please help !!!!!don't know what to do with peppers

[jem218]

hi there, i am new to veggie growing and already i love it!!! BUT (theres always a but lol) i am not sure whats best to do for my peppers?
They are growing brilliantly and have been out in the garden for awhile now, i noticed this morning that they are starting to flower-well theres little buds all over them??? what do i do about/with these? are they left to grow and when do the fruits start to grow?
Sorry if i sound silly
jane

[Kisal]

The flowers will create peppers for you. If you have plenty of bee activity, they'll do the pollinating for you. If you don't see bees around the pepper plants, you may want to help things along by hand pollinating the flowers. You can do that with a q-tip or a small paint brush of the type that artists use. Just gently brush the interior of the flower, to make sure some pollen gets on the pistil.

[jem218]

thanks for your reply and advice, we do have some bee activity but not a great deal, i may have a go at doing it by hand! how long does it take from the flowers to see the fruit?
jane

[Kisal]

I can't answer the question about the length of time from pollination to fruit, because I have plenty of bees working my garden. Since the bees are doing the work for me, I have no way of knowing exactly when a particular flower was pollinated, or even what day it was pollinated.

[jem218]

good point! the waiting and watching will add to the magic anyway! my children and i go out everyday to see if theres any changes in the veggie patch!-i have realised over last few weeks i wont have a lot of room when they are all grown! may of over planted the veggie patch! but its my first year having a go........any solid tips or advice?
jane

[rainbowgardener]

It's very common mistake of starting gardeners to overplant and put things too close together, starting with seedlings and not understanding how big they are going to get. What to do now, depends on how badly overcrowded it is. If things are really smothering each other out and starting to suffer, then I would dig a few out and transplant them somewhere else (even if you have to put them in a container).

Otherwise at this point, you can just keep an eye on it, make sure everything has plenty of water and fertile soil, so they aren't competing for nutrients. Watch for where one plant is shading another out and maybe pull a few leaves to cut down on that. And then keep an eye on things. As long as everything is growing well, no need to mess with things.

[jem218]

i think you would laugh alittle at my veggie patch if you saw it! it looks great at the moment but all of the plants are relatively small still, except the tomatoes and peppers! which are quite big already!!! i am thinking it should of been double the size for all i've planted lol, some strategic thinking maybe needed soon! are there any veg's that i cant grow together inparticular?
jane

[pharmerphil]

Jem...
It will depend on the variety of pepper.
Type (Sweet Pepper or HOT)
Climatic conditions (hot/cool/wet/dry/humid)
and amount of sunlight the plants receive.

Night time temps are the main factor:
Optimum Temps for sweet Pepper flowering, pollination, fruit set is aprox. 60°
while Hot pepper varieties should be between 65 and 80°
night time temps over 80° causes blossom drop
Day time temps over 95° and the pollen will abort and the fruit set will be reduced

It should also be said that the plants will produce many more flowers than actual peppers, doing as Kisal suggested is a great Idea, and great for a few plants... if you have many plants..
(we only have 125 this year, last year 186)
you just have to go with Mother nature and hope for the help of your Pollinators


To sum it up:
All key factors in place, from the time you have a blossom, to the time you should see a very small immature fruit forming..
about 10-14 days, at least thats my experience here in Minnesota.
Good Luck, I'm sure your patience will be rewarded with many tasty peppers

[jem218]

hi there, thanks for your reply, i am in the uk and the temps can vary quite alot-although its really hot here at the moment! we do only have a few plants, approx 10! i have lots of different vegs growing-but only a few of each to see how they do here! and already i am starting to see lots starting to sprout! cant wait to see them all grow and develop( hopefully) if night time temps drop low here what would you suggest? or do i leave it all to nature?
jane

[BrianSkilton]

If you have some wind that will do the pollinating for you, up here we do have bee's but if we didn't boy the wind sure would do the work, no problem there.

[jem218]

oooo now wind we have got! we live on top of a hill and we're quite exposed to the elements up here! even the bees need little engines to fly up here!!
had look this morning, theres so many flowers coming i think, some much bigger than others, but i figure we must get some fruit from these plants one way or another lol
jane

[tedln]

oooo now wind we have got! we live on top of a hill and we're quite exposed to the elements up here! even the bees need little engines to fly up here!!
had look this morning, theres so many flowers coming i think, some much bigger than others, but i figure we must get some fruit from these plants one way or another lol
jane

Jane,

If someone called you a "swampie" would it be an insult or a compliment? If I was fortunate enough to live where you live, it would be a compliment for me.

I've become very interested in the allotment system in Great Britain and am fascinated by the gardening techniques and produce in British gardens. I have a number of fellow gardening friends on allotment forums. I look forward to your posts on this forum.

Ted

[jem218]

hi there, yes i would find being called a swampie a compliment lol! i guess not many people would say that! the temperatue here -being on the coast- is a few degrees cooler than inland! my mums veggies are all a step ahead of mine and she lives in maidstone!!!! i am really surprised at the difference!
where abouts over here did you live ted?
regards
jane

[tedln]

I wish I could say I have lived in the United Kingdom, but I haven't. Different things fascinate me and I study them. As I said, the British allotment system interests me and I have done a lot of reading on the subject. Most gardeners in the United States talk first about how well their tomatoes grew. Most UK gardeners talk first about how well their potatoes grew. It seems every one in Great Britain also grows broad (fava) beans and complains about the black fly on the broad beans. In the US most home gardeners wouldn't have an idea how to grow broad beans. You folks also grow a lot of rhubarb. We don't grow much rhubarb. I simply find the differences interesting.

Please continue posting about your garden. I will follow with great interest.

Ted

[jem218]

cool hi ted,
i have also learned that there are great differences in what we grow (uk & usa) i have growing now such a multide of veggies! some are experimental like melons??! I'm not sure how our climate will affect them, not being so warm herer, but it seems to be growing fine so far- fingerscrossed! i have lots of different peas, runner beans brussels, chinese cabbage tomatoes and potatoes to name but a few! are they mostly typical of what you would grow there?
kind regards
jane

[tedln]

No, My garden is quite different. I grow only in raised beds to simplify the care required. We (I) grow mostly tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, yellow squash, peppers (different varieties), and pole beans with a few herbs mixed in. We have very hot summer temps. We were up to 108 recently. My garden has to be able to live through such high temps. Many of the veggies you mentioned would grow well here as a winter garden, but not a summer garden. I've never grown potatoes or melons because of the room required. I have enough room, but I simply choose to grow in raised beds. Many gardeners in the U.S. grow zucchini (courgettes to you), but I don't. I prefer the yellow squash over the courgettes.

Keep us posted on how your garden grows.

Ted

[jem218]

hi there again, we only grow a handful of potatoes in 2 large pots, that makes digging them up much easier as we just tip them out! it doesnt keep us in potatoes are we are a large family! (5 daughters and a hungry hubby lol) but they are fun to grow and the kids love helping! i got garlic growing too, how do you know when they are ready? any tips? also and lastly whats a squash? lol

[tedln]

Wow, Five daughters! I bet that is a lot of fun when everyone is trying to get presentable in the morning. We only have one daughter and two sons, all grown. The daughter was the greatest pleasure to raise. We did it the same way I grow my garden, lots of TLC for all of them.

The yellow things on the left in the photo are yellow squash. They grow on plants almost identical to courgette plants. We cook them in manners similar to courgette. My favorite is steamed with a little butter and salt & pepper.

Ted

[tedln]

Jane, I forgot to address your question about garlic.

This is my first year to grow garlic so I am not really knowledgeable. It is my understanding that garlic varieties need to be selected for the geographic area they are to be grown in. In the states, we typically plant the individual garlic cloves in the fall. They grow and produce foliage through the winter. In the spring, the cloves begin multiplying and forming bulbs. Midway through the summer, the foliage begins turning brown and drying. The garlic should be harvested and dried at this time.

I am a rebel gardener. I rarely do things the way the experts tell me. I simply purchased a few garlic bulbs of the "White Elephant Garlic" variety at the grocery store. I broke the bulbs into cloves and planted each clove, root side down; about one inch (I don't know how many centimeters that is) deep this past spring. I dug one the other day to look at it. It looks like a small onion. I will leave them through the winter and see what I have next summer. I hope to have large bulbs of garlic.

Hopefully, some garlic experts will speak up and tell you everything I am doing wrong. Maybe they will tell both of us the difference between the hard neck and soft neck varieties.

Ted

[Diane]

Nice harvest Tedln. As a rebel you may find new ways to do things.

[tedln]

Hi Diane, Thank you!

I have found a few things over the years that work best for me. I don't recommend them for others though. I always figure the experts must know what they are talking about or they wouldn't be the experts.

Ted

[starflare]

I have alot of vegeis growing from potatos and yams to tomato, raddishes , lettuce, spinch, cucumbers squish , zunccine, fruits bushes and fruit trees in the NE and the area i live it has a high water table.

[jal_ut]

Keep those peppers watered well. Peppers are self polinated and are not really very attractive to bees. Pepper blossoms do not always develop into a fruit. If the temperature is too warm they may not. Don't worry, when the conditions are right, they will set fruit and you will have a bumper crop. There is some sross pollination with pepper plants done by insects, even ants, though it is not vital to have insect polinators.

I keep bees so there is lots of bees in my garden, but I seldom see the bees working the peppers. The bees will be all over the squash, cucumbers, raspberries and strawberries. The bees also like to gather pollen from the corn, but the corn is wind pollinated.

[Diane]

Keep those peppers watered well. Peppers are self polinated and are not really very attractive to bees. Pepper blossoms do not always develop into a fruit. If the temperature is too warm they may not. Don't worry, when the conditions are right, they will set fruit and you will have a bumper crop. There is some sross pollination with pepper plants done by insects, even ants, though it is not vital to have insect polinators.

I keep bees so there is lots of bees in my garden, but I seldom see the bees working the peppers. The bees will be all over the squash, cucumbers, raspberries and strawberries. The bees also like to gather pollen from the corn, but the corn is wind pollinated.

You're so right about the bees. Maybe because the pepper flowers are white and kind of hidden. I put flowers near my potted peppers trying to attract bees. They are doing great.
I usually have no luck with them.

[tedln]

I've had a good crop of peppers this year. I have lost a lot to sun scald. I also had a good supply of bees of different varieties pollinating my garden. They all seemed to avoid the pepper flowers. I did notice one variety of wasp which only seemed to be attracted to the pepper plants and the blossoms. They were getting pollinated and we haven't had much wind.

Ted

[jem218]

hi there and thanks to everyone for replies, firstly
wow Ted all your veggies look great! cant wait to be able to harvest some of mine!
nextly (lol) the bees- i cant say i've seen any around my peppers, i was advised to pollinate myself but the flowers are dying off now and I'm sure i've got little peppers emerging! hopefully must mean i am doing ok, so I'm gonna leave them to their own devices,. i found it very easy to break the flowers off when i was looking in the foliage so that re-affirms my lasy comment! there are 100's flowers on the plants, will they all be peppers in the end?
kind regards
jane

[tedln]

That was the harvest for one day. Most days, they simply go into the plastic grocery bags for distribution to neighbors, friends, and family. Now my garden has stopped producing abundantly and only gives reluctantly due to the heat. It will become abundant again with cool weather. Attached are a few more photos taken on harvest days. Since the subject of this thread is peppers, I have included a few photos of my pepper plants.

Ted

[jem218]

thanks for the pics Ted! they are awesome! i hope i'll be able to take some tasty looking pics like urs soon! the pics of the pepper plants were very helpful! i can see now the comparison between ours and what the fruit will look like when a little more developed! i am a little worried though, ur plants look much bigger than mine have grown! mine are about 18 inches tall!???? will that affect the fruit? will i have to support the fruits as they grow ot will they not outgrow the plant as such?
jane

[jem218]

hi ted, I was just thinking about your pics again (i am way impressed!) i wondered though what sort of scale you grow veggies on? do you grow loads of each of the veg that are pictured? what sort of scale should i grow on to expect the same sort of reward?
jane

[tedln]

Jane,

It's hard for me to describe the scale I plant on. I can only say that I believe in growing very, very crowded (against experts advice). In the photo attached you can see that I only have four, 4' X 8' beds. The actual total growing space is only about 100 square feet or a small garden measuring 10' X 10'. ( I apologize for not giving you the metric conversions, but I've never been good with metric measurements) In the climate in which I live, my method works well. It tends to provide shade for many plants. It may not work well in other climates. The photo provided shows my garden in a very early state. You will have to imagine it fully grown and looking like an orderly jungle.

The pepper plants in the previous photos were only about 18" tall. They look larger because I took the photos very close. If you look closely, you can see some of the plastic coated gardening wire supporting the plants. Without the wire, the plants would have been bent to the ground. The peppers were very large. I planted a total of about ten bell pepper plants in odd little spaces where it seemed I could see bare dirt going to waste. Normally they were planted at the ends of beds where I found the little spaces.

Ted



Maybe the next two photos will give you an idea of what an orderly jungle looks like.