• Everything other than hot peppers. Questions, discussion, and grow logs. Cannabis grow pics are only allowed when posted from a legal juridstiction.

thoroughburro 2023, non-peppers

thoroughburro

thoroughburro

I’ve really enjoyed and benefited from keeping a glog of my pepper grows, so I may as well invite y’all into the rest of the garden this year. And I’ll try to be okay showing the messy reality behind the close-up shots! 😅

Here’s my erstwhile “office” in January, after clearing some shelves of dormant succulents to make room for the pepper and other annual starts:

1676816914449.jpeg


Those shelves were overpriced, but I don’t regret them at all: we use them for various growing all year long, and their height-adjustable LED bulbs can induce light stress even in desert succulents when desired. I remove a bulb for use on peppers!

When the succulents come inside for winter, they start on the shelves while they dry out and go dormant. By January, they’re no longer growing and can move into the less well lit areas, leaving the shelves free for seasonal starts and then indoor herbs, like cilantro, or random projects.

Here’s the non-pepper seasonal garden, this year. I’ll be starting these from March through April, depending. Most of it is brand new to us — we’ve grown tomatoes (but not these) and the basils often, and fell in love with culantro last year, but otherwise it’s all new!

Vegetables

- Sweet Scarlet dwarf tomato
- Eagle Smiley dwarf cherry tomato
- Sumter cucumber
- Ping Tung Long eggplant
- White Sugar Dwarf snow pea
- Perkins’ Long Pod okra
- Lemon Squash, yellow summer squash

Herbs

- Coriander/Cilantro (indoors)
- Culantro
- Papalo
- Hoary Mountainmint (hoping this will be an interesting spearmint substitute)
- Tulsi/Holy Basil (this has the most incredible, enchanting smell — sort of like bubblegum, but awesome)
- Asian/Thai Basil
- Genovese Basil

Useful Flowers

- Tarragon Marigold (Tagetes lucida)
- German Chamomile
- Dwarf Sunspot sunflower
- Lavender
- Yellow Cosmos
- Cornflower
 
I’m glad you asked! A few of them are, yes. That lot is very special to me. They were my first grow from seed — resulting in around 500 super cute Trichocereus spp. seedlings (seeds from talented breeder Misplant — weird site, great seeds).

Baby Trichocerii!

1676826159746.jpeg


After five years, they’ve been narrowed down to the healthiest individuals:

- Trichocereus validus ‘Fields Validus’
- T. pachanoi ‘Tom Juul’s Giant’ X T. peruvianus ‘Peru2’
- T. bridgesii ‘Wowie’ X T. pachanoi ‘Yowie’
- T. macrogonus X T. bridgesii ‘SS02’
- T. macrogonus X T. bridgesii ‘Baker5452’
- T. pachanoi ‘Yowie’ X T. pachanoi ‘Lima3’ (2)
- T. pachanoi ‘Lima3’ X T. pachanoi ‘Yowie’
 
thoroughburro said:
They were my first grow from seed — resulting in around 500 super cute Trichocereus spp. seedlings (seeds from talented breeder Misplant — weird site, great seeds).
Click to expand...

¡Órale! That's one hell of a licuado you're going to make there! I germinated ~70 T. pachanoi (seeds from Peru) about 7 months ago and they are really taking off now. Easy and rewarding plants but, as they say, the proof will be in the pudding 🥳 🧑‍🍳
 
I’m starting the slower-germinating herbs over the next few days. 10 Jiffy pellets sprinkled with Culantro, today. Papalo tomorrow, and look at its cute little box:

1677605866449.jpeg


I’m a little intimidated to sow them. I’ve read that if the tiny seed breaks away from its bit of fluff, it won’t germinate.

Any tips? I can use Jiffy pellets or rockwool… any preference between them?
 
I usually start my papalo in April. I put them on top of regular potting soil, don't cover them and make sure there's enough light for them to germinate. I keep them around 25°C till they've germinated, then I keep the temp at about 18°C. In between waterings, I let the little plants dry out. Once planted outside in the garden, I just mostly ignore them and harvest leaves when needed.

I've never really had any trouble with growing papalo. But there's a first for everything right?
 
The papalo wraps up this round of earlier sowing. They didn’t seem as fragile as I was worried, so I even pushed them down lightly. I also misted them with water after the photo, to speed hydration.

1677701659101.jpeg


These are certainly the most interesting seeds I’ve sown, so far. They look like a crunchy granola, hemp-wearing version of dandelion seeds. 😆

1677701751941.jpeg
 
The papalo are more developed, today (I suppose that’s a truism):

1677967251702.jpeg


And meet a new addition to the garden, Piper auritum, drying out from being shipped:

1677968094430.jpeg


I had to get this as a cutting on Ebay, since reliable seed venders seem to avoid it. I asked my herb vender why they and others don’t sell it, and she said it doesn’t produce viable seed, or not reliably, and that she would advise against buying any seed offered.

That seems fair enough, but after a brief search I haven’t found a botanical source which mentions this. And some reliable sources, like PIER, say it does propagate by seed. There are folks who want to buy it, so I’m sure there is some reason not to sell to them… I’ll have to find out for myself!

Anyway, my goals for it are: big, beautiful leaves; delicious tamales; and homemade “root” beer (leaf beer?).
 
Last edited:
I know! Florida can’t burn the stuff fast enough, apparently! I’ve wanted to grow it for ages, though, so if this gets me started it’ll be worth it. And thanks for the name reference — it has so many, I’m glad to know which is actually widely used.

The other name I’m curious about is acuyo. I haven’t seen an etymology or a meaning other than the plant, which makes me think it may be Nahuatl from something like acuyotl, but that’s just a wild guess, similar to how papalotl (butterfly) -> papalo. But what is acuyotl, then?
 
I have been looking for a Hoya santa for ages! I'd have to handle it like a houseplant, maybe take it outside during summer, but I'd be willing to do the overwintering for this one.

There's one source in The Netherlands that sells it for around 8 euro, but every time I look it's sold out. I had a quick look just now.

Hope it'll be everything you want it to be.
 
thoroughburro said:
it has so many, I’m glad to know which is actually widely used
Click to expand...

All names are widely used, but where I live (MX is big), hoja santa seems to be more common.

Ratatouille said:
There's one source in The Netherlands that sells it for around 8 euro, but every time I look it's sold out.
Click to expand...

There used to be a thriving online FB community of Mexicans in the Netherlands (Mexicanos en Holanda). I'd ask around there....
 
thoroughburro said:
The other name I’m curious about is acuyo. I haven’t seen an etymology or a meaning other than the plant, which makes me think it may be Nahuatl from something like acuyotl, but that’s just a wild guess, similar to how papalotl (butterfly) -> papalo. But what is acuyotl, then?
Click to expand...

I love questions which aren’t yet easily answered by a simple search. I’m sure someone else has the answer, probably somewhere on the non-English Internet, but I can’t find it… so I get to do my own research! 😆

It looks like acuyo, if it’s from Nahuatl as I suspect, would most likely derive from some word beginning with acol-. I found three candidates.

Acol itself is a proper name, used for people and at least one place. Plausible.

Acolli means ‘shoulder’, which seems random but note its possible root word:

This invites analysis as a derivation form *CŌL ‘something twisted, bent’ but there is a difference in vowel length.
Click to expand...

The stems of Piper auritum are frequently called out in descriptions as being bonelike (not dissimilar to a shoulder):

1678110757767.jpeg


So, this seems like a plausible explanation.

Finally, and maybe most suggestively, acolotl means ‘crayfish’. Wrapping seafood, including crayfish, is a very old use for the plant. I think this is the most likely source for acuyo.
 
I sowed all the non-pepper vegetables, today.

1678132253317.jpeg


I added them to Tray 5. The upper half are replacement peppers, ready to start coming up in the next few days, and culantro. The rockwool at the bottom is Bolivian Rainbow.

What got sown:

Sweet Scarlet tomatoes, 31-36
Eagle Smiley cherry tomatoes, 37-42
Sumter cucumbers, 43-46
Ping Tung Long eggplants, 47-50
Lemon Squash, 51-54
Perkins’ Long Pod okra, 55-58
White Sugar Dwarf snow peas, 59-62
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top