Peas and Potatoes

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It suddenly turned warm this week, and we found ourselves planting peas and potatoes. We planted 2 beds of potatoes and a few short rows of peas. After planting 6 rows of peas, I wasn’t able to tell which bag of peas I had used… it’s clear to me that we bought way too many peas (seems the cashier at IFA was right). We tilled two of the raised beds from last year to plant the potatoes.

At a certain point, when you’re hobby grows to a certain size, you have to ask yourself, “is this still a hobby?” I’m not really sure anymore. We were in Herriman for a birthday party, so we hit the Home Depot there… and they still had our favorite shop lights in stock, so we picked up 4 more. We have 16 (sixteen!) shop lights hanging from our racks. I don’t think we’ll need any more.

I decided to do a full count of what’s growing this week:

Large pots:
33 Roma Tomatoes
24 Jalapeno Peppers
18 Poblano Peppers
16 Cascabella Peppers
12 Banana Peppers
3 Winter Squash (pumpkins or banana)
2 Anaheim Peppers

Medium starter pouches:
21 Sweet Red Peppers
21 Tomatillos
20 Brandywine Tomatoes
19 Big Boy Tomatoes
18 Orange Sun Peppers
12 Sweet 100 Tomatoes
12 Big Jim Peppers
11 Habanero Red Peppers
11 Hungarian Wax Peppers
10 Big Bertha Peppers
10 Jalapeno Peppers
10 Peperoncinis
10 California Wonder Peppers
10 Cherokee Purple Tomatoes
9 Anaheim Peppers
7 Eggplants
6 Winter Squash (pumpkins or banana)
4 Poblano Peppers

Tiny sprout starter:
48 California Wonder Peppers
40 Anaheim Peppers
12 Jalapeno Peppers

Sold Out

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I must be crazy. I have 12 shop lights hanging on 2 racks. I would have more, but the style of shop light I have been buying is out of stock at both the local Home Depot stores in my area. That’s right, I have to wait for Home Depot to restock before I can buy any more (unless I break down and buy some other style). And I’m already chomping at the bit to get 4 more. I must be crazy.

Not a lot has changed this week, other than adding the two lights. Charmaine came home from San Diego and we re-potted a bunch of peppers (which only adds to my need to get more lights). But she also brought the camera back, so the pictures should be better quality (or at least higher resolution).

There are too many sprouts to list now, or at least more than I’m willing to count. Some of the 12×24 planter (with the terrible jiffy soil) have finally sprouted, and I’m just not willing to count them anymore until they are re-potted.

Potted in large containers:
33 Roma Tomatoes
24 Jalapeno Peppers
18 Poblano Peppers
16 Cascabella Peppers
12 Banana Peppers
3 Winter Squash (I should have kept track of what squash I was planting)
2 Anaheim Peppers

Easter Project

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Charmaine packed up and headed to San Diego this morning, so I spent the day putting together a second baker’s rack and a few more lights. I also transplanted the first round of tomato seedlings into bigger pots. The first round of peppers are probably ready to be transplanted as well, and I have enough dirt and pots for them, but I’ll need more lights before it makes sense to do. The dirt for the transplant is some new Miracle-Gro potting mix that we picked up at IFA. There was no way I would sacrifice any more plants to the sure-death Jiffy soil.

One thing I didn’t count on was being without a camera today (Charmaine took it to San Diego), so you’ll have to settle for pictures from the world’s worst camera (my iPhone).

Sprouted so far:
33 Roma Tomatoes (we removed 3)
22 Jalapeno Peppers
21 Orange Sun Peppers
20 Big Boy Tomatoes
19 Brandywine Tomatoes
15 Banana Peppers
14 Poblano Peppers
12 Peperoncinis
12 Sweet 100 Tomatoes
11 Habanero Peppers
11 Tomatillos
10 California Wonder Peppers
10 Cherokee Purple Tomatoes
9 Anaheim Peppers
7 Squash (What was I thinking?)
1 Eggplant
0 Hungarian Yellow Wax Peppers
0 Big Bertha Peppers
0 Sweet Red Peppers
0 Big Jim Peppers

More, more, more!

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We picked up 5 more shop lights this week. It’s amazing how much light that seed starting rack puts off now. I call it the artificial sun.

If that wasn’t enough, we stopped by IFA in Riverton today… $100 later, we’re planting even more seeds (and we have “all” the seeds we’ll need this year). Now I’m not only going to need more lights, but probably another whole rack when the seedlings get big enough to need a little more space.

So, today we planted:
24 Hungarian Yellow Wax Peppers
24 Big Jim Peppers
24 Tomatillos
24 Sweet Red Peppers
12 Eggplants (Ichiban Hybrid)
12 Big BerthaHybrid Peppers
12 Cherry Tomatoes
8 Spaghetti Squash
4 Banana Squash

And here’s what has sprouted:
22 Jalapeno Peppers
20 Big Boy Tomatoes
19 Brandywine Tomatoes
13 Orange Sun Peppers
12 Banana Peppers
11 Pepperoncinis
10 Cherokee Purple Tomatoes
9 Poblano Peppers
4 Anaheim Peppers
3 Habanero Peppers
1 California Wonder Pepper

Still nothing has sprouted from the crappy Jiffy soil. Isn’t that just pathetic? That’s 288 seeds that probably won’t sprout. The lack of sprouts in the Jiffy soil probably played a large role in convincing us to buy more seeds and seed starters today. I’m still very frustrated with Jiffy.

Sprouting Peppers

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The peppers are sprouting! The package said to expect 12-21 days for germination, but the heated seeds sprouted in about 5 days. That’s absolutely amazing. The tomatoes have also sprouted, but it’s not nearly as amazing to me, since tomatoes sprout much more quickly than peppers.

We’re a little over a week into this year’s garden. We haven’t planted anything more, because we have been down in Moab, but here are my observations thus far…

1- Seed heaters are awesome!
2- Jiffy soil is terrible. We bought a bag of “Organic Seed Starting Jiffy-Mix” and I hate it! My 12 x 24 seed starter may be utterly wasted because I can’t get the water to go into the soil. Why does it repel water? I have no idea, but I am extremely frustrated with it.
3- The fluorescent lights are really great, but I still need more.

Sprouted so far:
22 Jalapeno Peppers
7 Banana Peppers
2 Poblano Peppers
36 Roma Tomatoes
4 Brandywine Tomatoes
3 Big Boy Tomatoes
3 Cherokee Purple Tomatoes