Re: [CH] container growing question
JohnT (Love2Troll@kc.rr.com)
Mon, 17 Oct 2005 12:20:44 -0500
> This year I had no luck whatsoever germinating John T's seeds, why
> I do not know.
Doug,
I'm trying to remember just when I sent you seeds. (the info is on
an older computer) There was a short period (about 3 years ago)
when I was drying some seeds in a dehydrator at 125°F. Not for very
long and not very many seeds, but since then have learned that slow
& low is the way to go. (think I read it in one of Bosland's books)
Nevertheless, I blame the Canadian government.. <G> Mailed seeds
to 11 countries so far and by far the slowest and least likely to
arrive is Canada. Just kidding!
I'm so envious of your rosemary bush. I lost a 3 year old Arp
(variety) two winters ago and was just sick about it.
Thankfully one of my Rogue friends brought a beautiful replacement
to Open Fields. My sage and thyme plants are about 5 years old and
Mex Oregano about 3. Those are the only herbs I grow for cooking.
Super Chile is one of the very first peppers I ever tried to
overwinter & it produced like crazy in a S. window. That and Thai
Hot were my kids first real introduction to hot peppers.
Am curious what varieties tomato you grow. Growing tomatoes was my
first love for many years before I really got into peppers.
Hot regards,
jt
----- Original Message -----
From: Doug Irvine
To: JohnT
Cc: chile-heads@globalgarden.com ; John H. Sphar
Sent: Monday, October 17, 2005 11:17 AM
Subject: Re: [CH] container growing question
Well, for the "two Johns" ....(and let no one misconstrue that line
:-)
) as John T is aware, I have always grown chiles and tomatoes in
pots,
for I live in an apartment , with a deck facing south. This year I
had
no luck whatsoever germinating John T's seeds, why I do not know. I
did
however buy 3 plants started at a nursery locally, one cayenne, one
super chile, and one hot banana. As well as 5 various tomato plants.
Also I have one huge 4 ft in diameter rosemary bush, which is about
15
years old, and has lived all it's life out on a deck, and I wintered
over my oregano and mint for the past few years. Fortunately here on
Vancouver Island we do not get extreme cold so these plants winter
well,
as does parsley, but it has only a two year life span. Getting back
to
the chiles, they are now inside, in a storeroom, in an east facing
window. and they are loaded. I have found that underwatering, which
stresses the peppers to produce more and hotter fruit, and
fertilizing
sparingly every two weeks with a good tomato food, this year we used
Schultz, produces both the tomatoes and the peppers very well
indeed. We
had so many tomatoes that they ended up in our poor overloaded
freezer,
15 ft chest! I have always had excellent success with my container
gardening, and it was, in the early years, an experiment to see how
well
I could do it, as we had half an acre of orchard and fruit and
tomatoes
when we lived in the Okanagan Valley for 10 years. I had one apple
tree
with 4 different varieties of apples, grafted onto a Red Delicious,
giving 5 types of fruit. This was not done by me, however, but by
the
orchardist who owned the land our home was built on prior to our
buying
it, but it did give me incentive to learn gardening, about which I
knew
next to nothing. So in my experience, underwatering rather than
soaking,
will produce more hotter fruit. Also of course, hot weather for part
of
the summer helps a lot. So, there you have this old geezer's
experience
growing in containers! Cheers, Doug in BC
>