By anonymous
Kibits Tomato & Mini Yellow Pepper
Submitted on Thu, 2009/01/15 - 9:51am
Last updated on Thu, 2009/01/22 - 9:18am
This will be the log of my second tomato & pepper experience in my Deluxe. A year ago I grew Early Girl bush hybrid tomatoes and Hot Cherry peppers from Burpee. This time I am growing Kibits tomatoes and mini yellow stuffing peppers. Both seeds came from www.amishlandseeds.com. I am using the AG master gardener kit and collected rainwater (we have well water at home which is a no-go for the AG plants).
I planted these guys on December 17th. I started with one pod of Kibits tomato, one pod of Pizza pepper, and one pod of the mini yellow peppers. After two weeks there was no sign of the pizza pepper and I had two strong Kibits seedlings, so I took out the peppers seeds and transplanted the smaller of the tomato seedlings to the middle pod. I did damage some of the roots in the process because it had already grown so much. I think that's why it's a little bit stunted compared to the one that didn't move.
After four weeks I pruned the taller of the two tomato plants just above the 5th branch, as directed in the AG manuals.
Below is the photo history :)
Tomato progress:
Pepper progress:
Thu, 2009/01/15 - 12:50pm
#2
Ooh, nice job on the lightboxes. You even separated them into three different lightbox groups! 
I gave up on that part and just leave all my lightboxes in group "page". 
I still want to make those easier...
The plants look happy! Yeah, I wouldn't worry too much about damaging a tomato's roots. Temporary setback. They love making more. During the summer monsoons, one of my outdoor tomatoes grew out roots from its stem bumps a foot or more up the main trunk. It never seemed to give up hope that I'd let it lie down.
P.S. I'm glad I'm not the only one collecting rain / snowmelt. 
Thu, 2009/01/15 - 9:50pm
#3
Nice, you do a great job and I'm glad to see you here. Keep it up!
Mon, 2009/01/19 - 1:15am
#4
I had the best little peppers today visiting my father! I saved seeds, though there weren't many. They tasted like the description, and almost but not quite looked like this "Mariachi" pepper. Sweet and only barely spicy. They were wonderful sliced with cheese and crackers. The stem-meet-fruit part was different, tho - very convex (jalapeño-like), whereas this picture shows a bit concave. The package said they were grown in Arizona.
Hmph. I've been pepper-plantless less than a month and I'm already developing a waiting list of sweet peppers to grow. 
Mon, 2009/01/19 - 12:15pm
#5
You had me fooled for a minute there, I thought this was a picture of what you had grown - was about to lavish praise-a-plenty on you... until I clicked the link. LOL 
Mon, 2009/01/19 - 12:49pm
#6
I wish. No, my peppers never looked nearly that good. 
Wed, 2009/01/21 - 4:15pm
#7
They're so pretty! I've seen pepper plants like that... I've only ever really had two-color pepper plants before. I love the rainbow effect
I know what you mean... I'm kind of regretting my decision to have two tomato gardens at once! Hopefully my mini yellow peppers will be productive. Luckily the hot pepper plants I brought indoors from the summer are still producing sort of extreme-miniaturized little peppers with no seeds (and extra hot!). The side nearest the Aerogardens is still getting enough light for some flowering Who knew?
Wed, 2009/01/21 - 9:46pm
#8
Nice!!! Congrats on your little hot pepper still producing!
Yeah, the yellow-orange-red peppers are very pretty. I've planted purely ornamental peppers before - white yellow red orange purple tiny peppers. Cute! For some reason they sold them in August or September, I think. Had a warm south-facing garden then - they did pretty well into Indian summer.
Wed, 2009/01/21 - 11:25pm
#9
BTW, Polar, is your yellow peppper turning yellow? The leaves, I mean. I think I added a ml or so of Flora Gro and/or Flora Micro to the AG tank every nute cycle, because the Amishland mini stuffing peppers kept going yellow-leaved on me. Or if you only have AG nutes and a Deluxe... the "booster" nutes might work. I tried using pure Flora nutes for a while, but I don't have the truncheon to measure and keep the mix stable, so went back to AG Large, enriched with just a ml here and there when they yellowed (pretty often).
Thu, 2009/01/22 - 9:32am
#10
Added some 5-week progress pictures. Mine seem about a week behind where yours were, Gisette, in terms of growth. They really do seem like petite plants compared to regular tomatoes (and particularly compared to my mega cherries! They've gotten enormous over the week!). They have such dainty little leaves. I wonder if I actually do need to replace the bulbs. They're just about a year old now and the plants do seem a little bit slow growing. I'll have to look in to the nutrient boosters as well... I didn't even realize they needed them!
I pruned the larger tomato plant a week ago, but I haven't touched the smaller one yet. I'll probably have to do it soon. I've raised the light hood one notch so far.
The pepper plant doesn't seem to be yellowing, it's just not growing particularly quickly 
Thu, 2009/01/22 - 12:50pm
#11
They do look like they're growing nicely. I've been shooting for replacing the bulbs about every 9 mos... I may need to replace my mother's, since I doubt she'll do it if I don't. I think the new bulbs do matter.
I'd think you'd see yellowing on the leaves (inc tomato leaves) if they aren't getting enough nutes. Maybe.
Fri, 2009/02/20 - 12:59pm
#12
Hey, Polar! I'm really curious how well your kibits tomato is faring. Mine's doing so poorly, I'm wondering whether to just terminate that garden and start over. It seemed like it was doing well, and then...
Hmm... it doesn't like my large images... I'll have to try a different webshots URL. I will mess with that a bit later
ETA: Fixed! Cool... I like the light box feature