There’s a blizzard going on outside but my winter garden is growing strong inside. It’s mostly figs, peppers, cacti, mulberries, and persimmons for now. Tomatoes are soon to follow. What’s growing in your winter garden?
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Right now I am keeping Meyer’s Lemon and a clementine under a grow light. The clementine just flowered and my laundry room smells delightful. Its nice to smell blossoms on a day like today. I also still have 10 lemons on the tree, just waiting to be picked.
Steve, when do you expect to get peppers if you are starting them inside so early?
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Isn’t the fragrance of citrus blossoms intoxicating? My KEY lime is in bloom and my blood orange is sprouting new leaves as is my Meyer lemon. They are all healthy and will all be in bloom soon!
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I have 3 cocktail grapefruits one fell off the tree but is starting to get yellow on the counter, the other two are coming along nicely. I find them really sour, wish I had planted a different variety, but the tree is doing well so I guess it stays. My owari satsuma has one orange developing, and my varigated lemon is in bloom. All are under grow lights, only 3 more months till I fire up the greenhouse.
Hopefully I’ll get a few peppers from these plants by the end of the summer. But I’ve started bringing my peppers indoors over winter and keeping them in a window to produce much larger crops in years two and three. I just yank them up from the roots and put them in a pot and they do fine. They look a bit ragged come spring but then throw on a lot of quick growth and produce way more peppers than a first year seedling ever would.
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Mine is a (mostly) unheated (and unfussy) greenhouse (attached to the house so it gets some heat from that) so my growing is strictly hardy sorts of the salads variety. Things are a little over-grazed this time of year but will start growing again now with longer days (helped along by new light bars). But I’m impressed by all the tender crops that are being grown by all of you! I did transplant my peppers into the GH bed in the fall instead of just hanging them in the rootcellar, inspired by Steven and others. It’ll be interesting to see if they make it through the winter. I don’t think we’re quire ready to grow citrus though.
Oh, and the all important cat graze (oats)…
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How does this technique work for you? I’ve considered trying it in the past but didn’t think it would actually work for me.
I think the peppers hung on better and longer (less shriveling) with the transplanted plants, though most of the plants leaves drooped. Both ways the peppers that had started turning continued to ripen and turn red, those that were quite unripe didn’t ripen any more (but were still useable). I think I only have one plant that handled the transplant real well - it still has green live leaves (the rest are drying down). Since it’s been below freezing out there some nights I’m surprised. They would have likely done better if I’d done a better job of digging the rootball. I usually just pull, or cut off (it doesn’t seem to matter) the plants and hang them in the root cellar and the peppers stay good for a surprisingly long time. It’s easier than transplanting the plant, though the variety I grow is small (the plants, not the peppers). But I had extra space this year in my bed. I’ve done it before but had such an aphid problem with them I pulled them out early. This year I made sure to spray them well (with water) before bringing them in and had no aphids. Or I had enough lady bugs. They’ve all been harvested for awhile now but it’s nice to have that extended crop, especially when many years they’re just starting to get red when the cold weather hits. Sue
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Like usual, I started too much too early this winter. But it will keep me busy. How’s everyone else’s seed starting and rooting going this winter?
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