Dang , dont do a serrano image search on google , scary.
Mine seem to do fine as long as their not bothered by pest. On these pepper plants you should flick each flower and you should see a little puff of pollen, then the flowers should set fruit. I think LSS posted earlier in the year the importance of spanking the plants.

Start spanking it like a tomato plant...

Do any of you guys make your own compost? I took over the compost making from my wife and I really enjoy it. Plus it is a good mini work out the way I do it, chopping and blending the stuff with a hoe. We are always on the look out for free ingredients.

true...

Yes, I compost. Finding the "ingredients" has sort of become a game - I'm always keeping an eye out for someone throwing out bags of leaves, grass clippings, companies throwing away coffee grounds, etc.

In related news, I need like 10 more cubic yards of cow/horse/chicken/rabbit manure. That's a lot of truckloads of carp.

hit up a dairy...they'll usually tell you to take whatever you can load.

Stop in any starbucks and ask them for coffee grounds. They'll bag em up and give em to ya.

I need to add another compost pile to my already full gardening area because I don't want to add stuff to the pile that's almost done. I need more space.

Lol, I would but there aren't too many dairies in the metroplex.

If you need to cheat a little check your organic places. The same place that sells the mulch by the bobcat scope full also sells compost. If I remember correctly its 11 dollars a scope. 2 scopes and your truck bumpber will be on the ground,lol. This should have all the organic matter and some nutrients to make your plants do good.

Also dont for get to do a soil test before you start adding stuff. For the 15 dollars you will get all the info on whats happening in the soil so you know what to add to make your plants do great. The soil test that are sold in stores are junk and a waste of money.

I am going to try and see if I can find the link but I remember reading some where that chicken poop had the highest level of nutrients.

Yes, we have been using Starbucks coffee grounds for a couple of years. I will probably add several more piles in the fall, now that we have the room. My wife said the compost is ready much quicker for me than it was for her. But at our last location it was in a shady spot and now it is in full sun, plus I am more active with it than she had time for. Another thing I have been doing(especially since grass clippings(N) have been sparse lately), is saving my urine(N) to put on the pile. Have been mixing it with 3 parts water.

I did read that peein on your pile was good for it but saving it is too much for me! LOL

+1

For those close enough to Colorado City that want tomato plants, Neff's greehouse north of Colorado City heading towards Snyder, Texas on the west side of the road has some apprx. 3 inch plants for 40 cents each. These are pretty small, the man there said leave them on the back porch in the shade for about a week and they would be more than ready to plant. Just thought anyone passing thru that area might be interested as those tomato plants are very, very hard to find for fall gardens out in this neck of the woods. Varieties are BHN444 and Celebrity - he said they should be ready to start pulling tomatoes by mid-October.

Neff Greenhouses
(325) 728-2428

Regards,
Mud-Dabber

I went out today to pick peas, and found that I have several blooms dead and several more turning yellow to follow I am sure. I think they got water on them , but there are a few on my three biggest plants that are ok, would it be good to fertilze now to help them re-set ? I planted purple hull peas three days ago and have about 7 that came up already...they should do goo where I out them...Thanks in advice or help with tomatoes...hubby really likes them and Iam just not doing good in the suppling department this year....

Good luck with purple-hull. They're my favorite, but I can't get them to grow worth anything (attacked relentlessly by aphids and ants). Let me know what your technique is to keep them growing.

Are aphids those little whiteish yellow lookin bugs that totally cover the bottom of leaves? I noticed yesterday I had a bunch of ants and small bugs and what looked like larvae on a few leaves.

Not sure. To be honest I could be wrong (I was guessing these are aphids).

What I had were tons, literally tons, of very tiny black bugs.

For you aphids you need to attack now!!!! Those things multiply fast in a day they will take over your garden. Get a sprayer hose and give the underside of the leaves and stems a blast of water. This will knock a lot of the aphids loose and most will not make it back to the plants as the will get eating up by other bugs on the ground. I dont like sevin cause it will kill everything in the area , including bees that pollinate some plants. After this I went organic are their arse and used a solution of vegetable oil and liquid soap. The soap helps the oil mix with the water more evenly and the oil does a number on the their exoskeleton. It disolves their outer body. It works BUT do over do with the oil and wash it off after a few minutes.

i'll check it tonight. i put sevin on em last night

I have been trying some organic stuff and am finding out vegetable , mineral, oil and soap will kill a lot of things. Including your plants if you over do it.
I tried this solution on some ants and they literally stopped in their tracks dead.

If the sevin does not seem to be working , give them a blast of water. This helps a lot. They multiply so fast though that to get rid of them its gonna take a few times before there all gone.

Have you fertilized lately? Aphids are attracted to plants with high nitrogen. The sap coming out of the leaves is what there after and if its rich with nitrogen they go crazy, or the ants go crazy also. Their loving the sap.

Nope, haven't fertilized lately.

I did just learn that ants suck the sap out of the buttt of the aphids. Click

Yes , and the ants will also "farm" the aphids like we do cows. They will move the aphids to areas and keep them there then go in and get their fill.