FL Born 2015 - 1st Glog

I am finally getting things growing this year! I have several types of seeds on top the fridge to germinate using the wet paper towel method...
 

 
#1) One of my friends took me out to where plants with these peppers were growing wild along a fence line in a large pasture. Dry they are between 1/4" and 3/8" in diameter.
He calls them "Buckshot Peppers" because they are about the size of buckshot. LOL
I am trying to germinate some of these seeds and when I get viable seeds, I will post more photos of these as they grow.
 
 
 

 
#2) The same friend also gave me a couple of "Grove Pepper" plants that he had pruned back from last year.
 
 

 
#3) My Dad's friend gave me this baggie of peppers from the Grove Pepper plants that my Dad had given him before my Dad passed away...
He also threw in some seeds from other pepper plants that he has...
 
Updates coming...
 
Thanks for looking and all of your help!
Bill

 

[PaulG]

Looks like that florida Spring is being good to you fellows
down there.  Hope you have seen the last of the 40˚ nights.

 

[Elvis Has Left The Forum]

Looks like that florida Spring is being good to you fellows
down there.  Hope you have seen the last of the 40˚ nights.

 
Thanks Paul... I hope all of my pepper friend have seen the last of cold days and cold nights...
(40˚ is cold to some of us natives... )
 
Everything is pretty good, but all of this rain is a PITA...
I'm getting about 6 hours of sun in the mornings and 6 hours of overcast with scattered thunderstorms already... If I didn't know better, I'd swear it was July or August...
 
Good growing!!!

 

[Rairdog]

Flashback.....I was working in Miami at my uncle's roofing company back in the 80's.  Front page of the Herald  "33 in Miami".  I rode in the back of the truck with a bunch of big black guys.  They were all huddled up like a school girls trying to stay warm.  I was in a t-shirt trying to act tough.  I remember snow flurries when I lived in Jacksonville/Orange park in the late 70's.  Everyone came out of the houses up and down the street since many had never seen snow. 
 

 

[Ozzy2001]

I hope your aquaponics are big enough for those cucumbers lol.

 

[Elvis Has Left The Forum]

Here is another quick update on what's growing...
 

 
This is the flat that I planted on 3/29/15... Not much up other than the "Mixed" seed pack from Burpee Seeds that my wife bought me... Since the seeds were all mixed up in the pack, I'll have to wait to know which varieties are growing...
 

 
This is what is left of the flat that I planted on 3/26/15... I was having some problems with seedlings dieing, so I transplanted most of them into cups... I left some in this tray as a comparison to what got transplanted... I thought that the flat may have been keeping the seedlings too wet, but further research revealed that the DE material that I was using was too fine... This was allowing the DE material to fall through the holes in the bottom of the flat, which was leaving the seedlings without water and resulted in them dieing... Since I corrected this situation, all seedlings in the flats are now doing fine... 
 

 
These are the transplanted seedlings from the 3/26/15 flat... The seeds for these were sown directly into the DE media and allowed to germinate in the DE, while heating the bottom of the flat...
 
I have learned that I do not like having seeds that germinate at different rates in the same large flat... I am ending up with fairly large seedlings and seeds that have not germinated in the same flat... For me this has been a PITA...  Also, I am not sowing that many seeds of each variety because I only have a few seeds... Therefore, I am ending up with empty cells in the seed flats due to a lack of germination... I am returning to germinating my seeds in sealed tubs and damp paper towels and then transferring them to smaller trays or individual cups/pots... This way, I am only planting seeds that have germinated and I don't have wasted space in my flats or trays...
 
As for my aquaponics grow, I have transplanted several squash and zucchini plants into the grow bed and the tomato plants are blooming...
 
Here is a photo of the squash right after I planted them this past week...
 

 
 
I will work on an updated list of what seedlings I have vs. what has not germinated yet...
 
Thanks for stopping by and having a look!!!
 
More updates soon....

 

[Plantguy76]

Great glog you got going on here best of luck this season!

 

[Sawyer]

Looking good, Bill.
 

...I have learned that I do not like having seeds that germinate at different rates in the same large flat... I am ending up with fairly large seedlings and seeds that have not germinated in the same flat... For me this has been a PITA...  Also, I am not sowing that many seeds of each variety because I only have a few seeds... Therefore, I am ending up with empty cells in the seed flats due to a lack of germination... I am returning to germinating my seeds in sealed tubs and damp paper towels and then transferring them to smaller trays or individual cups/pots... This way, I am only planting seeds that have germinated and I don't have wasted space in my flats or trays...
 
As for my aquaponics grow, I have transplanted several squash and zucchini plants into the grow bed and the tomato plants are blooming...  Geez, I just started my tomatoes.  Going to be another late year.

 
I hear you about the different germination rates.  I try to keep flats all chinenses  or all annuums, but it's still a problem. 

 

[Student of Spice]

How are peppers going Bill?

 

[Elvis Has Left The Forum]

Sorry, but this is going to be another quick update...
My peppers are doing pretty good, but it has been a pretty hectic week and I haven't had the time to devote to them that I would like...
Here are some photos of my outside plants:

 

 
 

 
Obviously, some have nice pods... Jalapeno is producing really well...
 
 

 
This is a Golden Cayenne from Home Depot that looked really sad and I just couldn't leave it to die...
It looked like it had not  been watered in weeks and something had gnawed most of the leaves off...
So I brought it home and will try to nurse it back to health... LOL
 

 
These are plants that I got from Sicman a week ago and they are growing so well, I need to repot them soon!!!
 
Next to my indoor plants:

 
Some of these are ready to start the hardening process...
This week I will begin to move them outside and hopefully by next weekend they will have a home outside...
 
Now for my aquaponics tank:

 
The tomatoes, squash and zucchini are growing well... However, I am still plagued with problems from the fern roots that have clogged up the fill tube holes... I will never let the tank go so long over the winter and never let the ferns grow in it again... I thought they would serve as a good winter crop to help remove the nitrates from the water, but they had such a massive root system that they grew into the fill holes and have almost completely clogged them up... In the next day or two, I will have to dig up the fill pipe, cut it and try to get most of the fern roots out...
 
Well, back to Honey Dos... I will try to update more often... See you soon....

 

[Elvis Has Left The Forum]

This week I have moved 40 of my young indoor plants outside and they seem to be enjoying the shady spot that I chose for them...
I have also transplanted several plants from cups to pots and about 16 seedlings to cups...
There are Fatalii, Lava and other sprouts that will need moving from damp paper towels to starter trays this weekend...
Unfortunately, the horseflies and deerflies are out in numbers and they are making it a PITA to work outside here...
 
I will try to upload more photos and a better update this weekend, if time allows...
 
DO NOT forget Mother's Day is Sunday!!!

 

[Student of Spice]

Yo Bill !!!!!!
 
How is everything been going? Any updates?
My garden has been doing well, nice little yields so far. Tomato blight showed up so trying to control that
Then some weird looking bees or maybe velvet ants?? Black with a small red spot on abdomen, fuzzy, look bee like, fly but only short distances that I have witnessed. There are a lot of ants that are around in general I have been trying to treat. The worst part
of gardening is definitely fighting these insects.

 

[Elvis Has Left The Forum]

Yo Bill !!!!!!
 
How is everything been going? Any updates?
My garden has been doing well, nice little yields so far. Tomato blight showed up so trying to control that
Then some weird looking bees or maybe velvet ants?? Black with a small red spot on abdomen, fuzzy, look bee like, fly but only short distances that I have witnessed. There are a lot of ants that are around in general I have been trying to treat. The worst part
of gardening is definitely fighting these insects.

 
Hey Ron!!!
 
Glad you are getting some nice yields so far... Any photos of the bug???
 
I had something cutting the top of my plant off in the middle of the night... I still haven't been able to find it... But I moved most of my young plants from the porch to the yard and so far that seems to have detered it for now... I think I may sleep all day so I can stay up longer at night.... LOL
 
Now to some new photos of things...
 

 
My Grove Peppers are finally budding out...
 

 
My Gypsy Pepper is producing quite nicely...
 

 
This is were I moved all of my seedlings to harden until they begin to bloom, then I will move them around the property to help seperate them ...
 

 
My Jalapeno is also producing nicely....
 

 
Here is a new photo of my aquaponics bed... The tomato plant are growing like weeds!!! However, the squash don't seem to like the aquaponics very well...
 
I hope everyone and their plants are well...

 

[Student of Spice]

WoW!!
 
Awesome Job. I am afraid I don't have them loaded on the computer just super busy. Your tomatoes are huge, nice pepper orchard also I am off to sleep have a great day!

 

[Elvis Has Left The Forum]

Damn Tomato Hornworms!!!! They have destroyed the tops of several of my tomato plants in one day!!!
I found six of them munching on what is left of several tomato plants...
While I love the Hummingbird Moth, I will not let their caterpillars destroy my tomato plants.......
I will check again this evening and if I find more, they will be relocated...

 

[Ozzy2001]

Damn those tomato plants are freaking boss!! Hope you get the hornworms wrangled.

 

[Elvis Has Left The Forum]

Thanks Scott and Ron... It appears that I have caught all of the hornworms for now... They really did a number on the tops of several tomato plants, but it looks like the tomato plants may grow back out...
 
I have been really busy this past several weeks... As some of you may know, my mom passed away a year ago and we are finally trying to get her house fixed up to sell... Painting almost every room, many repairs and a bunch of yard work... Yep, lots to do yet, so my visits here may be sporadic for a few weeks...  My goal is to at least update my Glog once a week... Lots of blooms and my peppers are really enjoying this heat and the Florida sunshine...
 
More to come soon...

 

[Student of Spice]

Damn Tomato Hornworms!!!! They have destroyed the tops of several of my tomato plants in one day!!!
I found six of them munching on what is left of several tomato plants...
While I love the Hummingbird Moth, I will not let their caterpillars destroy my tomato plants.......
I will check again this evening and if I find more, they will be relocated...

 
Dude!! no joke they are HORRIBLE
same thing maybe four or five days ago, went to bed everything looked great
next morning came out and the whole top to one plant was gone and the worm ate half of every tomato on the top half of the plant
needless to say I dispatched it with extreme prejudice!
then went digging through all the plants looking for more and did find a couple that were still inside a tomato eating and growing large.  
But yes, destructive at a very fast rate!
 
I am looking forward to seeing your pictures, I really need to just text you some of mine although I have had a lot of free time on here the past few days
thank god for vacation days. Now its just been school and house work. I tiled the second bathroom, bought some privacy fence to put up, lawn and garden work.
last day off is tomorrow, so much to do so little time. Like now, I have home work that needs to be completed and Im here messing around, I really don't want to
do it and I am only making it harder on myself lol.

 

[mpicante]

Hornworms suck royally!!!

 

[Elvis Has Left The Forum]

I'm still working on my Mom's house to get it ready to sell, so I haven't been on THP very much lately... There is so much to do...   But I did fix the pump on her well and we now have water at her house... I'm taking the day off from working on Mom's house today, so I will try to take some new photos and post them in a little while...
I hope everyones grows are going GREAT!!!

 

[Student of Spice]

I bet she loves all the help. Hey it is the day of rest so hats off to you! I look forward to seeing them. Today I have yet another paper to write but I hope to take a break here and there on it to do  a few house projects