Vegetable Gardening (31 page)

Warm areas:
Mulch with straw, white plastic, or aluminum foil in summer to help keep the soil cool. Aluminum foil also reflects light back into the sky, confusing insects trying to find plants.

To plant eggplant and pepper transplants, use scissors to cut holes in the plastic mulch every 1 to 1 1/2 feet (wider for taller varieties) for peppers and every 2 to 3 feet for eggplants. If you're using mulch that isn't plastic, plant at the same distances as you would in plastic mulch. Plant eggplant and pepper transplants at the same soil level as they are in their containers. Cover the plantings with a floating
row cover
(a lightweight, cheesecloth-like material that lets air, water, and sunlight through to keep the air warm and bugs out; see Chapter 21).

Even though pepper and eggplant plants are usually strong enough to stand on their own without supports, I like to either stake or cage tall, heavy-yielding varieties such as ‘Carmen' and ‘Black Beauty'. Staking or caging the plants keeps fruits off the ground, making them less likely to rot during wet weather. I find that I get heavier yields this way as well. Use small stakes or tomato cages to keep your plants vertical (see Chapter 15 for more supporting your vegetables).

Fertilizing and watering tips

Peppers and eggplants are sensitive to excessive fertilizer, in particular nitrogen. Plants fertilized with too much nitrogen will grow large but have few fruits. However, don't neglect fertilizing your plants; simply avoid using high rates of nitrogen fertilizers. Instead, apply a 2- to 3-inch layer of compost over the bed and a small handful of 5-5-5 organic fertilizer around each transplant. (Chapter 15 has more on fertilizing.)

Water your plants well, following the suggestions in Chapter 15. Watering is particularly important during 90-degree weather when water stress and high temperatures can cause flowers to drop.
Side-dress
(add fertilizer around the plants during the growing season) around the
drip line
(where water naturally drips off the ends of leaves) of the plant with a tablespoon of organic fertilizer, such as 5-5-5.

To give your peppers a boost, mix 1 tablespoon of Epsom salts in 1 gallon of water and spray the pepper plants when they're flowering.

Pest patrol

If you see holes in a pepper fruit and find a small, white worm inside the fruit, consider it your introduction to the
pepper maggot.
The adult fly lays eggs on the fruit in midsummer. After the eggs hatch, the larvae tunnel into the fruit. To control these pests, do the following:

Rotate crops

Cover young plants with row covers

Grow varieties such as ‘Serrano' and ‘Jalapeño' that are less attractive to the maggots

Hang yellow sticky traps before the adult flies lay eggs. Remove rotten fruits that may harbor the flies before you hang the traps.

Peppers and eggplants generally have fewer pest problems than their tomato cousins, but they share such pests and diseases as blossom drop, sunscald, blossom-end rot, fruitworms (also called corn earworms), and Verticillium wilt (see Chapter 4). Flea beetles (see Chapter 17) and Colorado potato beetles (see Chapter 6) love eggplants. Chapter 17 describes other insect and disease problems that affect all vegetables.

Harvesting tips

Peppers and eggplants are great to grow because you don't have to wait until the fruits are fully mature before you pick them. Consider your options for both fruits:

Peppers:
You can pick and enjoy sweet peppers green or wait until they ripen to orange, yellow, or red for a sweeter taste. Hot peppers vary in their hotness depending on stress. Stressed peppers tend to be hotter, so if you withhold water and fertilizer when the hot peppers are ripening, you can increase the heat in the peppers' flavor. Cool, cloudy weather tends to make hot peppers less hot.

Eggplants:
You can pick eggplants at almost any stage. The key is to not let them become overmature; otherwise the texture will become soft and mushy. To check eggplant maturity, watch the fruit's skin. A dull-colored skin means it's overmature. Double-check by cutting into the fruit and looking at the seeds. Brown-colored seeds are another sign of overmaturity.