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.

Market Garden 2011 - Tomato Update

The rain has finally stopped so we were able to get some tomato plants in the ground for the market garden. Definitely later in the season than what I wanted, but better late than never. This year, we are trying out using landscape fabric to control weeds and moisture. I didnt really want to get into doing drip irrigation so that is why I chose landscape fabric over plastic.

In the first pic you can see how we laid out the landscape fabric and planted a double row of tomato plants spaced 12" apart. We will be using the "single stem" method of growing tomatoes which involves removing all suckers and letting the plant concentrate on only one main stem instead of 10-15.



After the landscape fabric was laid and the plants planted, we installed 2x4's as trellis supports. Next time we will install the supports before planting. We hammered nails into the supports so we have something to secure the twine to.



This pic shows all of the supports installed.



This is of the completed trellis. Well, almost complete. We still have to run more twine further up the supports, but I will do that as the plants grow.

Single Stem Heirloom Tomato Garden Trellis DIY

The success of the heirloom tomato plant sales have been outstanding. I am so excited to grow 1 of every variety I sold this year, which comes out to be 26 different kinds of tomatoes. I think 20 are heirloom and the rest are hybrid. I went to my moms house and pulled some 4x4 posts off the burn pile. They are about 8 ft long, so they will be nice posts for the trellis.

I will be growing my heirloom tomatoes in a raised box 3' wide and 30' long and using the SFG concept.



I used the recycled 4x4 posts for the main supports. I dug two holes, 2ft deep and then screwed the 4x4 posts to the bed frame.



After getting the posts set and screwed to the base. I hammered some nails 6 inches apart all the way to the top. Next time I will do the nailing before I set it in the ground.



I wrapped twine around the nails from one end to the other and back again making a trellis all the way to the top. Well, almost to the top. I ran out of twine.



As you can see from the pics, the tomato plants are planted about 12" apart. I am borrowing the concept from the SFG(Square Foot Gardening)idea. What I am doing is removing all suckers from the plant so it keeps only its main stem receiving nutrients. The idea is that the plants have the same size root ball. With removing all the extra suckers, all the nutrients go to the 1 stem, not the 10-20 sucker stems and grow as main stems. That is why a tomato plant can get out of control and take up a lot of space.

I use tomato cages made out of old field fence. It works great. I cut about a 8-10 foot piece and attach the two pieces and make it round. Works WAY better than traditional tomato cages. Not to mention it is WAY CHEAPER!



I also took the concept on the tomato cages and made a cage for cucumbers. I will eventually put cages around the watermelon, pumpkin, and cantaloupe.



And since we are talking about using a trellis, we installed a trellis my wife bought at a rummage sale in the garden for the squash to grow on. I had to re-enforce the sides with twine to help with the vining. Other than that, it looks good.



I think that's it for today. Big day tomorrow. Going to the market garden plot we have outside of town. We have 300 tomato plants to plant and 300 pepper plants to plant. Going to be a good day. I am hoping for nice "working in the garden" weather.

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.