This was my first full pepper season...yes, there's still a month or so to go but my final flushes are set and that will pretty much do it.
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Thanks to all here for the great advice and support, I feel I did pretty well.
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Had a thread on Nectar for the God's and that seems to have been buried so I'll sum it up here. Over all I was impressed with the product. My plants did respond very well and even my most stubborn plants that refused to flower did so amazingly after a few applications. I found the product to be lacking a bit in the nitrogen department as noted by yellowing. I boosted with blood meal and some Neptune's harvest and that seemed to have corrected things. Although I did get a massive fruit set on one of my Scotch Bonnets, I'm finding the fruit to be a bit on the small side. This plant is huge and I think I should have pared back the massive amount of flowers...Just too much for the plant to support efficiently. At this point, if I had discretionary cash I would probably revisit this product for the sake of flower/fruiting. As far as growth, I'd probably go with other options and save the Nectar for later in the season.
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As mentioned, Neptune's harvest is a pretty good generalized fert for me. I tried the cheaper Alaska fish fert and found it to be lacking in refinement...Neptune's harvest smells like a wharf, Alaska smells like a dumpster behind a fish market in the sun. Soooo, yeah, no more of that for me. Seriously, it smelled like rotten fish versus stinky fishy.
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As far as bugs, the aphids made a pretty furious appearance. Hand washing down every leaf and treating with Azamax accidentally double-dosed kept them off those treated plants all season. At the highest recommended dosage, I only had temporary relief. Too expensive to double-dose but I guess keep that in mind. My lady bug assault at first failed...or so I thought. Although 98% of them took off after two application of thousands...the few that stuck around began to breed and before I knew it I had hundreds of alligators (nymphs) all over my plants. They really ended up destroying the aphids but it took time. Seems like I went through around 3 generations with nymphs and adults all calling my garden home. For sure struck a balance later in the season...as the aphids declined, so did the ladybugs, when they ramped up more lady bugs showed up. Pretty cool. So as I said before, even though it *appears* most leave, they are still in the neighborhood and will revisit and hang around....Just gotta get the general population in the area up and they'll do their thing. My mantises successfully bred so I'm sure I'll have my resident aliens around next year. They just annihilated the flies feeding on hummingbird poo that covered some plants. Every evening after work I'd make a cocktail and watch them snatch up a fly or 2. Amazing little beasties.
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The self watering buckets really outperformed the pots and did fantastic in the heat. I do worry about what's going on in the water chamber this late in the season. Is their slime or other nasty shit growing in there? I don't know...probably. I am seeing some anomalous leaf patters in the plants in the buckets. Not a lot, but a few leaves have dry spots on them...Like brittle fall-apart dry. Also some non-conventional yellowing on certain leaves. Although I tried not to leave too much standing water in them and let them dry out...When it got hot, didn't have much of a choice. So yeah, I think I need to carefully examine (smell) the roots when I bring them down and see if they got the funk. If so, I'll need to figure out how to fight off what ever is mucking it up. I'm sure hydro growers have products to address this so not too concerned.
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My harvests were overall good...Way more Scotch Bonnets than I know what to do with. Actually, these things are so blazing hot that 2 or 3 would have been plenty =). I left my Habaneros on for as long as possible and these were super fruity while a little muted on the heat side. My Thais were probably the ones I ate most. These are your typical grocery store variety but I just love them. Hot enough to give me hiccups but not hot enough to kill my stomach or revisit me the next morning. Just perfect. Still waiting on the one and only batch of Hawaiians to ripen but I have a ton and am very happy about that. Not sure I would have any without Nectar for the Gods. I know some people state that the super hots typically wont produce the first year. Might be interesting to apply NftG to see if you can get some flowering the first year...Pretty sure you would.
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Still trying to figure out if I'm going to over winter anyone this year or just start fresh. There are a few I wont be growing again and a few that I will. But one things for sure, my patio will be covered with pepper plants again next year!
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Hope your season was as rewarding as mine.
-
Thanks to all here for the great advice and support, I feel I did pretty well.
-
Had a thread on Nectar for the God's and that seems to have been buried so I'll sum it up here. Over all I was impressed with the product. My plants did respond very well and even my most stubborn plants that refused to flower did so amazingly after a few applications. I found the product to be lacking a bit in the nitrogen department as noted by yellowing. I boosted with blood meal and some Neptune's harvest and that seemed to have corrected things. Although I did get a massive fruit set on one of my Scotch Bonnets, I'm finding the fruit to be a bit on the small side. This plant is huge and I think I should have pared back the massive amount of flowers...Just too much for the plant to support efficiently. At this point, if I had discretionary cash I would probably revisit this product for the sake of flower/fruiting. As far as growth, I'd probably go with other options and save the Nectar for later in the season.
-
As mentioned, Neptune's harvest is a pretty good generalized fert for me. I tried the cheaper Alaska fish fert and found it to be lacking in refinement...Neptune's harvest smells like a wharf, Alaska smells like a dumpster behind a fish market in the sun. Soooo, yeah, no more of that for me. Seriously, it smelled like rotten fish versus stinky fishy.
-
As far as bugs, the aphids made a pretty furious appearance. Hand washing down every leaf and treating with Azamax accidentally double-dosed kept them off those treated plants all season. At the highest recommended dosage, I only had temporary relief. Too expensive to double-dose but I guess keep that in mind. My lady bug assault at first failed...or so I thought. Although 98% of them took off after two application of thousands...the few that stuck around began to breed and before I knew it I had hundreds of alligators (nymphs) all over my plants. They really ended up destroying the aphids but it took time. Seems like I went through around 3 generations with nymphs and adults all calling my garden home. For sure struck a balance later in the season...as the aphids declined, so did the ladybugs, when they ramped up more lady bugs showed up. Pretty cool. So as I said before, even though it *appears* most leave, they are still in the neighborhood and will revisit and hang around....Just gotta get the general population in the area up and they'll do their thing. My mantises successfully bred so I'm sure I'll have my resident aliens around next year. They just annihilated the flies feeding on hummingbird poo that covered some plants. Every evening after work I'd make a cocktail and watch them snatch up a fly or 2. Amazing little beasties.
-
The self watering buckets really outperformed the pots and did fantastic in the heat. I do worry about what's going on in the water chamber this late in the season. Is their slime or other nasty shit growing in there? I don't know...probably. I am seeing some anomalous leaf patters in the plants in the buckets. Not a lot, but a few leaves have dry spots on them...Like brittle fall-apart dry. Also some non-conventional yellowing on certain leaves. Although I tried not to leave too much standing water in them and let them dry out...When it got hot, didn't have much of a choice. So yeah, I think I need to carefully examine (smell) the roots when I bring them down and see if they got the funk. If so, I'll need to figure out how to fight off what ever is mucking it up. I'm sure hydro growers have products to address this so not too concerned.
-
My harvests were overall good...Way more Scotch Bonnets than I know what to do with. Actually, these things are so blazing hot that 2 or 3 would have been plenty =). I left my Habaneros on for as long as possible and these were super fruity while a little muted on the heat side. My Thais were probably the ones I ate most. These are your typical grocery store variety but I just love them. Hot enough to give me hiccups but not hot enough to kill my stomach or revisit me the next morning. Just perfect. Still waiting on the one and only batch of Hawaiians to ripen but I have a ton and am very happy about that. Not sure I would have any without Nectar for the Gods. I know some people state that the super hots typically wont produce the first year. Might be interesting to apply NftG to see if you can get some flowering the first year...Pretty sure you would.
-
Still trying to figure out if I'm going to over winter anyone this year or just start fresh. There are a few I wont be growing again and a few that I will. But one things for sure, my patio will be covered with pepper plants again next year!
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Hope your season was as rewarding as mine.
