[allie]

My zucchini died a slow death after being badly damaged in a storm. I know people always talk about not being able to give the things away but I haven't had that problem. We only got 5 off it before the damage was done.

On the bright side, we planted some yellow squash last week and yesterday there were 3 little sprouts coming out of the ground!!

Our bell peppers are doing horribly but we've harvested several pounds of jalapenos and a few banana peppers. I'm wondering if watering the peppers every other day is too much? I don't really know but the tomatoes and eggplants (just got 2 from the garden on Tuesday) are doing wonderfully. The kids and I had fried green tomatoes last night!

[KYHeirloomer]

It's not your watering schedule, Allie.

Bell peppers are problematical at best. Typically, during the hot, humid summers, they go into a sort of stasis. They don't die. But they don't grow, either. Any flowers they produce die sterile.

Then, as nights start to cool, the plants take off. Often without enough time for pods to mature.

That's why I gave up on bells, and now grow other types of sweet peppers. They don't seem to have the same problems, and grow just as prolifically as hot chilies.

We had fried greens the other night ourselves, topped with crab cakes and remoulade sauce. Fantastic!

[allie]

Now that you mention it, when I grew bells a few years ago, they didn't do well until just before the first frost. By then, of course, it's too late! At 89 cents each for greens and over $2 each for reds or yellows, I was really hoping to get some this year. I can actually buy a 16 oz frozen package of red, green, and yellow peppers with onion already choppped for 99 cents.....less than I pay for the fresh equivalents. I just prefer the fresh ones and love to chop myself. lol

I used some Himalayan wax peppers in a dish last night and they worked equally as well as the bells. At least I have that option!! I need to get some gloves because my hands burned for hours after deseeding and chopping them. lol Tonight is ABTs on the grill so they'll be burning again but it's worth it!

[DC Sunshine]

Originally Posted by allie

I used some Himalayan wax peppers in a dish last night and they worked equally as well as the bells. At least I have that option!! I need to get some gloves because my hands burned for hours after deseeding and chopping them. lol Tonight is ABTs on the grill so they'll be burning again but it's worth it!

Allie,
I've heard a rumour that if you oil your hands - just normal veg oil - before dealing with them it helps stop that burning. Dunno if its right, and I reckon it'd prob make them a tad slippery - but just a suggestion.

Anyone else heard tell of that?

[OregonYeti]

I haven't heard of oil helping, not to say it doesn't, but acid such as vinegar helps the burn from hot chiles.

I really like zucchini, as long as they're not monsters. Sauteed with just a little dried oregano and salt and pepper is nice.

[allie]

I cleaned japs last night and stuffed them with a cream cheese and pineapple mixture then wrapped in bacon and threw on the grill. They were really good bu I just thought my hands burned from the other peppers! YEEEOUCH! lol I wish I'd read about rubbing oil on them before starting, that might have helped. I tried everything.......sour cream, milk, lemon juice, vinegar, washing in Dawn with hot water (saw that online not a good idea!), and even soaking in a bleach solution. Nothing but time worked. lol

I now have another squash plant peeking out of the ground!! I'm so excited! I love squash and zucchini so was very disappointed when my plant started dying. I should be able to harvest for at least a few weeks before the first frost.

[LS1Bait]

Allie,
Try to pin the zuchhini plants to the ground with a piece of coat hanger.

[KYHeirloomer]

You've got me confused with that one, LS1Bait.

What would be the point of it?

[allie]

It's already dead now but my squash are looking great! Les came home with a huge basket of veggies from the garden last night. About 20 Romas, probably that many or more of the Early Girl and Beefsteak, 25 or so japs, 12 bell peppers, 6 banana peppers, 1 eggplant (6th since Friday), and 8 more cucumbers. We gave part of them to his SIL (the garden is shared with his brother and another family). There should be another large harvest at the end of the week so I'll be canning tomatoes then. I'm dehydrating the japs for use this winter. Last week I made cucumber icebox pickles so will use some of the cukes to replenish those as they are eaten. There aren't enough to really make up a batch of pickles right now since we're sharing.

It's amazing how those bells suddenly took off! I contribute it to the 13 inches of rain they got there over the past week and a half.

Sorry this is so long but I do have a question! Does anyone know what causes the tomatoes to split? The Romas aren't doing that but all the others are. Is it too much water or the extreme heat we had the last two weeks?

[greyeaglem]

Are your peppers planted in a hill like for squash? They like regular watering but also need to be well drained. If the nights get too hot they don't do very well either. We had a huge garden when I was a kid and I really hated all the work, but now I wish I'd paid more attention. We always had peppers though, and I don't remember them being a problem. The tomatoes splitting comes from heavy rain followed by heat. Some of the newer varieties are more resistant to it, but if you plant an heirloom variety they're more prone to do that and there's nothing you can really do about it. Sorry about your zucchini. That's the best part of summer.

[KYHeirloomer]

Allie,

The splitting you describe comes from inconsistent watering. Your plants went through a period of getting little water, followed by a sudden flood. The tomatoes, absorbing that water, expanded faster than the skin can stretch; and so it splits.

The only problem is if they stay on the vine that way. Sometimes they scar-over fairly quickly. Most of the time, however, the splits are an entry point for bacteria, and the tomatoes then rot.

And, btw, the idea that heirlooms are more suseptible to this than hybrids is nonsense. The splitting is a physical reaction to conditions, not a genetic thing. Proof of the pudding: Your Early Girls and Beefsteaks split, and they are hybrids.

Now, the fact is, some heirloom varieties are prone to cracking---with either concentric or radial cracks as the case may be. This is a genetic characteristic which has nothing to do with the problem you just encountered. Indeed, there are cases where we can tell one variety from another just by the pattern of the cracks.

[allie]

Last week, we had temps in the low to mid-90s with heat indexes near 100 and that area got about 13 inches of rain as well. I figured that was what contributed to the splitting. We're in northeastern Indiana so those temps aren't typical here. No, we didn't hill up the peppers like squash. I had no idea to do that. My dad always grew a huge garden down in SE Georgia when I was a kid and teen. He never hilled his peppers and had no problems with productivity. Then again, he may have also planted different varieties because of the different zone and his growing season was a lot different from ours.

We planted Early Girls, Beefsteak, and Romas. There may have been some other varieties as well, I can't remember. We have several cherry tomato plants here at home and a few of those split but most are really young and green still. The romas are not splitting and really producing ripe tomatoes right now.

Edited to add: When Les notices they are splitting, he goes ahead and picks them. We've been eating fried green tomatoes and if they've already scarred over, I let them continue to ripen here at home.