Greening Thumb

2010-04-20T12:12:00.000-07:00

2010-04-13T11:32:00.000-07:00

Guess it

2010-04-09T13:49:00.001-07:00

Windowsill

2010-02-09T05:18:00.000-08:00

This is one of my shelfs I have this years bunch on.

WOW! Once a month!

2010-02-08T10:51:00.001-08:00

Wow, almost one month exactly since the last post. That's a new record... Do you got a situation that needs imagination? Then call the imagination movers!

Back to gardening.

Does anyone have any idea what this is? It's either a Bhut Jolokia, Scotch Bonnet, or Hot Cherry. No sign of fruit - it's just growing VERY slowly, and weird. It's straight and perfect, really looks like its bushing out. Never had a pepper plant do that.

2010-01-10T18:31:00.000-08:00

And a wholesome Happy New Year. followers and visitors! This is the only thing growing here for me. There is around 3 foot of snow outside now. I've taken the jump into hydroponics a little more deeper. The two silver things are what they call DWC (Deep Water Culture). Basically they are generic Aerogardens. Instead of pumping water - they pump air in the water to produce a "mist" on the growing net which allows the other medium called hydroton which wicks the water up to the plant. The other plants in the photo include 4 types of peppers (Bhut, Cherry, Peter, Cayenne) and two types of tomato.

The fall harvest went VERY quick. We took ALOT of green cherry/grape type tomatoes off the vine and brought them inside for ripening. This is the first time ever we have ripened tomatoes inside. We used bananas for this.

The large leftover tomatoes didn't last, they basically rotted since we never allowed them air flow (Lesson learned).

We also have a current cucumber plant (actually 6) growing in another room.

Here's some peppers. Still ALOT on the plants

2009-09-13T13:37:00.001-07:00

Update w/pics

2009-08-07T05:34:00.001-07:00

Finally the Daconil is working good, and the weather here is starting to be conducive for plant growing (AKA: not pissin raining everyday). A few Roma's and early girl or early and often are out and growing larger. Wish I had that stuff (fungicide) months ago. I bought the Ortho too, already have the copper spray, so I think I'm ready for next year.

Getting cleaned up a little bit. Also getting ready for cooler weather (hopefully) and planting some more Iceberg Head lettuce.

Cucumbers and Squash (acorn and winter) are not doing well in the garden area. There is something that is attacking it. Not sure if it's a fungus or bug. Sprayed it with the fungicide but I think it was too late. Could be the gummy problem with the cucumbers.

Roma Tomatoes (Could be Big Mamas)

Cucumbers Sprawling

Cayennes anyone? Got lots of them!!

Pepper plot. Everything in there is pepper (Hot and sweet)

One of four Aerogarden Cherry tomato plants (They are just starting to blush and orange)

Raised side garden (Lettuce, Cuccumbers,

tomatoes, Peppers, onions)

Below is Onions and broccoli, peppers in containers tomatoes plants also (Finally got the fungicide to work and keep the LB away)

Can you see the pepper through the forest?

Some sweet peppers

Some peppers for some salsa.

There's something wrong here

2009-07-02T06:59:00.000-07:00

2009-06-21T10:19:00.000-07:00

Jalapeno Jungle

Cherry Tomato Plot

Another View of the Cherry Tomato Plot

Close up of Hungarian Wax Peppers

Current Status

2009-06-18T16:00:00.001-07:00

Well! There sure is alot of progress toward veggie land. The majority of Tomato plants are in ground and doing wonderful. ALOT of blooms. The peppers are begining to grow larger since the weather has turned warm. The Squash has 42 fruits coming out of 12 plants. We currently have 3 tomatoes on different plants. The lettuce has been here for eating ofr over a month. Cucumbers are getting ready to go in the ground and be big. Bought a HAbanero plant today - couldn't resist it anymore. It's in a 2 gallon pot and I'm not going to remove it until next year.

Photo Update

2009-06-11T11:02:00.000-07:00

May Update - There's growth coming again.

2009-05-28T13:28:00.000-07:00

Well due to a question about this. Here's an update.

The aerogarden tomatoes have been sent to the recycle patch. I actually took three or four tomatoes and saved/dried the seeds from them in hopes of getting more plants. The plants I took from the pods and placed into dirt did wonderful. The wife made a huge salad the other night with our lettuce and tomatoes. She loved them. So I've got about 9 seeds from the tomatoes in new pods in hope of making more plants.

Moved a huge Cayenne pepper plants outside because it was in a small container and started to act weird.

Still got a few pepper plans inside with a bunch of peppers on them. Even after going on a trip and not watering them for five days. Glad peppers don't really care for alot of water. The temp reached 85 outside and they were in a window.

This one is of the cayenne I mentioned before.

This is Beans in the close and a few tomatoes in the distance.

Raised area with Cherry & Grape tomato plants
There are small window boxes with lettuce in the on the right.

Raised Bed with Onions and two different types of lettuce.

Close-up of some of the lettuce (Yes it's ready for salads)

Here's Five Pail tomatoes getting ready for a lift to the upside down area. They aren't quite large enough for placement.

March 7 Update

2009-03-07T04:04:00.000-08:00

Been a little while - Lets just say I need to either slow down or stop planting things. Winter is just too slow at going out the door. With at least 12 inches of snow still on the ground and areas having 4 foot piles - it's going to be here for a little while longer.

Oh yeah - the plants.

Well I have tomatoes on the AG "Hydroponic" station (above) - lots of them too. They range from pencil eraser size to just emerging.

The Cucumber plants (above) are growing well - one if 24" high, the other maybe 12". Both plants have a bunch of blossoms on them too some with baby cucumbers - so cucumbers are coming.

Onion plot/seeds aren't doing that well. The "plot" is dead - I think because it was too shallow (2" deep). Another bunch are ok now - but I fear they might be dead soon too. Instead for some reason I bought 5 bags of onion sets - 4 of which I have already put under some dirt(above), and have already popped their heads up. Some even are 4 inches tall within a week. So I placed them on the porch to slow the growth down. The last 24" window box of seeds I took outside - we will see if they do OK.

Although not mentioned before, around 3 JAN my oldest son and I picked out some hyacinths and we came home planted the bag in a 10" pot of miracle grow soil. Then placed them on the porch. I've watered them once or twice. Well I brought them in 2 days ago and they are starting to pop through the dirt already - I guess they will be ready for easter. I big pot of stinky flowers for under $4. The photo above is it.

Above is a photo of the forest of plants. There are about 5 pepper plants and 5 tomato plants. ALL are 7-10" high. The pepper plants look as though they might begin to fruit. The tomato plants are the transplants from the AG. The majority have buds but nothing coming of fruits.

KiYoshi!

2009-02-15T17:44:00.000-08:00

Your request has been put under. There is currently 4 Cherry and 2 of the best boy's planted "'specially" for you and you next older siblin'. 2 and 1 respectfully each. Once we get closer to "spring" time I will augment your request with the Cucummer and peppppper. :). Tell the ole brew master not to kill 'em.

Photo Update!

2009-02-10T14:04:00.000-08:00

Planted 32 Sweet peppers in a group today. Need to figure out what I'm going to do with them. I want to get them strong and ready to produce once they are set out. I know I'm VERY early, but I want to make sure we have almost instant garden with fruit coming. Those 5" pots I remarked about earlier got MINT and Chives.

72 Peppers on left

Onions plot on left

Strawberry Petunia on left

One of the Cukes on left (In a 12" pot)

One of the many Jalapeno Peppers on left about 3" tall.

Weekly Update

2009-02-07T05:19:00.000-08:00

On Feb 1st I planted 3 test onions, and one "Early Girl" tomato plant seed, then the next day took a generic 10"x10" container and planted a bunch of onion seeds.

5 FEB I planted another plot of 32 cells with onion seeds. The Early girl had already begun to sprout, but failed to shed the seed skin- must have not plated it deep enough.

6 FEB - killed the short early girl, removed two seeds from it's pelletization and planted two peat pots with Early girl seeds - this time at the proper depth.

7 FEB - Itchin to plant something else I looked into my bag of "goodies" 'er seeds, and saw the I should already have planted the Sweet pepper seeds - they state 8 weeks prior to movement outside! OMG! I quickly punched out an 8 pot group of those and placed them in the hot house. Did a little more inspection of the hot peppers and onion plot - there's some movement in there. Must be because I've kept the door to that room closed - It get's REALLY hot in there.
Now I need to figure out what I'm going to plant in a couple 5" small pots...

Pepper Plants AWAY!

2009-01-31T15:24:00.000-08:00

Well...
Planted a 72 seed group of Mixed Hot Pepper seeds. Hopefully these things will all do good. I know it's early but I think these plants will grow slow enough to be okay. It's a salsa mixture.

Pail Tomatoes - Start to almost finish

2009-01-27T11:04:00.000-08:00

Here's a few photos of my pail tomatoes. The start (on ground) and then in full "bush" hanging upside down.

Ready for Spring Tulips anyone?

2009-01-27T11:01:00.000-08:00

This is a photo of last years Tulip/spring flower crop. Original from my Dad and enhanced by myself. I can't wait till they come up this year.

Morning Glorys

2009-01-27T11:00:00.000-08:00

These are two pictures of some morning glorys I started inside and once they were around 2 inch I moved them outside. A Before and after picture.

Strawberry Petunias

2009-01-27T10:56:00.000-08:00

This is a picture of my oldest sons plant. We bought a package of seeds he thought was pretty. Started them inside around february, they didn't do that good inside. Once moved outside, and water/fed properly they went crazy and bloomed in such beauty. I saved the seeds from the plant last year, and have already started them this year. A package of 15 pelletized seeds for this plant cost $2.00 last year. This year I have probably $30 worth of seeds. They are growing great in three different pots. 2 will be given to relatives for spring/easter presents.

Jalapenos?

2009-01-27T10:51:00.000-08:00

This is one of our Jalapeno plants from Bonnie Plants. I was hit by frost but came back. I cannot believe how GOOD fresh jalapeno peppers taste. I've never ate anything hot before, these peppers were so tasty. We stopped making chili with "chili pepper" seasoning. Since these plants we only use jalapeno and serano peppers.

Baby Cucumbers

2009-01-27T10:46:00.000-08:00

This is the first pic of what our cucumbers looked like when I transplanted them last year. They grew like crazy once established. BUT not even half way into the growing season (August 08), these plants died out due to beetles. I failed to recognize the bug (I did see them) and once I learned about them - the plants were already on the way out with scaley leaves. A hard lesson learned. This year WILL be different. I'm already planning on the insecticide/copper dust to help keep them healthy.

SQUASH

2009-01-27T10:42:00.000-08:00

This is one "crop" that did OUTSTANDING last year. We had too much squash last year. We gave over 1/2 of it away. I knew it would be easy to grow, but this stuff is like a weed... 12-15 plants produced probably 100lbs of squash. I actually let a couple squash and zuchini just grow to see how big it would get. It got HUGE, almost 3 foot long and 12 inches around!! I thought it was cool.

Tomato Forest

2009-01-27T10:37:00.000-08:00

How could I ever see the tomatoes through this forest. This is last years plot. I had TOO many plants far too close together. One plant got some fungus/disease and it spread through the whole patch. There was 45 plants in the patch and tomatoes that looked rotten. This year will be completely different. Farther apart and fewer. You can see the lettuce in the background.

Let-us

2009-01-27T10:33:00.000-08:00

This is last years lettuce. Its a mixture of black simpson and butter crunch. The butter crunch didn't do that well. Plus the wife wanted the black simpson more. I didn't like it because once it was cut - it bolted. I think it was because she cut it too early.

Leggy tomatoes kill :(

2009-01-26T13:45:00.000-08:00

Well I had about 12 tomato plants that were growing in some peat pots but they've apparently missed some of the artificial light that I've been providing them, they had become leggy and I have no time for plants that are not perfectly healthy this year. (Last year I had about 30 leggy ones) So far there are three AG Cherries doing great in the garden, and five extra ones from the kit that I transplanted within a week of sprouting, I ensured that they remained under the AG Light source for the light, then moved them out once they were strong enough under other lights. The pepper plants as I stated yesterday are going great. I planted one early girl today. I placed it in a peat pot on the AG platform so it could receive the same warming light. Once it get up and out and it strong I'll move that to the other light. I hope this one will be the earliest in the county.

Spacemaster??

2009-01-26T13:44:00.000-08:00

This is the same spacemaster from yesterday that apparently has felt like growing like crazy overnight. I've now separated the two of them in preparation of transplanting them into a large 3-5 gallon pot. Once there I believe they will thrive better. This one in the picture has decided to push some roots through the corner of the peat pot trying to expand itself. Time for a move...

Here come The Cherries!!

2009-01-25T16:20:00.000-08:00

This is another picture of the Red Heirloom Tomatoes I started on 3 JAN 2009. They're doing great.

Got Cukes?

2009-01-25T16:17:00.000-08:00

These are some "Spacemaster" Cucumbers that I started about two weeks ago. I think I need to get them into a big pot and give them a bright light. Hopefully they'll do okay.

Lettuce in 2 Days?

2009-01-25T10:24:00.000-08:00

Yup! This is some Little Gem lettuce from Burpee which has started to sprout in 2 days. Once placed into the AG pod - I soaked the pod with a blank needle full of the fluid from below. Two days later it's sprouting, only 43 more till harvest time!

2009-01-25T10:11:00.000-08:00

One of the Cherry Red Heirloom Tomato Plants from the AG Kit.

Baby Pepper sprout

2009-01-25T08:30:00.000-08:00

This is a photo of a tiny Jalapeno Pepper Plant after it was started in my Aerogarden and then transplanted into Jiffy Germination dirt
and fed with vegetable liquid plant food.

In the beginning I never thought I'd grow anything..

2009-01-25T08:10:00.000-08:00

After one year at trying to grow a garden with minimal success, I'm trying my luck at an Aerogarden. Picture will follow.