Seed Swap and Garden Chats: Starting Onions and Peppers from Scratch!

In this episode, Karen and Sherva delve into the world of gardening, specifically discussing the exciting process of starting onions and peppers from seeds. They share their experiences trading seeds and exploring various pepper varieties. Sherva talks about the importance of organizing seeds and shares her plans to document her gardening journey in a dedicated notebook. They also discuss the challenges of labeling and keeping track of different seedlings. Additionally, they touch on the benefits of companion planting and share tips on starting seeds indoors. Learn about the process of starting and growing onions, including planting, caring for, and harvesting them. The episode concludes with Karen's excitement about experimenting with new onion varieties and her plans to grow Egyptian walking onions. Throughout the episode, they exchange tips, anecdotes, and gardening insights, creating an engaging and informative conversation for gardening enthusiasts.

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Transcript

So I hope everybody's getting excited about the garden like we are. We are talking about onions and peppers today, because it's time to start them. Believe it or not.
I spent all day yesterday with a friend. We trade seeds, and we must spend three, four hours just going through Pepa seeds because I have over 50 varieties. And she had not as many but probably 20. And then we have to google each one because I'm trying to say, Hey, do you want this one and she hadn't heard of it. So we have to Google it, see if we like it, and then you know, then bag it, put it away label it then on to the next it takes a while. I can't imagine actually, I just took her some tomatoes. I took her because she likes huge red tomatoes. And so I just selected some of those because I probably have 250 tomatoes or something. So I don't know how many days it will take the Google all of those for her because she's not as familiar with them. So I just selected sums up some that I knew she liked. And yeah, we're gonna get started on our pepper soon.
I think it I think that sounds really fun to me, as you're talking that the spending that time obsessing on something I know, some people might not think it is, but it really is. And you just learned all these different varieties and and you forget it, but you take notes, yeah, journal and oh, yeah, I'm
glad you said take notes. Because my son got me one of the things on my list was a binder to organize my seeds, actually, it's probably only going to hold my tomato seeds. And Karen printed me out a copy of this gardeners notebook. So this is going to go along in the front of my seed binder, and I'm going to start taking my notes of what I started this, you know, what they ate when it popped up. And, you know, when we try and plant it, I think this is gonna be really useful for next year is going to be useful for next year.
I like having the what worked and what didn't work section. I haven't had an actual formal notebook, but I you know, I've kept notes for a while. And, and because you forget, you just always forget now what was that that and then you have a written down? So that's really helpful.
Yeah, I, as you say, forget, it's kind of unrelated to, to this, but something I do every year, there's always a couple of them that I do this on and I say oh, I remember, I will save a particular seed. Maybe I already saved that seed. But this was a particularly nice tomato, or pepper. And I'm going through it. And I'm like, I'm not gonna waste the seeds. I'll save the seeds. And I'll put them in a container, set them up. And because it's the only one I did, at that time, I say, Oh, I'll remember. And I'll label it later. And then I don't remember. And because I've cut maybe three, four different ones that day. And I don't remember. And I have like three mystery seeds sitting right now at home. And I'm gonna try and plot one of each and see what a lot of them are so similar. I don't know if I'd be able to tell exactly which one it was.
That happened to me last year with you. And I know better, but it happened with some seedlings that didn't get labeled, or what I would do. They were seedlings, and I planted them out. And I put them in a pot of them and put them all together. Yeah. And then labeled the whole bunch of them. And I thought, Oh, these all go together. Yeah, until you move. And you know what happens? get separated, somehow. Moving around that hardening off?
Base, my good spot that is the absolute
worst. Yeah, I can't wait to try the winter so and minimize that. Although there are still some things of course, you have to like peppers and onions. Yeah,
I'm wondering about eggplants. I'm wondering if I'm gonna try some, but I'm definitely gonna still try every variety indoors. Because I don't know if they say a plant is like peppers, it takes a really long time. So I don't know, like, it wouldn't benefit you to really start hot peppers, you know, outside, I don't think because it takes so long to get going. But I'm gonna try. I may try one of each eggplant and see if it works. If it doesn't, you know, will matter because I will already have done it inside. But if that works outside this year, oh my God. That's one thing off my list that I'm gonna have to worry about. Yes, growing indoors and hardening off and everything. So I'm gonna give that a try. I may even try a couple of peppers and see how it works. If it works, I'm not expecting it to work, but who knows it won't matter because I will have done it.
That's how you find out you just try things. And that's why it's always good to do too much. That was just my motto.
If anybody has winter sewed peppers in this area, of course we're in zone six B. If anybody has done it, let us know. Because I would like to know for sure.
Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. Let us hear from you. I'm sure somewhere on one of our platforms, there are places to comment or, you know, to reach out to us so Yeah,
do please do I don't know if there is I'm sure there is. Yeah.
So peppers tell us Oh peppers. Oh
my god do it. They take a long time. So they seem to soak your seeds in tea. And that helps but I've never tried it. So I either tried it. So I will just moisten my soil. And you know, I'm going to start about four. I'm thinking I'm going to do 15 varieties of hot peppers. Well, actually, some will be sweet, because I do want to try making my own paprika. Next year, so I've gotten some don't ask me what they are. But I've gotten about four varieties of so called paprika, peppers, and I don't know, they say sweet peppers don't take as long to germinate. I know the one sweet pepper I did last year, which was the ash county pimento that did really well that germinated and produce the and I had it in a pot. I should have had it in a bigger pot, really. But I was like, I'm not really into hot peppers, but I'll give it a try. So I I did it and it. It did well. I think only did one and the one germinate. Yeah, yeah. So I'm definitely going to do some more paprika. So I'll probably do about three varieties of paprika. But then I don't know it's 12 Enough for hot. I don't know, I feel like I need to do more than 12 for her. Actually, I have to do for at least for sweet because I want to do the Tobago seasoning one as well, which is like another pimento but they use it. They grind it up with garlic and onions and different things and make something called Green seasoning and you keep it in a jar. So you marinate your meats with it and and stuff maybe similar to what people call chimichurri not the same. So don't tell me that's not how you make chimichurri. But it's that kind of thing you made it's kind of green and you make it up and you have individual super hot pepper in it. And it's they use it in Caribbean cooking. So the pimentos mild, so I'm going to do that. And then I'm going to do three paprika. So that four year that's really not enough left for me to do hot peppers. So who knows? Who knows I'm gonna get started on that. And you know, like a hot pepper can take up to 30 days to germinate sometimes, wow. Yeah, they take a long time. And then they slow growing. And I want to have mine ready by April like middle of April, even if I can't put them in the ground. By then because of the weather I want. I want them to be good and strong and a good size. Because you don't really see your trees don't start getting your plants don't start getting really full until about August of peppers. And then you know you only have a couple of months. So I like to you know to harvest and then have them re flower and harvest. Right. Right. So at least a couple harm. Yeah, yeah, I feel like they need to be inside at least three months before they go into the ground.
So, so deep and you'll have a lot of grow lights, right? Yep,
I'll start them on heat mats or sometimes just get a little too hot so I have to be careful with it. But I have heaters on the floor like floorboard heaters? Not yet. But what have you call these radiators? Yeah, those radiators? Yeah. That's not what we call radiators in England. But um, radiators are like those taller right as the slot kind of thing. But maybe this is American radiators.
It's a different type. We have those like you're talking to but these Yeah, these are floor level.
So these you can put the cups on top of and lay your cups on top of those to germinate. Because it will be warm. If you this isn't on right now, though, right?
It is it's on today. But it might not be on Yeah, but
you've done that. I can put them right probably only a little bit warmer than that I could. And you could line them up.
I never thought about that. Yeah, yeah, we have an oil burner at our house. It's an old house. And so along the floorboards is where the heat comes out for those water. Right. So you
what I do is when I put them into plastic cup to Germany, I cover them as well. So I'll put a piece of cling film over it and just tie a string. So that that you know to keep the heat in and, and the moisture. Yeah, and some Yeah, because you see the condensation on it. And some of those will germinate in seven days, if you're lucky, like tomatoes will be tooth one or two, like three, four days, most of them and peppers will take a week, 10 days and then some of them will take two three weeks to germinate. So I like to start early because if it's not going to germinate you'll know in time to do it again. Right. So if you start this at the end of January, and by the end of February it hasn't germinated you need to get some more in don't wait. Yeah, that's a good point. And you still have that will still give you you know, a decent amount of time for it to germinate and you know, perhaps sow seeds on that great so yeah,
yeah, I had last year I did um for different types of peppers I did Anaheim, the hot peppers anyway, for sweet for bell peppers. I used a variety called bell pepper to Yeah, king of the north and I got it because it was specifically bred to be more hardy and cooler climates like we have not cold but cooler. And they did very well actually, I've, I've done this for three years now I still have some seeds, and I saved some seeds which pepper seeds are so easy to save. You just have to let it get really ripe right to Yeah, to save those seeds. But anyway, back to the hot peppers. The jalapenos did great. I was swimming in jalapenos, and we absolutely love those. We made jalapeno poppers. I don't think I even cooked with a single one of them because every single one of them went to a jalapeno. I didn't have any
frickin hardly any jalapenos this year. Something who I went to yesterday we were trading seeds. I normally say she has a jalapeno farm. Like they go nuts. They're huge. And she has so many like I would go to a house and get bags of peppers. And last year her jalapenos did horribly, two very very few see
people should never ever compare because I mean we live we keep saying this we live five minutes from each other and our everything can be completely different.
Did you do you have opinions in the ground or inputs in the ground? Oh, mine were inputs. Yeah, my thoughts. I had one in the ground and that one and that one didn't grow much taller than this class. I had like a couple of tiny little jalapenos on it. I think what a joke. I
think what I remember is that and I should have written this down but I didn't. Jalapenos didn't take as long to germinate and they didn't take as long to fruit as all the others. The hobby narrows. I got one hobby narrow of out of all of them. Oh, I
get a ton of those. And those definitely take longer because jalapeno. Super hard to take longer to germinate. Yeah,
okay. I didn't know that. Yeah, good to know. I did some Anaheim, which are really mild. And they did. Okay. I again, I need to start earlier. I didn't start early enough. And then I did a banana pepper. But it wasn't very hot. When a very hot peppers
and a very hot announcing somebody. I have a bunch of those seeds. Somebody gave it to me when you trade seeds. And you asked for one particular seed sometimes they throw in some of us so
they took a long time to get right though. Really. I wanted to. You can pick them young, but I wanted them to go to get fully ripe to ripe yellow orange. I've seen them already. Yeah. And it took forever. But finally right before the frost, I got some that.
I've never seen yellow I've only seen. I guess I've only really seen them in the jaw.
But I have to confess I couldn't tell the difference. So I'm not sophisticated. my palate is not sophisticated. So next year, I'm not going to bother. But it was worth a try to see Yeah,
I'm not going to be growing those but like, nobody ever requests bananas, peppers, because they're so common. But um, I'll use those seeds just to trade with. So Right.
Yeah, that's great. Yeah. Well, I'm looking forward to the two more of the hot peppers. And I'm just going to I'm going to plant everything that I did because I still have seeds, but I'm really gonna focus on jalapenos because they were just so good. My husband could not believe
it. Some of your jalapenos. I don't know if it makes a difference. Because I I think I told you. I gave Read oxheart Tomato seeds to my that same friend last year. And hers were like over a pound. They were these beautiful big magazines, worthy. Peppers. I mean tomatoes. And mine were maybe maybe half that size. And the top of minds grew and kind of rotten on it very bizarre. And they were the same seeds and herbs were beautiful.
Isn't that interesting? Yeah. So my I got mine from Annie's organic seeds. And I don't buy from there very often. And I don't know if we should mention companies. I guess it doesn't matter. It's our podcasts, we could do what we want. Yeah.
We're not saying anything bad about the news. Yeah, there'll be happy within grades. I've always
had good luck with everything I've gotten there. In fact, we talked about garlic. That's where I got my garlic. So super excited about those. So all right, well, peppers. Anything else we need to know about peppers?
I can't think of it off. But you know, I'm crazy. And I'm add. So if I remember, I'll cap in while you're talking about onions.
Yeah, I'm not really experienced with peppers. And my experience. Well, I shouldn't say that. Bad experiences count. Right. That's where we learn. Yeah, so yeah, I had some bad experiences. I'm just going to be doing it earlier this year. Well,
I've never done onions so I don't know anything about onion. So stop from start to beginning. We'll end it. I mean, sometimes
you do when you do things that are so cheap and easy to get in the store. It doesn't matter. makes sense sometimes. And I think that's why a lot of people feel about onions. I can just go to the store and buy a big
Oh, no, I wouldn't I would love to grow like I would love to grow my own garlic. I don't know why I have such bad luck with garlic.
I there's a difference in garlic. I really think Oh, really that homegrown I yeah,
I would grow anything. You have to buy onions every week. So why wouldn't you? Why if you can? Well, it's so
much cheaper. So incredibly cheaper to start with seeds than even with the set? I mean, the sets are good. I've I've started with sets before.
And what's the difference in time in the timeline? Well, it's
another it's another several months. Oh, when you Yeah. So that's why
you have to start? When will this be able to harvest if you saw these today,
I start these today, what I'll do, here's how I do it, I will get an old plastic. Four inch, let's say three or four inches pot, and I want to make sure it's old. And even if it's splitting, that's fine. Because what you're going to do is you're going to end up cutting it off. So I want it to be one of those real papery thin ones. I don't want to be a thick, heavy plastic one. If I've got one that's partially ripped, I'll probably use that one. And yeah, but
how will you when you have to water it and everything? Don't you want? Yeah, if it's slipped?
Well, not, you know, terribly. So yeah. But if it's got a slit in it, I'll use that. Let's just say because I'm into recycling. So But first, I will sanitize it with a little bit of bleach water. I've learned that particularly onions and tomatoes are really susceptible to picking up funguses Oh, I
know that I know that tomatoes.
Well, the same with onions. So yeah, if I'm going to use an old one, not a new one, which I'll use a new one to whatever. But if I'm gonna use an old one, then I'll you know, sanitize it. I'll fill it with our potting mix. And I like using just the plain cocoa core with the either the vermiculite or perlite just simply those two things. And then I'll plant probably 3020 or 30 seeds on top and cover it with just a really light covering. And you know, I'll start like you, I'll start with a wet soil. And then I'll you know, spray mist it on the top. And then you can put it on heat maps, but my house is, you know, fairly warm. So it's not that necessary. So I'll just I'll only do a couple of pots, and
then a couple of pots that then that's like 60 Onion, right,
but Well, that's all you know, I can use that many onions. Yeah, you certainly can. Yeah. And that's kind of what I'm looking for is I want an effort to to half a year because they're the they're the things that are so easy to store. When you harden them off or whatever, you know, whatever they call it. You drive that you let them sit out and you drive now. Sure, yeah, there they store really well. And if they don't, what I'll do too, is I'll chop them all up. It's a It's midwinter, and they're starting to, you know, go bad. I'll Trump them all up and freeze them. Yeah, freeze them in a gallon size Ziploc bag. I've got some in there right now. Yeah,
actually, I'm dissing. Putting 30 in one pot. Sounds great now, but a problem I always have. And of course, I've never done 30 If anything in one pot. But the problem I always have is when time comes to separate them. And now you need 60 pots as opposed to the two pots that you had right and you need a ton of space.
Here's what's so cool about onions, you can leave them there as long as you just fertilize them now and then you just leave them there. They're not going to hurt each other until
you're ready to put them in. Oh, that's why you do have more seeds. Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, so that's why you cut the pot so you don't although they're really taught them today. It's hard to damage them you cut the pot open your unfolded. And then you just the roots are really wiry, they don't get tangled like tomatoes do like with tomatoes. If you tried to do that you would damage the roots, you kill your plants, but these they're almost incapable of being damaged and you just jiggle them apart. And by that time if you don't have a bunch of dirt in there if you use a really simple potting mix, that coconut core is really easy to pull apart anyway it doesn't get mad and no just pull them apart
how deep this up doesn't matter how deep the pot is. Now like what kind of root system today the
roots will even wrap around and curl they'll you know they have long those long, tough wiry roots, but that's okay too. They'll they'll put up with it. That's what makes it so easy to do that method. You can pop them up if you if you want to know
what right what you're saying sounds easy. So I'm willing to give that a shot. If I can just put them in a pot now with the soil and they can stay like that until it's time to go outside. Wow, that's great. And they
got a little early. You know they can because it can handle. Yes, I could put them out in April.
No Do they have to be because I don't want to That to take away from any of my other gardening because you're not I have limited space right? Cannot be in a somewhat of a shady area tool. Because I have where I have my flowers. I have space in that bed. I have what you call those things, dahlias and they come back up by themselves every year. I have space behind it, but it's kind of a tree over it. So it doesn't get good sunlight. Yeah,
they won't do as well. But they'll, you know, they'll grow. They do like full sun.
Maybe I can stick them in front in between the dollars there. Yeah, maybe I can stick something $100
They make really good companion plants because they're so stinky, smelly. They, they what's the word I want they the scent of whatever it is you're trying to protect. So I think they're really good for planting in between other things, especially things that are not root plants
and how much room how spread like well like a tomato in between something because they get so huge. But like how, how much room will one of those need,
I will plant them you know how they always say to plant and rows i i tend to plant things in diamond pattern because you just squeeze a few more in each row. I'll plant them about four inches apart. Four to five inches apart. Because these are not really huge ones. They don't get really big. I like
these because they're what are those yellow, white or red Walla
Walla they are yellow. Okay. But I like these because it's just my husband and I and I can't use a whole huge onion in most of my cooking. I just need a medium sized onion. So I think that's perfect for me. If you want really, really huge, you know, sweet yellow onions, these are probably not the ones for you. So
when will you harvest those? When will those be able to allow? I
will along the summer along as summer comes. I'll start end of summer and into the fall. I'll be harvesting them. But how how will I know when they're ready? They're just like garlic, the leaves will start to die. Oh, okay.
Well, at least I know the array. Right. So I
I think from my experience, I think onions are fairly easy. They don't require a whole lot. I put them in my raised beds because they like the nice loose. Oh, can
they go in my in between my potatoes and the totes? Because I have room there?
Oh, well. They're both root vegetables. So I don't know that. Oh, no, no. Okay. Although potatoes are deeper. Yeah, I've never tried that. That's worth a try. I'll these won't go as deep. You know, they sit they even once they start to get ready to even come up and kind of sit on top of the soil.
So when you say these will be rare because normally when people have is they garlic you harvest them all print if you planted them around the same time you harvest them around the same time. But if these you're seeing throughout the summer, and the fall, will if you if you put them in the ground the same time, they won't rot the longer they stay out there. Like if you take some out. I don't know, July, the end of July. The same plants are still going to be good enough to stay in the ground until September. Well, yeah,
as they start to mature some I'll just I don't harvest them all at once, like a lot of people do.
Unless they're all mud ready. They're ready. Okay. Okay.
So just start harvesting and take what I need. I'm not going to Yeah, you know, and then you'll know when they start to write a time to pull these.
Okay, so yeah, I've never done on you. So I've said that. Sorry. I'm asking questions. Yeah,
I think they're No, that's all right. I think they're fairly easy. And honestly, I've had more luck with the seeds than I have with the starts maybe I got a bad batch of starts that setting I got it from Home Depot. Oops.
Yes. From the big box store.
A big box store maybe they were old. He that's the thing you never know. And I'm kind of being
shouldn't be allowed to sell them. You right after certain
Well, that's true. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you mentioned garlic. The thing that I do with garlic is I will plant mine in the fall. So yeah, that's what you suppose that's what I've done. I'll harvest them in June. These won't be ready yet. So these are for end of summer, since I'm
just gonna try those today.
I'm awesome. Yeah, I'm
excited to try this. Do you only have the one variety? Yeah,
that's the only one I've got. Okay. I liked it. So sticking with it. And actually this this was the first I tried from seed. So now that I know that I like it, I might get some more seeds, but you know, I'm happy with these. So I'm kind of like that again. I'm gonna loyal when something works.
I love to try new things. And so I'm excited. I'll be really upset if they don't work, especially as you've got me so excited. It's that's how I was with the garlic. I was so excited. Oh my god, elephant, garlic, all these different varieties of garlic. I had my supplanted 100 Close.
Now, garlic would be really good to plant between and around things too. It's just a little more hard to keep track of in my mind, but it makes a good companion plant as well the same reason. In fact, I owe you Another type of onion Sorry, I'm doing the Add thing to Egyptian walking onions. Have you heard of those I've heard of it. I got some last year in, actually the year before planted them in the fall. And what they'll do is they will, the shoots will come up and the ball will grow. And in in one of the shoots in the middle, it will have four or five or even more little bulb rules. They call them a tiny little garlic bowl. Yeah, I've seen those and they'll get heavy and they'll fall down to the ground. And then they'll take root, and they'll grow a whole new plant. That's why they call them walking onions, they kind of walk around that way, that's cool. You can eat the greens, which is what I did a lot of this year is just like shallots, or I mean just like green onions. And any you can also dig up the bulb and eat that. And they're very, very strong. I noticed. Or you can use the little bobbles like little pearl onions, they're really good. So there yeah, there's all these different ways to use them. Or like I did, I just, I didn't actually, once they fell, I actually took them and planted them instead of letting them just all grow together. But when you plant one of them, the little bulb yours, you'll get four cloves of onion out of it. So you'll have to start and they'll they'll grow apart kind of like, you know, like beets do. Yeah, but you'll want to start, you know, pulling one of those and to let the other ones grow. So they're really fascinating. A few
years ago, well, two, three years ago, I had what they called wild onions growing in and they smell really good. They look really good. I didn't plant them. And when I pulled them up, they were like some of the bottoms were almost like purplish. And I posted them and somebody said oh, don't eat them. Don't eat them. They're not so I didn't need them. But they smelled
I have garlic onions. Oh, you my mother in law gave me those. And they they're also perennial, not because they'll grow from the st. Well, they will they'll grow from the same roots every year. They're like green onions only. They have a little garlicky taste to them. They're really good. And they're they're just very prolific, and then they'll have those white flowers and then, you know, nice, nice seeds. And then those seeds will just spring up everywhere. I accidentally, I had some in a pot by my front door, and I let it flower and I forgot about the seeds. And the next year I have little garlic onions everywhere. They're fantastic. So I picked them up and transplanted them and now they're everywhere. They're really good there. You just chop off the greens. They're indestructible. And, and they're really good. They're really good to put along the edge of your garden. They keep the critters out. Oh, I can imagine he likes those. And since they grow so Pro, so well and the seeds are everywhere. You might almost think they're weeds, but they're really great to have.
I wondered mine were good to eat. They smell really good. And they look good. But someone said that they Oh, those are poisonous. Those are wild onions or onions aren't poisonous. Yeah. I pulled them all out. And actually they didn't any of them didn't come back last year. Hmm, yeah. But you know what, uh, my backyard has tons and tons of birds. It could have been proper onion. So yeah, birds. But it was, there was a few of them. So well,
you know, what have you walk out on your grass and your lawn? And I have those kind of weedy onions everywhere, too. I don't know that. Yeah. I don't know that I would eat those. Because what's the weedy on you? And maybe was that it's just a weed on Instagram. And they had a proper bulb at the bottom. Yeah, a tiny one.
Not a big bulb. Well, this wasn't a big big bulb, but I'm
like, like a green onions have you're saying at
least that sighs Yeah. That size? Yeah,
I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know if I need it. Yeah, I
didn't. Because people said don't. I totally safe. Yeah. So. So
yeah, onions are really fun to grow. I'm looking forward to it. And plus, plus, it's something I can do right now. Like you were saying you have to die to get students
starting. I could not I find being indoors all winter long depressing enough. So just having these little plants just keep me going. It just gives me something to do. I check on them several times a day and,
you know, saying to them and talk to them,
I don't say to them, but I moved them around and I look at them and I hold them up to the light and you know, it's just, it's true. Yeah, they're doing something.