Red cayenne pepper, year after year!

Forsyth MO. – I have been growing cayenne peppers for some years now, all from one original plant I purchased from a commercial seed company years ago. Just one or two plants supply me with all the peppers I need during the course of a summer and fall! Then, sometime around mid to late November, I will germinate few seeds to grow over the wintertime and which will then be transplanted to large pots in the following spring. It's nice having the greenery during the dark days of winter when the reduced light allows for slow growth. By the time April comes around, I have some great starter plants ready and raring to go!

Condo living garden!

Well, living in a condo is a far cry from those days when I had myself a few raised beds in the back yard! However, it ain't all that bad as people I know who do have large garden are more than willing to give some produce to an old poor sot such as myself!

With such small growing quarters, I decided to focus on producing just a few varieties of peppers this year; a standard bell pepper, a few cayenne and a Bananarama style pepper grown from seed from a plant the year before! All them guys seem to really enjoy a balcony with western exposure!

Update: It's the end of July and my small pots of long red cayenne are bearing great looking peppers! What I love about peppers like Bananarama and Cayenne is that the seeds breed true from year to year!

A leap of gardening faith!

These Little Caesar seedlings don't look like much!

In many ways gardening is very similar to practicing some religions. Lots of faith comes into play! When I start some of my vegetables indoors in late winter, I have to have faith that those efforts will pan out somewhere down the road. Some seeds like romaine lettuce come up pretty quickly and so give me hope of a future harvest. Other seeds like peppers and tomatoes can take a week or more to germinate, thus testing ones metal. And, as I like to use seed from plants I harvested the year before, this effort becomes even a bigger leap of faith!

Sweet bell peppers grown from seed are a particular challenge. Not only do they take a long time to germinate, but the growing cycle is long and stretched out. It can be two months before my pepper starts are ready to be transplanted into a raised bed and even then, it could easily be late August before the first harvest! And tomatoes, even though they may germinate relatively quickly, are very finicky when it comes to producing fruit. At least for me they are. As of late, I've taken to growing my main season tomatoes in pots while sowing cherry tomato plants in the main beds! For whatever reason, the cherry tomatoes have always done well, while the potted tomatoes have to be coddled and cajoled into production.