Growing Tomato and Peppers in NJ

-South /Central New Jersey

-Planted 3/20 uses pee pods with Vermiculite soil mix.

-First Harvest 7/23 (see photo)

-Peppers took twice as long to germinate then tomatoes. 14 days for tomatoes. 4 weeks for peppers.

⁃ During March kept Temps no cooler than 50 degrees. Used heater under table at night that dropped below 40 degrees. Big help. Kept in porch with no heat but all Windows during the day.



⁃ Planted seedling into pots roughly April 15th. Planted in Garden May 3rd.



-Two tomato plants that were kept inside and babied. Fertilized and kept inside DID NOT produce fruit until put outside in the sun. Also I did fertilize with Miracle grow tomato fertilizer that has a lot of Nitrogen. Used Organic fertilizer that had calcium and other great nutrients in it.

-Tomatoes planted in Garden did the best. auto drip watering system supplied 2gallons per hr daily.

-Pepper plants in Garden smaller than potted plants by half size but produced more peppers.

-Pests.

#1 Deer. Keep fence up 4ft and over the top.



Chicken wire.

Deer jumped into fenced in area that was boarded up. They are very aggressive. Used (3) Arlo cameras and received auto alerts on motion. Caught this girl in my yard destroying the pots tomato plants within seconds.



Thanks to Arlo cameras I was able to catch and save the plants quickly.

#2 Chipmunks. Use Rat trap . Caught three



#3 Hornworms

(Biggest Pest of All) and will cause the most damage.

Frightning when you first spot them. they blend in well and look like the underside of a leaf.

Be aware for Large hummingbird like Moths in end of June , First week in July maybe earlier. They drop thier Larvae and form into Hornworms! Picked off 27 worms on 7/20 see photos. They most likely appeared one week prior. Pick off using Black Light at night. Works well.

They will destroy in a very short time.

⁃ Also best practice. I Placed (3) Arlo cameras to

Monitor deer and other pests especially at night. Big help in identifying pests.

-All in all , very fun time the past 4/5 months. Very rewarding after a lot of hard work. Learned a lot this year!

Can’t wait to do it all over again next year. Probably will try Eggplant , Basil, and plant Marigolds to help pollination.

Some photos of Pepper, Cherry Tomatoes and Big Boys.