Setting out the plants

Once I get the seedlings going & are big enough, I put them out in my screen porch (glass in winter & spring) which acts somewhat like a greenhouse. If the nights are going down into the mid thirties to middle forties, I bring them in. It gets pretty warm during the day when the sun is out. As May gets warmer I start putting them outside for a period of time. I usually start on a weekend, so I can bring them back in after a few hours at a time. Wind can be pretty bad for them, so I make sure that I put them in a corner of the porch protected somewhat. Then I let them stay out longer each day, until they are out all day. I do bring them in at night. This I usually do for about 2 to 3 weeks prior to planting them.



I have raised beds which I've made from 2"x12". I make them all 8' long by 3' wide, so that if i ever decide to move them to another location, I can do it myself. I fill them 2/3 full with some good top soil that I get from a local farm, then fill the balance with compost (grass clippings, ground up leaves, scrap produce, aged manure, lime) that I develop myself.

I plant the peppers in two rows approx. 12" apart. This way I can lay sheets of newspaper between them, put grass clippings over that & voila, no weeding necessary. This will also help keep the moisture in. But the weeding part is a real plus. Last year (08) I watered the plants once a week. This year we've been getting too much rain and the plants are not doing too well. Although, the sun has come out & it has been nice for the last few days & they are coming back to life.

These are pictures from last year, in the middle of July.



I usually don't do anything special once I have them in the boxes, maybe look at them every two minutes to see if I have any peppers yet.

At this point, the peppers have put on quite a bit of size, and have begun flowering. This picture is from August last year.