Each summer for going on about two decades now, I get to this point of time in mid August when I'm always amazed at how well some of my garden vegetables have turned out. Of these, I think my absolute favorite this year would have to be green peppers. My plants have been very productive and thankfully the bugs have not been a problem. This feeling of affection is reinforced every time I’m in the produce department at my local grocery. As I walk down the isle, I realize that I don’t have to purchase bell peppers that cost .89¢ each! No, by golly, I’ve got loads of these guys just hanging on the vine at home waiting for me to pick them. That is one very cool feeling.
Arrrg! Could it be that the deer have returned! Any gardener’s truest nightmare. At least I think they have. Last night you see, one or more animals (most likely of the Family Cervidae) visited my raised beds and then selectively ate some of my tomatoes and bean plants. This happened a day after I had sighted deer in the area, so it was rather easy to put two and two together.
So, what to do? I thought briefly about sitting up overnight on my balcony (which overlooks the garden), my trusty shotgun at my side with maybe a couple of six packs to help keep me alert, but finally nixed the idea. With my luck, a neighbor would pick just that evening to take a stroll at three in the morning. I, now in a drunken stupor, would jerk awake and then bag him good. I could imagine myself explaining to local police why I should not be charged with manslaughter! No, that approach was out. I needed something more innocuous (and safe for all concerned).
That’s when I came up with the idea of a ‘rope alarm system’ (patent pending). It involved a rope suspended between metal poles that would form a perimeter around the beds. The end of the rope would be hooked up to the small bell in my bedroom. (I think I remember seeing this setup in some old WWII movie)! I figured any marauding deer would stumble into the rope barrier, and in doing so, would ring the bell. Then, at the sound of which (ding dong), I would quickly wake up, grab my loaded BB gun and apply a bit of painful justice to the rump of the aforementioned bounder. I didn’t want to hurt them you understand, I just wanted deliver a message that these garden vittles belong to yours truly. (As you have probably figured out, this kind of thinking is solely a guy thing. Actually, it’s more of a dumb guy thing than anything else).
I guess that sometime around 2AM, that old bell rang. She kept on ringing too, but I was in a deep slumber and dead to the world (courtesy of Budweiser) and so slept blissfully on. Unfortunately, my sister who was sleeping in the next room is a light sleeper and rose up in a rather bad mood. I was brought out of my slumber after she hit me over the head with my BB gun. The deer (and yes it was a deer) had in the meantime become tangled up in the rope and now in a panic was dragging the whole shebang down the lawn toward the woods. Miraculously, the bell was still attached to the rope. It had been ripped from my bedroom wall, pulled through the screened door and was now trailing about twenty feet behind the poor beast. Looking back, I noted that for every few steps he took, the bell would clang loudly. (One could have gotten the impression that perhaps the bell itself was a bit panicked). What was certain was that the more the bell clanged the more panicked the animal got…and vice versa.
For my part, I was encouraged, in no uncertain terms, to run outside after that dad burn bell. I just was able to put some sandals on and then launched myself down the hallway and thence out the back door. Standing in the darkness, I could just make out the sound of the bell somewhere off in the woods. It would clang a couple of times then stop for a bit. Then the sound was repeated. I crept cautiously into the woods, about ten feet or so, and now found myself in complete darkness and of failing resolve. I was about to turn back for home when, BAM! A lightening bolt lit up the sky striking some where close by. (Had I needed to urinate, I would have done so right on that spot). As it was, my heart stopped for a second and in the ensuing silence, I could just make out that old bell now sounding for all it was worth, rapidly fading off into the distance.
As I came back into the house, wet to the bone from the cloudburst, I made myself a promise not to pursue a patent after all.
At least down here in the southwest corner they do! Pictured here are two transplants I purchased at a local grocery store. I purchased and transplanted them on May 22nd. As of today you can see that they’ve produced some pretty handsome sized fruit. Note that the other two of the four I purchased were placed out back in my raised beds and they are not nearly as far along. This location that seems to work one of my two cold frames out front that also happen to face south. These are close to a tree that provides some shade during the hottest part of the day. Right next to these are a couple of Better Boy tomato plants that are also heavy with fruit at this time. Makes you wonder if the nightshade family does like a little bit of ‘shade’.
Of all the seeds that I work with each spring, pepper seeds are one of the most challenging. While most of the other vegetables I start from seed generally germinate within a few days, those pesky pepper seeds take their sweet time with germination periods that can extend into weeks. Bummer!
I've been told that one way to obtain the most rapid germination is to control the temperature. After seeding my trays and then placing them into plastic baggies I have an insulated enclosure (an old mini fridge) that contains a small twenty-five watt bulb and a temperature sensor. I plan to leave the trays in the enclosure with the light on until I get a reading in the high seventies. (Hopefully, because the enclosure is insulated, it will hold this for a number of hours before I need to give it another shot of heat from the light bulb). Information obtained from the Internet tells me that the optimal temperature for most pepper seeds to be 77F. So, that’s what I strive for over the next nine days which is the average amount of time it takes for the seeds to germinate at that temperature. (The only other factor to make sure you control is the use of sterile starting mix. The warm temperatures are also ideal for bacterial to get a foothold which can sometimes kill the seedlings right after they emerge).
So, for this run, I’ve placed two 6-cell starting trays that have been seeded with Cayenne and California Wonder pepper seeds into the enclosure and will see just how long it takes for them to germinate. Once they are up and growing I plan to get them hardened off and out into the sunlight as soon as possible.
That brings me to another problem I’ve encountered recently. The last batch of seedlings never got that large even though I coddled them, watered them and made sure they got plenty of sunlight. That’s when it occurred to me that the sunlight might have been part of the problem. Not the light so much as the heat generated when it hits the dark plastic of the starting tray themselves. I have developed a theory that perhaps the roots are getting so warm, it damaging the plants ability to grow. To that end, I plan on painting the trays white this time around to see if I get better results. Failing that, It could be the potting mix or even the size of the containers that are causing growth to be stunted. Lastly, it’s possible I suppose that the seed may have been of poor quality.
