On this week’s episode, Greg and Travis discuss techniques for growing peppers and pepper varieties to plant in the vegetable garden. Pepper seed germination can take a while and will require some patience. Some varieties will take up to 2 weeks for germination. Hot pepper varieties usually take longer to germinate than sweet pepper varieties. Pepper transplants grow well in our heavy-duty seed starting trays when placed on a heated germination mat. Because pepper seedlings can be quite fragile, we recommend replanting them in 4" pots before transplanting into the ground. This will allow the stem to become stronger and more durable. Large pepper plants will need some form of support to keep them upright and keep fruits off the ground. For just a few plants, we recommend using our smaller Tomato Cages. For many plants or an entire row of peppers, the Florida Weave trellising technique works great. You can use cotton twine or commercial-grade, poly twine for this technique. Our current pepper varieties include Bayonet Bell Pepper, Gold Rush Banana Pepper, Tiburon Poblano Pepper, Beaver Dam Hot Pepper, and many others. Bayonet Bell Pepper is a hybrid variety that produces blocky, consistently-sized fruits. The Tiburon Poblano Pepper and Beaver Dam Hot Pepper, although not very hot at all, are some of our favorites for grilling and stuffing.
Show and Tell Segment
On the show and tell segment, the guys talk about green onions or spring onions. Greg has some green onions from his garden that are just starting the bulbing process. At this stage, it is important to provide the onion plants with plenty of water, but not to fertilize them anymore. Once the vegetative stage has ended, the plants will require no more fertilizer and just need ample amounts of water to produce large, sweet onions. Travis shows some of the hybrid varieties that he transplanted such as the Bella Rosa, Mountain Glory, Brickyard, and Sun Gold tomatoes. The guys had pretty good germination on the Bella Rosas and Sun Gold varieties. However, the rats got into the Mountain Glory and Brickyard this year and did not have great success with the germination on those varieties. They guys show the difference between transplanting tomatoes versus peppers. They transplanted both the tomatoes and peppers at the same time, but the tomatoes are ready to go in the ground and the peppers are not. The peppers are just now popping up in the seed trays because they take longer to germinate than the tomatoes.
Viewer Questions Segment
On the question and answer segment, the guys answer questions about heat-tolerant lettuce varieties and storing seed potatoes that have been cut. Cherokee and Muir lettuce are varieties that have been highly acclaimed by many market farmers and are known to be very heat-resistant. We hope to carry both of these varieties in the near future in pelleted form. Travis says that he does not put lettuce on a seed mat because it germinates fine in the greenhouse during the winter without a seed mat. Greg says when cutting seed potatoes up, he simply puts them in a bucket and leaves them in a dry, cool place. They could be spread on a table or other surface, but we haven't found that to be necessary. Sometimes Travis will dump his into another bucket every other day so they don't get too much moisture at the bottom of the bucket and that will allow them to be equally distributed. Although, not really sure if it truly works it may just be all in Travis's head.
