Pepper dilemna.

Jan 21 ’24. Peppers are a tropical plant that can live and produce peppers for many years; grown in temperate climates as an annual. Here in zone 9B, in a raised bed, the winter death of peppers is not assured. One can prune, dig up, and bring inside to hibernate peppers in more northerly climates, or just put them in the greenhouse here in zone 9B – no hibernation needed.

Last year, none of the sweet peppers made it even to the new year, but this year the sweet pepper (and most hot peppers too) are hanging on. More than hanging on, they are doing okay, flowering, producing fruit, and nice-looking leaves! There are several reasons for the better performance this year (many eggplants are still going strong, too!). First, the entire raised beds are now paver surrounded, warming the overall micro-climate. Second, the vines filled in the trellis level far better – tomatoes, Iranian squash, trompetta squash, luffa squash, cuccuzza squash, kabocha squash, cucumber, and bitter melon – mostly overlapping, creating a lush overhead canopy, now dead leaves, but still, a night insulating layer. There have been plenty of nights with frost on the roof.

So here is the dilemna: Start anew or keep the old and then do what with the new? Perhaps a hybrid approach with some of the old pepper trained to spread out at the trellis level as an upper-story canopy (many are 5-6 feet tall) while new ones grow in the understory.

Meanwhile, seeds for 150 basil plants (4 varieties), were planted in a 1020 cell tray, with another 4 basil varieties ordered. The transferred Tokyo Benkana looked sad today – perhaps tonight’s rain will rejuvenate them.

Its raining.

Jan 20 ’24. Its raining – a good time to bring the website live. This morning I place a few seed orders to fill in the gaps, but the big first round of seed planting was last weekend and the weekend before. Now we have tomatoes, eggplants, winter squashes, and short season cabbages (missed fall planting) germinating, as well as some very slow favorites, like thai basil and fennel.

Last year was a great fava crop (~50 pounds dry), but they lasted too late into the year and shaded the tomatoes. This year, we are planting robinhood fava, which only grows 18″ high – far more manageable- a dozen are waiting in the greenhouse. Territorial no longer has the seeds, so giving oro seeds a try (and some offbeat seeds).

Two weeks ago, the bitter melon and tomatoes lost to the winter, so, fearing for the hot peppers I have started moving hot peppers into the greenhouse – fresnoira’s and goat peppers – the habaneros died (about 50 from the final harvest for drying). The surviving Brazilian starfish pepper (a fave – still have a quart of dried power from 2022) are too large to bring in (5 feet), so pruned and will drape with row cover – fingers crossed. Its time to pick the goat peppers (their short stature has helped against the daily light frosts) for pickling!

The challenge this year is timing – need to add several cubic yards of compost to the raised bed but many plants are still happy, and the main greenhouse needs to be rebuilt with shelves that do not sag.

And this year we will begin to partner with restaurants as suppliers – planting basil tomorrow – aim for 300 plants.