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Up here Chez Siberia might be located as far as the USDA maps are considered, in Zone 4 – but our geography makes it a Zone 3 for sure, which means that growing things like peppers, melons, sweet potatoes, and long season stuff just does..not…work very well. Even when we start plants early and get them in the ground, many times, the soil is just not warm enough for them and they just sit there and sulk.
And when we have had frosts as early as half way through September, we can’t have them sit there and sulk. We need them to get going right away so that they form flowers and make fruit. For years, we tried everything and then, stumbled upon something that just worked great – putting them into plastic milk jugs. Last summer, we had plenty of room in the garden, so I put the peppers back into the garden and got…NO PEPPERS. So, this year, as a demonstration, I’m growing them both ways.
Three of the same variety of pepper plants went into the garden and right next to them, the three plants in milk jugs. The soil and compost are the same. I’ll give them the same care.
And I’ll bet you a nickel that the ones in the milk jugs will do a lot better.
I’ll keep you posted.
This post and lots of other gardening and sustainable living ideas can be found at Aunt Toby’s Blog
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Do you plant the jugs into the soil or have them sit outside of it?
Toby,
What do you mean by ’in’ milk jugs? Do you mean ’under’ milk jugs, whose bottoms were cut away, like cloches?
I have an even better suggestion, although it costs some start-up money. You can make mini-greenhouse tunnels out of corrugated PVC or polycarbonate 26”x12’ panels, using plastic electrical conduit for ribs. Place three or four of the panels in parallel, overlapping by one U. Use roofing screws to attach them into one 12’x6’ or 8’ panel. Then use roofing screws to attach the panel to seven 6’ or 8’ length ’ribs’ of conduit, spaced 20”-24”. To attach the panel to the ribs at the edges, instead of screws, poke two holes in the panel, on either side of the rib, and thread wire ties around the rib, to leave room inside for rebar. Use short lengths of rebar to anchor down over a bed.
This can be erected over a bed to create a bed-sized hoophouse. Ours is 4’ wide and ~34” high. I’m short, so I can waddle under it. I’m sure you could get your sweet potatoes, peppers and melons started in good time to produce great crops, using this method.
We experimented with our first iteration last fall, and had lettuce until Christmas. The panel wasn’t anchored down, and it blew off, flying over our house, across the road, landing in our neighbor’s hay field, where it remained until March, at which point there was a healthy green growth of grass and clover under it, while the rest of the field was brown.
We retrieved it (entirely undamaged) and installed it in the kitchen garden, and started an early crop of lettuce and kohlrabi, and used it also for an assist in hardening off the rest of the garden seedlings.
(We use Tuftex polycarbonate panels.)
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Do you start your own sweet potato slips?
We often find that our sweet potatoes start to sprout too early, so we just go with the flow and put the slips into 2” pots of potting soil, and let them develop large root systems. This gives them a great head start. We plant them through X’s cut into black plastic @ 16” in a 4’x10’ bed (20 slips). This helps warm the soil, as well as mulch and retain moisture (we also place T-tape underneath, for irrigation) In a wet year we harvest 160 lbs!
Our peppers are too large to fit under milk jugs when we set them out. Row cover helps get them started. We start our cucurbits in peat pots on May 1, keeping them out in full sun (under the mini tunnel, unless it’s too hot), to give them a head start. Here in central PA we can set out by mid-May.
Read about the milk jugs and it reminded me of a “king of the Hill’ espisode where Peggy was trying to keep the schools organic garden going (as an alternative to Phys Ed since Bobby is anything but someone to participate in Phys ed) and then used chemicals to kill insects because she didn’t know another way to combat insects and the previous teacher who had the project told her he had used chemicals.
Anyway, couldn’t remember what they were doing with the milk cartons so I looked ‘milk jugs’ up with ‘organic gardening’ and found this which has good ideas.
Thanks Aunt Toby.
I fill the jugs full of soil and compost, plant the pepper plant into it and then leave the jugs on top of the ground. If I really think they need the help, I put them on the black asphalt driveway.
No..we aren’t using the jugs like cloches with the bottoms cut out – My problem is that no matter what I do to our soil up here(black plastic, clear plastic, whatever) the soil does not get hot enough to really get pepper plants off and running if I plant into the garden. So, I plant them into the jugs and leave that on top of the ground – if the summer is not warm, I have even put the jugs on the black asphalt driveway to help get them the warmth they need.
As always clever, inexpensive and excellent advice.
I helped a friend build raised beds today and we laughed –the last time she did it they were on the ground now they are built up for less bending and kneeling.
I saw something like this written by a Japanese gardener in Oregon who has,basically the same issue – it just doesn’t get hot enough in Oregon to grow what he wants so he built a big box lined with black plastic for melons and ran the vines up ropes to a framework at the top, about ten feet off the ground.
Back when I had a garden, I had excellent luck with growing peppers in containers, even in my Zone 3a region. I put them on the cement pad next to the (south-facing) garage wall. I even got eggplants to produce there. I had to water like crazy, though. Once it started cooling off in fall, I put the pots in a sheltered spot between my house and the neighbour’s, and they managed to survive several degrees of frost without any signs of damage.
Any advice for a first time attempt at eggplant and butternut squash? I’ve got the seedlings bursting out of the yogurt cups I started them in and am planning on putting them in the ground (raised beds for a few, then I’m not sure where for the excess) tomorrow. Thanks!
Hey – exactly my point, though I just have an asphalt driveway rather than a cement pad to put them on.
Could try a protected southern exposure with a lithic (rock) mulch, too; the mulch will hold in moisture and heat as well. A dark-colored smooth river stone might be easy to work with and collect a lot of heat.
Might also try solarization of the soil, using clear polyethylene plastic over moist soil, through which sunlight can penetrate while holding in both heat and moisture. If the “sulking” you’ve described is not because of heat but because of some virus, solarizing the soil might also help to kill the infectious agents (while killing weed seeds).
I’ve never had luck in this Zone 4/5 area with habaneros and Scotch bonnets, but boy, can I grow cayennes and Thai dragons in scary amounts. Going to try datil peppers this year, but I don’t have a lot of hope.
Wasn’t “Under Milk Jugs” a play by the famous gardener Dylan “Green Thumb” Thomas? :)
My only questions regarding jug planting are: A) How do you keep them watered properly, especially during hot spells (if you have them); B) Don’t they get rootbound, especially if you plant them deep in the jug?
For a similar challenge, try growing hot weather stuff in Seattle some time, where you never know if there’ll be a “summer” at all. Last week we had two 90° days, then it plummeted 25°. I’ve managed to get peppers, tomatoes, and once even loofa to come in around here. But I’ve balked at okra and artichoke, even though the nurseries sell artichoke starts. This year I’m taking a chance on eggplant. Everything’s planted on a south facing side of the house, so it gets as much sun as Seattle can muster.
The real issue is not so much the sun, but the heat-degree days. Certain plants require x amount of heat-degree days above a minimum level or they just won’t produce.
Easiest “greenhouse” I’ve ever built with minimum effort and materials, (assuming 10-foot rows): Drive 2×2 or 2×4 stakes into the ground at the ends of your rows. Make sure the stakes extend three to four feet above ground level. Secure a 10-foot stick of 3/4″ or 1″ steel electrical conduit to the tops of the stakes. Drape clear visquine over the conduit. Secure the visquine to the ground with rocks, sticks, mini-stakes or whatever. Voila!
I use steel because it will support the weight of my tomato plants. I just string ‘em up to the pipe, which beats having to stake and tie them. You can use wood or PVC or anything that spans the stakes if you’re not concerned about weight. (PVC will bend when it warms up, so stick with Schedule 80, which has thicker walls, for long runs. Or put another stake midway in the run.) Using this system, I once had tomatoes into December, well past several frosts. Finally took a hard freeze to kill ‘em.
My only questions regarding jug planting are: A) How do you keep them watered properly, especially during hot spells (if you have them); B) Don’t they get rootbound, especially if you plant them deep in the jug?
A – well, one of the advantages of using plastic milk jugs is that you can see the soil and the roots – and you can lift it by the handle to see how heavy or light it is getting. I just check ‘em every day. B) – yes, they do get rootbound and what I do is make compost tea(take a bucket of water and throw some compost or manure into it) and water them with that.
Have you tried this with other plants? Sounds like there are many possibilities.