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Too late for cuttings?

P

Phildeez

I have some space opening up in my garden (garlic harvest), I was wondering if it is too late to attempt to start cuttings and put them out. I had planned to start cuttings for a fall run in a month or two but I would rather get a jump on it if possible.

I live in central CA, zone 9b. I am not worried about them producing until the heat subsides, I just want them to be able to grow well and get sizable for the fall harvest.

Thanks!
 
My experience shows that you save about 3 weeks - a month by using cuttings rather than seeds. I don't know if that helps you or not. I don't want to comment on if you have enough time to get a harvest or not because I am not sure and I don't want to give bad advice.
 
MWM, the only thing holding me back is the size of the plants I would be taking cuttings from. The plants I would really like to clone (Aleppo and Caribbean Red) are first-years and just about to flower so I would be sacrificing some of my first harvest off of fairly small plants. I may just wait a week or two because they are growing pretty damn fast with the hot weather that finally arrived.

Mesatrin, that is very good to know, I will definitely be able to get a harvest, peppers can produce into October here on good years. A lot of people around here treat it like two separate seasons, a normal spring season and then a fall season beginning in August or so.

Thanks for the help guys.

Any recommendations on a good place to order starter pots etc?

-Phil
 
If you clone from a fruiting plant, the clone will continue to fruit, just like this manzano:

IMG_8026.jpg
 
I say its really late for starting clones. Unless you really know what you're doing, it will likely take a long time to get cuttings rooted and then into good production. You may get some pods earlier, but I personally always have better overall production from seed plants.
 
If you take a cutting, it thinks that it is at same age as mother plant(cos it's a clone). So it make roots and start make flowerpods really early.
You'll need to pick all flowerpods away from beginning, that plant continue to growing instead of flowering and waisting all energy to pod producing...

Otherwise, there's no matter, when you take cuttings.
 
I'd make sure your clones have a decent set of roots and a shady spot to grow in. You're totally right about the double season for peppers here in the Armpit of CA. But you'd be starting them at the beginning of the hottest part of the year, so they'll need to be hardy or babied a little to make it to a fall harvest.
 
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