Early September 2020 Pepper Update

Normally around this time of year, my plants are going bonkers, racing to produce as many fiery pods for me to enjoy as they can before things start tapering down with the approach of October. Unfortunately, Mother Nature has decided to continue her fickle game, essentially calling an end to several of my plants’ seasons prematurely.

I just posted an update a little over three weeks ago in which all of my potted plants and self-watering buckets looked really strong, ready to finish with a flurry. but, as you can see in the photo above, everything is yellowed and all but a couple of those plants have no fruit or buds – they are done for 2020. My guess is the 6 inches of rain that we’ve gotten over the past few weeks has finally caught up with these plants.

A good example of the stress they are under can be seen in the Ghostly Jalapeno below. It’s doing its best to ripen the fruit is does have, but as you can see, the tips of the branches are bare – the leaves having fallen off over the past couple of days.

The plants in the raised beds have definitely faired better as I think they drain a bit more water than the buckets and pots. Despite their green foliage, however, there are only a handful of plants here that are still producing pods at a good rate. Most have shut down already or, in the case of the Chocolate Reaper, never really got started. I have removed a couple of plants already from these beds to allow those that were still chugging along a bit more space to stretch.

Of the plants that are doing well, both the Hatch and Jalapeno are setting up for another big harvest in a week or so. The Primo and the pictured (below) Chocolate Bhutlah are absolutely chock-a-block full of immature fruit. I lost count at 40 pods on this plant that, if they make it to maturity, are gonna fill up the remaining space I have in my freezer.

That’s it for now. I’m hoping Mother Nature deems my plants worthy and let’s them finish up their season it relative peace.