The Garden Community for Garden Lovers

A good growing season for peppers!

8 comments


My organically prepared beds are starting to pay off with some surprisingly large “banana-peppers” this year!
Here’s some of the peppers that are ready to harvest this weekend:
First, we have some sweet Bell Peppers growing in a potting mix of “Rabbit Hill Farms big pot potting soil”:

The little Sweet-bell plant is loving the soil mix and producing like crazy!

Next we have some Banana-pepper plants that are growing in my richest organically pampered area and I have never seen Banana Peppers this large:



Normally those guys grow to about 4 inches…

This big boy is a new pepper that I’m trying out this year that is called a “big-bertha” pepper. I’m testing two plants and one of them has a nice robust pepper growing:

In theory, the “big bertha pepper” should reach the size of an average zucchini, but is a huge pepper!
I can’t WAIT to see what happens with THIS one!
Plants are SO cool to watch!
GO PLANTS!
N2O

More blog posts by n2organics

Previous post: One of my best "test plants"!

Next post: Miracle plant!



Comments

 

Hey N2...great looking peppers you have going. My plants are only a couple of inches high. :o( Mind you, our season starts a lot later than yours, you lucky thing. LOL
I've a question for you. What causes the wrinkling of the pepper leaves that you can see in photo 1 of your blog. Some of my pepper plants have it and some don't (same variety). I've checked and checked for any sign of aphids but can see none. Is it something to do with a nutrient deficiency? Obviously it doesn't seem to harm the fruit and the plants are otherwise healthy looking. I'm stumped!!

27 May, 2011

 

Hi N2,

Was just reading your blog and thinking exactly the same, when I saw Gilli's comment!
All my friends and I are suffering from the same leaf curl this year and, like Gilli's, they're not nearly as far on...
...it obviously doesn't affect fruit production...your peppers are super!

27 May, 2011

 

I have two pepper plants and two chilli plants I am trying to grow this year got them for 10p each in B&Q started them off in the conservatory but now they are out in the garden hope I get some good results yours look really good:)

27 May, 2011

 

The answer is quite simple on the "leaf curl".. Most peppers like a situation where they are watered heavily and are allowed to get somewhat dry. The above photo was taken near the end of the "dry cycle". The key to growing peppers is to let them get a tad dry, because that lets the natural nitrogen available in the atmosphere to get down into the root system. Of course, the above is assuming that the pepper plants are planted in a well drained "container arena" with a loose potting mix or planted in a "native soil situation" that has been prepared with rock minerals, sugars, and organic materials.
The soil is the key! If it feels and looks like a layer of chocolate-cake, brown and loose, with lots of biological activity, the soil is probably close to optimum.

Here is the formula for optimum bed preparation:
http://www.dirtdoctor.com/Bed-Preparation-Newsletter-2011_vq3812.htm

This is what I have done this growing season and all of my plants are looking better than they ever have!
It's pretty awesome what healthy soil can do. {grin}
*N2O*

28 May, 2011

 

You're not wrong there, N2...!
...have taken note...:)
Thanks, K

28 May, 2011

 

Hmm...mine are in a lovely potting mix enriched with compost and worm castings and perlite to lighten the mix. They are watered when they are dry but not before. I've been feeding them with a kelp fertilizer and they've had some bone meal. Really nothing different from other years that I've grown them but this year they have this leaf crinkle thing.

29 May, 2011

 

Gilli, the one ingredient that I would not use is the perlite.
It is similar to "peat-moss" and is a "sterile growing medium" that does not support vibrant biological activity in the soil. If the soil needs better drainage control, a better choice would be "expanded shale" for water retention and volcanic sands such as "green-sand" ,
"lava-sand", and "decomposed granite". Those sands will free up the available nutrients in the soil that feeds the plant's smallest roots in its' "rizonsphere", where the tiny roots actually absorb the minerals in the soil that are available to it. Hope this helps!
Go plants! *N2O*

3 Jun, 2011

 

Thanks N2O...I'll keep that in mind for next year.

7 Jun, 2011

Add a comment

Featured on

Recent posts by n2organics

Members who like this blog

  • Gardening with friends since
    9 Aug, 2009

  • Gardening with friends since
    14 Jun, 2010

  • Gardening with friends since
    1 Mar, 2008

Garden centre