By gisette
Outdoor Peppers 2011
Submitted on Sun, 2011/04/17 - 8:36pm
Last updated on Mon, 2011/10/31 - 11:35pm
Posted in
Transplanted out my first pepper today, in cloche!
Last summer my peppers did so badly in the growbox, and so well in the garden, that I'm putting three in the garden this year - two costa rican sweet peppers, and one carmen pepper. I also plan to dump & renew all soil in the growbox, of course... Anyway, we'll see how this one does, versus the other two kept inside another week or three.
Oh! These are using Tomatoes Alive! fertilizer. I'm happy with how that's working for the Early Indoor/Outdoor carmen pepper, which is the first carmen I've ever seen hold onto its first fruit. Well, so far, anyway. 
20110513: transplanted out the two peppers (1 carmen, 1 costa rican) I'd kept indoors.
Harvest:
early carmen: 53 (first red 6/3 - only fruit set indoors)
costa rican (normal transplant, 2 plants): 45 (first reddish 8/3)
normal-season carmen: 22 (first red 7/18)
Sat, 2011/04/30 - 7:41pm
#2
Sat, 2011/05/07 - 7:19pm
#3
Fri, 2011/05/13 - 3:05pm
#4
Finally declared it warm enough (barely) to plant out the peppers I'd held back indoors. Huge difference in health between the one put out in a cloche vs. the ones kept safe and warm. No more cloches for peppers. 
Tried adding lime, osmocote, and a dose of plain Miracle Gro to the yellow costa rican pepper to help it back to green. The new transplants also got some lime and Tomatoes Alive! fertilizer, and I sifted some old potting mix into the soil.
All three plants have buds. The healthier ones much closer to flowering.
Sun, 2011/05/22 - 9:18pm
#5
I think two of the peppers-in-the-ground have set fruit and are holding onto them. A surprise, since the weather's really still too cold for that.
Sun, 2011/05/29 - 12:52pm
#6
Early indoor/outdoor pepper joining this topic now, as it moved outdoors full time this week. They're not especially early anymore, but the plants is finally setting lots of fruit. Rather high up the plant, so gave it a cage yesterday. The ground carmen and healthier-looking costa rican are also setting fruit.
It's been about 7 weeks since the first pepper set. Keep thinking it's about to ripen, but... maybe not.
Sun, 2011/06/05 - 5:46pm
#7
Ate first mostly-ripe carmen pepper - yummmm. 
That's it for truly early harvest, since it only held onto one fruit before moving outdoors. But, it'll still give lots of fruit later - has about 30 set now, and most will probably ripen somewhat before the younger transplants.
Sun, 2011/06/12 - 3:45pm
#8
Harvested 2 more carmen peppers this week, both accidentally. I broke a whole branch while tying for support, and only one of the fruit on the branch was big enough to eat. 
Another fruit had a rot spot, so I picked it while I could still eat around the spot. Lost another several from the younger carmen pepper, broken off by siding workmen (but the plant lives!)
Added some lime to the early pepper with rot spots (on three fruit so far). Have some Enz-rot I'd like to try.
Mon, 2011/06/13 - 12:44pm
#9
Hi Gisette,
What's in the enz-rot? Another forum suggested calcium nitrate to stop blossom end rot (added to the water reservoir), but I haven't gotten around to buying any.
Beth
Mon, 2011/06/13 - 1:28pm
#10
Hi, Beth,
Enz-rot is a calcium chloride solution.
I've had this rot problem a lot with tomatoes, and some with carmen peppers, especially in growboxes. Yeah, BER is supposedly a metabolic calcium deficiency. But I don't think my growboxes have ever been deficient in calcium - the nutrient patches are loaded with dolomite, and I add a bit of powdered lime to the potting mix as well. What seems to happen is thunderstorms, followed by beautiful weather = rapid growth, and BER. The Enz-Rot bottle also mentions too much nitrogen and periods of fast growth. It's like the calcium deficiency is "in the leaves" in some sense, not a soil deficiency. At any rate, you spray the Enz-Rot on the leaves.
I hope it helps.
The outdoor pepper has grown, slightly. The ones that stayed inside seem to be ahead. All healthy though, and the outdoor pepper may pull ahead this week - daytime highs in the 60's, overnight lows not below 50, warmer inside the cloche.