Any gardeners out there?

[SquarePizza]

Anyone here into gardening?

I was 30 before I could even tell a weed from a vegetable, despite the fact that in my early 20's I was married to a gardener. She was a wuss, and lost ever garden to the woodchucks.

Later in life I restored an old farmhouse in the family and got used to being busy every day, when the house was done, I took to the landscape.

First was the fruit: Apples, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, and currants. The apples I planted are still too young, but there are plenty of wild apples that I have been turning into cider. And this is my first year with a yield on strawberries. Holy cow they produce! I just took about 8 pounds of them out of the patch.

This is basically my planting vegetables. The deer are pretty hostile up here, so everything I planted last year got locked in jail (fences).

I didn't want to fence in a new area just yet, so I planted some carrots, cucumber, and radishes in containers, and placed them in the berry prison.

In all this time, I have learned that gardening is something that takes a great deal of skill, patience, and a ready rifle (woodchucks are less of a problem for me than they were for my ex

)

 

[High Binder]

Re: Any gardeners out there?

I am running ~70^2 feet of garden right now. For me it's a great way to save huge on produce bills. I don't have the rodent/deer problem you do though so the only time I loose any is to hail which is rare. I try to grow things that I can store like tomato (11 plants currently) and other things like carrots/etc/etc. However, a huge portion of my garden grows fresh lettuce as we eat a ton of salads. Herbs grow easy and freeze well too.

 

[mdavlee]

Re: Any gardeners out there?

We've slowly been digging up flowers and planting veggies and strawberries in our flower beds. We have a lot of shade and no real place for a full garden.

 

[gimpy]

Re: Any gardeners out there?

I have roughly 500 sq ft of garden this year. Tomatoes, various peppers, Brussels sprouts, zucchini, honeydew, watermelons, pumpkins, green beans, strawberries, cucumbers, and cabbage... Just started my first batch of sauerkraut tonight.

 

[WhiteCliffsOfDover]

Re: Any gardeners out there?

Garden you say......yes I have a garden. What a glorious,rewarding, and not to mention pain in the ass it can be. I enjoy it until the blister beetles invade my potatoes, or dine on my turnips. Johnson grass sucks. On the bright side I love delivering produce to my family, and the local senior citizen hangout. Tomorrow evening I'm digging potato's. 2 rows 160 foot long. I love potato plows!!!! Little nephew is coming out from the city to help. He's good help!!!! I've got a doe hanging out close to the house with her fawn. She loves lettuce. Walks right down the rows eating the hearts out of the center. Lost my bird dog last summer, so it's pretty quite around here.

 

[superjc]

Re: Any gardeners out there?

For me the hardest part is the dedication.. long hours, long commute. So far I have 2 potato condos, I think it's time to take them apart, and a tomato plant that seems to be doing great. I want to learn NOW before my life depends on it, if the US comes to that (I'm of the doom/gloom camp as far as economics goes)

 

[High Binder]

Re: Any gardeners out there?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: superjc</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> I want to learn NOW before my life depends on it, ) </div></div>

That's about 10% of why I garden but the other 90% is that I get to control costs (not sure if it's all that cost effective though) and know where the food my family eats came from.

 

[hankpac]

Re: Any gardeners out there?

One of Heinlien's characters, Slipstick Libby was self described as "Lazy". That appealed to me as a lad, so when I took up gardening, I was always looking for the easy way to do things.
Fencing of course, high enough to keep out deer, tight enough to keep out rabbits.
Wide beds, Yes, good idea, wide enough to reach half way across from either side, equals less compression of the soil, intensive planting.

Best breakthrough was putting it all together with a drip system, and cover the entire mess with heavy black plastic. No weeding. I hate weeding. I want to minimize watering, and completely exclude weeding. No hoe. I hate the hoe.
I use 3/4 inch or 1 inch PVC pipe, in manifold of 3 lines 20 feet long, or 2 lines 30 ft. long.
I put 1/16th holes where ever I am going to put a plant or in the center of 4 plants. with two holes. I put a screw off cap on the far end so I can drain the pipes in the fall.
Put a 4 hose timer on a manifold at the tap, and set it to run according to need. the first year I used no timer, so I could check every day and water when it needed it, which was FAR less than the uncovered garden. then I set it to drip at 3-4 day intervals of about 1 hour per section. You can foliar feed or put in a fertilizer system.

At the beginning of the season, I prep the soil with nutrients, push or rake up the beds, lay out the pipes, test the flow, cover with plastic, align the holes, so water doesn't spray out, and plant. A little dirt or boards on the edge keeps the plastic from flying away until it sags to the earth in the sun. Paper or grass clipping keep the new plats from burning on the plastic when you first plant.
I can leave the garden to go camping or on vacation, and no one needs to water or anything. I have a good friend who can harvest whatever she wants if I am gone when the plants are bearing.

 

[ArcticLight]

Re: Any gardeners out there?

I miss gardening but everything up here dies before it ripens, worst spot in the US for gardening - rains and freezes, tomatoes rot on the vine.

I grow strawberries and blackberries (Behind the fence LOL) - Yum....

When I get moved to Texas I plan on a full acre...

 

[RJW]

Re: Any gardeners out there?

Gotta have my gardens and fresh veggies for eating, canning and freezing. This year tomatoes, okra, butternut squash, zuchinni and summer squash, 12 varieties of peppers, green beans, sweet potatoes, cabbage for slaw and kraut and brussel sprouts. Planted sweet corn 3 times but high heat and dry weather resulted in terrible germination. Just harvested all the garlic and the heads were small but a lot of them.
Keeping everything alive through this drought with weekly watering. I have 2 100'x 100' plots.
Strawberries were a bust with a late april freezed. Freeze and drought has hammered my black berries and raspberries. Have 50 fruit and nut trees with a total fruit crop of 6 pears that did not get nailed by the freeze. No apples, peaches pears, cherries, plums, walnuts, butternuts or hazelnuts this year.
See what the year brings and try it again next year.

 

[D Miller]

Re: Any gardeners out there?

I have tried a few times but but failed miserably here in Las Vegas. The summer sun cooked everything, the winters will drop below freezing at times and bugs(white flys i think)ate the hell out of my grape vine. We haven't had any rain fall in 73 days. This year was a 100% failure.

Edit- I have 2nd season pomegranate tree that is producing a lone pomegranate.

 

[SquarePizza]

Re: Any gardeners out there?

Bummer to hear about you guys out there not getting rain. We got hit with a snowless winter, so everything came on early and a late frost screwed all of our apple crop.

Looking like a banner year for berries though.

Biggest thing I should have done was stay on top of my strawberries, I wish that I had planted them on mounds so I could identify the runners from the main plant.

 

[Willyz_54]

Re: Any gardeners out there?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: D. Miller</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I have tried a few times but but failed miserably here in Las Vegas. The summer sun cooked everything, the winters will drop below freezing at times and bugs(white flys i think)ate the hell out of my grape vine. We haven't had any rain fall in 73 days. This year was a 100% failure.

Edit- I have 2nd season pomegranate tree that is producing a lone pomegranate. </div></div>

Same here in AZ. I've got 3 4x8 raised beds on a drip system with shade cloth, but by mid to end of August, despite water and shade the heat will certainly have wilted everything. I stick to tomatoes and squash mostly, they seem to thrive in the late spring and early summer here.

 

[MtnCreek]

Re: Any gardeners out there?

I have a small garden in the yard w/ tomatoes, peppers, squash, zucchini, eggplant and few things for the birds. I water it when needed and pine strawed the tomatoes and peppers to keep moisture in the ground and just make look a little nicer. We’re getting all the squash we can eat and canning peppers. Tomatoes plants are full, but not yet ripe. I have snagged a few green tomatoes and fried them w/ cornmeal batter (YUM).

I have another garden spot that’s about an ac of corn, beans, peas, pumpkins and watermelons. This garden is on its own as far as water goes. The corn starting to come into roasting ear; we’ve picked a couple messes from some of the earlier ones. The later corn is going to be small ears because of the dry weather we’ve had lately. The beans are crazy! I planted 5 rows of Kentucky Wonders and 5 rows of Roma II’s (all bush; I’m too lazy to string’em up). For the last few weeks, we’ve been picking 8 – 10 bags of beans a week. Canned a bunch and gave away a bunch. I should have just planted ~ 4 rows of beans. The pumpkins are not doing well at all. They were up for a couple of weeks before I sprayed them for cutworms, so it’s possible the worms got to them before that. I pulled one yesterday that looked real poor, but didn’t see any sign of worms. I think I’m going to clean out my sprayer this weekend and use it to water them. Hopefully that’ll help. Watermelons are doing good so far, but if we don’t get any rain they’re going to suffer. Also got a few ac of sunflowers, millet and sorghum. I don’t eat any of that, but I do eat the little doves that eat it.

This year I’ve planted more than I have in several years, at the request of my children. I have young kinds that enjoy working the garden and it’s important to me to know they’ll learn to grow and put up their own food. It may be a skill they never use after leaving home, but it’s a skill that can help them be self-sufficient if the need arises. Hopefully they’ll learn that they don’t have to depend on anyone else to sustain their lives. Imagine anyone teaching something like that nowadays.

 

[THE MGD]

Re: Any gardeners out there?

No, I call myself a "small time rancher". Working on 1/100 plan models before I go large scale

 

[tiNdvenTFHwMdqKW]

Re: Any gardeners out there?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: ArcticLight</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I miss gardening but everything up here dies before it ripens, worst spot in the US for gardening - rains and freezes, tomatoes rot on the vine.

I grow strawberries and blackberries (Behind the fence LOL) - Yum....

When I get moved to Texas I plan on a full acre... </div></div>

Some things are easier to grow up here than others but in general you are correct. It takes some serious dedication to have a successful garden in the NW.

I'm moving to more of a meat garden. Currently, I have chickens but am thinking of adding a cow or two next year.

 

[UKDslayer]

Re: Any gardeners out there?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: RJW</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> No apples, peaches pears, cherries, plums, walnuts, butternuts. </div></div>

Say it isn't so! No Apple Pie Preserve for Christmas?!

 

[RJW]

Re: Any gardeners out there?

Vic will be looking for some apples. Gotta have apple pie jam.

 

[maxx]

Re: Any gardeners out there?

came in from watering my garden, mine is approx.75x50 ft.
Got 10 yellow squash plants 22 tomatoe plants 6 cucumber plants 2 25ft rows of corn 2 25ft rows of peas and 2 25ft rows of green beens about 200 onions, row of carrots, row of beets 2 rows of potatoes got a 15ft x 25ft area on the east end for my wife herbs and 6canalop plant.
Wife is upstair canning beans and making relish now, and I will probaly pull onions on sunday.
Got wild black berries along the fence got a couple gallons got hot and birds ate the rest.Took me about3 yrs to grt it to produce the way it is now. Made a watering system from my down spouts to catch water and with no rain it useless so I bought a 200 gallon tank and put on my trailer and go to the creek for water, its alot of work but it is my down time relaxer.
It feeds us through about 1/2 the winter along with store bought stuff.

 

[Willyz_54]

Getting to be spring time here in the southwest, so figured I'd bring this thread back to life. Planning to plant some giant bermuda for the critters soon here.

 

[MtnCreek]

" giant bermuda "

Bermudagraas? Grazing or cutting for hay?

 

[Willyz_54]

Yes, giant bermuda grass mostly for grazing and secondarily dust control.

 

[SquarePizza]

Did a little tree pruning, and built a few raised containers, would like to try that this year as an alternative.

 

[MtnCreek]

Something that might help you maintain the raised beds: Assuming they’re filled with highly organic material (as they should), they will settle over the year and need topping off next spring. Take a scrap piece of 42” wove wire and loop it back to its self, making about a 4 ft dia. Circle. Twist the loose ends together like you were connecting wire for a fence. Sit this in an out of the way location and fill it with grass clippings over the spring / summer. About once a month, add a hand full of whatever fertilizer you have on hand. It will settle over the summer, so just because it looks like it’s about filled in the first few weeks, give it time, it will settle. You can also add veggie scraps to it. Don’t add animal =scraps (meat / oils) and no dry leaves! Dry leaves will take a few years to decompose. It helps to take a pitchfork and turn it every once in a while, but that’s not required. Come next spring, you’ll have nice, black organic matter to add to the beds.

If your trees are fruit trees, contact your local extension office for guidance on fungal, bacterial, and insect pests and a treatment regiment. This will vary depending on location, so unless you’re in the SE, I can’t be any help. I got a little lazy a couple years ago and am dealing with fireblight in some pear trees; it’s bad stuff!

 

[Maggot]

Maggot loves gardening. Only way to get tomatoes that dont taste like styrofoam, and corn thats edible. Hankpac, thanks for the tip on the drip system. I hate weeds and weeding.

 

[High Binder]

I had a pretty serious garden last year (see above) but this year I'm going to tone it down and stick to what we actually ate as last year I wasted more food then not.

I'm thinking this year will be primary lettuce and tomatoes. The carrots I did last year (one full packet of seeds) yielded far too many and even the neighbors had their fill. Watermelons were a waste and the pumpkins didn't get big enough to do much with as late Oct. came along. Garlic was a bonanza and will do that again (it just carries over from last year so no planting required there). I'll never do Dill again, that shit is like a fucking weed from hell. Green onions were awesome as was rosemary but oregano was a bitch to pick/clean/dry so I wont do that again and it's extremely slow growing. I'm for sure going to do the lawn clipping compost this year because bags of crappy soil are a rip-off. Cucumbers and zucchini are of course back on the menu, but don't plant them too close, my zucchini plant killed my cumber plant (murderer).

 

[SquarePizza]

Fortunately, it is just me, so my garden goals are pretty small. Going to do some corn, carrots, cucumber, summer squash, and maybe some radishes.

I have a large strawberry patch that did ok last year, but I have so many irons in the fire that I am loosing control of it, which is why I am running raised containers for the other veggies.

Thanks for the wire fence tip, I have been trying to think of something for compost so I will give that a try.

 

[cav has been]

After reading this thread I could easily be moved to bad words at y"all. Looking out the window at our garden I mostly see about 15 inches of snow. It will be a while yet. We generally plant between May 15 and June 1st. A bit sooner in the green houses. Have found Seeds Trust to be a blessing. They seem to specialize in high altitude, short season vegetables. Some of the siberian tomatoes are impressive.

 

[oughtsix]

Here in the balmy southeast, I tend quite the garden. Squash, zucchini, peppers, tomatoes, okra, onions, beans, snap peas, and this year I'm trying some purple tomatillos. I concur with the drip irrigation. I use t-tape, but the pvc idea works well. just get a low pressure regulator before the lines and you're set. Drip is much more efficient with water than sprinklers, and easier than hand watering.

 

[MtnCreek]

Cherokee Purple…YUM!
Edit: " purple tomatillos " Nevermind, I can't read.

Cav,
Look at it this way, come August it’s going to be 95 deg, dry and everything will be wilting a little during the afternoon and the beans / mators will stop blooming, copperheads hiding from the heat under the peas… GA in July / August SUCKS! I’m sure ya’ll get a heat wave where it hits 80 for a couple days…

 

[Anvil_X]

I've got a nice garden plot in my Garage, growing 2 different types of squash, 2 types of peppers, yams, red beans, sweet peas, oregano, basil, coriander, chives, and dill. coolest pert is that I haven't had to weed once, and my plants have never touched soil. ever.

All I have to do is feed my goldfish, they exhale ammonia (NH3) and poop, a pump takes that poop and NH3, delivers it to the grow beds, The Nitrifying bacteria convert the NH3 to NO3(Plant food) and the earthworms eat the fish poo, breaking it down into minerals that the plants can use.

so from each squash plant, I have managed to clone about 10 or so more squash plants.... I'm going to have an excellent squash garden this summer, but right now I have to wait for the three feet of snow on the ground to thaw.

For you guys that also live in cold places, starting your plants in the garage would be a great idea- instead of planting seeds in may, I'm putting fully grown and flowering plants out, allowing me to harvest all summer long.

If anybody's interested, I can see about posting up some pictures of my setup (gotta borrow the roomie's camera, etc). Aquaponics kicks ass, you can raise both meat(not here in AK, it's illegal) in the form of fish side-by-side with your veggies.

 

[Sean the Nailer]

Anvil X, by all means share some pics. Sounds interesting. And what's up with the 'illegal' crap about growing your own fish and veggies? You're keeping a mermaid out of work or something?

Let's see....

 

[Anvil_X]

hahaha nope, the reason it's illegal to grow fish for consumption is because some moron in the Valley back in the 1950s thought it'd be neat to release some Northern Pike into the lakes in the area. ADFG has spent millions eradicating these invasive scoundrels, so naturally they're not wanting to have to repeat that experience with people raising non-native trout or tilapia and then getting bored/whatever and releasing them into the local watershed.

Plus, ADFG's trying to prevent ISAV (basically Salmon ebola) from spreading- right now it only affects atlantic salmon, and the worry is that the more it spreads the more likely that it'll mutate and kill off our native salmonids.

so I have to use decorative goldfish.

when my roommate gets home tonight I'll snap a few photos and post them up. Until then, I've got a few stock photos of the build:
the first setup was kinda simple, just some expanded clay gravel with a ton of lettuce planted. those big cement mixing tubs are the current setup (I just moved the fishtank over there and connected everything up, you'll see when I get the rest of the photos up)

That white thing in the center of the top cement tub is a bell siphon- basically when the water reaches about six inches in depth, it sucks the tub dry and dumps the water into the Deep water raft tank below, letting the roots in the gravel get some oxygen. the Deepwater raft stays at a constant 6 inches, and the plants are suspended in little holes in a styrofoam raft. The plants stay alive in there because the water is so highly oxygenated, and you should see the crazy huge root structures they grow in the water (will post a shot later tonight), it's like they're on root growth steroids.

Mister Black and The Reservoir Dogs cost about 13 cents each (they're feeder goldfish), and they've already grown to almost 8 inches in length (feeder goldfish are Comet Goldfish, which can live for 30 years, and grow to be about 16 inches long.... they also hold the distinction of being the only American-bred goldfish variety. some old dude at the Department of Agriculture bred them in the 1800s for spryness and intelligence, so in a way they're the most Patriotic of the goldfish)
anywho, got about fifty of them in a big rubbermaid 55 gallon tank, and they happily spend their days pooping excellence.

 

[Hueyguy]

I'm going to grow some tomatoes this year. It will be a small plot, don't get much sun in the back yard, just enough to try it. Any suggestions which variety?

 

[Anvil_X]

cherries, or beefsteaks. just make sure you load the soil up with some miracle-gro, tomato plants need more phosphorus than other plants. not enough phosphorus= the fruit will taste really wierd. Plum tomatoes are pretty awesome for salsa.

just depends on what you're trying to do with them.

http://www.burpee.com/product/produ...ail=7006:2271&sort=default&_requestid=5998961

I've had really good luck with their heirloom varieties, grow em in five gallon buckets with chicken wire on the balcony.

 

[Sean the Nailer]

We used those 'hanging upside down' tomato baskets a couple summers ago. Worked well, and didn't have to worry about any neighborhood asshole cats.

 

[cav has been]

I'm going to grow some tomatoes this year. It will be a small plot, don't get much sun in the back yard, just enough to try it. Any suggestions which variety?

Depends on your climate.
We like the sweet 100's and Sungolds for cherry type tomatoes. For larger tomatoes we plant Siberian varieties, Glasnost (Our favorite) Galena ( low acid) Zahrankian sunrise ( large tasty red tomato). Most of the Siberians will produce in 60-65 days. Since we had a stellar 15 day frost free growing season last year we depend on the green house for tomatoes, peppers,tomatillas,muthas,squashes etc.

 

[Anvil_X]

So I finally uploaded pics of my Aquaponic garden:

There's the whole system

a better look at my squash plants

this one includes most of the first stage irrigation and the swirl filter

Thats the swirl filter (all the fish poo comes out of solution and collects at the bottom of the filter, my earthworms in the filter then process it for plant consumption

Perspective's off in this one, but thats a full-grown chili pepper plant in the center. the ones on the right do not have any root structures yet, because like all mad scientists, I'm dabbling in cloning.


All of this from the poo of 50 goldfish. and about 500 bucks in supplies.

 

[Hobo Hilton]

Anyone here into gardening?

I was 30 before I could even tell a weed from a vegetable, despite the fact that in my early 20's I was married to a gardener. She was a wuss, and lost ever garden to the woodchucks.

Later in life I restored an old farmhouse in the family and got used to being busy every day, when the house was done, I took to the landscape.

First was the fruit: Apples, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, and currants. The apples I planted are still too young, but there are plenty of wild apples that I have been turning into cider. And this is my first year with a yield on strawberries. Holy cow they produce! I just took about 8 pounds of them out of the patch.

This is basically my planting vegetables. The deer are pretty hostile up here, so everything I planted last year got locked in jail (fences).

I didn't want to fence in a new area just yet, so I planted some carrots, cucumber, and radishes in containers, and placed them in the berry prison.

In all this time, I have learned that gardening is something that takes a great deal of skill, patience, and a ready rifle (woodchucks are less of a problem for me than they were for my ex

)

Old "Garden" thread... Very little has changed.
Not too late to get into gardening.
My morning harvest and prepping some veggies for my slow cooker meal.

 

[DIBBS]

A whole lotta yum and a little bit of damn those are hot. Nothing like fresh produce outta the garden!!!!

 

[chevy_man]

Re: Any gardeners out there?

I have a small garden in the yard w/ tomatoes, peppers, squash, zucchini, eggplant and few things for the birds. I water it when needed and pine strawed the tomatoes and peppers to keep moisture in the ground and just make look a little nicer. We’re getting all the squash we can eat and canning peppers. Tomatoes plants are full, but not yet ripe. I have snagged a few green tomatoes and fried them w/ cornmeal batter (YUM).

I have another garden spot that’s about an ac of corn, beans, peas, pumpkins and watermelons. This garden is on its own as far as water goes. The corn starting to come into roasting ear; we’ve picked a couple messes from some of the earlier ones. The later corn is going to be small ears because of the dry weather we’ve had lately. The beans are crazy! I planted 5 rows of Kentucky Wonders and 5 rows of Roma II’s (all bush; I’m too lazy to string’em up). For the last few weeks, we’ve been picking 8 – 10 bags of beans a week. Canned a bunch and gave away a bunch. I should have just planted ~ 4 rows of beans. The pumpkins are not doing well at all. They were up for a couple of weeks before I sprayed them for cutworms, so it’s possible the worms got to them before that. I pulled one yesterday that looked real poor, but didn’t see any sign of worms. I think I’m going to clean out my sprayer this weekend and use it to water them. Hopefully that’ll help. Watermelons are doing good so far, but if we don’t get any rain they’re going to suffer. Also got a few ac of sunflowers, millet and sorghum. I don’t eat any of that, but I do eat the little doves that eat it.

This year I’ve planted more than I have in several years, at the request of my children. I have young kinds that enjoy working the garden and it’s important to me to know they’ll learn to grow and put up their own food. It may be a skill they never use after leaving home, but it’s a skill that can help them be self-sufficient if the need arises. Hopefully they’ll learn that they don’t have to depend on anyone else to sustain their lives. Imagine anyone teaching something like that nowadays.

Pine straw is southerner for pine needles right?

I wouldn't put them anywhere you want anything to keep growing. The needles release acid as they break down. Growing up raking up needles every week to barely have any grass taught me they are the enemy to most other plants.

I grow nothing but grass and bamboo right now. I want to put berry bushes where the bamboo is but I can't seem to kill it.

 

[supercorndogs]

Pine straw is southerner for pine needles right?

I wouldn't put them anywhere you want anything to keep growing. The needles release acid as they break down. Growing up raking up needles every week to barely have any grass taught me they are the enemy to most other plants.

I grow nothing but grass and bamboo right now. I want to put berry bushes where the bamboo is but I can't seem to kill it.

That is a wives tail. Pine needles/pine mulch/pine bark/chipped pine trees do not acidify the soil.

 

[Sean the Nailer]

 

[DIBBS]

@Sean the Nailer my peppers seem to have cross pollinated and all that I've tried are warm to hot.

Are some of yours the scary insane reaper variety ,<yellow>?

I see jalapenos and cayenne, not sure what some of the others are

 

[chevy_man]

That is a wives tail. Pine needles/pine mulch/pine bark/chipped pine trees do not acidify the soil.

Funny, around here you'll see nothing growing under the pines. Mostly lodgepole, so does the species of pine matter?

The soil tests I've done showed massive acidity, so I'll keep believing.

 

[DIBBS]

fwiw

https://extension.oregonstate.edu/n...a pine needles make,make the soil more acidic.

 

[supercorndogs]

Funny, around here you'll see nothing growing under the pines. Mostly lodgepole, so does the species of pine matter?

The soil tests I've done showed massive acidity, so I'll keep believing.

That is because pines have lots of shallow roots that out compete other plants.

Massive acidity. Whats your soil PH?

 

[acudaowner]

only as a beginning gardener mostly peppers, onions small stuff like that after a neighbors tree fell into the green house we had I never rebuilt it . love the idea of growing our own veggies , and cabbages

 

[Sean the Nailer]

@Sean the Nailer my peppers seem to have cross pollinated and all that I've tried are warm to hot.

Are some of yours the scary insane reaper variety ,<yellow>?

I see jalapenos and cayenne, not sure what some of the others are

We've got these plants growing:
Jalapeno
Cayenne
Anaheim
Guajillo
Serrano
Cherry
Big Jim
Jamaican Yellow Mushroom
Purple Cayenne
Habanero
Poblano
Scotch Bonnet
Padron

I make my own hot-sauce here, and no, I don't play the stupid game of "race-to-the-heat." For the time I take in the growing and the processing of the peppers, as well as everything else included, I want to enjoy the hot-sauce 'with' my food. It takes a long time to 'get-it-right' and developing the flavours is important to me.

I personally have just never seen the logic of "how fast can I set my face on fire...." Whilst screaming "look everybody, at how tough and smart and cool and impressive I am"

Just doesn't do it for me.

 

[DIBBS]