we also had a january and february with unusually-long stretches of gray, gray days. but we've also had some really sunny days, too, thank goodness! i am ready for march to be over because then i can start using the greenhouse to start cold weather crops - woohoo! more on how the greenhouse will be used for this year's planting will come in future posts. for now, i just sit with my buckets of seeds, sort them, re-sort them, plan the rotation of starting seeds in the house, moving them to the greenhouse in a hotbox, then moving them onto the shelves in the greenhouse, then finally putting the plants in the ground.
the tomatoes will be started super-early this year and kept in the house in a grow-light contraption that jambaloney will make this weekend. the tomatoes will stay in the house, and after a few weeks, they'll be potted and put out in the greenhouse. i will keep them there flourishing and will not put them in the ground until the first week of june. by that time they'll already be flowering which means we'll have tomatoes by july - woohoo!
the peppers will live in the greenhouse all summer and then be brought back in the house to overwinter. here is one shelf of peppers that we tried to overwinter to see what would happen. have a look.
we actually have 2 shelves of these peppers for a total of 12 pepper plants that survived the winter! in the pic above you can see a red pepper and a green pepper! the peppers certainly didn't thrive, but they didn't die and some of them continued to flower and produce a few extra peppers! have a look at how thick the stalks are becoming.
they are becoming like little trees! and did you notice the buds? there's more buds on this one below.
they will be re-potted into much bigger pots in the next month or so...we are just waiting for the days to get longer so that we can put them on the plastic-wrapped porch during the day (it's like a greenhouse out there!) and then bring the pots in the house at night. we won't put the peppers out into the actual greenhouse until we are certain that we will have frost free nights.
my question is: HAS ANYONE EVER DONE THIS BEFORE? overwintered peppers? if these plants keep growing and producing there will be no need to start from seeds or am i getting something wrong here? and if you can overwinter peppers then why not tomatoes? i am just terribly excited about all of this year's gardening adventures.
anyway, here's a good way to use up some peppers - stir-fried onions, peppers, avocado and a greek yoghurt/cucumber/garlic/dehydrated green onion spread. yummeh!
our community has been very busy this week, meeting up, getting donations, contacting businesses, selling tickets - and we just know that this benefit dance for our friend will be a huge success! we have a great community of people, none of whom are rich in money, but very rich in giving of their time and energy to help each other out. we feel blessed to be a part of it.
i'll leave you off with a beautiful sunset.
jambaloney is at LobstersRUs today working his magic and i am figuring out what to make the poor guy for supper. as well as the usual petting cats, kissing cats, cat taxis, regular cleaning up duties...all that boring stuff. but i will stop in from time to time and check out your blogs. i am at least a week behind in reading and commenting on some of them, but that is only because we have spent the last week doing so much running around. i'll get to your blogs to be sure!
Both peppers and tomatoes are perennials so you can over winter both of them. I haven't ever done either intentionally but I know of a tomato plant that grew at the base of a sheltered southern exposed cliff area along a nearby hiking trail. I'm guessing it was started from a seed that fell from someone's lunch and fell into a crevasse where it grew just fine. It survived the winter and I actually picked a tomato from it and ate it the following summer. I have heard that tomatoes can suffer bug problems when over wintering which makes them harder to do than peppers.
ReplyDeleteEd - thanks for that info and the cute story about that little tomatoe seed - i sure hope that you enjoyed that tomatoe!!! anyway, you have confirmed what i was thinking - which is - if you overwinter them in a heated greenhouse you can keep them both going! our greenhouse isn't heated yet but jambaloney is gonna finnagle some way of heating it for this upcoming fall/winter. he'll figure something out - i just know he will! thanks for stopping in Ed, buddy!
DeleteMy parents bought some sort of greenhouse thermostat for their greenhouse that is wired to an electric heater and kicks on if the temp drops too cool. If it get hotter than the set temperature, it kicks on a fan. I helped my dad wire it up and it works pretty slick. You just have to buy the unit and then wire it up to any heater and fan you have.
DeleteEd - thanks for that info...jam is looking into how to be able to control the temp in the greenhouse this coming fall/winter. can you send me the name or a link to what your parents got? thanks buddy!
DeleteHowdy Ya'll,
ReplyDeleteIsn't it wonderful to finally getting ready for spring!! Mars is a BIG pepper lover; We didn't overwinter any last year because we were sideswiped by a very early frost/freeze. But to answer your about peppers you most certainly can overwinter them. A couple of years ago we had some that made peppers in the spring and then thru the winter in a greenhouse, The next spring we set them out in the garden and got peppers again thru the end of summer. They had finally stopped setting flowers. So I know you can get a couple of years of goodies from them. More than that I just don't know.
P.S. That's a beautiful sunset!
Sci
howdy back Gurl! how's your back doing? are you feeling any better? you better make sure to be getting lots of rest...and again i say - stop kicking Sandy's little Beans!!! i can't believe that you let PP get you involved in that mess - bahahahahah!
Deletethanks so much for your info about what you did with your peppers! it's awesome to know that you can overwinter them for a year or two and still get peppers for a couple of years. it just means that you don't have to start them from seed every year and that gives you more time to do other things. this is awesome news Sci - thanks so much! xoxo
I never heard of anyone over-wintering peppers; that's neat!
ReplyDeleteMr. Smythe - i'd like to say that i did a bunch of research on overwintering peppers but i did zip. nada. the plants were just looking so healthy last year and we hated to let them die. it was jambaloney's idea to bring them in the house. and they are doing just fine - not thriving, but staying alive and still producing little flowers and in some cases, peppers. now that i have heard from Ed and Sci above - woohoo! i'm even more excited about putting them in bigger pots and setting them out in the greenhouse. and that means i don't have to waste space in the house starting pepper seeds. another woohoo! thanks for stopping by, monsieur!
DeleteG'day Kymber,
ReplyDeleteYou do get summer up there eventually don't you? I always enjoy your snow landscape photos, I will dig out my one and only photo of me in some Aussie snow for you to have a laugh at! You seem to have a bountiful garden, my wife has been setting up 2 vege gardens and has been getting some good results, down here the main problem is keeping everything watered. The hardest thing to combat is a heatwave day, once the temp gets above 40deg C the sun burns the leaves of the plants and they really start to wilt.
Sgt - as hard as it is to believe we get beautiful spring, summer and fall up here - just not like in Australia!!!! keep following our blog and you will see some beautiful spring coming in just a few weeks! i would love to see a phot of you in some Aussie snow - bahahahaha! i would love to see some pics of your wife's gardens - you have the email address - send away. but yes, even here on really hot days we have to water and water to keep the plants from wilting. i know i owe you an email...one coming very soon!
DeleteI am with George, I didn't know you could do the perennial thing with peppers.
ReplyDeleteme neither, Russell, buddy - but you can be darn tootin's that i'll be trying this with tomatoes too once jam has figured out how to heat that greenhouse!
Deletegood luck with the peppers, It was 50 here today !!!!
ReplyDeletethanks Rob, buddy - here's to spring getting here sooner rather than later eh?
DeleteYep peppers for sure will continue to grow. I had a friend in college who had one for years in a big 55 gallon drum he cut in half. The main stalk will get almost as hard as wood.
ReplyDeletehey PP - stop being a bad example to Sci and leave Sandy's little Beans alone or you know what boots will be coming out - bahahahahah! as for the peppers, that is what we are noticing - they are starting to look like shrubs and their stalks are starting to look like wood - crazy eh? anyway, i'm excited to get back out in that garden but you'll beat me to it so i will have to garden through you until it's planting time around here. make sure to do lots of gardening posts!
DeleteYes I discovered it be accident.
ReplyDeleteCheck it out here.
http://livingprepared.blogspot.com/2013/08/green-pepper-re-grow.html
Mike- thanks so much for the link! i just went and checked it out and now i am wondering "why the heck aren't you in my blog list???". i will add you right away. and thanks again for sharing.
Deletekymber I have a commenter named Kate and she has regrown all kinds of veggies like celery, onions and she has overwintered tomato plants from her garden. She cuts back the plants about 2/3rds and then hand pollinates the blooms using a soft paint brush. I wonder if that might work with the pepper plants?
ReplyDeleteJamie - thanks for all of that info! we have been re-growing celery, onions and lettuces like that but i have never overwintered a tomatoe and can't wait to try. the peppers don't need the pollination as they pollinate themselves but the tomatoe plants will definitely need it. i will go to your blog and see if i can find a comment from her to then find her blog. thanks Jamie!
Deletehttp://myadventuresinselfreliance.wordpress.com/2014/02/24/been-thinking-about-robs-post-on-gardening/
DeleteKate's comments can be found here
Jamie - got it. thanks buddy!
DeleteStill two more weeks of march. Sometimes we get snow storms here in the first and second week of the month, but I'm hoping we'll be spared that this year. Enough cold weather already.
ReplyDeleteI figured you two were staying busy up there with working on your place and all the social events.
Harry - for the past few years our Marches have been just gorgeous! but so far this march stinks! i think everyone is getting stir crazy from all of this cold weather and snow. and yes, we've been run off our feet for the past couple of weeks - jam's been in town 2-3 days each week working at LobstersRUs, i've been cold-calling businesses, then we've had to go pick up donations, then meetings, etc. this week is another busy week - jam's been to work yesterday and today, we have our VFD tomorrow eve, friday night is chase the ace and saturday is our St. Patrick's Dance - i'll be bushwhacked!
DeleteI have no knowledge of peppers at all, apart from eating the ones chopped up in a pizza. :D
ReplyDeleteHere in the UK we've been having some mild, dry days, and the weekend was sunny. Long may it last!
Hope you are both doing well.
hey Joey buddy - i know A LOT about peppers on pizza - bahahahah! glad to hear that you have been having some mild weather. you guys sure have been hit with a weird winter in the UK this year. here's hoping that your spring is here to stay. we're both doing great, buddy, thanks for asking. and much love to you and all of yours eh?
DeleteWell today we have an unusually warm day, it will reach 70 they say, then of course it will drop to 30 again tomorrow. I think Spring has lost it's way, hopefully it will eventually arrive. It's been a long winter.
ReplyDeleteSo glad to see you here blogging, a lot of deserted blogs these days. Thanks for letting me visit, enjoyed your page.
http://myfavoritesolarlights.blogspot.com
http://joininandgogreen.blogspot.com
Susan - thanks for stopping by. spring is taking it's good old time to get here...but it will come! i will go and check out your blogs right now!
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ReplyDelete