads to the jungle I now have

So normally at this point they just keep growing and go back down to the ground and they would keep going until they get as tall as the PDN cross in the pot. So I guess I'll head them off once they start to fall over the cages. I don't want to expose them to the sun by opening them up at the top.

Scott you must be down by Houston or something! I think that's where zone 9 starts. Anyway, you gotta get some more mater pics up in here bud!!!!

As promised, here you go Chewi!

The foliage is so thick this year, it's hard to see the produce :shh:

Seem like I just trimmed the bottoms and cut suckers....LOL

Devv · Apr 21, 2018

Bhuter said:
Beautiful pineapples and that Cinder...gorgeous! What a nice looking little bush. Not tall and lanky. Nice and round/uniform. I can't wait until mine grow up. Fantastic!

Wow, you have a lot of things going on...maintenance-wise. Soon enough, you'll be painting the house. Lol. (I can't stand painting. Lol). I don't know how you find the ambition. But I'm glad you do. Nice stuff!

Thanks Adam!

LB loves growing as much as I do, it's an infectious hobby for sure!

Always too much going on here

And ~~work~~ my job, gets in my way, more and more it seems...LOL

Finding the ambition is easy when I'd rather do, then pay. I'm sure I saved a couple of grand digging up the septic and fixing the root clog, running 80' of new larger PVC for the washer gray water run....and a few other things done around here lately. This way I can afford my toys :shh:

Here's one of the pumpkin bubblegum plants. I have another one somewhere in the mix :rolleyes:

This one is a bit leggy.....

Devv · Apr 21, 2018

Walchit said:
I was gonna do little to no suckering on my tomatoes this year and see what happens. I'm gonna put them in the dirt this year and see how they do. I have burpees long keeper, Independence day, early treat, and big mama. Just grabbed seeds at the box stores cause I didn't want to flood my brain with which tomatoes to grow lol

This is the first year I've done anything else other than trim at the lower levels. IMHO the suckers don't hurt my production; but I feel plant energy is being wasted by not stopping the continuous top growth. I wind up trashing hundreds of golf ball sized maters that will never ripen in the heat. That, and that's the time of the year the leaf hoppers always visit and ruin the late maters anyway.

This year I have 2 grape, 6 Amish Paste, 6 Boxcar Willy's, and 24 Early Girl plants. The Early Girl's are a proven producer down here for me. Notice I always say "for me", what works here variety wise may not elsewhere. I'm thinking the Amish Paste will do well. The Boxcar Willy's were sent free, so always worth a try

Devv · Apr 21, 2018

Sawyer said:
Great growing update, Scott. I can barely keep up with 2 acres (and some would say my definition of "keeping up" is an exaggeration), much less 20. And I'm with Adam on the painting, can hardly stand it, though I'd rather paint outside walls than inside.

Not that you want or need more plants, but those tomato suckers root incredibly easily. Just stick them in a glass of water. I've even had them root in the row middles where I've dropped them after pinching them off.

Thanks John!

Yeah, keeping up is a pretty general statement around here

The last time we painted the outside of the house I bought a commercial paint sprayer, one that you can plug into a 5 gallon bucket of paint, that was like 15 years ago. It made the job easy. I put it up properly, using the storage chemicals. I'm hoping it works when I need it

And I agree, tom's are very easy to propagate. LB likes the second mater crop we can have here, starting in July, they can run until a frost. SO I may do that versus starting from seeds..

Bhuter · Apr 21, 2018

Devv said:
Thanks Adam!

LB loves growing as much as I do, it's an infectious hobby for sure!

Always too much going on here And work my job, gets in my way, more and more it seems...LOL

Finding the ambition is easy when I'd rather do, then pay. I'm sure I saved a couple of grand digging up the septic and fixing the root clog, running 80' of new larger PVC for the washer gray water run....and a few other things done around here lately. This way I can afford my toys

Here's one of the pumpkin bubblegum plants. I have another one somewhere in the mix

This one is a bit leggy.....

It's a beaut, Scott!!! Leggy it is, but I see it's bushy at the bottom and those branches will be a big part of production, I'd say. Great looking maters, as well! The gf said, "Mmm...they look good. I want a tomato from someone's garden." You will have. Lol. I always start two kinds: German Pink and Black Cherry. Last year, the German Pink had big, beautiful fruits. Black Cherry...not so much. Lol. Looking fantastically!

Sawyer · Apr 21, 2018

Devv said:
I wind up trashing hundreds of golf ball sized maters that will never ripen in the heat.

Ever think about making piccalilli? Hot pepper piccalilli?