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.
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 .
Quote from: Wompus Cat on July 08, 2022, 01:39:57 AMYou 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
cacti grow well in the desert... agave, peyote ;)
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 :(
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?
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).
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.
Quote from: Cor on July 08, 2022, 07:16:48 AMIt 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
Quote from: Squidder Bidder on July 08, 2022, 10:02:03 AMThe 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 -
Quote from: JasonGotaProblem on July 08, 2022, 10:58:31 AMAnd 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.
Quote from: oc1 on July 08, 2022, 09:22:31 AMYou 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.
Quote from: philaroman on July 08, 2022, 03:38:33 AMcacti 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.
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.
(https://alantani.com/index.php?action=dlattach;attach=113701;image)
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 . :d
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 !!!!! .
Quote from: JasonGotaProblem on July 08, 2022, 04:52:44 PMWood 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.
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 .
Quote from: Wompus Cat on July 08, 2022, 05:09:03 PMDifferent 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.
Quote from: Wompus Cat on July 08, 2022, 04:59:59 PMKEY 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 ;D
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.
Quote from: JasonGotaProblem on July 08, 2022, 05:19:35 PMQuote from: Wompus Cat on July 08, 2022, 05:09:03 PMDifferent 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.
I think the idea with wood chips and rock dust is that over a course of years the chips will fully break down into humus and the rock dust will supply minerals which the microbes will break down eventually into a bioavailable form for the plants to uptake. It's definitely not a year one or year two solution, but rather a long term investment in future soil health.
I'll double up on your recommendation to amend the soil with calcium. Blossom End Rot is one of the most frustrating things you can encounter. And it's something you really have to avoid with preventative soil amendments because once you start to get it, it's near impossible to fix during a growing season. That said, in my experience it's more of a problem with tomatoes than peppers, and plants which yield smaller fruits seem to be less affected. I sort of figured that with vines like tomatoes which can reproduce asexually or sexually, abundant nitrogen would trigger asexual reproduction (lots of foliage which will set roots and clone the mother plant). Less rich soil would promote sexual reproduction (more flowering and more fruits, which will be ingested by animals and spread elsewhere to richer soils). I could be wrong but that makes some sense to me.
Quote from: Wompus Cat on July 08, 2022, 04:59:59 PMNothing TASTES BETTER than a HOMEGROWN TOMATER !!!!! .
I accept donations of seeds of those Big tomatoes that appears on this forum from time to time. ;D
Quote from: Wompus Cat on July 08, 2022, 04:59:59 PMNothing TASTES BETTER than a HOMEGROWN TOMATER !!!!! .
STOLEN!!! stolen tastes better... even better, if you get chased around by the rightful owner
a light dusting of shotgun rock-salt that narrowly missed your behind, makes it ambrosia
Quote from: philaroman on July 09, 2022, 01:47:55 AMQuote from: Wompus Cat on July 08, 2022, 04:59:59 PMNothing TASTES BETTER than a HOMEGROWN TOMATER !!!!! .
STOLEN!!! stolen tastes better... even better, if you get chased around by the rightful owner
a light dusting of shotgun rock-salt that narrowly missed your behind, makes it ambrosia
.
You are telling about you youthful adventures ?I do admit you are Dead On .
Stolen HOME GROWN MATERS is it .
Watermelons are good too .
There was a Farmer who had college kids raiding his Melon Patch and try as he may he could never catch them .So one Day he put up a sign
that said
ONE OF THESE WATER MELONS IS POISONED thinking they would not dare steal anymore not knowing which one was poisoned.
A day later he went to his Patch and there was a New Sign under the one he had Posted .
Said
NOW THERE ARE TWO.
Nice. We have the opposite problem with late and early frost and cool nights.
This site has many experts besides fishing and reels :d
These are Capsicum Green Pepper California (judging by the name) someone should be able to give me advice what they need to look lush and green and bear many peppers. 3 years ago they did but the past two years not.
I notice the photos not very clear, sorry
(https://i.imgur.com/4kGnsm6.jpg)
Not any wheres Near and eggspurt but been gardening since I was 10 and will be 70 soon .
I think you have a bug /worm problem from looking at the leaves as the Marigolds ,Cilantro ,small Lettuce you have mixed in there are looking pretty good .
Plus your peppers look to be Stressed in which proper watering ,and maybe a little Miracle grow would get them back in shape .
I try to be totally organic and would use ivory soap with a little vinegar and orange oil to spray those leaves .
I use a tbl spoon of each ingredient to 1 gallon of water and put in a bottle sprayer and use early in morn or late evening twice a week till things get better .
This is My opinion and how I would deal with it .
Good Luck !
P/S MULCH is a MUST around those plants.
Looks like you got some sort of sucking insect (I'd assume aphids locally not sure what pests you have)
Some more info, thoughts.
It is winter here and not growing season for most plants. They have been like that for most of Summer as well. I make my own compost and have added a lot, and I try to mulch in summer. Also added some well matured horse manure.
I have been growing on this small piece of ground for 4 years. The first year stuff grew pretty well but then it quickly deteriorated. Maybe too intensive planting?
The soil is heavy in clay, in winter remains fairly wet but in Summer dries out in the upper layer
The "lettuce" you see aint "lettuce", they are Endive and those do not attract many bugs.
Aphids, yes but not on the peppers. Worms, yes, small ones I hunt them after dark and kill 5 - 6 nearly every evening but not much on the peppers either. Marigolds are there to catch worms who are attracted to their smell, works well for slightly bigger worms then I have now. Snails are also a pest, but I kill plenty and find few on the vegies. Plenty large white grubs that eat plants roots. So yes bugs are a problem, but I think I do control them reasonably wel without using chemicals.
Last thing I can think of, Root crops are not growing well either, so perhaps a shortage of phosphorus & Potassium?
Ill try some of the Spray ala "Wompus Cat" ::)
PS This is in general not a friendly climate to grow stuff, lots of strong wind in Summer, very hot and dry, sea air clay stony soil
Quote from: Cor on July 09, 2022, 06:45:54 PMSome more info, thoughts.
It is winter here and not growing season for most plants. They have been like that for most of Summer as well. I make my own compost and have added a lot, and I try to mulch in summer. Also added some well matured horse manure.
I have been growing on this small piece of ground for 4 years. The first year stuff grew pretty well but then it quickly deteriorated. Maybe too intensive planting?
The soil is heavy in clay, in winter remains fairly wet but in Summer dries out in the upper layer
The "lettuce" you see aint "lettuce", they are Endive and those do not attract many bugs.
Aphids, yes but not on the peppers. Worms, yes, small ones I hunt them after dark and kill 5 - 6 nearly every evening but not much on the peppers either. Marigolds are there to catch worms who are attracted to their smell, works well for slightly bigger worms then I have now. Snails are also a pest, but I kill plenty and find few on the vegies. Plenty large white grubs that eat plants roots. So yes bugs are a problem, but I think I do control them reasonably wel without using chemicals.
Last thing I can think of, Root crops are not growing well either, so perhaps a shortage of phosphorus & Potassium?
Ill try some of the Spray ala "Wompus Cat" ::)
PS This is in general not a friendly climate to grow stuff, lots of strong wind in Summer, very hot and dry, sea air clay stony soil
real amateur here, but pretty sure bad soil should be "quartered"
i.e., rotate yearly which 1/4 lays fallow... better yet, plant something
cheap/easy (legume?) on the fallow quarter & don't harvest -- plow it under
Nice work on that garden space Alex! 8)
Quote from: mo65 on July 10, 2022, 12:01:23 PM Nice work on that garden space Alex! 8)
Yes, sorry for hijack ;)
Quote from: Cor on July 10, 2022, 01:49:50 PMQuote from: mo65 on July 10, 2022, 12:01:23 PM Nice work on that garden space Alex! 8)
Yes, sorry for hijack ;)
no need to apologize amigo, its nice to see other guys participating on the Gardening hobby, as you said, there are many expert on different fields other than fishing gear.
I love gardening thats why I tried to have my garden when we recently moved to this seaside town, I was the youngest boy in my family and my mother always had me to help her on the family garden, thats were I got many tips, but as I said, here where most of the land is sand is hard to hard to have a garden with nice grass, flowers, fruits, etc.
feel free to keep posting pics and questions we all learn from the real experts.
@Mo, thank buddy, I've seen your big Tomatoes, how they taste? are good for a BLT sammich?
Quote from: steelfish on July 11, 2022, 04:16:54 PM@Mo, thank buddy, I've seen your big Tomatoes, how they taste? are good for a BLT sammich?
There is just something about home grown tomatoes...there's a taste you just do not get from large farmed or hot house tomatoes. I'm waiting impatiently for a ripe one! Getting a few peppers and onions now though. 8)
Quote from: steelfish on July 09, 2022, 01:17:19 AMQuote from: Wompus Cat on July 08, 2022, 04:59:59 PMNothing TASTES BETTER than a HOMEGROWN TOMATER !!!!! .
I accept donations of seeds of those Big tomatoes that appears on this forum from time to time. ;D
since I didnt received any seends on my mailbox I opted to buy some small tomatoe plants, they are supposed to be BeefSteak Tomatoes, I said "supposed" because they were bought from a church that was selling many plants of different veggies and fruits to get some money for shelters, orphans, etc
so, I was short on big Planters and the tomatoes plants needed to be planted asap (they were sold on those small black plastic bags normally used on plant nurseries, you can see some yellow leaves on them) so, I used what a medium planter I have on hand and a 5-gallon bucked :P , anyway, lets see how they look in few more days.
Good sign that they seem to like the new planters because after a week from planted, they started to show some flowering
That is a clever enclosure, Alex —-
Good job!
It may be difficult to get decent locally sourced fruits and vegetables this year, at least for us.
Stopped by Byron Takahashi's fruit stand yesterday on the way back up the hill.
Byron said that many/most of his farmers have been flooded out and/or the weather is still Winter.
Apricots, peaches, plums, beans, berries, apples, squash.
And generally we can get decent crops from over around Watsonville, and the Coastal areas if our local farmers are not productive. But those places have been deluged and flooded also. Same with up North in Modesto and Sacramento.
That leaves Mexico, Central & South America.
Imperial Valley & Arizona may be OK —- not sure yet.
Picked up 3 small baskets of strawberries yesterday —- all white inside and not very flavorful. Zucchini was good, tomatoes were good —- but obviously hothouse produced.
We'll see how it goes this year...
Best, Fred
Quote from: foakes on March 30, 2023, 05:46:35 PMThat is a clever enclosure, Alex —-
well, it was what I had on hand but previously before planting my tomatoes plants I saw on some youTB videos and saw many people using the 5-Gallon bucket ;)
**** the next two pictures were taken from the web ***
Quote from: Cor on July 09, 2022, 06:45:54 PMThe soil is heavy in clay, in winter remains fairly wet but in Summer dries out in the upper layer
This is a great thread with a lot of really good advice.
I grow in a similar soil structure year round with heavy clay. Wompus Cat's recommendation for getting your base soil tested is great advice. Some elements can accumulate in clay soil which are immobile and are not easily leached out like phosphorous. There are some great labs in the US who accept international soil samples and can provide you with recommendations on amendments (one being logan labs). For me, I had too much magnesium which is prevalent in clay soils. I used gypsum to leach out the magnesium along and heavily mulched using straw which gave me an extra day or two between watering. If you are already in mid season and you cannot amend your soil, you can look into foliar fertilizer applications, which you spray on usually at night or in the early morning. That can have a very positive and immediate effect.
Food grade buckets, good plan Stan. My Wife had me get old ATV tires for Taro, etc. Then I pointed-out that they might be toxic——-so my new assignment became break it all down and proper disposal... never ends. I wish I had a slave...
we have tomatoes, I repeat we have tomatoes on the garden
one on the bucket planter and another one on the ceramic planter, they're tiny right now, the smaller is no more than 0.50" and the other is no bigger than 1"
well, I finally harvested some tomatoes from my Garden 8)
but... they dont look any similar on size or shape to a BeefSteak Tomatoe :o ::) :P
ooh well.
but they DO look like BeefSteak on the inside meat :-\ ???
by the way, they tasted pretty goood!! pretty sweet flavor, it was weird to find a sweet taste on a tomatoe slice ???
the meat felt almost like eating a big grape pretty firm and juice and sweet.
Am curious if you saved those seeds from the previous year crop or used the same ones that were left over from last year? We had a long winter. Mine are still under grow lights. Nice to see someone has fruit already.
Quote from: steelfish on March 30, 2023, 05:29:24 PMsince I didnt received any seends on my mailbox I opted to buy some small tomatoe plants, they are supposed to be BeefSteak Tomatoes, I said "supposed" because they were bought from a church that was selling many plants of different veggies and fruits to get some money for shelters, orphans, etc
I bought two small tomatoes plants on a church charity event few weeks ago, they were sold as BeefSteak tomatoes
Quote from: reelynew on May 18, 2023, 06:18:11 PM....... We had a long winter.
winter or freezing temps are almost non existent here in Baja, Mx, well maybe one or three pretty cold weeks but thats all for the winter season ^-^
Summer is almost worse. Those may well be legit beefsteak, how big they get before ripening is partly determined by climate. Where it's hotter they ripen faster. When it's really hot they just crack first.