Trax Veggies 2014

[Trax]

Gardening has been kinda limited this summer but I am growing a few things and I plan to add more. Here's a few of the edibles - and one house plant.

The voodoo Lily corm. I potted it up today so I'll be posting more photos when it comes up. The corm has 3-4 small healthy stems starting so it should be okay.

This is called a Blue Java banana plant. There's so many people and small cafes growing bananas here that I was able to buy one locally. It really helps since I can get fast replacement pups if anything goes wrong with this one. The second photo is the new leaf. The plant is as tall as a shovel (about 3 feet).
Btw, all these photos in this thread were shot yesterday. I planted the banana before sunset.

The Brandywine, Beefmaster, and Cherry tomatoes are about a foot taller than the shovel so about 4 feet tall. They're loaded with blooms and small green tomatoes!

Nothing ripe yet but there should be ripe tomatoes soon! Here's some of the blooms.

/IMG]

And here's some of the Cherry toms!

And this is either a Beefmaster or a Brandywine. Dunno which but there's so many, I know both types have tomatoes starting!

Now the peppers! I wanted close shots of those so I did the whole layout in 3 photos (far-left, middle, and far-right). I've also added a chart I made about 3 weeks ago to show what each row is. Since we got massively overloaded with tomatoes last summer, I didn't plant as many peppers.
Somehow I think we'll get massively overloaded anyway, lol!
You can see that the Jalapenos are struggling to survive but they are making a comeback. I'm not sure what happened to them.
Btw, I hope to be adding Ghost peppers (Bhut Jolokia) and Trinidad Scorpions soon!

And finally the Apache blackberries. They're huge, have lots of flavor, but not very sweet. But a little added sugar and they are awesome! We got a huge harvest this spring and I wish I'd taken photos because now all that's left are a few small strays. But the plants are more than a shovel tall (about 4 feet)

I'll be adding more photos in other threads later. I plan on having a huge collection of projects this year!

 

[Trax]

Okay, the 1st banana plant photo didn't work so I uploaded another photo. Also, now that I get how the photo function works in posts I'm gonna try for a larger image size.
Here's the banana plant before and after I planted it.

Omg that's awesome! Just click to see the massive photo!

 

[RonsGarden]

Very nice Joss!!

 

[Flower4Yeshua]

WOW! great looking garden .... all my ghost pepper plans died when I transplanted them outside...the weather here go so weird.. I have a friend that is to send more seeds. So I may just grow them inside

 

[Wombat]

Wow Trax that's a great collection of plants you have there all looking pretty healthy too. At this rate you'll be setting up a roadside stall!

 

[Randy]

I was wondering what you and/or Debe were going to do with those 'ghost peppers'. Those dudes are HOT. I like hot salsa but I'm not about to play with those things.

 

[Flower4Yeshua]

Randy I have a lady who will buy the peppers . I was going to try one in a batch of salsa just for you sir ;-)

 

[Trax]

Thanks! I'm getting really happy about this summer.
Hey Wombat. Awesome looking banana plant! Is that a flower on top?

Ghost peppers are scary, I've seen 2 people eat them. They had muscle spasms and were seriously sick for the rest of the day. Not good.
But if you wanna check out the flavor of any hot pepper, without the heat, here's a guaranteed method for removing most or all of the heat.

TOOLS

Latex gloves
Cutting board
Small sharp knife
Small spoon
Olive oil
Any 80 proof (or higher) Liquor - Tequila is preferred but anything works
A lowball glass - or any glass that's big enough to hold the peppers

HOW HOT IS YOUR PEPPER?

You can use this list to see how hot your pepper is.
http://www.ushotstuff.com/Heat.Scale.htm

It's a huge list and it's not alphabetical but you can copy-&-paste it into a Wordpad document. Then you can use the Wordpad "Search" function to find the pepper.
If the pepper has a Scoville heat rating that's less than 100,000 you can skip the last step.

ABOUT THE HEAT

The heat is in a lipophilic substance called capsaicin. That substance is in the seeds, the white inner flesh, and blisters on the inner skin of the pepper.

THE PROCEDURE

Wearing the latex gloves, cut out the stems of the peppers. Next, cut them in half along the length of the pepper.
Now cut out the seeds and the white inner flesh. That flesh is no huge loss cause it's bitter.
Using a spoon, scrape the inner wall of the pepper. The capsaicin is in the blisters along that wall and they all need to be crushed to release the chemical.
Now rinse the pepper under running water.
To dilute and loosen the capsaicin, rub the inner wall of the pepper with a little olive oil. Scrape the wall again with the spoon. After another good rub, rinse the pepper under running water.
To dissolve the capsaicin, pour a little 80 proof liquor on the inner wall of the pepper. Give it a good rub down then rinse it under running water. Rinse the pepper again with the liquor.
At this point, most or all of the heat should be totally gone.

But if the pepper rates 100,000 or more on the Scoville heat scale, you will need to use this last step:

After following the procedure above, put the peppers in a glass and pour in enough of the 80 proof liquor to just cover the peppers. Leave them soaking in the alcohol for up to 3 hours then rinse the peppers off and use them.
Caution: Soaking overnight can give the peppers a nasty taste so stick to the hour by hour procedure.
You can remove the peppers at any time during the 3 hour cycle, depending on how much heat you want:
After 1 hour - The heat of a Seranno pepper
After 2 hours - The heat of a Jalapeno pepper
After 3 hours - Very little or no heat

I'm going to use that procedure on my Ghost peppers to see how they taste. Without a trip to the hospital! LOL!

 

[RonsGarden]

Sounds way too dangerous for me!!!

 

[Randy]

I have used the habanero peppers and they have proved to be sufficiently hot for any use I have. I have never had the guts to pop one of those in my mouth by itself.

 

[Wombat]

Trax yep it's the first flower the plant has had but it's the wrong time of year, dunno what's going to happen. Hopefully it'll survive and produce some nanas for me providing we don't get a frost. Also I think I'll stick with my regular chillies thank you.....if I tried one of those ghost ones I'd need the 80% proof liquor myself to help me get over it lol!

 

[Trax]

LOL! I would prolly want a lot of tequila if I ever ate a ghost pepper! Good luck with the banana flower!

My banana is greening up and it looks like a possible huge harvest when the tomatoes start ripening.
Also, the Hungarian Yellow Wax peppers are producing peppers! Those have about the same heat as a Jalapeno pepper so they're tons milder than a Red Habanero.

The Hungarian Yellow Wax peppers on 2 different plants:

The banana plant and the new leaf are a lot greener and healthier now!

Still waiting for the Voodoo Lily to sprout.

 

[Wombat]

They're all looking really healthy, hope the weather is kind to you till harvest time.

 

[Randy]

It's hard to believe you can grow banana trees in Oklahoma, Trax.

 

[Trax]

@ Wombat: It would be awesome to get a flower and bananas before fall but I might need to get an older plant next spring for that. But it looks cool and since this one will grow about 16-20 feet, it will make a lot of shade this summer.

@ Randy: You'd be surprised by how many banana plants there are in Oklahoma. They dont survive long enough to make bananas but I know 5 kids that grow them in their yards and they even sell them at the Farmer's markets here. When I go to the Monte, I sit under under banana trees on the patio to eat. There's also a virtual banana forest about 8 blocks from here, a kid with bananas and a bamboo forest, and somebody's even growing them in the downtown area. I think everybody wishes they lived in Hawaii, lol!

I'll be getting 2 pineapples this weekend to plant. Those are getting popular too. I'll post photos of those when they get started.

EDIT:

My peppers are taking off! I now have peppers on the Orange Bell, Cayenne, Ruffled Pimiento, and Purira Chili plants too.
This list will give you an idea of the heat on these peppers. The Jalapeno is added to the list for comparison:

Orange Bell - 0
Ruffled Pimiento - 0
Jalapeno - 2,500-8,000
Hungarian Yellow Wax, Hot - 5,000-10,000 -- There's also a sweet variety of these.
Long Thin Cayenne - 30,000-50,000 -- There's a sweeter thick variety of these.
Purira Chilie - 50,000-100,000 - About 1/4 as hot as a Red Habanero.

I don't have any Jimmy Nardello's sweet Italian frying peppers yet but I do have one that's almost as good - Cubanelle peppers. They're epic frying peppers too and the heat is only 300-1,000. Still waiting for those to make peppers.

I also added 2 pineapples and purple pod beans to my veggies collection. More about that later.

Some photos I shot today.

The Hungarian Yellow Hot Wax peppers are finally ripe and ready to eat! 5,000-10,000 heat.

Orange Bell. 0 heat.

Ruffled Pimiento. It's a lot like a Pimiento but with red splotching. 0 heat.

Long Thin Cayenne. 30,000-50,000 heat.

Purira Chili. 50,000-100,000 heat.

 

[Wombat]

They look great Trax.......I've got 2 pines in pots and they're not happy at the moment as it's so cold but I love them as they need hardly any care and I only water them when I think of it lol. You should have no trouble with them, you can even bring them inside in winter as long as you have a sunny spot.

 

[Randy]

I didn't plant any peppers this year but my daughter did. I think the only ones she planted though are bell peppers.

 

[Trax]

@ Wombat. Cool! Just keep them warm and in a sunny window and they should do awesome! I'll be bringing some of mine in this winter. I wanna see how long I can keep them going. I heard they can grow for years!

@ Randy. Bell peppers are awesome if you stuff them and pop them in the oven! And for spicing other stuff too. Good luck with yours.

I checked the pepper garden today and I have another new pepper. This time it's a Jalapeno and about 4" long! Can't wait till the others start producing peppers.

 

[RonsGarden]

All I planted are bell peppers ....yellow, golden, red and orange......
Will be using them to make pepper relish...

 

[Randy]

That sounds good, Ron. My standard salad on Fridays contains one of the colored (other than green) bell peppers diced up in it.