Thanks for all of the information and advice from all of you. Its sad to see the end of my first year growing peppers.
The year was crazy as far as gardening goes. Warm early in May, followed by drought and high winds in late May and June, with too much rain and coolest temperatures on record from July through September, and capped off with a prolonged and hard killing frost in Early October.
Learned alot. The plants I put out four weeks earlier than I should have all did well thanks to the warm spring, but the plants I put out on time performed just as well and may have even produced a little earlier. I guess air temps are just part of the equation. Soil temps matter just as much if not more.
Wind keeps the plants short and stout.
Direct sunlight all of the time is what these plants want. The ones planted with shade in the evening didn't live up to expectation.
Seedlings started in February performed no better than seedlings started in early April.
The late summer and fall is very busy for me. Work, hunting, football, preparing for winter and harvest were enough to keep me away from this site. Unfortunately, I was unable to maximize my harvest as a result. I lost hundreds of C. Red, Hot Lemon, and surprisingly Serrano pods that didn't have time to ripen. But I can't complain because I really didn't need them to have a spectacular yield.
Here is an example of one of my many hauls
I had many sinkfulls of peppers through late August and September!
The year was crazy as far as gardening goes. Warm early in May, followed by drought and high winds in late May and June, with too much rain and coolest temperatures on record from July through September, and capped off with a prolonged and hard killing frost in Early October.
Learned alot. The plants I put out four weeks earlier than I should have all did well thanks to the warm spring, but the plants I put out on time performed just as well and may have even produced a little earlier. I guess air temps are just part of the equation. Soil temps matter just as much if not more.
Wind keeps the plants short and stout.
Direct sunlight all of the time is what these plants want. The ones planted with shade in the evening didn't live up to expectation.
Seedlings started in February performed no better than seedlings started in early April.
The late summer and fall is very busy for me. Work, hunting, football, preparing for winter and harvest were enough to keep me away from this site. Unfortunately, I was unable to maximize my harvest as a result. I lost hundreds of C. Red, Hot Lemon, and surprisingly Serrano pods that didn't have time to ripen. But I can't complain because I really didn't need them to have a spectacular yield.
Here is an example of one of my many hauls
I had many sinkfulls of peppers through late August and September!