Two Week Outdoor Update for the 2021 Pepper Season

Just a couple of weeks ago, I transplanted this season’s pepper plants (and several other veggies) from their comfy, indoor situation to the great and unpredictable outside. For half that time, not a whole lot happened – sun, rain, dark, repeat. The past 6-7 days, however, has seen the start of some explosive growth on many of the plants, as well as little fruit starting to form on a handful.

Let’s start with the plants in the new 13 gallon pots. Thus far, with the exception of a couple superhots (Solid Gold Bhut and Sherwood Carboruga), these has nearly tripled in size. While they have gotten taller, they are also showing some good internal growth, indicating that they should bush out pretty well. I’m glad to see this internal leafing and branching as I decided to forego topping this season. That decision was mostly an experiment to see if topping really has any effect on yield totals by season’s end.

While the potted plants are pretty much kicking butt, the varieties in the raised beds are a bit of a mixed bag. Much like the pots, the superhots here are also a few steps behind, only recently showing signs of starting to take off. They are short in stature, but are displaying some internal growth that is encouraging. Other plants, like the Thunder Cacho Brown and the Buena Mulata (both lesser heat varieties) are starting to churn out peppers like it’s their j.o.b.

The Hatch and Jalmundo are also starting to get rolling, producing a good number of blossoms while they continue to gain a few inches in height on a consistent basis. There are a couple of plants in these beds – Sugar Rush Cream and a couple Aji varieties – that look as though they may have suffered some transplant shock despite the “hardening off” process going as planned.

And finally, the small handful of peppers in the self-watering buckets appear to be doing great. That said, we did suffer on casualty this season. The Comstock Purple just never took to the transplanting and continued to drop leaves and yellow a good week after the process. Even while indoors prior to moving, the plant looked sickly. I had hoped that, once it was outside, it would start to improve, but it never did. Other than that, everything else seems to be going well, even the experimental use of this setup for zucchini and cucumber.

Until next time, happy gardening!