Recap of the Last Garden Season
I know, it’s been awhile and things have happened. But, time for more peppers and updates. I do have some new plants in the garden, and I do have some thoughts for pepper-y experiments this year. But first a recap on my last posts.
A Recap For the First Greenhouse Garden
First a recap on how the peppers in my previous posts went. I wasn’t used to having a greenhouse, so it threw me off my game a bit, trying to get used to it (compared to the outside plants). I will say that the peppers definitely did grow, but still had some challenges.
Yellow Cayenne was a trouper — it wasn’t a very big plant, and its pot got invaded by some ants (yuck), but it produced a lot of nice peppers.  I pretty much left them on the plant until they were a lovely yellow color. Quite hot, and I dried quite a few, for later use.
My habanero (orange, no special variety) grew to a large size and produced a lot (and I do mean a lot!) of peppers. Very hot, as you might imagine — I had so many I didn’t quite know what to do with them! Time to give away some peppers!
Dragon Cayenne — oh boy, that plant wanted to take over! If you ever want a pepper that you wish would stop producing peppers because you already had a basket (or two) full, this is a pepper for you. And it’s no mean feat, because the fruits are smaller than the habanero, and much smaller than the Yellow Cayenne. The plant grew to about 3 feet tall and didn’t want to quit.
My Cajun Belle and regular bell peppers did so-so; nothing to write home about. I seem to be able to grow hot peppers well, but I don’t tend to have luck with bells.
Fooled You jalapeno grew quite large, but about the time it began to put out flowers and fruit, most of my greenhouse plants started to get some sort of weird mold or fungus or something. Alas, Fooled You succumbed. (Dragon Cayenne didn’t, though.) I did get some peppers off Fooled You, though, and they lived up to their billing — a nice jalapeno taste without the heat.
The tabasco plant did well, but it had a hard time competing with the Dragon Cayenne. I’m still not overly impressed with tabasco peppers, taste-wise, although it did produce plenty of peppers.
Purple Flash was a flash in the pan. It grew nicely for a few weeks, then promptly died. It was outside the greenhouse, and I am not sure if it was the torrential rain we had or if it was that the plant wasn’t as good as it could have been. It wasn’t until after I got it home from the store that I saw it had a few leaves that had a white residue on them. I plucked the leaves off, but it (the white residue) kept trying to come back.
The other peppers mostly sprouted, but never seemed to make it beyond the seedling stage. Not sure if it was the Autumn sun not being strong enough for the window I had them in, or something else, but only Fooled You made it from seed to mature plant.
Greenhouse Growing
I don’t think I situated the greenhouse well — I probably should have faced it along a north/south direction instead of an east/west. I suspect it would have given me better ventilation, as I think the black mold or whatever it was had something to do with the ventilation (or lack thereof). It also didn’t help that I had an extremely wet September, a wet October and it didn’t dry out appreciably until somewhere between Halloween and Thanksgiving.
The heat inside the greenhouse was actually fine for the peppers, but their pots seemed to dry out faster. Although it might have had something to do with the grow bags, I don’t think that was all it — I had some regular plastic pots in the greenhouse, and they seemed to dry out faster, too. And because the watering became somewhat uneven (didn’t help that I didn’t want to go out in the rain to water the plants in the greenhouse), the plants probably didn’t reach their full potential. (I shudder to think of what the Dragon Cayenne might have done with optimal conditions…)
The greenhouse was great that winter, when we had a few cold snaps. Just zip it up, and the plants inside were nice and cozy.
The greenhouse covering lasted over a year and a half before its seams ripped. The covering itself is fine, and we still use it as tarps, but the stitched seams couldn’t stand up to the Florida climate — our sun is brutal, and the humidity didn’t help any. So long to the covering! I could buy another but…(see the next paragraph).
All is not lost. The steel frame is in great condition, and I am using it as, well, framing! I have trellises strapped to the frame on one side (mostly for the tomatoes and cucumbers), hanging planters with strawberries along the opposite side and plenty of access to all the plants from both sides. The shelving I used is still fine (a very tough, strong plastic), so I can grow smaller plants in pots on it. Right now I am moving things around, and situating the latest peppers where I think they will do best.
This is a long post, so I’ll go for now and let you know what’s growing for this season with the next post.
Yellow Cayenne Pepper
The yellow cayenne pepper is doing well in my fall garden. It’s had some setbacks, but my oh my, are there peppers! I certainly can’t complain that there aren’t enough, or that the peppers aren’t big enough.
Yellow cayenne is shaping up to be a nice choice for the fall garden.
What a Wet September!
I planted the pepper around Labor Day 2014, and after a few nice days, the rest of the month was rain, rain…and more rain. Even though it was in the greenhouse, it was right by the door, which stayed open for ventilation. So my poor pepper got very wet. And then to make matters worse, the sunlight was hit and miss — there were days at a stretch where there was little to no direct sunlight. No wonder why the plant ended up a little on the leggy side by the end of September!
I planted the peppers in a smart pot, so the roots were able to get enough air and not end up drowning. I am not sure that the peppers would have made it had I planted in a standard plastic pot, as wet as it was.
October brought more challenges, in the form of an insect attack. While the insects didn’t bother the peppers, they did enjoy munching on the leaves (groan). I finally sprayed with some organic neem oil and the remaining leaves weren’t find of that — some of the leaves withered up. But finally, after some days of sunshine and when cooler nights started, Yellow Cayenne started looking happier. And now towards the end of October, the ripe peppers are flowing in!
Peppers Galore
Cayenne is what I would call a medium-hot pepper. Well, compared to things like habaneros, at any rate! Yellow cayenne is somewhere in the neighborhood of 40,000 Scoville units.
Cayenne Yellow bears fairly early; actually it was the earliest of my fall pepper garden. The peppers are around three to five inches long. They start off green, and stay that way for awhile — you can eat them green if you like. But, if you want them sweeter and hotter, wait until they mature to a golden yellow. And if you can, I’d recommend waiting until they turn yellow before you pick them. The green ones taste…well, green! (They are indeed hot though, even when they are green.)
Talking about golden yellow — it’s a really nice change from red peppers. Not to mention it looks great in the garden (as well as on your plate). They kind of remind me of splashes of bright sunshine.
The plant is not stingy in the least with its fruiting — it started bearing early on, and it’s happily continued bearing. One plant has kept me in plenty of chile peppers that are nice and spicy.
Pepper Garden – Fall 2014 Redoux
For my homegrown peppers garden a la Fall 2014, there have already been changes. It’s amazing how fast plans can go out the door and vanish! But, I have new pepper plants in place, so here’s the (new) lineup.
Before I list the peppers, I’ll note that my plans changed because of two things. The first is my greenhouse and the second is the Fall/Winter weather predictions for South Florida. It’s supposed to get rather chilly early on, and a cooler Fall/Winter overall, compared to 2013.
Fall 2014 Pepper Lineup, Take 2
Purple Flash, Early September 2014.
Given the above, my plans changed to buy some starter plants and not grow as many of the seeds (waiting until Thanksgiving to plant those). So here goes for what’s now on deck.
Purple Flash: This is a pepper with purple foliage. The new leaves are green, kind of variegated. As they get older, they turn a lovely dusky purple. Peppers start as purple, then turn red as they mature. Since I bought it as a starter, I picked off all the peppers after I transplanted so as to de-stress the plant. I have it planted in a 5-gallon container.
Cayenne Yellow: A cayenne pepper, only with peppers that mature to a lemon-color, instead of red. It’s supposed to be just as hot as a regular cayenne. I have it cohabiting with a pepper called Cajun Bell in a 12-gallon grow bag / smart pot.
Cajun Belle: This is interesting; it’s a hybrid bell peppers that supposedly is a little on the spicy side. Who could resist — not me, for sure! So I planted it with Cayenne Yellow, as well as an Italian basil plant.
Dragon Cayenne: The name drew me in, so I figured I’d grow it and compare to the Yellow Cayenne plant. It’s sharing a 20-gallon smart pot with a Tabasco pepper and some cinnamon basil.
Tabasco (upper left), Dragon Cayenne (upper right) and Cinnamon Basil (foreground). These were just planted 3 days ago.
Tabasco: I don’t recall if this one had a specific variety name, but I picked it to grow for two reasons. First, if I’ve ever grown Tabasco peppers, it’s been years and years, so why not try them? Second, the plant was so pretty! So, in the grow bag with the Dragon Cayenne and basil.
Habanero: No variety listed. I almost didn’t get this starter plant, because habanero peppers typically take a long time to fruit, and it’s already the middle of September. But, I have a greenhouse, so what the heck — live a little! (And hopefully the plant will live more than a little, LOL.) I haven’t decided on where to put this one yet.
Red Bell Pepper: No specific variety name. I didn’t have any regular bells as a starter plant so thought I’d add this one in. It’s also waiting doe its home….which I suspect will be with the habanero. And more basil, or perhaps oregano.
For seedlings that have already popped their heads up, I have:
Fooled You Jalepeno: A no-heat jalapeno pepper, which I have never grown before. It’s a hybrid, and I’ll see how “no heat” it turns out to be. I am growing this mostly for my husband David, who prefers the no-heat.
Trinidad Perfume: This was in my original lineup, and it’s a no-heat habanero. This one is really for me, since I have no idea what a habanero really tastes like — it’s usually all I can do to fan my mouth and look around for ice cream to cool the burn when I eat the regular ones. 😉
Flamingo: A pretty bell pepper that changes colors as the pepper matures. This one is sweet (unlike Cajun Belle). Looking forward to trying it.
Tri-Fetti: This is one of my old (5+ years) seeds. I planted quite a few, not knowing how many would germinate (if any). I see at least one of them coming up, and I think a second one as well. The plants are gorgeous, and I have a hard time finding the seeds, so I am glad that I’ll have some plants and be able to save some new seeds. These are mostly ornamental, but the peppers are edible – and hot!
Orange Thai Hot: These are also from the 5+ year old seed batch, but they aren’t showing any signs of germination yet. Still early days, though, so I’ll wait another couple of weeks to see if I get anything from them.
That’s it for now, but I’ll keep you posted on their progress.
