Peppers 10/9 - Italia and Costa Rican Sweet

[MaryL]

I have my first flower!

[Shawn]

And a pretty flower it is 

[drbanks]

Snoopy dance!

[MaryL]

I’m just waiting for a second flower to open up so I can pollinate!

[MaryL]

Well I got more flowers to pollinate, and now I have a first baby pepper.

[Shawn]

Look at the sweet lil pepper

[MaryL]

And there’s more!  I believe the first one that’s longer is the Italia and the second one is the Costa Rican Sweet.  I’d have to check what I wrote on the labels.  I’m on my way to a sizable batch of sweet peppers!

[Shawn]

SWEET!  Peppers that is .. 

[MaryL]

Neither one of these admittedly older seeds did well outside this summer, so I’m happy that in this more coddled environment they are still viable and producing.

How tall is the hood at this point,Mary?(asking about the Costa Rican Sweets)

[MaryL]

Dec 10, 2017 9:16:36 GMT -5 @cornne said:

How tall is the hood at this point,Mary?(asking about the Costa Rican Sweets)

The hood is at approximately 13.75” measuring from the deck to the bottom of the hood.  I’m not sure if I raised it since the last picture but I likely didn’t.  There is room to spare above the Italia but not the Costa Rican.  

[MaryL]

Dec 9, 2017 23:50:14 GMT -5 MaryL said:

Already the Costa Rican Sweet is bigger!  In fact I think it has doubled in size. The Italia is only a teensy bit bigger.(apologies, I reversed the picture order)

[Shawn]

Healthy looking

[MaryL]

Not much to see except to note that the plants are at a good height for its fruiting stage (there is still lots of room to raise the hood).  I hand pollinated each flower with my fingertip so I should get a fairly good yield.  And I’m sure the little fruits posted before are a bit bigger already.  I think I’ll trim off those big floppy leaves in front. What do you think?

As another New Year vegetable project besides the GAL, I am going to plant a Costa Rican plant.
Inspired by Mary!

[MaryL]

It’s a super sweet pepper, I think you’ll really enjoy it!

[MaryL]

I continue to lose some teeny peppers, but that only makes the developed ones stronger.  I have at least 6 on each plant.

[jcosmo]

These pictures inspire me! The next time I get the urge to drop tomato seeds into the pepper pods because they're not germinating fast enough, I'll come back and look at these.  

[MaryL]

I measured the hood again, and though I thought I had raised it recently, it seems to be in the same position as when I measured on December 10.  It is about 13.75 inches from deck to bottom of the hood, measured near the post.  Possibly closer to 14”.   For a nearly 3 month old pepper garden that’s pretty good in terms of how much play I still have left for raising the hood.

Because the hoods tend to slump towards the front, it is lower there.  Almost an inch lower.

[MaryL]

A closeup of the fruits of the Costa Rican Sweet (left) and the Italia (right).  Can’t wait to see them start to change color.