Beginner help needed.

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BuddingSeedling Saint Cloud, FL Jul 14, 2007

Hello,

I live in central Florida and just started my first garden. So far I have about 8 bell peppers plants, 4 bannana pepper plants, 4 lite jalepenos and a couple of tomatoes plants. Everything is in a 12" pot and getting sun from 7am to about 4pm until the tree shade moves over them. The heat lately has been very intense 90 degress by 9am and easily reaching 100 late in the afternoon. Should I water them early in morning or later in the evening? Mother nature seems to suggest I water them later in day as that is when we tend to get our afternoon raines around here. Sometimes it can go days without raining and that is when I get worried about my babies.

Also I just recently purchased a 4" starter artichoke globe from ebay to see if I can raise it to full term and beyond. Any advice with it would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely
Bud

This message was edited Jul 14, 2007 2:24 PM

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growingup Tucson, AZ Jul 14, 2007

Well as for watering, it depends on how dry your soil is. If you used a lot of mulch, perhaps waiting for the rain (if it rained frequently) would suffice. I think the general census says to water in the morning. Night watering can bring all sorts of disease and mold if the water doesn't have time to evaporate. Don't listen to me though, here in Tucson, AZ, I water with soaker hoses and by hand throughout the day, but when it cools down, I won't so much. Since the soakers direct the water straight to the roots, I don't need to worry much about issues that come with night watering. It was cheap to set up the soaker system and I was able to do it without my husband's help so it must be easy too. I like using soakers on a timer because when I go out of town, I don't need to worry about my precious gardens and flowers.

On to your artichoke. I've had mine since March. It got really big and beautiful, then grew yellow and and brown spots so I clipped it all back. It is so puny now, but I hope it will bounce back. I believe they take about a year to fruit. I know they have to endure a winter before they set fruit so it's good that you got it now. If you waited until after winter (like me) you would have to wait until next year to see any fruit. Some people in very controlled environments, can "fake" a winter and get fruit the first year from an artichoke, but I'm not that good, not even close.

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