Harvest 4 Capsicums

Selepas masaknya yang pertama dahulu, buah-buah yang lain juga masak dengan cepat hingga tukang kebun tidak memberi perhatian kepada mereka-mereka ini hinggalah Abuaidan berkata "why don't you harvest the capsicums, if u leave for too long the skin will be spoiled". Sebenarnya tak harvest lagi sebab belum ada idea nak buat apa dengan capsicum nie. Dah bos cakap camtuh, kena taatlahkan, so pagi nie harvest lah yang mana-mana ready. Masih ada lagi beberapa biji yang sedang masak..namun tunggulah.

Bila dah jadi banyak macam nie macam tak tau nak buat apa pulak. Agaknya nanti kena buat ChopSuey ataupun sayur goreng campur ataupun buat pizza ker. Kalau makan sebagai salad macam tuh jer pun sedap cuma letak sikit salad dressing jer lah. Thousand islands pun sedap...

Capsicum, Menunggu Masaknya..

The transformations 

17/9/12 - unripe

 5/10/12 -early sign

 10/10/12

12/10/12 - defect, not sure what is that...maybe caterpillar or something 

 14/10/12

17/10/12 - the color that i 've been waiting to see, the first ripe fruit

Now I know.... it takes a month to become ripe

Capsicum - Failures, Solutions & Results

Planting capsicum is like  a challenging journey to me. Since last year I've been trying to harvest capsicum from my garden. Somehow most of the attempts didn't turn out good. 

So I put the blames on,

1. Myself for wrong timing of planting (I planted towards the end of hot season), capsicum would be  dormant  plant during cooler season, worse scenarios they would die. 
2. The seeds that I used - most of the packed seeds I used did not germinate well, old seeds I guess. 
3. The planting guides that I read, to put the seeds in the hottest spot of the garden, to warm  the soil (soil can be to too dry and will not germinate at all).   

However, I found the solutions for the failures, 

1. If you live in the country that experiencing cool and hot weather, the best time to plant capsicum is towards the end of cooler season. Somehow in the hot country you can plant capsicum anytime  except during wet season. 
2. Fresh seeds from the ripe capsicum that we got from supermarket would be better than packed seeds. It germinates faster and give better results (can keep at least for 3-5 months). 
3. Forget about gardening guides, just plant in normal way like the other types of chili. Sow seeds, watering twice a day (moisture soil would help in germination faster). Put NPK fertilizer regularly after 1 month old (if the plant too young/small it would die) to help for growth and fruiting.

The results,

• 5 capsicum plants planted 12/6/5 (3 months old) are fruiting now  and can even harvest green. 
• Another 7 plants, planted a month after also growing good and healthy and branching (soon will start flowering)

Third fruit

 First fruit

Second fruit

What to do with capsicum? 

As topping for nice homemade pizza,salad with nice dressing, vege for fried rice, fried mix vege with oyster sauce and meat. 

Details on the progress : Live Updates - Capsicum

Capsicum Batch #1 - Flowering & Fruiting

Planted on 12/6/12 - 11 weeks old now,

Flowers blooming - some insects helping in pollination

The flower is drying out 

 2 days later, small fruit formed

2 days later, the shape of fruit become more obvious

 The plant - much bigger and is ready for fruiting

The 1st batch of capcicum,                                                                                                                                                              

 5 of them, healthy and expanding

All of them (the 2nd batch planted a month later)

Capsicum Batch #1 - Week 9

Planted on 12/6/12 ( 9 weeks old)

Some info on the plants developments from week 9 - 13:
Capsicum plants initially develop one single stem. After 9 - 13 leaves, a terminal flower develops and the plant branches into two.The flower in the first branching is the crown bud. Each shoot will branch further after one or two leaves, while producing flower buds at the point of division, and the plant grows further in this way. However, if no pruning is applied, the later side-branches will not develop, thus naturally avoiding a too bushy plant shape. 
(source - http://www.hortnet.co.nz/publications/hortfacts/hf359001.htm)

The size of the plant,

More than 10 leaves, and branches into two

Details on the progress : Live Updates - Capsicum

Capsicum - Updates#2

Batch no.1- first batch planted on 12/6/12 (almost 2 months now)

- Put fertilizer (NPK)  on 6/8/12 before the rainy days (allows the fertilizer to dissolve and soak into the soil),

 -As of today,

 the first flower in the middle, surrounded by red ants 

 Batch No.2 - planted on 10/7/12 (almost 1 month old)

 All of them,

 For progress details click on Label - Capsicum

Capsicum-updates#2

There are 2 batches of capsicum:

• Batch no.1- first batch planted on 12/6/12 (5 plants)
• Batch no.2 - planted on 10/7/12 (7 plants)

Batch no.1 :  now 7 weeks old - all of 5 still survive

 Batch no.2 : 3 weeks old (5 look healthy, 2 of them under treatment - weak because of the heat)

weak plant covered with tin (top side is open) to avoid from too much heat

 note : chilies when they are small they look almost same size eventhough ages different slightyly.

Capsicum - another attempt

Assalamaulaikum,

Selamat menyambut Nisfu Sya'ban. A holiday for muslim schools but not public holiday for the whole country.  At night, we've attended an invitation at our neighbour house (one of the richest family in Ba with big constructions  business). They actually make some doa for their parents that passed away months ago. Also an oppurtunity to meet an indonesian family who's staying and working with them (actually long time they have been expecting to meet us)

And today, a very good day for gardening today,not hot sun, cool weather and Abu Aidan also had gone to school for his saturday additional class,so me and small gardener spent time in garden till 10am. we did quite lots of work today.

I've made small bed to plant some capsicum today. till now never really successful in planting capsicum with good result. planted  some last year, but when they started producing fruits, cold season started and the plants became dormant and died after sometimes, only managed to harvest small amount of fruits. and early this year planted some, flood came and the plant destroyed.

Some small space here for me to raise bed for capsicum. it's between carrot and radish beds. since most of radish  are almost ready for harvesting by a week, then i thought that slowly i prepare the site for chilies here, slowly removing radish and slowly planting chilies.

Many tips written on how to plant and when is the right time to sow capsicum seed somehow in the actual situation it will not always work out. happened to me, sowed like a packet of seeds and end ups not growing at all. and this time i wanted to try again. i've sowed some seed from fresh capsicum bought from market and alhamdulillah many came out and growing good, even in this cool weather where they've said not good to plant chilies. so i planted them now, and while they growing big, the hot season coming and inshallah, they'll be ready to fruiting.
 

    
Four small capsicums planted on the new raised bed. more to come once the new seedlings are ready and radishes harvested and cleared.
So moral of the story, never give up, keep trying and experimenting in different ways, the rest leave it to Allah swt to decide.

wassalam.