This past season - worse than average?

14 years ago

I'm certainly glad I have seeds left from last years exchanges, because this year's harvest yielded about 1-2 ripe peppers per plant before things started going south.

I don't know about anyone else, but it seems that the really hot portion of the summer was just too short for any of my SBs, Habs, or any of the other hotter weather plants to have time to ripen.

Worse yet, several seem to have gone straight from green to having mold spots thanks to cool weather plus lots of rain. Last season was great, but I feel like this season was a near total loss. Only two plants seem to have made it through totally unscathed, two out of 24. Logically, I'm inclined to think it's just me, and yet I had a similar issue with my tomatoes this year, a plant I've grown without issue all my life.

Tell me honestly - has anyone else had a worse than average season?

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (15)

sandysgardens
14 years ago
This year, peppers in the garden haven't been as abundant as years past, but we are still getting peppers for we are finally having a stretch of warmer than normal weather. I am glad I also planted lots of 5gal buckets & tubs (several plants per bucket), they've been going gang busters and show no signs that they want to stop. Others that I shared plants with this year also say their tub/bucket ones are doing better than the ones in the ground. Weird weather we've had all summer is what I am chalking it up to.
User
14 years ago
Yep, it's been that kind of year.

Cool and wet summer means poor pepper crop.

In my case, the weather was compounded by caterpillars and corn borers punching holes in 2/3 of the crop I got.

They didn't touch my super hots though :-)
Related Discussions
Is your weather really worse than west Texas?
Q
Comments (58)
That's exactly what I have including the sown webbing and grommets except mine is 30% shade. The 30% really isn't much shade. It's hardly noticeable when underneath. I think either would work for most fruit crops. I'd definitely go 47% for berries, maybe apples but probably not pears that like more heat. Either one will exclude larger insects like stickbugs and would probably help on codling moth if well sealed. There is another very similar that has the weave heat set in place. It might do better on excluding insects especially after a few years. Mine does have some holes and areas where insects might get through after 30 years use. I don't know if the heat set polypro would be as durable but would consider it if buying more. PS: The fabric does need protection at points of unusual pressure. So like on the poles supporting my melon screen I've tied cloth around the pole top. Between poles is one wire. No wear on the wire but the pole sticking up an inch or two higher needs the edges softened. I'll post a picture of that if needed. Here is a link that might be useful: heat set polypro shade cloth This post was edited by fruitnut on Wed, May 29, 13 at 12:08
...See More
2013 rose season/2014 rose season
Q
Comments (13)
I had similar experiences. Like Seil I had a hard winter, lots of dieback, too much rain and cloud cover, so much BS, but some spurts of great roses blooming. Sara, last year I had more roses and could cut a bouquet whenever, not this year, about 1/3 less blooms. However, right now the bushes are looking good with chance of frost tonight. I plan on cutting this evening! I do think I had more fun growing and enjoying my roses this year than in the past.
...See More
Please help!!! This is worse than blackspot, rust or PM!!!
Q
Comments (50)
For spider mites, I second Diane's advice. I've always heard that you do not need another chemical spray. Instead, water-spray (hard blast) with water-hose the undersides of leaves and repeat every few days. They should soon be gone. Back to your original problem, as seen in photos 1 and 2 (way back at the beginning of this thread)--if that is chili thrip damage, then is it also possible in Kansas? I planted a new rose last spring and by end of the summer, one cane started giving symptoms just like that first picture. I did radical surgery on it, cutting it down way below the strange growth, but then the lower new growth on that same remaining cane started showing the same damage. So I dug down into the soil and cut out that cane as low as I could. I haven't seen anything since, but by the time I did the last surgery, much cooler weather was moving in and none of my roses were doing any more growing, so I don't know if I solved the problem or not. All I know is that there are no signs now--but I keep wondering what will happen in the spring. I guess I'm wondering if chili thrips can survive freezing temperatures? Just in case my problem is chili thrips. We've had 12 degree temps here for a week now. By the way, that one cane was the only thing in my entire garden affected that way. I think the plant came from a California nursery, if that makes a difference. tropical--I'm so glad you have saved your roses! I just hope I don't have the same problem. Will have to review this thread next spring when my roses start growing again. Kate
...See More
2010 Mid Season Tomato Review and First 2011 list
Q
Comments (23)
Jay, I am married to a former Pennsylvanian and he still has relatives there who garden and every summer I envy their cool temperatures (you know, they think 85 degrees is hot) and their usually abundant rainfall. When we go there to visit in summertime, everything is so lush and lovely that it blows my mind, especially compared to how roasting hot and tired everything looks in this part of the country at the same time. On the other hand, Late Blight seems to be on a tear there the last few years, so their beaufiful crops can fail suddenly. Marcy, That's a great list from the Kerr Center. Thanks for linking it. Susan, I think each of us adds/drops varieties for many reasons. After growing tomatoes for 25 years on my own and for at least 15 years with my dad prior to that, I'm just through with the massive experimentation. The truth is that out of every 20 or 25 new (to me) varieties that I try, maybe one or two is worth putting into the permanent growing rotation. So, rather than constantly looking for something new, I'm trying to refine the grow list and weed out those that perform least well in a broad range of conditions. I've reached the conclusion that there really aren't many, or maybe not any, incredible undiscovered varieties out there that taste/perform significantly better than what I've already tried....so I've stopped looking. I had high hopes for the Brandymaster series, likely because it is so tempting to believe there could be anything that could match Brandywine's flavor. They've performed so poorly here that I doubt I'd see a better performance next year or the year after. While many of you may be seeing significantly hotter or drier weather this year than in your average year, for us here in southcentral OK, our rainfall has been exactly 'average' for the year to date and so have our temperatures. If anything we've had slightly lower temperatures, in general, in Love County than we usually have although higher than average heat indices. So, for me, this is a pretty typical year except the real heat arrived in mid-May instead of late June so we got hot earlier, but not necessarily hotter than average...just earlier than average. A tomato variety that didn't perform well in what was a fairly typical year here at our place this year likely wouldn't perform any differently next year. In Oklahoma we have a wide range of average annual rainfall....some folks may average 15" of rainfall per year in western OK while others in eastern OK may average 50-60" or more. Humidity varies widely as does soil type and pH. So, what grows well for someone in highly alkaline soil and water in western OK may not grow nearly as well for someone in eastern OK with entirely different weather and soil. I enjoy looking at everybody's lists and hearing how different tomatoes perform for different people but I know that works well in areas drastically different from mine may not work well here. Growing in containers is much more complicated. First of all, nothing that I grow performs as well in containers as in the ground. Heat and pests hit container-grown plants much harder every year than those in the ground. The grasshoppers have completely stripped my container tomatoes of every leaf and fruit, but have only done sporadic damage to in-ground plants. It is the same thing with spider mites....only the container plants have had issues with them this summer. For me, container-grown tomatoes are great from Jan. or Feb. through the end of June or early July. After that, I might as well yank out those plants and toss them on the compost pile because they're toast. Last year, the tomatoes in containers did somewhat better than they usually do....but we had much higher than average rainfall and much more rain/clouds/cool weather than we see in an average summer. I'm looking for plants that perform best in the worst of conditions, not the best ones, because more often than not, we get the worst conditions every July and August. In containers, I plant tomatoes that can tolerate the heat and the restriction of their root growth and still perform. That means I often grow tomatoes in containers that I don't consider 'good enough' to plant into the ground....stuff like Better Bush and Husky Red Cherry. I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm just at the point that I want what produces best for us here, and I don't want to keep looking for something 'better' because I don't think there is anything out there that's really that much better than our tried and true varieties that make our grow list most years. For a long time, I gardened for fun....trying any and every thing that interested me. We ate all we wanted fresh and gave tons away and didn't care if we put up much for the non-gardening season or not. In recent years, though, I've developed a deeper appreciation for the truly superior flavor of anything/everything that's grown locally and picked/prepared/preserved at its peak of perfection. Thus, I give away little and try to raise as much of our annual food supply as possible. In a good year I fill up three freezers, a root cellar and manage to can 2 or 3 or 4 hundred jars of 'stuff'. Since that is what is important to me now, I want plants that produce well, that provide tasty food we like and that are not prima donnas requiring a lot of pampering. Thus, I'm less inclined to experiment and more inclined to plant what produces really well with little fuss. In a lot of ways, the 'experimentation years' were a lot more fun, but the farm-garden-preserving years have been much more productive. Now my family is spoiled and I must produce as much home-grown food as possible because they don't like grocery store stuff as much as they used to. Even DS's firestation co-workers prefer fresh, home-grown and I'm going to try to plant a lot more for them next year so I can send them all the tomatoes, peppers and other yuummy things they're craving. There just isn't room, or enough improved soil, to experiment with varieties now as there used to be. I don't mind that, really, because as long as what I'm growing is producing well, I've gotten over thinking there are incredible varieties out there just waiting for me to find them. Megan, Black Plum grew very well for me for a long time and then for 2 or 3 years it didn't and I dropped it. It is odd how that happens....and I loved Coyote too. If my garden were twice as large as it is, I'd bring it back to the grow list. So many varieties, so little time (and improved soil). The tomatoes I grow from seed invariably outperform storebought ones and I don't know why, but I've seen it enough years to know it is true. Dawn
...See More
naturegirl_2007 5B SW Michigan
14 years ago
It was cool and wet for a long time in the spring and summer around here....and many other places from what I hear. That is very slow growing weather for tomatoes and even worse for peppers. Mine grew slowly and didn't set much fruit early in the season. In August it warmed up here and the peppers finally took off. Hopefully they will ripen lots of fruits before frost. I planted mostly early to mid season tomatoes and was able to get a decent harvest before getting wiped out by late blight. Fortunately the blight did not seem to affect the peppers at all.
chillilover
14 years ago
Not to rain on your parade but I have over 1000 peppers on 24 plants. I had aphids early on but the few hot week we had really made mine take off.
bubbalowe
14 years ago
I live in NE Alabama and have noticed no difference in the amount of peppers on my plants from years past. We did not have the cold, wet summer that other people have expereinced. Our summer was about average.
User
14 years ago
It was one of the worst years ever for people in the NorthEast US/Canada and things were not helped much by the introduction of late blight to the season in some areas.

Here in my part of the SouthEast it was wonderful, though.
phpete
Original Author
14 years ago
Ah well - I suppose that's life.

To those of you with good yields - I'm glad for you, and to those of you like me hoping to pull in just a few more ripe ones before the first frost best of luck!

I've already potted and pulled all healthy plants into a sunporch to protect them from the cooler nights, here's hoping that'll help.

And chililover - I still haven't ruled out the possibility that I simply had a really bad year. I'm just glad that I have seeds to replant from last year and lights/pots to carry over the best plants to make next year better!
trfanatic
14 years ago
I had a bad year for sure. I had many more RIPE fruit by this time last year. I have attached a pic as reference.

Hope this helps.

Ravi

{{gwi:1208837}}
megachili
14 years ago
This was my first season growing stuff, so I have nothing to compare to, but well, let's just say it wasn't the experience of dancing in the forest with unicorns and getting to one-ness with nature that we thought going in.

- May cold/rain - killed 2/3 of our garden; we basically had to start over with plants from a local store to replace the ones we'd nurtured from seed for the previous 9-10 weeks

- Aphids - totally infested our garden after the rains; took many weeks of ongoing battle and monitoring to get under control, although ultimately controllable.

- Flea beetles - like aphids, a controllable problem, if you stay on top of them and don't let them capture the initiative on the battlefield. They ate hundreds of holes in our foliage. Turns out they have a thing for Serranos, for some reason.

- Slugs: The rains brought these guys in; seemed like a nightmare, but once we killed 'em they never came back

- Early blight - knocked out a few of our tomatoes, almost overnight. My first introduction to what a really serious garden problem looks like

- Horn worms - makes you appreciate the relative lack of destructiveness of the aphids and beetles. In early August these friendly caterpillars showed up, and ate an entire Jalapeno plant in 24 hours, amongst other delicacies. They gorge on individual plants until all the foliage and fruit are gone. Stark, empty branches poke into the sky with nothing on them. 2-3 weeks of extreme early-morning diligence was required to put this problem to bed.

- Powdery mildew: Basically killed our cucumbers and infected our tomatoes. The treatment gets the job done, but brings its own problems.

- Blossom end rot. Aside from one plant that was strangely immune to BER, about 1/3 of our entire tomato crop and some peppers had it. The calcium treatments we tried made things worse.

- Fusarium wilt: makes you wish for the good old days of aphids and beetles. Serious, demoralizing garden problem.

- Late blight: and now, in the last 2 weeks, we have whole plants just falling over dead with late blight.

- And now it is unbelievably cold for mid september in Virginia, grinding plant growth and pod ripening to a standstill. I need just ONE week of sunny 70's to grab about 50 pods off the plants, and can't seem to get it.

Despite all that, we managed to harvest a few hundred peppers and about a hundred tomatoes. All in all, well worth the effort. Very rewarding, but not as easy or relaxing as I thought it would be. Hopefully next year will be easier.
chillilover
14 years ago
Hey phpete I would be happy to send some seeds of different varities you were interested in. I have about 50 or so. I can send you the list if you would like?
User
14 years ago
Worst year I have ever had. Rained all but three days in June and most of July. temperatures were mostly in the 60's to 70' with lows in the 50's. Few tomatoes, no eggplants, few beans, few peppers ( though I have potted up and brought inside some to try and salvage something of the season). Lots of slugs, squirrels kept digging things up, and then blight because of all the moisture. I feel sorry for the real farmers whose livelihood depends on the weather. many here are in trouble.

john
phpete
Original Author
14 years ago
chililover: I really appreciate the offer but no thanks, I still have seeds left from all the overgenerous people on this forum from last season, I was simply hoping to be able to spread the wealth myself this season and offer some to others myself this year, but looks like I'll have to wait another year.

Besides, several of the plants themselves seem to be fine, and I'm thinking I can probably overwinter them and maybe get an early start on next season that way.

Although (**Warning** impending thread hijack) with my first kid due Oct 1st, I may have ::gasp:: "more important" (is it possible?) things to occupy my time than peppers & tomatoes. ;)

Thanks again for the offer, though.
florida_country_boy
14 years ago
Down here is Florida was great for the peppers, but horrible for the tomatoes. All my pepper plants gave me two main harvests, one in May and I'm picking the 2nd load now. I can keep them in the ground over the winter here, and most are a couple years old. I had a nice crop of tomatoes until June and then got hit with leaf-curl. Tried the 2-season approach and planted out more tomatoes on 09/01 and two already have the leaf-curl.
aubade
14 years ago
This is only my 2nd year growing hot peppers but they definitely did much better last year. At this time last season my habanero plants were positively dripping with bright orange, this year I've harvested maybe 8 from 3 plants, that's it.
hmacdona1
14 years ago
Hi Phpete,

I'm hoping you'll see this message. Could you please email me via gardeweb with your email info re: tomato and pepper seed exchange?

I am unable to contact you directly as your email isn't showing up on your gardenweb profile.

I posted a note on that thread, hoping you'd see it..but then I saw you posted here and thought I'd give this a try :)

Look forward to hearing from you.

.....Heather

This past season - worse than average?

Comments (15)

sandysgardens

User

Related Discussions

naturegirl_2007 5B SW Michigan

chillilover

bubbalowe

User

phpete
Original Author

trfanatic

megachili

chillilover

User

phpete
Original Author

florida_country_boy

aubade

hmacdona1

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

This past season - worse than average?

Comments (15)

Related Discussions

phpeteOriginal Author

phpeteOriginal Author

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

phpete
Original Author

phpete
Original Author