The Pepper Plants are Thriving!
Grow light jungle, giant jalapeno pepper plants growing like weeds!
For the most part, I've got luscious new green growth, flowering on a few, and even some young hot peppers developing!
Beautiful little Black Pearl pepper plumping up.
I know these plants are looking forward to making a trip to the greenhouse, it will still be ag least a month before its warm enough for that to happen though. Peppers do not like the cold, and I don't blame them!
Table top pepper plants branching and leafing out
The biggest issue we've been having is APHIDS. These plants were outside last summer and picked them up then. As an organic gardener, I have tried neem oil spray, horticultural oil spray, added dishsoap to the oil mixes, added essential oils... The Aphids don't care. They get washed away but within a few days there are just as many. The pepper plants seem to be doing okay even with the aphids, though they are suffering from some deformed leaves and lots of blossom drop due to the aphids.
Pesky aphids suck the juices from the most tender leaves and flower buds, making it harder for the plants to produce.
When it is warm enough for the plants to go out to the greenhouse the aphids will hopefully meet their match with biological control in the form of LADYBUGS! Ladybugs and their larva can eat around 5000 aphids during their lifetime! Garden centers sell Ladybugs and you can even buy them online. I usually have many ladybugs in my rose bushes in the summer, but I haven't purchased them before so I am really looking forward to trying them out in larger numbers this year.
source
While we await warmer weather, I am going to sow some nasturtium seeds around the peppers as suggested by @karenfoster. Hopefully this will bait the aphids away from the pepper plants so that they can get focusing on producing some tasty fruits!
I chose a container variety of nasturtium called Night&Day, these beautiful cream and maroon colored flowers will be a lovely and compact bait plant.
That's all for the pepper progress! Have you used ladybugs to control aphids before? What was your experience like?
Take Care, @amymya
Join me on Sola!
Join me on Discord
