Your Progress report has been accepted :-), do not be serious please, very nice enjoyable subject, I like it.

Nice looking healthy plants, thanks for sharing.

Caelian

Good work! Your overwinters are in excellent health.
Have you had any troubles with the mix this year?

Josh

Thanks, guys.

Josh, here's the scoop on the mix. After my struggles last year, I feel like I learned a lot.

I had hit and miss success over the Winter, lost several plants but, the ones that survived are really healthy. I used the same mix from last year. I got the pots full of it out of the garage in very early Spring and just let them take on moisture. I basically re-screened it, re-limed it, added some CRF (didn't do that last year), and added some standard potting mix rather than peat (it's what I had on hand). I let that set for a couple weeks before use.

I have also not been shy about feeding them. I alternate between MG and FP 9-3-6, both at full strength. Every now and then, I just water with no ferts, and of course when it rains, no ferts. :-)

My thought was that hopefully, most of the sap wood has at least partially decomposed, and by freshening up the mix from last year, it would be more stable.

Anyway, everything in pots looks pretty good for the most part. 1 or 2 were not happy at first, but, I also ran out of 'pre limed' stuff and had to add and plant the same day. They seem to have recovered nicely, though, but, still on the smaller side.

I'm jealous of YOUR potted hots. Nice and healthy looking. Are those in the 5-1-1?

Nice job!

Whoever moves in gets a treat of heat huh?

Kevin

Those potted plants look great.

One thing that concerns me though, is you saying "Here are a couplt 7-pot brain strains that were also overwintered. The one on the right fell off the table when I tried to move it to mow. They sure have a rough life with me."

You don't need to mow pepper plants.

Sounds like you refined the mix nicely, and I agree about the sap-wood having less of an impact now. Fresh Lime, regular fertilization...definitely shows in the quality of your plants. My two overwinters are in the same mix as last year, and doing really well. Typically I'd re-pot...but when I saw that they were thriving, I figured if it ain't broke don't try and fix it.

Josh

Thanks for the encouragement, guys!

It is 5-1-1 that I made up last year from pine bark mulch. Lots of screening and still a lot of sap wood. I had a terrible time with it last year. But, it seems to be doing much better this year.

@rob - When I top a plant, I don't mess around! ;-)

And it is much less water retentive than last year. Maybe a bit too free. I have to water them at least every other day, every day when it's hot/sunny. Probably not the bigger pots, but, the smaller ones definitely!

I hear you on the don't fix it. I was planning to move these guys up to larger pots, but, they seem really happy, so I just decided to leave them for now. Besides, it's easier to move small pots. :-)

Oh, and I was actually hoping that having nice tomatoes and peppers growing might tip the scales in my favor. You never know. haha!

Good looking plants. I think your getting the medium down pat, you just need the weather to continue to cooperate. You'll have tons of pods in no time!

Tim

Very nice!!! Tsheets.

That's look like the same 5 Gal pots I purchased from Walmart. I have some with 5-1-1, some with straight potting soil, some with various mixes. How is your drainage on those pots for you?

I had to drill several more holes in mine than what they originally came with do to all the rain we get here in Central Louisiana. Once I did that, my plants in these type pots sky rocketed.

Bill

Actually, the largest pots in the pictures are about 1 gal. I have some others not pictured that are in about 4gal and 5gal pots.

The drainage is fine. More holes wouldn't hurt, though, I'm sure.

Last year my mix was a lot more water retentive, to the point that I used wicks to help drain them. I don't think more drain holes would have helped much, but, maybe.

Well, I wasn't planning to post again so soon, but, here I am with news to report.

I had a massive thunderstorm with a marble sized hail and 6" of rain hit my place last night.

The potted peppers got blown off the table, fell half out of their pots, and got hailed/rained on. The tomatoes...same thing, but, they didn't fare as well as the peppers. I tried poking the tops back into the dirt, but, I doubt they will make it. I lost a few 7-pot pods, but, only found two of them tonight when I had the camera. The larger potted peppers got blown to the side, but, didn't tip over or anything like that.

Anyway, here are the pics.

Peppers Beaten Up:

Tomatoes Killed:

A couple 7-pot pods that were knocked off:

Garden - Note the laid over plants towards the front and all the sticks from neighboring trees:

The larger potted peppers got pushed pretty hard to one side:

All I can do now, is wait for them to recover.

2 words...

That bites!

Sorry to see that tsheets.

Kevin

The peppers will pull through! Here's to a speedy recovery!

Josh

Unfortunate tomatoes, the chilies are looked fine. To see your plants we got hurt.

They will recover soon I hope.

Caelian

You seem to have a lot of hail, time to move. Or at least devise a hail shelter that allows sun to get through. Sorry about your plants and as you know they will bounce back, hope that's the last of the hail.

Mark

I wouldn't give up on the tomatoes either. I had to branches break off a cherry tomato plant about 8 days ago. I put some root starter on them and put them in some wet soil. They looked really bad for 4 or 5 days, but it looks like they're going to pull through. Good Luck!

Tim

Thanks, everyone!

I was just looking at them and found some wilted broken branches, so had to do some tidying up. Aside from that, I know they will pull through. The tomatoes, though, I think most are gonners. I'm still holding out hope that a couple more survive (the one pack is fine).

We have been having a lot of strong thunderstorms / wind this year. Just barely missed another one today. Whew!

Sorry to hear about the weather Tim. Glad you are getting out of dodge:) Just keep the faith brother and keep us updated on your peppers.