Peppers - Growing enough to never buy them again

Due to rampant and unmanageable root knot nematodes which destroyed all my in-ground annuals this year (and last... and the year before), I have switched to container gardening. In the ground I will keep tobacco, fruit trees, cassava, pigeon pea, a few other apparently resistant odds and ends.

In the meantime, I have switched to growing a boat load of one type of fruit/vegetable so that I never have to buy any again, can save seeds and create landraces from dozens of different varieties... The almighty pepper!

I figured, no way would I enjoy growing 50 eggplants, space is extremely limited in the suburbs for 50 eggplants... But I much liked the idea of growing 300+ peppers. If they can't be eaten fresh, I can concoct unique chili powders from the dried abundance.

I have... probably 3 dozen different varieties going, mostly from New Mexico, Southern USA, and Asia (Japan, Korea).

There have been hitches along the way, such as too much water retention in the soil mixture, a couple worms here and there, but the rain has greened the leaves with its nutrients after a drought in Florida.

Looking good so far, I'm hoping to grow some peppers and chilli peppers myself soon. Those should give you plenty to experiment with recipes. The Florida sunshine must be great for peppers?

I was reading about slugs and other garden pests  the other day and came across this which might help with the root knot nematodes problem

https://tendergardener.com/how-to-control-nematodes-organically/

Good luck

Paul Paterson wrote:Looking good so far, I'm hoping to grow some peppers and chilli peppers myself soon. Those should give you plenty to experiment with recipes. The Florida sunshine must be great for peppers?

I was reading about slugs and other garden pests  the other day and came across this which might help with the root knot nematodes problem

https://tendergardener.com/how-to-control-nematodes-organically/

Good luck

I will read it when I get back, I will take anything I can! The problem so far is that the solutions don't stick around, like nutrients in the sand, the solution washes away.

I solarized the soil for 8 weeks in blistering heat and it barely did anything.

The Florida sun is great for peppers, but it's actually looking like Ireland or England outside the past few days... Rainy and windy after being sweltering just 2 days ago. I think Florida senses spring is here and is ramping up the torrential downpours, we have had drought for months on end and now there is a remarkable amount of rain.

Hi Jeff, sorry to hear about the root knot nematodes in your soil. Have you tried raised bed besides containers?

My soil is hard clay and one or maybe more areas are infested with nematodes too. I found out the hard way. I bought several starter trees in 4" pots and wanted to transplant them in bigger pots first. I dug up some soil around the base of an oak tree thinking the fungus dominated soil should be good for them. The trees died away as well as some sweet potato slips. Rootshe  were knotty and twisted, showing signs of nematode infection. Later that tree was cut down and the shaded area was taken over by white clovers. But they were the most unhealthy clovers with smaller leaves loaded with leaf miners. I am not sure if it's due to nematodes in soil or not. I am going to try a few things to improve soil health and use the appearance of the clover leaves as an indication.