"Chariotoflove" (chariotoflove)
09/23/2020 at 20:15 • Filed to: late harvest batch
3
11|
"Chariotoflove" (chariotoflove)
09/23/2020 at 20:15 • Filed to: late harvest batch | 3
| 11 |
...except that I’ll have eaten all the ornaments before Halloween. Still, it’s festive.
onlytwowheels
> Chariotoflove
09/23/2020 at 20:25 |
|
Had to pick all my peppers and about 6 pounds of green tomatoes this past weekend, due to sub-freezing temps. They’re in a box, with some ripe tomatoes. I’m hoping they will ripen in a couple weeks, otherwise they will be processed for seed.
|
Chariotoflove
> onlytwowheels
09/23/2020 at 20:38 |
|
Yeah, that’s the big difference down in this zone. We get a much longer growing season, and some plants can get a second wind before frost gets them. I can still hold onto my kitchen garden herbs, too, until first frost comes in another month or so. Anything left then will get frozen too. I take my excess freezer peppers out eventually and make a batch of chili.
|
onlytwowheels
> Chariotoflove
09/23/2020 at 20:48 |
|
I don’t know why I plant peppers, because they have never produced for me. This year looked very hopeful until the very early freeze arrived. Normal first frost is first or second week of October. At night, I am tarping my carrots, beans, squash, spinach, lettuce and broccoli. The herbs are in small green houses on the back deck.. I will keep everything growing as long as possible, mid to late October will eventually produce a hard freeze. I t’s pointless to continue tarping after that.
|
Chariotoflove
> onlytwowheels
09/23/2020 at 21:06 |
|
I don’t know why your chili s don’t produce. They do like the heat down here, but my dad up north has the similar shorter growing season from May to October, and his have always produced. Maybe it’s the variety? Also, as far as I know, you can’t plant them in the ground from seed. You need to plant transplants, either ones that you buy from the nursery or that you started in your basement under lights. They need the head start.
|
onlytwowheels
> Chariotoflove
09/23/2020 at 21:23 |
|
I start plants indoors. This year I started in mid- March. Nothing went in the ground until Memorial Day because of the frost and cold weather. The peppers grow to a good size, they just have not ripened. Same thing happens year after year. This year we had above average temps and drought. I watered daily and fertilized eve ry other week. I was hoping the warmer weather would help, but it didn’t.
phenotyp
> Chariotoflove
09/23/2020 at 21:34 |
|
Now grow some that glow in the dark!
|
Chariotoflove
> onlytwowheels
09/23/2020 at 22:49 |
|
They seem to like it on the dry side, not drought dry, but I’ve learned to not water them too vigorously. The leaves do droop in the heat of the afternoon, but they perk up in the evening. Also, you can apparently modulate their heat by the amount you water them, although I have found more that the time of harvest correlates with capsaicin content. That is, later chilis tend to be more mellow. Also, I don’t fertilize after the initial planting. I have no idea if any of this will be helpful to you. I just like to share.
You say they don’t ripen; I assume you mean they don't change colors, but how do they taste? I like to let them get a little red, but I get a lot of taste out of the green ones too.
|
Chariotoflove
> phenotyp
09/23/2020 at 22:51 |
|
Good idea. There is a variety called purple fluorescent chilis, but that’s just the name of the color. They don’t fluoresce in the dark. So, there is still a pressing need.
|
onlytwowheels
> Chariotoflove
09/24/2020 at 06:08 |
|
I guess, if I plant peppers again next year, I will reduce watering to every other day, or limit the daily watering am ount. I haven’t tasted the peppers that are green, since I expect them to less than desirable.
|
Chariotoflove
> onlytwowheels
09/24/2020 at 11:15 |
|
Most peppers, like the jalapeño above, are like sweet bell peppers, they taste perfectly great at the green stage. The reason I have all those that are red in the pic is just because I didn’t get around to eating them yet.
This is interesting: we had a huge number of those Orbeez multicolor polymer beads that absorb water and kids love to play with. Our daughter outgrew them, and we were going to throw them out. Well, my wife found out that they were originally created to hold water in soil for plants. So, she folded them into our pots and beds for during the hottest days of August. They hold in the water and dispense it out into t he soil over time so that you don’t have to water more than every few days, even in drought. It also keeps the plants from getting water logged from frequently watering. It worked as planned for me this summer, especially when we were out of town for two weeks and couldn’t water regularly. That may or may not help you chili crop, but I thought of it and passed it on.
|
onlytwowheels
> Chariotoflove
09/24/2020 at 12:31 |
|
That is interesting. I’ll have to check out Orbeez. I can’t ever leave town for more than a day because of the garden. If I didn’t water daily, the majority of the plants would go limp. On h ot days, if I wait to water in the evening, much of the gard en will be limp.