Lynne's AG Activities

[lynnee]

The AG Heirloom Red tomato is doing especially well since I removed the AG Mighty Mini.

I read somewhere that tomatoes will ripen off the vine with no loss in flavor if you remove them at any time after they begin to show orange color. Supposedly they won't get any bigger at that point, so you might as well relieve the plant of the burden of maintaining them. You will also avoid splitting of overripe ones that you lose track of.

I just started doing this, but the plant seems to like it, and H says the counter-ripened tomatoes taste very good.  That's spinach replacing the Mighty Mini--it's been in three different gardens now.

[Sher]

Your heirloom tomato apparently likes its personal space!  I will copy you and airscapes and harvest mine early next time I grow them, too.

Hope it gets along better with the spinach. 

[lynnee]

Sher, the Veranda Reds also seem to taste the same when allowed to finish ripening off the vine. It's funny, but every time I give Ray one of the VRs, he says, " Yum! Was that one of the good ones?"

We both thank you for telling us about the VRs! They're so sweet.

[Sher]

Thanks for telling me, lynnee. That delights me!

[lynnee]

Today I terminated the Burpee Blazing Banana pepper plant at Day 98. It produced quite a few big peppers, but they're too hot to eat raw. They're not super-hot by any means--it's just that my system doesn't handle the heat very well.

The water was smelling a bit swampy, and the roots were light brown, so it was probably time to remove the plant anyway.  It had run some roots inside the grow deck, so I was glad that I took the deck apart for cleaning.

I'll probably pickle these. I have about a dozen pepper seedlings coming along, so I'll try something other than peppers when I restart this Bounty.

[Shawn]

Nice looking and nice sized peppers.  Looking forward to seeing whats next.

[Sher]

Those are beautiful peppers, lynnee.

You and I must share the same taste in peppers. I like a bit of spiciness, but I don't like pain! 

[lynnee]

Today I ended the highly productive banana and bell peppers at Day 318. The roots (3 views below) didn't look at all bad, though the bell pepper (smaller root ball) had some beginning root rot.



After going through the dishwasher, the deck looks almost new. There is some slight warping (lower right corner), but this is NOT from the dishwasher. The weight of the pepper plants caused the warping.  There is some yellowing that may have come from the dishwasher.



I consolidated my pepper seedlings in the now-empty Farm 24 (right half). These are Burpee Mocha Swirl, saved Banana pepper, Organic Ancho Grande, and Burpee Poblano. They are all at Day 33.



The consolidation freed up two Bounty Elites. I also moved the two lavender plants from the February Flower GAL to Kratkys, which freed up a third Bounty Elite.

All have been thoroughly cleaned in the dishwasher. The Bounty decks are a lot easier to take apart than the Farm decks!

[Sher]

That is a superb pepper garden, lynnee!

And I can't wait to find out what you plant in the Bountys!

[Shawn]

Plants look great.  I am always afraid to place them in my dishwasher.

[lynnee]

I finally gave up on the spinach that was sharing a Bounty Elite with the AG red heirloom tomatoes. The Johnny's spinach did much better than the Burpee "Space" spinach--it looks like it will provide enough for a salad. (It looks a bit limp in the photo because it had been out of water for a while, but it will perk up in the fridge.)



All three of the spinach plants were hard to sprout, which may be why they didn't do well. Now I'm going to try sprouting the Johnny's spinach and another spinach variety from Territorial Seeds in the Sprout. The seedlings will then go into one of my larger AGs.  I didn't want to waste the sponges with slightly larger holes that came with the seed starter, so I covered the empty holes with tinfoil.

[lynnee]

Here are a couple of AG photos taken today. The first is my pepper farm (Burpee Mocha Swirls, Burpee Poblano, Organic Ancho Grande, Saved Banana Pepper Seeds). These are crowded, but seem to be okay for now. Roots are healthy. I'll reevaluate them tomorrow.



The second is my pride and joy: the Burpee Red Veranda, which is producing lots of great-tasting tomatoes now.  There is another branch with tomatoes out of sight in the back. The almost-ripe tomatoes came off the plant today when I added a second trellis.

[Sher]

What a beautiful garden, lynnee. Especially your peppers!

The Veranda Reds make my mouth water.  Mine are only about one inch tall!

[lynnee]

I have some tiny VRs, too. They were planted about a week after yours, Sher. The mature plant won't last forever, and we can always use tomatoes.

[lynnee]

The peppers were definitely too crowded. Today I moved the two banana peppers to Kratky setups, in amber half-gallon Mason jars.  The banana peppers had blooms, so I couldn't just throw them out!

The remaining peppers still need pruning to improve air circulation, but I think that 4 peppers will work in the Farm Plus (right half). There are two Burpee Mocha Swirls on the left, and an Organic Ancho Grande (rear) and Burpee Poblano (front) on the right.

[Shawn]

They look so healthy

[lynnee]

Today I ended the seed-starting experiment in the Sprout. Only four of the six sponges produced spinach seedlings (2 Johnny's, 2 Territorials). One of the Johnny's was very weak, so I discarded it. The others were transplanted back into a squeaky-clean Sprout.

Maybe the spinach will grow, maybe not. I'm still trying to find something that the Sprout does well. My herbs didn't germinate (except for a weak curly parsley), and the spinach has been very slow-growing.

Left: Transplanted spinach.  Right:  Spinach in seed starter.

[Sher]

lynnee, the spinach on the left looks good! I hope it thrives there.

[lynnee]

The peppers from the saved Banana Pepper seeds are doing so well, I moved them back into a Bounty (from Kratkys). It looks like they are going to be as prolific as the mother plant was. This is their fourth relocation.

All three have buds and/or flowers and/or fruit set. It remains to be seen whether the original plant was a hybrid or an heirloom. (I'm wondering whether the smallest plant (in front, on the left) is different from the other two.) The original plant produced peppers with exactly the right amount of heat for our household.

[lynnee]

My two pepper gardens have been reduced from seven to four pepper plants.

Yesterday I took out the weakest of the saved banana peppers (farthest left pod is now empty) in the Bounty. It had lots of tiny blooms, but wasn't setting fruit like the other two.



Today I took out one Mocha Swirl plant (left rear) and a Burpee Poblano pepper plant (right front) from the Farm Plus. As you can see from this photo taken several days ago, the garden was just too crowded. Arrows show the plants that got the axe today.



The Farm Plus today. I pruned the Burpee Mocha Swirl on the left quite a bit because it was spreading out of its space and very crowded in the middle. Now the two remaining plants have decent air circulation. Both are producing peppers.  I have high hopes for the Organic Ancho Grande on the right, which may actually produce peppers suitable for stuffing.