Your comments and tips

22 May 17, Maureen (Australia - temperate climate)

I have been harvesting my capsicum since early summer. They still have fruit and flowers. Should I pull up when I have picked the capsicums that are nearly ready. I want to start my winter garden and am not sure whether they just keep on being generous in their supply.

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22 May 17, Giovanni (Australia - temperate climate)

As the winter sets in capsicum yield will diminish and a good frost will kill the plants. Capsicums are a short-lived perennial but you would be best to harvest what you can and then pull the plants out giving you room to plant your winter garden. Fresh plants in a new spot next spring would be best.

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17 May 17, Lynny (Australia - temperate climate)

My capsicum bush is loaded but the fruit is very bitter. How can I sweeten them up?

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17 May 17, Ken (Australia - temperate climate)

Adding Epsom Salts at the rate of 1 tbs - 2 litres of water will improve the flavour and sweetness of tomatoes so you could give that a try. They are both in the Solanacea family. All the best.

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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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