RobinD said:Good idea.....I usually try to mix heirlooms & hybrids.....this year, I loved the Hawaiian Rainbows.....

Yes, exactly. Plant the best of both. Should work out well.

Hi all,
The perennials and zinnias had a tough summer here. Severe drought until a few weeks ago so the gardens are really done for 2016.
I did plant vedgies in two Earth Boxes on the deck. two varieties of eggplants ( I buy the plants, not set up for seed starting )
A really small operation compared to all of you.
Eggplants #1 White. They were OK but my fave were the #2 Japanese Longs. Sweet and thin skinned.
Tomatoes in the second Box. a small salad tomato looked like yellow pears. A slicing tomato that never matured but the woodchuck keeps eating them.
I wouldn't say the EB 's were a failure but next year I will have a crop cover to ward off the woodchuck and will not use EB fertilizer pak which fed so heavy plants went to stems and leaves. I will fert. with Osmocote.

Eggplant EarthBox


Tomato Earth Box June

ge1836 said:Hi all,

I did plant vedgies in two Earth Boxes on the deck. two varieties of eggplants ( I buy the plants, not set up for seed starting )
A really small operation compared to all of you.
Eggplants #1 White. They were OK but my fave were the #2 Japanese Longs. Sweet and thin skinned.
Tomatoes in the second Box. a small salad tomato looked like yellow pears. A slicing tomato that never matured but the woodchuck keeps eating them.
I wouldn't say the EB 's were a failure but next year I will have a crop cover to ward off the woodchuck and will not use EB fertilizer pak which fed so heavy plants went to stems and leaves. I will fert. with Osmocote.

Eggplant EarthBox


Tomato Earth Box June

Well the plants in Earthboxes look happy and healthy.

I do love those Asian type eggplants myself, they really are tasty and produce really well.

The plants looked awesome, Jo.....I bought some of those long, thin eggplants this year.....great on the grill!

RobinD said:The plants looked awesome, Jo.....I bought some of those long, thin eggplants this year.....great on the grill!

Great any way to make them. Easy too cook.

I wonder how my eggplants are gonna do now that the nights have gotten downright cold. Well, feels plenty cold to me. It does warm up to near 70 during the day but eggplants ate heat lovers.

I pulled out all my yard long bean plants today, I figured they are not going to do much with the cooler weather. What with them being tropical and loving the heat and such.

Pulled out the last of my bush beans also so that only leaves some Blue Lake pole beans left. All other grown beans done and gone. Although do have seedlings coming along of Northeaster and French Gold poles. I think I planted them too late and nothing will come of them but we will see.

Nights are supposed to warm up again for the next week anyway, so you may get some beans ,,,,good experiment!

RobinD said:Nights are supposed to warm up again for the next week anyway, so you may get some beans ,,,,good experiment!

Yup, nothing much to loose. I didn't plant a lot so it is only a few seeds.

It wasn't as cold last night as it had been those nights before. Still I am sure the veggie garden will be winding down. I am pulling tomato plants already. Well, not all but I have so many I am pulling the done for ones because I certainly can't get them all done at once.

I've pulled out lettuce....that's pretty much it....need to get a little more ambitious!

RobinD said:I've pulled out lettuce....that's pretty much it....need to get a little more ambitious!

I never grew any lettuce this year so neve4r had to pull that out.

Hey there are Swallowtail caterpillars on my dill plants.

Wow...it's late for them.....hope they find enough food to form their chrysalis....

RobinD said:Wow...it's late for them.....hope they find enough food to form their chrysalis....

Well, they have plenty of Dill were they are on my plants. Yes, it does seem to be late but there weren't any this summer.

There are 7 of them and I hope they make it.

Me, too....I worry about the butterflies, but there seemed to be quite a few this summer....I saw a Painted Lady a few days ago......

Just pulled the last of my carrots. Still got some peppers on plants that I'm letting get a little color before bring them in to finish ripening. Got SO many cayenne peppers this year...I usually dry them and grind them up for fresh seasoning. Also took in my Rosemary plant to dry, that has my whole kitchen area smelling real nice.

I still have peppers on my plants also. Need them to get larger before picking.

I also have peppers.....one even turned bright red.....not usual for me.....I'm just happy if I get a few green ones....

RobinD said:I also have peppers.....one even turned bright red.....not usual for me.....I'm just happy if I get a few green ones....

I have been picking my peppers green all summer and only leaving one here or there to turn red. It simply takes too long to get them read and then meantime they are not setting new ones.

I'm able to leave most hot peppers on the plant till they fully ripen and have no trouble with them not setting more...more cayenne plant produced around 40-50 peppers this year, my habanero plant almost as many. Bell peppers were a bit slow this year but I still got 5 or 6 per plant. I had several Yellow Admiral pepper plants and I would take those off the plant as soon as I saw a bit of yellow and let them finish inside.

robertduval14 said:I'm able to leave most hot peppers on the plant till they fully ripen and have no trouble with them not setting more...more cayenne plant produced around 40-50 peppers this year, my habanero plant almost as many. Bell peppers were a bit slow this year but I still got 5 or 6 per plant. I had several Yellow Admiral pepper plants and I would take those off the plant as soon as I saw a bit of yellow and let them finish inside.

Sounds good for your pepper plants.

I never grow hot peppers so I have no idea if they would or should be more productive than the sweet peppers.

I know one of the people from around our neighborhood was here this summer and admiring my peppers. I gave him some but he was bummed when I told him they were not hot peppers. He said they looked like hot peppers and I guess that is true as Shishuto Peppers do look like they could be hot peppers!!

Speaking of Peppers I just looked at my mail and my order of Pepper Seeds that I have ordered from Kitazawa Seed Co just arrived.

I ordered Shishito, Fushhimi and Slim Pim. None are hot. These are all Japanese peppers. I had two plants of Shishito this year and am very impressed with them. So now I want to try more of the Japanese type peppers.

I find them very productive and tasty. Love them!!