Your comments and tips

15 May 17, maurie (Australia - sub-tropical climate)

do I need to stake a capsicum plant whilst it is growing?

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15 May 17, Darren (Australia - temperate climate)

Hi Maurie, capsicums grow fine without staking, however I found that once they start to bear fruit, they lean down to the ground. Staking might help keep your capsicums off the ground.

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15 May 17, Sean (Australia - temperate climate)

Normally capsicums make a sturdy, self supporting bush. If they are getting tall or leggy a stake would certainly help and would avoid the disappointment of a plant being blown over when it was laden with fruit.

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17 May 17, Mike (Australia - sub-tropical climate)

Yes they do fall over sometimes. I have put up a little trellis this year. I had a 4" diameter split pine rail post 7 feet long - cut it in half - put them about 15" into the soil, 5' apart - I have 4 plants in. Drilled some 1/2" holes approx. every 9" and ran some twine (Bunnings 500m $12) between the posts around the outside of the posts. The plants are now just starting to come through the bottom lot of twine. I have done the same with tomatoes - posts are 7' out of the ground - I have a 6' steel post in the middle. If I have to, when the plants come through the twine I will pull the twine together and tie to the steel post. All a bit of an experiment this year to see how it goes. Did a lot of reading about growing indeterminate tomatoes and found I couldn't buy suitable wire netting to make cages. Very expensive also. I had the split rail posts from a shade structure I had pulled down, so it worked out very cheap. Use the twine around my snow peas also.

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17 May 17, Sean (Australia - sub-tropical climate)

You are onto a good thing!For good air circulation and general management tomatoes are better grown in a flat plane than on a cage anyway. re using stakes, etc is sustainable and save money as well. You could probably replant the tomato/capsicum site with climbing peas or grow a quick crop like radishes or leafy greens ready to sow climbing beans in the spring. Good luck!

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18 May 17, Mike (Australia - sub-tropical climate)

The way I did it, is how they grow them commercially here. With the stake you have to have something to tie them up with. I was buying ribbon and reusing it - but it is $5 a 25m roll. With 2-3 lots of tomatoes (?capsicums) in at a time can use a lot of ribbon and they tend to slide down the stake. I do mix it up a bit. I have had corn in, followed by, snow peas to be followed by climbing beans probably. I'm in the process of setting up 6-8 Styrofoam boxes to grow my leafy lettuce, hon tsai tai rocket baby spinach. Cheers

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22 Apr 17, Helena (Australia - temperate climate)

as I cut and deseeded my red capsicum, there was 2 little balls with a green stem, would that be plantable?

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23 Apr 17, Giovanni (Australia - temperate climate)

It is likely to be just a superficial growth in the seed cavity.

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25 Mar 17, adam (Canada - Zone 5b Temperate Warm Summer climate)

hello just had a question for the pepper plant. it says to plant this plant in the garden in May then to transplant in June. would you be able to explain this to me cause im a little confused to what this means. i thought you would finish by planting it in the ground. thank you very much.

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26 Mar 17, Liz (New Zealand - sub-tropical climate)

Hi Adam, the planting instructions overlap a bit. We suggest that seeds are started in boxes in March and April, so those seedlings should start to be ready to plant out in May and June - but also seeds can be started in the ground in May.

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