Help with poblano pepper plants

17 years ago

hi everyone :) I'm new here to post, but have been scanning lots of older posts for help.

So I have 2 poblano chili pepper plants that I picked up at a local nursery. With their advice, I planted in Black Gold potting soil and added to the 4 square foot container (2 plants) a scant 2 TB of Osmocote fertilizer pellet things.

It took a long time for the plants to grow, but they took off when it got over 90d each day here. They are in full Sun for 8 hrs/day. The container has large holes drilled 2" apart on the bottom and a few on the sides, has 1" of small rocks in the bottom and that is topped with broken terra cotta. It drains water beautifully.

So --- the plants start growing, and are producing numerous small leaves and a few buds. I got maybe 3 flower, that would bloom and then drop off the next day. Got a few yellow leaves that would fall off. Buds would dry up and fall off before blooming. I researched online and here :) Figured out the soil (b/c of the Osmocote) probably had too much nitrogen. I soaked the container through twice (letting it dry out in between, which takes just 2 days here in southern Arizona). After that the plants did MUCH better...lots of buds staying on - a dozen or so flowers. I also treated with the standard Epsom salt mixture in a spray bottle 7 days ago...1 TB epsom salt to 1 gallon water (which I let sit outside for a day to get rid of any chlorine from the tap). Buds are staying, flowers are staying...it all looks good :)

However...I'm getting lots of new little leaves instead of the ones that are there growing. See picture below. I look online at other poblano plants (mature) and the leaves are 3-4 times larger.

Can I pinch off new leaves? Should I be cutting some of the new stems (under the plant) off? How? Do I just have a really happy plant? I want it to bear peppers :)

They are tall enough now to get saggy and will be staking them this afternoon.

Also --- one of the plants main stem has "split" for lack of better description. Picture below.

Thanks for any help :) The nurseries in town just seem a bit clueless and actually told me to post online in a garden forum for better help.

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Comments (6)

ourania
Original Author
17 years ago
I meant 4 cubic foot...(can't see how to edit my own post)
John Tebbs
17 years ago
Well, I'm a little puzzled.... Are you sure those are poblano pepper plants? They don't look anything at all like my poblano plants. Poblanos grow on a plant with fairly large leaves, just like a bell pepper. Those resemble the tiny pepper plants, ones that produce small tabasco type peppers....
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medcave
17 years ago
Your plants actually look pretty darn good if you ask me. Sure the leaves are a bit on the small side, but most of my poblano leaves are too. Probably has something to do with all the heat in Texas and Arizona.

I wouldn't pinch off leaves as the peppers will need the shade to prevent sun scald. I would suggest you either move your container or fashion a sunshade cloth canopy a few feet above the plants to provide midday shade. They just might set some fruit if your temps aren't much over the upper '90s yet. Otherwise you'll just have to baby them through the summer until it cools off again.
ourania
Original Author
17 years ago
thanks for posting medcave --- I'm a noob on growing veggies and needed a 'reality check' on the plants to see if they are normal or not. I'm pretty sure if I had excess nitrogen in the soil, that contributed to the 'whole lotta leaves' issue. I do plan on making a sun shade for them this week, it's going to start hitting 100+ for the next month or so. We also start monsoon season (higher humidity and afternoon showers). I started these plants the same time friends started their container garden. Their jalepenos and green chiles took off and are almost ready to harvest. Mine just didn't do anything (even grow) for a loooooong time, so I figured I may get a late harvest in Sept.

However --- I started counting flower buds --- I stopped when I hit 75, and that was just on one plant!

I will epsom salt again in 3 days.

Just found mealy bugs today (darnit!) and will Dawn/water spray tonight (I read that tip on here :) as I can't use pesticides.

srjohnt --- I was questioning whether they were poblanos as well...so I compared the leaf and flower to what I could find online and indeed they are poblanos.

I'll welcome any other feedback also :)

Adrienne
medcave
17 years ago
Yeah the sunshade cloth will really help. We've been at 100 nearly every day for a week now and I'm still getting fruit set from the peppers and tomatoes that are in the shaded plot. As I'm harvesting other crops and making room I'm moving my potted hot peppers in there too.

Also, add a light colored mulch such as grass clippings, hay, or even newspaper to your container. That helps keep the roots cool too.
ourania
Original Author
17 years ago
yeah - I have some extra light/heat blocking cloth from making curtains to help with summer cooling costs. I made a covering for the soil, where I've cut out where the pepper plants are. I also punched ventilation holes in it. Seems to work well :) I took it away for the pictures b/c the glare of the sunshine on it blew out the pictures.

I can make an easy sunshade going from my patio roof to a tree with some patio shade fabric I have - will fix that up tomorrow and keep and eye out as the Sun angle changes each day to make sure they get shade from noon-3pm-ish

Adrienne