A good growing season for peppers!

Hey N2...great looking peppers you have going. My plants are only a couple of inches high. :o( Mind you, our season starts a lot later than yours, you lucky thing. LOL
I've a question for you. What causes the wrinkling of the pepper leaves that you can see in photo 1 of your blog. Some of my pepper plants have it and some don't (same variety). I've checked and checked for any sign of aphids but can see none. Is it something to do with a nutrient deficiency? Obviously it doesn't seem to harm the fruit and the plants are otherwise healthy looking. I'm stumped!!

Hi N2,

Was just reading your blog and thinking exactly the same, when I saw Gilli's comment!
All my friends and I are suffering from the same leaf curl this year and, like Gilli's, they're not nearly as far on...
...it obviously doesn't affect fruit production...your peppers are super!

I have two pepper plants and two chilli plants I am trying to grow this year got them for 10p each in B&Q started them off in the conservatory but now they are out in the garden hope I get some good results yours look really good:)

The answer is quite simple on the "leaf curl".. Most peppers like a situation where they are watered heavily and are allowed to get somewhat dry. The above photo was taken near the end of the "dry cycle". The key to growing peppers is to let them get a tad dry, because that lets the natural nitrogen available in the atmosphere to get down into the root system. Of course, the above is assuming that the pepper plants are planted in a well drained "container arena" with a loose potting mix or planted in a "native soil situation" that has been prepared with rock minerals, sugars, and organic materials.
The soil is the key! If it feels and looks like a layer of chocolate-cake, brown and loose, with lots of biological activity, the soil is probably close to optimum.

Here is the formula for optimum bed preparation:
http://www.dirtdoctor.com/Bed-Preparation-Newsletter-2011_vq3812.htm

This is what I have done this growing season and all of my plants are looking better than they ever have!
It's pretty awesome what healthy soil can do. {grin}
*N2O*

You're not wrong there, N2...!
...have taken note...:)
Thanks, K

Hmm...mine are in a lovely potting mix enriched with compost and worm castings and perlite to lighten the mix. They are watered when they are dry but not before. I've been feeding them with a kelp fertilizer and they've had some bone meal. Really nothing different from other years that I've grown them but this year they have this leaf crinkle thing.

Gilli, the one ingredient that I would not use is the perlite.
It is similar to "peat-moss" and is a "sterile growing medium" that does not support vibrant biological activity in the soil. If the soil needs better drainage control, a better choice would be "expanded shale" for water retention and volcanic sands such as "green-sand" ,
"lava-sand", and "decomposed granite". Those sands will free up the available nutrients in the soil that feeds the plant's smallest roots in its' "rizonsphere", where the tiny roots actually absorb the minerals in the soil that are available to it. Hope this helps!
Go plants! *N2O*

Thanks N2O...I'll keep that in mind for next year.