23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
Pepper plants are pretty brittle - I'd leave them, double-cage the EP for now and at the end of the season when you pull out the EP and peppers you can do your hoops and row cover, get a fall crop in (I'd start them late summer, not sure when in your zone, maybe August?). Can't see cutting down the cages - you may need them for something else next year.
BTW, how do you plan on getting 20ft lengths home?
I think you are right. I looked at them yesterday and decided just to leave them. I can't believe how loaded my pepper plants are! I tried a couple of new varieties this year and so far I'm impressed.
several eggplants were pushing against the fabric, so i went ahead and removed it this morning and coated the plants with the kaolin. I may just leave them without a cover. they are pretty big and healthy and may do alright now without the fabric.
I'm in southeastern tennessee...7a. I should still be harvesting eggplant and peppers in August, but I may be sick of them by then. I'll see how it goes.
Ha! I hadn't thought about how long they would be in regards to transporting them....but you would be suprised what I can fit in my vehicle. ;)
So I potted them up and they were not root bound but they also don't seem to be sucking up much water....I wasn't exactly watering them on a schedule. I check them everyday and if the soil was dry about an inch down or the pot was super light I would water. I want to say I usually end up watering every 3-4 days. They are outside full time now since I potted them up and I did move them to a different location where it's not quite as sunny. Some of the leaves that were already damaged have turned brown and fallen off but some of the leaves seem ok. Overall besides some bad spots, the plant doesn't look like it's dying so I'm not sure what to do. I will post updated pictures tonight.
This post was edited by therealdiehl91 on Fri, May 30, 14 at 9:34
Sorry, the purple,red, yellow leaves have shriveled up and dropped but the leaves are still tiny at about palm wide and hand long. I forgot to take pictures, but there doesn't seem to be any holes in the stem(which is about a cm thick) although there are tiny holes scattered on the leaves.
Where are you located ? what have been the temperatures like ?
Cucumbers, generally, cannot tolerate cold. They are more cold sensitive than peppers and eggplants, more like basil.
I have killed more cucumbers and basil than anything else, due to cold weather and itching to plant out.
Dave: Thank you. I agree. Lots of good info on youtube. Also, lots of bad info. Just like here on GW. The trick is to weed through the BS and try to extract the good info and put it to use. I wasn't trying to tear apart the video, but so much info in it was simply wrong or too general. It works for that guy. And generally, sticking a plant in a pot will yield "something." I was simply trying to point out that the info goes against widespread proven thoughts on how to get the BEST out of one's pepper plants.
With that said, I think I need to now refute some of the op's objections to my post...lol
djkj: I'm not asking you to believe everything I say. I was simply granting you your request for my original post for disagreement on the video. Hey, if it works for you and you're happy with your results, keep doing what you're doing. We're still in deep disagreement about a few things and I feel I need to stress that certain points are just wrong.
First, I agree 6 weeks is a general guideline, but to others reading this post, you'll be much happier giving at least 8 weeks for annuums and 12 for chinenses. If your plants are outgrowing your starter pots, simply pot up.
Second, totally disagree about containers needing a constant water content and the whole drip idea. I already stated that pepper plants like to dry out between watering. Doesn't matter if it's a container or in ground... wet feet are wet feet and the whole "dry out between waterings" is one of the most widely agreed upon practices regarding growing healthy pepper plants. Yes, in general, containers need more frequent waterings, but they should still be dried out between waterings. I just went through a week of triple digit temps and single digit humidity. Guess how many times i watered both my container peppers and in ground peppers... ONCE. deeply. Plants are looking awesome. If you're to take anything out of my posts, it should be the watering regimen.
Third, like i said, love mulch. Just the whole idea of leaf litter harboring pests. If that's all that's available, it far outweighs using nothing at all.
Fourth, If you feel you get the production you want using organic ferts in smallish containers, then, by all means, keep using. I use mainly organic also, but anything smaller than a barrel, I use synthetic for the reasons I already pointed out.
Fifth, "gardener's secrets." Perhaps if it's a "secret," it might be because it's not widely believed to be mainstream knowledge because it simply has no merit to reality. Don't get me wrong, fish ferts are a great supplement.. I simply don't believe it's a bloom booster. Healthy soil will get you all the blooms you want and regulating soil temps will keep blossom drop to a minimum.
Sixth, epsom salts. Once again, should only be used if your plants are showing they need it. Too much of ANYTHING can be detrimental. Most soils have plenty of Mg and even most potting mixes have lime in them that would provide the plants with the Mg they need.
Seventh, I've cut down on my use of DE because of it's ineffectiveness when wet and it's indiscriminate on beneficial insects. For slugs/snails, I have found iron phosphate baits (Sluggo, Korry's, etc) to be much more effective. Neem oil for cutworms or any other caterpillar is simply not a cure. If you had success with it on cutworms, I say coincidence. MAYBE(and it's a stretch) the anti-feeding properties of neem kept them away, but it's not known to kill them. I like the toothpick method I mentioned -- ever since i started doing it, I haven't lost a single seedling to cutworms.
Eighth, BER. Get Ca in the soil well in advance and you don't have to worry about BER. Regarding "sprays," WHY??? Sounds like a whole lot of money spent and time spraying EVERY flower just to HOPE you don't get something that could have been remedied from the beginning by getting some Ca in the soil.
Anyhow, there you go. If you're happy with your methods, keep doing it. I just thought I'd try to help you(and others) have even BETTER success. Like you said though, YMMV.
Good luck and happy capsaicin season!
Kevin
Yep. However, I have found that the water blasts in the beginning really help. Also, the directions call for weekly and then bi-weekly intervals. In the beginning 2 weeks, I up the ante because of the rapid rate of re-popualtion of whitelfy. So, for the 1st week, water blasts every 3-4 days, then neem treatments ever 3-4 days for 2 weeks. After that, populations are usually low enough to control with bi-weekly treatments. Yellow sticky traps used in conjunction are also effective. But, lacewings are truly the best, so think about planting some flowers to attract them.
I just posted a thread that may help.
Kevin
Here is a link that might be useful: Beneficial insects/IPM
They taste great. Interesting about the Orlando F1s. I looked them up, and they're dwarf plants, mostly for container gardening. They don't get much over 2 feet tall, I read. Their fruit are supposed to be "finger length", but mine are 6-inches long. For grilling, long, sausage-shaped eggplant are marvelous.
Yes, it was water in the spray bottle. The plants with vegetables on them that were sprayed were banana peppers and tomatoes. Other plants that were sprayed were basil, kale, and cilantro, as well as cucumbers and squash that don't have any vegetables on them yet. I don't usually use a spray bottle to water my garden, my husband was just misting the vegetables we just bought before putting them in the ground as it was too hot and sunny to water the garden. We usually water the soil and roots well. I do really have all these concerns and it does drive my husband batty, hence why I am asking these questions on here so I don't bug him about this. I live in southern Virginia and my full grown banana peppers were bought that way at a garden center. I also have a green tomato. The plant I'm most worried about being exposed to the Mean Green is my basil as it's something that can be eaten whenever, but after reading these comments I'm pretty sure it will be ok.
This post was edited by valialee on Thu, May 29, 14 at 18:10
Link to your other post since all of these concerns seem to be related.
Here is a link that might be useful: Your other post
Yeah, Early in the season with cool temperatures, and occasional rain, West NY State, plants won't need a lot of watering. I have not watered mine for longer than a week now. Some are nice green, some are slightly light green. I guess it also depend on the variety and genetics to some extent.
I've planted directly into composted manure many times with no problem.
You caN use a pool PH test strip to get a rough idea of pH.
I've planted directly into composted manure many times with no problem.
Yes you have mentioned doing that several times before. But as has been pointed out in the past discussions, numerous university studies have proven that it is never recommended to do so.
It is not a question of nutrient burn but one of pathogen activity and the exposure of the plants to those pathogens. This is especially true when dealing with low-growing/ground contact crops. That is why the tilling in and the 30-60 day waiting period prior to planting is recommended.
Of course one always has the choice of ignoring the recommendations at their own risk. When you know the source of the manure, how it was composted (active or inactive), and the health of the animal sources it's one thing. But with unknown sources and history it isn't worth the risk since those pathogens are well-proven to survive for over a year in the composted manures.
Dave