Vegetable Gardens: Tips, Advice, Questions, Tales, Pictures

[Slash]

Got the garlic braided and hung to dry. Drying cures it, spices it up a little bit and when cooked down has a very bittersweet, yet delicous taste.

 

[photonrider]

Fresh garlic . . ..

Irresistible.

Oh! My! We are finally on a new page again? Guess a year must have gone by.

History keeps repeating itself. We are helpless.

We've turned a new leaf again, FK, and seems like that ticker keeps ticking . . .

I always enjoy walking through your garden - with my hyper-active imagination I can even smell the moisture off the grass and finally taste the pickles.

I got some pictures for you last night, but unfortunately we had a storm yesterday, so the plants look pretty beaten.

Mother Nature! *shakes fist.
Make up your mind . . ..

We've been having the kinds of winds here that have left trees destroyed; it's a wonder some people have gardens left.
As well, alternate bouts of heavy rain followed by scorching weather (into the 30s) have left the plants fatigued and distressed.
We still have a couple of months left - because of the short spring/summer/fall and long winters the plants seem to spring up overnight and as swiftly wither - so there is still time. It's all about flowers - not many vegetable gardens around except the ones the schools' have, or the odd retired householder who will have some time on their hands. Life is so fast paced here that to grow one's veggies is more of a hobby, than something natural and beneficial that could be integrated into one's life.
The greatest distraction from it is of course the wonderful grocers we have scattered at every street corner bursting at the seams with the best and the freshest, and tempting us with stuff we never knew we even wanted because we'd never seen the darned thing in the first place to want it.
The grocer about five minutes walk from me stocks fresh produce from all over the world (they have to - there are people living here who have come from all over the world.) A five minute drive for me takes me to a giant food store that stocks dried and preserved stocks, imperishables, if we may call them that - and that too comes from all over the world.
The sauce aisle alone runs for yards - sauces from all over the world.
Because there is the market for it, they bring it in.
In that context no one could understand the pleasure of suddenly unearthing your own potatoes.
It's like a secret power discovered.
I can very well go and plunk down $1:99 and get a whole sack of PEI potatoes, but no - the fact that I could create it myself - have this power over the Earth to make it obey me; here, I put down something - grow it. That's right, I want to see leaves and flowers. Good, now grow me some fat potatoes.
We have this power.
As gardeners we learn how to harness this power, that the earth will do for one predictably and maybe even better than we imagined, when we stick a seed into the earth and water it, and work the magic of our nurture around it as we harness this mysterious power that makes things grow, and blossom, and fruit, and feed us.
Many people have not experienced this magic.
And so it remains just another mystery to them, maybe even a waste of time.

This is a full view of my containers.
Left: Banana Pepper, 2x thyme, chives, rosemary.
Center: Pepperoncini, Sage, Dill, garlic chives, now-dead cilantro.
Right: Roma tomato, 2x basil, Italian oregano, Greek oregano

The sunflowers behind them are volunteers from the bird feed. They draw butterflies and bees, so I let them grow.

2XBasil and 2XThyme works for me - they get used up fast. Sunflowers are a great idea for attracting the right kind of visitors.

Yup. That's one I grew.
I once grew a special wildflower garden ( 2 years in a row) and I was stunned at what I experienced in the way of butterflies and birds, let alone bees and all their cousins. Something that's gone back into the bucket list.

Closer look at the tomatoes. Not a hint of red. Bring on the sun!

This is the thing with tomatoes. Their hunger for the sun. They're probably starving.
You might have to turn the spotlights on them to get them blushing.

Basil beaten down by the rain, and laying on top of Italian oregano.

What an excuse.

The other basil. It's flowering. Time to cut it back.

I get mixed feelings when that happens - I'm quite proud of it for flowering, but now I have to take the scissors out.
Ruins the leaves, too. I let it flower once quite wildly, and the bouquets were quite beautiful - enough to compete with wildflowers in a vase - but when I picked the leaves they were coarse and bitter, and because its reproductive drive going into overdrive there were hardly any leaves.
But - well, basil - basil loves to be chopped. I lop off half a shrub and in a couple of weeks its doubled in growth.

My only ripe tomato. It's so cute.

Does your wifey know about this? You're courting trouble, man.

Bye for now . . . . meet you in the garden again. 👍

 

[Slash]

One of several zucchini we've grown this season. It's doing well.

Large Gatorade bottle for size comparison.

The last one and some yellow squash got cut up and breaded and deep fried. Very good.

 

[Cale]

My dad once threw me a birthday party just so he could show everyone how big his peppers were.

 

[AOS-]

Nothing in this post is about me. I thought I'd share a story I found on viralnova about this man who replaces his front lawn with a vegetable garden. I'm fascinated by the procedure or building the thing, and perhaps this will inspire some of you to do something similar.

Starts with this:

Sections off the lawn, dumps compost, the pathways are covered with large cardboard sheets with wood chips on top.

Plenty of pretty photos here: http://www.viralnova.com/lawn-garden/1/



----------------------------------------

Here are some other posts I came across in my facebook feed in the past:

40 Creative DIY gardening items using recycled items

24 Incredibly clever gardening tricks for your garden

 

[Mrs Wolfe]

Some garden updates. I harvested the green onions with help from @Wolfe and filled a quarter of our fridge's freezer. Harvested the green beans and blanched and then froze those. I don't care for them much, so I didn't grow many. Today I finally had enough tomatoes to make sauce! Our tomato plants are really struggling, and only the little tomatoes are producing, so there was a LOT of peeling. (I slit the skins and boiled them first, so it isn't as arduous as it sounds!)

Happy with the onions at least. We use them in everything.

And the pumpkins have produced some tiny pumpkins!

 

[FoolKiller]

I recently pulled in my first harvest of tomatoes and banana peppers. Keep in mind, these are from one plant each.

I froze most of the tomatoes, but used four of the nicer ones to make a tomato-basil vinaigrette. Last night I pickled the banana peppers and got nearly five quarts. Some of those peppers were close to a foot long.

I only brought in about eight pepperoncini. I wanted to test my pickling recipe on them before harvesting a bunch and either ruining them all or having them go bad on me while I tried to find something new.

 

[Mrs Wolfe]

One plant each? I'm impressed. Do you have any secrets you're willing to share? I've only just graduated from killing everything I touch.

 

[FoolKiller]

One plant each? I'm impressed. Do you have any secrets you're willing to share? I've only just graduated from killing everything I touch.

One thing to note first: I might have just had a good year. I changed a lot this year, but everything below could just have been unnecessary effort.

With that one caveat, here is what I did different this year.

Very large containers. I'll be honest, this came out of being cheap, but I realized that a container garden just needed a large, water-proof container that can hold the weight of the soil. Properly sized containers in the garden section were pushing anywhere between $25 and $50. I decided to take a risk and walked over to the home goods section and got me some 30 quart containers with lids for $5.95 each. That's about twice the size of what I was looking at in the garden center. I drilled holes in the bottom and placed their lids underneath them to catch excess water. One container per vegetable, plus herbs planted around them.

These are what I used:

The other thing I did was really research home remedies for issues. I planted some flowers and herbs around them that were supposed to help with the vegetable's specific pest issues. Each container had two marigolds and then herbs. I also transplanted any lady bugs I found to the plants.

As for fertilizer, I placed a shredded banana peel in the hole around the roots of the plant when I put them in containers. After that I began collecting old banana peels, egg shells, tea bags and coffee grounds and dried them out in my dehydrator and ran them through a spice grinder, creating a powder. By sprinkling it around the dirt and working it in and watering it created a homemade, natural fertilizer. Go light on the coffee and tea as they can also raise acidity n the soil if you use too much. Then I took orange peels and scattered torn bits around the surface and cut a slit in some and slipped them on the stems. The sugar in the citrus draws aphids, but it contains an oil that is toxic to them. It draws any off your plant and kills them.

Also, if you cook rice, pasta, vegetables, etc. and don't salt the water you can use that to water your plants, after it has cooled, and it adds some nutrients.

I also just finished making homemade chicken broth by throwing chicken scraps and carcasses in the slow cooker with vegetable scraps. I let it cook from 1-3 days. When this is finished the bones are extremely brittle. I am drying them out and plan to crush them into a bone meal powder. This brings n a lot of calcium and phosphorous, which is helpful during fruit production.

Basically, I am making a free version of this

by using this:

The only more effective natural source is manure.


Over the winter I will be saving and drying all these useful things and hopefully I will build up enough fertilizer to mix into my soil and use for next year. The results have been successful, so I am definitely going to focus on this. Honestly, from what I have been reading, anything you can compost can also be an effective fertilizer when dried and ground up. Basically, I am taking the contents of compost ingredients and turning them into a form that will allow them to quickly dissolve into the soil.

 

[Mrs Wolfe]

I think you have the same dehydrator we do.

I planted my herbs in bins this year, like yours but red because that's what they had on sale. Everything else was in sad holes in the ground. Did you buy soil, or did you have some you'd composted down?

We have no lack of banana peels, egg shells, tea, or coffee, so I'll start working on those as well. I'm wondering if a coffee grinder would work. Bones I'd have to acquire though, and I'd be very interested in knowing how that turns out!

 

[FoolKiller]

I think you have the same dehydrator we do.

I honestly believe there are two models: Round and Square, and they are each sold under different brand names.

I planted my herbs in bins this year, like yours but red because that's what they had on sale. Everything else was in sad holes in the ground. Did you buy soil, or did you have some you'd composted down?

I bought potting soil. Since everything is in a container and only a few items we don't compost. I keep it small because once I get my transplant I have to stop any gardening, and any compost would just be a large breeding ground for bacteria that could make me sick, so I don't even bother with that.

We have no lack of banana peels, egg shells, tea, or coffee, so I'll start working on those as well. I'm wondering if a coffee grinder would work.

When I say spice grinder I mean one of these:

It has never been used to grind coffee but it is invaluable in all my spice mixes.

To clean: dry rice. Save the remnants and use as rice flour. Makes a great thickener in soups and sauces.

Bones I'd have to acquire though, and I'd be very interested in knowing how that turns out!

I eat lots of chicken. It is cheaper to buy it whole and quarter it myself, so we always have bones. I save every form of poultry bone after meals, including when we pick it up from somewhere. My chicken broth is actually a combination of game hens, turkey, and chicken.

I save a gallon size freezer bag of chicken bits in the freezer and a quart size freezer bag of vegetable bits (anything that is non-toxic) and when they get full I drop them in the slow cooker and fill it with water.

 

[Mrs Wolfe]

I honestly believe there are two models: Round and Square, and they are each sold under different brand names.


I bought potting soil. Since everything is in a container and only a few items we don't compost. I keep it small because once I get my transplant I have to stop any gardening, and any compost would just be a large breeding ground for bacteria that could make me sick, so I don't even bother with that.

---------------

I eat lots of chicken. It is cheaper to buy it whole and quarter it myself, so we always have bones. I save every form of poultry bone after meals, including when we pick it up from somewhere. My chicken broth is actually a combination of game hens, turkey, and chicken.

I save a gallon size freezer bag of chicken bits in the freezer and a quart size freezer bag of vegetable bits (anything that is non-toxic) and when they get full I drop them in the slow cooker and fill it with water.

Good luck and good health in your transplant endeavors! Manure probably isn't a good idea for the same reasons.

I would prefer to buy and quarter whole chickens, but someone else gets a vote in our food too. We still have it when my best friend slaughters and she needs to make room in her freezer, just not so often, and I hadn't thought to save the bones. I've been making my case for raising quail, but that's been nixed until I prove I can slaughter on my own. Wolfe has visions of endless cages of fat, spoiled quail for some odd reason.

 

[FoolKiller]

I would prefer to buy and quarter whole chickens, but someone else gets a vote in our food too.

I do all the cooking. My rule is: You get what you get and you don't throw a fit. Works on adults and toddlers. It also helps that my wife's cooking skills are only as good as the recipe she is following and her current level of attentiveness.

I'm not a total jerk about it though. If I had my preference there would be a lot more calamari.

 

[FoolKiller]

We ground up the bones into bone meal yesterday. My daughter decided it was cool and helped. While grinding them with the mortar and pestle she said, "The chickens are probably not happy since we have their bones, right?"


Bones from 3 pounds of chicken scraps made about a cup of bone meal.

 

[Mrs Wolfe]

I'm surprised it made so little. Is it a fairly heavy powder?

Was it hard to grind or just tedious? I'm thinking I should get a bigger mortar and pestle, looking at what you have there. I have a really small one for herbs, and I just don't think it will be up to the task.

 

[FoolKiller]

I'm surprised it made so little. Is it a fairly heavy powder?

Was it hard to grind or just tedious? I'm thinking I should get a bigger mortar and pestle, looking at what you have there. I have a really small one for herbs, and I just don't think it will be up to the task.

Because the bones had been used for chicken broth first a large amount of the gelatin and calcium had already been removed. Once dried they had no weight to them at all and were brittle enough to break between my finger and thumb. Bones are so porous that after removing everything I had they are as much air as they are bone. I didn't plan to get a lot more. It all fit in a jar that had been used for beef bouillon. It might not even be a full cup.

This jar specifically.

And never thought of my mortar and pestle as being large. The bowl is about the size of a navel orange. Considering that at spice shops I see them selling these giant things I always thought mine was small to medium. If I tried doing more than one leg bone at a time I'd wind up with large chunks that I just couldn't get crushed because of all the powder that had built up.

It wasn't hard to grind them up. As you can see, a five year old can do it. Break the bone into a few pieces, put it in, tamp down on them until they break up into pieces (gravity alone was enough force), then grind in a circle, occasionally tamp down on any larger pieces that aren't grinding, and they just turn to powder.


One thing about bone meal is that it works better with acidic soil, and ours is very low acid due to the limestone in the area. I'll be mixing this with a lot of used tea leaves and coffee grounds to help it absorb into the soil better.

 

[Mrs Wolfe]

Our mortar is about the size of an egg, so I might need to upgrade a bit. I'm sure I could get it to work, but the irritation level might not be worth it.

 

[photonrider]

I swear I'm going to end up as a serial chipmunk killer.
I'm kidding, of course; having considered myself as merely another caretaker of the late great Planet Earth I would do no such thing - at the worst I might trap them and ship them off to the countryside 50 miles away.
Taking the easy way out for the moment and preparing a huge batch of capsaicin, garlic and detergent - in the right ratio - with which to battle them.
They were 'adorable wildlife' last year - this year they have turned into destructive pests.
Every plant I put down has been dug up. Grrrrrr .......

 

[Mrs Wolfe]

Chipmunks... boo! That's horrid. We're lucky, not having encountered them so far. Will the mix you mentioned keep rabbits away too?

It's too early to put in our garden, and we're building some raised beds which have to be done before I can plant. I've wanted them forever, but now they are a requirement - the fire next door blew glass and debris all over into our yard, and digging has proved problematic. The side garden is full sun ever since they took down the house, but the fire was pretty much the worst experience of our life and there were lives lost, so it's hard to really be happy about it.

My mother gifted us with three hazelnut trees, four apricots, and three golden currant bushes, so we've put those in the ground. It was part of a local program to encourage planting varieties good for our zone, and they were sold in batches of 10! We could barely fit these, and my parents have been scrambling to find space.

Exciting finds of the spring: the 'dead' rhubarb from last year came back, the sumac we cleared has stayed clear (although we still have a lot to work on), AND there were three little sticks of asparagus in one corner of my garden! I planted a good thirty of them in 2013, nothing grew, and I thought it a lost cause and put in onions one year and beans the other in the same area. But this year, they grew! So I'm very pleased and have blocked off that section of the garden so we don't inadvertently stomp on them while setting up the beds.

Otherwise there's not much to do except cut back burdock while I wait until the early planting dates. The weather is so nice I'd be tempted, but I know how Wisconsin can be fickle and dump snow to spite me!

How is everyone else doing?

 

[FoolKiller]

This year we joined a Crop Sharing Program (CSA). The only thing I am going to grow is the one thing I want that the CSA won't have, pepperoncini.

I have 8 or 9 sprouts inside right now. They'll be thinned to three by mid-June.

 

[Mrs Wolfe]

This year we joined a Crop Sharing Program (CSA). The only thing I am going to grow is the one thing I want that the CSA won't have, pepperoncini.

I have 8 or 9 sprouts inside right now. They'll be thinned to three by mid-June.

I keep thinking we should join a CSA, but I'm too picky - I only really ever want to eat tomatoes and green onions from the garden! Rarely, cucumber and green beans. So, perhaps it would be good for a more adventurous approach.

Do you use grow lights at all?

 

[FoolKiller]

I keep thinking we should join a CSA, but I'm too picky - I only really ever want to eat tomatoes and green onions from the garden! Rarely, cucumber and green beans. So, perhaps it would be good for a more adventurous approach.

Part of the reason I'm doing it is to force my culinary growth and taste palette, but if necessary mine will let you substitute items. I've never had kohlrabi and look forward to trying it.

They recently had an early spring draw and it gave me a lot of chard and kale. I made them both into chips for the first time. I also got fresh radishes. By the time I got to them the greens weren't good anymore, but I hadn't had radishes since I was a kid, and those always came in pre-bagged salad mix and they were always hot. Fresh radishes were delicious and taste great in slaws or a tomato, cucumber, and onion summer salad.

Do you use grow lights at all?

No, we have a number of south-facing windows and they get plenty of light for seed starting after mid-March. I have contemplated doing a small terrarium setup though.

 

[Touring Mars]

Do you use grow lights at all?

I do

I just found this thread - I was considering creating a thread about chilli plants, but I guess that discussion fits in here...

I'm using one of these:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00WAKMJ02/?tag=gtplanetuk-20

So far it remains to be seen how effective it is, but it's hard to tell as I keep moving my plants around. I have some plants in my kitchen that gets a good amount of sunlight (even in Scotland!) and the plants seem to thrive without the grow light, but my hope is that the grow light will allow me to grow chillis throughout the year - although I don't know if the plants will like that idea much, or how that might affect the lifetime of the plant(s).

I'm actually considering buying another light as I have no more room on my windowsills - and that is before most of my plants are anywhere near full size. I'm going to have to adopt a 'chilli bonsai' approach, as otherwise they will be too big for my flat/apartment, unless it turns out the grow lights really work well in which case I will maybe be able to let a few of them grow 'naturally'. My oldest/first chilli plant grew to around 4 ft high (in less than a year) before I chopped it back to just a 6-inch high bare stalk - it grew back to 18" in just 8 weeks, so I chopped it back again to about 50% of its height about 2 months ago - and it has already grown back

The real test for the LED lights is the chillis themselves... I'm going to experiment with some twin plants - I have a number of pairs of plants and my idea is to let one grow normally and let one grow under the lights, and see if there is a noticable difference in the quality/quantity of the fruits... that said, they are all super-hot varieties that are inherently highly variable, so it might be a bit unscientific!

 

[Michael88]

As a devout lover of hot spicy food I'm currently growing my own chili. I have 12 plants ranging from the relatively tame orange Habaneros ''Big sun'' with about 200.000 scoville up to the Naga Jolokia and the Trinidad Scorpion with 2.000.000+ scoville.
12 plants grow a lot of fruits but I freeze them so I can enjoy spicy food in winter too.

 

[photonrider]

Chipmunks... boo! That's horrid. We're lucky, not having encountered them so far. Will the mix you mentioned keep rabbits away too?

So far the only critters not seen have been deer and rabbits - though no doubt not far away since I'm surrounded by Provincial Parks.
Canada takes its parks systems very seriously - I would say fanatically - since camping and 'family fun' are very much a way of traditional Canadian living. Add to that cold, bitter, -40 Celsius winters and a short hectic summer, and all outdoor life becomes sacrosanct.

So we're battling chipmunks, squirrels, raccoons, gophers, a polecat and at least two skunks (judging from their size difference.) The city is so full of wildlife that they tried raccoon-proof garbage bins recently to no avail - the raccoons won. Back to the drawing board for the city.
Meanwhile my secret weapons of marigolds, capsaicin, detergent, and onion bulbs seem to be working. I need owls. Lots of them. Even fake ones. I don't want to use the 'Barrel of Death'. Something dies - something must eat it.

Right now the news is nothing but all about the fire in Alberta - huge efforts going on here. The loss of possessions and property was one thing, but the loss of wildlife as well as displaced pets are all in focus. Everybody is helping - even recently-arrived Syrian refugees are taking in people who have lost their homes in the fire.
Meanwhile - in a somewhat detached way I observe the planet shaping itself the way it wants. amending soil, breaking new ground, with all the time in existence to do what it wants - while we humans seem to just be in its way, a broken link in the chain of life, thinking for nature while it has its own mind.

I'm extremely sorry to hear about you and Wolfe having to experience your neighbor's fire:

It's too early to put in our garden, and we're building some raised beds which have to be done before I can plant. I've wanted them forever, but now they are a requirement - the fire next door blew glass and debris all over into our yard, and digging has proved problematic. The side garden is full sun ever since they took down the house, but the fire was pretty much the worst experience of our life and there were lives lost, so it's hard to really be happy about it.

Raised beds keep things tidy and are better for drainage. I use a mix of various environments since part of my 'gardening' is private landscaping - I hold the landscaping contracts for several commercial establishments as well as an apartment complex. One of the most exciting things I'll be doing this year is creating a 20' X 20' Sunflower Folly for the apartment complex - I've got Pikes Peak and Mammoths from Burpees, as well as Autumn Beauty, various dwarfs (like Munchkin etc.) Golden Hedge, Ms Mars (a red flower) and several more.
The plantings are going to be staggered for continuous blooming so we already have several seedlings going.
The planting season came early this year - since we are a Zone 5 it is officially the 24th of May - but we have got Pansies, Mums, Petunias down (yep, all edible, too but we have to watch for access by children and pets - no foxglove or monkshood!) Tons of Marigolds to keep the bugs down and so on. The new hybrids are just mind-boggling - some of the Dahlias we ordered are absolutely mesmerising in their colouration.
Meanwhile the Iris is screaming to be painted and the daylillies are going wild.
The roses are doing very well - almost a dozen bushes getting furry with leaves working towards their first blush.
Another great project we have going is a Butterfly and Bird Garden - lots of pics to come this year (must do it. )
I know FK has titled it 'Vegetable' gardens but we have discussed all sorts of gardens in here anyway.

As for vegetables - my private plots are infested with all sorts of chillies, peppers, leeks and onions. and several herbs have been started off - rosemary, bush basil, some mint, and sage to start. I might do corn again this year - but only as a small plot for the birds.

My mother gifted us with three hazelnut trees, four apricots, and three golden currant bushes, so we've put those in the ground. It was part of a local program to encourage planting varieties good for our zone, and they were sold in batches of 10! We could barely fit these, and my parents have been scrambling to find space.

Trees can be tricky. Check all maximum verticals and horizontal spreads before you dig (let alone checking for underground mayhem from cables and pipes.) The current bushes shouldn't be a problem - I've grown them; so delightful to eat stuff right off the plant, too.

Exciting finds of the spring: the 'dead' rhubarb from last year came back, the sumac we cleared has stayed clear (although we still have a lot to work on), AND there were three little sticks of asparagus in one corner of my garden! I planted a good thirty of them in 2013, nothing grew, and I thought it a lost cause and put in onions one year and beans the other in the same area. But this year, they grew! So I'm very pleased and have blocked off that section of the garden so we don't inadvertently stomp on them while setting up the beds.

When 'annuals' behave like 'perennials' it is always esciting. 'MG! It's still alive!' we think. 'It's come back! yay!' and then we look after it like gold. It was a warm winter - my Lilacs are so heavy with blooms it seems like they can't wait to burst open with fragrance. They didn't bloom last year and I was quite disappointed - for to enjoy several weeks of lush lilacs blanketing the atmosphere with their heavenly scent is breath-taking - in all possible senses of the words.

I do

I just found this thread - I was considering creating a thread about chilli plants, but I guess that discussion fits in here...

Yet another traveler stumbles blithely into paradise. Yes, this thread grows slow, but never dies - a perennial annual.
Woul' tha' be scotch bonnets ye be growing then?

 

[Michael88]

Pic of about half of my chili, its finally warm enough to put the outside. Orange Habanero, red Habanero, Habanero red Savina, Habanero Big Sun, Habanero Jeanette, some ''balcony'' chili, Naga Jolokia, Trinidad Scorpion.

Whats interesting is that each chili has its own growing speed - the Trinidad Scoprion grow slooooowly while the red Habaneros just pull away with amazing speed. The Orange chili species are somewhere in between, they grow with medium speed but always stay kind of small compared to their red cousins. I just hope the little Scorpions will eventually start to accelerate their growth, otherwise I don't know if they can produce ripe fruits before the summer ends.

 

[AOS-]

Pro tip: This stuff:

This fish sauce... this stuff that was made by dumping a load of salt into a barrel of dead fish, and letting the rotten juice mix with the salt into this liquid.... this stuff that goes delicious with rice...

This stuff apparently makes a decent fertilizer. Grab some from your Asian supermarket (if you got one).

I haven't seen the results first hand, but a buddy's dad has really good luck with this growing a wide range of edible things.

 

[Touring Mars]

Pic of about half of my chili, its finally warm enough to put the outside. Orange Habanero, red Habanero, Habanero red Savina, Habanero Big Sun, Habanero Jeanette, some ''balcony'' chili, Naga Jolokia, Trinidad Scorpion.

Whats interesting is that each chili has its own growing speed - the Trinidad Scoprion grow slooooowly while the red Habaneros just pull away with amazing speed. The Orange chili species are somewhere in between, they grow with medium speed but always stay kind of small compared to their red cousins. I just hope the little Scorpions will eventually start to accelerate their growth, otherwise I don't know if they can produce ripe fruits before the summer ends.

Would you happen to have any Habanero Jeanette or Big Sun seeds? I've got 4 orange habanero plants (one mature, three offspring), and a chocolate Habanero seedling, but I'd like to have a bigger selection of more unusual Habanero varieties... the chocolate Habanero was really struggling and it toppled over under the weight of its own leaves the other day, so I've taken its bigger leaves off and repotted it deeper - seems to be working and it is now in the prime spot for sunlight in my flat, so I'm looking forward to it growing now, though it is considerably slower than some other varieties. I have a Carolina Reaper that is 4 months old and is about 20 inches high already. My bird eye chilli plant is continuing to amaze me - I've topped it drastically twice and yet it still grows about an inch a week.

My Scotch Bonnet plant now has 14 fruits on it, half of them are pretty small and the other half vary in size and shape... one of them is huge Should you remove the smaller chillis if it looks like they aren't getting any bigger?

 

[TB]

Having never grown anything in my life but houseplants, I'm starting off small:

Fingers crossed!

 

[AOS-]

You can some of these leaves entirely in water.