23,594 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
Minami, Since you are in zone 10, the shishito may end up being perennial, in which case looking to the long term, rather than short term may be wise. Also, with many pepper plants, judicious pruning early on will help establish a nice thick central stalk that will be able to support fruit later on. I currently have a manzano rocoto pepper plant that I wish I had pruned more aggressively early this spring.
They are reliably hardy for me in Michigan as long as I throw a good mulch layer over them. They bloom well, but I don't ever get ripe fruit in my shorter season with cool late summer nights. Too bad, I hear they make a great addition to things- even the semi-mature fruits have the characteristic passion fruit aroma when cut open.
http://www.grandtetonorganics.com/products
Nice seed. Good varieties. Price seems high until you realize that it includes the postage.
You can pick for immediate use as soon as the skin is hard enough that you can't puncture it with your fingernail. At this point, most varieties are white-ish with a hint of green or yellow.
To store, they need to fully ripen on the vine, roughly 4 more weeks, in my experience, beyond the stage above, although longer is better on the vine if not in danger from pests, disease, or weather. By then, the basic S.S. is yellow-ish in color, as the yellow deepens as it ripens.
florauk- Good point. The shallots in the previous picture were separated post-harvest. And thanks for the compliment but that picture is from a couple years ago. They didn't get quite as big this year.
Shallots grow in clusters like this:
(this picture is from earlier this year)
Rodney
That's powdery mildew. If you search the forum you'll find lots of posts about powdery mildew and how to control it.
gsweater- I don't know where sneed is located but it's been really wet and rainy for a lot of the country, perfect conditions for PM.
Rodney
Wow - great information about Kohlrabi! I may have to try it in the garden - it seems to have a multitude of uses.
You may be right, Nila. I need to check my frost dates. I was concerned that it would be too hot now for cool weather plants. It's pretty brutal out there!
I'll grow from seed, as per Itilton's advice - not sure I could find starts this time of year anyway.
Thanks everyone!
I would also recommend kale. My favorite is dwarf blue curled scotch. I sow it in August and then have it all through the winter because you can pick individual leaves from several plants without killing them. Since you're in zone 5 you would probably have to provide protection to them in the winter.
And I agree with Rodney - I love kohlrabi too! If you like to peel broccoli stalks and slice them up and eat them, you'll like kohlrabi.
-Anne
I would absolutely remove the mulch. One year I went to a friend's house to harvest some free horse manure. That manure was contaminated with herbicide. Of course, I did not know this before incorporating it into my garden. The 3 families that seem to be most susceptible are legumes, nightshades and the spinach family (I forget what it is called). I second Dave's advice of trying to flush it out and I would also recommend amending with lots of compost too. For next season, to do a quick test to see if it is still active, plant peas. If the plants look deformed, you know not to plant any of the susceptible families there. For some of our plants, once they pushed through the zone of contamination, they began to recover, slightly. It has been 3 years now and I think that next season most of the locations will be ready for nightshades again. Good luck.
If you can keep them well watered and very heavily mulched so the soil stays cooler they will do fine. I pile 6-8" of hay and leaf mulch on mine. Otherwise it's probably best to pick now - assuming they have enough growth to worth harvesting.
Dave
Kevin nailed it. For quality better sooner than later.
Prime
Still good but past prime. Note the flower buds starting to open. In a few days it will be a mass of flowers.
Nice head farmerdill! And GREAT illustration of before and after.
Kevin