2022 Gardening Info

Probably time to start a new thread for 2022 as much stuff is buried deeply in other threads along with a huge amount of outdated information. Garden centers keep coming and going.

I was at Meinke today and noted that their supply of tender vegetable plants, such as tomatoes, peppers and eggplant, has very small plants. They have their usual large assortment but most look as though they were planted around the end of April. Small, rapidly growing plants will often outproduce big but stunted older plants. Be prepared.

Meinke Garden Center Inc
5803 West Touhy Avenue,
Niles, IL 60714

ekreider wrote:Probably time to start a new thread for 2022 as much stuff is buried deeply in other threads along with a huge amount of outdated information. Garden centers keep coming and going.

I was at Meinke today and noted that their supply of tender vegetable plants, such as tomatoes, peppers and eggplant, has very small plants. They have their usual large assortment but most look as though they were planted around the end of April. Small, rapidly growing plants will often outproduce big but stunted older plants. Be prepared.

Meinke Garden Center Inc
5803 West Touhy Avenue,
Niles, IL 60714

Thanks, for the information. The plants I bought at Meinke last year -- mostly herbs, including Thai holy basil -- did really well. I'm pretty well set for this season but since it's so close to my office, I may stop in and pick up a few additional items just to fill in.

=R=

Hi- I should have posted this earlier, but Teresa Brockman has been coming to the Evanston farmer's market with her fantastic plants. I ordered my plants from her, and picked up the cool season plants on 5/7, but she had both cool season and warm season plants available for sale on 5/11. This Saturday will only be for people that have ordered warm weather plants such as tomato plants, as well as eggplant, pepper and zucchini. On 5/25, she will be coming back with all of her remaining plants. She had a lot left over when I was there last Saturday around 11:00 am. She might have some of her plants reduced then, and she usually reduces all of them at the end of the market, which means 12:00 or later. Sometimes you have to ask her. The plants I ordered from her were $5 minus 20% if you order at least 20 plants, but she charged for tax. Her plants at the farmers market are $6, but she does not charge for tax. All of her plants are organic, and she raises a lot of heirloom tomato plants and a lot of other varieties that are hard to find. She did have sun gold tomato plants, but she might be out of them now. All of her plants do really well in my garden. Meinke's does not have sun gold. They are my favorite tomatoes. They are a cherry tomato.

Another possibility is Urhausen greenhouse in Lincolnwood. They have sun gold. Also, the Talking Farm in Skokie is having their plant sale soon, and all of their plants are organic, and they have a lot of heirlooms. Hope this helps, Nancy

For the first time in years, we've started stuff from seed. Two notable items:
1) Seeds from Facing Heaven Chiles in my pantry sprouted, I'm looking forward to those
2) I brought a Shishito pepper plant inside last fall, and it died quickly. There were a couple pods on the plant that dried out (not enough to harvest), and those seeds have been very prolific in sprouting. However, I've been told that peppers may not breed true: I had jalapenos and bell peppers in addition to the shishitos, so who knows what the plants will do.

JoelF said:

I had jalapenos and bell peppers in addition to the shishitos, so who knows what the plants will do.

There are at least two species of peppers. Cultivars within a species cross very readily. Insect pollination virtually guarantees that two cultivars of the same species will cross if the plants are at all close together. Each seed from a single fruit represents a grain of pollen. An insect can be carrying grains of pollen from multiple plants. Hybrid plants generally do not reproduce true. Put everything together and saved seeds even from a single fruit are a total crap shoot.

Most garden peppers except for some hot ones are the same species. Judging from the leaves on the Shishito peppers at Meinke, they are the same species as bell peppers and jalapenos. Meinke had a good supply of small Shishito plants yesterday.

Planted tomatoes, dukes, celery, peppers and a variety of herbs. Started corn from seed and planted the shoots but the birds got to all of them looking for worms under the newly turned soil. Cilantro and dill reseeds each year finding new spots. Potatoes from last year restarted too.