Stefan_W's 2013 Pods A-Ripenin'! Glog

I am going to start the new glog for my upcoming growing season on a bit of a personal note. One year ago tomorrow (January 3rd) is the one year anniversary of the day that my daughter was diagnosed with a tumour that is lodged in the middle of her brain. The past year has involved treatments and hospital stays, and there were at least three different points when we were pretty sure she was not going to make it. But she is a fighter, and nothing could keep her down for long.

Sofia has personally planted every pepper and tomato seed that I have started in the past three growing seasons. She beat the odds last year to help me, and once again she is defying what medicine has to say to help me out this year.

We started a jalapeno plant about a week ago just for the sake of watching it grow, because we both love it so much. One of the jalapenos grew to the point that it had its firt couple of leaves, so we transplanted him into a bigger pot. While we were at it I decided to put in some aji lemondrops, partly because they take a long time to fruit up and I wanted to give them a huge head start.

This is the jalapeno plant. I pulled the second one out because we did not need it, and discovered that the roots had grown all of the way down to the bottom of the cell.

My daughter personally doing the transplant.

Her aim is better than mine, and so it turned out perfectly.

Next up was taking out the lemondrop seeds from peppermania.

I need a few extras of this type, so I asked Sofia to plant two seeds in each of the four cells. Two plants will be for us, and whatever else grows will be given away to good friends.

Two of the three tiers in my lighting stand are currently being used as toy shelves, which is cool for now. The lights are adjustable, and moved down to get close to the seedling.

The heating pad works extremely well, and once the cells are covered the top clouds up in no time.

A happy early jalapeno seedling in his new home. I thought I heard "feeeeeed meeeeee" coming from that direction, but I'm not sure.

That's it for today, folks! Welcome to my new glog

 

[PeriPeri]

Looks like team Sophie and Stefan are full steam ahead! Awesome progress...

 

[romy6]

Hope Sophie is doing better. My little girl has a nasty cold too. Nothing worst than hearing them cough all night.

Oh and your babies look picture perfect. Can I borrow Sophie to help with my plants. My kids want nothing to do with them

As for the experiment with one plant in a pot compared to 3 in pot. I am putting all my money on the one by itself. Unless the one is in a 1 gal and the three are in a 20 gal

 

[Stefan_W]

Stefan every ting looks great except the snow BTW don't show Sofia this post And if you do, tell her I was only joking as we all know that pixie dust is far better than seaweed mist

I'll take the pixie dust each and every time, my friend

Looks like team Sophie and Stefan are full steam ahead! Awesome progress...

Thank you! I'm happy with how well the plants are doing, but unhappy with all of the extras at the moment. I now have trays sitting on floor underneath the two tables by the back window.

Hope Sophie is doing better. My little girl has a nasty cold too. Nothing worst than hearing them cough all night.

Oh and your babies look picture perfect. Can I borrow Sophie to help with my plants. My kids want nothing to do with them

As for the experiment with one plant in a pot compared to 3 in pot. I am putting all my money on the one by itself. Unless the one is in a 1 gal and the three are in a 20 gal

Yeah, colds suck. I feel so bad for any kid who is struggling with the coughing and the runny nose.

The trick for me will be to figure out whether three tabascos in a huge pot do better than one tabasco in a huge pot. I will have to check how many gallons these pots are, because I bought them a few years back and I can't remember. When I grew thai dragons in them I put five plants in one pot and mad many hundreds of pods (did not have the inclination to count them all), so I know it is possible. By yeah, you may be quite right about the single tabasco beating out the set.

 

[Stefan_W]

I haven't been around much lately, mostly due to work being extra work-like lately. I am also checking out the job market, which is taking up a lot of time.

The guy who owns the hot pepper store nearby allowed me to advertise the pepper seedlings I am selling on his Facebook page. Within 24 hours 27/30 of the seedlings I posted were claimed. It looks like selling seedlings is paying for all of the seeds, all of the pots, all of the starter soil, and all of the extra power that the lights and heat pads are using. I consider it a success when I am breaking even at the point the seedlings go outside in the spring, so all of this selling makes me happy.

I am also giving away another 15 seedlings to co-workers. I love being able to introduce people to growing hot peppers

At the moment space is so tight I starting putting trays on the floor. Not helping matters was the fact that I started my tomato plants this past Sunday. Apparently, Sofia's pixie dust works every bit as well on tomatoes as peppers because half of the seeds have already popped. To use space effeciently the tomato starter tray is sharing space with some superhots that have been around for a while. This shot is floor level, and I get a kick out of the picture because you can see my reflection in sliding door that leads out back.

The biggest change is that my giant jalapeno is starting to get ready to flower. There are about 5 or 6 buds on the go, with a new one coming in every day or so. I am guessing they will start to flower on the weekend.

Thanks for stopping in and having a look at my short update!

 

[PeriPeri]

Flowers already... that is truly impressive! Well done Stefan & Sophie! I hope Sophie gets over her nasty cold. Great news about selling the seeds and seedlings. I would do better to keep track of my costs and expenditures so I can work out my break even

 

[stickman]

I hope looking at all that greenery helps Sophie feel better... the white stuff not so much I bet... The Vernal Equinox will be here in a week and a half

Good on ya for finding a way to defray your expenses. I know a woman locally who has a contract farm... I aught to ask her if she'd be interested in any of my extra peppers. Maybe we could work out a deal of some kind. No shortage of people who'll agree to take the seedlings, but finding some willing to part with some cash is a rarity in my experience, so I'd better hustle and find them, eh?

 

[Stefan_W]

Flowers already... that is truly impressive! Well done Stefan & Sophie! I hope Sophie gets over her nasty cold. Great news about selling the seeds and seedlings. I would do better to keep track of my costs and expenditures so I can work out my break even

Thank you, Lourens! My dream is to one day break even on all of my garden expenses through the year. It works for everyone, because people who can't start seedlings get ones that are going, those who can't grow can still have access to organic and very healthy veggies, and I get all of my stuff for free. Of course the biggest expenses are out in the garden so I am no where near reaching that goal at the moment.

And Sofia appear to be over her nasty cold

I hope looking at all that greenery helps Sophie feel better... the white stuff not so much I bet... The Vernal Equinox will be here in a week and a half

Good on ya for finding a way to defray your expenses. I know a woman locally who has a contract farm... I aught to ask her if she'd be interested in any of my extra peppers. Maybe we could work out a deal of some kind. No shortage of people who'll agree to take the seedlings, but finding some willing to part with some cash is a rarity in my experience, so I'd better hustle and find them, eh?

There are two ways of thinking about seedlings. Last year I did not have many extra, and I knew they were rare for this area. I charged accordingly, and no one bought the supers that I had. I did notice that people were lining up to get the few sweet pepper and tomato seedlings that I had. So this year I decided to keep all of my extra hots and superhots, but charge as though they are tomato plants. My reasoning was that people dont care what they are, they just have a price in mind that is fair and they stick by it. At 3 or 4 bucks per plant I can still make back some of the money I'm spending, but charging more and selling none means I dont make any money back. They way I now do it is I give people a lower price if they buy 5 or 10, and people tend to take advantage because most people are cheap or, at the very least, they recognize a bargain.

 

[WalkGood]

Great update Stefan or should I say Sofia for her great penmanship, tags and magical pixie dust. I love the close up of the flowers on your giant Jalapeño. Nice to read you started your tomatoes, can’t wait to see pictures of them. I’m only growing Florida Wild Everglades Tomatoes but I love the taste and for full size I have a grower near me that’s reasonable. Keep up dat great work and loads of luck in the job market ^_^

 

[Stefan_W]

Great update Stefan or should I say Sofia for her great penmanship, tags and magical pixie dust. I love the close up of the flowers on your giant Jalapeño. Nice to read you started your tomatoes, can’t wait to see pictures of them. I’m only growing Florida Wild Everglades Tomatoes but I love the taste and for full size I have a grower near me that’s reasonable. Keep up dat great work and loads of luck in the job market ^_^

The tomato seedlings that have popped are in the middle of the tray in the first picture, surrounded by peppers. I'm hoping to transplant them this weekend when I free up some room after selling off 30 of my pepper plants. Thanks for the well wishes! The job search is not a huge deal at the moment because I have a job, but I really want to switch. I'm hoping to go back to academia, but that means taking a year or so to publish some more in academic journals in order to beef up my CV with respect to what they look for. The worst part is the job market at universities is not great right now as everyone is doing belt-tightening, and universities are relying more on contract work which is not something I'm interested in.

 

[WalkGood]

... The worst part is the job market at universities is not great right now as everyone is doing belt-tightening, and universities are relying more on contract work which is not something I'm interested in.

Tell me about it, I've been looking for long time now and a good/great job down here now sucks in every sector :/ But lets not think about that, hopefully the positive vibe from the crop will bring us luck or just get Sofia to blow some of that magic dust my way, hehe

 

[stickman]

Good luck with the tomatoes! I'll be starting mine soon too. I'll definitely plant the Sungold cherry tomatoes, and a fellow from Pennsylvania sent me some black Russian tomato seeds (Black from Tula and "Japanese" Black Trifele) that I might grow for the heck of it. They both have green shoulders and flesh that's dark purple on the outside and bright red on the inside.

 

[Stefan_W]

Tell me about it, I've been looking for long time now and a good/great job down here now sucks in every sector :/ But lets not think about that, hopefully the positive vibe from the crop will bring us luck or just get Sofia to blow some of that magic dust my way, hehe

Yeah, as far as I'm concerned this crap economy can end any time now.

Good luck with the tomatoes! I'll be starting mine soon too. I'll definitely plant the Sungold cherry tomatoes, and a fellow from Pennsylvania sent me some black Russian tomato seeds (Black from Tula and "Japanese" Black Trifele) that I might grow for the heck of it. They both have green shoulders and flesh that's dark purple on the outside and bright red on the inside.

I grew black russians last year and I was very disappointed with them. I hope you have better luck than I did!

 

[stickman]

I grew black russians last year and I was very disappointed with them. I hope you have better luck than I did!

Sorry to hear that Stefan... how did you prepare the soil for them? All the Nightshades like the same nutes and growing conditions. If you treated the Tomatoes any different than the chiles, that could account for it.

 

[Stefan_W]

Sorry to hear that Stefan... how did you prepare the soil for them? All the Nightshades like the same nutes and growing conditions. If you treated the Tomatoes any different than the chiles, that could account for it.

I grew 5 different types of tomatoes in the same area and same conditions, and that was the only one that turned out badly for me. I've grown tomatoes longer than I'm been growing hot peppers so I usually have a pretty good handle on things, although there are always new things to learn. I am wondering whether they need something special that N American tomato varieties dont tend to need.

By badly I mean that they did produce, but too many of them ended up splitting on the vine and the amount I actually got to eat was relatively small compared to the other varieties I have grown. The colour was off, but that varies based on soil conditions so I dont sweat it too much.

 

[PeriPeri]

So what is - in your opinion - the best/tastiest tomato to grow? I would like to get into tomatoes.

 

[Sawyer]

So what is - in your opinion - the best/tastiest tomato to grow? I would like to get into tomatoes.

You weren't asking me, but for my money, Purple Calabash (you'll have to scroll down for the description).

 

[roper2008]

Stefan, what tomatoes varieties are you starting? All mine have sprouted.

 

[Stefan_W]

So what is - in your opinion - the best/tastiest tomato to grow? I would like to get into tomatoes.

It depends on whether you like acidic. I tend to dislike acidic tomatoes, and I usually stick with heirloom beefsteak and brandywines. My favourites so far are rose beefsteak and purple cherokee brandywine, but I grow a couple of new ones every year.

If you like smaller sized tomatoes and dont mind a bit of acidity I think the green zebras are a great choice. I grew them a cople of years back, and the production was insane. When I pulled up my plant in Sept the root system extended at least 10 feet! I say at least because at 10 feet it went under the fence and under my neighbour's pool, so I have no idea. In any event, it still had 150 tomatoes on the vine when I pulled it up, and it produced at least that many beforehand.

This is me pulling up the green zebra, wondering where the roots would end. As it turned out I still had a ways to go.

You weren't asking me, but for my money, Purple Calabash (you'll have to scroll down for the description).

I haven't grown that one, but I will second this anyway because the purple varieties tend to be consistently to my taste.

Stefan, what tomatoes varieties are you starting? All mine have sprouted.

This year I am growing purple cherokee, dixie golden giant heirloom, ultimate giant heirloom, glowing orange heirloom, and one of the graham's heirlooms (which one escapes me at the moment). I also have two types of cherry tomatoes for my daughter, isis candy and god love. All have popped like crazy except for the glowing orange. I was getting worried about that one, but the first hook showed up this evening.

What types do you have on the go?

 

[PeriPeri]

Wow, that plant's roots are insine - you are right! Lucky you didn't pull up your neighbours foundations with it lol

Thanks for the advice. We were growing some tomatoes out of a packet - I can say what... they where just horrible! Next year I would like to grow something that is just plump and juicy and tasty through and through... but any one of the one's you mentioned sounds like the ticket!

 

[roper2008]

It depends on whether you like acidic. I tend to dislike acidic tomatoes, and I usually stick with heirloom beefsteak and brandywines. My favourites so far are rose beefsteak and purple cherokee brandywine, but I grow a couple of new ones every year.

If you like smaller sized tomatoes and dont mind a bit of acidity I think the green zebras are a great choice. I grew them a cople of years back, and the production was insane. When I pulled up my plant in Sept the root system extended at least 10 feet! I say at least because at 10 feet it went under the fence and under my neighbour's pool, so I have no idea. In any event, it still had 150 tomatoes on the vine when I pulled it up, and it produced at least that many beforehand.

This is me pulling up the green zebra, wondering where the roots would end. As it turned out I still had a ways to go.

I haven't grown that one, but I will second this anyway because the purple varieties tend to be consistently to my taste.



This year I am growing purple cherokee, dixie golden giant heirloom, ultimate giant heirloom, glowing orange heirloom, and one of the graham's heirlooms (which one escapes me at the moment). I also have two types of cherry tomatoes for my daughter, isis candy and god love. All have popped like crazy except for the glowing orange. I was getting worried about that one, but the first hook showed up this evening.

What types do you have on the go?

That is a long tap root on that green zebra. I grew that variety 4 years ago, but it was not happy where I put it. Kids like cherry
tomatoes. No children in my household, but I like cherry tomatoes too. They are good if you want a little bit in your scrambled
egg or salad. Off the top of my head this is the variety I'm growing, for cherries, Tommy Toe, Sungold F1, Eggyolk, Pink Bumblebee,
Casino Chips. For beefsteaks, Indian Stripe, Italian Heirloom, Amazon Chocolate, Cherokee Purple PL, and German Red Strawberry.

I see peas in that photo. I'm going to plant mine on St. Patricks day. I better stop with this non-pepper talk. I may get in trouble.