These are my peppers.. a few days ago.

This is the tiny Hab I posted a while back in these threads.

Tomatoes still small (thankfully!)

The clear plastic really warmed up the soil, I could plant the peppers right now. But it also is a bed of weeds now under there to clean up.

I have no raised bed, just plain old farm soil. Mostly farm clay. Here are last year's.

Wow! That's a lot of peppers. All the seedlings are looking great. I'm a little concerned with the pepper and tomato seeds I sowed indoors about 10 days ago. They aren't germinating. While the room feels warm, at the floor level must not be heating up enough.

RedSun, I don't think I would start any earlier. These tomato seedlings are getting pretty big and I think I sowed them 3 weeks ago. I need to wait at least another month to bring them outdoors, so I may actually have to transplant these into bigger containers. Peter was right, the tomatoes grow fast.

I started my first tomato seed one month ago. Peppers followed soon after. They sprouted one week later. Then I transplanted them to my 38 cell plug trays. I do not use any indoor lighting, just exposure to sun in a sunny room. I think this is the reason that mine are smaller than yours.

I do not know the bigger pots help if the plants won't grow that large. I just want healthy plants, and care less about sizes. I know even the small seedlings can catch up very quickly and we have a long growing season. I do not strive to be the first to show off the harvest.

Hopefully the early Spring will be back on track. Chris did you ever get those pepper seeds from Johnny's?

Redsun, the lack of supplemental lighting will definitely make a huge difference. Those are a lot of peppers!

Yes - they actually came on Saturday. 2 1/2 months late. I sowed them right away.

Redsun,

Farm clay properly handled is about as good as it gets. Real nice peppers! You don't use bigger pots to encourage bigger plant sizes; you pot up as the plants need it, otherwise you stand a real good chance of the transplants rotting if over potted or stunted if under potted. If you transplant without disturbing the root ball, very often the plant barely notices if at all. Same for planting out into the open as for potting up. Tomatoes are especially tolerant. My sister transplants newly emerged seedlings into the bottom of barely filled 3" pots and fills the pot around the stem as the tomato plants grow up. She gets rooting all along the stem, and then transplants deep besides.

Peppers are fussier, because their stems do not root out as easily. They do not survive temperature shock as well either. Gotta love those banana peppers, too. Those are sweet? or hot? I grow sweet and Anaheims. Makes a nice combo. I have yet to have sweet banana peppers fail to make a good, abundant crop. The Anaheims are nearly as prolific.

Hi Dutch. From what I learnt over the years, I have a long growing season for both tomato and peppers. When the tomatoes are planted so early, they will be tired in the fall. Similar with the peppers though less obvious. So early is not what I aim for.

The 38 cell plug trays are very deep, and when I push the plants from the bottom, the roots are not disturbed. I plan to set out the tomato seedlings early, so the trays are just the right size for me. The peppers are smaller, so they have more room to grow.

I grow sweet banana, hot Portugal, Jalapeno, sweet golden pepper (no name), Hungary Wax, and a few habanero. I do have several other peppers, but I chose not to grow them. I also tried to start some really old (10+ year) pepper seeds, but none of them sprouted. Next year, I'll try Jimmy Nardello, Shishito and Pasilla bajio.

Meh, go ahead and disturb the roots, they don't care. I always rough up the roots a little (gently of course not to break them), they respond very favorably to it.

Last year, I transplanted some volunteer tomato plants, and I'm still puzzled by the results.

Some did really well.

But the entire section (20 plants) just behind the above plants did absolutely nothing. Same bed, same soil, though that bed has slightly less sun (further North). I do not know why it made a huge difference. I just harvest some cherry tomatoes I can still count out of those 20 cherry tomato plants.

I have come to appreciate a couple of varieties of tomato that keep setting fruit all season long around here.

Burpees 4th of July is good if small (perfect in-the-garden snack size, actually); apparently so is Glacier which I intend to try this summer. Both seem to just keep on fruiting despite not growing into huge plants. Bush Champion also did that for me last summer, although I would more
expect repeated fruiting from properly pruned, indeterminate varieties.
I have heard it said the green house tomatoes are grown to a fruiting
schedule over winter by careful pruning and temperature management, but I
have not looked into that at all. (I suspect that a low branch can be induced to root out into a plant that can later be separated on its own to fruit later - sort of a tip layer with a delayed prime fruiting time). Tomatoes root out real easy. Cuttings should also be real easy.

If one is going to graft, with the price of grafting seeds so high, cuttings off a root stock mother plant may be one way around that cost. Probably not legal for any kind of commercial use though, those roots stocks are probably patented.

I also get a few volunteer seedlings that come into fruit later, suggesting that staggered plantings may work with tomatoes when the season is long enough, even possibly sowing directly into the garden.

A lot of the volunteer tomato plants were planted in late June. I had to hold them until the beds were ready for them. They came from the old tomato area, where we threw away some rotten tomatoes. I'm not going to bother with them any more.

Virtually all modern tomatoes are hybrids which is why their offspring produce different and often quite variable results even between seeds from the same fruit, since the next F generations resort in a variable number of ways. Also even if you planted open pollinated varieties, cross pollination between them might very well introduce variations in the offspring.

All done with my seed starting. Peppers (mostly sweets), eggplants, tomatoes, broccoli second and third sowings, cabbage, cardoon, an artichoke with some issues, and a flower called Celosia are in this pic. I wanted to start some basil but ran out of room. I could start some maybe just right on the windowsill but at this point I will just direct sow it outside under cover I think.

Everything seems pretty good for my planned 3 week plant out. The soil is already warm enough for eggplants and peppers under the clear plastic I put down.

I put two artichoke plants in the refrigerator, we'll see how that works. Last year I don't think the plants were successfully vernalized, but they did produce in the Fall.

Still no signs of growth from my onions. I know to expect this in my soil though, everything sits for longer than it should and then takes off.

Looking good. Basil grows pretty slow for the first month so you could probably get away with growing it on a windowsill for a few weeks. It sprouts in 4 or 5 days and then just sits there at 1/4" for a couple weeks...by then you should have some room freed up under the lights because you will be hardening off Tomatoes.

I started hardening off tomatoes and peppers last night. It's a PITA for the first few days hauling 9 trays up the stairs and then back down again. Starting on Saturday they will not be going back under the lights anymore and I will put them out on my east facing deck in the morning where they will get only diffused morning sun and then shade in the afternoon. We are supposed to get some rain Monday thru Thursday next week but I can move them to my covered front porch on the west side by then. Winds are supposed to be pretty low for the next week which is always good. I'll also be giving several away during the course of the week. Shooting to plant out Toms on 4/23 and Peppers on 4/30 as our 15 days forecast looks very warm.

Peter, if you use smaller pots, you'll have more room. This is what I'm doing. Sacrifice the size for more plants.

I started a lot of cold season vegetable seeds and most were failures. Some came up, but then died, or damp off? So I decided to seed them outside. I just bought Brussels sprout seedlings from Lowe's. I would not have time to seed them outside. For cold season, I have peas, lettuce, spinach, cawliflower, and Brussels sprouts. Enough for me. I'll have a lot of warm season vegetables, various beans, tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, okra, cukes, and maybe more.

I've started to harden off tomatoes, against some of the advice from other forum. I do not have indoor lights, and I do not want them to be more leggy. The tomato seedlings can take a couple of hours of sun now. I'm slow with pepper and eggplant seedlings.

Smaller pots and they will get rootbound. I want good healthy plants.

With the weather the way it is forecast though I can move everything outdoors during the day pretty soon. So maybe I will start some basil.

Yeah the first few days of hardening off is a pain, stairs or no. :)

When it comes to basil I intend to get one of those overcrowded pots in the supermarket and take cuttings, and then split the original stems out to give each its own pot besides. A little bottom heat like one uses to sprout peppers should have roots going in no time. I do not have the time or space to wait on laggard seedlings just for my pesto. The individual pots should be ready to go pretty much right into the garden and the cuttings should catch up pretty quickly.

I have problems with basil downy mildew every year, I wonder if I should just try growing from seed under cover 24/7

That might work with enough air circulation and a soaker hose. What mildew problems I have had in the past almost all came from overhead watering and moisture on the leaves going into nightfall. Watering at the base only and spacing the plants enough apart for air circulation helped for me. I did not find that rain water was much of a culprit but too close spacing and overhead watering definitely were.

I posted about it on the vegetable gardening thread. We can get a lot of rain here typically.

Here's better pics of my plants

Lookin good! I'm anxiously waiting for tomorrow to come, because I have so much to do in the garden. I'm making CRW cages for the tomatoes, planting lots of seeds, making my own potting mix, laying down weed blocker, and who knows what else.

My Yukon Gold potatoes arrived yesterday from High Mowing Seeds. I'm thinking I might try potting them.

I don't have much to do either, but I will figure out something.

Also time for me to mow the grass (weeds) :)

Peter, when do you plan to harden them off and set them out to the garden?

I've been hardening mine off the past couple of days. From next week, day lows are in 40+F. I'm thinking of setting out the tomatoes. Not sure if this is so early. I think most people do that in early May. So this is about 10 days early.

But this winter has been mild. Other than the late spring frosts, spring is mild too, in some sense.

It is definitely early, but the weather forecast and the soil temperatures seem to be begging the gamble... don't plant out unless you are prepared to watch the weather and provide protection if the lows are forecast below 40F IMHO (which at this point they aren't after tomorrow.)

I will be hardening off in 2 weeks to plant out what would normally be an early May 8th planting. I have the soil already warmed with plastic and is ready whenever the plants are.

I planted the last of the leeks and the onions.

The leeks I planted last week are already showing signs of taking off. The leaves are turning from spikes to flat. They seemed to have really appreciated the planting.

The onions I sowed a month ago nearly at this point are finally showing some signs of life. Hopefully they were developing large root systems.

New healthy vigorous leaves... though not much to look at in the photo. But these only had 2 leaves before.

The onions I just more or less plopped outside in the tub and neglected except to bring in on very cold nights grew significantly.

Hopefully these are off to a faster start. I planted about 200 onions (though some are at scallion spacing - the second sowing) and 50 leeks so I hope they produce!

Next year I am getting the onions outdoors ASAP (in pots)

My shallots have also finally come up. I'm still not entirely clear on how close to space them. I think it is between 1-2" for single shallots, larger and they will form clumps. Though Johnny's says 3" will form the largest shallots. Can you mulch shallots or no like onions?

Carrots

Lettuce

Peas

I had some damping off issues with my spinach and beets. Hopefully what is left of my spinach hangs in there. I always have low hopes for spinach, it bolts so easily. The beets I just fill in with more. Beets are finicky for me.. they often flop over and die on me for no apparent reason, while the one next to it thrives and makes a nice crop. I have to continually seed to ensure I get a good crop. IDK, both of these crops prefer non-acidic soils, so maybe my soil is just too acidic for them.

Lots of peas. It's weird, at the one side of the 6' of row, they came up like gangbusters, but the other half of the row, I had a single one sprout. The second half is slightly shadier, it is amazing how little differences in sun exposure affects soil temperature. You really need to get a thermometer to have any real idea. I don't know why people rush their peas into the ground so early, in my soil they just rot doing that.

The buds are normal. You can pinch them off, but they just make more. I do see a little leaf curl though.

Peter & Chris, do you ever has deer pressure with the onions?

I grew onions for one year, and deer took some out. I think deer also ate some. I do not know if this is normal. So I have not grown onion since. I saw good quality onion set at Lowe's.

I have a remote garden area that faces a lot of deer pressure. It is empty now since I dug the daylily there. Deer munched daylily. It is a large area and it is empty now.

I do not know what to grow there. Do not want to invest more $$ to erect deer fence.

Deer eat off a bunch of my tulips.

Yeah I think they are usually one of the first seeds to be sowed outdoors, right? Yeah it really is amazing. I just try planting different things to see what does well in different locations. I wish I could take down a few trees, so I could really utilize all the beds. However the shade does benefit the leafy greens.

Yeah it curled a little bit, but it opened back up. This light gives off too much heat. Should I pinch them off? Or it doesn't matter. I've read a lot about pruning pepper plants and how it apparently increases the yield a lot. Anyone have experience with that?

Redsun, I've never tried growing onions. Growing bunching onions for the first time now, but they don't look good. Luckily the deer haven't ventured into the garden at all(Knock on wood). It's a short fence, so I don't know what stops them. I do have a great deal of spearmint in the garden, and I think I've heard that deer don't like mint. I don't know how true that is.

I got the dandelions mowed on Saturday but a bunch more stuck their heads up yesterday so my property looks like hell again but so does most of the neighborhood.

Peter, I spaced my red shallots at 6" and that seems to be about right. Any closer and I wouldn't be able to tell where one plant ends and another begins. I did mulch mine with shredded leaves just like garlic but I planted them in the fall. I've never had deer bother my onions or any other allium so far and there are plenty of them around.

I finally drug out my 350 feet of hose to reach the gardens and gave everything a much needed drink on Saturday and everything seemed to shoot up overnight especially the potatoes and lettuce. I picked about 50 radishes and I think I ate half of them as I was cleaning them. I still had enough left to add to our salad with dinner last night. No peas for me this year...I can't pick them very well being partially colorblind. The snow peas and leaves just all blend together.

My tomatoes and peppers spent last night outdoors on my front porch. I hope they are not afraid of the dark :). I brought some to work to give away today. We are supposed to get some good rain today but nothing severe. The porch is covered so the plants will be protected. The rain will be just what I need to water in the castor oil based mole repellant that I put down around the perimeter of my garden yesterday. It seems to work pretty well but is not long lasting...most years I have to put it down at least 3 times to keep them out.

I added the last 8 bags of shredded leaves from the fall to my compost piles I started earlier this spring. For nitrogen inputs I used 5 gallons of chicken manure, about 10 mower bags of grass clippings from the only area of my yard that does not have dandelions, and a couple pounds of urea. I'll be interested to see how fast it heats up this week.

My flowers an tomtoes spent the nite on the porch also.. They are loving it. 70 º here last few days.. Rain tomorrow.

Deer wiped out my tulips ate off all the tops.. grr.

I really have to mow myself, but my lawn mower is busted so I put it off.

I need to turn my compost too, and move it into the garden.

I didn't really do much this weekend. I forgot my cardoons outside the first day of hardening and sunburnt them pretty bad (I had to go out somewhere.) I planted my cabbage but probably jumped the gun on that too. I weeded my summer beds and was almost tempted to try planting some squash seeds.

Jack, do they make single shallots or clusters at that spacing?

The deer nor the groundhogs have any interest in my onions. I planted leeks and onions outside my fence without issue. As long as there are other things for them to eat.

Deer love the tulips. They only way I can have any is with the rotting egg spray.

Peter, looks like we might need to hold off on planting anything early. I'm hoping it changes, but I'm seeing some fairly cold air visiting about 7-8 days out :-/

http://weather.unisys.com/gfs/gfs.php?inv=0&plot=850&region=us&t=7e

And I just switched the plastic row covers with a summer weight cover.

I'm not planting any frost tender stuff until May so I am not worried. I was tempted to plant some cucurbit seeds, but the soil is still too cool and I think they will just rot anyway.

Since you folks grow onions, just wonder what varieties I can plant. Lowe's sells Walla Walla, Texas Sweet, Sweet Yellow, and bunch green onion, something like those. Not sure. The seedlings are large, like small pieces of grown onion. The seedlings from last time were small. So I lost interest in them. Hope it is not late now.

I'm going to start some warm seeds indoors. Cucumber, okra, luffa, Chinese wintermelon, etc. I know folks always say to direct sow. But I figure it does not hurt to start early. Most of my directly sowed plants did not grow very tall last year, like okra, luffa. They need long grow season. Need to test my wintermelon seeds. Two years' failures in a row.

It is a little late for onions. Worth a shot though.

I grew Walla Walla last year and they did well.

Copra, Highlander, and yellow and white multipliers for me this year and I put in some Stuttgarter sets. Highlander is early and only keeps a short time. The others should almost keep a year even at room temperature when properly cured; the yellow multipliers even longer. They make nice braids, too.

Lots of folks have good luck with Candy and Yellow and White Sweet Spanish, and you can probably still get plants for those if you shop and you can get sets for Ebenezer and Stuttgarter quite commonly. Key with sets is to plant them very shallow; you get far less bolting. Both keep pretty well, if well grown and properly cured.

Since Lowe's still sells the onion seedlings, I figure they are in season. I do not have high expectation, but just give it another try this season. Have some empty garden space. Can't fight the deer.

Peter - I get shallot clusters at 6" spacing. I did not know you could force shallots into forming a single just by spacing closer. But then I have never grown them from seed. Planted from bulbs I think you can get fewer but larger shallots by planting the smaller bulbs and more quantity of smaller bulbs if you plant the larger bulbs. It is kind of counter intuitive from a garlic growers perspective.

If they don't bulb up well you can always eat the greens.

Ok thanks I will aim for the clusters I guess.

Red shallots overwintered much better for me then the Dutch Yellow shallots. I planted 16 of each and 15 of the reds sprouted this spring but only about half of the yellow made it and they are not near as healthy as the red, I replaced the missing yellow with more reds about a month ago and they have nearly caught up to the fall planted reds already.

"Since Lowe's still sells the onion seedlings, I figure they are in
season. I do not have high expectation, but just give it another try
this season. Have some empty garden space. Can't fight the deer."

Back home in NW Iowa and here in Minneapolis the ground has often been frozen into mid April; so planting could not proceed until after that. We still got good onions. It is not too late.

Jack, my experience has been just the opposite. My yellow multipliers (which is really all that the various types of Dutch yellow shallots are) have wintered well for me, but the French Reds have not. I have to admit that there are all kinds of strains of multipliers (aggregatum group) with all kinds of hardinesses. My yellow multipliers came from Jungs in Wisconsin and they were sold to be fall planted in the north country, which I did with excellent success. Spring planting works just fine, too and they keep and keep and keep. IMO they are the best storage onions in existence, but are not very big. One of my father's ancestors brought a strain with him when his family immigrated from the Netherlands a few generations back. Unfortunately those have been lost. The Jungs strain is not identical but works just fine in remembrance. The ones I have are every bit as hardy here as my garlics.

I look forward to saving my shallots.

The first planting onions are looking real good and growing nice, the planting from Saturday looks terrible, badly yellowed. Funny how it works out that way.

I started chapter III, since this got even bigger than the first one. See you there.

Wow, you sure are going to be busy