Pepper time!

Lava Red Italian pepper became a favorite of mine last year. It is a variety of Corno di Horno red pepper-sweet. This one came from a friend (named Lava) who gave me some seeds from a German Farmers Market and she didn’t know the exact variety so I named it after her. You can find other Corno di Horno varieties at nurseries.

I know many of us have been waiting to put peppers out in their gardens, well wait no longer! I usually wait till June 1 to put them because I wait till the day temps are in the 70’s and the NITE temps are in the mid 40’s. When I look at the 10 day forecast today, we are there.

temp peppers I plant my peppers in wall of waters-WOWs. (yes, just like I plant my tomatoes) because even in the mid 40’s, it is still very cool for a pepper at nite. This will reduce transplant shock and warm the interior of the WOW’s to help keep the peppers warm at nite. Peppers HATE being cold and if planted too early without protection, they might stall out. By that I mean they just stop growing and nothing will kick start them again-they will just sit there and nothing happens. I learned the hard way and have had to go buy more pepper plants when I first started growing peppers and planted too early. When I plant in WOWs now, I never have that problem anymore. I always plant them on a sunny day in the morning so the WOWs can heat up. I will keep them in the WOWs until it gets stinking hot here sometime in June-then I take the WOWs off as they usually don’t reach the top of the WOW. Wall of Waters are used as a spring aid but don’t keep your peppers or tomatoes in them all season. They also help us by providing wind protection too in the spring, which has been bad this year. Wind can really beat up any tender seedling-another good reason to use WOWs.

You can get them or a me-to one at Agua Fria Nursery here in town or at Amazon. So put them in now but give them the protection they need from the wind and the cold nites for best results.

Wait to plant peppers till June 1

May11

These Jimmy Nardello peppers were gifted to me by my good friend, Bob Z. They were out of them at the nursery and it was too late to start them by seeds in April. Giant pumpkins in the background are waiting too.

Peppers like heat-more heat then even tomatoes. When transplanting anything outside, we must consider both air temperature and soil temperature. Our soil temperature right now is not warm enough yet to plant our pepper transplants out in the garden even though the air temperature is warmer now. Tomatoes went outside in the garden for me last week inside wall of waters but my peppers are still inside the house under lights waiting. Waiting, waiting, waiting. The soil temperature is in the 60’s which is still too cool to transplant peppers.

If you plant peppers while the soil is still too cool, they tend to stall out meaning they stop growing altogether and don’t restart growing even when the soil gets warmer. You’ll have to re-buy them. Trust me, I know from experience. I’ve even tried growing them in wall of waters (WOWs) and the air temp stays warmer inside the WOW but the soil temp can still be cool. Peppers would love the soil temp to be 70°F when transplanting outside. So it is best to wait. How long? I plant all peppers the first week of June when I know the soil temp is much warmer.

Review of 2012 vegetables

Jan9

2012 VEGGIE LIST

Here is my review of what I will and won’t grow again from last year’s vegetables that I tried and why. I will put tomatoes in another list since there are so many of them!

WILL GROW AGAIN
ARUGULA
-Apollo-nice leaf size and flavor

BEANS
-Rattlesnake bean/pole-remarkably flavored pole bean-grows very tall-great for trellises or arbor
-Tarbais bean/pole-dry bean-after much work FINDING IT last year in the states, you can now get this wonderful bean from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds this year. I will make a french dish called cassoulet with it.
-Fava Bean/bush-wonderful flavor and 2 crops last year. A little work shelling it twice but worth it. Also is a good cover crop replenishing the soil with nitrogen.
-Golden Scarlet Runner/pole-I grow runners for their flowers/foliage-the foliage on this one is a striking chartreuse color against the scarlet flowers-simply beautiful

BEETS
– Craupadine-BEST tasting (but ugly) beet around
-Cylindra-long cylinder shape, great taste, easy cutting into slices

BOK CHOY
-Extra Dwarf Pak Choy-wonderful flavor-I like to cut one in half, saute it in olive oil, and add tamari when you flip it

CARROTS
-Atomic Red-great color and flavor
-Cosmic Purple-one of my favorites

CHARD
-Bright Lights-adds great color tucked into the garden and good flavor
-Argentata-thick juicy stalks with huge leaves-very cold tolerant
-Ruby Red-one of the prettiest and tasty chards out there

CUCUMBERS
-Parisian Pickling-used for making cornichon pickles
-Boothsby Blonde-used for making bread and butter pickles
-Poona Kheera-best flavor for eating
-Armenian– fun to grow, good flavor, few seeds

EGGPLANT
-Fairy Tale-sweet, no bitter taste and tender (not tough) skin

LETTUCES
–Provencal Mix, Mesclun Mix, Buttercrunch, Yugoslavian Red, Santoro Lettuce

PEAS
-Dwarf Sugar Gray-great in salads or steamed, grows about 3 ft tall

PEPPER–want to try some different varieties from Europe this year as well
-Shishito (Japanese non-hot pepper)-one of my favorites
-Poblanos-mildly hot (I call it warm), great for chile rellanos or scrambled eggs, wonderful smoky flavor

POTATOES–first year grower and I’m hooked!
-French Fingerling-OMG, the best flavor!
-Peruvian Purple-I loved the flavor of these as well

SPINACH
-Bloomsdale and Tyee

SUMMER SQUASH
ZUCCHINI
-Costata Romanesco-best tasting zuke around

SUNFLOWERS-technically a flower but they are veggies for the birds!
-will grow another huge patch of different varieties-beautiful and the birds love them
-Russian Mammoth AND Titan– for us/birds to eat
-Black Oil-for the birds only

TOMATILLO-Green-good for tomatillo salsa-only need one plant as they are so prolific.

WON’T GROW AGAIN
BEAN-Emerite bean/pole bean- great flavor but didn’t grow high enough to cover my teepee and I will grow others this year.

CARROTS
-Paris Market-too small, bland flavor, not impressed

CALABICITAS SQUASH
-seed from local grower-turns out it was a native winter squash, not calabacitas squash.

CORN-again not this year (I’ll get it from our Farmers Market)

FENNEL/FINOCCHIO
-Di Firenze-might grow one or two but not 25 plants like last year!

PEPPER
-Jalapeno-I don’t use them enough to call for space in the garden. I’ll just buy the few I use throughout the year.

POTATOES
-Russian Banana-too crunchy and watery

Shishito peppers struggling/Eggplants doing well

Jun10

This shishito not doing very well

My peppers and eggplants get the royal treatment. They all have a well, drip system, row cover over them and Thrive and Seaweed given to them to adjust to the outside. They should be doing well but at least 2/3 of my shishito peppers are struggling. They should not looked like this! They have not adjusted to the heat and wind very well. I hope I get some out of the 16 I planted. They are a picky little plant. If it’s not too cold for them, then it’s too hot or too windy. They’re just not happy. Perhaps that is why they cost so much at the Farmers Market. I’ve already given them extra seaweed and Thrive. I find them harder to grow than other varieties and they stay small forever. Last year I don’t recall them struggling so much. I may pull the wall of waters off the tomatoes that are doing well and growing out of them and put them on these peppers.

On the other hand, my Pepperoncini peppers are doing well. They were a little larger than the Shishitos when I planted them and have adjusted well. I think they had stronger roots which would help in adjusting to the elements.

All the eggplants-Fairys and Rosa Bianco varieties are small but doing well and have new growth. They love the heat.