Skip to Content

Pepper Crop Report-2015

Our pepper crop was rather interesting this year. Dave started all the peppers from seed last February and all the peppers sprung right up and grew in small pots in the greenhouse. He planted lots of his peppers in the greenhouse beds in April. The rest (he had about 50 plants, they all couldn’t fit in the greenhouse!) grew in the greenhouse in their little pots until they just got too big and had to brave the great outdoors in May.

Garden Pepper Crop 2015. Dave's Pride And Joy! Http://Homemadefoodjunkie.com

Garden pepper crop 2015 This is one trip out to the garden. Dave brought in this enormous basket of gorgeous peppers!

Greenhouse Pepper Crop 2015 Http://Homemadefoodjunkie.com

greenhouse pepper crop 2015

Pepper Crop Report 2015:

The greenhouse peppers expressed pure joy in their living quarters and grew like crazy in the big beds! Unfortunately, the aphids quickly found them in the greenhouse and a protracted war on those pests began. Dave armed himself with Neem’s oil this year. But the waves of aphid rebirths continued throughout the growing season. All we managed, was to contain them a bit. Fortunately, the greenhouse peppers ignored the aphids and produced gorgeous peppers all summer from July onward. If you want to know more on our battle with aphids in the greenhouse, my aphids in our greenhouse post has more on that!

Neem Oil Spray For Aphids In The Greenhouse

Dave always had this handy small sprayer going to kill aphids this summer in the greenhouse. The aphids never bothered the outdoor pepper crop!

A very different story outside:

Garden Pepper Crop. A Sad Tail

Garden pepper crop 2015: These poor little peppers were babied for months before they decided to suck it up and grow outside. They wanted the greenhouse! Notice the plastic off to the side. Every night we covered those peppers to keep them warm.

The outdoor transplants weren’t happy about moving outside. We thought they were going to turn toes up and die on us for quite a while. They yellowed… and drooped… and a few did actually die. Most of them just sat in the rows, miserably, for a long, long time… Then one bed started to make some headway.

Dave babied them along. He studied on them, tried every gardener’s trick he could find to encourage them to grow! He carefully covered them with plastic every night in his hooped beds if he thought they might catch a chill. After a month or so(It was a VERY long time), one of the pepper beds suddenly showed signs of life and started to grow. The other pepper bed continued to languish all yellow and small.

Garden Pepper Crop

This peppers were all the same age, planted into the garden at the same time. Notice the wood frame Dave built to support the taller row of peppers transplanted at the same time. We never could figure out why one row was so slow to grow!

Garden Pepper Crop

These peppers were all started from seed at the same time and transplanted to the outdoor garden at the same time. Look at the plants! such a difference between the beds!

We never did figure out what was holding back the one bed, other than a bad attitude. But eventually, and rather suddenly, even that bed did get growing and in it own time, produced lovely peppers! TONS of peppers! It should be noted we had a STELLAR growing year for peppers, weather wise. Our summer was hot, sunny and dry. I loved it! So did the peppers!Various Peppers From Our 2015 Pepper Crop

All these varieties of peppers were growing in the outdoor garden this summer. Carmen, red flames, Cheyennes and Tiburons all grew outside in 2015 and produced well …after a very slow start!

Tiburon Peppers From Our Garden Pepper Crop 2015

Tiburons are our very favorite peppers for a roasting heat level 2. These peppers have EXCELLENT flavor. And they did grow well outside… eventually.

We harvested peppers for months and still are. The Bangkok Peppers are in the greenhouse now. Full of tiny hot peppers that I have no clue what to do with. We never grow hot peppers, since we are both happier with the low heat varieties. But Dave wanted to try these lil cuties. So they are in the greenhouse. Blooming their lil hearts out! I’m drying and freezing most of the crop. I use them in recipes like Peanut Sauce over Thai Zoodles; but there is no way I’m going to use that many! We have given entire huge baskets of peppers away to friends and family that will use them. Still my freezer is overflowing with dried, frozen peppers! Next year, Dave has to make some tough choices. Way fewer pepper plants please!

Bangkok Peppers From Our Greenhouse Pepper Crop 2015 Http://Homemadefoodjunkie.com

Bangkoks are hotter peppers. A level four, Thai pepper.

Dave just pulled all of the outdoor pepper plants out this last week (Last week of October). The plants were starting to show a bit of black mold on the stems. We don’t want to encourage mold here. We have an abundance of it! So the outdoor crop is gone now. Dave also pulled most of the greenhouse pepper plants for the same reason. (different mold in there but still a problem). Our humidity is extremely high here; so at 50 plus degrees we grow a diversity of molds! We are so tired of our huge, bountiful crop of peppers…. we actually don’t mind losing them! (or maybe that’s just me)

That’s about it for the 2015 pepper report. We love them!

Click here to cancel reply.

Bruschetta Ham Casserole | Homemade Food Junkie

Friday 8th of January 2016

[…] is not as good as home dried). Dried Red pepper flakes can be substituted for the dried chopped Bangkok peppers I used. Add them to taste and enjoy the bit of zing they contribute to your […]

Breakfast Burrito - Homemade Food Junkie

Monday 9th of November 2015

[…] up some peppers and add them in when the sausage is about halfway […]

Jack - Pepper lover

Sunday 8th of November 2015

I'm extremely envious! Like Dave, I'm a huge pepper fan. I often find that they don't grow well in the colder weather here unfortunately.

My fav thing to with a nice large pepper is the remove all the seeds and fill it with cheese and steak. I don't know anyone else that does this, but steak and pepper goes so well together, especially if you use a nice cheddar :)

homemadefoodjunkie

Sunday 8th of November 2015

Jack thank you so much for stopping by! It's wonderful to talk to another gardener! Im sorry you have trouble with growing peppers. We made a major breakthrough on growing peppers and tomatoes when Dave built his greenhouse. Highly recommend it if you can swing it! Peppers love ours. Growing them outdoors here is not as successful either but we can usually make it work. I'll give your pepper/steak/ cheese recipe a try. Sounds delicious!

April J Harris (@apriljharris)

Saturday 7th of November 2015

I really enjoyed reading this post - it's got so many wonderful tips, Diane! And you clearly had an incredibly prolific crop of peppers - they look gorgeous! Thank you for sharing this post with us at Hearth and Soul.

homemadefoodjunkie

Saturday 7th of November 2015

Thank you April. We love gardening. Dave is so happy growing peppers. It's November and he's already browsing catalogs for next year's pepper crop!