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Drumopelli
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Posts: 31
Joined: Wed Jun 10, 2009 9:01 pm
Location: Glendale, AZ

Peppers, more peppers, and a few questions...

I'm primarily a pepper gardener (and a few tomatoes). I am currently growing various kinds of peppers in large clay pots. So if anyone has any advice on growing a particular pepper, let me know These include:

Jalepeno medium
Sandia medium
New Mexico Green Chile mild
Yellow Banana mild
Cayenne medium to hot
Hungarian Yellow Wax medium
Red Hot Cherry hot
Burning Bush very hot
Pablano mild
Cubanella mild
Red Bell mild
Serrano hot
Chile Tepin very hot
Bulgarian Carrot hot
Thai very hot
Thai (ornamenental) very hot
Habanero (orange) extremely hot
Caribbean Red Habanero extremely hot
Scoth Bonnet (yellow) extremely hot
Trinidad Scorpion nuclear death hot
Mini-Chocalate Bell mild
Tabasco hot
Guam Boonies very hot
Cow Horn hot
Bhut Jolokia world's hottest pepper

I guess that's a good mix and most were very hard to find. If anyone would like to know where I got the plants, just let me know and I'll tell ya.

I have a few questions though if anyone would like to jump in:

It is my understanding that the hotter the pepper, the later in the season it will start producing fruit. Is this true, and if so, about when should I begin seeing results on the hottest pepper plants? It's june in AZ and is hot enough, and I was hoping that the hotter weather would accelerate production.

I water the plants every day or day and a half. All the plants seem fine but the Thai (not the ornamental Thai) seems to wilt on a daily basis. I was told that that is what they do, but it scares me so I water it and it comes back (but I don't want to over water and get root fungus). It is just now producing buds while the ornamental Thai plant yields about ten peppers a day. Any suggestions?

The Bulgarian Carrot plant is producing fruit. The leaves are green except for the bottom leaves which are yellowing. Is this normal?

I found a caterpillar eating my tabasco plants (a crime punishable by death). Is there a way to stop caterpillars and other insects from eating the leaves? I didn't kill the criminal... I threw him over the fence.

I've noticed black ants crawling over the plants. I've checked for aphids but haven't found any. Are the ants harmless to the plants or how do I get rid of them?

When to fertilize: I used fish emulsion (nitrogen 1%) applied once a week for 3 weeks when the plants were potted. I used miracle grow once after the plants were much more mature. Now that they are beginning to produce fruit, will fertilizer (nitrogen) hinder fruit production? I ask because the other ingredients in miracle grow are supposed to help with fruit production (potash, potassium) but I heard that nitrogen has the opposite effect.

Anyway, I've babbled enough. Nice to meet any of you that read or respond.

Haesuse
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Posts: 168
Joined: Sun May 03, 2009 9:18 pm
Location: Birmingham-AL, USA

that's quite the long-winded first post!! :)

ummm, I've never heard the "the hotter they are the later they mature" theory. at least in my garden, it's not true. my cayenne's started blooming incredibly early, and they are my hottest pepper.

how much wilting is the thai doing every day? my tabasco plant "wilts" at the end of each day. it seems that it (my specific plant) prefers to do a whole lot of leaf growing at the very end of the afternoon, which causes it to get top heavy, and droop a lot, until the next morning, when it perks back up, only to repeat the cycle. it worried me at first. now it is almost as tall as my tomato plants, with probably a hundred or more growing tips.

I don't know anything about the bulgarian carrots (though after looking them up, they sure look cool). but I have 2 bull horn pepper plants that have done this all season. they are growing wonderfully, and setting fruit, but I have to take a leaf or 2 off the bottom each week, as they get all splotchy and yellow. no clue why they are doing this, or what it could mean.



the caterpillar should have been killed. he will be back. they can smell a plant they want to eat from a whole lot further away than you can throw them. only way I can stop them from eating my plants with any success rate is to pick them off and kill them.


I don't know about the ants.


for fertilizer, the nitrogen won't hurt them, but you might want to swap to one that is more heavily P and K.

mccolgan1
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Joined: Fri May 01, 2009 11:23 am
Location: north east england

I have bell pepers, jalapeno and scotch bonnet growing they are doing well and don't seem to wilt. tho my jalapeno has lots of buds and flowers its indoors on window sill. do I need to put it outside for poliniation or does it just produce the peprs?

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Drumopelli
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Posts: 31
Joined: Wed Jun 10, 2009 9:01 pm
Location: Glendale, AZ

I've just heard that extremely hot pepper plants are usually late season bloomers. My Cayenne plant was one of the first to produce fruit too. I guess I meant to say habanero type peppers.

Damnit! I knew I should have killed that caterpiller! I'll keep an eye out for the little bugger. My new attitude will be thus: If there are only 100 condors left in the world, and one of them craps on my car... there will only be 99 condors left in the world.

The Thai plant is about 3' tall and healthy, but every late afternoon, the leaves curl and droop (unless I've watered it well the night before). I was wondering if that is normal or if the wilting will hinder fruit production.

505zoom
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Posts: 31
Joined: Fri Jun 13, 2008 12:06 am
Location: Albuquerque, NM

Bottom leaf yellowing is usually lack of N. I fertilize with Fox Farms Grow Big (6-4-4) at 1/2 strength every other day, full strength twice a month. After flowering really sets in I switch to the Tiger Bloom (2-8-4) at 1/4 strength every day, sometimes with a dash of the grow big mixed in if things aren't looking 100% lush green. Once full on fruiting has started I switch to Big Bloom (0.01-0.3-0.7) at 1/2 strength every day, full strength once a week.

Ants have never given me any trouble in the pepper garden... in fact, they got a rolly-polly infestation under control for me after I tore down a nearby cinder-block wall, so in some cases ants can actually be helpful. lol.

Use a moisture probe to check how much water the thai is getting when it wilts. I have seen 2 causes in my pepper garden for wilting plants... first being a couple random spots that drained too much, causing the plants in those areas to dry out faster than the rest of the garden. Second reason was the exact opposite, where the soil wasn't draining as much as the rest of the garden, meaning the plants get OVERwatered. For whatever reason they look very similar in both cases... late afternoon drooping when the day is at it's hottest.

Get the moisture meter to take the guess work out of it, then amend your soil accordingly. :)

Lastly, the Bhut Jolokia has a super long growing season. 4-6 months to maturity. We don't get enough warm time here in northern NM to get very much fruiting on those, but you might be luckier there in AZ. Be prepared to take them in overnight, put back out during the day starting before the first frost. That is my plan of attack for the 6 bhut's I have growing this year.

Oh and WEAR GLOVES when handling the bhut jolokia peppers. Can not stress this enough. Haha.

Hope this helps.

Haesuse
Senior Member
Posts: 168
Joined: Sun May 03, 2009 9:18 pm
Location: Birmingham-AL, USA

Drumopelli wrote:Damnit! I knew I should have killed that caterpiller! I'll keep an eye out for the little bugger. My new attitude will be thus: If there are only 100 condors left in the world, and one of them craps on my car... there will only be 99 condors left in the world.


noooooooooooooo!!! I know you are being sarcastic, but, NO!!! if a condor craps on your car, you should wipe his butt for him!!!

really, though, you should kill those caterpillars. they will reak havok if you don't.



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