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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.
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My daughter personally doing the transplant.
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Her aim is better than mine, and so it turned out perfectly.
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Next up was taking out the lemondrop seeds from peppermania.
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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.
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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.
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The heating pad works extremely well, and once the cells are covered the top clouds up in no time.
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A happy early jalapeno seedling in his new home. I thought I heard "feeeeeed meeeeee" coming from that direction, but I'm not sure.
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That's it for today, folks! Welcome to my new glog :welcome:
 
So sorry to hear about all the weather.  But what has made it looks great!  Like Jason said, that Jal is really loaded up!  Lots of respect for you growing with such a short season!  Tough, for sure.
 
Glad to see things are looking up! And with pods! That Jal is going to be super productive.
 
So many have had a really rough start due to this crazy spring. I'm with you on the two months behind with temps, we had cold fronts in the 40's in May this year. Normally that's March weather here.
 
GA Growhead said:
That jalapeno is loaded! :)
 
Yup, the pic just doesnt do it justice. I am estimating about 100 starts that are getting set to flower. Even with a crap load of drop that will happen if the overnight temps dont improve it will still be a huge producer. 
stickman said:
Good on ya Stefan... glad to see you're primed for a season after all! Maybe not the diversity you'd hoped for, but much,much better than you feared. Have a great weekend!
 
Thank you Rick! I am definitely a happier camper this weekend. Once I saw a few of the plants getting set to pod up I started to relax a bit more. There are always other growing seasons, and I know I will have a small assortment of nasties to taste come late Aug and early Sept.
DocNrock said:
So sorry to hear about all the weather.  But what has made it looks great!  Like Jason said, that Jal is really loaded up!  Lots of respect for you growing with such a short season!  Tough, for sure.
 
I can normally grow pretty much any pepper in this climate, but this year has been awful. It happens from time to time, and next year I will just have to retry a bunch of the types I had picked out for this year. No biggie. 
Devv said:
Glad to see things are looking up! And with pods! That Jal is going to be super productive.
 
So many have had a really rough start due to this crazy spring. I'm with you on the two months behind with temps, we had cold fronts in the 40's in May this year. Normally that's March weather here.
 
Yeah, weird weather is hitting all over N America. Our overnight lows are hovering at about 10, with the odd night getting down to 8. I think that 12 is about 60 on the American scale, so we are in the 50s. This is our normal mid to late April weather. We all have our battles in the garden, and the fun is in the challenge. Well, it is in the challenge providing you win and end up with some pods, otherwise it is just a lot of swearing :)
The latest thing that is driving me batty this year. 
 
Squirrels in the neighbourhood always take the first cut from the strawberries. I really want to hunt the effer that ate my first strawberry of the season down and take a blowtorch to him.
 
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Stefan_W said:
 
Squirrels in the neighbourhood always take the first cut from the strawberries. I really want to hunt the effer that ate my first strawberry of the season down and take a blowtorch to him.
 
Hmmmm. lots of Squirrels and we're seeing the same thing. I have a large screen that's going to be put over them in like 30 seconds...
 
Happy Fathers Day!
 
Devv said:
 
Hmmmm. lots of Squirrels and we're seeing the same thing. I have a large screen that's going to be put over them in like 30 seconds...
 
Happy Fathers Day!
 
I hope you are having a great father's day as well!

I have a quick non-pepper update. My tomatoes have been doing great despite the cold weather. I selected most of them based on being tasty and large, because I need to can a pile of them to replenish my cupboards. One of the ones I picked out was Dixie Golden Giant, and I selected it because it is yellow (I like to have as many different colours as possible), and the fruit size is large.
 
I have been noticing two things about these plants. First, they are already about a foot taller than the others (this is half of my tomato area, Dixies are on the far right).
IMG_2479.JPG

 
The other things I noticed is that they are flowering like crazy, and each of the two plants is looking like it will give me hundreds of tomatoes by the end of the year.
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I though that it was kind of weird that this tomato variety was already so much taller than the others, even in the cold weather. When I researched a bit I discovered that although this plant likes warm weather it is very good at adapting. I also read that the average fruit size is 2.5 pounds (!!!), it has amazing flavour, and the plants themselves grow anywhere from 6 to 20 feet tall. 20 freaking feet tall!  (see ink)
 
http://loveingyou.hubpages.com/hub/Dixie-Golden-Giant-Tomato
 
Just goes to show, always research your plant varieties. I thought I did my homework, but I focused too much on taste and fruit size and completely missed the plant size. It is not a huge deal in the end because I can top it off at whatever size I want, but it was definitely a learning experience. 
 
Stefan_W said:
 
I hope you are having a great father's day as well!

I have a quick non-pepper update. My tomatoes have been doing great despite the cold weather. I selected most of them based on being tasty and large, because I need to can a pile of them to replenish my cupboards. One of the ones I picked out was Dixie Golden Giant, and I selected it because it is yellow (I like to have as many different colours as possible), and the fruit size is large.
 
I have been noticing two things about these plants. First, they are already about a foot taller than the others (this is half of my tomato area, Dixies are on the far right).
attachicon.gif
IMG_2479.JPG
 
The other things I noticed is that they are flowering like crazy, and each of the two plants is looking like it will give me hundreds of tomatoes by the end of the year.
attachicon.gif
IMG_2481.JPG
 
I though that it was kind of weird that this tomato variety was already so much taller than the others, even in the cold weather. When I researched a bit I discovered that although this plant likes warm weather it is very good at adapting. I also read that the average fruit size is 2.5 pounds (!!!), it has amazing flavour, and the plants themselves grow anywhere from 6 to 20 feet tall. 20 freaking feet tall!  (see ink)
 
http://loveingyou.hubpages.com/hub/Dixie-Golden-Giant-Tomato
 
Just goes to show, always research your plant varieties. I thought I did my homework, but I focused too much on taste and fruit size and completely missed the plant size. It is not a huge deal in the end because I can top it off at whatever size I want, but it was definitely a learning experience. 
 
Interesting matie! It's funny how we plan so differently, I grow tomatoes primarily to can for Italian red sauces and hot sauce. My choice this year was the Early Girl grown from seed sowed early the first week of Jan. My plan was to grow a smaller, slightly larger than a handball, and a bunch! I wanted them to set and produce before the heat. It worked well for us this year...gonna try that monster next year to see how it works out though!
 
Glad your tomatoes are doing well.  They can handle the cold better.  I ordered seeds for Dixie Golden Giant, but they didn't make it
on the list this year.  Maybe next year.  I hope they taste good.  You can let me know.  I may also try Orange Minsk next year.  So 
many seeds and not enough space.
 
roper2008 said:
Glad your tomatoes are doing well.  They can handle the cold better.  I ordered seeds for Dixie Golden Giant, but they didn't make it
on the list this year.  Maybe next year.  I hope they taste good.  You can let me know.  I may also try Orange Minsk next year.  So 
many seeds and not enough space.
 
If I have any that are particularly good I will send you the seeds. I'm growing 8 or 9 varieties this year. My best guess is that the purple brandywines will be my favourite because everyone seems to love them, and I love brandywines.
 
Just a quickie mid-week update. My jalapenos are starting to flower up, which is a very good sign. 
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I mentioned to a co-worker that I had to pull my jonah, and she offered to give back the one I gave to her a couple of months ago. Apparently it lost its leaves too, but it slowly recovered. In the end she did not have the room for it (it was in a tiny 6 inch pot), so it worked out well for both of us. Here he is, back at home and in his new place. 
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That jalapeno is loaded with flowers.  I make a lot of jalapeno jelly with mine, plus I add a red habanero
type pepper to make it hotter.  If I have any outstanding tomatoes this year I will also send you some.  I'm
trying egg yolk, pink bumble bee and casino chips cherry tomatoes.  Maybe sofia might like one of them.
 
WalkGood said:
Your Jal looks wonderful \o/
 
Thank you :)
GnomeGrown said:
Nice flowers, Stefan.
 
:party:
 
Thank you very much! It is just starting, and it will be even more packed by the weekend. :dance:
roper2008 said:
That jalapeno is loaded with flowers.  I make a lot of jalapeno jelly with mine, plus I add a red habanero
type pepper to make it hotter.  If I have any outstanding tomatoes this year I will also send you some.  I'm
trying egg yolk, pink bumble bee and casino chips cherry tomatoes.  Maybe sofia might like one of them.
 
That sound like a great idea! I'm not into habs, but there are all sorts of nasties growing that would make for a good mixed jelly.
 
Thanks for the tomato seed offer. Speaking of tomatoes, check out this cluster of 18 flowers/soon-to-be-flowers on one of my purple cherokee brandywines.
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I am just starting to get some fruit on it (6 tomatoes in this shot).
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stickman said:
Most excellent that you've got Jalapenos flowering and the prodigal Jonah has come home... things are looking up! Good on ya brother. :dance:
 
Thanks Rick! LOL at the prodigal Jonah line. I'm going to steal it at work tomorrow ;)
 
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