|
I was scared into it by an extension class that didn't have a lot of other advice except to rotate nightshade plantings to avoid nutrient wear and nematodes
|
#
?
Jul 25, 2023 22:45
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 28, 2024 06:24 |
|
|
My sage and rosemary both overwintered (zone 8b) and seem to be happy with the heat and humidity we are getting right now. I have harvested a little bit from them but mostly use them as companion plants for the fruit trees.  I tried growing thyme last year but it didn’t like the heat and winter killed it off completely.
|
|
#
?
Jul 25, 2023 23:00
|
|
|
I've found thyme does best in the south in a raised bed or pot. It doesn't like heavy clay soils and needs better drainage. Even then I've only ever gotten a year or three out of it.
|
|
#
?
Jul 26, 2023 14:52
|
|
|
Would my pumpkins produce more fruit if I trimmed the vines? I’ve got three vines and two fruits growing very well. I’ve just been kinda letting it go it’s own thing.
|
|
#
?
Jul 26, 2023 16:10
|
|
|
FizFashizzle posted:Would my pumpkins produce more fruit if I trimmed the vines? I think the opposite. I looked into growing a giant rear end pumpkin and one of the keys (aside from seed choice) is to trim new vines as they appear so all the resources go into the single gourd.
|
|
#
?
Jul 26, 2023 16:20
|
|
|
swickles posted:I think the opposite. I looked into growing a giant rear end pumpkin and one of the keys (aside from seed choice) is to trim new vines as they appear so all the resources go into the single gourd. So one vine one fruit? I can do that
|
|
#
?
Jul 26, 2023 17:16
|
|
|
Had 40 MPH winds today in southwest Wisconsin. I thought for sure I'd lose half of my 50 sunflowers, but only five kinked over I think four will survive after giving them splints. The bean teepees blowing over was annoying and I think I'll lose two or three bean plants. Here are some during storm/after remediating/before storm pictures: https://imgur.com/a/Lt8yXQJ. Plants are always stronger than I think they are. Also it's amazing to me that no tomatoes sustained any damage, especially the cherries which are over 7' tall now. Maybe next year I'll move the raspberries to the edge of the garden as a wind break. Anyone have success building wind breaks into your garden design?
|
|
#
?
Jul 26, 2023 20:36
|
|
|
I wish I could say that at some point spending as much time as I do outside I would stop making embarrassing noises when I encounter snakes but that day was not today. The king snake from a few years ago is still out there and he was enjoying some shade under a zucchini plant until my dumb rear end jammed my hands and face down into it. I am not proud. I am glad there were no witnesses, though. mischief fucked around with this message at 01:21 on Jul 27, 2023 |
|
#
?
Jul 27, 2023 00:35
|
|
|
mischief posted:I wish I could say that at some point spending as much time as I do outside I would stop making embarrassing noises when I encounter snakes but that day was not today. Same but for spider webs. I love the spiders, but I hate putting my face through their webs.
|
|
#
?
Jul 27, 2023 12:35
|
|
thunderdome winner
|
Chernobyl Princess posted:Same but for spider webs. I love the spiders, but I hate putting my face through their webs. don’t worry, they hate it too
|
|
#
?
Jul 27, 2023 12:57
|
|
|
mischief posted:Snake I’ve seen a medium sized rat snake near my garden so I clap before I approach my sweet potato mass. No need for us to see each other again! It was originally 2 rows, now it’s about 10’x25’ 
|
|
#
?
Jul 27, 2023 13:17
|
|
|
I started dehydrating some hot peppers last night and now my entire apartment smells amazing and fruity like a habanero. *Sniiiifffff* "Ahhh yeah that's the stu..." *cough cough wheeze* Dr_0ctag0n fucked around with this message at 14:39 on Jul 27, 2023 |
|
#
?
Jul 27, 2023 14:37
|
|
|
The fig, strawberry, and asparagus bed is looking really good. It's the first year for the berries and spargrass, so we're not harvesting much of anything, but the figs are in their second year and giving us actual fruit!
|
|
#
?
Jul 27, 2023 23:16
|
|
|
Chernobyl Princess posted:The fig, strawberry, and asparagus bed is looking really good. It's the first year for the berries and spargrass, so we're not harvesting much of anything, but the figs are in their second year and giving us actual fruit! That looks like a great spot for those plants. I look forward to when the asparagus tried to take over the whole space because it’s going to want to fill in nicely. Pretty easy to control the boundary, but it does like to spread.
|
|
#
?
Jul 28, 2023 04:11
|
|
|
Dr_0ctag0n posted:I started dehydrating some hot peppers last night and now my entire apartment smells amazing and fruity like a habanero. Let us never speak of the year my husband decided to dehydrate ghost peppers in the house. We are still married, but it was a close-run thing. (We moved the dehydrator our on the covered deck.)
|
|
#
?
Jul 28, 2023 04:43
|
|
|
Arsenic Lupin posted:Let us never speak of the year my husband decided to dehydrate ghost peppers in the house. This is twice a year in our house. Not dehydrating, but sauce making. One day for processing for fermenting, and one day blending and bottling. I give everyone in my house warning, but sometimes she decides to not go into the office anyway until I’m cutting superhots in the kitchen while she’s on a video meeting. Then the decision to stay home is regretted.
|
|
#
?
Jul 28, 2023 04:48
|
|
|
When I was a kid my dad decided to dehydrate a bunch of habaneros in the house overnight. We all went to school the next day with red eyes and dripping noses. I don't recall the dehydrator ever being used for anything after that night.
|
|
#
?
Jul 28, 2023 06:37
|
|
|
Drying habaneros is just for long term storage right? The plant I'm growing on my front porch has shot up since I put it in a larger pot and the flowers are just starting to come in.
|
|
#
?
Jul 28, 2023 17:43
|
|
|
I dried super hots one year and put them in a little coffee grinder and boy howdy that got interesting quickly.
|
|
#
?
Jul 28, 2023 18:01
|
|
|
I dried all these out from the first ripening peppers and ground them into flakes/powder. I kept the superhot hurt berries out of the mix but those fatalii peppers are hot as poo poo and just a tiny flake will absolutely light you up so this mix is a bit dangerous haha.   Probably going to try making some fermented sauce with all the rest, there's like 4x that many peppers out there ripening now and our season still has a couple months left.  The freakish hurt berry is loaded with peppers now that it's like 4ft taller than it's sibling and stealing all the light. There's about two dozen on that plant and they're pretty large. 
|
|
#
?
Jul 28, 2023 18:25
|
|
|
MasterBuilder posted:Drying habaneros is just for long term storage right? The plant I'm growing on my front porch has shot up since I put it in a larger pot and the flowers are just starting to come in. Yes-- dry peppers (bell, habanero, whatever) for long-term storage if you have a good enough harvest to not eat all at once (or don't want to pickle/hot sauce/ferment etc). Just have adequate ventilation and PPE! Indoors is not recommended for hot peppers, as you're seeing in this thread. Speaking of drying the harvest for storage, my Dukat dill is starting to give me seeds! And also the second wave of swallowtails found my plants-- but that's why I have multiple buckets of them. I've got 3 eating away at my 6 plants right now. The Dwarf Fernleaf wasn't a good sprouter and I'd like to save some seeds from adapted plants for next year, but we'll see if I have any left for me.   The lush plant next to the dill is Everleaf Emerald Towers basil. It's tasty, loves the heat, and grows extremely compactly. I very much recommend it for containers or small spaces!
|
|
#
?
Jul 28, 2023 18:32
|
|
|
That's a really cool and happy looking basil plant!
|
|
#
?
Jul 28, 2023 18:54
|
|
|
By the way, if you want to avoid the hurty grinder thing and have a dehydrator, we always dry habaneros and other serious peppers cut into rings. Then you pop as many rings as the spirit moves you into the dish you're cooking.
|
|
#
?
Jul 28, 2023 19:09
|
|
|
That basil plant is gorgeous.
|
|
#
?
Jul 28, 2023 19:16
|
|
|
I can't remember where but I saw that a traditional way of drying peppers is to string them on a thread like a popcorn necklace and hang them in a dry drafty place. Less tear gas that way.
|
|
#
?
Jul 28, 2023 19:19
|
|
|
CommonShore posted:I can't remember where but I saw that a traditional way of drying peppers is to string them on a thread like a popcorn necklace and hang them in a dry drafty place. Less tear gas that way. Ristras. Apart from the obvious use, they were chic home decor for a couple of decades at least, still may be in the Southwest. It's like those big ol' glass jars full of decorative preserved fruit: some people have actual jars full of fruits in alcohol that they use, some just like the look.
|
|
#
?
Jul 28, 2023 19:42
|
|
|
Arsenic Lupin posted:By the way, if you want to avoid the hurty grinder thing and have a dehydrator, we always dry habaneros and other serious peppers cut into rings. Then you pop as many rings as the spirit moves you into the dish you're cooking. This is a great idea, thanks for all the helpful advice!
|
|
#
?
Jul 28, 2023 21:20
|
|
|
Arsenic Lupin posted:Ristras. Apart from the obvious use, they were chic home decor for a couple of decades at least, still may be in the Southwest. It's like those big ol' glass jars full of decorative preserved fruit: some people have actual jars full of fruits in alcohol that they use, some just like the look. Really good link. Got any advice for stringing ristras?
|
|
#
?
Jul 28, 2023 22:01
|
|
|
Soul Dentist posted:Really good link. Got any advice for stringing ristras? You want a tough needle. Look for "darning needles" in the sewing section, not the yarn section, of your local Michael's or Joann, if you still have them. Look carefully at the needle tips, because two different kinds of needle are sold as darning needles. The ones for yarn are blunt-tipped, sometimes bent at the tip, and are for sewing yarn together without splitting it. You want the ones for sewing, which have sharp tips. If you don't have any sewing store, Amazon has the goods; same warnings apply. After that, the easiest thing to string them on is unflavored waxed dental floss. Not traditional, but a lot easier than dragging a piece of string through. Don't try to pierce through the pepper caps (the green pointy bit), because a goodly proportion of them will fall right off. Pierce through the pepper near the cap, but below it.
|
|
#
?
Jul 28, 2023 22:44
|
|
|
Oh cool I never realized the flesh was punctured
|
|
#
?
Jul 28, 2023 23:04
|
|
|
I...really wouldn't puncture the flesh of the peppers if you're planning on air-drying them. If you're drying them in an oven or dehydrator, sure. I usually take off the ends if I'm doing it that way. But if you're putting a puncture in the peppers and hanging them outside, I'd be worried about developing mold inside and/or attracting insects between when you put them out and when they're totally dry. And while you can thread the peppers together and that's good if you've got acres worth of peppers harvested, if you've just got a couple plants in the back yard you can just lay them out on something where you'll get decent ventilation. I use a simple wooden frame with some mesh as a drying rack, which works for hardening onions too. I've also just used a colander on the kitchen counter when the harvest was small. At the end of the season you can just pull up the entire plant and hang the whole thing up.
|
|
#
?
Jul 28, 2023 23:26
|
|
|
I actually usually freeze chiles in deli containers with a couple paper towels to absorb the refreeze moisture. It works really well and preserves them closer to fresh. Here's a container from last summer I'm still working on: It's nice to be able to just pop a couple Thai bird chiles in whatever I'm cooking, whole, but I've got some this year that are designed for drying so I'm gonna try it out (if they come in before the hot weather leaves). I've got Negro de Valle, pequín, chiles de agua, and sinahuisas that'll all benefit from drying. I may even smoke some.
|
|
#
?
Jul 28, 2023 23:35
|
|
|
Hoo boy, this honeyberry is looking...really not great. I'm think I might've put it outside too soon. 
|
|
#
?
Jul 29, 2023 02:13
|
|
|
What's a honeyberry
|
|
#
?
Jul 29, 2023 02:40
|
|
|
Soul Dentist posted:I actually usually freeze chiles in deli containers with a couple paper towels to absorb the refreeze moisture. It works really well and preserves them closer to fresh. Here's a container from last summer I'm still working on: Paper towel you say? *taking notes* those peppers look pretty nice 👍
|
|
#
?
Jul 29, 2023 02:41
|
|
|
I have also never heard of honeyberry until now, but after reading up on them, I want some.
|
|
#
?
Jul 29, 2023 03:29
|
|
|
Soul Dentist posted:Really good link. Got any advice for stringing ristras? Look up the knot for it. I have to look it up every year, but it allows you to take off as many as you want at a time and leave the rest alone. You should not puncture the pepper to dry in 95% of the country because it’s not New Mexico and there’s too much water in the air and it will probably rot/mold because you just introduced microbes inside the fruit when you put the needle through. You tie them by the stem for most thinner flesh varieties (cayenne and superhots mostly fall here). I use butcher/kitchen string for mine. Things that you find like Poblano and Guajillo are sun dried or dehydrated whole, and you should turn them so they can shrivel properly in a hot and sunny place if not your dehydrator. Habaneros will dry quickly as rings as suggested in another post, but they are thin walled and this would work well for most C. chinense, but isn’t necessary. The other thing that I do when working with my peppers is taking the sieved mash when I make vinegar sauces and dehydrate it into hot pepper powder. This is my favorite way to get super hot powder because it’s a bit less intense, but still a ton of flavor. It’s all the membranes and seeds that don’t get pulverized and is unforgiving when inhaled, but really nice to use on fried foods.
|
|
#
?
Jul 29, 2023 05:21
|
|
|
PokeJoe posted:What's a honeyberry
|
|
#
?
Jul 29, 2023 08:53
|
|
|
That Old Ganon posted:Hoo boy, this honeyberry is looking...really not great. I don't know poo poo about honeyberry but that does look like sunburn, yeah.
|
|
#
?
Jul 29, 2023 14:12
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 28, 2024 06:24 |
|
|
I planted turnips yesterday. I can confidently say I have eaten a turnip one time ever in my entire life so no idea what I’ll do with these fuckers. Whatever!
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2023 02:54
|
|
