• Do you need help identifying a 🌶?
    Is your plant suffering from an unknown issue? 🤧
    Then ask in Identification and Diagnosis.

Fall's Arrived in NEO

geeme

geeme

I decided that yesterday was the first day of Fall here in NEO. We may have some random warm days to come, but not many. Yesterday I noticed that my pepper plants have started new flower buds. The Jalapenos have actually fairly consistently bloomed ever since they started, but the cayenne had stopped blooming after a handful of pods appeared. It is how budding, as well.

My understanding is that the plants won't really tolerate temperatures below 50F. Don't know how far off that is just yet, but I'm hoping at least a month an a half away. In the meantime, I'm wondering about the buds. Let's say they bloom, pollenate and start producing pods in the next week or so. I would like to see any pods that get started brought to maturity. I am planning on bringing the plants inside once the temps drop below 70F, but is there anything else I should do to prolong the time the pods have to ripen? Clearly putting them in a sunny place is the first thing. Should I get a warming mat, or is this only really useful for germination? I gather a grow light would be good, but anything else?

Just sign me -

Newbie
 
Don't say that! Last year I was good til early/mid November. Realistic expectations would be mid October though. You have time.

Also, temperature-wise, as long as it isn't sustained over a long period of time, they'll tolerate relatively low temps.
 
I agree - it's disturbing. I haven't grown anything else here other than perennial flowers in years past. My next-door neighbors are a retired couple who pretty much just baby their garden all day. They've told me that any fruits/veggies they have now that haven't matured yet likely won't. They haven't grown hot peppers, but they do grow tomatoes (and cucumbers, and grapes, and eggplant, and...) But yes, October is just under a month and a half away. Brrr!

Thanks for the info - I'll keep an eye on the 10-day, and try not to jump the gun too soon.
 
Yeah. Still a week left in August and all of September. In the worst of all cases, I'll end up drying some green cayenne's and a few green habs, which will still be better than the stuff I buy in the local supermarket.
 
It seems like it was just last week that I was watching the trees turn green during spring. Now they are starting to turn colors already.

Summer is too damn short, winter is too damn long. Grrr....
 
You all are making me think about how well my heaters will work once I put the plastic over my garden. Thinking I will gain a week or so, maybe a month of ripening till it gets to cold.
 
Justaguy said:
You all are making me think about how well my heaters will work once I put the plastic over my garden. Thinking I will gain a week or so, maybe a month of ripening till it gets to cold.
Click to expand...
I've only got 3 pepper plants, plus 3 basil, so they're all coming inside for the winter. My "dining room" (used for storage) has windows on 2 sides, plus some light gets in through a passage in the wall (like a window, but no glass) between that room and the kitchen. The pepper plants are currently outside right beneath the windows of the dining room, so they won't get a significant sun change. Still and all, I keep my house pretty cool during the winter - 68 is usually tops. That's why I was thinking the heating mats (at least, while there are still pods remaining) might be a good idea.

Is it safe to assume you put the plastic over some sort of framework? ie - do you have a kind of greenhouse effect until it gets blanketed with snow? Of course, you might not get the lake-effect snow that we get here - I was thinking about trying something like that if I expand the number of plants next year, but then realized lighting would likely need ot be involved, as well. I should really just move south again!
 
I haven't done the plastic and heaters before to go a little longer. I am pretty sure it wouldn't get thru the whole winter, but it will help get a little more time when they would slow down because of the temp.

this is mine.
http://www.thehotpepper.com/topic/17310-garden-setup/page__p__368803__fromsearch__1#entry368803
 
Curiosity here. As I noted in my original post, my plants started blooming wildly a couple weeks ago. However, I haven't seen any bees hanging out around the plants during this time. This isn't to say I haven't seen other bugs, just no bees. I was thinking this meant the flowers weren't producing pollen, so I likely wouldn't get new pods. However, it looks like that wasn't actually the case, as the plants are now filling with tiny pods.

I have seen others post that sometimes pods that get produced late in the season aren't really optimum, so I'm curious to see how all this works out, especially with the weather change. I read on TheChileMan.org that he leaves immature pods on the plants over the winter, and they typically finish maturing once the spring hits. So part of me wants the pods to mature before the really gold weather hits, and part of me wants at least some pods to stay on the plant, just to see how it works out.

Guess I'll just have to wait and see how things work out!
 
Weather insanity tonight.....

Checked the forecast for tonight, said 49F, so thought I'd leave the pots outside. A bit later, thought it was getting chilly in the house, so went and checked the current, said 45F, so I brought the pots into the house. For whatever reason, just checked the current again, and it now says 52F. I'll be leaving them in the house tonight, but I suspect the next several weeks are going to be kind of nerve-wracking. I've got between 20 and 30 pods on each plant right now, and would like to see them get both fully grown (no midgets yet), as well as fully ripe.

Part of me wonders what the heck I did this to myself for... growing peppers in pots..... what was I thinking? Oh yeah, I live in OH now, and can't hardly find good peppers (or good spicy food) in these parts. That'll do it....
 
Don't ask me why, but I'm kind of using this as my late-season grow log. Well, more than kind of.

I had posted that my cayenne put some blooms out towards the bottom of the plant. I decided to leave them be, to see what mama nature would do. Well, I suspected she'd decide they needed to bend more than average, which is exactly what happened:
low.jpg


Shot of the whole shootin' match:
cayenne.jpg


And the TAM:
tams.jpg


I'm bringing them indoors for the night, now that the chilly weather is here, and so far have had no midgets appear. A good number of the TAMs are as big as they will likely get, so now it's just hoping I do enough things right that they ripen. The bigger cayennes are currently about half as long as the earlier season ones got to be, which averaged 8" - 10", but they appear to still be growing at this point. The pic of the cayenne plant above doesn't do it justice - it is actually chock full of pods, ranging from no longer than the nail on my pinky finger to about 5". Good times!
 
wow! if your still goin in ohio maybe i should stop worrying so much. i just made a lot of promises and i feel like a steaming pile of great dane doody if i can't keep them! everyone has been shown so much generocity ( is that how you spell it?) that i want to give back , mother nature can be a real buttcrack if she wants to be!
 
naganumbness said:
wow! if your still goin in ohio maybe i should stop worrying so much. i just made a lot of promises and i feel like a steaming pile of great dane doody if i can't keep them! everyone has been shown so much generocity ( is that how you spell it?) that i want to give back , mother nature can be a real buttcrack if she wants to be!
Click to expand...

It's generosity - just swap the 'c' with an 's'. And yes - I wouldn't worry so much in GA just yet. I spent most of a year in GA a couple of years back, plus grew up in the Houston, TX area, so am familiar with weather significantly south of this place. Although I'm a newbie to growing peppers, I've done quite a bit of reading posts on this site as well as other sites, and the general rules of thumb that I get are:

- Peppers don't like their roots to get below 50F, so if your plants are in pots, bring them inside any time the temps will get below that,
- Peppers don't like frost, so again, bring them inside if this threatens. Or, if your plants are in the ground, consider digging them up and potting them for the winter (if you don't have too many), or at least cover them, and
- Peppers really really don't like snow, which is pretty much fatal to them.

If your plants get hit with frost alone, but temps aren't too cold, they may loose their leaves, but the pods should remain and can even ripen. My son did grow some peppers one year in the ground a couple of years back, and yes, they lost their leaves after the first frost, and the pods continued to ripen until the snow hit, which is consistent with everything I've read. At least you don't have much snow to worry about! (Have I mentioned I'm still wondering why the heck I moved here? SNOW - what was I thinking??? )
 
Geeme, you are so right. Fall is upon us and I have sadly pulled most of my peppers garden :( In fact I had to wear a jacket the other night at work and it is cold when I need to wear a jacket.
 
Yeah - with the daytime warm-up we've had for a couple of days now, I decided to wear a sleeveless tank when I went running late yesterday afternoon. The area I run in is down, like it used to be a creek bed or something, and there are huge trees on both sides of the road, so it doesn't get much sun. I was really regretting not having sleeves - - - Brrrr!
 
So the squirrels and/or chipmunks are at it - trying to collect and bury as much goods for the winter as possible. Good for them, not so good for me. I'm going to have to start bringing the pots inside a bit sooner. I've gone out and found dirt everywhere around the pots, and enough out of the pots to expose the roots. Darned rodents! :mad:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top