How Does Your Vegetable / Fruit Garden Grow? 2018

Favas


Sugar Snaps

Nectarines

Meyer Lemon

Figs
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Pluots

Apricots (Blenheim)

Grapes (Perlette)

Shallots

Garlic

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That’s quick. When did you sow the seeds? And what is your climat?
I sowed in 1 March and it is around 6 - 7 inch after 1 month, no flowers yet.

My peach is flowering now, not much leaves, and your nectarine plant has so many leaves, looks like you are at least 1 month ahead! Same for the figs.

I sow my favas in the fall, with shallots and garlic, shooting for when it starts to rain. Usually around Thanksgiving, and if we are lucky, through March. I like to say I live near San Francisco. Like Lady Bird! Or Napa. But I am in Vacaville.

Best place to grow.

But…often 95 plus starting in May, and no rain for several months. Time to get my irrigation on.

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A brief update on the status. I read from the news that this year March was colder than Jan, given the fact that it snowed some 3 weeks ago in the Parisian region, the plants grow slower than normally.

Favas sowed indoors on 1 Mar, now 1 month old.

Peas sowed also indoors on 1 Mar, hardening outdoors since a week and will be repotted this week.
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Peach

Cherry, flower not blossomed yet. Normally, should be late February or March.

Raspberries with buds already.

The favourite pot of my cat! Not because of the rhubarb, but the grass. He prefers this than the cat grass I grew some seasons ago.
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Strawberries, the roots of Mara des Bois arrived last weekend by post.

A second smaller species should arrive next week.

The herbs that survived the snow!

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Damage caused by the snow, my fault, I thought the citrus plants could endure up to -5ºC / 23ºF. Should have brought them indoors. Hard to tell they will recover. I am no expert in citrus, I don’t know if I should trim the dead leaves/branches. So I did two plants and left the finger lime and see which way is better.

Finger lime

Meyer lemon

Some bare branches I trimmed from the tree in winter and I stuck them in some soil, actually to discourage cats using the bare soil as litter . Amazing, leaves are growing now, I don’t know what plant they are, leaves look like raspberries, but no thorns.

Will start tomatoes seed indoor this week.

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Mustard green is a good idea!

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Hate to say it naf , but the citrus look deceased. -5C is pretty extreme, especially if the roots are up in the air, in pots. The only “citrus” I know that can take that is Trifoliate Orange, Poncirus trifoliata. Those fruits are basically ornamental. My Trifoliate Orange survived -20C! I’ll be grafting Thai Lime onto seedlings. This creates a more dwarf plant that is just a little bit hardier.

The branches that are growing look a lot like a type of Viburnum. Those usually make red or blackish berries.

Thanks, I won’t try to be optimistic. I had another look today, hard to tell for both the lemon and Meyer lemons, some green tint in the branches I trimmed to verify, don’t know if it means they are still alive or they are heading to their last days. A slight positive note on finger lime (Citrus australasica), some very green branches beneath the dead branches and leaves. Note that all 3 plants were with fruits during the cold attack, fruits became soft overnight!

The only citrus plant that stays very alive is the Japanese Yuzu or Junos (C. ichangensis x reticulata), I think it is Trifoliate related, it doesn’t show any stress at all, all green and no leaves drop.

Maybe this is an excuse for me to get 2 more new citrus plants this year, thinking of kaffir lime. I am also thinking of Buddha’s hand (Citrus medica digitata), but the plants seem relatively big in size.

Most fruits plants are just for fun, (except maybe strawberries) they produce too few fruits to be useful as I can only plant them in pots.

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Little mallow has taken over one of my sidewalk vegetable plots.

What an evil, evil weed. It has huge long roots that grow down and sideways, and the only way to get rid of it is to dig up the roots.

My neighbor’s plot is covered with it, 3 feet tall, and now it’s flowering. How rude, the whole neighborhood is going to be affected if he doesn’t take care of it. :rage:

Here’s where I’m at and also why I’m so far behind all of you! Surprised I got a couple of tomatoes to sprout so quickly though.

Naf, at least a little green gives hope! Yuzu is something I’d like to grow, if it will produce fruit in pots. Can’t make authentic Ponzu without it! Thai Lime (Kaffir not “Kieffer”) is very useful because even a smallish tree provides plenty of leaves. The fruit zest gets used in Phrik Khing curry paste, but not much else here.

Shrinkrap, there are a bunch of peppers called Aji Dulce, which is unfortunately another way of saying “Aji-not hot”.!

This is an old variety “Rocotillo”, which has almost no heat and is a seasoning type.


Many corrupted forms now exist, thanks to sloppy breeding and bibliographic echo of errors. Some authors list it as hot, which means it outcrossed. My stock comes from original Seed Savers Echange and has been maintained pure for over forty years. Forty years ago, there was little confusion.

When making hot sauces, I pickle cored peppers, boost the vinegar with Essig Essense (allows for more fruit pulp without spoiling) and liquify each type. Then different hot and mild types get blended, aged in half gallon jars with toasted white oak. Red mild types make up the bulk of each mix. That way, sauces aren’t insanely hot and keep a pretty red color. The yellow and orange peppers turn muddy-colored, but the red ones can hide that.

@Shrinkrap, if you’re interested in Rocotillo seeds, let me know. I can mail some within the USA. Though it’s late for this year, I have two refrigerators, full of seed, where all seed gets stored in vials and moisture-proof containers. Kept in a cold jar, the seed keeps for years.

Looks like a friendly knock on the door is necessary. Maybe to kindly propose a replacement plant if they aren’t into gardening.

You can look at this in other light, cook the mallow and eat them! They will be renew in no time. :grin:

Weed = plant that adapt well in the native climate.
At times, I am asking myself why get in all the trouble of growing orchids when their natives are in SE Asia or S America, they grow outdoor easily without any special care.

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Thank you @bogman! How can I say no to seeds? I grew rocatillo last year, as well as Aji Dulce 2, etc. I have gotten Aji dulce 1 and Aji dulce 2 plants from
Cross Country Chili Plants when I don’t start my own.



The SB Jean are from seeds from my Jamaican MIL’s yellow Scotch Bonnet peppers. Talk about confusion! I tried dozens from commercial seed, but none have gotten “the nod”.
Soo many peppers, I still have dozens dried, frozen, fermented and sauced. But f course I’m doing it again this year! Is there something about the rocatillo that keeps you coming back? My favorite this year was the Aji Dulce 2, I think because of the aroma. 10 of those, with one or two Scotch Bonnets made my favorite sauce.
Where do each of you garden? I can’t seem to figure it out.

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I had no idea they were edible. I may try the little fruits, but the leaves don’t sound appetizing.

This is the first article I saw when I googles, and it just happened to be about Los Angeles. :slight_smile:

https://www.gardenbetty.com/mallow-the-everywhere-edible-weed/

I’ve eaten cooked Malva neglecta/Cheeses Mallow… it was ok mixed in curry, where the sliminess was hidden and the bland flavor jazzed up. I spot herbicide them when I find them locally. Not only are they invasive, they spread a fungus, Hollyhock Rust, which infects several species in the Mallow tribe.

@Shrinkrap, I’m in Virginia, not far from Charlottesville. The Cross Country Rocotillo don’t look exactly like what I’m growing, so they may be outcrossed. The best way to contact me regarding seeds is by email. That would be rob, followed by the “at” symbol, followed by pitcherplant , followed by dot com. I start peppers under lights. I was using HID Metal Halide, but am now using LEDs and a heat mat. This year, there are 88 pepper plants, sweet and hot. some years, I’ve got 120 plants.

For me, Rocotillo is an excellent pepper to blend hot sauce with. You can preserve the C. chinense flavor, add red color and reduce the heat of the nasty ones. The Yellow Scotch Bonnets I grow are much hotter than Habanero.


These are carefully preserved, maintained from Seed Savers Exchange seed, again from forty years ago. Peppers like these, Trinidad Moruga Scorpion, Carolina Reaper and others, need taming! The best thing is when you’ve got a big variety of separated types, all pickled and liquified, it’s easy to blend what you want. Since there’s about 4-5 gallons of Rocotillo pickled/liquified in the basement, I’m not growing those this year. Seed of that one is from 2017=fresh. The collection includes several less-hot to not-hot chinense types, collected personally in Grenada and Carriacou .

I also grow Peruvian types, especially Aji Amarillo, probably my favorite chili of all. You can leave core/septum in, if you want crazy-hot; or, you can trim away septum for milder. Aji Amarillo have a special, grapefruit-like element to their flavor. Plants are about 4 inches tall now, but will reach 5 feet or more by Oct. I grow these in hoop tents post-frost, so they can be harvested Oct.-Dec. Unfortunately, many peppers from high elevations or cooler climates go pollen-sterile at about 83 degrees F or more. Capsicum pubescens seems to go sterile at 80 degrees F; that’s the species which Rocoto and Manzanilla come from. They have black seeds.

The world of peppers, great fun!

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I am in the suburb of Paris.

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Progressing apace.
garden

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I am nervous in seeing this: without trays, I can’t feel comfortable with foil. But it’s only me.

They look really great, the basil is ready to be eaten!

So is the thyme! Which is in much better shape than last year.

My window sills are…less than pristine. Any water damage would fit right in.

I would LOVE some Aji Amarillo! Pretty hot and dry here, but I’d give it a try. How long does it take for seeds to germinate ? At what temperature?

BTW, I have a three year old Rocoto and/or marzano pepper (I can’t recall the specifics) that has survived two of our winter’s outside, with almost no help, but I have had only two peppers in that time. I assume the summers are too hot, but I might give it more attention this year, as it is quite the trooper.