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First Time Gardener, Mishaps & Exploits

First time gardener here, 9b in Southern California, have around 550-600 square feet of space to use.  Starting a garden this year, because its the first time I've had room for more than one or two plants in the last 6 years and I have hated vegetables outside of a small range since I was a kid.  I'm hoping I can help kick my issue with vegetables this year by growing them.  This all started with a drunken night celebrating and ordering some mystery "Super hot, Pepper Seed mix" off of Ebay.  No clue if the seeds will actually be true to their labels, Reaper, Red and Peach Ghost, Trinidad Scorpion and Orange Habanero.  Since I made this mistake, and didn't realize it until the item had shipped, I figured I would give it a go anyways.  My girlfriend was down (not for the peppers) to grow other assorted veggies and has since become annoyed with all of my pepper stuff that is growing.  I ordered a few types of seeds from White Hot Peppers, Bahamian Beast Peach F3, Sugar Rush Red, Purple UFO, Swamp Thing, Fatalii Chocolate, Bahamian Goat, Satan's Kiss and Aji Pineapple.  I will probably have to ninja those seeds straight into potting mix outside in my garden, because I might be murdered if my girlfriend sees me setting up a mini-greenhouse inside our house again.  I also picked up a few peppers at Cal Poly Pomona's Pepperzania about a month ago, a Carolina Reaper, Chocolate 7-pot, Himo Togarashi and one I am drawing a complete blank on.  Garden also includes your typical garden veggies, tomatoes (few different types), cucumbers, sweet corn, squash (no clue what type), carrots, beets or radishes (drawing a blank) and I am pretty sure I am forgetting something.
 
Most plants are in cloth planter bags (is that what they're called?) and all the seeds will be ninja'ed into 2 gallon cloth bags and put out of direct line of sight from my overseer.  I will take some pictures and post them up when I have time, currently at work and had a few extra minutes to type this up.  I will be enlisting help via pictures of issues I know I will have, currently fighting off a bug infestation of earwigs, neem oil should be at my place tomorrow (diatomaceous earth hasn't helped much).
 
Pepper List:
 
Cal Poly Pomona Plants:
Reaper
Chocolate 7-Pot
Himo Togarashi
One I am going blank on
 
Mystery Seeds:
Reaper
Red and Peach Ghost
Trinidad Scorpion
Orange Habanero
 
Actual Seeds from White Hot Pepper:
Bahamian Beast Peach F3 
Sugar Rush Red 
Purple UFO 
Swamp Thing
Fatalii Chocolate 
Bahamian Goat 
Satan's Kiss 
Aji Pineapple
 
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Am electric fence charger is an option that will probably make them rethink their choices. I bought a solar one for easier install ( maybe I'll install next year)
 
A nice, little shock would be satisfying! *evil laugh*

Mentioned the plum tree beside my house a few posts back, made a plum and orange habanero jelly. Followed a standard recipe for a plum jelly and added in 4 orange habaneros. Probably should have added an extra cup of sugar, could be a little sweeter. Plum taste hits upfront and then the heat of the habanero follows and then fades away.

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simp3204 said:
A nice, little shock would be satisfying! *evil laugh*

Mentioned the plum tree beside my house a few posts back, made a plum and orange habanero jelly. Followed a standard recipe for a plum jelly and added in 4 orange habaneros. Probably should have added an extra cup of sugar, could be a little sweeter. Plum taste hits upfront and then the heat of the habanero follows and then fades away.

59c5686ef7ef7f29b6b72dd5619d8427.jpg
67aacf73d24af9ee7c51f8f010528f52.jpg



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Well done ;)  We do a similar jelly with Peaches and Grapes (different batches). Another great use for the heat...
 
 
Hey man, I started reading your grow log when I saw it pop back to the top of the page today. Everything is looking great and I love your crew. I also learned you're an old hand with the earwig wrangling.
 
I can't remember the last time I laid eyes on an earwig but I started dissecting some bug killed fruits this morning just to see what's in them and found a dang earwig in a bad tomato. And then I found two more this afternoon in other tomatoes I pulled out of my incredibly foul compost tea bucket. So what do you think about earwigs? Are they a major hazard to pepper and tomato fruit or are they mainly just creepy? Should I convert my slug/beer traps to earwig traps and go to war with these creepy bastiges too?
 
DWB said:
Hey man, I started reading your grow log when I saw it pop back to the top of the page today. Everything is looking great and I love your crew. I also learned you're an old hand with the earwig wrangling.
 
I can't remember the last time I laid eyes on an earwig but I started dissecting some bug killed fruits this morning just to see what's in them and found a dang earwig in a bad tomato. And then I found two more this afternoon in other tomatoes I pulled out of my incredibly foul compost tea bucket. So what do you think about earwigs? Are they a major hazard to pepper and tomato fruit or are they mainly just creepy? Should I convert my slug/beer traps to earwig traps and go to war with these creepy bastiges too?
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I’m still trying to figure out how deadly they are to the actual fruit and veggies on the plants. They really seem to have messed up my corn plants and were really murdering my pumpkin plant before I cut it way back from root rot. I haven’t found one yet in my tomatoes, but most of my tomatoes are cherry tomatoes and ripen super fast. I should be harvesting some normal tomatoes this week, going blank on the name, it’s some sort of hybrid determinate.

I’ve been spraying with neem oil and have had my DIY earwig traps out for around 2 months now. I can tell a big difference between the two of those methods, plus, I have a ton of wolf spiders in and around my garden. I put out a couple of slug traps with beer in a couple old earwig traps I wasn’t using.


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simp3204 said:
I was completely surprised this tiny watermelon has survived, it has tried to die at least 4 or 5 times on me, so I just left it to do its thing:

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Life force is strong, grasshopper  :D
 
Had to do some yard work this morning and came out to my dirty work boots to this guy hiding behind them, largest alligator lizard I’ve ever personally seen in person. At first I was convinced he was an offering from one of my two cats that had been out for a few hours and was either severely injured or dead.

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I was wrong, he was not happy about being moved and ran into one of my girlfriends hiking boots that was knocked over on its side. I wish I took a picture of it in the boot, instead I walked him over to my garden.

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Picture rotated:

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New garden defender needs a name, I am thinking, “Jim”.


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Found two, tomato hornworms, on my smaller pepper plants, luckily, neither one is flowering and they only lost a few leaves and part of one small branch.

My Serrano plant has around a dozen peppers starting to grow, so I’m pretty excited, I love making salsa with Serrano’s.

This little bastard wouldn’t come off the plant without taking that leaf with him. I could feel it flexing its little feet while I pulled it off the plant.

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Smashed it with my little garden tool and didn’t expect this:

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I've been battling those stupid worms for a few weeks. I have a few fairly large tomato plants that they seem to love. I bet I have found over 50 of them this year so far (4 tonight). All of them on tomato plants except 3 of them on serano plants. Although they haven't done much damage I cant stand them. Oh and they are full of nasty green juice, drowning them in a cup of water and dish soap seems to be the easiest and cleanest method.

I purchased a uv flashlight from Amazon that makes finding them way easier. I may be obsessing over litte green worms, but it's all I can do not to just go crazy spraying worm poison.
 
Mr.joe said:
I've been battling those stupid worms for a few weeks. I have a few fairly large tomato plants that they seem to love. I bet I have found over 50 of them this year so far (4 tonight). All of them on tomato plants except 3 of them on serano plants. Although they haven't done much damage I cant stand them. Oh and they are full of nasty green juice, drowning them in a cup of water and dish soap seems to be the easiest and cleanest method.

I purchased a uv flashlight from Amazon that makes finding them way easier. I may be obsessing over litte green worms, but it's all I can do not to just go crazy spraying worm poison.
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I’m going to order one right now!


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Mr.joe said:
I'm glad I did, I catch small ones that I never would have found. Let me know how it goes
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Got my UV flashlight in earlier today, didn’t find any worm bastards tonight with it, but, I did find a large one and a small baby one this morning. The big one ate the small one before I could squish them, vicious little worms.


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Well keep looking, there is probably more of them around. Never seen them eat each other, but no surprise.
I've caught so many I feel like I should be weighing them showdown style... finally a growing competition that I can be competitive.
 
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