Skip Pallesen

254

Retired Chemist

I am really about to give up for this year. I looked out my bay window this morning and found that my hummingbird feeder was missing. I just refilled it yesterday. All I could find was the chain hanging from the shepherds crook. Now, I have not heard of any sightings of an interstellar cockroaches or radiation enlarged ants so I am not sure what took it. I searched the yard and could not find it. I did see that one guajillo which had three red peppers on it yesterday, now had only one, and that was half eaten. Yields have been terrible, except for my jalapeños.

I must have mutant squirrels. Sometime in the past, the ancestors of the current inhabitants must have mated with shrews. At dinner tonight, I looked out the window and watched as one squirrel was eating an ancho pepper while two others were chowing down on a guajillo.

Well, I lost all of my reapers and Thai gong bao plants, two of my serranos, three of my de arbol, one ancho and two pasilla. The ancho went when a squirrel tried to climb it and broke it off near the bottom. I have peppers on most of my reaming plants.

In all of the time I have been planting, I have never had a season such as the one I am experiencing. Torrential rains, strong winds, cool temperatures, lack of sun and hail have played havoc with my pepper plants. Squirrels have dug up three plants burying nuts, rabbits have eaten the sunflower shoots I plant for finches and a ground hog feasted on the flower seedlings I plant for hummingbirds and butterflies. I hope to have at least one variety of each pepper survives. My tomatoes and cukes are not bothered.

After a series of storms, I may have lost one of my Serrano plants. It is mangled and has lost leaves. Not giving up on the plant yet.

The seedlings went in the ground today. Some of the seedlings were halfway to the top of the 75 gallon tank and if I had waited until after the days of rain they are predicting, I'm afraid they would have reached the top and become top-heavy. I am going to have to wait until March next year to plant the seeds..

I should be finished hardening my seedlings early next week and if the forecast does not change, they should be in the ground next Tuesday. Since my wife and daughter both work in a hospital with covide-19 patients , they have decided to go to a nursery and get my tomatoes and cucumbers. I just have to find where to plant them.

Started to harden my seedlings out on the front porch that gets morning sun and no wind. I'll increase the time out by 30-60 minutes per day.

There were some peppers that I had wanted to grow from seed but was unable to find any seeds at the suppliers I purchase from. I had planned to buy the plants locally but that has been rendered not possible as the garden center does not plan on opening in April.

All of my seedlings have multiple true leaves now and have just given them the first application of fertilizer.