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don555_gw

Still hanging on in zone 3

don555
11 years ago

This Fall has been mild, with plenty of sunshine and temps consistently above average (average is now is a high of 15C/59F, low of 2C/36F). Lately we've been running about 21C/70F by day, 7C/45F at night). Looks like a few more days of warmth, then below-average temps and nighttime frost.

My Hungarian Hot Wax, Firecracker, and Hot Charleston peppers are all enjoying the warm fall weather (not to mention the pumpkins and blackberries :))

Here's how my Charleston Hot pepper is doing. I did a first picking of red-ripe peppers and turned them into hot sauce 10 days ago, the plants are ready for a second picking of ripe peppers now. Still lots of peppers to ripen though, but at least now the bulk of peppers are now mostly yellow instead of green like when I last posted pics on Sept. 8.

Comments (8)

  • don555
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Oh, I forgot to mention that these peppers were grown all summer on our second-story deck, but with the sun getting so low this time of year, the deck is shaded almost all day long now by our roof. So a week or so ago I moved the pepper pots down into the veggie garden, which gets much more sun at this time of year.

  • sandysgardens
    11 years ago

    Great pic. Looks to be a good producer. I'm going to have to put that one on my want/order list.

    Thanks for sharing

  • andyandy
    11 years ago

    Don-
    Mine were on a 2nd story deck. I had to do the same thing. a week or so ago I moved them to the fronf of the condo which faces south. Your peppers look great by the way.

  • esox07 (4b) Wisconsin
    11 years ago

    Don: way to hang on up north here. That is a great looking Charleston. I grew one last year and it produced pretty good but it looks like yours is doing a good deal better than mine did. I notice your plant leaves have the same "sickly" yellowish coloring that mine had. It didn't seem to hurt the plant and I could never get it to really green up. Must be natural for it to be more yellowish.
    Bruce

  • tsheets
    11 years ago

    Yeah, that thing looks great! And to still be going in Z3, you're going to get spoiled! haha!

  • esox07 (4b) Wisconsin
    11 years ago

    Don555 once told me in a PM that he keeps his SUV idling in the driveway all fall long so that it cuts a big hold in the ozone and creates a little zone of global warming around his house.


    Bruce

  • tsheets
    11 years ago

    haha! DIY greenhouse! Only thing, you'd go broke buying the gas!

  • don555
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Haha, I wish I DID have my own little zone of global warming!

    Our spell of warm weather ended yesterday. Today (Oct. 2) the high was 7C/45F, they are calling for a low of 1C/34F tonight, then two nights of frost before warming up a bit. So I picked the cayenne peppers and Hungarian peppers from the garden, plus the potted Hungarian peppers. But I can't quite accept the end is here for the Charleston and the Firecracker peppers, so I've gone mobile! I'll move this pepper-cart into the garage when frost threatens, then outside during the day until I either get tired of doing it or some really cold weather hits.

    I did a second picking of the ripe Charleston peppers a few days ago and turned most of them into hot sauce, plus used one to mix into half a bar of Philly cream cheese for spicy pepper cream cheese. I've picked about 3 dozen peppers from the Charleston, but you can see from the pic above that there are scads more. These remaining ones have plenty of heat at this stage but I'd like them to color up a little more, if possible.

    I hadn't shown any Firecracker pics before because the peppers don't really show up against the foliage, so here's a couple of closeups taken today. I've been picking ripe ones for about a month on an "as needed" basis, mostly to cut up and add heat to just about anything. They have the odd tendency of having no heat at all when young and green, but are very fiery when red. I want them to be at least dark green so they have good heat, but red is better because it adds some bright colour to whatever I add them to. Many or most of these could be picked now, but any extra ripening will be appreciated.