The Final Buzzer

 Well, it's official, the 2022 season is over. Tuesday morning (11/15) we had a hard frost. We'd had some light ones, but the basil held on, though not flourishing. I did a final pick of basil a couple weeks ago and had some pesto. But this frost turned all the remaining plants to mush. Except kale. KALE DON'T CARE. Actually the dill looked ok, too. Funny, I grew dill but never picked or used any. I brought the oregano inside, along with the peppers.

In the end, I brought in 28 pepper plants on 10/16. The basement seedling tables are packed with peppers now. If I can get them through the winter I will have a huge head start next year.

Peppers for overwintering!

They seem pretty happy with their situation despite the absolutely savage cutting back of the plants and removing all their leaves. But in the last month they have blown up, and they almost all have an explosive growth of new leaves on the remaining sticks.

Kale Stories

 Kale keeps on growing despite several light frosts. Indeed I've harvested it in January before. Right now the kale bed is just starting to come back from the heat of the summer. Apparently it gets a bit too toasty for it in the stone planter. But meanwhile it doesn't mind the heat of the driveway, growing up through cracks in the pavement!

The white stuff is actually the camera flash off a heavy dew, but the contrast between my carefully cultivated plants and the "wild" plant is pretty comical.

End of the Season

 Well, not exactly the end. Still getting a dribble of tomatoes, and maybe a couple zucchini I could pick now. But the basil is trying to flower, and a lot of it is brown. The dill is yellowing. The oregano looks pretty good though. And the pepper still had a TON of fruit. So today I picked them. 2.011 kg (4.43 lbs) of various peppers. Probably mostly Anaheims.

Today's Haul

So today was cleanup day. I pulled all the cukes, they were mostly dead anyway. I did get one suitable for use in a salad, that was nice.

Current setup

Next worked on bringing in the peppers for overwintering. A titanic task!

Anaheims

Trimmed them down to sticks, pretty much. Was hard to do.

Trimmings

They looked so sad!

The Remnants

The stems were big and woody. One jalapeno was easily as big as a nickel.

Jalapeno Stem

And here's their winter home. Gave them a healthy dose of water and fertilizer with low N. They shouldn't need much attention over the winter, but if I can give them a little dose of water not and then I'm hoping they can hit the ground running in the spring.

28 pepper plants

I will have to come up with a plan to start seeds in the spring, this is usually where I do it. Maybe I will expand things a bit and have some more lights by January.

Pepper Post

 Yesterday I spend harvesting peppers and weighing each type. First the pretty pick of the varieties I harvested yesterday.

9/10/2022 harvest

 Here's the rundown.

Jalapeños were the top producer. I'm cool with that - I've been adding them 2 or 3 at a time, thin sliced, to my eggs in the mornings. It will take a LONG TIME to eat over two and a half pounds of them though. It does have me very excited to overwinter peppers this year though. If I get results like this with other peppers I'm going to be very pleased.

Jalapeño bounty

The cayenne harvest was pretty small, but it'll make enough powder for a few meals. And still plenty not quite ready yet on the plants. Next step is running them through the dehydrator. 

Serranoes harvest was not gigantic either, but I don't have too many plants and they're all in two liter bottles. I will overwinter these and repot for next year.

Serranoes 

The Korean Dark Greens are a bit of a mystery, not sure how hot they will be. I think I may dehydrate and powder those as well.

And finally, my favorite, New Mexico Chiles. They are a mix of Big Jim and Anaheim. Felt like one variety was lighter in color than the other, but they might just be not as ripe, *shrug*. And not sure which is which. Next year labelling will be KEY! Anyway, these will be roasted, the skin peeled, and then frozen. Green chile for the winter, woot woot!

The prettiest 2/3 of my Green Chile haul

These are all the ones I grew this year, other than the Jalapeños which were started last year and kept inside over the winter.

Love me some Baker Creek

I'm not sure what happened with the Tabascos - maybe they just got lost in the shuffle. Ah well, next year!

Non-Pepper Post

 This was a big pepper day so I think I will separate out non-pepper content.

Tomatoes are still coming along, but have slowed down dramatically. I picked a couple today, along with eating a few black cherry tomatoes off the vine. Once again I saw a nice Hungarian heart tomato coming along right outside my bathroom window. Yesterday it was reddening, but I thought, heck, one more day. This was a mistake, because I looked today and someone ate half of it. Not sure who the critters are, need to get my trail cam up. Black Cherry tomatoes are a real superstar this year. Every time I go out there are a dozen ready to pick, and there must be over 100 left on the vine. Never see any pests bothering them. The Roma and the A'Grappoli D'Invierno (right beside each other) appear to be suffering from Septoria leaf spot.

Septoria Leaf Spot I think

Herbs are starting to do very well. Dill and Oregano are really springing to life. Basil is VERY happy, and I've already made a pint of pesto with it. More to come soon!

Dill

Oregano took its sweet time, but looking good now!

Starting to flower, boo!

Big leaves on the Lettuce Leaf Basil

Zucchini had been struggling. Last one I got was 8/23, but pulled this one today. I may get a few more, they're like gold now.

Long Beans done. Not a huge fan.

The new cuke setup.

Chuggin' Along

 Ho-LEE-Cow. I have been watching a nice tomato for days now as it slowly ripens. Yesterday I thought, huh. Maybe I should pick it. I did not. This morning I looked and it looked like something had eaten like half of it. I'm not 100% sure who took the first bite, but caught this beastie dining tonight.

Slug :-(

The offender was capture and I executed summary judgement immediately. But one less tomato for me. Seeing a lot of my ripe ones getting eaten. Not sure what the culprit is, but maybe slugs, chipmunks, mice.

Lately my enthusiasm for ripe tomatoes has started to dip a bit. I've had some good ones already. My usual MO is to try to grow a zillion different varieties, which is fun for sure, but I think that's not the way to go, at least for next year. there are a couple big winners that will definitely return in 2023.

1. Black Cherry. So good! And ridiculously prolific. 
2. Sungold. Didn't grow them this year and I miss them.
3. Roma. I had all of one Roma plant and it did great. Didn't seem to suffer pests or disease so far.
4. Cherokee Purple. The best! Not super prolific, but I've had a bunch already.
5. A Grappoli D'Invierno. Super prolific. Not my favor tasting tomato, but easy for saucification.

Ones that will likely not come again next year.

1. Mortgage Lifter. Not prolific at all.
2. Gehznte. Gotten zero. Maybe something taking green ones.
3. Hungarian Heart. None ripe yet, lol.
4. Spoon. Fun, interesting, tasty, but something eats them before I do. Maybe if I can cage it completely somehow.

I got what I suspect will be my last zucchini today. Gotten 43 lbs so far, more would be a waste. Powdery mildew is rampant. Next year maybe I will succession plant so I'm ready to tear out and plant new ones. The Rampicantes are cool, but not as tasty.

Big Pick

 The older boy back from school in faraway lands, so have neglected the garden a bit. Have definitely kept up with watering, otherwise it'd be all shriveled and brown, but I'm much overdue for a pick. I think some tomatoes have gone bad and there are a ton that are at least ready to pick. So today I pick. The haul so far:

• 756g of Jalapeño Peppers
• 264g Anaheim Peppers
• 5g Cayenne (hah, just one nice and red)
• 215g Long Beans (like a foot long!)
• 1682g Roma
• 1240g A Grappoli D'Invierno
• 698g Black Cherry (minus the ones I've snacked on, kept up with these better)
• 248g Beit Cukes
• 483g Brandywine Tomato
• 921g Cherokee Purple Tomato
• 1065g Hungarian Tomato
• 972g Beefsteak Tomato

For a grand total of 1.025kg peppers (2.26lbs) and 7.061kg tomatoes (15.5 lbs). There were another couple pounds that were overripe and squishy. And there are plenty more still on the vines.

A big chunk of the harvest today

Some of the veggies I have not pictured before.

Anaheim Pepper

Hungarian Tomato

Beefsteak Tomato

Brandywine Tomato

Cayenne Pepper

Long Beans

Nice haul!

 Some very nice tomatoes coming in. The first Cherokee Purple was just about ready. In a perfect world I would have let it sit another day or two, but in the chipmunk infested hellscape that I live in, better safe than sorry.

Weighing in at 354g (12.5 oz)

I was shocked by how many Black Cherry tomatoes were ripe. I picked 330g (11.6 oz) of them today.

Black cherry, yum

Picked a few that on my map are labelled A Grappoli D'Invierno, but those are oblong and small, so they are most likely mislabelled. I think they are probably Rutgers.

Rutgers

Also pulled some more actual A Grappoli D'Invierno. A few Roma are close to ready, as are a Beefsteak or two. Some of the prettier green ones:

A Grappoli D'Invierno

Allegedly Hungarian, but can't be.

Roma

Black Cherry on the vine

Gezahntne - neat shape

As usual, there are also some problems. Starting to see a bit more powdery mildew on the zucchini. this is usually not such a problem for me, but usually the vine borers have finished me off by now. I have not been as attentive in pruning dead/yellowing leaves lately, perhaps that contributes to the problem.

Powdery Mildew

Something likes cucumbers. Mice? Chipmunks? I don't think it's one big deer bite.

Cucumber got eaten

New batch of cukes to the rescue! Most came up, if I can get them vining up a trellis or wire or something, I think they will be in better shape than the ones out front.

Herbs are a mixed bag. The Genovese Basil is doing great. The Lettuce Leaf Basil seems to be doing well, but not too many plants. Basil is ok, but some of it looks like it withered, maybe not watering in time, or maybe watering with the hose made them unhappy. It is pretty intense, they probably don't like that. Oregano I have no idea. I think some of the little teensy plants in there are Oregano. But unclear.

Genovese Basil

Lettuce Leaf Basil

I placed a small plastic tray of water down by the stems of the Rampicante, and since then no more rodent damage. Maybe it worked? *shrug* Some actual zucchini coming along, fun shapes.

Zucchino rampicante

Still getting zucchini! Thank you bt! The official tally is 27.7 lbs, but I know for sure I missed weighing some, probably more like 30 lbs.

I Hate Critters

 The critters have been doing bad things. I think the culprits are chipmunks, but not sure. They have gnawed through long zucchino rampicante vines - one about 4' another about 6.5'. Just gnawed them off at the base. total loss of the whole length of the vine.I think they might be looking for water which can be found in the stems. But COME ON. I guess I will put out some water so they don't have to gnaw? Might help. can't hurt. I may also put up some chicken wire barriers to further deter them. Internet says coffee, cayenne, and garlic. I think once the plants are done for the year and pulled out it's time to get some cement and close up the various nooks and crannies that these critters might call home.

Dead

Dead

Here's a baby zucchini that will never come to fruition.

Sad

I saw my tomato ripening.I thought, maybe I should just go ahead and pick it. I thought nah, it's fine. I was wrong. More chipmunk activity I think. They didn't eat much, just enough to piss me off. It weighted in at 526g (1.16lbs). Slightly more pre-chipmunk feasting. Anyway, this was the Hungarian. Not super crazy about the taste, but good.

Hungarian Tomato less chipmunk share