The Cheap Vegetable Gardener

Giveaway: $1354.83 worth of fresh produce

15 years ago giveaway, harvest, seed saving, seeds

Ok there is a little catch, you have to plant the seeds and grow the produce yourself and have perfect weather and unlimited space to do it.  Over the past season I have intentionally harvested more seeds than I needed just for the purpose of sharing them so here is your first chance to get some of CVG’s seed stash.  This should be a good addition to your current selection of seeds or great for a person just starting out next year.

The harvest values were calculated using my most profitable vegetables in your garden post, so numbers are estimated but I tried to be as accurate as possible.  Below are also links to my harvesting techniques of most of the “Self” seeds below (just realized I never wrote up cilantro and radish seed harvesting so expect to see these soon).

CVG’s Seed Stash (Variety Pack)

As always just enter a comment and a winner will be randomly selected using my patented “CVG’s Contest Winner Pickorama” on Jan 1st, 2010.  This contest is open to everyone inside/outside the United States pending any export/import of regulations of sending seeds, which I am still doing some research on.

Tags: cheap, cilantro, garden seeds, outdoor plants, pepper plants, tomato plants, vegetables

EcoSmart Garden Insect Control Review and Giveaway

15 years ago aphids, giveaway, peppermint

One of the major disadvantages to growing plants indoors is the lack of beneficial insects.  In a larger environment like a greenhouse you could release some ladybugs to initiate an aphid slaughter though the thought of 1500+ ladybugs investing my garage where my grow box resides does not seem like a good idea.  I am always open to trying out new products so when EcoSmart contacted me if I was interested in trying out their garden insect control products I jumped at the opportunity.

I explained the problems I have with pests in my indoor growing and they suggested “Garden Insect Killer” Their documentation states, “Kills and repels garden insects and mites. Kills exposed eggs, larvae and adult stages.”  This seemed to be exactly what I was looking for so once the first onset of pests arrived I applied liberally to tops and bottoms of leaves and so far the results are great.  Not only were this effective on the little buggers, given the selection of Rosemary, Peppermint, Thyme, Clove oils it actually makes the garage smell pretty nice as an added bonus.

Want to try this out for yourself the great people at EcoSmart have offered to give away a bottle of any of their products.  So under normal rules, enter a comment and a winner will randomly be selected and sent a bottle of their choice.  Comment must be submitted by Friday, December 18th 2009 at midnight (Pacific) to be considered for the drawing.  Good luck.

Tags: growbox, outdoor plants, pepper plants, peppermint plant

Heating row tunnels and grow box with Christmas lights

15.1 years ago cheap, indoor growbox

Currently it is 16 degrees outside and given my grow box containing jalapeno peppers is in my unheated detached garage, which can bring some challenges.  Like most plants, peppers will continue to grow in the range of 60 to 90 degrees, but thrive in 70 to 90 degrees.  With the lights on the grow box gets to about 60 degrees but drips to the 50’s at night.  This will result in plants having stunted growth and begin dropping blossoms before they can start bearing fruit.

My solution, a string of green mini Christmas lights.  Just to clarify these are your typical small bulb Christmas lights not LEDs, given the efficiency of LEDs they do not product much extra heat which is what I am going for here. I also chose green Christmas lights because plants do not absorb this wavelength very well so they can be left on at night to keep heating while still letting the plants “sleep”. 

Of course results will vary depending on the size of your grow box or outside row tunnel, insulation, and exterior temperature, but I am seeing 8-10 degree increase in temperature with a single string (50 bulbs)

I am always open to new ideas to safely, cheaply and efficiently heat my grow box or row tunnel so if anyone has any other suggestions please add a comment.

Tags: cheap, grow lights, growbox, led, outdoor plants, pepper plants

How to save Bhut Jolokia peppers seeds

15.1 years ago Bhut Jolokia, ghost pepper, harvest, seed saving

I was lucky enough to win some Bhut Jolokia pepper seeds from Red Icculus.  In case you haven’t heard of these they are the hottest peppers on earth having a heat rating of over 1 million scoville units.  Just to put that into comparison jalapenos are around 5000 scoville units.  One property of this pepper is the way the heat builds after consumption, on first bite it is spicy but takes a few seconds until you really feel the burn which is where it gets the name “ghost pepper.”

Now when dealing with these peppers I recommend using extreme caution I have some pain in my nose hours later just from breathing around these things so vinyl gloves and possibly even a mask would be recommended.

Once you have the safety precautions in place the process is actually very simple.  Just break them up and pick the seeds up and store in a homemade seed packet.  Now eating the pepper whole is not a challenge I want to take though saving the dried pepper flakes and adding a pinch so some chili might be up my alley.  Though if you want to watch some people in pain taking see these videos of people taking the Bhut Jolokia pepper challenge on YouTube.  Here is my favorite and my inspiration to not take the challenge.

I am planning on trying to grow one of these using my new hydroponic setup, well at least once I get around to building…so stay tuned.

Tags: cheap, garden seeds, pepper plants, vegetables

Pickled jalapeno peppers

15.2 years ago jalapeno, peppers, recipe

My jalapeno peppers did great this year.  So good I didn’t really know what to do with all of them.  After making some salsa and having several mature red ones as snacks in the garden, I still have about two pounds that I didn’t want to go to waste.  After a little thought I decided to make some pickled jalapeno peppers.

CVG Picked jalapeno pepper recipe

Directions:  Mix ingredients and bring brine to boil.  Either slice or leave the pepper whole.  If you choose to do whole peppers, be sure to poke them with a toothpick so they won’t collapse.  Fill jars with jalapeno peppers and then fill with hot brine up to 1/2 in from the top of jar.  Boil for 10 minutes and feel free to pick some pickled peppers as fast and as many times as you want this summer.

Tags: garden seeds, led, pepper plants, salsa garden

Peppers sprouting in grow box (time lapse)

15.3 years ago indoor growbox, peppers

Well slightly more exciting than watching grass grow but for something that takes several weeks to complete is definitely worth a watch.  If you watch carefully you can even see the automatic watering in action.

Joining the sprouts is a mature pepper plant which has been flowering and daisy seedling my 7 year old planted hoping it will flower as well.

Tags: garden seeds, growbox, outdoor plants, pepper plants