Bell Pepper Seed Germination Blues

Of all the seeds that I work with each spring, pepper seeds are one of the most challenging. While most of the other vegetables I start from seed generally germinate within a few days, those pesky pepper seeds take their sweet time with germination periods that can extend into weeks. Bummer!

I've been told that one way to obtain the most rapid germination is to control the temperature. After seeding my trays and then placing them into plastic baggies I have an insulated enclosure (an old mini fridge) that contains a small twenty-five watt bulb and a temperature sensor. I plan to leave the trays in the enclosure with the light on until I get a reading in the high seventies. (Hopefully, because the enclosure is insulated, it will hold this for a number of hours before I need to give it another shot of heat from the light bulb). Information obtained from the Internet tells me that the optimal temperature for most pepper seeds to be 77F. So, that’s what I strive for over the next nine days which is the average amount of time it takes for the seeds to germinate at that temperature. (The only other factor to make sure you control is the use of sterile starting mix. The warm temperatures are also ideal for bacterial to get a foothold which can sometimes kill the seedlings right after they emerge).

So, for this run, I’ve placed two 6-cell starting trays that have been seeded with Cayenne and California Wonder pepper seeds into the enclosure and will see just how long it takes for them to germinate. Once they are up and growing I plan to get them hardened off and out into the sunlight as soon as possible.

That brings me to another problem I’ve encountered recently. The last batch of seedlings never got that large even though I coddled them, watered them and made sure they got plenty of sunlight. That’s when it occurred to me that the sunlight might have been part of the problem. Not the light so much as the heat generated when it hits the dark plastic of the starting tray themselves. I have developed a theory that perhaps the roots are getting so warm, it damaging the plants ability to grow. To that end, I plan on painting the trays white this time around to see if I get better results. Failing that, It could be the potting mix or even the size of the containers that are causing growth to be stunted. Lastly, it’s possible I suppose that the seed may have been of poor quality.

Alice's Famous Chili

One afternoon while I was looking through some old books I had stored in the basement, I came across a real gem from my distant past. It was a book called Alice’s Restaurant Cookbook and contained a collection of recipes that Alice May Brock used in her Brooklyn New York establishment made famous by Arlo Guthrie in a song and then later in a movie of the same name directed by Arthur Penn.

The book and the recipes therein were written in the footloose and fancy free spirit that so characterized the times. It was published in 1969 by Random House and was an instant success for a whole generation of hippies and flower children like myself. One recipe that caught my interest was Alice’s Famous Chili which I have produced exactly from the book.

“In half an inch of oil or bacon fat, sauté until soft: 3 chopped onions, 3 chopped green peppers, and 3 large cloves of finely chopped garlic. In another pan brown 1 or 2 pounds of chopped beef. Drain the fat from the beef and add the beef to the onions and peppers ( or add the onions and peppers to the beef). Now add 1 or 2 cans of tomatoes, 1 can of tomato paste, and 2 to 8 tablespoons of chili powder. (You can always add more chili powder later, so start off easy). Add 1 tablespoon of sugar, a sprinkling of salt, pepper and paprika, 2 bay leaves, a teaspoon of cumin, a teaspoon of basil and a pinch of cayenne or some hot chili sauce. Simmer all this for at least half an hour until it is good and thick. Then add 1 or 2 cans of kidney beans. Serve this on rice and top it with some chopped raw onions. (Makes 6 to 8 servings.)

While I’m a little leery of using a half an inch of any oil in a recipe, I do want to give this recipe a fair shake. To that end I’ve decided to do a You Tube movie some time soon which will appear on the Danomanno Channel.

On Cayenne Pepper and Christopher Columbus

The hot, biting taste of the fruit from the cayenne pepper plant first came to Europe when Christopher Columbus brought some plants back with him from the New World. The plant which was known by the Caribbean natives as Aji had apparently been growing in the tropical climate of South America and the islands for thousands of years. Yet, somehow it had escaped the attention of ancient civilizations like the Chinese and Greeks as no mention of the plant ever appeared in any literature. No, it was first mentioned by the writer Peter Martyn on the return of Columbus to Italy in 1493. As a herbal with a bite, the popularity of the plant was immediate and spread across Europe quickly.

I personally like to grow Cayenne every year in my raised beds here in southwest Missouri for a couple of reasons. Not only do they add a little heat to my chili recipes, but ounce for ounce, Cayenne pepper contains more vitamin C than about anything else I could grow: 369 mg per 3.5 ounces. Also, the fruit is very rich in vitamin A coming in at 21,600 IU’s for the same amount.

As a rule, I will grow about six plants to maturity each season. Then, I will dry whatever fruit I don’t use immediately. These are ground into a powder and stored in a herbal bottle for use as needed. I usually get enough from the six plants to last me through the winter. I have to tell you my favorite thing is to mix the powder with seasoned salt which is then sprinkled into a bag of potato chips. What a treat!

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I have created a site called  www.forsythbiz.blogspot.com to cover events and businesses that have to do with Forsyth Missouri. Please give it a quick look and let me know if it's useful.

Spring Storms and Raised Beds a Good Match

After a very quiet March and April weather-wise, Nature came back with a vengeance on April 24th as a strong area of low pressure sweep across southern Missouri spawning tornadoes that brought down trees and even spawned pea sized hail at my location in Forsyth Missouri. I heard from the Weather Channel that apparently other states had it even worst as 10 people had perished in Mississippi. I’m so sorry to hear that news.

My raised beds survived the hail, and the rain that fell, (about two inches) was welcome as the month of April 2010 had been on the dry side to this point. I spent my morning at a swap meet that was plagued from the start with the in-clement weather. It was one of those days where one minute you had sun and the next you had rain falling on your head. I really have to appreciate the efforts of organizers like Ginger Davidson and Bill Bishop who work so hard to get vendors to attend only to have things go sideways. I understand from a cell phone call to Ginger that when the storm hit, it almost lifted their tents completely off the ground! Only by them hanging on were they able to save them. Bill Bishop, who is no lightweight, was reportedly lifted off his feet at one point! I’m glad I had left a short time before this mess hit.

The beds in my back yard came through all this in fine style and I’m happy to report that the cool night and warm days, as of late, have produced a record crop of radishes with the romaine lettuce and spinach coming on like gangbusters! I’m always reminded that a little too much rain is better than a prolonged drought anytime! Now, as I am approaching the end of the month. My focus now is in the transfer of some tomatoes and peppers that are now in starting trays. Assuming the local deer don’t get to them, I will have a nice planting of California Wonder, Blockbuster and Cayenne peppers. For tomatoes, I’m going with Brandywine and Early Girl varieties this year. As April turns in to May, I will more than likely augment these with whatever I come across during one of my visits to local Garden Center like the Home Depot.

Romaine and Radishes!

This promises to be a really great growing season down here in southwest Missouri. We’ve had ample rain and the last few weeks have seen almost perfect growing conditions. The nighttime temperatures have been in the fifties followed by daytime highs in the seventies and low eighties. As a result my early radishes and romaine lettuce have really taken off!

The radish seed I like to use is a variety called Cherry Belle and the lettuce is called Little Caesar from Burpee Seed. I’ve been growing both for some years now and enjoy the crunchy taste of the fresh radishes and fullness of body you get with romaine. Both of these are now growing in my small cold frames (the windows have been removed) and in the open raised beds out back. My seeding of lettuce back in October is why I’m enjoying lots of fresh romaine salads right now. This is especially nice considering the cost of a head of iceberg lettuce at the market right now. Now, while I do not have this down to a science, I have been lucky enough to grow just enough plants, spaced the right amount of time apart to insure a continuous supply through mid summer. At that time, I hold off planting any more lettuce until mid August when I can get in yet another crop and then a late planting in October so the small plants have a chance to grow big enough to survive the winter months.

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