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raised-bed Well, 2021 Is A Wash!

O

obchili

Well, I hate to have to post this, but I can and will say it now that this year is a total wash! I will not be getting anything. Everything was going good up till a coupel weeks ago. I did start a couple of weeks late in the house, but even at that, my peppers just did not seem to be doing as well as in the past. With that said, they all survived and I did plant them in my raised bed. However, now they do not seem to be doing good. Still very small and 'twigy', small meaning still under 4" tall, and I too have lost a few. Thsi is th eraised bed I had built a few years ago and I have not done anything to it. I have a feeling that the soil is no longer good as I have not removed some and added new stuff for nutrients and such. Also, I did water my plants as I have in the past with a successful crop, and did also use nutrients in small doses as the plants are small. But with it almost being July here and my season shorter due to my location, I am unfortunately done I think. I will be concentrating on my couple of strongest plants and hope for the best.
 
Next year, I am going to grow in 4 gallon pails and see how that goes for me, or I will build a new pepper box. And of course, all new soil and such. Sorry, but I just felt I needed to vent a bit as I was really looking forward to a couple of nice fresh peppers this year but will be waiting till next year now!
 
Well, there is no scientific evidence, but in the last couple of years, the peppers I had planted were not as big or as bearing as in the first few years. Yes, our weather this year has also been very poor compared to years past, which may also be a contributing factor. I had just thought that the soil needs some rejuvenating by adding some fresh manure or peatmoss. This was also run by a coworker and he also agreed.

As well to note, my bed is just plain old lumber and is starting to rot out and due to its location, repairs are not doable as it was built in the yard then carried into place before adding soil. This will benefit me as I will build a couple of newer smaller boxes steady of one big long one. Sorry, no pictures at this time, but can take a couple Sunday when I get home from the cottage.
 
That's a bummer.  Hopefully they get their acts together.   My raised bed peppers aren't too big right now, but they're getting pretty-well rooted in and should pack on the size through July and August.  Hope yours do too.  Something you might consider is getting a bag of good quality compost and using it as a side-dressing for the plants.  Then each time you water some of that good organic matter will get carried down to the root zone.
 
I feel for you. This season has been hard on the peppers. Record breaking heat followed by cold and wet and then heat again in Sk. The result was half of my plants just dropped their leaves. I hit them with a cal-mag fertilizer which has a fair bit of nitrogen in it. You might want to do the same as the goal is plant growth. You want to see new leaves form. With that said I suspect I'll lose 10% this year despite my efforts. All I can say is grow in multiples and hope one pulls through. 
 
Thank you all for the help, replies, and encouragement. It is greatly appreciated. I may try somethingelse yet, but not feeling like it will go anywhere. Heck, we're sitting at just a hair above 50 Fahrenheit currently again. The nights here in Manitoba have been crazy this year. Heck along our Manitoba and Saskatchewan border there are frost warnings tonight!
 
No worries. Our low tonight is 4C. I just spent the afternoon wrapping everything up. Then getting out to my second garden and trying a bag around the squash. Not fun. 
 
On a side note, did anyone else notice amazing crops for everything last year? Seemed with the lock downs and a couple months of less traffic and idiots running around all my plants did better than usual. Green house, shade house, gardens everything loved the quite. Sign that we are very over populated? 
 
sicman said:
On a side note, did anyone else notice amazing crops for everything last year? Seemed with the lock downs and a couple months of less traffic and idiots running around all my plants did better than usual. Green house, shade house, gardens everything loved the quite. Sign that we are very over populated? 
Click to expand...
 
As a matter of fact, no. My plants were (ironically enough) decimated by disease  :confused:
 
But I do agree on the overpopulated part, and I did enjoy the quit.
 
This year has been a mixed bag: adult plants are now producing well, but germination was below average. Many of my stronger chinenses will not be producing anytime soon.
 
Lots of people hate on it but Miracle-Gro blue powder might get them going. Just follow the directions. It's an awesome fertilizer and might just be what your plants need. I can tell you for sure it won't hurt.
 
Thank you. I have used that in the past, but when I ran out, I bought a bottle of liquid version. But as this year is a wash, I may just go grab another box of it, as I do remember that my plants did do well with it when I used it. If memory serves me right, the one I had was labelled as for tomatoes.
 
My plants had a horrific start to the season as it was too cold to plant out as normal in early May.  When I finally planted out (raised beds) we got 20" of rain in the first month.  The plants were very unhappy and did nothing .... other than look yellow, spindly and ragged.  I thought I was going to have to replace over 100 plants.  Then I thought that maybe my raised beds needed some amending but remained patient.  In their second month we got no rain and 90+ F temperatures, things dried out and they perked up quite a bit.  Putting on new bottom growth first.  Now in their 3rd month outside, most look normal (although I think stockier than most years) and we have just started harvesting annuums.  Hang in there.  
 
Just a little update... It has been abnormally hot and dry here for the past long while, along with no rain and none in teh forseeable future. With that said, I had given up on this years grow and have been attending my strawberries and flowers and wrote off my peppers, and paying no attention to them. Well tonight I walked past teh raised bed and one plant has 2 flowers on it, and another is starting to bud. Unfortunately, the plants themselves are all about 6 inches tall, so if they do actually produce peppers, I am not sure how they will turn out. So I just may get a couple pepper pods yet! :P
 
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