Those are beautiful!
I’ve had these plants for a few years. I cut them down to the tuber last fall. Leaves came up in January and here we are today with one ready to eat and three more. I don’t know if 4 is all we will get but it might be.
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How big is the size of your pot? Maybe the plant is not producing a lot, but it looks nice enough.
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I wanted to respond, but I don’t have a good answer. The different seedlings get handled differently. I most know about peppers and tomatoes, and those WILL need to be planted in successively larger containers. I would pick no more than six of each variety.
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The pot is a half wine barrel. The plants are really happy.
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I welcome your advice on peppers and tomatoes both - I have two small serrano plants now, and two small tomato plants from the nursery in addition to the seedlings.
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Spring garden is finally underway. Little gem lettuce is about halfway to harvest.
Some bok choy (forgot the exact cultivar)
Blueberries are coming in. I grow Southmoon and Legacy.
Seedlings are finally starting to pop out after a few cold weeks. These will become gai lan down the line. I find it enjoyable to grow Chinese veggies at home when an organic version is pretty unavailable otherwise.
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Where do you get your seeds?
Gorgeous pics!
You’ve a lot of vegetables coming…are they the same stage? (You will need that all at once!)
Like your pics! especially the blueberries one. What do you use to shoot?
A question for everybody. Do slow seeds germination mean they are weaker plants?
I’ve talked about failed tomato germination a while ago, digging in the starter soil when doing some repot about 10 days ago, I’ve found some seeds have germinated but didn’t come up the soil (but they were in the soil for 4 weeks). I don’t know if I’ve sowed the seeds too deep or simply the seeds were no good anymore. I repotted those anyway, and they are now growing the first pair of real leaves. Their leaves growing speed seems normal, but just the germination speed.
I’ve sowed another batch of tomatoes, this time the cherries came out fast, less than a week, but nothing yet from the Russian black tomatoes. Tomatoes seeds are sold out everywhere. Plan B will be to buy young plants but physical shops are closed. Looks like confinement is going to last 1 more month (will announce tonight). I think it might be a bit late. I think I’ll a look with online shops…
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Just checked, the online shops refused to ship young tomatoes plants due to the sluggish delivery times these days. Plants would arrive in very bad shape.
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I get all my Chinese veggie seeds from Kitazawa in Oakland. They ship and unlike other seed stores right now, still have ample stock.
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I use an Olympus EM5 paired with a 60mm (120mm equiv) macro lens.
Everything’s at a different stage with the lettuces and bok choy nearing harvest and the next generation of veggies in seedling trays growing towards a transplant size to take their place.
To answer the other question, slow germination tends to go hand in hand with weaker plants and older seeds. For the tomato, pepper and eggplant family, giving them a head start in a paper towel + bag + warmth cuts the germination time to a few days, then transfer to trays where they’ll pop up after another few days.
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Do you know when your tomato season is? If it is short, I’d ask myself if there is a good reason to grow them this season. I ask myself that, and our season is long. It is a sort of madness, because it is so easy to get farmers market tomatoes here when they are in season, unless there is something special you want to grow.
I think you are in France.
I found this;
Things to do in the garden in May
“Buy young tomato plants. These can be planted outside in the south of France but in the Uk need a greenhouse or a sunny, sheltered spot. Keep pinching out the side shoots that grow in the join with the main branches. Stake tomato plants well. Attracive curly metal stakes can be bought now which are quite cheap and make your tomato bed quite arty and ornamental.”
I think you need at least six weeks under ideal (indoor) conditions, to grow from seed to transplant.
Where I am I need to plant out tomatoes just about right for fruit set on May 1st because it usually gets REALLY hot (90F plus) in May so there is limited fruit set, and there is virtually NO rain, so I have to be set up for irrigation. OTOH, the nights are a bit too cool (less than 50 F air and soil) before May 1st, and transplants just “sulk”.
Thanks a lot for your advice!
Ideally mid-May to September in the Parisian region. In the south of France, it is closer to your climate, but I think yours is still warmer. And also, the type of tomatoes I’m planting are usually late varieties. The harvest comes between late August - October. I’ll try to have a mix, my own seedings to see how it goes, if I see plants in shops in mid or late May, I’ll take a few of them. Usually shop bought plants, I can have July fruits. Government just announced, we will need to confine for 1 more month! Hopefully, we can finally go out, or shops will be opened then.
Wow, jealous! Many years ago, there was a first of May, we were covered with snow. But this was exceptional. In spring up to early summer, there can be hails.
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I can see why folks might be jealous of a May 1st plant out, but the problem here is it has to be May 1st. Not April 15th, not May 15 th.
I used to think we were similar to Florida and Texas, but I understand they get two seasons; winter and fall, at least for mid season varieties. Our nights are too cool for that, although if we can get fruit to set, keep up with twice a day irrigation, and fight off thrips and spider mites, late season tomatoes do okay too.
And of course, a lot of commercial paste tomatoes do fine. …So I should just buy them.
I’ve shifted a lot of my efforts to (non-bell) peppers.
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I’ll like to buy some peppers, 2 summers ago, I had an espelette chili that was very productive.
GREAT choice! This year I am growing several “paprika”, some a bit spicy , and several “European” sweet peppers. Probably too many “corno” types, but in several colors.
Espelette is number 1! Sadly I am not growing any of these.
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Sounds great! Looking forward to see your pepper plants this year!
I did tried to grow bell pepper once, it was slow and only got few small fruits. I think it prefers warmer climate. I saw they grew 2-3 fruits every week in the south of France.
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I over wintered plants, and saved and swapped some seed from hot/chile peppers.
Here’s what I have from Johhny’s; mostly sweet.
Carmen-I’ve grown this one before. “Best-tasting Italian frying pepper.A high-performing rendition of the classic Corno di Toro (or “Bull’s Horn”) pepper popular in Italy. Early, adaptable, and notably sweet (especially when fully red-ripe) with a shapely tapered silhouette. Begins green, then deepens to a beautiful carmine at maturity. Excellent roasted, grilled, and in salads. We recommend pairing with our yellow Corno di Toro ‘Escamillo.’ Bred by Johnny’s and named for the gypsy Carmen from the French opera. Upright, medium-sized plant. Suitable for indoor and outdoor growing. Fruits avg. 6” long x 2 1/2" wide. Avg. weight 5 oz. AAS winner."
Hungarian Hot Wax- “Widely adapted and productive, even in cool weather.Yellow hot pepper with 5 1/2” x 1 1/2" smooth, waxy fruits tapering to a point. Easy to stuff and to peel after roasting; thick-fleshed for frying. Its sunset-ripening peppers change from yellow to orange to red, and make the prettiest pickled peppers".
Krimzon Lee-Thick-walled frying pepper. Beautiful, big, 6-8" x 2", thick-fleshed, paprika-type pepper with moderate pungency. Sweet and spicy thick flesh is choice for roasting, frying, grilling, salsa, and adventurous salads. Medium-size plant is upright and bushy.
Nassau-I’ve grown species cubanelle a few times. Great entry level alternative to American bell. “Productive Cubanelle for fryining. Cylindrical fruits with lobed ends avg. 7-8” x 2 1/2" and are excellent for frying. Usually used when unripe and light green, but can also be used red. Very popular in Caribbean cooking. Nassau offers a better disease package than Biscayne, which it replaced. High resistance to bacterial leaf spot races 1-3, 7, and 8. "
Killian-A first for me. “Early, bright orange small cayenne. Very hot cayenne akin to its fiery cousin ‘Bangkok’ hailing from Southeast Asia and very similar to ‘Kristian,’ its yellow partner. Attractive and flashy marketed with all three in a basket or clamshell. Small plant. Fruits avg. 2 1/2-3” long. NOTE: Best for fresh use, as fruits have a “muddy” color when dried."
Escamillo-“Delicious yellow Italian frying pepper. The golden-yellow counterpart to lovely ‘Carmen’ and a refined take on the popular Corno di Toro (or “Bull’s Horn”) pepper class. Bred by Johnny’s and named for Carmen’s love interest in the French opera: the bullfighter Escamillo. Intoxicating sweetness any way it is prepared, but traditionally used for frying. Broad-shouldered with an attractive taper. Fruits avg. 6” long x 2-2 1/2" wide. AAS winner"
Baron; A poblano, which are my favorite. I’ve grown Tiburon poblano for years. “Highly adaptable, large-fruited poblano pepper… has proven to produce better than other poblanos under challenging and favorable conditions. The fruits are very large, avg. 5” x 3", and are typically two-lobed which makes them easy to stuff and cook in their signature dish, chile rellenos. More consistent than Tiburon, which it replaced, and has ranked at the top of our trials year after year. Baron was one of our most exciting new product additions for 2017. Intermediate resistance to bacterial leaf spot races 1-3."
I also got Corno red and yellow seed from "Grow Italian"/Franchi "
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