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Post by marturo on Mar 20, 2024 7:55:44 GMT -6
The wife & I have been saving our own seeds since 1973 & growing everything Organically. What we can't save seed for we take cuttings from to get more plants. My passion is Heirloom peppers from around the world. The wife is a master melon grower. Thanks for having me.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Mar 20, 2024 18:43:21 GMT -6
Welcome, Marturo. Thanks for joining us. It sounds like you have a wealth of experience and knowledge, and we’ll enjoy hearing your gardening stories. We have forums for peppers, though I’m not sure whether there’s one for melons, but you could always start a thread. What’s your gardening climate like?
I’m currently in central Virginia where I was born. I have the privilege this year of getting to share garden space with my mom. She has been gardening here since the early seventies as well.
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Hello.
Mar 21, 2024 18:14:42 GMT -6
Post by heavyhitterokra on Mar 21, 2024 18:14:42 GMT -6
Marturo,
Welcome to the forum. It sounds like you and Glen, from Panama need to get together. Glen posts from time to time on our pepper pages.
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Hello.
Mar 21, 2024 18:29:47 GMT -6
Post by macmex on Mar 21, 2024 18:29:47 GMT -6
Great to have you Maturo! What part of the world do you live and garden in?
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Post by marturo on Mar 23, 2024 14:03:51 GMT -6
Thanks for the warm welcome.
We grow in zone 6 the mountains of Western NC with a wild woolly weather pattern.
I joined the hot pepper.com 3 years ago. I used to grow about 6 to 10 peppers a season
Jalapeño Bells etc. This season we have over 60 plants with 21 varieties of peppers,
we ship dried pods to friends all over for christmas.
We started growing organically with our first Organic gardener magazine in 1972 & have grown Gardens & worked on Organic farms over the years. I grew up in Panama on Post in the 1960s & then moved to the orient. My family lived on Guam & my father & I dug holes in the coral to plant Bonnie plants we got from the jungle. It's in my blood & the wife grew up on a Grape farm in NY state, small world LOL.
I found this forum from an older thread on THP about the Chili Rayado & some history about it. I first came up with the seeds from a friend Bou @ THP he sent them for me to grow. He told me the story of how Macmex Brought the seeds back from Mexico & shared them with others. Chili Rayado one of the most beautiful peppers I have grown, nice & hot smokes very well.
We have Peaches, pears, apples, wine grapes, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, Strawberries as well as many veggies. With all our pruning done, we finished up with feeding everyone & had a good rain last night.
We moved from our old lighting setup last season 2 double 8' fluorescents to 4 LED Grow lights & thermostat heat mats instead of the heating cables that burned the flats. A 2' X 8' area of pure light that grows plants so fast we had to start them 2 weeks later this season however the stems & leaves were far beyond anything we could have grown under fluorescents. We can start to plant out the tender plants in late Apr middle of may, depends on the soils temps.
We do have one problem with tomatoes here we have not seen before. Blights Early & late that allows the plant to grow & produce then denudes the leaves allowing sunscald & fruit damaged. Not hybrid nor Heirloom can beat it.
Two seasons ago I learned about Bio fungicides that were alive & worked with the plant to beat many fungal, viral & bacterial diseases. As an organic grower I have never used a Fungicide & so far I'm impressed. Using it to water & mist our seedlings to using it as a spray for all outside plants. So far last season we have had much healthier Fruit & vegetable plants than in years past.
I just got some Aji Fantasy from Backer Creek today & am off to get them wet & warm, so long for now. Mike & Linda
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Hello.
Mar 23, 2024 15:58:31 GMT -6
Post by macmex on Mar 23, 2024 15:58:31 GMT -6
Mike & Linda, have you tried mulching real well around those tomato plants? I've had late blight here but when I mulch at planting time I generally don't.
Great story about Rayado! I'd forgotten about dropping in at the Hot Pepper Forum. They're a fine bunch!
George
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Hello.
Mar 23, 2024 19:45:54 GMT -6
Post by heavyhitterokra on Mar 23, 2024 19:45:54 GMT -6
Marturo,
What a nice setup that light bed must be! LED lights are amazing!
We have the same problem with tomatoes here. The disease we have here was caused by a soil-borne pathogen that was spread across the United States, from East to West, by big box nurseries. We didn't have it in our new garden here until we set out tomatoes purchased from Walmart. Once that blight is in the soil it doesn't leave, so now we're stuck with it.
We used to grow 200-300 caged tomato plants for market but no longer do that.
The proof that disease was soil-borne was proven to me by growing my own plants from seed, then transplanting a few of them to Tahlequah City Hospital's garden, inside the atrium there.
(That space used to be dedicated for use by their chefs to grow organic herbs inside a redwood planter that I built for them).
In my younger days, I used to grow all of the organic vegetables that were prepared as meals for cancer patients at Tahlequah City Hospital. I also grew their herbs from seed and sold those starter plants to the Hospital's Kitchen Staff to be grown by them inside the confines of the the atrium.
The tomatoes they grew there were never potted in any of the soil from my garden. I raised them in potting soil, and then transplanted them to the new, uncontaminated soil in the atrium. The plants in the atrium grew all season long, lush, healthy, and disease-free, while mine at home languished under the burden of blighted soil; soil that was contaminated by the plants I bought from Walmart.
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Hello.
Mar 24, 2024 7:11:24 GMT -6
Post by FrostyTurnip on Mar 24, 2024 7:11:24 GMT -6
Welcome Maturo!
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