Low Stakes Bonchi

Okay, hasn't been any updates in a while because, honestly, there hasn't been much to update on until now.  I'm sure nobody wants to hear me talk just for the sake of hearing me talk.

So, whats the update about?  Tent stakes and jute twine, of course!  The Laughing Buddha Peter Pepper bonchi has been having a growth spurt, and has some nice long branches on it now.  Problem is, they're all going straight up, as peppers are want to do.  I however want this bonchi to have a nice canopy so that it looks like its shading Buddha underneath, and peppers are not known for growing low flat canopies.

Problem number two, I don't like wiring bonsai.  Sure, its great on bonsai trees that are rigid and have to be held in place for 6 months or even years at a time for them to hold their shape.  Its the only practical way of shaping the branches.  However, peppers are not trees.  Their green growth is very flexible, plus I'm not interested in tying the branches into knots, I just want them to be more lateral.  So, instead of spending all day trying to wire this thing again, I went for a... "less intricate" method.

I tied it down like a tent.

These are just super cheap aluminum tent spikes from Walmart that I had laying around, and some jute twine I bought from the craft department.  All I did was put the spikes down in the pot, loop the twine through them, and tied the branches down with a simple square knot.  If I cinched it a little too tight and pulled the branch too far down, I simply pulled the stake up a little bit until I got the branch angle I wanted.

Unlike trees, peppers can take this kind of extreme bending pretty easily with the new growth, although if you look closely you might see where I bent one a little too far and broke it off.  No worries though, it was a small branch and I found a suitable replacement for it anyway.  The biggest branch bent over easily, you can see it there quite well in the second picture.

Now I can just leave it like that for a while.  The limbs will start growing new branches pointing up again as the main branch lignifies to where it will hold it's shape on it's own, and then I can do the same thing to those new branches to get a nice flat bottomed canopy.  Added benefit, this jute twine is pretty thick, and not tightly coiled around the branches so it won't bite into them.  No worries about scarring the branch this way!

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Other misc updates, the Reapers are still growing slowly.  We've had some nights of low 50's to upper 40's which will stall pepper growth, but I'm hoping some slowed above ground growth will help promote faster root growth as they try to dig down for some warmth.

I have no idea if thats true or not, but its a more productive line of thinking than "they're just sitting there doing nothing".

I'm also hoping to see good results from the tent pegs used above to use on the Reapers later.  I want a twisted trunk for the main Reaper bonchi, and tying it down with twine and stakes to pull it in the directions I want it to go is going to be a LOT easier than trying to wire it or digging it up to replant at an angle.

Also some disappointing results from the weird Halloween plant.  Thats it on the bottom there, and you can see its quite green now.  There's some black shading to the leaves, but they are no longer solid jet black.  Mixed bag though, because one of the others (the one that is unfortunately in the shadow of my phone) is now displaying more black on the leaves, while the two on the left (the free growing on the far left, and the one on the skull in the middle) have no black at all on their leaves.

Might still be worth trying to cross pollinate the two darker ones.  I might still be able to breed up some solid black ones, just doesn't look like I was lucky enough to get it for free in a single generation's worth of mutation.

Spring Planting Time

Okay, our last frost date here is 4/1-4/10.  Last night we hit 36°F/2°C briefly, but the 10 day forecast calls for nothing but warm wet weather from here out, so lets plant us some bonsai peppers!

Alas, poor Yorick.  I knew him, Horatio...

Dug out our skull from it's storage spot since last time we saw him.

...he was an asshole and I'm glad he's dead.

Out in the raised bed, dug a nice hole big enough for the skull and just deep enough for the top of the skull to be just below the soil line.

Now this is where it gets more important what we're doing.  Here I've taken the biggest and strongest looking of the Reapers (sadly, it was not the zombie reaper, but it was one of my final 4), removed most of the soil, and found the main root.  Now while peppers don't have an actual taproot, they do have a main root which was the first to grow after the seed germinated.  The plant is going to try and grow it's roots in the direction that that root is going, so its important to find it and get it positioned where you want it to go, and the rest of the roots should more or less follow.

Here I've gotten the pepper and the roots laid out where I want them.  You can see I've gone for a location over the skull's left eye socket.  I decided I wanted this to be asymmetrical to keep it from looking too artificial.  Also pulled a good bit of roots out over the back of the skull as well, hopefully they will all fatten up enough to where it will get a good grip on it.

And here's where I did something a little bit stupid.  After I got everything in place I was pressing the soil down to compact it enough to hold everything in place where I wanted it, and I heard a crunching sound.  Pretty certain the glue on the hinge of that damned jaw broke again.  I would say that thing is fragile as glass, but that would be an insult to the glass.  Oh well, I'm not digging the whole thing up now.  Whatever condition its in when I dig it up later is the condition its going to be in for the bonchi.

And there we go, the raised bed now has the four best Reapers in it (along with a boarder of transylvanian garlic), and is being watched over by my disgruntled lawn gnome.  The one with the skull is on the far right, opposite end of the gnome, as that spot gets the most sun.

Oh, and if anyone is wondering, the reason I don't trim those clovers and things that are growing tall around the raised bed right now is because I also keep bees.  The bees love those flowers, so I'm letting them have 'em until the flowers fade.  When there's no more flowers to feed the bees with, then I'll cut it all down and toss it in my composter.

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And while we're at it, updates on the other practice projects.

The Laughing Buddha Peter Pepper is doing well.  Its putting out lots of nice new growth, which I'm probably going to not wire again but tie down to get more of a canopy going.  Also likely going to move him back into a large container for the season to really let it go wild growing.  Only way to thicken those roots and trunk up to the max is to let the top grow as big as possible, so thats what we're going to do.

The oddball Halloween pepper continues to exhibit odd growth patterns.  Its putting out a cluster of leaves, but only from one side.  If nothing else, this should make an interesting bonchi simply because of how strange its growing.

Speaking of the Halloween peppers, here's the one I planted on the small skull.  Washed the dirt off the roots, and look at that main root.  Just like I mentioned before, they'll all tend to have one root that is bigger and beefier than the others, which was the first root the seed grew.  If you look closely, you can see its got an interesting bendy shape due to it growing over the skull.

Some repositioning of roots, and making sure that nice big main root goes in an interesting place, and we're starting to look pretty good here.  I also balled the roots up a bit under the bottom of the skull to try and encourage them to stay there and fully enclose the skull to make it impossible to remove short of cutting it out.

After that, replanted everything.  You can see on the left where the top of the roots are still showing, then on the right where I just barely covered them (and pulled off a few low leaves to give it a little air at the trunk).

This is the one that I didn't do anything to other than let it grow.  As you can see, it has pods set already.  The mini skull one I went back and pruned off the wilting flowers (which most likely set fruit), but this one I will let go.  Why?  Because producing fruit requires a large investment of energy on the plant's part.  While its true that it also uses a lot of water and nutrients, which encourages root growth, overall it slows the plant down.  The skull pepper I want to put out as much vegetative growth (aka, leaves) as possible to build up the trunk, which in turn will cause thicker roots.  This one though, I'm letting it grow however it wants.  Later on I'll compare how it's roots came out to the others and see what we've got to work with.

Multiple plants, being treated in multiple different fashions.  Thats how you experiment and learn, do a lot of different things and see what works, and what doesn't.

Foliar Feeding Is A Scam

The new season is upon us, and I'm already seeing people talking about the same things again.  "I water and foliar feed my peppers every week!"

For those who aren't familiar with the practice, foliar feeding is the act of spraying diluted fertilizer directly onto the leaves of a plant.  Now, while this is a legitimate thing to do under certain circumstances (which I will explain below), for the most part this is a waste of your time and money.

Let me say that again:

Foliar feeding is a waste of your time and money!

Okay, lets get into why this is true.

The belief is that a plant will only absorb so much nutrients through it's roots, and that by spraying extra on the leaves you will supercharge the plant for even better results.  It is true that peppers and most other leafy plants are capable of absorbing both water and nutrients through their leaves.  However, the leaves were not "designed" for this, its more of an accident that it works at all than it is any intended function of the plant.

Like people, a plant has a limited set of needs for food and water.  Once met, no additional amount of food will make a difference.  Adding fertilizers to soil is good up until the point you reach the amount required by the plant, the amount that lets it get maximized growth.  Everything beyond that is wasted, the roots won't take it up because the plant doesn't need it.  Its much like with people, I don't care how hungry you are, you couldn't actually eat an entire grocery store full of food in one sitting if you tried.

Yet people think that by bypassing the roots, they can force a plant to take up more nutrients than it needs, and that this will somehow make it healthier.  Again, it is possible for a pepper (or any leafy vegetable) to absorb some nutrients through it's leaves.  Just like its possible for a human to absorb alcohol through their skin.  Doesn't mean everybody should run out and get martini patches.  A healthy root system will take up those nutrients faster and more efficiently than the leaves ever could, and will direct those nutrients directly to where they are needed by the plant.

So what are the circumstances when foliar feeding isn't a waste of your time?

You should foliar feed whenever a plant does not have a healthy root system and is hence incapable of absorbing water and nutrients through it's roots.  This would include when you're trying to make a cuttings, or when your plant has extensive root rot and you are trying to make a last ditch effort to save it.

Thats it.

In absolutely any scenario where the roots are healthy, foliar feeding is not necessary, and may actually end up hurting your plant if you do it wrong (there are diseases and molds/fungus that thrive on constantly damp leaves).

So why can you find foliar feed sprays at the store these days?  Well simply put, Miracle Grow smelled money.  This started up as a fad a while back, and the fertilizer companies realized that they could repackage what they already make in a watered down form, and sell it to people at full price.  Kind of like how Coca Cola sells you bottled water that is the same stuff they put in the soda, minus the expensive syrup, and sells it to you for as much if not more than a bottle of coke.  They saw a market, and instead of saying "this isn't actually something you need to do", they only saw "this is something you will pay for" and went for it.

Do not waste your money buying foliar sprays.  Do not waste your time making your own.  Do not waste your time spraying dilute fertilizer on your plants' leaves.  Just pour it in the soil.  If your plant needs the extra food, it will take it up naturally.  If it doesn't need the extra food, then you shouldn't be fertilizing it to start with.