The Stupid Wind or How do you Support your Pepper Plants

Koreansoul

Koreansoul

We had some sort of Tornado today (or Florida rain storm) and for the first time ever some of my pepper plants fell. They weren't my hots but I anticipate as they get older this will also be a problem. 
 
What I use now is jute and some sticks that I have (bamboo or green ones I used for tomatoes/cucumbers in previous years), or I use the plant clips. I have never had a plant fall and I'm not sure what else I could do. 
 
In theory if I lose the two bell pepper plants no biggie (I have 16, literally) but I don't want to lose any super hots. Any suggestions? 
 
My bells did not snap but were torn out by the root. As if some small (mini bigfoot) woodland creature pulled it out and laid it on it's side. Side note- I've been watching way to many stupid bigfoot/monster things on TV lately. 
 
how big are the plants?
 
 
 
picking up knocked over potted plants is one of my hobbies :rofl:
 
 
in the ground there is not much to do with the wind we get. plants break bottom line. i have found building a okra barrier is awesome for protecting.maybe next year plant a few rows of okra around your garden?
 
Sorry but I'm of no help on this one. Lost my entire garden to hail and high winds last year and that's why I'm strictly container gardening from here on out....
 
I have a couple in tomato cages and tied them to it. The others are just staked with the bamboo sticks. So far so good. :)
 
Goodluck
Angie
 
JoynersHotPeppers said:
There are so many tricks for sure, one is a simple wind barrier but perhaps you can just spray them with fish fert?  :rolleyes:
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fert all you want. things get broke in this area.  
 
 
 
 
meinchoh said:
Sorry but I'm of no help on this one. Lost my entire garden to hail and high winds last year and that's why I'm strictly container gardening from here on out....
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thats kinda of what i was trying to say.  the best thing you can do in this area is container,imo.  are winds are crazy and intense. and usually the worst thing that happens is the pot gets knocked over and you pick it back up in the morning.
 
sicman said:
fert all you want. things get broke in this area.  
 
 
 
 
thats kinda of what i was trying to say.  the best thing you can do in this area is container,imo.  are winds are crazy and intense. and usually the worst thing that happens is the pot gets knocked over and you pick it back up in the morning.
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You missed the joke, she lives in a place where she can't use fish fert due to the home owners association :)
 
I life in the windy city of Delaware, crazy winds all crowing season. I use sunflowers, stakes and lot's of fan training when they are babies! 
 
I start as many plants as possible indoors under T5 HO lighting so by the time for planting I have seriously stocky beefcake plants. We keep having back to back severe thunderstorms/tornado watches and all of my plants are fine other than some torn leaves. The only issue I will have is branches getting heavy with pods and may have to stake the bushier varieties.
 
The area I'm living in also has a lot of wind.  I try and combat this in a couple ways; first I use a fan on a timer to blow the seedlings when young - helps to firm them up.  Second I have a couple pieces of wood lattice that I place on the south east side of my beds to help screen the plants from our winds.  Haven't had one blow over since the first year we moved here.  
 
Sorry for the loss - any plant lost sucks - and best of luck to you in the future. 
 
I don't want to make any assumptions - are you growing in the ground or in pots? Your description that the bells did not snap but were torn out by the root makes me think you are growing in pots because it's fairly common (especially for new growers) to not put enough soil in a pot and not sufficiently pack it down. That's usually not the case with plants put in the ground, though it can be. There are different approaches you can take depending on ground or container growing, so it will help us help you if we know for sure.
 
Thanks for all the responses. 
 
To be more specific I have raised beds that are very large containers that equal out in length to a 2x4 bed. These guys were directly sown into the bed and have done just fine with the wind/storms this whole year. I think I will try to put up a wind barrier if I think the wind is going to be strong. 
 
I've been gardening for years and I've never had a plant actually come out of the ground. I'll be more careful about watching out for wind and putting up a barrier maybe. 
 
Is there a way in direct sow to have them build a stronger root system? 
 
JoynersHotPeppers said:
You missed the joke, she lives in a place where she can't use fish fert due to the home owners association :)
 
I life in the windy city of Delaware, crazy winds all crowing season. I use sunflowers, stakes and lot's of fan training when they are babies! 
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That I did :D
 
we have high winds here too, the best thing i have found is to start with a small fan when they are 4 inches tall and a couple weeks before plant out i have a big fan basically teaching the little guys a lesson before plant out. It works extremely well and they never skip a beat once transplanted. Basically make my garage extremely warm with high winds and more t5s than ever needed. never had to harden off and never been sunburned or wind damaged since. It looks harsh but they love it in the end,
 
As for now stake or cage them is your best bet, other than creating wind barriers of course
 
No matter how strong your plants are 50-70 mile gusts will take them down if the wind blows at just the right angle, I rarely have to stake, but some of the annuums just grow tall and
Lanky and there is no way around it! I rarely stake, but when I do I use the 5' 2"x2" wooden tomato spikes with jute twine, stay thirsty my friends ;)
 
Here's just a portion of the devastation those same storms did to my plants here in Orlando -
faafx0.jpg



...that's just the tip of the iceberg, my crop took a MASSIVE hit
 
yup something about these pesky hurricane winds that just dont care.  most importat about the winds that us florida cats get is the whole hurricane thing. they smash like hulk. so you can be staked to the max and 50 mile wind drops on top of it.
 
 
sometimes you bite the bar and sometimes the bar bites you
 
JustFL 
 
That sucks. Pretty much the same thing here but blown over. I'm lucky nothing actually snapped. The storms must have been bad if it's just not me. Grrr. 
 
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