Next year's plan and a look back part 3

Pest Control

Given the amount of posts I wrote with the 'pests' label I obviously need to take a more proactive approach toward pest management. I've been researching my options and right now I'm leaning toward neem. It also has the added benefit of stopping powdery mildew problems, which destroyed my cucumber plant before I even started this blog.

Final Thoughts

Without a doubt the biggest difference between this year and the next will be my timing. This year I started my seeds at the end of April, 2 months later than I should have. I could have bought transplants from a local green market, but I was really interested in learning about the process from start to finish and I liked having control over what went into the plants so I'm happy with my decision. Next year I'll buy seeds in February to give them ample time to grow into transplant size by the beginning of May. I'm also only going to buy them online since every seed packet I bought in a brick and mortar store were ultimately the only plants that succumbed to disease. I'm not use sure why that happened, but that's how it worked out.

Overall I'm very happy I got into container gardening vegetables and I can't wait to start again next year.

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Next year's plan and a look back part 2

My eggplants didn't do so well this year, but that's not going to stop me from trying again. For my first attempt I went with the Bambino Hybrid. I grew 2 plants and both were super healthy. No pests or disease, lots of flowers and lots of little fruits. Unfortunately, and I don't know if it was something I did or didn't do, or if it was the environment or what, but I never got any of them to grow larger than 2 inches wide. There are only 2 things I can think of that could have been the problem; the container was not on a part of the roof that got enough sun or the container itself was not big enough for the plant to grow to its full size. Next year I'll try a different variety, a larger container and the sunniest spot on my roof.

Next year's peas will be covered with netting or something so that way I can actually eat some before the sparrows get them.

I would like to try to grow strawberries, but I'm concerned it would attract mice so that's a no go.

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Next year's plan and a look back part 1

With the season winding down I'm already thinking about what to plant next year.

I think the only vegetables I'll keep from this year will be 2 bell peppers: California Wonder and Orange Belle Hybrid II. Plus the hot pepper: Jalapeno Heaven Hybrid. These guys produced crazy amounts of fruit and showed great pest and disease resistance. I'll be looking for a different yellow bell pepper to grow since the ones I grew this year were kind of small.

The Sweet Baby Girl Hybrid cherry tomato will be replaced by a different variety. The plant produced a lot of fruit, even after it got wilt it continued to churn out tasty cherries, I'm just interested in growing something different now. I'm thinking Sun Gold.

The roma, on the otherhand, flat out sucked. It produced little fruit, never really overcame its wilt problem (unlike the cherry tomato), and it had a disgusting bout with hornworm caterpillars, but the real problem was the flavor, blah! I'll try a regular, main crop tomato next year.

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