Earlier in the season, the yellow pepper plants were struggling. Our resident bean leaf beetle spent his or her days making mincemeat out of the leaves, and I began to despair that the plant would survive.
Then we relocated those bean leaf beetle eggs—definitely a happy accident, since the baby beetles would have wreaked havoc along with their mama. Maybe that served as a sign to the bugs that they ought to stay away, because since then, the only sign of unwanted bugs has been the occasional leaf perforation. We haven’t seen anything quite like the weird yellow leaves and holes the beetle caused a few weeks ago.
In the past week, the pepper plant that took the biggest hit from the beetle has grown resiliently, and has all kinds of little flowers and buds on it. Steve thinks we’re due for a spectacular pepper crop, and I hope so. I love eating raw pepper strips, and like them even better dipped in hummus.
on Jun 12th, 2006 at 12:34 pm
Wow, your peppers are doing great (well except for the beetles anyway). I finally got my peppers in the ground yesterday. They’re still tiny because I started them very late but I put them out anyway. I look forward to more State of the Pepper updates.
on Jun 12th, 2006 at 7:46 pm
My peppers are still teeny things, I need some warmer weather.
on Jun 12th, 2006 at 9:38 pm
Anthony and Steven, they’ve definitely recovered from their prior trauma, but I still think they’re going to get bigger. I’m wondering, actually, how big they’re supposed to get. Right now they’re about 18 inches high, but carrying lots of buds that look like they’re due to pop out as peppers. We’ll see.
Thanks for stopping by!
:-) Genie