Worth's 2017 Accidental Garden.

[Rajun Gardener]

Don't worry about pod shape, most new pods will be funky shaped and water/weather will also effect the shape. I notice even when I fertilize some new pods are misshaped.

[Tormato]

Originally Posted by bower

Friend brought me a bunch of Swenson Red grapes from her greenhouse. Home grown grapes are so worth it!!!
Think of it, grape chasers for your ghost peppers.

Your friend either knows her grapes, or got lucky with randomly getting Swenson Red, my favorite grape.

[Worth1]

Every day I come home yet more flowers have set fruit on the ghost pepper plants and new growth.

Worth

[dmforcier]

I don't think they like being "annuals". Can you imagine one that is free to grow over several years?



Oh, the roots of chemical warfare...

[Worth1]

I saw a giant jalapeno pepper plant that was I think 10 years old in a greenhouse it had bark on it.
Usually by this time of year all my pepper plants have bark on them.
I dont plan on letting these ghost peppers die, to much time and money invested in them.
Worth

[clkeiper]

Originally Posted by Worth1

I saw a giant jalapeno pepper plant that was I think 10 years old in a greenhouse it had bark on it.
Usually by this time of year all my pepper plants have bark on them.
I dont plan on letting these ghost peppers die, to much time and money invested in them.
Worth

me either. I left mine in the pot this Summer. It sat in the greenhouse all Summer hardly growing. I totally forgot to fertilize it. I usually have an injector on and I moved the injector to another house and forgot to add osmocote. after I realized it the thing started growing like mad. now it has red/orange peppers on it.moving it to the other greenhouse for the winter.

[Gardeneer]

Originally Posted by Worth1

Every day I come home yet more flowers have set fruit on the ghost pepper plants and new growth.

Worth

talking about ghost peppers, here is a picture of mine.
I have dried some and plan to make some hot sauce, mixing in some ripe jalapeno and Fresno with eat to tame it a bit.

[Worth1]

I hope some of mine turn red soon.

Today I came across a stray 20 stick of 3/8 rebar on the job it is leftovers they will toss.
I cut it into 5 foot lengths and put it in the truck.
When I get home I will cut 1 foot sticks of it to drive in the ground to put PVC pipe on to make a tunnel for the skinny driveway garden to protect the pepper plants and other stuff.

[Gardeneer]

Good find. I grab deals like that for free.

Good idea to use rebar to support PVC pipe. But I wonder how much of one foot goes in the ground and how much of it goes inside the PVC ? I have used short rebars to support cheap flimsy cages and extend its height too.

BTW : How/ with what do you cut them rebars ? Hack saw ? I wouldn't think so.

[Worth1]

Yes a hacksaw fast and easy plus exercise.
The rebar will be driven into packed limestone road base.
Worth

[bower]

Originally Posted by Tormato

Your friend either knows her grapes, or got lucky with randomly getting Swenson Red, my favorite grape.

I guess I got lucky, for sure! Since I don't know my grapes at all, but she rooted me a cutting of this one, which is truly amazing. It grew quite a bit this summer. I'm wondering whether to pot it up now in the fall, or wait until spring. (It lives in the greenhouse here, of course.)

[Worth1]

Speaking of grapes I need to get started on that giant post hole to sink a huge post to run my wire for the grape vines between driveways.
I think the soil will be perfect with irrigation.
I thin layer of top soil in top of limestone road base with decomposed granite miked in.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by Rajun Gardener

Don't worry about pod shape, most new pods will be funky shaped and water/weather will also effect the shape. I notice even when I fertilize some new pods are misshaped.

Well time told as far as I am concerned.
Here is the deal so far.
All 4 plants are in the same container same water same everything.
The long pod ghost pepper is still pumping out the same kind of pepper.

Another plant puts out nice fat peppers with a stinger on the end.
I have looked on line and seen both kinds of ghost peppers.


I didn't take time to count all the peppers I have in that container but there might be 100 or close to it.

Next observation.
When I experiment or test I do one thing at a time.
This time two things happened at the same time and I couldn't help it.
One the weather cooled off a little bit.
Two I used 13-13-13 at the same time more or less.
Next the plants exploded with growth.
This tells me a few things the liquid fertilizer I was using went to the bottom and was not being taken up by the plants.
It didn't wash out because I dont have drain holes.
Or I didn't use enough.

Next watering method.
I wait till the soil shrinks up from the container edges ((but)) before they droop to water.

Even in the hottest weather this was watering around twice a week not everyday all day like a normal container in Texas with drain holes.
Now I am watering once a week on the weekend or after work.
I do not fill up the container with water I just give them good watering.
I do not look at the sight tube most of the time.

Why am I doing this the way I am?
I am not trying to prove anyone wrong about drain holes even though almost everyone says you have to have drain holes.

I was asked in a PM about too much rain and the container filling up with water.
This happened during the hurricane.

All I did was take the sight tube and lay it down so the water could run out during the storm and after for awhile.

The next reason I did this was to see if I had a way of growing in a container that wouldn't make me have to water all the time.
This will allow several things to be done.
I can grow inside and not have to worry about water getting everywhere or drain pans.

It will allow people to conserve water and fertilizer.
It will give people the ability to do other things besides watering a ton of containers all day in the hot southwest environment.

I am very bad about being told I cant do something without trying it myself and have been all my life.
Many times it is just figuring out the method of doing it another way than has been done before.
Or figuring out the reason the individuals couldn't do it and not make the same mistakes.

A case in point, 'if anyone cares to read, is cutting single point threads on a lathe running it backwards.
Been told you cant do it.
Why.
It will spin the chuck off the lathe because it screws on with right hand threads.
If you run it backwards cutting this will make it unscrew and fly across the shop.

I dont have a screw on chuck I have what is called a D6 chuck it is modern.
This is what it looks like and cant unscrew.


This is an old style screw on spindle a screw on chuck mounts on.


It would be a nightmare to have a chuck spinning off this thing at 1000 rpm.

The point is sometimes information is handed down through the years and technology changes.
It isn't bad information from where it came from but is misinformation in modern times with modern equipment.
Remember the metal lathe evolved from the wood lathe with no intention of ever cutting threads or steel.
Along with it design changes took forever to make if at all.
In other words sometimes you can reinvent the wheel and you have to.

With the drain less tubs it isn't even a case of reinventing the wheel it is more like rediscovering the wheel.
The Aztec did pretty much the same thing with the so called floating gardens.
They piled soil up in canals and grew food and raised fish.
This allowed the plants roots to go down to a standing water table.
It is no different than tress and other plants growing next to a river or lake.
Remember Mexico city is built on the site of an old lake where they used to live and grow food.

Worth

[Worth1]

I dug up a big round sweet potato the size of a softball today.
I am just going to leave them in the ground to grow.
There is no reason to dig them all up at once as far as I can tell they can store right where they are.
Worth

[clkeiper]

I have found the ground dwelling varmint find them and decimate them. if you don't care storing them where they grow is fine.