Direct seeding

The Mama Chicken

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This is the first year I have planted pepper seed directly in the garden. Both the Seranos and the Habanero sprouted in about 10 days! I did start some under lights too, just in case. It will be interesting to see which plants will do better.
My friend's daughter and my youngest daughter helped my husband plant some tomato seeds into one of the kids' gardens on Sunday, so I'll be watching to see if they come up too. :watering
 

digitS'

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Next you will be telling us that since a pepper is really a perennial plant, you will just be able to leave them out there all thru the year, TMC!

:)

Enjoying the fruit of a volunteer tomato plant in my garden isn't really possible. There is little chance that even self-sown short-season varieties will have a chance to ripen fruit. I have to protect the little darlings for much of their lives. But, allowing the plants to set fruit before they are transplanted out into the garden is something of a guarantee that the plants won't make much growth thru the season. The same result shows up in the pepper patch except, the plants focusing on fruiting isn't what results in stunting. No, just hanging around in an open garden for about a month before they really want to be there, stunts the pepper plants.

~ sigh ~

A more normal relationship with these warm-season plants is just a huckleberry above my persimmon . . .

Steve's digits
 

The Mama Chicken

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Well... when I lived in San Diego I had a yellow pear tomato that continued to bear fruit for 18 months. I think it was about 20 feet long when I finally chopped it down and the main stem was about as big around as my wrist. The worst part was that the fruit wasn't even particularly good, I just disn't want to kill a perfectly good plant. :hide
We do get a few freezes here most years, and I'm too lazy to baby a pepper enough to overwinter it outside, but it could probably be done.
 

Ridgerunner

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As Steve is well aware, we all have different climates. As someone once said on here, "All gardening is local." Oh, yeah, Steve is the one that said that.

Dad used to wait until the worst danger of frost was past, dig up a small area and put a frame around it, maybe 6" high. Then he sowed tomato seeeds and covered that frame with cheesecloth. We would transplant these in the garden and get plenty of tomatoes. My problem with that here is that it is often too hot in the heat of summer for tomatoes to set on, so I need to get a jump by starting the plants inside to get some tomatoes before the heat sets in. Then when it cools off a bit, the tomatoes really set on.

Peppers are more of a warm weather crop than even tomatoes. I wouldn't even consider direct seeding here, but in warmer climates, it is possible.
 

897tgigvib

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Some Tomatoes and some Peppers will indeed perennialize, but they need real good conditions during winter. When I lived in Montana and worked in a greenhouse I perennialized Yellow Aji and Manzano Rocotta Roja Peppers. I also perennialized my F1 Tomato cross of Marianna's Peace with Giant Syrian. Some winters I kept them in the greenhouse, other winters I brought them home into my living room near the window and radiator, with a flourescent light for extra light.

The reason I say some and not all will perennialize is that they need to be cut back twice at least during winter. Once when you first bring them in, then again in late February or so, and they need to begin almost immediate new growth each time. Some varieties do not seem strong enough to do that. Those Manzano Peppers are a different species of Pepper, and they make almost woody stems. The Aji Peppers I am pretty sure are Anuum Peppers, but are very vigorous, and left unchecked, by September will be well over 4 feet tall.

Tomatoes and Peppers both need to have dry air in winter. That's why sometimes I took them home. The greenhouse often gets humid in winter simply because of the heating bill, and it was kept at 50 degrees, not a bad temp, not real great either, but that cool allows moisture to build up. If moist conditions in winter, watch for molds on the stems.

If your winter has little or no frost down there in Texas, and if you want to perennialize your Peppers and Tomatoes, I think you could do it with some work at it. Just for fun. Fun is one of the essentials, and fun for a challenge is a very positive thing.

I would think that building a frame around the plants with wood, then wrapping the frame with plastic, and doing it in a way that is good for any weather, sealing the bottom enough away from the plants to keep the roots from freezing, having a way to open it on nice days, keeping the humidity down, and watching for problems as they arise, that'd be real fun!
 

897tgigvib

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Oh Ridge runner!

If I was in a place too hot for tomatoes I'd grow Watermelons and Cantaloupes!
 

digitS'

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marshallsmyth said:
Oh Ridge runner!

If I was in a place too hot for tomatoes I'd grow Watermelons and Cantaloupes!
Yeah!!!

This year, I think there's a good chance that I will set the pepper plants out in the garden under plastic. There's also a good chance that the plastic could blow away . . . However, that's an engineering problems :p.

Steve
 

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Oh, I can grow some tomatoes and usually a lot of tomatoes, but during the heat of summer, they tend to slow down here. Last summer with triple digit daytime temperatures I could barely keep enough going to eat on, let alone can, but once the weather broke, I got a lot all of a sudden.

You just have to learn to work with your climate and conditions. And I'd rather have one of my bad homegrown tomatoes than what I can buy at the store.
 

897tgigvib

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My mother used to say, "gardeners and hippies are not usually very good at building things". She also used to say, "if you are going to be a hippy, be a real hippy."

I'm a gardener, and I'm a hippy! A real gardener, and a real hippy, even though my hair I have to keep cut because it kinks up if too long.

So I decided to be at least a good builder. Structural integrity is indeed important.

Wellp, it stopped raining, so back to building beds!
 

The Mama Chicken

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I'm a hippy (even though I wasn't born until the late 70's) and a gardener, but I'm lousy at building things. Thankfully my husband can build anything I ask for. :love
 

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