Tomato Harvest Update!

Right now I am in peak of my tomato harvest. Below are some pics of the tomatoes I have harvested. The first pic is of my holding the huge heirloom tomatoes I picked. The second pic is of those same tomatoes on the table. The biggest Kellogg's Breakfast heirloom tomato weighed 1.77lbs! The third pic is our table covered with mostly hybrid tomatoes, and some Romas. There are also, Better Boy, Juliet, Early Girl, and Sungold Hybrid. The last two pics were taken after slicing the Kellogg's Breakfast (orange) heirloom tomato and the Dixie Golden Giant (yellow) heirloom tomato. The were delicious!

Costoluto Genovese Heirloom Tomato Harvest

The tomato that I knew I wanted to grow the first time I ever saw it. The Costoluto Genovese. It is an Italian heirloom that has an amazing sweet flavor. The pics below are of the tomatoes in a cluster on the vine, of the tomato itself, and of the tomato after slicing. Enjoy!

Vertical Growing Cucumbers, Watermelons, Pumpkins, and Canteloupe

This year, we are growing our vine crops up a cage. This is a great space saving idea. Basically, the way my cages are built, the vine of any plant can get to be 8-10' before it ever hits the ground if trellised properly and supported. Even then, you can just feed the vines bag inside the cage. Below are some pics of our vertical grown crops.

Vertically Grown Cucumbers Caged



Vertically Grown Watermelon Caged





Squash grown up a garden trellis.



Vertically Grown Giant Pumpkins Caged



Vertically Grown Canteloupe Caged

Pepper Update and Tomato Worm Tragedy!

The peppers are also doing great. The only exception is my favorite plant, the one that I have been babying all year, the Bhut Jolokia, has met its demise. It was eaten by a tomato worm overnight. I have more in the garden, so not a huge loss. Biggest issue is that the Bhut only have a 10% germination rate, so they are hard to come by.

Sweet Pepper plants planted 12" apart.



Sweet Banana



Bhut Jolokia with isolation bag to keep from cross polination.



Bhut Jolokia planted in 5 gallon bucket.



Bhut Jolokia meet Tomato Worm!



Tomato worm vs Bhut Jolokia



Pepperoncini Pepper



Orange Sun Bell Pepper

Single Stem Heirloom Tomato Garden Update 7/19/2011

The heirloom tomatoes are doing great. Tallest plant is over 8 foot tall!











Yellow Pear Tomato




Tigerella Heirloom Tomato





Red Oxheart Heirloom Tomato




Red Cherry Heirloom Tomato




Kellogg's Breakfast Heirloom Tomato




Costoluto Genovese Heirloom Tomato








Big Red Heirloom Tomato

Single Stem Heirloom Tomato Garden Update 6/29/2011

The first pic is of one of the heirloom tomato beds before removing more of the suckers.





This pic was taken from the front of the tomato bed. You can see the plant almost looks bare compared to the first pic. This is my first year for trying this, so we will see for ourselves. I have heard so many good things about his method.





This last pic was taken from the back of the heirloom tomato bed. I had to install bamboo stakes to help the plants go up the trellis. The plants are massive and heavy so they need lots of support.

Hot & Sweet Pepper Garden Update 6/29/2011

The first pic is of the hot peppers we are growing this year in our vegetable garden.





The next few pics are of my sweet peppers that are grow in a raised bed and planted using the square foot gardening method.


















Here are some pics of my Bhut Jolokia's. They are the best looking plants I have. Maybe it is because I baby them so much.









I have taken a lot of pictures in the last week or so. I will be posting pics of our market garden which has 300+ pepper and 300+ tomato plants. I will be posting updates in the next couple of days.

Ornamental Pepper Plants Used In Flower Beds!

If you're looking for something "different" to do in your flower bed, plant pepper plants instead of traditional flowers. They look amazing. Most ornamental peppers are just that, ornamentals. Some are hot, but most have no flavor at all. They are edible, just not flavorful. They do, however, look absolutely gorgeous in front of the house. Once you get some ornamental peppers planted, be ready to talk about them, because everyone that sees them will be asking questions. Below are some pics I took of our flower bed in the front of the house. It is not the sunniest location, so the plants are still kind of small. They are already looking good. I have added some pics of my favorite ornamental pepper plants.

Filius Blue





Marbles



NuMex Twilight



Black Pearl



Poinsettia



Thai Hot



It is best to plant them where you have all day sun. My spot gets shaded from about 1pm on. If you want to do something that no one else has, this is for you. You can view pics and descriptions of each variety of peppers we grow at www.ThePepperGuy.net

The last 2 pics are of my flower bed in front of my house filled up with ornamental pepper plants.