The Garden Scientist
Gardening brings out the scientist in me; it tends to inspire to experimentation. The qualities of a good scientist also make a good gardener: curiosity, problem-solving skills, and a willingness to be proven wrong.
If I'm having a problem growing a particular vegetable, I'll often plant it in different places at the same time to see where it does best. Capsicum have always been a lot of trouble. No matter where I put it, it sulks. As soon as I plant it out, it doesn't die, but it doesn't grow. It just sits there looking dejected and if I'm lucky produces two or three fruits late in the season. I know a lot of it is down to climate. Capsicum is in the family solanaceae, typically sun-loving plants that thrive in warm weather. On top of that, I have been told they don't like wind, which makes for a real challenge in my area. Last year I tried my capsicum in a pot so I could place them in the sunniest, most sheltered spot - and move them as the sunlight changed. They did okay - better i past years - they grew a bit and I got maybe 3 capsicum off each of them. But they did not thrive.
Capsicum are the sort of thing that would do well in a greenhouse, but I've never had a greenhouse. I still don't but I have the next best thing - a sunroom. This year I bought two capsicum seedlings of the same size and planted each in the same type of pot and potting soil. I put one in the sunniest, most sheltered spot I could find among my garden beds. The second I set in the sunniest corner of my sunroom.
After just three weeks, the differnece was clear. The sunroom plant was taller, healthier-looking, and already starting to set fruit. On Tuesday, the wind had been blowing strong for three days, with brutal gusts that had already knocked over a couple of plants not properly steaked up. I went out to check on everything, and took pity on the outdoor capsicum - it was looking rather battered in the wind.
The scientist in my wanted to continue the experiment and collect more data. The gardener in me wanted to be the best caretaker of my plants, and also get the best yield of tasty, tasty capsicum. The gardener won out, and I brought it inside.
The sunroom capsicum:
(whiteboad temporarily placed behind the plant in each of these photos so you can see them more clearly)
It is 35cm in height, perky and bright-leaved, with 4 open flowers and one fruit coming in already.
The outdoors plant:
It was 26cm in height, with paler leaves and a distinctly wind-blown look. Two open flowers and just starting on one fruit.
The leaves, flowers, even side branches sometimes get blown off these guys in the wind. I have a thermometer in my sunroom, so I can tell you that the average temperature right now is around 25-28 degrees Celsius in the daytime; 16-20 degrees at night. Around 5 degrees higher than the temperature outside. On the other hand, with the opaque roof and the sun high in the sky, the indoor capsicum was getting only 4 hours of direct sunlight; the outdoor plant was getting 8. Clearly heat and a sheltered position make more of a differnece than sunlight hours to this plant, in my particular climate.
This is what the outdoor capsicum looked like after just two days in the sunroom:
It perked right up. I was so encouraged by this little experiment that I decided to try another plant in this sunroom that I have always struggled with in this climate: basil!
I wasn't even sure I was going to try this year. I absolutely adore basil or I would have given up on it years ago. Growing enough for even one batch of pesto has been a thus-far unrealised dream. After seeing the benefits of my little sunroom microclimate, I got bold and bought three little pots of sweet basil seedlings. The Pesto Dream lives on:
If I'm having a problem growing a particular vegetable, I'll often plant it in different places at the same time to see where it does best. Capsicum have always been a lot of trouble. No matter where I put it, it sulks. As soon as I plant it out, it doesn't die, but it doesn't grow. It just sits there looking dejected and if I'm lucky produces two or three fruits late in the season. I know a lot of it is down to climate. Capsicum is in the family solanaceae, typically sun-loving plants that thrive in warm weather. On top of that, I have been told they don't like wind, which makes for a real challenge in my area. Last year I tried my capsicum in a pot so I could place them in the sunniest, most sheltered spot - and move them as the sunlight changed. They did okay - better i past years - they grew a bit and I got maybe 3 capsicum off each of them. But they did not thrive.
Capsicum are the sort of thing that would do well in a greenhouse, but I've never had a greenhouse. I still don't but I have the next best thing - a sunroom. This year I bought two capsicum seedlings of the same size and planted each in the same type of pot and potting soil. I put one in the sunniest, most sheltered spot I could find among my garden beds. The second I set in the sunniest corner of my sunroom.
After just three weeks, the differnece was clear. The sunroom plant was taller, healthier-looking, and already starting to set fruit. On Tuesday, the wind had been blowing strong for three days, with brutal gusts that had already knocked over a couple of plants not properly steaked up. I went out to check on everything, and took pity on the outdoor capsicum - it was looking rather battered in the wind.
The scientist in my wanted to continue the experiment and collect more data. The gardener in me wanted to be the best caretaker of my plants, and also get the best yield of tasty, tasty capsicum. The gardener won out, and I brought it inside.
The sunroom capsicum:
(whiteboad temporarily placed behind the plant in each of these photos so you can see them more clearly)
It is 35cm in height, perky and bright-leaved, with 4 open flowers and one fruit coming in already.
The outdoors plant:
It was 26cm in height, with paler leaves and a distinctly wind-blown look. Two open flowers and just starting on one fruit.
The leaves, flowers, even side branches sometimes get blown off these guys in the wind. I have a thermometer in my sunroom, so I can tell you that the average temperature right now is around 25-28 degrees Celsius in the daytime; 16-20 degrees at night. Around 5 degrees higher than the temperature outside. On the other hand, with the opaque roof and the sun high in the sky, the indoor capsicum was getting only 4 hours of direct sunlight; the outdoor plant was getting 8. Clearly heat and a sheltered position make more of a differnece than sunlight hours to this plant, in my particular climate.
This is what the outdoor capsicum looked like after just two days in the sunroom:
It perked right up. I was so encouraged by this little experiment that I decided to try another plant in this sunroom that I have always struggled with in this climate: basil!
I wasn't even sure I was going to try this year. I absolutely adore basil or I would have given up on it years ago. Growing enough for even one batch of pesto has been a thus-far unrealised dream. After seeing the benefits of my little sunroom microclimate, I got bold and bought three little pots of sweet basil seedlings. The Pesto Dream lives on:
Comments
Post a Comment