Today's harvest

[blissful]

In terms of flavinols and anti-inflammatories, the more colors the better.



As you probably have heard, garlic that is pickled sometimes turns blue and green.
Purple beans turn green when cooked.


Bell peppers begin as green then go through the stages to turn it yellow or red. I don't recall any of them going through yellow TO red. Maybe, maybe not, maybe I'm not sure.


I'd say it was a switcheroo. But having said that, the soil conditions, more ph low or more ph high can vary the color of the fruit, much like hydrangeas.

https://www.gardenista.com/posts/magic-trick-how-to-make-your-hydrangea-change-color/


Soil that is more alkaline will produce more pink hydrangea, a more acid soil a more blue hydrangea. If you can extrapolate that with peppers, think of what you planted last year and how you treated the soil (did you add something more acidic or alkaline). This may give you an idea of why your pink peppers are going purple. It might be a switcharoo but it might be a soil ph.

 

[blissful]

Salad Bar

Welcome to my salad bar.

The bunnies have been attacking it so we set up an obstacle course with lumber and 5 gallon buckets.

Those are radishes at the top, rocket (arugula) on the right, and black seeded simpson on the left.

Cilantro going to seed in the back right, and tango lettuce on the left.

there's some butter crunch lettuce trimmed by rabbits in the middle, and nice baby kale on the left.
There some dill which is slow growing in the back.


So, do you want some salad or greens? This is 10 steps out my kitchen family room door. I love having it close to the kitchen.

 

[larry_stewart]

Thats some nice lush greenery you got there.
My greens never look that good ( unless I grow them inside in the aquaponic system).

Once I had issues with rabbits. They were chewing up my string bean plants. So I figured I'd outsmart them and I put a 2 foot wire fence around the whole raised section with the string bean plants to keep the rabbits out. A few days later, I noticed the whole bottom layer of leaves on al the plants were missing, leaving only a canopy of upper leaves. I took a closer look, and not only was the rabbit inside the fenced in area with the beans, but she had given birth 2 4 baby bunnies which were feasting on all my plants. needles to say, I didn't get much string beans that year, but I created the ideal rabbit enclosure.

 

[blissful]

Larry, there was a movie, this genius, John Travolta, was growing his garden and he did the same thing. Phenomenon.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117333/


We actually have problems with chipmunks, voles/or moles/rabbits, and deer. We also have stealing problems with some neighbors but we can't figure out which ones. We have guns and traps and we aren't helpless, but they all keep putting up such a fight.


I knew we had a problem when I was out taking pictures and Dh asked me if *I had trimmed the butter crunch lettuce*......yeah, no. He asked me, 'Do you actually expect me to burrow under those bushes and find this rabbit?', and I said, 'yes do that'. lol

 

[larry_stewart]

I loved that movie with John Travolta.

We had a vole problem in the past, but mostly was in the grass.
We now have 10 cats ( 5 of them are out door cats) so our vole problem is a thing of the past. Ive seen a couple of rodents out by the chickens, I think the cats are getting a little lazy .

My biggest problem is my wife eating my tomatoes, string beans and okra. I haven't doing a trap big enough to catch her yet.

 

[pepperhead212]

My problem this year is rabbits, though I've caught a good number of squirrels, as well. Besidesthe greens, it seems like they are chewing off the syems of my pole beans at the bottom, and the beans above that die, of course. They can grow back, eventually, but they just get chewed off again. So I'm trying a teepee, of bamboo stakes, and some rabbit fence around each of them. I'll see what happens.

 

[dragnlaw]

pepper - I have no idea if this works with bunnies but I know it works with other rodents (rats, mice) Buy at the Dollar Store, a huge container of black pepper and sprinkle it around the bases.

If it doesn't work, please don't sneeze at me.

 

[pepperhead212]

dragnlaw : things like pepper, hot peppers, and any other aromatic repellents may work briefly, but the problem around here is that they keep getting washed away with all this rain! I do something every year - I grind up the oldest hot peppers in my pantry, and use those in some places where they won't wash away easily, like under my shed, and deck, and other areas I won't get in contact with them! I always have at least a half gallon, usually more, of ground up hot peppers - usually Thai and similar peppers, but I've also ground up ghost peppers and the like. Those I have just grown out of curiosity - too hot to use enough to get any flavor, other than heat.

 

[GotGarlic]

Bell peppers begin as green then go through the stages to turn it yellow or red. I don't recall any of them going through yellow TO red. Maybe, maybe not, maybe I'm not sure.

I'd say it was a switcheroo. But having said that, the soil conditions, more ph low or more ph high can vary the color of the fruit, much like hydrangeas.

https://www.gardenista.com/posts/magic-trick-how-to-make-your-hydrangea-change-color/

Soil that is more alkaline will produce more pink hydrangea, a more acid soil a more blue hydrangea. If you can extrapolate that with peppers, think of what you planted last year and how you treated the soil (did you add something more acidic or alkaline). This may give you an idea of why your pink peppers are going purple. It might be a switcharoo but it might be a soil ph.

The colors of peppers are determined by genetics, not by soil pH. Changing the pH of soil with amendments is just temporary. The geology of a given area determines the pH and it's not possible to change it permanently with a single application of some chemical.

Also, flowers and fruits are not the same and don't react the same way to treatments such as you describe.

 

[blissful]

Larry, This woman shows the unripe/ripening/ripe stages of peppers.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KZGNUPVvNc

 

[blissful]

My biggest problem is my wife eating my tomatoes, string beans and okra. I haven't doing a trap big enough to catch her yet.

I read that to DH, and he

 

[taxlady]

Cool video Bliss. Thanks for sharing it.

 

[larry_stewart]

Interesting video.
Mine has already made a change from green to purple, curious where it will go from here.

 

[larry_stewart]

I read that to DH, and he

I now have security cameras that overlook that backyard ( and garden) so this way I can catch her in the act.

 

[blissful]

I now have security cameras that overlook that backyard ( and garden) so this way I can catch her in the act.

It's not like you can then catch her on camera and call the tomato police.
Two years ago we had someone coming INTO our backyard and harvesting our asparagus. We put a jar out there, with a note that said that the asparagus was $14/lb, please leave the money in the jar.


Then last year we had 6 large green peppers stolen out of the garden, at the back corner and they had to come into our yard to do that. We never did figure out who the pepper stealers were.

 

[larry_stewart]

It's not like you can then catch her on camera and call the tomato police.

Oh yes I could and yes I would !!

 

[blissful]

That is funny.
But if you mix the police and tomatoes, vegetation globs, possible tea leaves, hydroponics, you get a mess. https://www.chicagotribune.com/nati...tomato-garden-police-raid-20170729-story.html

 

[larry_stewart]

I have a hydroponic system downstairs in the basement, I also tired making vinegar from wine ( the bottles are in the boiler room). Anyway, Every time someone comes to service out boiler, I always laugh cause they probably think Im a stoner, closet drunk with the plant system and the hidden bottles of hooch laying around.

 

[blissful]

Larry, I don't think that about you. I might worry about the electricity requirement of a hydroponic system, if it was really big, as a pointer to a pot growing system. The systems I've seen from people here, aren't very big. I mean like HOUSE sized big is questionable. We had some people a few miles from us with 2 vacant houses, with huge electric bills for the lighting, they were growing pot.



If canning food uses a lot of natural gas on my stove, and canning was illegal without a permit, I'd be in jail.

 

[pepperhead212]

I have a hydroponic system downstairs in the basement, I also tired making vinegar from wine ( the bottles are in the boiler room). Anyway, Every time someone comes to service out boiler, I always laugh cause they probably think Im a stoner, closet drunk with the plant system and the hidden bottles of hooch laying around.

LOL! The first time I had plants in my upstairs front room (laundry/seedling room), years ago, I had a VERY bright MH light just inside the window, and one evening, while I was out at my truck, I saw a policeman circle the block, and looked up at the light in the window each time, and I yelled to him the second time "Don't worry, they're all legal!" He stopped, and started laughing, because I knew what he was thinking! I told him that they were all veggies, and I asked him if he liked hot peppers. He said "Wellll, maybe a..." and I stopped him right there. I told him that he wouldn't like those! Then, I could see the thoughts running though his head, about who else he could give some too! I told him that they will be in the garden in the back in August (that was probably in April), if he goes through the alley in the back, and he can take some, when they get ready. I never heard from him, to see if he got any for anyone else.

Speaking of peppers, they are starting to ripen out here. And even habaneros are getting full sized fruits on them, which is really early for them, even though they are green! And there are hundreds of Thai peppers out there - those will ripen next, and they go in the dehydrator.
First ripening superchilis, 7-7 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Tomatoes are starting to ripen quickly, and my first cukes, as well.
7-7 harvest, with the first cukes from both varieties. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

And today, some larger tomatoes are ripening. And those Black Vernisage are ripening big time - I got a bunch today, a bunch in the bucket above, and there were a dozen or so before those. And amazingly, not a single split tomato. The two years ago that I grew it, and the reason I didn't grow it last season, was because so many had split, in the rain we kept having. But we have had a lot of rain this season, too.
Tomatoes 7-9 by pepperhead212, on Flickr