My wife and I stopped at a pepper farm and talked to the owner about soil and growing Capsicum in general. The farm was about 1 acre in size, possibly slightly more.
For fertilizer she (the owner) uses a 25-8-8 which surprised the heck out of me. I asked her if she uses any cow manure she said no, because it was too slow to start working.
The soil didn't look much different than mine (at our house) and she said she didn't add anything more than fertilizer. While she and my wife chatted I walked around and inspected some plants. There was a white fungus/mold on the underside of some of the leaves. Some of the plants didn't look too well with leaf spotting and some minor curl, but not much of that; far less than on my plant. She waters twice a day.
She did say something interesting; she said this years crop wasn't nearly as good as last years because of the ongoing heat wave (50 days of 37c - 39c). This confirmed for me that excessive heat does make a difference in overall plant health.
This farm is producing no less than 5 different varieties (Thai bird, prik haum, prik kee nu (large and small) and prik haum (hill tribe variety) and another hill tribe variety called prik kareung (Karen from Burma), all mixed in together and nothing is done to stop cross pollination. On this farm the varieties were side by side and in some cases intermingled. My wife was given a handful of the prik haum, but growing the seeds won't produce a true cultivar; nuts!
I didn't learn as much as I was hoping, especially about soil, but it was an interesting visit.
Here's some pictures;
The field in front of the house;
The larger field to the left of the house;
The same field from a different angle;
It's the real thing; hope you enjoy.
For fertilizer she (the owner) uses a 25-8-8 which surprised the heck out of me. I asked her if she uses any cow manure she said no, because it was too slow to start working.
The soil didn't look much different than mine (at our house) and she said she didn't add anything more than fertilizer. While she and my wife chatted I walked around and inspected some plants. There was a white fungus/mold on the underside of some of the leaves. Some of the plants didn't look too well with leaf spotting and some minor curl, but not much of that; far less than on my plant. She waters twice a day.
She did say something interesting; she said this years crop wasn't nearly as good as last years because of the ongoing heat wave (50 days of 37c - 39c). This confirmed for me that excessive heat does make a difference in overall plant health.
This farm is producing no less than 5 different varieties (Thai bird, prik haum, prik kee nu (large and small) and prik haum (hill tribe variety) and another hill tribe variety called prik kareung (Karen from Burma), all mixed in together and nothing is done to stop cross pollination. On this farm the varieties were side by side and in some cases intermingled. My wife was given a handful of the prik haum, but growing the seeds won't produce a true cultivar; nuts!
I didn't learn as much as I was hoping, especially about soil, but it was an interesting visit.
Here's some pictures;
The field in front of the house;
The larger field to the left of the house;
The same field from a different angle;
It's the real thing; hope you enjoy.
