Tag: sowing transplanting peppers

Seed saving and processing

Heads up everyone saving seed from their tomatoes, melons, or squash this year, in anticipation of possible seed shortages next spring! Or because you have the time at home to figure out how to do it, and you’re around to stir the bucket three times a day! I have an article on wet seed processing in the August issue of Growing for Market magazine.

Also see my post on washing and drying tomato seeds, with lots of photos.

The next issue will have my article on dry seed processing (think beans, peas, okra, lettuce).

The current issue also has a couple of interesting articles on how to move step-by-step towards no-till growing, or at least minimum-till. Many gardeners and farmers have floundered while making this transition, so learn from the experienced! And there’s an article by Julia Shanks on balance sheets, for those intending to make a living farming.

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Winter Cover Crops for Gardeners

I have a workshop on Winter Cover Crops for Gardeners as part of the Mother Earth News Fair Online Winter Gardening Course. The Winter Gardening Course features 7 videos, each 21-44 minutes long. Mine’s 32 minutes on cover crops.

You can enroll for the 8-course Winter Gardening Course for $20.

Or choose the 2020 all-access course bundle of 21 courses (over 100 videos) for $150.

Or before summer is over, go for the $120, 8 course (56 videos) Summer Bundle.

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What went wrong with our hoophouse peppers in 2020?

Our 2020 hoophouse peppers were stunted, crinkled, yellowing and failed to thrive.

Possibilities:

1. Too cold in edge bed A (drafts under baseboard)?
2. Too wet in bed A (rainwater under baseboard, not much drying out due to shade of tomatoes)?
3. Nutsedge poisoning: roots exude something that inhibits other plants?
4. Soil too salty?
5. Soil nutrients poor?
6. Aphids
7. Aphids spread a virus? (plants were crinkled)
8. Are we sowing hoophouse peppers too early? In cells that are too big?
9. Are we transplanting hoophouse peppers too early? Keeping them in in cells that are too small?

Possible solutions

1. Be sure to block drafts all winter. Try not to plant peppers in cold edge beds.
2. Close one row of driptape if soil in edge bed A seems excessively wet compared to other beds. Re-dig outside moat to keep soil water out.
3. Do better about weeding out nutsedge. Investigate soil properties that encourage nutsedge.
4. Use beds C and E instead of middle bed D when doing salt water wash down. Poke out holes in sprinkler, ensure all are working. Get a better sprinkler.
5. Do soil tests in October and remediate soil as needed.
6. We could monitor for pests and act promptly
7. Deal with aphids and avoid viral diseases
8. Sow later, in smaller cells.
9. Transplant later, after potting up to bigger cells or pots.

Summary of ideas after our meeting and reading 2020 records:

• Use fresh seed
• Go back to deep 6 cells for sowing, (smaller than R38)
• Use more appropriately warm growing conditions. Peppers don’t recover well from setbacks. They remain stunted long term.
• Test soil and act accordingly.
• Ensure salt wash-down reaches the edge beds.
• If planting in chilly edge beds, ensure the baseboards are not drafty.
• Don’t overwater.
• Remove nutsedge whenever we see it
• Monitor for pests; deal with aphids to avoid long-term virus diseases.

Hoophouse Pepper Records Research

• We have been sowing 2/3 for a 4/7 transplant date. That’s maybe too long. 9 weeks.
• 2/3/20 Hphs peppers sown as scheduled. Used R38s rather than usual deep 6s. It’s recommended not to sow peppers in large cells – they are slow growing, and it’s hard to get the watering right in large cells.
• 2/11 -2/14 Peppers germinated. We had some trouble with keeping the germinating chambers up to temperature because we didn’t have the right lightbulbs.
• 2/15 – 2/17 Heat mats not all plugged in or working right.
• 2/21 resowed Gilboa. PeaceWork was old seed, poor vigor? Or low germ rate?
• 2/28 Gilboa resows had been in tent but weren’t actually germinated. Back in fridge.
• 3/4 – 3/9 Potted up. Is this true? R38s don’t normally get potted up. Maybe due to patchy germination?
• 3/16 In ghs drafty zone
• 4/5 Ghs door left open all night
• 4/12 Ghs door left open all night again.

Info from Sustainable Market Farming  and The Year-Round Hoophouse

• Sow 8-10 weeks before you intend to transplant.
• We used to sow our hoophouse peppers 1/17, then 1/24, then 1/31, then 2/3.
• Minimum temperature for germination is 60F, optimum 68-95F.
• Peppers seem to produce stockier plants if soil temperatures are 65-68F, max 80F daytime, min 60F at night after germination. Use a soil thermometer.
• Transplants getting slightly cooler nights will grow sturdier plants that flower later and have more potential for big yields. Rowcover at night if 40F or below.
• After third true leaf, can reduce night temp to 54F. May increase yields.
• But, permanently stunted by conditions that are too cold.
• Keeping them in pots or cells that are too small will set them back. If transplanting is delayed, pot up to larger size, eg tomato pots.
• Pot up when a few true leaves appear. After that no heat mat needed.
• We moved our transplanting date from 4/1 to 4/7 (one week after tomatoes is usual)
• Transplant at 6-9 weeks, with 4 or 5 true leaves, not yet flowering. OK if they are big.
• Soil for transplanting should be at least 60F, ideally 68F
• Avoid transplant shock. Soil needs to be damp before, during and after transplanting. Avoid root damage or bending. Shade if hot, sunny or breezy.
• For the first week after transplanting, keep warm.
• Established peppers benefit from 70-75F days, 64-68F nights
• Maintain sufficient levels of boron, calcium, phosphorus.
• Monitor and control aphids and thrips to prevent the diseases they vector.
• An inch of water per week is about right.
• Foliar feeding with fish or seaweed emulsion once a week after fruit set.
• 65-80 days from transplant to full-size immature fruits, and another 2-4 weeks to ripe fruit.
• Yields should be 5-18 lbs/10ft.

Ideas after rereading those sources

• We might do better to set the sowing date a week later (2/10), keep the transplant date at 4/7 and aim for an 8 week-old transplant? (Avoid colder conditions)
• We need to pay more attention to temperatures of germination, seedlings and potted transplants. Write the goal temperatures on the Seedlings Schedule
• We need to pay more attention to not overwatering seedlings. Write that on the Seedlings Schedule too.