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Since there seems to be some hot pepper chat I've got a hot pepper growing question: I've got a ghost pepper plant I've been growing in a pot, brought it indoors and stuck it under a grow light back at the end of September when we started getting frosts around here. The plant seems to be happy now, the remaining peppers are ripening up and it's been growing new leaves up top, but when I moved it inside I either didn't move it early enough or stressed it out by moving it and it dropped a lot of its larger lower leaves. Is there a chance I could get this plant to flower again after I've picked off the remaining peppers? Give it enough light and keep it warm? Or would I be better off propagating some cuttings off this plant and killing it once I've got all the peppers off? It's been fun growing these this year, I was going to pick some other super hot varieties to start next year but it's a pain when the growing season is shorter than the estimated time to maturity of the plant. Also these are hot enough, as novel as trying to grow reapers would be I'm not sure what I'd actually do with them if they were anywhere near as productive as this ghost pepper plant has been. and the plant in its current home in my spare bedroom: 
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Nov 6, 2018 03:02
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Fitzy Fitz posted:Yeah I just wanted to give them a shot because it might be fun. Root vegetables in general don't seem worth the effort unless you enjoy growing them or want to try a less common variety. These are Myanmar Purples from Baker Creek.
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Nov 6, 2018 03:03
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fralbjabar you could definitely get another flower out of that plant. It looks happy enough you could just let it live the good life inside until it warms back up, honestly. I wouldn't bother starting over. It's likely that it got cold at some point, that's what normally makes them just dump leaves like that. edit: If you repot that thing it will be a drat shrub. That's a healthy looking pepper for a pot. mischief fucked around with this message at 03:33 on Nov 6, 2018 |
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Nov 6, 2018 03:30
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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:You should try potato bean/American groundnut for something different. Sow True had some bulbs I think. I’ve never eaten it, but the flowers are pretty, almost like a miniature wisteria, and have a really nice rosewood/sweet pea sort of smell and bloom late summer here when nothing else nice is blooming. I actually have some groundnut! -- bought it at a native plant sale a month ago. It grows wild around here, but I don't see it very often. I'm excited to try eating it next year and will share my findings with everyone.
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Nov 6, 2018 03:36
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fralbjabar posted:Also these are hot enough, as novel as trying to grow reapers would be I'm not sure what I'd actually do with them if they were anywhere near as productive as this ghost pepper plant has been. I'm making BBQ sauce, hot sauce, and maybe drying some of the Reapers for powder (because I'm stupid I think). Jealous of the heat you can give your plant. Mine are in the basement on a wire mesh elevated thing that I cobbled together with leftover parts from other projects. They need to live there so I can indiscriminately water them as there's nothing but a concrete floor with a drain to take the excess away. I used the cheapest lamps I could find on short notice, but they work pretty well. I won't get any more flowers though, it's just going to be too cold all winter. That part of the basement stays about 67F and that's the warmest spot.
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Nov 6, 2018 05:34
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Fitzy Fitz posted:I actually have some groundnut! -- bought it at a native plant sale a month ago. It grows wild around here, but I don't see it very often. I'm excited to try eating it next year and will share my findings with everyone. Huh. I don't recall ever hearing about this plant before, but it sure sounds interesting. Apparently its native range extends up into New Brunswick and it's been grown in Europe so maybe it would produce in coastal B.C.? I'll have to see if there are any Canadian suppliers and give it a try next year. OTOH, the cold adapted varieties of sweetpotatoes I got from a Nova Scotia farm last spring weren't very impressive - just finger diameter roots on everything except the Superior variety. I think I was too paranoid and got them in the ground later than I should. I'll try again next year a little earlier and use a low poly tunnel to get them going. Or maybe grow fewer tomatoes and stick them in the high tunnel. Lord knows we have enough canned tomatoes and tomato products to last a couple of years, we can afford to cut back production next year. We will definitely be planting La Roma paste tomatoes again - large, meaty, and excellent flavour after they've been cooked down.
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Nov 6, 2018 06:36
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Hexigrammus posted:Huh. I don't recall ever hearing about this plant before, but it sure sounds interesting. Apparently its native range extends up into New Brunswick and it's been grown in Europe so maybe it would produce in coastal B.C.? I'll have to see if there are any Canadian suppliers and give it a try next year. I grew my sweet potatoes in fabric pots with potting soil and lots of compost. When I dumped them out the other day the soil was still amazingly loose and earthy. Got some big tubers too. I love those pots.
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Nov 6, 2018 15:41
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mischief posted:fralbjabar you could definitely get another flower out of that plant. It looks happy enough you could just let it live the good life inside until it warms back up, honestly. I wouldn't bother starting over. It's likely that it got cold at some point, that's what normally makes them just dump leaves like that. Maybe I'll do just that then, repot it into something larger after the remaining peppers ripen. I've been giving it bone meal every couple months for feeding, and potted it in mixed compost from my pile and bagged topsoil and it's been overall doing amazingly well for growing in such a tiny pot. What's on there in the picture is only about 1/4 of the peppers it produced, though I lost the first couple waves of peppers to blossom end rot (ended up being due to high soil ph preventing calcium uptake, added some acid and no more rotting peppers). Jhet posted:I'm making BBQ sauce, hot sauce, and maybe drying some of the Reapers for powder (because I'm stupid I think). I made a basic hot sauce with these which came out pretty decent, and I'm going to try making chili oil with them this weekend. Need to find someone who will lend me a food dehydrator so I can dry the rest of the pile sitting in my fridge. I would not want to mess with reaper powder, cayenne powder seems to like to get absolutely everywhere so that but reapers...yike Part of why I put them in that corner is that I have hot water radiant floors, and that's sitting right on top of the supply line to the grids under both bedrooms so it's usually pretty toasty over there. Also it's next to the window with the broken blinds so my neighbors can think I'm growing pot. fralbjabar fucked around with this message at 22:50 on Nov 6, 2018 |
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Nov 6, 2018 22:47
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fralbjabar posted:I made a basic hot sauce with these which came out pretty decent, and I'm going to try making chili oil with them this weekend. Need to find someone who will lend me a food dehydrator so I can dry the rest of the pile sitting in my fridge. I would not want to mess with reaper powder, cayenne powder seems to like to get absolutely everywhere so that but reapers...yike Yes, the lights always make the neighbors think we're all growing pot. I have blue/red LEDs and it really makes it look like those scenes in Weeds and any other show about it. Just peppers though, and tomatoes to start in the spring. I just tie my washed peppers on a butchers string in bunches of three with slip knots and then hang them in a sunny window with plenty of moving air. They dry out in a couple weeks with good results if you can't get a dehydrator in time. You can also use a needles and just thread them through the stems. Anything with a hole or an obvious blemish won't line dry well and those you should use fresh if they're in okay shape. Those are the sort that tend to just grow mold for me instead of drying nicely.
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Nov 7, 2018 03:16
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mischief posted:Setting up to start Are you in the Northern Hemisphere? How are you working on starting stuff at this time of year? When you actually get it going? I figure March at the earliest for me (mid Atlantic). Don't want to get overexcited in November.
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Nov 7, 2018 21:15
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I'm not starting them yet, just getting everything together. I'm Zone 8 here but it won't be too much longer before I'm starting some of the really hot peppers. Primo and Reaper take up to 8 weeks to germinate, let alone get hardy enough to play outside. I have been tempted to get a grow tent in the garage and try growing a few of them inside, though. There is very little more infuriating in a garden than a slow rear end plant like a hot pepper getting wrecked by pests, etc while it's outside. Edit: I really just need to get off my rear end and build a greenhouse. I had plans this year but then the heat pump downstairs died and a couple grand went with it getting a new one. Pretty sure the upstairs one is shuffling off the mortal coil as well which is really annoying because we almost never use them. mischief fucked around with this message at 22:22 on Nov 7, 2018 |
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Nov 7, 2018 22:16
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^^^ the peppers I put into the ground in the greenhouse produced ~4 times as much as the exact same potted plants, do it if you can! Comb Your Beard posted:Are you in the Northern Hemisphere? How are you working on starting stuff at this time of year? When you actually get it going? I figure March at the earliest for me (mid Atlantic). Don't want to get overexcited in November. zone 8 here and my aji's I started trying to germinate last spring are about 1.5"-3" tall and will probably be 4-6" by next spring :3 I'm not good at planning but I loveeee aji peppers SO much so it might balance itself out somehow
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Nov 8, 2018 00:27
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Harry Potter on Ice posted:^^^ the peppers I put into the ground in the greenhouse produced ~4 times as much as the exact same potted plants, do it if you can!
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Nov 8, 2018 01:11
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Is it too late to sow winter chard and spinach in zone 7 if I use cloches? The weather is still really quite warm and sunny with no frosts predicted for at least the next 10 days.
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Nov 12, 2018 01:13
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awesmoe posted:how big were the pots? 5 gallon
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Nov 12, 2018 01:17
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Anyone doing a winter garden or anything? I'm thinking about planting some winter radishes to see what happens.
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Nov 13, 2018 19:14
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A Pack of Kobolds posted:Anyone doing a winter garden or anything? I'm thinking about planting some winter radishes to see what happens. I wish. I just mulched my beds because it's already starting to freeze. Most I managed was bringing in peppers to overwinter and a short round of radishes that didn't ever really get to size. I wish I'd taken the time to plant extra savory and thyme for my window box, but I did not.
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Nov 13, 2018 19:32
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A Pack of Kobolds posted:Anyone doing a winter garden or anything? I'm thinking about planting some winter radishes to see what happens. Might be a bit late for seeds, depending where you are, but worth a try. I find winter gardening out here in coastal B.C. a bit hit and miss. I don't bother with regular radishes much because my wife doesn't like them but I put daikon radishes in as a winter crop because I love kimchi. She doesn't, but that just means there's more for me. Last year I planted out winter cabbages in early August. They grew well but never headed and bolted as soon as the sun returned. This year I got them out in early July and they're heading up nicely. I'll have fresh cabbage and daikon next week for a new batch of kimchi. /dance Night temps are getting close to freezing now so I've been putting a nice fluffy mulch of maple leaves around my winter vegetables. The daikons especially like to grow with the top of the root exposed and it will freeze. The rest of the plant doesn't seem to care. For coastal zone 8 Linda Gilkeson has a lot of good advice. Winter gardening is a bit of a rabbit hole though; once you get down it there's a lot of planning and preparation going on in late spring/early summer already. It's worth it though when your neighbours are doing double takes at all the green in your garden in November. Come December I need to send some pictures of the Christmas brussel sprouts growing in the garden to my friends back east, building on the West Coast tradition of complaining about having to mow the lawn in February when the rest of Canada is under a meter of snow and ice. We coasties can be arseholes that way.
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Nov 13, 2018 20:03
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A Pack of Kobolds posted:Anyone doing a winter garden or anything? I'm thinking about planting some winter radishes to see what happens. I'm just making plans for the spring. Can't buy decent Asian vegetables anywhere around here so I have to grow my own.
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Nov 13, 2018 22:10
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Grand Fromage posted:I'm just making plans for the spring. Can't buy decent Asian vegetables anywhere around here so I have to grow my own. Mind sharing your plans? I take it you're not in China anymore, or thatsthejoke.jpg?
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Nov 13, 2018 22:20
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A Pack of Kobolds posted:Mind sharing your plans? I take it you're not in China anymore, or thatsthejoke.jpg? I am not in China anymore, though I guess it's part joke as the Asian groceries around here are Chinese run and sell garbage produce even worse than what you'd get in actual China. The Korean stores are a lot better but don't have any fresh vegetables, and there's a great Japanese supermarket but it's way too far away for regular shopping. So it's pretty authentic all things considered! I found the square foot gardening method appealing so I've been gathering supplies to construct planting boxes. 32 regular plots and four extra deep ones for roots. I got a catalog from Kitazawa Seed company and started marking things I want, I'll figure out seasons and what order/how much to plant them later. Right now I'm planning mostly Asian vegetables and some western herbs. Current list: amaranth, arugula, Thai basil, pole green beans, yardlong beans, burdock root, Kyoto red carrot, gai lan, chrysanthemum greens, cress, Japanese cucumber, Japanese long eggplants, broccoli raab, celtuce, a couple other lettuces, komatsuna, mibuna, mizuna, wasabi mustard green, negi, bok choi, mitsuba, yatsufusa pepper, daikon, aka karaine radish, okame spinach, kabocha, turnip, regular ol' basil, ghost peppers, nasturtium, rakkyo, Mexican oregano, san marzanos, and I'm hoping some of the seeds in the dried Sichuan red chilies I brought back will germinate, I got some wet and in the dark right now to try it out. Supposedly if they were air dried and not baked some of the seeds should be viable. It's a bunch but it'll be nice to have it available again, and I know a couple people around here who'd take my excess. There's a few Chinese vegetables I'd really like but they grow in water, so I have no idea how to do it. And kongxincai seems to be a regulated invasive species in the US so I wouldn't be able to grow it anyway. Also a couple I just have no idea what the name is to start looking.
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Nov 13, 2018 22:39
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Hexigrammus posted:It's worth it though when your neighbours are doing double takes at all the green in your garden in November. This mid 70s guy frank near me has that garden. Its always so impressive how he has his poo poo together and I'm behind the curve.
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Nov 13, 2018 22:59
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Frank's got it figured out. I hope someday to be the old man who spends his retirement gardening and fishing while drinking Rainier all day.Grand Fromage posted:I am not in China anymore, though I guess it's part joke as the Asian groceries around here are Chinese run and sell garbage produce even worse than what you'd get in actual China. The Korean stores are a lot better but don't have any fresh vegetables, and there's a great Japanese supermarket but it's way too far away for regular shopping. So it's pretty authentic all things considered! I don't know what half of this is, but I'm stoked to look them up. Thanks! For your Regular Ol' Basil, consider Genovese if you're growing from seed. Alternately you can get some of that living basil at the store. It's not as good, but it's a living starter.
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Nov 13, 2018 23:12
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my life goal is to basically be monty don by the time i'm in my 50s need to work on the accent tho
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Nov 13, 2018 23:16
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A Pack of Kobolds posted:Anyone doing a winter garden or anything? I'm thinking about planting some winter radishes to see what happens. Yes, got some spinach and chard that I'm hoping will do well (ie not die).
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Nov 13, 2018 23:43
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Grand Fromage posted:[...] I'm hoping some of the seeds in the dried Sichuan red chilies I brought back will germinate, I got some wet and in the dark right now to try it out. Supposedly if they were air dried and not baked some of the seeds should be viable. I've found a lot of the tien tsin seeds available in the US as a side effect of procuring er jing tiao seeds. I still haven't found those outside of a package of dried chilies. I'll be trying dozens of seeds from a few different packages of them this winter, but I'm not really hopeful of having any luck. My Chinese is basically non-existent so I'm just searching poorly and haven't found any suppliers in the US for seeds. They're similar to cayenne to grow, but from my limited experience they have a big enough flavor difference to make it worth the trouble.
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Nov 14, 2018 00:28
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For what it's worth, I've had some Chinese speaking family members looking for seeds of that same pepper and it's completely non-existent. Most of the families I know hoard seeds religiously but this one particular pepper apparently slipped through a whole lot of cracks. It really is a drat near perfect pepper though. My father in law uses it in a lot of dishes but, like you noted, it's always a dried version of the pepper.
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Nov 14, 2018 00:34
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Yeah it's annoying, I can't find any for sale though I'm not even sure I know what the species name is. I don't think it's even that good of a pepper compared to a lot of the American options, but the flavor/fragrance is very specific and important in cooking Sichuan food so you can't really substitute. I can just buy more dried online at least.
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Nov 14, 2018 01:12
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Grand Fromage posted:Yeah it's annoying, I can't find any for sale though I'm not even sure I know what the species name is. I don't think it's even that good of a pepper compared to a lot of the American options, but the flavor/fragrance is very specific and important in cooking Sichuan food so you can't really substitute. not sure if this helps anyone or not but it could be a start 四川辣椒 seemed like there were some vendors? edit: nvm can't find it again
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Nov 14, 2018 03:22
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Grand Fromage posted:Yeah it's annoying, I can't find any for sale though I'm not even sure I know what the species name is. I don't think it's even that good of a pepper compared to a lot of the American options, but the flavor/fragrance is very specific and important in cooking Sichuan food so you can't really substitute. I found this page a while ago. https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E4%BA%8C%E9%87%91%E6%9D%A1 . It seemed to have some decent info, but I can't figure out where to acquire the seeds either. Plenty of links to buy bulk dried peppers, but no leads for seeds. My wife has a coworker in Shanghai, but I doubt that he'd be able to find them there. Thankfully, I can get pretty good Asian produce here, but I haven't made a trip to Chinatown in Sept/Oct to see if they have any this year. Supposedly you can get them on the west coast in Seattle during that time of year, but that doesn't help me any. My garden is going to be primarily peppers followed by paste tomatoes next year, so planning it is fairly easy. I'll do some cucumbers again, but I don't need eggplant or anything like that. I'd do a more rare variety of garlic, but I was lazy and haven't gotten around to it. I do have about 40' of garlic chives that come back year after year, so I have that going for me at least.
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Nov 14, 2018 04:41
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Quick dumb gardening question: I bought a brick of coco coir and uh do not need all of this right now. It should be able to be safely stored after being rehydrated in a big plastic tub or something without going bad or whatever right? I can't imagine what would happen to it that would render it unusable after sitting for a while but I guess that's why I'm making certain that is true.
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Nov 14, 2018 19:03
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Teabag Dome Scandal posted:Quick dumb gardening question: I bought a brick of coco coir and uh do not need all of this right now. It should be able to be safely stored after being rehydrated in a big plastic tub or something without going bad or whatever right? I can't imagine what would happen to it that would render it unusable after sitting for a while but I guess that's why I'm making certain that is true. Just break off what you do need and rehydrate that part leaving the rest dry? If that's not an option, it should be fine if you leave it to air out again, but it won't be small again and you'll probably want to make sure it can drain properly so it doesn't start growing things you don't want.
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Nov 14, 2018 19:07
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Yeah, dry it out if you want to keep it for any length of time, otherwise you're going to get anaerobic decomposition happening if it sits wet, warm, and stagnant. Or leave it and blame the sulphur smell on the dog. Don't ask me about the box of soil block mix I left sitting in the downstairs kitchen for a couple of weeks...
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Nov 14, 2018 21:10
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Jhet posted:Just break off what you do need and rehydrate that part leaving the rest dry? If that's not an option, it should be fine if you leave it to air out again, but it won't be small again and you'll probably want to make sure it can drain properly so it doesn't start growing things you don't want. Honestly, I didn't realize how much volume would be created when I hydrated it or I would have only used a small portion but we're long past that unfortunately. So it sounds like a sealed container is a bad thing but I should be fine if I make sure it can drain (it isn't super wet right now anyway) and maybe turn it occasionally to make sure everybody has a chance to dry out as much as possible? It'll be in the garage so being warm won't be an issue unless it really starts decomposing on its own.
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Nov 14, 2018 23:13
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I mean, if you kind of know what kind of soil you plan on sticking it in eventually, you can just mix it in with that dirt and leave it in a mound wherever or in a big tote or something. It's just (the organic part of) dirt, won't hurt it to be where other dirt is.
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Nov 15, 2018 19:53
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A Pack of Kobolds posted:Anyone doing a winter garden or anything? I'm thinking about planting some winter radishes to see what happens. There's a whole lot of kale growing semi-wild from last year apparently in the communal garden here. Coastal BC too so I'm pretty sure it'll be quite happy through the winter.
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Nov 16, 2018 23:07
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I planted some late spuds.
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Nov 18, 2018 17:43
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Ugh I still need to clean up my “dead” garden, pull a couple yards of compost out of my bins to top my beds off, rake and shred leaves and plant waste, build my winter compost piles, plant garlic, and mulch. 
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Nov 19, 2018 19:41
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Speaking of, is there any point where it's too late to plant garlic in the fall? I assume as long as the ground isn't frozen then it should be fine if not a little later harvest next year, right? I'm in zone 5b if it matters.
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Nov 19, 2018 20:01
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Mikey Purp posted:Speaking of, is there any point where it's too late to plant garlic in the fall? I assume as long as the ground isn't frozen then it should be fine if not a little later harvest next year, right? I'm in zone 5b if it matters. I don't think so. I'm in 6a and a couple of years ago, I planted my fall garlic just after Christmas. Since my raised beds were frozen solid, it required some hay bales and a glass storm door to act as a cold frame on the few sunny days in a row we had, but that gave me 12" of soil that was at least 40F. As soon as I planted, I removed the cold frame and re-purposed the hay into a deep mulch with some leaves until spring. My harvest that year wasn't any later than usual and the cloves had plenty of time to divide and do their thing. Big Nubbins fucked around with this message at 22:19 on Nov 19, 2018 |
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Nov 19, 2018 22:13
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