Edible Pepper Garden. Rosalind Creasy
I buy pepper transplants from local nurseries. Before setting these or home-grown transplants out in the garden, I check to see if a mat of roots has formed at the bottom of the root ball. If it has, I remove it or open it up so the roots won’t continue to grow in a tangled mass. I set the plant in the ground at the same height as it was in the container, pat the plant in place gently by hand, and water each plant in well to remove air bubbles. (I never have problems with cutworms that destroy young seedlings by girdling the plant at the base, but if I did, I would place cardboard collars made from paper-towel tubing around the stems to protect them when I planted the peppers.) I space plants so that they won’t be crowded once they mature. When peppers, or any vegetables, grow too close together, they become prone to rot diseases and mildew. (On the other hand, gardeners in hot arid or high-altitude areas can benefit from planting peppers closer together because the overlapping foliage protects the fruits on nearby plants from sunburn.)
I plant most pepper varieties about 2 feet apart, in full sun. Small, short ornamental peppers like ‘Fiesta,’ ‘Variegata,’ and ‘Super Chile’ I plant 1 foot apart and in front of larger varieties, and the spreading tall cultivars, like ‘Bolivian Rainbow’ and wild chiltepíns, I plant 2 1/2 feet apart and behind shorter varieties. I water the plants well at this point, sprinkling the soil gently for three or four applications, letting the water be absorbed between waterings. If I’m planting on a very hot day or the transplants have been in a protected greenhouse, I shade them with a shingle, or such, for a week or so, placed on the sunny side of the plants. If the weather turns cool, I place floating row covers over the plants. Once they are planted, I install my irrigation laser or ooze tubing—see “Watering and Irrigation Systems,” page 93, for more information—and if the soil is warm I mulch with a few inches of organic matter. I keep the transplants moist but not soggy for the first few weeks.
Most pepper plants benefit from staking, which I do soon after planting. I have found that peppers in general are brittle and their branches break readily. The taller plants with large peppers, in particular, often lean over from their own weight, and their branches are easily broken by wind or the weight of the fruit. To support them I use recycled wooden stakes, but wire cages, or constructed wooden cages, also work. When using a stake and twine on any type of plant, I apply the twine in a loose figure eight, with one half of the eight around the stake and the other around the plant’s stem. I try not to bunch the foliage when tying twine around a plant, as this can cause disease due to lack of air around the leaves. I also avoid tying the twine tightly around the stems because that tends to strangle the plant as the stem grows larger. In addition, a plant will be stronger if it is allowed to move some with the wind.
Maintaining Your Peppers—Watering, Fertilizing, Weeding, Mulching
As a rule, peppers need to grow rapidly and with few interruptions in order to produce well with few pest problems. Once the plants are in the ground, monitoring for nutrient deficiencies, drought, and pests can head off problems. It helps to keep the beds weeded because weeds compete for moisture and nutrients. Some pepper experts suggest pinching off the first blossoms on each plant, which is said to encourage the production of more fruit in the long run. Sometimes I do that, other times I don’t have the time or can’t bear to put off the harvest. I’ve yet to document the differences.
In normal soil, peppers usually need a supplemental feeding of organic fertilizer soon after the first fruit has set. Apply a balanced organic vegetable fertilizer or an organic nitrogen fertilizer (such as fish meal, fish emulsion, or blood meal) according to the directions on the package. Scratch dry fertilizers into the soil around the plants and water in well.
Once the young pepper is in the ground, water it in gently. I usually apply the water at least three times to make sure the whole root ball gets wet.
If the soil is insufficiently warm, mulch the plant with a few inches of compost. If it’s still cool, wait a few weeks. If you have cutworms, place a cardboard collar around the transplants.
Peppers need regular watering but not too much—most pepper problems are caused by overwatering or poor soil drainage. In most cases, a drip-irrigation system is preferable to overhead watering. In extremely hot climates, overhead sprinklers are sometimes used to cool down plants and soil. See Appendix A for more information on watering, drip-irrigation, and weeding.
The large hybrid bell peppers, New Mexico chilies, and jalapeños usually need staking (above) or the branches break from the weight of the fruit and plants can blow over in the wind.
Peppers don’t need their own garden. Here, ‘Golden Bells’ were planted in a little garden (above) in the same type of soil and on the same drip lines with zucchinis, popcorn, and tomatoes. A few months later (below) they had all filled in and were doing well.
In warm climates, applying a thick organic mulch can increase your pepper yield as well as save you time, effort, and water. Mulching also helps keep weeds under control. See page 28 for information on maintaining and mulching peppers in cooler climates.
Preventing Pests and Diseases
In most climates, peppers have far fewer pests and diseases than most vegetables. The key to most pepper problems is prevention, which is my emphasis here. If you do develop pest and disease problems, there is information in Appendix B on how to identify and control them.
One of the keys to preventing pepper problems is to understand the role of beneficial organisms in our gardens. Peppers do not grow in a vacuum, and we need to consider the entire ecosystem in which they are grown. This concept was made most clear to me the year the State of California mandated that my county be sprayed with malathion for control of the dreaded medfly (Mediterranean fruit fly). Within a few weeks after the helicopters sprayed our neighborhood, most of my vegetables were infested with insects and my peppers were no exception—they were so covered by aphids and whiteflies that the leaves drooped. I ended up taking out all my vegetables because they were so overrun with pests. Most years I seldom if ever see an aphid or whitefly on my peppers, much less have a problem. That year, nature was completely out of balance, because malathion is a broad-spectrum pesticide and consequently killed off the beneficial insects as well as the pests. Unfortunately, most beneficial insects have a much slower recovery rate than pest insects. Sadly, it was two years before the insect population returned to normal.
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.
Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.