Chiles Jalapeños & Tomatoes grown in my garden on the Baja desert

[steelfish]

Im not much into growing my own tomatoes, peppers or any kind of veggie because the extreme heat in summer and the not existence of autumn or spring, we only have a looooong summer of 8 months and 4 months of cold temps in winter just like in any sandy desert, so cold that you cannot grow anything because it will get frozen.

that said, my wife and I were pretty exited to see this jalapeno pepper plant to grow from a seed into a small plant in a really short time, small but full of power to put some big and tasty jalapenos peppers.
yay!! that gives me hope to plant different kind of peppers and maybe some tomatoes and have high hopes to get some on the next season.

PS: for some reason I ignore, the pictures order is backwards.

[Wompus Cat]

Good looking Peppers . I grow all kinds myself and eat 5 or six Jalapeno's every day.
You Should be able to grow GOBS of stuff in your area . Granted it may take some work but they Grow Onions,Garlic, Carrots,Broccoli,Lettuce ,Cabbage, Kale, Melons, Dates .Herbs like Cilantro, Rosemary and Chard, and should be a variety of Tomatoes you can get going  there .Check with your area ag agent and see what they have .
Raised Beds with lots of Mulch will work wonders on your Temp variations plus as you have your Peppy Pepper in Containers they can be moved in the Garage in EXTREME conditions or easily covered for protection .

[steelfish]

You Should be able to grow GOBS of stuff in your area . Granted it may take some work but they Grow Carrots,Broccoli,Lettuce ,Cabbage, Kale, Melons, Dates .Herbs like Cilantro Rosemary and Chard, and should be a variety of Tomatoes you can get going  there .

well the hard part aside the extreme heat is the dirt, since is there is not fertile dirt on this zone only sand everywhere, so you have to put a lot of effort or money to dig a big chunk on your land and buy good and fertile dirt, then plant some sort of grass to prevent dirt erosion for the watering and keep the normal care of any garden.
Mexicali which is where I born is hotter than San Felipe and have a big valley where they grow lots of veggies and herbs for export to USA and Japan, but the valley has a lovely fertile dirt and water from the colorado river, where I currently live by the sea there is no source of fresh water and almost not a single zone with dirt only sand but still people have managed over the years to plant and grow big trees, palms, etc, around 30 miles away from the beach there is small valley just before the mountains (same mountains that go from Baja california to north California, USA ), well in that Valley the grow watermellons, brocoli, onions, peppers, etc.

I currently trying to get some bamboo plants to stabilize on this hot climate but I will put made some raised beds to try more veggies, my youngest daughter was also exited to see the Jalapeno grow

[philaroman]

cacti grow well in the desert...   agave, peyote 

[Cor]

Its very rewarding to grow your own veggies.

I have a constant battle with the elements, particularly in summer and bugs in winter.  It is getting hotter and dryer and I suspect rain  water from my roof is contaminated with salt from the ocean nearby.

My peppers look sickly and I also had lovely lush ones 3 years ago.

It keeps me out of mischief, but is becoming a bit too much

[oc1]

You need something that can be composted to make potting soil.  Cutting hay or raking leaves is sort of out of the question in the desert.  Maybe palm fronds or wood chips?

[Squidder Bidder]

Wood chips and rock dust is the new magic stuff on internet gardening channels, but keeping composting material consistently moist enough to get continuous biological activity in such a climate is probably a herculean task.

Pepperheads claim that, somewhat like wine grapes, poor soils are preferable for peppers if you want the production of heat in the fruits. Something about the roots struggling in that sort of soil.

The OP may have better luck by keeping the first year pepper as a potted plant, bringing it in in the cold nights (or keeping it inside while there is a danger of frosts at night), and planting the second year mature pepper plants directly into the soil adding some soil amendments into the planting hole (repeating the process annually). I have found that "topping" young pepper plants makes much healthier plants - when you prune the tops it generates a response in the plant to generate shoots laterally from nodes on the plant, which creates a more robust, bushier pepper plant with greater yields that seems better able to handle stresses like hot days or inconsistent watering (especially in the second year).

[JasonGotaProblem]

Very nice. I'm not partial to jalapenos but before my stomach called it quits on me I used to grow exotic chiles, having grown close to 200 varieties.

Some varieties tolerate heat better than others. Most Mexican landrace varieties should do quite well. Tommy is right though, for your climate a raised bed with mulch is your best bet. If you dig it 5' deep, the peppers will use it all. There is no wasted digging with peppers their roots will go as deep as you let them, and the deeper the roots the less water needed.

Now to dispel some myths. There is no evidence that stressing a plant through poor soil or water restriction leads to healthier or hotter peppers, in fact quite the opposite. Most the folks who swear by that aren't the types who perform controlled trials. And topping a plant does lead to more production, but it delays the first harvest. So if you have a short growing season (not the case here) it may not be advisable, but for longer seasons or faster ripening varieties its perfectly good advice.

Don't get me started I can go on for days.

[steelfish]

It keeps me out of mischief, but is becoming a bit too much

Im totally with you, when we moved to our current town we tried to have a nice garden with flowers, citrics, etc and although is doable its pretty hard to have it in good shape, it needs shade, lots of vitamins on the dirt, constant water, etc so, we dropped the idea of the garden.
then few years ago, the bug of the garden bit again but with some experience on the local flowering plants and local trees, etc we closed with a fence (because of the 3 dogs) a small zone at the corner of our home and tried to have a green zone again, with this time with local flowering plants, I can call it almost a success, its pretty small but enough to put 2 chairs and spend some time with my wife at the afternoon talking about the day and future plans.
we have Tabachin (flamboyant) which can be a pretty big tree with beautiful red flowers, bougainvillea, and some other local flowering plants that I dont know their name

The OP may have better luck by keeping the first year pepper as a potted plant,  I have found that "topping" young pepper plants makes much healthier plants -

And topping a plant does lead to more production, but it delays the first harvest. So if you have a short growing season (not the case here) it may not be advisable, but for longer seasons or faster ripening varieties its perfectly good advice.

I dont know if we have growing season and dont care much about having lots of Jalapenos on the 1st year but more into having a healthy plant so, topping will be done in short.

You need something that can be composted to make potting soil.  Cutting hay or raking leaves is sort of out of the question in the desert.  Maybe palm fronds or wood chips?

I can get some of wood chips from my work, they have a big shredder to make wood chips of different sizes which they use on the plants around the the golf course, so I will get some soon.

cacti grow well in the desert...  agave, peyote 

LOL on a serious note, we started with some flowering cetaceous of different species and I also have a Copal tree, it grows pretty good in the desert and have a nice and special essence if you make some small cuts on skin of the tree.
I let it grow withut care for 5 years to stabilize and this year I pruned almost all branches and just left one to let it grow taller.

well, enough talk about my small garden, let me introduce it to you.

[JasonGotaProblem]

Wood chips are ill advised for pepper soil. Bark is great but you wanna eliminate any white wood. It absorbs nitrogen as it decays robbing it from the plant. It releases it when it finishes decaying but that's years from now.

No, nitrogen is not the enemy.

[Wompus Cat]

Just looking at your spot there I would say if you can grow Grass that  thick and green you can grow some sorts of Vegies .
 Just along the Fence you can grow Cucumbers and different kinds of Beans using the fence as a Trellis .
KEY WORDS are WORK ,TIME, and initial investment in  Proper Media as in (Soil /compost)  Nothing TASTES BETTER than a HOMEGROWN TOMATER !!!!!  .

[steelfish]

Wood chips are ill advised for pepper soil. Bark is great but you wanna eliminate any white wood. It absorbs nitrogen as it decays robbing it from the plant. It releases it when it finishes decaying but that's years from now.

thanks for the tip Jason.

so, seems I better off keeping with my plan to get some extra soil to add to my garden, I have a friend have sells worm compost he made from different animal manures, mulch, etc he also sells worm casting.

[Wompus Cat]

Quote from: JasonGotaProblem on Today at 10:52:44 AM
Wood chips are ill advised for pepper soil. Bark is great but you wanna eliminate any white wood. It absorbs nitrogen as it decays robbing it from the plant. It releases it when it finishes decaying but that's years from now.

Different woods certainly could impair nutrients in the Soil but as a Topping to conserve water and weed control I don't worry about it as I remove it to redo my beds anyway . new planting.
When you get down to Reely doing a garden the very FIRST thing to do is have your base soil TESTED for whats in it  then amend it for what you are going to grow .

[JasonGotaProblem]

Different woods certainly could impair nutrients in the Soil but as a Topping to conserve water and weed control I don't worry about it as I remove it to redo my beds anyway .

Thank you, I was unclear. Mulch hard mulch often. Especially given the conditions. Wood chips are fine for that. I meant mixing in the soil. Peppers love a good draining well structured soil. I like using pine bark fines for that. But white wood does not belong in a soil mixture for peppers.

Alex, worm compost is a great soil amendment. Also for long term pepper production consider a source of calcium. Blossom end rot is brutal on peppers, calcium prevents that but only if plants can absorb it. So, caveat to my "nitrogen is not the enemy" is that nitrogen and calcium are absorbed thru the same chemical pathway in the plant, and an absurd nitrogen overload will block calcium absorption. Moderation is your friend when it comes to plant nutrition.

[steelfish]

KEY WORDS are WORK ,TIME, and initial investment in  Proper Media as in (Soil /compost)

Bingo, it needed a lot of WORK and TIME and of course INVESTMENT.
we gave up of that spot as a garden long time ago and used it as closed fence for our dogs for when we had visitors, so, you can imagine was a mess it was in there, then we rescued the spot again not long time ago but it was pretty hard to have something grow there, we actually rescued the spot for a new pet, in case anyone was wondering the reason of the cage in the garden is this, our Tortoise "trudis"

the case is its home (its modified now and she sleeps inside home on winter) and the garden is her playgrounds, having the tortoise was a good excuse to rescue the garden spot and have a Green spot again other than the trees. the tortoise can be seen in lower right corner of my 1st picture post #8 

this was that same spot a year ago, just when recently re-done with that inside short wood fence (for the tortoise) and with two yards of St. Augustine grass.