Weekly Nursery Update – June 5

This week we had an issue when I noticed one of our pepper plants had small black bugs on it.  I’m not 100% sure what they are, but they may be black aphids (I’ve seen white aphids bushes before).  They could have been pepper weevil larvae too, but I’m not certain.  They were pretty small, and even looking with a magnifying glass it was hard to describe these little black dots, like discern how many legs they have or what kind of mouthparts. All of this info is crucial to properly identify the infestation. Perhaps in a few days as they get bigger I’ll be able to get a positive ID (or better yet, I will have gotten rid of them all).

The first thing I did was to isolate the plant away from the rest of the peppers.  Quarantine and social distancing applied to the plant world!  I grow my peppers in containers, so this was easy to do.  It doesn’t appear that any other plants were affected, but I’ll check them regularly. A few plants are skyrocketing and ready to produce.    

The plant affected is pretty compact, and I’ve been trying manual control by just simply wiping the bugs off and crushing them with my fingers.  I really don’t want to lose this plant, it is one of the Panamanian pepper plants that I grew from seed, and I only have 3 of these plants, the rest I gave away to friends and neighbors.  I’m really hoping to get some peppers from these plants to make and preserve salsa criolla (Panamanian creole sauce).  We’ll see if the manual control will be enough.  

Other than that, we’re brainstorming on ideas to grow our business.  I’m thinking about events where we can be vendors of seedlings and saplings next spring.  We’re also working on getting our gardening products ready for our Amazon seller account. We will sell these products through Prime, just getting the logistics taken care of now.  All in due time, but I’m really trying to line this all up prior to going back to work full time. 

In the garden, I’ve got corn shoots up, pole beans have started to sprout next to them, and the pumpkin seeds have also sprouted. Going for the three sisters garden. This is the second time I’m trying this, the first wasn’t too successful a few years back, at least with the corn. I got a coulple different corn varieties this time from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, so hopefully we’ll have some more success. I’ve also increased the area planted with corn, so hopefully there will be better germination.

What have you got going on in the garden? It’s early June, so I’d love to hear what plans you have, and what you’re trying new this year. Have a great weekend!