Thoughts and Questions

AlittleSalt · July 28, 2015

Any ideas or contribution of knowledge is much appreciated.

While walking through our garden this morning, I had a few thoughts and ideas about peppers. Our weather forecast for the next six weeks is basically the same day over and over = 100F for the highs and 80F for the lows. I should add that it has been 6 days since I last looked at the pepper plants in our garden. I had been taking antibiotics and had to stay out of the sun until today.

We are experimenting with not shading two rows of peppers. We always have shaded before. The plants are all 0 - 800 Scoville units varieties. My wife and I find that we don't really care for peppers that do not have some heat to them. So, why not experiment on these plants?

I cut off all the peppers growing on the plants. I'm thinking of using a high nitrogen fertilizer to see if they will grow a bigger bushier plant in the next six weeks of high heat. I don't want to spend any more money other than watering them - the cheapest form of high nitrogen is human pee. Of course it has to be clean and then diluted with water. My question on this idea is:

Do you think the combination of high heat and nitrogen may burn the plants? Any ideas on dilution rates?

As I was cutting the peppers off I noticed a few new pepper plants coming up. It made me think that nature is telling me to plant peppers for a fall garden. I've already done that, but it was nice seeing the new volunteer plants.

KC.Sun · July 28, 2015

I've heard of diluting urine at a 1:10 ratio, but have never tried using it as a fertilizer.

I wonder if you can dilute the urine a little bit more and use it as a fertilizer/watering source more often.

On another note:
I'm growing a range of peppers and they all react differently in different temperatures. So I guess one way to see if your experiment is successful would be to see what type of conditions the peppers thrive in.

I'm growing the Brazilian starfish and lemon drop peppers in the baccatum family. Our weather has been in the 50s at night and hitting 70-90s in the day. These seem to be growing a little faster recently.

I'm also growing the red savina and Carolina reaper, those have slowed down a little bit.

My European gourmet peppers have stopped growing because of the weather.

So weather your experiment will be successful or not may be weather dependent.

On the issue of heat, the temperature in June was in the 100+ for about 3 weeks here. It burned my baccatums but my super hots grew like crazy. My gourmet peppers did ok.

pauldavid · July 28, 2015

Robert,

Glad to hear that you completed your round of antibiotics. Hope you feel better. Good luck with your peppers. They look good.

July 28, 2015	#2
KC.Sun Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2015 Location: 6a Posts: 322	I've heard of diluting urine at a 1:10 ratio, but have never tried using it as a fertilizer. I wonder if you can dilute the urine a little bit more and use it as a fertilizer/watering source more often. On another note: I'm growing a range of peppers and they all react differently in different temperatures. So I guess one way to see if your experiment is successful would be to see what type of conditions the peppers thrive in. I'm growing the Brazilian starfish and lemon drop peppers in the baccatum family. Our weather has been in the 50s at night and hitting 70-90s in the day. These seem to be growing a little faster recently. I'm also growing the red savina and Carolina reaper, those have slowed down a little bit. My European gourmet peppers have stopped growing because of the weather. So weather your experiment will be successful or not may be weather dependent. On the issue of heat, the temperature in June was in the 100+ for about 3 weeks here. It burned my baccatums but my super hots grew like crazy. My gourmet peppers did ok.

July 28, 2015	#3
pauldavid Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2015 Location: NE Louisiana, Zone 8A Posts: 1,179	Robert, Glad to hear that you completed your round of antibiotics. Hope you feel better. Good luck with your peppers. They look good.