Growing Garlic and Habanero Peppers

After several years, it's evident that in Zone 5 it's very worthwhile to plant your own Garlic and Habanero Peppers.

Both plants are as easy and fool-proof as anything I've ever attempted to grow and much easier than tomatoes or brussel sprouts, for example.

The Habs are extremely prolific. This year after noting the price of two, four, and six plants, I decided it would be cheaper to spend $17 for a whole flat of 36 plants!

The last week of May, all but six went into the raised beds in our fenced-in (deer-proof) garden. I potted up six Habs and one Ghost Pepper and stuck them in a sunny area at the front of the house. Three-gallon pots, it looks like.

Early on, the deer chomped-off all the potted peppers, all in one night! But the lower two inches remained and now those plants are way bushier than their non-chomped siblings. I think that means you may severely prune your young Hab plants before planting... and you'll wind up with more peppers.

Maybe you're not a big fan of growing peppers. I never was because the usual "Bell" pepper plant only seemed to grow one or two of the huge things. On the other hand, Habanero plants are simply "peppered" with blossoms and developing peppers. The first mostly orange pepper was noticed (and picked) this morning.

After reading online, I decided to plant on one-foot centers, digging in some compost and a bit of horse manure with each plant. An organic fertilizer with bone meal and mycelium activator was also added to each pepper plant hole. The plants are only watered every other day or when the leaves look like they need it. So far, so good!

Past experience shows that we can expect at least 30 Habs per plant -- sometimes many more. 36 x 30 = 1080. That's a lot of Habanero!

What to do with them all? Good question.
I don't think I'll try to dry them. Lacto-Fermented Chile/Garlic paste is one option, but not in such quantities. Currently, it's looking like lacto-fermenting the whole or halved peppers is the way to go.

As for the Garlic, we started the third year back with about 70 cloves (2 different varieties of stiff neck garlic). The second year we planted about 450 cloves, and last mid-October we planted about 750 cloves. This year we harvested 750 heads and will probably plant 750 cloves again this year, using the rest for cooking during the year ahead and for chile/garlic paste. I did make two quarts of potent garlic tincture last year. Haven't done anything with it yet.

Total land area needed for both crops: 5' x 30' for the garlic. 4' x 24' for the Habs (with room for 6 2' diameter tomato towers (from concrete mesh) and some other plants.

Some might space the garlic farther apart to obtain fewer, larger heads, but after tilling lots of horse manure into
the bed, and using straw mulch, closer spacing seemed acceptable, and I'm not complaining about the results.

I am not a world-class gardener by any means. If I can grow Habanero and Garlic with ease, so can you! Tweet