Transplanting Peppers

 Yesterday I started transplanting Peppers.  I am using PRO-MIX Organic Vegetable & Herb Mix which I have used for several years.  I prefer the compressed bales because they are dry to start with.  Last year I bought the smaller bags and the soil was wet right out of the bag.  This year I am finding that the mix is again holding quite a bit of moisture.  When I transplanted the Tomatoes the other day I added both Perlite (to improve drainage) and Espoma Bio-Tone Fertilizer.  I did the same for the Peppers.  I need the soil to dry out at least in 48 hours with a fan.  The added Perlite seems to be helping with the Tomatoes.  When I bump up from the cells I go to 3.5" pots.  I have a lot of 4" pots and only a few 3.5" accumulated from buying plants over the years.  The 4" take up too much space and too much soil so I purchased 3.5" to round out what I already had. With that size you can fit 18 plants instead of only 15 in a 1020 tray 

I planted six different varieties of Ornamental peppers and some Hot Peppers that I use for pickling.  I may as well buy Bell Peppers, because they are easy to find and ornamentals are impossible.  I got two to four specimens of each variety plus some spares.

These are the spares.

I potted them up too and kicked them out in the cold frame to fend for themselves.

The Durango Marigolds shot right up.  I planted Red (a "red" Marigold is really deep, burnt Orange), Yellow and Bolero which is Yellow tipped with Red.  I get really tired of plain Orange Marigolds.  It seems like every seed mix gets more than it's share of Orange so I mix my own.

The Cole Crops are thriving in the cool, wet weather.

And so are the Peas

1st and 2nd planted rows

Direct Sown Lettuce

3rd and 4th plantings of Peas

My Strawberry bed is amazing this year!  They are apparently loving the cooler weather and blooming their heads off!  This end of the bed is my favorite, dependable June bearing plants called Honeoye in their second full year (planted fall of 2023) and the far end is Day Neutral variety called Seascape which should produce all summer.  I ordered and planted the Seascape last spring.  Technically this is their second year but the bare root plants were actually pretty pitiful when they arrived and didn't really root in and begin growing until last fall.  

Now all I have to do is protect the berries from the slugs and the Chipmunks.