Pepper & Tomato Garden Update 5/25/2011

SOLD OUT OF TOMATO PLANTS FOR 2011! Thanks to everyone who purchased tomato plants this year. The response was AMAZING! As most of you know, this was our first year selling heirloom tomato plants. The following pics are the last of the tomato platns before they were sold. Oh I think there is 10-20 extras somewhere, but who knows. Basically everything left is getting planted.





The peppers are still going strong. The sales have been more than any other year before. We still have 500 or so left, so we are definitely getting low. Hoping the rain will stop so I can get out and work in the garden. I always plant my garden Memorial Day weekend, so hopefully the rain allows for that. We have had rain almost everyday for the last couple of weeks. I love spring, but I hate rain!

Greenhouse, Peppers, and Tomato Update 5/17/2011

The season is really moving right along. I have not even had time to post an update in the last week or so. The pepper plant and tomato plant sales have been excellent so far this year, which is great, because I was running out of greenhouse space. Below are some pics of what has been going on.

You can see in this pic that I am out of room in the greenhouse. Well, I guess I can start putting trays on the ground!


The next pics are of the pepper plants. You can see how well they are doing. The close up pic of the pepper plant is a Purple Beauty. It is the niceest looking plant so far. The Bhut Jolokia's are also looking great. I will post pics of them in the next couple of days.






Next u p is the tomato plants. You can see by the pics that they are growing extremely well.




We will be setting up at the Tractor Supply Co. Farmers Market May 20th in Marion, IN from 4pm-8pm. We will be selling pepper and tomato plants. Stop by and check us out! I will be sure to take pics of the market.

Pepper & Tomato Plant Update 5/9/2011

So we have finally gotten all the tomatoes transplanted and 85% of the peppers are transplanted. I am completely out of room in the greenhouse so plants are comming out of the greenhouse during the day and stored on the floor of the greenhouse at night. No big deal though. The outdoors will be good for them. Anyways, as you can see in the pics, the plants are doing amazing. Plant sales have been higher than ever and the season is still early. This year is my first for selling heirloom tomato plants. I have already sold out of 10+ varieties. I never knew they would be so popular. I will definitely grow more next year. The main focus has always been and always will be peppers though. Anyways, just wanted to share a quick update. The season is starting great and I hope that it continues.

Update 4/15/2011

Just a quick update on what's been going on. As you can see from my last post, I have moved the greenhouse, modified it, and put it back up. No much in there right now, just some lettuce and onions. The peppers are still inside under the lights.

This years pepper lineup is as follows:

Anaheim
Bhut Jolokia
Big Jim
Black Pearl
California Wonder
Caribbean Red
Cayenne
Chile de Arbol
Corno di Toro
Cubanelle
Filus Blue
Fooled You Hybrid
Golden Calwonder
Golden Marconi
Guajillo
Habanero
Jalapeno
Joe E Parker
Marbles
Medusa
New Mexico Chile
New Mexico Green Chile
NuMex 6-4
NuMex Sandia
NuMex Twilight
Orange Bell
Orange Sun Bell
Pepperoncini
Poinsettia
Purple Beauty
Serrano
Sunny Yellow Bell
Sweet Banana
Tepin
Thai Hot
Tobasco
Yellow Peter Pepper









This year I have also taken interest in heirloom tomatoes. I will be growing the following types of tomato. Most are heirloom. Only a few are hybrids.

Abe Lincoln
Amana Orange
Aunt Rubys German
Better Boy
Big Rainbow
Big Red
Black Krim
Box Car Willie
Brandywine Red
Cherokee Purple
Costoluto Genovese
Dixie Golden Giant
Early Girl
Juliet Hybrid
Kelloggs Breakfast
Mexico
Mule Team
Opalka
Red Cherry
Red Oxheart
Roma
Rutgers
Sun Gold Hybrid
Tigerella
Virginia Sweets
Yellow Pear



I also started some yellow, red, and white onions. I am using sets again this year, but by research shows that growing onions from seed is the best way to grow. I may try that next year. I also started some lettuce, canteloupe, water melon, and pumpkins. My son Kalon has planted a variety of things including pumpkins in which he wants to grow and then sell the pumpkins to the neighborhood kids.

How To Build a PVC Greenhouse DIY Plans

Building a greenhouse does not have to be expensive and difficult. I designed this greenhouse with the intention of taking it down each year even though I don't. I designed it to come apart very easily. For those of you who follow my blog you will notice that this greenhouse is similar to the one I built a couple of eyars ago. Actually it is the same greenhouse just modified to be more sturdy, utilize more space, and simpler. I will try to hit the major points of building this greenhouse. Most measurements that I give are approximint not exact. If you have any questions, fell free to post a comment or email me directly.

Step 1

Take 4 2"x6"x12' boards and place them in a square. Nail the boards together like in the pic.



Next, pick which end the sides will be. When you have chosen the sides, hammer 3-4ft rebar in the ground 1.5-2ft deep. Space them roughly 3 feet apart. You will need 10 pieces of rebar for this greenhouse.



Next, over each piece of rebar, install a 24" piece of 1" PVC pipe. If it is an end piece, then use a "Tee" connector and if it is a middle piece then use a 4 way "Cross" connector like in the pic. In between each connector, install a 36" piece of 1" PVC. Basically you are building a wall out of PVC for the base layer. Use pipe clamp brackets to secure the 24" pieces of PVC pipe to the 2x6x12's. As you can see in the last pic, I had to kind of bend the bracket so it would work on the corner piece.





So now you have a base structure and the 2ft side walls complete. Next you want to add the hoops. Each side of the hoops are 8ft long. You could use 10ft pieces and eliminate the small 2ft tall wall. Just run the 10ft all the way to the ground and secure with pipe clamps. Anyways, I found it best to install each arch separately. I first get my 2 8ft pieces of PVC and connect them together with the proper connector. The proper connector is just like the sidewalls. If it is an end arch, then use a "Tee" connector. If it is a middle arch then use a 4-way "Cross" connector. Once you have all the arches installed, connect each arch to the others by installing a 3ft piece of PVC pipe. The other thing I di is make sure I secure each connector with self tapping screws. They work great and hold wonderfully.















Step 3

So now we have our base, our sidewalls, and out hoops. It is now looking more like a greenhouse. The next step is building endwalls for the greenhouse. What I did was use 3-2x4x6 and 2-2x4x4 and made an endwall like the one in the pic. I then cut 2 8ft 2x4's so they would fit snug to the frame I built. The 8ft boards are screwed to the frame and to the base of the greenhouse. To really square up the greenhouse I took a 2x6x12' board and ran it from one endwall frame to the other. This will also be used to secure the arches to. I used plastic pipe hanger to attch the arches on the ends to the endwall frame. This stuff is sold in the plumbing section and comes in a roll. It is just a couple of dollars.













If you look at the pics you will see a top view and bottom view of the arches that are screwed to the 2x6 to is running along the top. Now when I did this, I pulled down the the arches as I screwed it to the 2x6. The reason I did this is to cut down on the tension at the peak where the connectors are screwed to the 8ft pipes. I hope this does not sound confusing. We will come back to that part when we are all done.





Step 4

Not much to explain about putting plastic on the greenhouse. I used self tapping screws where I had to use small pieces of wood on the PVC pipe itself. I used nails and screws attaching plastic ot the endwalls and base. I just used the this strips of wood like in the pic.









Step 5

Remember when we used the plastic pipe hanger to "pull down" on the arches to relieve stress? So this is the last step and this I came up with on my own. Works great. If you are like me, then your plastic is not going to be perfect. It will have some loose spots, etc. Now that it is all up and the plastic is all attached, what you want to do is pull down on the arch that is tied down to the 2x6 along the top, and cut the pipe hanger. Do this slowly and when you do, the arches will want to bend more. Basically it willbow a bit and since the plastic is holding it on, it just tightens the plastic up around the greenhouse. Look at the before and after pics below and you will see in the first pic that the peek of the greenhouse is more pointed than round. That puts a lot of pressure on the main connectors at the peak.





Well, I hope this helps some of you out there. Post comments and let me know what you think, or poast questions you may have.

Garden Update 4/4/2011

So it's been a very busy year so far and a fourth of it is already gone. Garden season is upon us and it feels great. As most of you know, last year was a horrible year for The Pepper Guy. Had some tomato plants that made it the whole year, but no peppers. I was working so many ours at my job that I was not able to spend the time I wanted to on the garden. This year, though, I have started early indoors. I think there is like 1500+ pepper plants and 400+ tomato plants total so far. Once they get too big for indoors and it warms up just a bit, they can go into the greenhouse (which needs put back up). I did however get a new greenhouse frame from someone of craigslist. It is a 20'x60' and will most likely be used as a high tunnel for growing heirloom tomatoes. Try to at least extend the season a bit. Dont know if that is going to happen this year or not. I would like to get it put up this year and be able to use it next year. Baby steps...