The n00b report

[TheDens]

I think I'm a closet masochist.
I'm not sure why, for my very first vegetable garden, I've gone out of my way to make this as hard on myself as possible. The reasonable thing to do, of course, probably would have been to select a nice, flat, sunny part of the yard, build a raised bed on it, and buy live plants of hardy, productive hybrids to play with and learn on when planting time came around.
Oh, nooooo. Not me. What did I do? I put my garden on a steep embankment (hey, I had to do -something- with that hill!). Then I bought seeds and started them in an old aquarium.
I've had some problems, of course. I'm sure every newbie does. My seedlings are spindly, although I think I can still use them. I'm pretty sure I underestimated how much light they'd need. Only 50% of my Brandywine Suddeths came up, and the ones that did looked terrible for a few weeks. I later decided I was watering them too much. They look better now that I've started letting them dry out more between waterings. And in one of those weird twists you just don't expect, one sprouted a few days ago, over a month after planting. Freaky.
Overall, the Cherokee Purples seem to be the most vigorous, although I do have one Sungold that seems determined to grow into Tomatozilla and take over the world. The Valencia hybrid peppers are growing like weeds. The Aji Dulce peppers are growing veerrrry veerrrry slowly, but seem otherwise healthy. Slightly offtopic, the Orangeglo watermelons are already outside, and the cukes are more than ready to join them; they'd be out there already if I hadn't killed my ankle last weekend. I just harvested and ate my first two Tristar strawberries, and let me tell you, they were small but you just can't get taste like that from a grocery store.
So there you have it, my first ramble as an actual gardener. Much as I whine, I'm actually enjoying this quite a bit, and I've already learned a lot from my own mistakes so far. You can all look forward to many more inane mumblings as the season wears on.

Denna

[kimpossible]

Congratulations, Denna, on your first real veggie garden! It's exciting, isn't it?

And speaking for myself, but I would guess that the others that post on Tomato and Garden forums probably share the same "bigger, better, more" affliction. I know I can relate!

[SelfSufficient1]

Gee, I have had a garden for 4 years now and I still have a lot of the problems you have had, I am not sure it gets better, lol.

[matermama]

Hello
i m new , i must say today i put my maters out to harden off for about 15 min and i forgot all about them!!!!! uuhhgg
Finaly got them after about 4 hrs yikes a cold wind blew in . all the leaves were shriveled up and droopy.
I was sooo bumbed i cried
But i managed to get them to were they might survive.
Sometimes hearing other peoples tradgetys make us feel better a an not so dumb, ( i felt soooo dumb) DH told me of his story of flooding a green at the golf course he worked at the day of a tournament!!!!
12 people yelled at him that day
just a t hought Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon i day also garden ing. LOL
matermama

[Delora]

Originally Posted by matermama

Hello
i m new , i must say today i put my maters out to harden off for about 15 min and i forgot all about them!!!!! uuhhgg
Finaly got them after about 4 hrs yikes a cold wind blew in . all the leaves were shriveled up and droopy.
I was sooo bumbed i cried
But i managed to get them to were they might survive.
Sometimes hearing other peoples tradgetys make us feel better a an not so dumb
matermama

I had a hardening off disaster this year as well. We had a warm stretch at the beginning of April, I I'd let my babies go outside and play in the sun for a few hours. At night, I'd tuck them under their lights for a few hours before I turned that off when they needed to go to sleep. Finally after a week or so, the bigger kids were allowed to have a slumber party on the screen porch! I moved them in and out a few nights, and everything was fine. Then one rainy Sat, mommy and daddy went to a wedding for some friends, and the kids were forgotten on the porch (they'd been out there for several nights before, so it should have been fine). Mommy remembered about them Sun morning, but it was too late. Everyone was limp and droopy.

I ended up losing about 1/3 of my plants. I think it must have been a combonation of wind and cold that took its toll (those cold april showers did me in 2yrs ago also!). It's been a couple weeks now and I had a few bounce back OK, and another couple that are still trying to struggle. I lost 2/4 of my Sophie's Choice (which ironically were my best plants). Everything else I had extras of, so that wasn't too bad.


-Delora

[matermama]

oh i m so sorry to hear that . I found that my Blondkophen i think i spelled that right? LOL
they were the stongest out of all of them. my romas were the ones that i think suffered the most,
I pinched of the bad areas and repotted them and burreid them up to the tp leaves , i hope it works.
take care of those materbabies
sue

[Sorellina]

Ciao Denna,

You know, I'm starting to think that some of the chili pepper varieties were invented by God to give to people who are desperate to sow anything in the tomato family in the middle of winter. Duane sowed his Aji Dulce on 25 February and those plants are maybe 5" tall now with stocky stems and huge green leaves. The lights really make a huge difference in seedling vigour. So that tells you this is a very slow grower, which has good and bad points, I guess. Good in that you can get started way early and the plants won't take over your livingroom. Bad in that if you don't get started early-ish, the plants will be way small by the time you want to plant them out.

[TheDens]

Yeah, I didn't realize they were so slow when I planted them. I didn't start them any earlier than the Valencias. Guess it's a good thing we have such a long growing season here, I might need it.

[travis]

Denna,

Don't be discouraged by the tardiness of some pepper starts. Boy, some of them really take a looooong time to germinate. Some seem to take for----ever to get past those first few leaves. And others seem to leaf out well but stay rather spindly with regard to their main stems don't they?

Some seem to thrive in the same conditions that others languish in. Not to worry ...

Keep planting lots of different varieties until you find the ones that cooperate with your temps, light conditions, and care habits.

Some of the ones I started in February are showing a heck of a lot more vigor than some of those started in November and December.

I even have some of the same varieties started at different times and under different conditions that show growth characteristics that totally defy their comparable ages.

And there are the total dissapointments like Charleston Hots, Tabascos, and some of the more exotic Habanero types. But I did find a dozen or so varieties that are thriving in container size and lighting conditions where many tomato varieties totally flopped.

I found the same true to some extent with the tomato seedlings from variety to variety. But you know what, some of the more spindly ones sure perked up fast when I put them out in the garden.

So don't get discouraged. Next year germinate more varieties and select out the ones that do well for you.

Here's a list of ornamental types that started out really feebly but have really taken off since they were put out to harden off: Tri Fetti, Largo Purple, Black Pearl, and Black Prince.

And here's some that always showed a lot of vigor right from germination even though these spent a lot longer under florescent lighting than those ornamentals listed above: Fish, Ancho, Poblano, Anaheim, Cascabella, Sport, Pulla, Jalapeno Picante, two long red roasting types I took from pods bought at the Latino food market, and a gold Thai pepper from seeds out of pods purchased at the Asian food market.

PV