quick videos of the new seedlings

A box of 18 peppers from chiliplants.com arrived yesterday. I whipped out the Treo and made vids of them still in the box and then in better lighting out of the box.





And a pic of one little pepper that lost most of its leaves in transit:



It may not look like much in the image, but I think it'll be fine. Never underestimate a pepper plant.

so far so good

The peppers and most of the other plants out so far are looking pretty good.

We're making some tweaks, moving some to larger pots, trying different soil mixes, etc.

I'm trying to make sure the peppers have plenty of drainage, but trying different ways to achieve this end. Some pots get gravel at the bottom of the pot, and all have stuff mixed into the potting soil for drainage and enrichment. One of our neighbors made some good, rich compost. Looks like good stuff, and we're using it in just about everything.

It's been raining like mad this week, so that's keeping us off any kind of watering schedule. But the plants exposed to it seem to be thriving to greater or lesser extents.

even more plants

Sunday a few more pepper plants, more tomatoes, and various herbs were added. It's late in the year, but I see that as a fairly small matter. It is what it is.

I moved the already-transplanted peppers to a few locations with more sunlight, some more shaded than others.

I also tried placing one new plant immediately into a well-lit spot without any attempt at easing the plant into its new location. Although this plant is supposed to like "full sun", this is pushing it. If this plant manages to thrive, that should speak well of my chances for the rest. I put some matches in the dirt for this one.

Today's high temperature was around 90° F / 32° C.

When I checked the plants, the new plant thrust into full sunlight was noticeably wilted in comparison with the plants that had been more gradually introduced.

After it cooled down, I watered without fertilizer or additives.

Last year, we just slapped some peppers out there in whatever pots and cans were available in relative shade. Most of them did just fine.

This year I'm going for a buckshot effect of different styles of peppers, locations in the yard, etc. And I'll be keeping notes that I hope will help me learn something from the experience.

a break from the weather

It's rained like mad with really gusty winds for a couple of days this week, so I removed the plants already in containers in the yard to a safer spot for the better part of a day.

My concern was that I didn't want my freshly-transplanted peppers to be wind damaged in pots of dirt soup.

But they look dark green and gorgeous.

scouting for sunny spots

Since pepper plants thrive on sunlight, and reducing sunlight exposure late in the day can be a way to manage plant temperature, I've begun to scout for different plant container spots to try this year.

I'm doing this by just taking pictures at different times of day, because it's more effortless and/or more reliable than some other ways of going about it.

My first scouting session's results may be found in the Padre's Peppers Picasa album, captioned by time and date so I can keep them more organized later.

Quick update: After taking the second set of pics a few hours later (also in the Picasa album), I've picked a temporary spot that looks sunnier, moved plants to that general area, and started clearing out space for the new additions to arrive in a few weeks.

This year's pepper garden

Last year, I tried my hand at pepper gardening for the first time. My most overwhelming success was the jalapeños, of which I had so many that I ran out of people willing to take the extras off my hands!

This year, I'm going for stunning variety, including various bell and similar peppers because my mom loves 'em:

Anaheim (Must-have for roasting, stuffing, etc.)
Cayenne
Serrano
Poblano/Ancho
Aji Benito
Aurora (cool colors)
Blushing Beauty Hybrid (interesting color effects)
Boynton Bell Hybrid (some bacteria resistance)
Brazilian Starfish (nifty shaped fruit)
Bull Nose (bell)
Cayenne Purple ("yellow to purple to red")
Centennial Rainbow (The vendor pic reminds me of an Easter basket.)
Fatalii (How can I *not* order a pepper with "fatal" in the name?)
Five Color ("purple to cream to yellow to orange to red")
Gumdrop (Name says it all.)
Habanero White
Habanero White 2 (Because one kind of white habanero clearly isn't enough.)
Jalapeño Jumbo (Last year's, though delicious, were tiny, and I tired of hearing about it.)
Szegedi Giant (Cool-looking and not so deadly hot.)
Tabasco Greenleaf ("more disease resistant")
Trinidad Perfume (Freaky cool-looking and "antastic aroma and flavor with no heat")
Whopper Hybrid (Big, sweet bell, "resistant to TMV")

I've chosen what I feel is a representative sample of different levels of heat, environmental preferences, etc.

The local expectation is that at least most of these should succeed, but I'll be pleased if at least several plants thrive and yield good fruit.