So Ive been processing: My plants are 8+ feet and have set quite a few that should come in by the end of the season. Im going to have to top them in the next few days. Also: Spoiler 1lb 13oz into 2oz dried:
As of today my peppers are really looking strong. Only a couple of weeks ago they were all yellowish and anemic and I thought they were going to die off, but now they are an incredible green colour and strong, and have a ton of new fruit coming in. Really shows just how important fertilizer can be. Go figure... I mean, it makes sense, but it's really impressive to see the results.
Since I was asked the most farmy shot I could get: I topped off the first and 3rd row of each variety to test out how well it works. Since Ive been picking them the past few weeks the setting of the second set of tomatoes has exploded. I should have a huge load of them by September.
This is crazy. I have a now 10' tall cherry tomato plant, that is fucking LOADED with green tomatoes, but only 1 or two a day are ripening. I did a rough count on the plant this afternoon and there are about 400 green tomatoes of various sizes. One of these days they are going to start ripening, and it's going to be nuts... I expect 50-100 a day. Meanwhile I'm eating cucumbers like they're going out of style.
Habaneros are really coming in... and I can't get over just how healthy everything is looking now that they're being properly fertilized. And here's an example of the tomato density for the plant... and it's 10 feet tall. Again, just lots of water and fertilizer seems to be the key. Go figure!
Finally after over a month my Ghost peppers are turning color. My Cayenne's are still doing great. Eggplants are also coming along well.
That looks SO good Nett. So far the fall crop attempt is feeling pretty weak. Broccoli came up but I should have planted more, then they melted after about a week. None of the lettuce came up and I should have seen some sign of activity by now. I did feel a definite "snap" to the weather this morning. Not cool, but not swampy like it usually is. Maybe Sep will be a few degrees cooler and I can try to plant again. That will mean I have to re-do my planting calendar but hey, live and learn. Does anyone have a good source for inexpensive bulk fertilizer? Pure forms, like Calcium Nitrate. I got a 5lb bag on Amazon for just under $13 but I could really burn through the bag if I'm not conservative with it. I really hope between the composting and worm farming and mulching that I can significantly bump up the soil quality so that next season I need to purchase supplemental nutrients less. It will take time and I need to be patient.
I think that tomatoes have to be the one fruit that you just can't buy "good" in the stores any more, so you notice the difference the most when you grow your own. This was the tomato of my youth... the one that barely held together as you cut and plated it, that was all juice and very little structure... the complete opposite of the engineered shit you buy in the stores that were picked early and are tough so that they can survive the shipping and storing better. The fresh cucumbers, tomatoes, and avocado, with just salt and pepper, and a splash of balsamic, was a meal unto itself. Totally worth all the effort and patience so far. In other news, my tomatoes are really starting to ripen up now... it should be good fun for the next few weeks.
My tomato plants aren't as impressive as a lot of yours, but I'm getting a good haul of them. This is just the beginning, and I've enjoyed a few this week already. Going to make marinara with the plum tomatoes tomorrow and freeze the leftovers.
I moved right before the spring season and didn't have time to truly set up the new garden. Which means I've been losing to woodchucks, bunnies, and now even a few deer. It also means I never got enough support on the tomatoes and the garden itself is pretty much collapsing all over the place and a nightmare. But, I did manage to get shit tons of tomatoes out of it before everything started to go to Hell. Which actually times out pretty well because at this point in the season I've kind of had enough of weeding and dicking around with it anyway.
My cherry tomato plant is now over 12 feet tall, and has got so much unripened fruit on it it's going to break the 1x1" strapping I've encased it in for support. I really hope it all ripens up soon... we're already starting to get frost warnings around here. So far I think I've taken maybe 20 cherry tomatoes off of it... and there must be 400 more left on it.
Picked this today to give to a friend. Didn't even put a dent in the ripe cherry tomatoes on the plants.
For CT it is amazing that my garden is going as it is on September 26. My most perfect Heirloom tomato I have ever grown. More Heirlooms that are just starting to turn, never happened this late before. Eggplants are still coming in nice. This Cherry tomato plant fell over because it is so tall and loaded with new growth. And the hot peppers have never stopped providing.
I have not grown in this before, but I am interested in doing so for my own cooking purposes. I did a little reading and it looks like the Burpee website sells it as an annual, which makes sense if it is used in Thai cooking, is from a very hot environment. Other website said it could be treated as a perennial in zones nine and above. If you live in an area where it freezes then you want to start it after the first Frost in the spring. Considering the culture that use it in their cooking, I would assume that it likes a hot humid wet environment. It looks like if you can keep it alive over winter you can actually just keep dividing the plant. It looks like the plant itself can get quite large, and I saw it on a few websites used as an ornamental grass in a pot. I don't think you should have any trouble growing something like this.
Yeah I use it like crazy not only in cooking, but also the leaves make for a really good tea. And plus when you're done with them (or if you just use the base for cooking), you cut up the leaves and toss them in your yard and there won't be a mosquito within a hundred yards. Also lemongrass is supposed to help with migraines, which my wife and mother in law suffer from, so that shit is like green gold to us.
Sounds like a winner. If I grow some I think I will keep it in a large pot on the border of the garden, maybe do multiple ones for the corners. It appears as though the individual plants can get pretty big in a "clumpy" way and I have a smallish space reserved for herbs. We have crazy mosquitos around here since it is always wet and I like to avoid spraying chemicals as much as possible.
My cucmbers are dead, but the cherry and heirloom tomatoes are ripening like a motherfucker. The herbs are still going nuts, and I’m about to harvest my first crop of hot peppers.