Drying Fall Produce

You often think of drying early and mid-summer vegetables and fruits such as tomatoes and beans.

The dehydrator is a work horse that can continue into the fall.

Here are some things we dry in the fall...

Distressed

Have you ever heard someone say that their peppers were way hotter than normal this year because we were in a drought, or the beets were way more beetier because the gophers took a bite out of them.

I can't prove it analytically, but...

A Trick for Doubling Your Pepper Yields

In the popular 1996 film Jerry Maguire, Jerry yells the phrase "Show me the money".

This trick for doubling pepper yields involves a different kind of green..

So we will all go out in our gardens and yell..

The Science & Creativity Behind Great Coleslaw

We had a great cabbage crop this fall and so I have been experimenting with any coleslaw variations and recipes. This has been a very tasty and healthy fall. We are now heading into the heart of winter and we still have about 120 heads of cabbage left.

So how does this delightful salad called coleslaw work?

What is the Optimum Amount of Sunlight for Vegetables in Pots

The amount of day light available to your potted vegetables will determine the growth rate. What is the ideal amount?

How to Grow Peppers in Pots

Peppers work well in pots. They are more appropriately sized to 3-5 gallon pots. One of the secrets to great yields is...

You can grow HOT peppers in Minnesota

Hot peppers like hot weather and a long season. Some gardeners assume that you can't grow hot peppers in Minnesota. This is definitely not true.

We like to grow Jalapeno, Poblano, and Anneheim peppers. They are recognizable in our markets and sell pretty well. I also like to dry and smoke these peppers for consumption over the winter.

We use them in our salsa and other cooking.

Peppers are a great way to spice up many bland Minnesota dishes and are very healthy.

We grow our peppers with liberal amounts of compost, organic fertilizer and no sprays or chemical fertilizers, ever!

Cage Fight: How to Cage Tomatoes and Peppers

After your tomato and pepper plants get established it is time to consider cages.

To cage or not to cage your tomatoes. Well I say it depends. We cage the large indeterminate heirloom tomatoes. We typically don't cage the smaller determinate roma tomatoes.

I have made cages from concrete reinforcing wire. The are typically about five feet tall and two feet in diameter. They have six inch openings to reach through to pick fruit. We stake the cages so they don't fall over in the wind. I bought a 150 foot roll of wire at Menards to make the cages. I cut them with a bolt cutter and wrapped the wires around the opposing end with a fencing pliers.

I don't use cages on the roma tomatoes and just let them sprall because they are compact and close to the ground. I also let cherry tomatoes spread out on the ground. Though we do put the cherries on row covers.

We use the small three ring cages that are sometimes call tomato cages to support the taller hot peppers such as Serano.

How to Plant Peppers

Peppers are easy to plant. Prepare the soil 8-10 inches deep. Dig a hole that is as deep as the distanced from the first true leaves to the root ball. Put the fertilizer in the hole (see below). Put the plant in the hole. Put the soil in the hole and lightly press around the plant. Water thoroughly to settle the soil. Put a layer of compost 2-3 inches deep 18 inches from the stem of the plant (see below for explanation). Water one inch per week.

Our plants have been outside since the plants had their first true leaves. They are typically very sturdy and stocky from being in the sun, wind and rain. We get nearly 100% survival of transplants that way. They are not set back by transplanting outside and are way ahead of their green house peers.

Use a good balanced organic fertilizer like fish emulsion (fish). You can reapply a dilute version of fish to the foliage of the plants and soak the roots every 3-4 weeks until the fruit starts to mature. You don't want to have fish on any ripe fruit.

I do not recommend Miracle Grow as it over stimulates the plants. Yes, they look beautiful but MG creates a lot of foliage and not as much fruit. The fruit is often not as flavorful and MG is made of synthetic chemicals. When someone asks about pepper problems about 90% of the time they are using miracle grow.
 
Here is a trick to improve your fruit set. When the plants are about a foot tall and starting to bloom, spray the foliage with a dilute solution of Epsom salts. The dilution is one table spoon of salt to each gallon of water. The foliage will turn a dark green and the plants will bloom profusely. Epsom salts contains magnesium one of the components of chlorophyll which is why the leave turn dark green. Magnesium is also one of the core elements that plants need for reproduction. This is very inexpensive, you can get a pound of salt for a couple of dollars. Use the left over salt for a foot bath.

Compost is the true miracle worker in the garden. The layer of compost suggested above is to keep the young plant from contacting the soil. Most of the viral diseases come from the soil. When you use compost, every time it rains you get compost tea. Compost also feeds the biology in the soil. You will find earth worms like crazy around your plants. Compost is like popcorn (my favorite snack) for earth worms.

If you don't have compost of your own, you can get a 5 gallon bucket for $0.50 at the waste to energy facility or buy it for $25 per ton in bulk.

How to Grow Bullet Proof Transplants

How to grow bullet proof transplants. We start our transplants in mid March or early April. We use sunny window for the first several weeks (You can also use fluorescent lights to start plants, cheap shop lights work just fine). When the plants have their first two true leaves the plants are gradually transitioned to the outside. We have a sunny porch on the east side of the house where we harden off the baby plants.

The plants are then left out in the sun, wind and rain from this time on. This results in very stocky robust plants that are field ready.  When the plants have 4-5 leaves they are potted up to 4 inch pots ready for market or for field. We prepare plants for market in exactly the same way we do it for planting in our own fields. Plants will typically double in size in 7-10 days.

Our plants are way more hardy than those from the local green houses. Typically the green house grown plants are tall, lush and lanky. When transplanted to garden or field conditions they need to be protected and often suffer severe set-backs in growth. They will eventually recover but are usually set back by a couple of weeks.

We make our own potting mix from our own compost, peat, pearlite and a small charge of organic fertilizer. The mix is light weight disease free and works very well with small plants. The potting mix is available for sale at our booth at the farmers market.

Beyond the initial fertilizer charge which lasts two weeks we typically fertilize the plants with a dilute mix of fish emulsion. We water with this mix once every week.