It really just depends, my garden gets full sun all day no shade. I pretty much have to keep it mulched and water it daily just to keep them alive and they drop flowers like crazy. So last year I started as early as I could so that come July I could just let them die off. It really just depends how much you want to water and work during brutal summer. Heat wasnt my problem last year, hornworms ran wild and destroyed my crop.Siv said:I'm following your updates since I'm also in 9b - though I'm probably a month behind you. Since this is my first time and you've done it before, how do your plants hold up to the July/August 100+ temperatures? Is there anything you do to help them over this period?
SB42178 said:It really just depends, my garden gets full sun all day no shade. I pretty much have to keep it mulched and water it daily just to keep them alive and they drop flowers like crazy. So last year I started as early as I could so that come July I could just let them die off. It really just depends how much you want to water and work during brutal summer. Heat wasnt my problem last year, hornworms ran wild and destroyed my crop.
Siv said:
Cool. So what's your plan this year? Same as last or are you gonna try and nurse them through the summer? I had one plant in a pot last year that just about survived the summer and put on a huge crop towards the end of the year.
I'm going to set up a drip irrigation system as I have a tap close by and it worked for my non-pepper plants last year. I'm also planting in root pouches by the side of the house so hopefully they will catch some shade for some of the day at least.
Pinching the flowers does help force it to root instead of putting energy into pods. I usually pinch them and see better transplant growth myselfSB42178 said:Question, how much if any do you pinch flowers once outside? Should I continue to snip flowers off? I topped two plants since they moved outside due to some insect damage.