Nine Week Outdoor Update for the 2021 Pepper Season

The past three weeks since the last update have been fairly quiet for the plants. Aside from picking a few random, ripened fruit, not much of note has really taken place. That can be a good thing of course, but also patience-testing. I mean, I really want to start harvesting now, thank you.

As you can see in the photo above, the plants have been busy growing – a lot. I’ve got a couple of plants that are stretching to reach three feet in height and one (Brazilian Starfish) that eclipsed that weeks ago. All of the plants are looking healthy and getting quite busy despite no topping this season. And, all but two the varieties – more on that in a bit – that I have growing right now are sporting quite a few unripe peppers.

The first raised bed we’ll visit is one that houses the moderately hot peppers and the two plants that refuse to fruit. The Thunder Cacho Brown pictured above is indicative of six of the eight plants in this bed. They are all loaded with fruit that are starting to ripen. Both the Ecuadorian Red Pepper for Hell and Brown Rocoto look healthy and continue to grow and flower, but they also continue to drop blossoms left and right, never letting anything get to the fruiting stage. If it were just one plant, I’d be a bit more concerned, but since both are Rocoto-type varieties, this could either be due to the Summer heat or a lack of nutrients. I will continue to explore options to help them out.

All of the plants in the superhot bed are weighed heavily with some gnarly looking pods, but the above 7 Pot Nebru is the most impressive thus far. The pods are giant and quite blistered. It’s a variety I’ve never grown before and cannot wait to try it out when the time comes. That being said, I am most excited to see a pile of fruit on the Fatalii plant. I’ve tried growing this variety in past seasons, but never got one to germinate. Looks like I’ll finally be able to try this fabled pepper.

Outside of the raised beds, the large pots and self-watering buckets are all doing quite well. All of the plants are loaded with fruit waiting to ripen, but none are showing off quite like the Blue Christmas above. That ornamental goes through some serious color changes as it ripens.

That’s it for this update. Until next time, happy pepper growing!