Search results

I'm in NorCal. My neighbor is a police officer. Should I be hiding my pepper plants from him? lolol...

Personally I would go the 30-40% shade cloth route. Since switching to 40% aluminet i've been getting much better fruit production. My summers temps are brutal though.

I use aluminet.  I read white does keep things cooler than black, and aluminet even more than white.   I only have experience with aluminet, but I know it's working and noticeably cooler.

Home Depot bags are .50 cents and around 6 gallons I believe. They breathe fairly well. Only problem is that they tend to only last for a year or two max in full sun IME. I use 5-6 buckets with holes drilled for my containers for dependability. 

  Is that the 70+ percent? My local HD only carries like 85+    How long have you been using it?

Aye Home Depot and Lowes just carry shade cloth for people, not plants. Even my local nurseries don't carry shade cloth for growing O_o   I use 40% Aluminet. Had to order it online. Since I started using that (and red wigglers) my plant size and production skyrocketed.    I'm in Sacramento where...

  Could one mix say Epsom Salt and Tums for a cheaper (albeit less effective) solution? Could that be used as a foliar spray?

Satan's minions. Try holy water, followed by fire purification.

Lady bugs work as long as you take measures to ensure they stick around. Putting a netting enclosure around the plants or spraying them with diluted soda-water to make their wings sticky.

Even if you cannot they are perennial plants so if I were you I would germinate now and just grow them as much as the warm weather permits and then pot them up for overwintering :) 

*shrug* It's an Annuum. So not even the same family as the Reaper. Sucks, but these things happen. Still, it's probably a good pepper.

Not just small pots, but not even filled half way :P I'd pickup some 5 gallon buckets from a hardware store and fill them up. Just leave some space for watering purposes.  Other than that they do look super healthy.

  If it is a calcium deficiency then I wonder if this might worsen it? For some reason I remember too much magnesium causing calcium deficiency indirectly. I'm completely unsure about that though!

  Would that be done in a foliar spray? Or do you literally want to hit the roots with it?

It's good you have some 6 gallons to transfer to. I would definitely put the Chinense in them for final home. I transplanted twice in a relatively short period this year and had transplant shock with 2 and they haven't fully recovered from it. I would wait a bit..   Some of the aforementioned...

My assumption would be that they had a longer time in more consistent warmer soil.

Many here seem to be misreading OP. OP is specifically asking for insight into the listed varieties :P   Of those my vote is for Mako Akokosrade. Followed by the Jonah X PDN.   Of course, I would buy them all in your shoes.

  Do you think top dressing with bone meal is a solution, or would that take too long to be taken up by the roots?

I prefer the green lacewings.   If you use ladybugs you might consider putting some netting over the area to prevent them from flying away. In my experience they tend to leave very quickly even when you follow directions to a T. You just need them to stick around long enough to lay eggs (it's...

Heat is definitely an issue for where I am in CA. Many of the peppers I grow have native temps much lower than my summer's 100-115 fahrenheit.