Good growing season so far

I planted a number of Hungarian Hot Wax pepper plants this year. I have six on a table near the edge of the balcony and another five in my elevated cedar box. Maybe I should have only planted four in that container. Those also share space with a rogue wax bean plant. I seeded that container with beans in the spring but none sprouted.  The seed was kind of old so I didn't expect much. After I planted all the peppers one of the seeds decided to pop up. So I let it go. It has a handful of beans on it now that need to be picked. All of the peppers need more time to ripen.

The cedar box also has a contraption I created to water the plants. A bucket below the container has water in it and a small pump. Once a day the pump fills the jug mounted just above the right side of the container. Water leaves the bottom of the jug through a pair of 1/4" waterlines that feed several drippers that slow drip water onto the soil. The pump is controller by a little electronic controller box I made that sits under the container, along with a 12v battery to power the pump.

The cucumbers are forming a nice dense wall on the balcony. Three containers (totes) with a pair of plants in each. Probably could have kept it down to one in each container.  Lots of cucumbers to harvest now. But the vines have nowhere else to grow. I'll have to find some more sticks and things to extend my trellis.

First Cucumbers

The first cucumbers of the summer. My family wants me to turn these into bread and butter pickles and I should be able to produce a couple of jars from these.

Hungry bugs

They look like aphids but they don't move like aphids. They don't eat like aphids. And they didn't last as long as aphids. I see these little red mite like things running around on my plants and containers every year. Not many though. And they never last long. And by this time of year they are usually gone. They never seem to cause any harm. But this is the first time I've seen them congregate like this. They really like the pepper flowers but that's about it. I don't see them lingering anywhere else for very long.

I put my cucumbers out early enough to get a few female flowers to set fruit. I've got a few cucumbers like this now. The plants are thriving in the heat as are the tomatoes and peppers. No spider mites, mildew or aphids yet.

A Slow Start

I started melons and cucumbers. I didn't know if the melons would take because the seeds were kind of old but they did. But something wasn't right. Leaves were browning and the plants stunted. So I didn't plant them and instead planted some tomatoes I started as part of a backup plan. The cucumbers I started turned out ok though and I have some growing on the balcony now. As well as some hot peppers. So that's it for this season: cucumbers, tomatoes and hot peppers. Keeping it simple this year.

I'm loving this grow light

After a couple of weeks I can really see the difference between plants grown in the window and plants grown under my grow light. No surprise, really, but I wasn't convinced that a handful of blue and red LEDs in a cheap grow light fixture where going to be good enough. Guess I was wrong. There are three seedlings in each pot. The one from the window is on the left. It's a bit more stretched out because it doesn't get overhead light. This was the best pot from the window. Some of the other plants there aren't as healthy looking. But all of the pots under my grow light look similar: stocky and well formed.

I have a tray of pepper seedlings under the light as well. The seeds were a bit old and I didn't think they would all germinate. But they have and now it looks like I'll have more than enough. The beans I started outside last week aren't doing anything. But the weather has been a bit cool lately. Should start warming up again after the long weekend. I won't put any cucumbers or melons out until the end of the month.