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Post by brownrexx on May 16, 2021 9:13:18 GMT -5
Supporting tomato plants has been discussed many times but how do you support your pepper plants?
Possibly smaller fruited peppers do not need support but branches on unsupported pepper plants will break off under the weight of the developing fruits.
How do you support your pepper plants?
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Post by paulf on May 16, 2021 11:52:39 GMT -5
I use what a lot of places call "tomato cages", those metal things with three wire prongs sticking out the bottom with wire circles. I use the medium sized ones two feet tall. All my peppers get caged even if the plants don't produce many peppers since they all have lots of foliage. In the photo you can see the peppers with cages.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on May 16, 2021 12:42:49 GMT -5
Since I grow my peppers in Earthboxes, I use Gurney's pea fences (a couple of other vendors have the same product). I wait for them to go on sale and use a coupon, then stock up. It took me years to amass my collection of cages. But since they are galvanized wire, they should outlast me. Each fence folds up neatly into a 14" x 28" rectangle, which is the exact dimensions of an Earthbox - it's almost like they were designed to fit together. The Earthboxes in my pepper row are arranged in a double row with a piece of galvanized electrical conduit driven 2' into the ground where the inside corners of the Earthboxes meet. I use plastic cable ties to secure the cages to the posts, and to each other as needed (anywhere a cage wobbles or tilts). So the whole row of cages support each other. Even during Hurricane Michael, my row of cages stayed in place - some were bent and twisted where tree branches and other heavy debris blew into them, and of course the plants inside were a tangled, mangled mess. But the cages did not move. I am still using all of those same cages in my garden now. All I had to do was bend some of them back into shape here and there. In the years when I have TALL peppers or other plants in that row, I can stack a second layer of cages on top of the first. I try to put the plants I expect to grow the tallest on the East end of the row. That way the shorter plants still get the afternoon sun. Since the soil inside the Earthboxes is very light and fluffy, pepper plants that are laden with fruit can still tip over inside the cage. If a plant leans toward the cage, that's no problem. But sometimes a plant leans over on its box mate and crowds or shades it out. Then I set the plant upright and tie it to the cage with stretchy plant ties. (I was going to include pictures, but the image uploader is not working for me right now. But you can see the pepper cages in the photos in my garden thread.)
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Post by september on May 16, 2021 12:43:50 GMT -5
I use the smaller size 3 prong tomato cages as well. In my area, pepper plants grown as annuals will not have time to get much above 3 ft tall before cold weather starts in the fall. But without cages, the big peppers with fruit will end up tilting to one side or beaten down by wind and heavy rains. I tried overwintering potted peppers in the house several times, but all I did was spread aphids to other plants, no matter how carefully I soaped and washed them before bringing them in.
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Post by pepperhead212 on May 16, 2021 13:00:05 GMT -5
I just support them with a bamboo stick, and something like pieces of velcro, or one or two of those tomato clips, to hold them to it. Once they get growing well, the larger ones are pretty stable, while the skinnier ones I might put a heavier stick next to. The ones in the Earthboxes, that I have covered, I'll wrap some vinyl tape around the pvc cage, that supports the cover. Here's the only photo I found to show this - usually there's more tape, with the peppers climbing out! Pepper plants growing through the tops of the covers 7-28 by pepperhead212, on Flickr
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Post by paquebot on May 16, 2021 14:54:13 GMT -5
Small "tomato cages" here as well. With almost too much horse manure in my soil, plants tend to get taller than if in normal soil. One thing that I have found is that there may be two identical plants side-by-side with one in a cage and the other solo. The caged one may end up a foot taller just like caged tomatoes.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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stone
Pro Member
Posts: 170
Zone:: 8
Favorite Vegetable:: Bambi
Joined: December 2011
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Post by stone on May 16, 2021 15:53:52 GMT -5
Home made tomato cages... Those store bought cages aren't worth taking home (IMO)
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Post by brownrexx on May 16, 2021 16:44:25 GMT -5
I got my peppers planted today and I decided to go with metal stakes. I put them in immediately so that I do not cut into healthy roots later. I bought some stretchy green tape last year to use for tying up plants and that should work well here. Peppers 2021 by Brownrexx, on Flickr
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Post by rdback on Dec 8, 2021 20:49:24 GMT -5
I just support them with a bamboo stick, and something like pieces of velcro, or one or two of those tomato clips, to hold them to it. Once they get growing well, the larger ones are pretty stable, while the skinnier ones I might put a heavier stick next to. The ones in the Earthboxes, that I have covered, I'll wrap some vinyl tape around the pvc cage, that supports the cover. Here's the only photo I found to show this - usually there's more tape, with the peppers climbing out! Pepper plants growing through the tops of the covers 7-28 by pepperhead212, on Flickr pepperhead212 , what size pvc pipe did you use here, if I may ask? Also, any other measurements you can share? I might build a couple of these in the off-season. I like the looks of them.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Dec 8, 2021 21:35:19 GMT -5
rdback That is 1/2" pvc, and the uprights are the 10' ones more or less cut in half. I actually have two slightly longer, so those go down in the wicking chamber, to sit on the bottom, the other two slightly shorter, sitting on the plastic bed. I'll have to check for the other sizes. Update rdback, - I went out today and measured the top of the pepper supports, and the short parts are 9 1/8", and the long parts 22 1/2", plus what goes into the fittings, which looks like 1/2" in each section, so 1" longer for each piece of PVC. The length of the long ones might be different if you are making them for newer Earthboxes - they have slightly larger reservoirs than the old ones, so the wicking column might be slightly deeper. Top of the pepper supporters that go in the Earthboxes. by pepperhead212, on Flickr
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Post by rdback on Dec 9, 2021 18:37:06 GMT -5
Thanks for taking the time (and the pic) to measure it up for me pepperhead212 . I'm looking forward to building a couple of them!
Edit: Just thought of another question. Did you end up gluing them together or is just dry-fit good enough?
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Post by pepperhead212 on Dec 9, 2021 20:46:43 GMT -5
Thanks for taking the time (and the pic) to measure it up for me pepperhead212 . I'm looking forward to building a couple of them!
Edit: Just thought of another question. Did you end up gluing them together or is just dry-fit good enough?
I definitely glued them, and I dry-fit the top 4 in the fittings on a flat surface, then knocked the fittings out of one of the short pieces, put glue on the two male ends, and put them together. I continued this every 30 minutes or so, gluing in each piece of pipe, then just glued in the uprights. I wasn't putting glue on both male and female parts, because I wasn't worried about leaking here, just keeping it together, which this did well.
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Post by meandtk on Dec 9, 2021 22:11:39 GMT -5
Interesting, y’all. I may have to experiment with some of this.
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