Your garden is far ahead of mine!
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Actually, it’s been a very slow start for us this year - we would have a couple of nice days, then the temps overnight would be mid to low 40’s. I bought my Celebrities back in May & that night it was down to 36!! They spent about a week between the living room at night & out in the sunshine during the day, once the temps got to about 50. They were 12”+ (my SIL found a great deal at Food Lion - $2.50 each) when I bought them so not as tender as the teeny tinies that come in 4-packs. After being planted in the garden, there were more than a few nights in the 40’s (a couple of them low, like 41) & they were big enough to do ok & survive, just didn’t do much growing ‘til it warmed up.
My first batch of peppers (4 bell, 4 jalapeno) were 4-pack purchases, as were the cukes & cherry tomatoes. The peppers all dropped leaves (too cold overnight) & died. The cukes/cherry tomatoes were borderline dying. Once the nights warmed up, they struggled, but gradually came back & started growing. When I bought replacement peppers, I transplanted from the 4-packs to small peat pots - this gave them more room to grow so I could hold them out of the garden longer. They also spent some nights in the living room (anything in the 40’s for about 2 weeks). They did a lot of growing in the peat pots - the jalapenos were sad looking (& I got the ‘best’ of what was available) - very thin stalks, ‘weedy’ looking. Once in the peat pots, boy did they do well - developed nice thick stalks & grew a lot before going in the garden.
Next year, I think I’m starting my own peppers, cukes & maybe tomatoes in peat pots. This year, I started sunflowers (giant), tithonia, marigolds & one cuke in peat pots - worked great. I used coconut fiber for the medium - added a little Milorganite organic fertilizer so the plants had some sort of nutrients. What I LOVE is that when I plant seeds straight in the garden, I often have trouble determining what is seed germinating & what is weed. No such problem with peat pots - if it’s growing, it’s what I want to be growing.
It’s been a difficult year getting things started/growing with the periods of cool/cold temps. It’s also been fun experimenting with the 4-packs/peat pots, starting stuff in the peat pots, etc. I learned a lot for next year.
“Next year, I think I’m starting my own peppers...”
I bought 4-packs of Ancho Peppers and Jalapeno Peppers. they are WIMPS compared to my home-frown varieties!
I’ll try to remember to post some pictures for comparison when I get around to it. The purchased plants are really, REALLY lagging. Not sure why - everyone is treated the same!
I've had to reseed a lot of things....