Re: [CH] container growing question

JohnT (Love2Troll@kc.rr.com)
Mon, 17 Oct 2005 10:09:31 -0500 

Hi John,

Good advice from Matt in my opinion.  A 1/2 recommended strength MG 
15-30-15 every two weeks or so has always worked for me.  The last 
couple years I've been inoculating my plants with a mycorrhizal 
fungus so have changed to a more balanced mix such as MG 18-18-21 
and more often than not use aerated compost.  I do use a premium 
grade soil mix such as ProMix BX though.

Container size depends on the plant.  Most of the time I can put 2 
plants in an 8 gal container and get by with it.  Some of my older 
pubescens are by themselves in 18 gal containers.  Just play it by 
ear and try different things.  Drives me nuts as some varieties will 
get pale just because of the hot weather.

One thing that works for me is to mulch heavily around the 
containers starting in early spring and not mulch in the container 
until about July.  The containers are lined up on top of weed guard 
fabric and the roots grow out the container bottoms and into the 
heavy cooler mulch.  After adding the top mulch (I use shredded 
cypress) more feeder roots will form under it.

I think overwatering is a mistake & much prefer a dry year over a 
wet one, but will never say that anything I do is the way it 
absolutely must be done.  If it works for you then do it.

Are your non-producing plants getting enough light?  What's the 
weather been like?  BTW, this is the worst growing year I have ever 
experienced.

For seed saving I like to let the pods go a little past maturity and 
then dry the seeds slowly at temps below 90°.









----- Original Message ----- 
From: John H. Sphar
To: chile-heads@globalgarden.com
Sent: Saturday, October 15, 2005 2:58 PM
Subject: [CH] container growing question


Hi all,  my third year of growing (5 Gal containers
and 1/2 wine barrels with tons of drainage) is leaving
me frustrated.  I got seedlings from Jeannie in NJ
(mostly chinense) and a combo of locally available
plants (Thai, serrano, jalapeno) and now I'm comfused.
 I've been doing the same thing to all of them:
Watering 1-2 per week now, I was fertilizing with fish
emulsion and kelp every 3 weeks but now none.

My chocolate hab is doing well.  But it's wierd - they
were chocoloate then went back to red...???.  But my
main prob is the red savina has no flowers, the red
scotch bonnet has two beautiful ripe pods and no other
flowers, and the white hab has one small but nice
looking pod, but no flowers.  How can I get there
chinenses to flower?

Thanks, John

PS: soon I'll be asking for tips on saving seeds.
Maybe you all have a web page of instructions I could
visit.  But I'll get to that later.  Adios, John S.