Growing Chiles in HEL - 2019

Sinn · Jul 7, 2019

podz said:
Well, we got the hot tub in place now. Those are not my toes in the photo!

ht.jpg

Lovely toes and even a lovelier hot tub can you time travel in that thing? [emoji16]

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6013 using Tapatalk

podz · Jul 7, 2019

Sinn said:
Lovely toes and even a lovelier hot tub can you time travel in that thing? [emoji16]

I'm gonna try!

PaulG · Jul 7, 2019

That's super bad, Mika! Can't wait to see the whole
view of the deck when it is totally finished!

podz · Jul 8, 2019

PaulG said:
That's super bad, Mika! Can't wait to see the whole
view of the deck when it is totally finished!

I thought I replied to this last night but it is disappeared. Hope I'm not losing my mind!

Not sure if it will ever be totally finished, I just do more improvements from this point forward. I have a lot of leftover wood that I was gonna use to build some storage boxes etc but the weather has been raining at least some point of nearly every day since the deck itself was completed. Not too keen on bring out my big saw when it's raining.

Hard to capture in a single photo when it's size is 7.5m (24.6f) wide and 6m (19.6f) back to front. Probably could do a panorama photo with the iPhone.

Due to cool weather and frequent rainfall this summer + combined with 20% vermiculite in my mix I doubt that I will even bother with the drip irrigation system. Everything seems to be growing just fine with a once per week heavy feeding that they have been getting this year.

PaulG · Jul 8, 2019

Sounds like you are having the same great weather we are, Mika!

podz · Jul 8, 2019

PaulG said:
Sounds like you are having the same great weather we are, Mika!

Yep, Paul. Last summer we had the hottest in recorded history and now this summer is the coolest I have ever seen in Helsinki. What happened to the global warming? :confused:

PaulG · Jul 9, 2019

podz said:
Yep, Paul. Last summer we had the hottest in recorded history and now this summer is the coolest I have ever seen in Helsinki. What happened to the global warming?

Global climate chaos is more like it, unfortunately.
Too bad the phrase 'global warming' became the
poster child for climate change.

podz · Jul 9, 2019

PaulG said:
Global climate chaos is more like it, unfortunately.
Too bad the phrase 'global warming' became the
poster child for climate change.

Yeah and when you live near the coast it's always unstable anyway.

I noticed brown spots on about 8 of my plants today and am suspecting that they will be dead within a week or two. Hopefully it won't jump over to the pubes. There has been almost no sun, no warmth and only rain for a few weeks straight now - daytime highs are in the 50s and not predicted to get better for the next month. I'm guessing the pubes will be the survivors this year.

masterown35 · Jul 9, 2019

The deck and the plants are looking good! My plants just finally started taking off in the last 2-3 weeks since we had a lot of wet weather and not a lot of sun. Excited to start harvesting

chelicerae · Jul 10, 2019

podz said:
Yeah and when you live near the coast it's always unstable anyway.

I noticed brown spots on about 8 of my plants today and am suspecting that they will be dead within a week or two. Hopefully it won't jump over to the pubes. There has been almost no sun, no warmth and only rain for a few weeks straight now - daytime highs are in the 50s and not predicted to get better for the next month. I'm guessing the pubes will be the survivors this year.

:/ I hope those spots don't spread, and that at least the pubes will live and thrive! ..My lone annuum on the balcony (4,5hrs of potential direct sun) doesn't appear as if it is going to produce much,('Eithiopian brown' at 20C high days and 8C mornings) I'm happy indoor parameters are mostly controllable even if space ain't.

PaulG · Jul 10, 2019

podz said:
I noticed brown spots on about 8 of my plants today and am suspecting that they will be dead within a week or two.

Possible Bacterial Leaf spot?

Can you pick off the affected leaves without denuding the plant?

podz · Jul 11, 2019

PaulG said:
Possible Bacterial Leaf spot?

Can you pick off the affected leaves without denuding the plant?

Yep. I don't think picking off the leaves helps as it is a systemic disease.

PaulG · Jul 11, 2019

It helps to slow down the spreading since it also spreads
by contact. The disease lives in the soil so it's important
to keep the dropping leaves picked up. Seeds from affected
plants have the bacterium on their surface, so when they
germinate, the plant is automatically infected.

I had to let a few big containers go dormant for over a year
to allow the bacteria to die off. I now pick a leaf off at the first
suspicion of BLS, looking for the dark depressions that
show up first. I try to keep the soil surfaces scrupulously
clean of plant debris.

BLS is a real b***h, alright. Good luck dealing with it. According
to what I have read, there isn't really a fool proof way to get rid
of it. Especially since the bacteria can infect the plant by entering
the pores in the leaves.

podz · Jul 18, 2019

Brothers, sorry for being negligent to the blog. I have been working with my big makita many hours per day trying to get the deck into shape for winter. Some chili photos are coming soon.

podz · Jul 21, 2019

Pubes...

I have two Montufars, both of which are flowering and fruiting heavily for several weeks already. Same with my Pico Mucho.

And then there are the Manzano Rojos - I have 6 of them in huge pots and they have all grown up into large, sturdy, leafy plants with tons of flower buds. Not a single pod on any of them so far, a few plants have been flowering for several weeks already but they all drop off. Daytime temps are in the 25c (77f) range now dropping down to 17c (62f) or so at night. Last night, I decided to try a new strategy: before going to bed, I took the water hose and showered them down with cold water to try to trick them :-) Let's see how it goes.

podz · Jul 21, 2019

Pico Mucho - the plant I thought was going to die after being getting a sunburn, attacked by insects and finally attacked by a squirrel. This plant is now sprawled out sideways and full of little pods and flowers. It's hard to fit the entire plant into one photo! I was supposed to pot it up already from it's 3GAL pot to something larger but haven't found the time yet.

podz · Jul 21, 2019

OK I had to get some photos of the Rojos since it's such a nice day.

Here are 4 of the 6 Rojo pepper plants. They are already larger than the standard-sized tomato cages.

Here are the other 2 Rojos.

It seems that spraying cold water on them before bedtime last night worked - there are now multiple pods set on 2 of the 6 plants.

Rojos are taller than me! (They are sitting on a bench)

Rojo in the sun

One of my Montufars being happy

And the Montufar has got a lot of pods on it already

podz · Jul 21, 2019

PaulG said:
It helps to slow down the spreading since it also spreads
by contact. The disease lives in the soil so it's important
to keep the dropping leaves picked up. Seeds from affected
plants have the bacterium on their surface, so when they
germinate, the plant is automatically infected.

I had to let a few big containers go dormant for over a year
to allow the bacteria to die off. I now pick a leaf off at the first
suspicion of BLS, looking for the dark depressions that
show up first. I try to keep the soil surfaces scrupulously
clean of plant debris.

BLS is a real b***h, alright. Good luck dealing with it. According
to what I have read, there isn't really a fool proof way to get rid
of it. Especially since the bacteria can infect the plant by entering
the pores in the leaves.

I had to completely trash 2 Padrons and seriously cut back my Reaper and Chocolate Scotch Bonnets. Also had to pull a ton of leaves off of most of the other plants, with the exception of the pubes which don't seem very affected by it (there were a few leaves).

I noticed this stuff after a heavy downfall of birch seeds combined with rain. The birch seeds got stuck to the leaves of my chiles and then the problems really started happening fast. Do you think that it's conceivable that this stuff could have actually been carried / spread by seeds from a birch tree?

PaulG · Jul 21, 2019

I think that is entirely possible since the
bacteria are common in the environment.

Bad luck, if that is, indeed, the case. Talk
about sabotage.

podz · Jul 22, 2019

PaulG said:
I think that is entirely possible since the
bacteria are common in the environment.

Bad luck, if that is, indeed, the case. Talk
about sabotage.

Yeah we had exceptionally shitty weather during mid-June til mid-July - cool and wet with a lot of stormy winds. The winds produced a constant downfall of crap from all the tall surrounding trees, including those birch seeds. In addition, we had swarms of butterfly moths and they nearly wiped out my Rojos (recovered now except for one which might not even produce flowers).

I'm not sure if the seeds is what caused it but after they got stuck to leaves with rainwater, when they dried it left "burn spots" on the leaves which then just seemed to spread like hell. Last summer was my first year growing at this new house and we had a severe drought so no such similar problems.