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Cape Cod ~ six pots \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/ ~ hot summer!

Hi all! This is my first year growing anything. But I can get obsessed with my hobbies, so I figured that detail and observation would help me achieve some sort of success, even on my first try, despite starting late in an already short northern season.
  • Cayenne (Bonnie Plants)

    bought July 12th (~18" tall then), now in 2.5 gal pot

[*]Serrano (Bonnie Plants organic)

  • bought July 12th (~16" tall then), now in 1.5 gal pot

[*]Poblano (generic label)

  • bought July 12th (~16" tall then), now in 2.5 gal pot

[*]Tabasco (Bonnie Plants)

  • bought July 22nd (~20" tall then), now in 1.5 gal pot

[*]"Sweet Heat" (Savor)

  • bought July 22nd (~8" tall then), now in 1.0 gal pot

[*]Flaming Flare (Gilbertie's Herbs)

  • bought July 28th (~18" tall then), now in 1.5 gal pot.


All pots are plastic with drainage holes on the bottom. All have Miracle Gro Moisture Control potting soil.
 
The poblano and cayenne both fruited very quickly, and have also been the tallest growing. The cayenne has been very (is this the right word?) prolific, now with about 30 fully grown fruits waiting to ripen (only 4 have turned red). The poblano has only produced 6 or 7 peppers so far, 3 of which got pilfered by animals the night I left the plans in the front yard.
 
The serrano had already 2 fruits when I purchased it. It was slower to flower more, but when it did it grew almost 20 of them. A few turned red and I harvested. Many fell off when the pot accidentally fell (wind).
 
The tabasco plant has been growing and healthy, but man was this one slow to flower! Heat may have played a role in this? (I'll talk about that in later post). I did read that it could require the longest time to harvest of the group.
 
The Sweet Heat and Flaming Flare seemed kind of dormant for what seemed like 3+ weeks. They had yellowing leaves (more so toward the bottom than the top) what seemed to be "in between the veins" so I'd been guessing they maybe suffered some transplant shock which I exacerbated by overwatering. It took many weeks just for the leaves to begin improving. There was barely any plant growth. The Sweet Heat's 2 fruits grew a little, but the Flaming Flare's 2 fruits did not at all.
 
Things seem to finally going well for all 6 plants for the first time, but it's already September   :cry: . The weather in New England will be getting cold soon. Luckily, Cape Cod usually has milder extremes, and less intra-day temperature variation.
 
Click to expand...
The cayenne and serrano are still doing well, the serrano growing its 2nd harvest. The poblano is also starting its 2nd harvest, after an underwhelming 1st harvest of 6 short peppers.
 
The exciting thing for me is that the Tabasco, Flaming Flare (fresno), and "Sweet Heat" are finally growing their first batch of peppers since i've had them. The Tabasco peppers actually started fruiting a few weeks ago but seem to have started slowing in growth this week, although... it is fruiting more and more new tiny yellow peps. There are over 50 of them! Seriously. I am second guessing my decision last month to not prune the new branches growing around the roots. But I'm happy to see 4-5 peppers on the Sweet Heat and 10+ on the Flare. Both of those seemed to have done no growing for the first month. All 6 have new growth branches, a testament to how late in the season I started?
 
Additionally, I noticed that everything is now "normal" size/shape. Cool! E.g. the biggest poblano growing right now looks like it will resemble the ones I see in stores, the biggest Sweet Heat pep looks like it will reach the full length as seen in the advertised photo (1st harvest were shorter), and even the serranos which were good before seem 10-20% plumper. The most likely reason for this? I'm guessing was that I started fertilizing 20 days ago. Miracle Gro Tomato/Veggie fertilizer every 10 days. I suppose other factors could have contributed. For example I talked about the transplanting problem in the initial post, and the heat.
 
I'm very suspicious that the heat actually did play a big factor. The July afternoons frequently approached 90°F, with the nights routinely keeping in the 70s. Maybe the combination of the fertilizer and more moderate temperatures (for Cape Cod, at least) together is what's doing it, IDK!
 
So I just did a thing.
 
Against my better judgment, I transferred all six plants to bigger pots.
 
The Flare and Tabasco really seemed tight; their roots were all bunched up to all corners of the pot. Because of this they transplanted easily with minimal root disruption. However, the serrano and poblano to my surprise didn't seem to need more room. Worse, the ease of the first two made me give only cursory effort to the last few.... I slightly damaged the Sweet Heat's roots and majorly damaged the poblano's roots. In the poblano, there were a lot of roots bunched up at the bottom (but not a lot mid way down), so I wasn't really expecting them until it was too late and their own weight caused them to slowly fall from the main root.
 
I fear I sabotaged the huge momentum the plants have had toward the end of this season. The only good reason I have is that I was/am starting to get confused as to why there are so many baby tabascos (90+) but none of them are growing larger than the size of a fingernail. Pictures to come.
 
do you plan to overwinter the plants? if not it seems late in the growing season to repot them. if you have space indoors to put them they would do great next season. there is a great thread on this site for overwintering plants. :cheers:
 
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