Growing firepods in the Coastal Plains of North Carolina...
1999 Main Page
The 1999 section of Mike's Pepper Garden contains information specific to the 1999 growing season, including seed and supplier information, specific plans for indoor germination
and transplanting to the garden, and germination and growth data summaries for the Author's 1999 crop of chile peppers.
The 1999 crop was grown in the western Piedmont of North Carolina, north of Greensboro, at about 36o17' N, 79o52' W (agricultural zone 7) on an old homestead, within 100 yards of the
original 150-year-old plantation house.
This Season's Varieties Long Thin Cayenne, Jalapeno M, NuMex Joe E. Parker, Serrano, Tabasco, ex-Soviet Pepper
Quick Statistics
First Plant Showing: Serrano at 4 days
First Plant Standing: Serrano at 5 days
Highest Germination Rate: ex-Soviet at 100%
Lowest Germination Rate: NuMex Joe E. Parker at 66.7%
Overall Germination Rate: 86.8%
First plants big enough to be thinned: 3 Jalapenos and 1 ex-Soviet (7 Feb)
On average, fastest plants to grow secondary leaves: Serrano and ex-Soviet
All plants were repotted to 16 oz cups between 21 Feb and 12 Mar.
First plant to flower: Cayenne Long Thin at 49 days (20 Mar).
First plants to set fruit: Jalapeno M, NuMex Joe E. Parker, and ex-Soviet at 81 days (21 April).
Three of each type of pepper were transplanted to the garden between 2 and 8 May. One of each type of pepper was repotted into 6" clay pots on 23 May. These plants were repotted into 8" pots between 25 and 31 July. The Tabasco and ex-Soviet were repotted into 10" pots in mid-August.
The first hard frost was 24 October. This ended the gardening season. The potted plants were shuffled between indoors and outdoors through mid-November to allow the last sets of peppers to ripen.
I am overwintering the Tabasco, and it is doing very well; it is a bit over three feet tall, and has a span of about three feet. It lost some leaves when I brought it indoors for good, but it started putting out new growth as well, and looks fine now.
Last updated 31 January 2015.
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