May 30, 2000
Pepper Planting & Watering Wands

                This is certainly turning out to be a challenging spring for us gardening types.  We’re hard pressed to find a dry spell to mow the lawn.  Unlike the previous two springs when we could tackle outdoor projects at will, this wet spring has us scrambling to catch up.  On the one hand I’m glad that our stressed out shrubs, trees and lawns are recovering from last year’s drought conditions.  On the other hand, it would be nice to be able to get outside and enjoy life and our gardens a bit more.

                I recall that, earlier in the year, the “experts” were predicting another dry spring and summer for the northeast.  Of course, at that time La Nina was in full swing.  Then, about a month ago, the La Nina current began to rapidly break down.  No one anticipated this little occurrence.  It seems that as the La Nina current breaks down and weather patterns try to return to “normal” (whatever that is), the northeast has paid the price.  Cloudy low-pressure systems glide in a graceful parade from the Gulf of California all the way here where they dump their moisture.  Oddly enough, while we’re awash, the Great Lakes region just to our west is in the grips of a severe rainfall deficit.  I believe that Lake Michigan is 3’ below its normal level.  Marinas are closed since their docks are high and dry with the lake’s edge some distance from shore.  Access to the canal system is in jeopardy since low water levels prevent all but vessels of the shallowest draft from entering.  All this is a strong reminder of who’s really in charge of the planet and it sure isn’t us!

                Hopefully by the time you’re reading this, I’ll have finally gotten my tomatoes planted and I’ll be just about ready to get my peppers in.  Peppers are more sensitive to soil temperature than all the other vegetable we plant.  Peppers won’t perform well until SOIL temperatures are 65 degrees or higher.  If the season is cool, I’ll enclose them in what I call a “pepperdome’.  This is just a cute name for four stakes that I’ll wrap with horticultural fabric right to the ground covering my little pepper transplants.  This fabric will trap heat and hold heat around the peppers on cool nights. Once summer weather arrives in earnest, I’ll remove the “pepperdome” and let the peppers bathe in direct sunlight.  I also like to cover the soil beneath my peppers with black plastic to generate even more heat.  If the summer gets really hot, I can cover the black plastic with straw to keep the soil temperature under control.  In September, when temperatures start dropping, I’ll brush the straw back to let the sun warm up the plastic and soil again.  There’s a little saying I use to remind myself not to plant my peppers too early: PLANTING PEPPERS PREMATURELY POSTPONES THE PERIOD OF PRIME PRODUCTION but PROVIDING PEPPERS WITH PROTECTION PERPETUATES PROFUSE, PROLONGED PRODUCTION.

                Now I’m going to give you the first installment of strange gardening habits that I just can’t understand.  It drives me crazy when I see someone who’s spent a lot of time (and probably money too) creating a beautiful flowerbed or vegetable garden watering it with a lawn sprinkler or hand-held sprayer.  It’s all I can do sometimes to keep from pulling off the road and giving them a “tune up”.  I know that this is a habit borne of ignorance but it really isn’t at all good for the plants.  Somehow the idea of spraying your plants with water seems “refreshing” and has a lot of appeal to people.  Also, we’ve all seen those ads on TV that show the nice folks at some “mega warehouse chain” misting the flowers.  While it creates a lovely visual effect for the TV viewer, it is one of the worst possible things you can do to your plants.  Why?

                Remember that plants absorb moisture and nutrients with their ROOTS to replace moisture lost by the leaves through evaporation.  When you wet the leaves, the plant isn’t able to grow until the leaves dry off.  But this isn’t the worst of it!  When you wet the leaves (especially in warm weather), you’re creating the perfect environment for fungal diseases to incubate and grow.   Can anyone say “powdery mildew”?

                In the vegetable garden, problems with plants that produce flowers but never set fruit can almost always be traced to “spray-watering”.  Spraying the plants with water washes the pollen out of the flowers.  Without this pollen, the bees can’t pollinate the flowers.  No pollen, no fruit or vegetables.

                There are no good reasons to “spray-water” unless you’re shooting a commercial for one of those ignorant “mega warehouse chains” and there are many good reasons not to (cold water can shock the plants).  As far as I’m concerned, the only acceptable way to water is to get the water into the soil while wetting the leaves and flowers as little as possible.  Soaker hoses can do this in permanent beds but I usually use my trusty watering wand.  You’ve all seen these at the garden center and you probably think it’s just a handy device for watering hanging baskets that are too high to reach.  In reality, the purpose of these wands is to help you direct water down into the soil among your plants without having to bend over with the hose.  My watering wand is always attached to the end of my hose.  Remember: lawn sprinklers have NO business anywhere in a flower or vegetable garden.  Your hand held spray gun has no purpose in the yard at all unless you’re washing your car.  Thanks for the read.