I don't have a digital camera or phone so the best I can do is explain using measurements.
Last March I started some Fatalii seeds and got 2 plants. One is in a Folgers 39 oz plastic container that measures 5 1/2" X 5 1/2", the plant is 27" tall with a 32" wide canopy. The other is in a Folgers 24 oz plastic container that measures 6" wide by 4" deep, the plant is 25" tall with a 25" wide canopy. The leaves are only on the outer half of the branches so both plants are bare stalk and branches on the bottom with leaves at the ends of branches. They were out on the deck all summer and on warm Fall days. The plants had lots of dark green leaves all season. By mid November I took them in and have kept them in a large South facing window where they have done amazingly well growing a lot over the past 6 months. I have fertilized them with Neptune's Harvest Fish and Seaweed emulsion once a week since May 2020. In 2020 I harvested a total of 101 pods but they are only 1" to 1 1/2" long, I assume they are stunted due to the plants being so root bound. From January to today I have hand pollenated flowers harvesting an additional 36 pods. So far this has been far more successful than I ever imagined! I've been an organic gardener for 3 decades so I have a lot of experience growing all types of vegetables in the garden but containers have been used only for Parsley and Eggplant so container growing is new to me.
Here is my concern. Around early February as the sun got higher in the sky the small new leaves would turn yellow and drop off. By early March, both plants had dropped a lot of leaves and the larger leaves were not dark green anymore, they are a pale green and slowly they have started to fall off too. I have been putting them out on the deck on warm days for a month thinking direct sun would get the leaves dark green but it is not happening. 2 weeks ago I started to use a stronger solution of Neptune's Harvest thinking more fertilizer would help but so far there is no change in the color of the leaves. In a month, I should be able to leave the plants out all day on the deck. I realize that November through March is not exactly strong sun with short days but the plants were doing fine until early February which surprised me as the sun was higher in the sky so more direct and for longer hours, yet that is when the yellowing and dropping of leaves started.
I just read all 9 pages of the thread from 2013 to 2019 about topping and pruning peppers. Personally, I never cut out suckers on tomatoes because more leaves means more photosynthesis and more shade which prevents sun scald and supposedly sweeter fruits but tomatoes, despite being in the same family as peppers, are not peppers. Would my 2 Fatalii plants benefit from cutting back the branches? Remember, all the leaf growth is at the last half of each branch so it would mean losing all the foliage! I hate to lose these 2 plants as they start their 2nd year but I am concerned about the sparse foliage and the pale green vs dark green leaves.
Any ideas?
Last March I started some Fatalii seeds and got 2 plants. One is in a Folgers 39 oz plastic container that measures 5 1/2" X 5 1/2", the plant is 27" tall with a 32" wide canopy. The other is in a Folgers 24 oz plastic container that measures 6" wide by 4" deep, the plant is 25" tall with a 25" wide canopy. The leaves are only on the outer half of the branches so both plants are bare stalk and branches on the bottom with leaves at the ends of branches. They were out on the deck all summer and on warm Fall days. The plants had lots of dark green leaves all season. By mid November I took them in and have kept them in a large South facing window where they have done amazingly well growing a lot over the past 6 months. I have fertilized them with Neptune's Harvest Fish and Seaweed emulsion once a week since May 2020. In 2020 I harvested a total of 101 pods but they are only 1" to 1 1/2" long, I assume they are stunted due to the plants being so root bound. From January to today I have hand pollenated flowers harvesting an additional 36 pods. So far this has been far more successful than I ever imagined! I've been an organic gardener for 3 decades so I have a lot of experience growing all types of vegetables in the garden but containers have been used only for Parsley and Eggplant so container growing is new to me.
Here is my concern. Around early February as the sun got higher in the sky the small new leaves would turn yellow and drop off. By early March, both plants had dropped a lot of leaves and the larger leaves were not dark green anymore, they are a pale green and slowly they have started to fall off too. I have been putting them out on the deck on warm days for a month thinking direct sun would get the leaves dark green but it is not happening. 2 weeks ago I started to use a stronger solution of Neptune's Harvest thinking more fertilizer would help but so far there is no change in the color of the leaves. In a month, I should be able to leave the plants out all day on the deck. I realize that November through March is not exactly strong sun with short days but the plants were doing fine until early February which surprised me as the sun was higher in the sky so more direct and for longer hours, yet that is when the yellowing and dropping of leaves started.
I just read all 9 pages of the thread from 2013 to 2019 about topping and pruning peppers. Personally, I never cut out suckers on tomatoes because more leaves means more photosynthesis and more shade which prevents sun scald and supposedly sweeter fruits but tomatoes, despite being in the same family as peppers, are not peppers. Would my 2 Fatalii plants benefit from cutting back the branches? Remember, all the leaf growth is at the last half of each branch so it would mean losing all the foliage! I hate to lose these 2 plants as they start their 2nd year but I am concerned about the sparse foliage and the pale green vs dark green leaves.
Any ideas?
