Wednesday, November 30, 2011

New Plantings Today

Today we decided to re-pot the ghost pepper plant because it was root bound.  We bought a huge plastic bucket from Big Lots, drilled holes 3" from the bottom all around the pot, added soil and planted the ghost.  Hopefully this will provide adequate room for the roots to spread!

With a second bucket we bought we drilled the holes, added soil, and I planted 6 Swiss Chard seeds, which I will later thin to 3 plants.

I had 4 8" pots laying around, so I filled them with potting soil and planted Kohl Rabi in each one.  I've never had Kohl Rabi before, but have heard good things about it, and have wanted to try it.  I figured this was the easiest way to do so.

I felt like a murderer as I thinned my seedlings in the main bed.  It saddened my heart to pluck out the tiny babies I've nurtured these last weeks.  However, everything I've read online says you really do need to thin seedlings so they don't have to compete for water and nutrients, so I did it.  The only plants I didn't thin were the Mesclun.  I'm waiting until the greens get a bit bigger before I thin them so I can make a baby greens salad.  It made me feel a bit better for composting the tiny seedlings.  At least I know their nutrients will help provide a good future in the compost.

I've also decided to use the extra blue barrel as a potato grow bin.  We have an ABUNDANCE of pine needles here, so I'll try using them instead of purchasing straw.  They are more acidic, which the potatoes like anyway.  :)

UPDATE 12/2/11:  The transplanted ghost pepper plant seems to be loving it's new environment.  After a couple months of being seemingly dormant, we finally have more buds.  Since we purchased The Ghost last summer we've only gotten 2 peppers from the whole plant.  Hopefully we will get a big yield now.  

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