AlabamaJack
eXtreme
Last week or so I posted an AJs Backyard Pepper Porn for April...well, April is not over but I wanted to share how I do things...it is a pictorial of my transplant process and what I see when I plantout
The easiest, cleanest way for me to keep my potting soil year to year is just clip the plants at soil level and stack them against the fence after the first killing freeze...usually the 1st or 2nd week of December...
I have my work area set up which is two 4' X 8' sheets 3/4" plywood on saw horses...work area is in an "L"shape...I have a wheel barrow under the edge of the work area...dump the container out...soil looks pretty good and smells very fertile too...
breaking up the soil and fishing out the "stump and roots" shows me just how happy the plants were this past year...bigger root system = bigger plant = more pods...this plant was happy...was a homegrown 7 Pot...original seedstock from Trinidad in 2007...
I "fluff" the soil with my hands by taking handfulls and sifting them through my fingers taking the larger part of the old roots out...I consider other smaller roots from last year are just compost that has nutritional value from what it ate last year...
oh by the way...be careful...this is what causes "C" shape cutouts of your leaves on your pepper plants...a leaf cutter bee pupae...almost ready to emerge...I highly recommend death...
bit of trivia here..only female vespids (wasp family) can sting...that's because the sting is a modified ovipositor...and only females have an ovipositor......just sayin'....
I mix my soil a wheelbarrow at a time...gives me about seven or eight 5 gallon containers...I take 6 of the containers from last year and add about 2-3 handfulls of Vigaro 13-13-13 standard peletized vertilizer then add a 40 qt bag of good potting mix and stir it all up
Continued:
The easiest, cleanest way for me to keep my potting soil year to year is just clip the plants at soil level and stack them against the fence after the first killing freeze...usually the 1st or 2nd week of December...
I have my work area set up which is two 4' X 8' sheets 3/4" plywood on saw horses...work area is in an "L"shape...I have a wheel barrow under the edge of the work area...dump the container out...soil looks pretty good and smells very fertile too...
breaking up the soil and fishing out the "stump and roots" shows me just how happy the plants were this past year...bigger root system = bigger plant = more pods...this plant was happy...was a homegrown 7 Pot...original seedstock from Trinidad in 2007...
I "fluff" the soil with my hands by taking handfulls and sifting them through my fingers taking the larger part of the old roots out...I consider other smaller roots from last year are just compost that has nutritional value from what it ate last year...
oh by the way...be careful...this is what causes "C" shape cutouts of your leaves on your pepper plants...a leaf cutter bee pupae...almost ready to emerge...I highly recommend death...
bit of trivia here..only female vespids (wasp family) can sting...that's because the sting is a modified ovipositor...and only females have an ovipositor......just sayin'....
I mix my soil a wheelbarrow at a time...gives me about seven or eight 5 gallon containers...I take 6 of the containers from last year and add about 2-3 handfulls of Vigaro 13-13-13 standard peletized vertilizer then add a 40 qt bag of good potting mix and stir it all up
Continued:
Thanks for sharing photos and all the other info.
