Thanks for another vid. Just some feedback from growing peppers my whole life, you only really need to sow in December/January if your growing super hot varieties. Early Feb is fine for all others if your want early fruit or not. Pepper plants care more about root temperature than air temperature. I learnt this the hard way, I grow medium hot peppers and grew mine in a tiny unheated greenhouse but provided bottom warmth only and I decided not to pinch my all flowers off and got an early harvest.
That's interesting, I didn't realise that root temperature affected the ability of a flower to pollinate successfully, I'm not sure how I will experiment with that as I don't have any bottom heat, but I will have a think : All the best - Steve
Wow started mine on the 31st of December put them in the polytunnel end of April and I have also started harvesting some bell peppers and even hot peppers. There are actually so many fruits on the peppers now and also flowers. Thank you for always sharing your journey
Very interesting analysis regarding the timing /temperatures etc and the fruits look amazingly healthy and abundant to me. Best of luck for a great turnout and good weather for your upcoming allotment open day. I wish I could come!
Yes, there’s no problem with yield, only how early they are. Now that I’ve figured that out, next year I should get about 1/5 optimised for an early harvest and 4/5 for a maximal harvest : all the best - Steve
Hi Steve, mine were sown mid January. They did have a check with the cold spell after the warm spell. Initially hit with whitefly infestation but a spray with JB Plant Invigorator solved the problem. All my plants are grown with capillary wicking to provide moisture and a weekly feed of Maxicrop. Thanks for sharing 😊. Cheers. Nigel
You have a great setup Nigel, I'm interested to see how wicking and growing in pots, compares with growing in the ground, which also works well as a way to provide steady moisture. Last year when you used your wicking pots I wasn't able to compare size/yield because my peppers were a disaster due to the dodgy compost issue that resulted in them having no roots : All the best - Steve
Looks amazing and what colour 👍. Some of the leaves have yellow dots can you explain as someone asked if I knew what that was and I did not? Always such fabulous abundance. Happy growing and you achieved the colour part ten fold, Ali 🌞🇨🇦
I’m not sure Ali, a lot of people get excited about diagnosing diseases and deficiencies of leaves, but I don’t think it’s a very exact science. So long as the plants are fruiting I don’t really worry about it.
I live on the east coast of Canada - zone 6B, garden in a very small garden space and do not have any under cover growing area. Last year the slugs devastated my peppers so this year I planted them ( all chili - types) in large pots on an upper deck. They have grown really well, lots of fruit but taking an age to ripen. I have always heard that the more you pick, the more will grow but if they take forever to ripen, it kind of negates that.
They are definitely slow to ripen, we pick most of ours in late August and September, but we are still picking a fair number in October. That’s why I work on growing them early, ideally so we have enough to eat fresh in June and July. I’m not sure how true it is that the more you pick the more you get, we don’t generally pick them until they’re ripe or nearly fully ripe (within a week) : all the best - Steve
Loads of new ideas based on lots of experiments this year, but I need to write them up in my ebook before I make videos. Writing helps refine ideas and get all the details correct, videos are just a short intro
Once, I just threw out the compost and started again. I believe you can water with a nematode, but it’s more expensive than making a fresh start : all the best - Steve
@@SteveRichards very good point, thx. yeah, think start again with strawberries best...though they are right beside potted blueberries, that's worrying!
Thanks for another vid. Just some feedback from growing peppers my whole life, you only really need to sow in December/January if your growing super hot varieties. Early Feb is fine for all others if your want early fruit or not. Pepper plants care more about root temperature than air temperature. I learnt this the hard way, I grow medium hot peppers and grew mine in a tiny unheated greenhouse but provided bottom warmth only and I decided not to pinch my all flowers off and got an early harvest.
That's interesting, I didn't realise that root temperature affected the ability of a flower to pollinate successfully, I'm not sure how I will experiment with that as I don't have any bottom heat, but I will have a think : All the best - Steve
Wow started mine on the 31st of December put them in the polytunnel end of April and I have also started harvesting some bell peppers and even hot peppers. There are actually so many fruits on the peppers now and also flowers. Thank you for always sharing your journey
I find the hot peppers always come first, do you harvest sweet peppers green or fully ripe?
@@SteveRichards my hot peppers usually don’t come very early. I prefer fully ripe although sometimes I harvest a few green for some recipes.
Very interesting analysis regarding the timing /temperatures etc and the fruits look amazingly healthy and abundant to me.
Best of luck for a great turnout and good weather for your upcoming allotment open day. I wish I could come!
Yes, there’s no problem with yield, only how early they are. Now that I’ve figured that out, next year I should get about 1/5 optimised for an early harvest and 4/5 for a maximal harvest : all the best - Steve
Hi Steve, mine were sown mid January. They did have a check with the cold spell after the warm spell. Initially hit with whitefly infestation but a spray with JB Plant Invigorator solved the problem. All my plants are grown with capillary wicking to provide moisture and a weekly feed of Maxicrop. Thanks for sharing 😊. Cheers. Nigel
You have a great setup Nigel, I'm interested to see how wicking and growing in pots, compares with growing in the ground, which also works well as a way to provide steady moisture. Last year when you used your wicking pots I wasn't able to compare size/yield because my peppers were a disaster due to the dodgy compost issue that resulted in them having no roots : All the best - Steve
Looks amazing and what colour 👍. Some of the leaves have yellow dots can you explain as someone asked if I knew what that was and I did not? Always such fabulous abundance. Happy growing and you achieved the colour part ten fold, Ali 🌞🇨🇦
I’m not sure Ali, a lot of people get excited about diagnosing diseases and deficiencies of leaves, but I don’t think it’s a very exact science. So long as the plants are fruiting I don’t really worry about it.
@@SteveRichards good sound advice as always 👍👍
I live on the east coast of Canada - zone 6B, garden in a very small garden space and do not have any under cover growing area. Last year the slugs devastated my peppers so this year I planted them ( all chili - types) in large pots on an upper deck. They have grown really well, lots of fruit but taking an age to ripen. I have always heard that the more you pick, the more will grow but if they take forever to ripen, it kind of negates that.
They are definitely slow to ripen, we pick most of ours in late August and September, but we are still picking a fair number in October. That’s why I work on growing them early, ideally so we have enough to eat fresh in June and July. I’m not sure how true it is that the more you pick the more you get, we don’t generally pick them until they’re ripe or nearly fully ripe (within a week) : all the best - Steve
I am impressed with the size of pots. However that is a lot of compost. Do you bulk buy peat free compost or make your own?
On the allotment I make my own. At home I just use cheap multipurpose from the garden centre and then use it to mulch my beds the following year.
Your are the veg guru,
Have you any ideas for tweaking growing veg next year,thanks
Loads of new ideas based on lots of experiments this year, but I need to write them up in my ebook before I make videos. Writing helps refine ideas and get all the details correct, videos are just a short intro
great advice. wondering, do you ever get vine weevil problems in your (strawberry) containers? how do you deal with it.
Once, I just threw out the compost and started again. I believe you can water with a nematode, but it’s more expensive than making a fresh start : all the best - Steve
@@SteveRichards very good point, thx. yeah, think start again with strawberries best...though they are right beside potted blueberries, that's worrying!