BeardedMech's Backyard

Yeah, by the time I cut it all down in September, that bucket was complete gone :joy:… I’d like to get another outdoor setup going someday :blush:

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Received the tomatoe seeds! Can’t wait to see these. :facepunch:

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Glad to hear it! Those pucks are seeds from my last grow. Not sure if one hermed on me or there was some rouge ditch weed spreading pollen nearby or what. So no telling what they actually are. Do with them what you will. I’m not sure if I’ll run any this season so if you do please be sure to tag me so I can follow along!

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I did not realize those were weed seeds🤣 I thought they were all pucks of tomatoes. Got some Striped Roman’s planted.

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:joy:. Good thing I said something then! Out of those the purple mango was my favorite. Dense nugs, super frosty. Despite the name it’s more earthy than fruity after dry and cute. While growing though it smelled like pungent fruit and gas. I’m curious what the result of these seeds will be. Not sure if they crossed or hermed or what.

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My habanados just started sprouting finally, is it just me or do peppers take frigging forever to sprout. Or maybe just temp was too low.

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Pepper seedling are always finicky for me. They always germ but randomly and days apart. All my tomatoes pop up at the same time. I only started some Anaheim peppers. I don’t usually eat a lot of hot peppers even though I like spicy food. They always go to waste when I grow them. The Anehiems though are great stuffed with meat and cheese and thrown on the smoker.

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Ya I planted some chocolate pablanos but I couldn’t get them to sprout. Need to get something milder going for sure. I have Broom peppers wonder how those are.

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Quick garden/ life update. last of the Afghani finally popped up. was super slow to break the surface despite having a healthy traproot when i put it in there. All my veggies are looking healthy. started thinning out the crowded plants. gonna start another set of broccoli in a couple weeks to keep a staggered harvest during the spring/summer. still waiting for my peppers to pop. decided to give these emmy lou tomatoes another go this year. Had complete failure with these last year. Ive never had a 100% fail rate with a tomato before. only half germed last year and the ones that did didnt make it past the seedling stage. Im wondering if they didnt enjoy the warm dome as much as everrything else so im gonna try them in a different tray without a heat mat. Also started some brussels sprouts that started to surface today. Excited for these. I fuckin love brussels sprouts

Hoping to get into the yard this weekend to get a few things done but its been cold. had snow all day today, thats some bull honky right there. My wifes been in the hospital all week with an infection in her leg. She just had surgery today, no telling when shell be home. this all while she was already in recovery from a hernia surgery. Not to mention she just had a stent put in after a heart attack last December. We have a toddler, shes been super upset cuz mommys not home.

Its been a circus for the last few months around here. These plants and this forum are my only real distraction from the chaos. I cant wait for some nice weather so I can actually get out in the garden. theres so much to do still. some plans may need to be revised or put on the back burner for now. gonna have to follow the old K.I.S.S. method and try not to over do it.

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I absolutely love Brussel sprouts. If I remember right the only thing I don’t like about them is they are aphid magnets, but only saw them grown once by my grandfather.

Sounds like you have a full plate currently, hoping you have enough blessings to keep it semi balanced. I’ve always found hard times/ stressful times are better when you also realize the blessings you have.

I feel ya on this sight, it’s great to connect with like minded people, and gardening is literally my lifeline currently. :tomato::beetle:

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I’ve only grown them once and had a lot of red aphids. Usually only get the green and black ones. Not sure if that means anything. Aphids are relatively easy to control though. I usually just hose em off or get some lady bugs or lace wings. Companion planting helps too. I have some flower(not sure what it is) that grows on the side of my garage. The black ants farm aphids on those plants. So I let them get established then hose em off every couple days. Keeps them busy over there with plenty of food and I see way less aphids on my veggies. Plant oregano, mint, rosemary around the garden to help deture the ants. Because if they find the garden the infestation will be horrible. I plant dill around as well. It helps to deture aphids and spider mites but will attract tomato horn worms so keep it away from tomatoes.

I just started my marigolds and other flowers to help attract pollinators. never started flowers from seed before. See how that goes.

Just got my beans in the mail from North Atlantic Seed Company! Got a random freebie sidecar auto fem. I know nothing about it gonna have to do some research on it.

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I have 2 hoop houses of this model, mine are 10 foot wide by 26 foot long I secured the frame with 20 inch rebar stakes attached to the poles that make the bottom of the frame. I left the material laid along the ground around the frame and secured it tightly by using 2x4s around the edges on top of the extra plastic then laid cinders along them. this helps in mid summer when you need to roll up vent/ remove for heat and humidity. this method held through snow , wind storms , and rain storms.

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Thanks for that input!!. Glad to hear the house holds up. I currently have the tarp pulled under and inside of it. I have some extra 2x4 laying around. I’ll give that idea a shot.

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Things have been rough the last week and a half. Wife is finally home after 10 days in the hospital. Still recovering though. I have so much respect for single parents, that is a hard gig. Had to learn how to pack a wound and set up an iv this morning. Totally not in my wheel house but I’d do anything to have her home with us. In sickness and in health right? so needless to say I have neglected the plants a tad bit. They’re all still alive and kicking but I made a couple boo boos.

I did transplant them into solo cups. two of them really didnt like that much. got some deformed leaves but new growth looks healthy. I accidently left the light turned up and burnt them a touch as well. I let some of the veggies get dried out but they all bounced back. The striped romans can take a beating, for the most part. I typically stress test all my seedlings but not until were at the 3rd or 4th set of leaves. These are just babies but they should pull through. I up potted to some solo cups where they will live until they go into the ground outside. The afghani autos will go into some 10 gal fabric pots outside in a couple weeks. I started germing two of Frankenstein x blue sunshine from @Kasper0909. I have to decide when and what else im gonna grow. Im thinking of running fems for the rest just to make things easier on me considering our current situation.

took trip out to the green house today. man, a toasty 82 in there. Thinking of setting some starts out there over the weekend to see how they fair. The green house is new territory to me, not sure when i should actually start planting in there. still gets pretty cold at night and have had some light snow here and there. hopefully tomorrow ill get the chance to dig up the other raised bed and move it and finish getting the cover held down better.

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Sorry for your troubles friend, I’m sure it will get better for you and your wife, just stay positive. :grin:

Those autos are looking great. I wouldn’t give them ten gallons of soil tho, maybe 3. I grew 3 pretty good sized afghanis all in less than a 7 gal sip.

But the Frankenstein x BS could be monsters and I’m really excited to see these in action. These should be no doubt great. Oh and a heads up, Frankenstein was a very hungry girl. Very hungry, so there’s that possibility.

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Only reason I was going 10 gal is I already have em. But I’ll see if I have some smaller pots around. All my photos are gonna go into 15 gall pots. I did 10g last year and one plant in the raised bed. The one in the raised bed was easily double the size of the others. Still plotting where everything will go.

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Well if you use ten gallons you could stick 3 in each one maybe.

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I have a bunch of 5 gal buckets I used to grow maters in. maybe ill use those. I have no other plans for them at the moment and would make it easy to move the plants in and out of the green house…

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forgot to update on the emmy lou tomatoes and peppers. most of them germed. but i may have killed them. theyre standing up for now but not looking good at all. peppers should pull through, the ones that germed anyhow. These emmy lou seedlings are not as resilient as the others ive grown. my striped romans and old germans are doing great. the old germans look the best, its my first time with these ones. they have been on my to grow list for a while now.

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Things have been going well as they can so far. The Emmy lous are still kicking. Looking sad but still hanging in there. The peppers are all finally showing up to the party. The Romans and the Germans are getting along swell!

The AAs are doing well. I noticed today AA 2 is missing the center leaf on one of it’s new fan leaves. I’ll have to keep an eye on this one and see if it developes any other fun quirks.



One of two of the Frankenstein x blue sunshine wich im now just gonna refer to as Blu-Frankenshine beans has popped. So I set that one is some soil and we’ll wait on the other to see what it does.

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