Spring Tasks For Bigger Pepper Yields! - Pepper Geek

hey there welcome to peppergeek in today's video I'll share some essential spring pepper plant tasks for bigger yields so spring is finally here and we're very busy in the garden and today I just wanted to share some of the most important things that we do every year for our pepper plants to ensure our plants give us the biggest possible yield some of these things might seem counter-intuitive but I'll explain why they're important to do now and why we recommend everyone does them if you want the biggest Harvest jumping right into the first task is picking early flower buds this is a perfect example here this plant has many flowers opening up on it and it even has an early pepper forming and we're going to want to remove both of those at this stage so first off I only recommend removing flowers that are big enough to reach in there and easily access them if they're tiny and hard to get to you risk damaging the young foliage that is just around the flower buds so wait for the flour to open up or at least get large enough so that you can easily pluck it avoiding the small leaves some people only pick off early Peppers that start to form because some of the flowers do naturally fall off the plant without ever becoming a pepper this is the number one reason that people end up with really small bell peppers or a smaller overall yield because their young plants are putting all their energy into creating one or maybe two Peppers when the plant isn't yet strong enough and large enough to support a larger yield so we're picking any flowers that form before we transplant like in this case all the way until the peppers have been outside in their final location for at least two weeks sometimes three weeks or so that gives the plants enough time to establish their roots in their new environment and after those two or three weeks you can stop picking off the flowers and allow them to form Peppers the next spring task is preparing our garden beds in our soil for the incoming Peppers now we grow in raised beds in containers and directly in the ground so we treat each situation a little differently if we're growing in containers we really like to reuse last year's potting soil we have a video over on our other gardening Channel geeky Greenhouse all about how you can reuse your potting soil so go check us out on geeky greenhouse and some subscribe there and watch that video if you're interested but essentially you want to revitalize the soil add nutrients in because last year's crop probably used up a lot of the available nutrients in your soil in raised beds we'll work in some all-purpose fertilizer and scratch it into the surface usually two or three weeks before our plants are slated to get in the ground fruit and ground plantings will make sure that we've weeded thoroughly getting rid of any Weeds on the surface and then we'll amend the soil with some compost scratch that into the surface around where the peppers will be going in Spring is also a great time to get a soil test if you're new to planting in your yard or maybe you're creating a new Garden in your lawn send away a little sample of soil it's really pretty cheap I'll leave a link down below where you can get that done if you're interested but you'll get back a ton of information about your soil and know exactly what you need to add to get a Bountiful Harvest the next spring task is preparing for bad weather such as wind or cold temperatures right when you transplant your peppers into pots or into to the ground that's the perfect time to add a steak right along the center to keep the plant upright but also it's a perfect time to add a tomato cage if you're growing varieties that have larger heavier pods so bell peppers banana peppers hatch chilies all benefit from a tomato cage probably more than an actual tomato plant does because tomatoes tend to get even bigger and more sprawling so these are perfect for peppers and you want to get it in early right when you transplant so that it goes over the plant easily because if you wait too long and the plant becomes bushy it's going to be nearly impossible to get this over the plant without causing damage equally important in the springtime especially is cold weather we deal with cold weather here in New England and we usually wait until overnight temperatures are not going below 55 degrees Fahrenheit before we transplant of course before that we're hardening off and bringing the plants indoors on those cold nights but we don't want to get them into the ground especially in-ground beds or raised beds where they can't be moved until those temperatures warm up overnight but in the case that you have already already move your plants outside and you're getting a random cold snap you should be ready to protect your plants and keep them warm on those nights there are many different options for coverings that you can use but we like to use floating row cover it's just what we have and it's lasted us many years already extending the season on both sides so in early spring if you expect temperatures below 50 or 55 degrees Fahrenheit cover your plants in the evening and uncover them in the morning to keep them warm enough another spring tip is to watch for early pests this unfortunately is an example right here I see an aphid on one of the small leaves of this plant and aphids are some of the first pests to arrive in fact some of the earliest insects to arrive in the early spring they'll fly in and land on your plants and you'll see these larger winged aphids and then birth more aphids and the problem can get out of control very quickly so while the plants are in this stage hardening off and just after getting outside I'm always checking especially looking at the younger foliage near the top on any fly flowers that tends to be where you'll see most pests like aphids and thrips and white flies and I'm just squishing anything that I see if I see an aphid I just squish it with my thumb I know it's a little bit gross but it's the easiest way to get rid of the early guys without having to spray your plants and we really don't like to spray unless we have to but if you're planting a nice variety of different crops in your garden especially flowers which we recommend in our companion planting video then you know you're going to have those beneficial insects which will come and feast on the aphids very soon if you do think you need to spray for aphids these are two products that we like to use safer brand insecticidal soap and lost coast plant therapy both of which will kill aphids when sprayed and can really help reduce population significantly in one final bonus tip if you will is to plan out any fun experiments this is the time of year it's sort of your last opportunity to plan something out that might make the gardening season a little more enjoyable so we really like to do this and of course we'll share our results with you one example that we have this year is we'll be trying to Trellis some bell peppers or grow them vertically and so there's some planning that we've had to do for that namely that the plants will be spaced a little bit closer together and we need something to Trellis the plants up on but you can run your own fun experiment in the garden maybe you want to plant a few different types of peppers in a pot sort of a pepper Arrangement if you will or maybe you want to test out different potting soils or something like that once the season really gets underway it can be too late to start these things so spring is a great time to plan don't forget to check out our other gardening Channel geeky Greenhouse where we talk about basically everything that isn't Peppers so if you want to see how we grow tomatoes or beans or herbs check out geeky Greenhouse in the link below let me know what you do in the springtime for your peppers to ensure that they get the best Harvest we're always curious and willing to try new things with our plants to see if we can improve thanks so much for watching Peppa geek and I'll see you next time oh he's a good girl

Channel: Pepper Geek

Views: 113,066

Keywords: gardening, growing, peppers

Id: hBeEdCqEFVQ

Length: 7min 9sec (429 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 04 2023