I have a very long and narrow garden, along a treeline. It's the only sunny area I have. In one season, roots from the trees find there way back into my garden beds. I till periodically to break up and remove the tree roots. It's sort of a pain, as my garden has become 4-season. I have been thinking about renting a ditchwitch, and just running it all along the back edge of the garden to sever all the new roots. I've even considered trying to figure out some kind of barrier to put in the trench a ditchwitch would leave. I thought I could get around the root problem by just building a raised soiless bed. I left it up for one season, but had to dismantle it due to my poor planning of it's location. Tree roots had worked there way up from the bottom, and had completely filled the box to within a few inches of the top. I had to use a tiller just to break it up, it was susc a solid root mass. The same thing happened to my experiments with lasagne beds, and if I get lazy and don't turn my compost pile regularly, the same thing happens there. My tilled beds definitely have fewer tree roots, and better production (as an experiment, I put in a standard lasagne bed right next to a tilled bed to which I added the same ammendments, and the tilled bed was amazingly more productive). Anybody have any suggestions? I really really want to be no till! Cheers! JP

Hello cziga, Zone 5a here a few hundred K north east in Ottawa. I have grown both Anaheim and Sweet Chocolate the past two seasons. Also hot varieties as well; Thai; Habanero; Jalapeno; Cayenne, etc. To be honest, you really should have started the seeds a month or so ago. This is my first year with a HID MH light and my peppers are really filling out. The past two years I started my seeds and kept them in a south facing window. They were a bit small when they were planted the May long weekend but did fine once they got going. First year I harvested green peppers off of both just before the first frost. Last year I was able to get fully ripe harvest off of both. I think youÂll find the Sweet Chocolate interesting even if they donÂt fully ripen. They definitely have a different subtle flavour than your regular store bought green peppers. IÂd go for it if I was you but IÂd start them ASAP. A heat mat would definitely help the germination along. Please remember to harden them off over a week or so before you plant them to get them ready for full days outside. If possible, plant them in a spot with good drainage and full sun. Hope you have a good harvest, Bill

Sure!! Especially if you have determinate type tom's. I find my indeterminate plants can get really HUGE by August. I put my plants out very late this year and they are already 4' and no doubt will be topping thier 5' cages by August. By starting a second planting of my indeterminates in late May I can have fresh new plants rather than trying to coax older plants to continue being productive. Just be careful of where you plant the new plants. Be sure to plan ahead of time where you are going to plant your fist plants and then the second set. Make sure you plant the fist plants in such a way that they will not act as shade to the second set. Once you know the East/West sun patten be sure to plant the first set of plants on the West side. This way the new plants can be set out and not be shaded by the larger ones. This might be a "no kidding" thing, but if you don't take these things into account in the very beginning it can really mess you up when it comes to do the second planting. Take it from a guy who has already been there and done that. Also, stagger the planting of your determinate plants every couple of weeks. That way you will always have a fresh supply of tom's comming to the table and not one giant harvest. Here in Thousand Oaks, I have had nice ripe tomatos at the end of October. Even though the fall daytime temps stay nice and warm the nighttime temps can drop to the point that the plants will not set fruit. When temps begin to fall too low I pick my best few plants at the end of the season and wrap plastic around them in the evening to help hold in some heat and to keep the chill off. I have even put a flood light inside the wrapped cage at night to help keep the temp up if I feel like I really want to keep the harvest going longer. I don't use grow lights because I want the plant to have the needed rest time it normally gets at night. Every year is different though. I have had years where many of my plants stayed productive till the end of October, while other years a single cold spell snapped the life out of my plants in early October. There are simply no guarantees. There is no point to starting new plants in the fall as the temps are just too low (even here) during winter. It may not snow, but SoCal, at some point, usually gets down to the 30's in Dec and Jan (at least where I am). One frost and the plants are toast. But we can generally set our plants out in the garden earlier than most of the country. I usually have a couple of plants in the ground by late March. Since the ground never freezes and we only get about 12" of rainfall a year, I can always find a weekend, or two, to go out and work the plot in Dec or Jan so that it will be ready in March. Prepping the soil in Dec or Jan lets the new compost to continue to mellow so that by March/early April things are just great. Althought there was a problem of too much overcast this year. It did not seem to get sunny all day until the middle of June. That means the plants grew nicely, but flower production was delayed. That is why some people question putting out plants that early. Well, I put a couple out that early because, if it works, I'll have nice ripe fruit in June. Even so, by putting the plants out earlier the plant has gone through the shock of being transplanted so that when conditions are rite they will be ready. The temps seemed a lot cooler this year than normal (what happened to all the talk about global warming - ya right!!). I usually have nice ripe fruit by the middle of June, just not this year. If you have a variety you really like, in mid to late May take a couple of the suckers from your healthiest plants, trim all the leaves off and plant it neck deep -to the point that only about two inches of plant is above the potting soil (the longer the sucker the better). The new plant will develop roots all along the length of the sucker that is below the surface. Before you know it you will have nice new plants for the garden. Sure is a lot faster than starting again from seed. Remember, because this is a plant and not a seed you need to keep it in sunlight from the start, and don't let the soil dry out. Also, while a seed has its own store of energy the sucker does not. So, unless your potting soil mix has fertilizer in it (many do), you will need to be sure to either add complst to the mix or fertilize occasionally. Just remember that the garden plot needs to be replennished at some point. New organic matter needs to be worked into the soil, it needs to rest a while, not to mention I need a break from the garden myself. For me this happens from Dec to Mar. We in SoCal can push the soil too far if we ar not aware of just how much it is being used.

I would go up to about 1/3 liter. You want the roots to go down deeper than your pot will allow. pots that small tend to dry out quickly and you might miss a watering that would hurt your tree. I have lost to many trees by missing a watering on a hot sunny day. Tall is better so you can let the soil dry out on the surface. Wet soil on the surface causes damp-off, a fungus that kills the trunk at the soil line. It is to early to do anything that would cause the tree to branch out. Wait till he is about a 30-40 CM tall. If you put the tree in the window you will need to put a white piece of paper that shades the cup so that the roots don't over heat. Paper taped to liter size cup to keep solar heat from cooking US897 rootstock tree. Note pad stick-em used to block sunlight from root base.