I was hoping by now my small little project would be me being less involved. At least every week I seem to be learning something due to running into trouble. I fix one thing and then something else goes sideways. This is just the nature of things even more so when I prefer to learn from doing and not from over researching things until I hit the wall so to speak.

Most times we get rain and when that happens it a heavy but fast-moving storm. I’ve had issues in the past with to much water so I got some more adequate containers. Least that is what I thought I had. Lucky for most they held up and did their jobs draining enough water away to keep the plants from flooding and having a setback. Like with everything in life you truly do not know till systems are put to their maximum and failures are found. Which happened to this week.

Tomato

These guys are starting to get more plump and juicy! You might also notice the leaves are discolored and some of them are not looking so well. This poor planter did not drain well enough during some heavy rainfalls we got back to back. It was so bad I could put my hand into the bucket and touch the bottom of the container.

As such, I tore the bottom off to realize it did not hold much water. I always assumed that the bottoms to these planters that hold excuses water also would overflow out of the bucket if there was an issue. Either this was not happening or at such a slow rate it was not keeping up with things. As such I’ve left it outside of the closed in the area I am keeping things and hope nothing comes to eat the Tomatoes while it just tries to dry out for a few days. Weather permitting naturally!

The other plants at least seem to be fine. Other than needing a nice dry day but nothing like what this thing was. I think moving forward if I have a choice I’ll go with containers that have the wider lipped water catching container on the bottom. Not one that just hugs the container as I’ve lost confidence in that kind of design.

For all I know, it could be user error. Perhaps I was just supposed to know to do something. Maybe this container was just not meant to remove that amount of water we had. Otherwise, it could just be a bad design. Not sure yet if I'm going to just leave it with no lid on the bottom and deal with whatever issues that creates. Use some rocks down there to give more spacing or find something else for the bottom of the container. All I know for sure is I don’t want to transport this guy into another container as I’m not looking to buy a different type and risk causing further harm to the plant.

Other than that this guy has been doing very well. Very little signs of anything trying to eat the leaves or the Tomato. The cage seems to be working decently and up till this point he was a rather happy plant. Be happy little guy I want some tomatoes soon!

Starting Tray

At this point there not much left to lose as most of it has died off. Last week it was suggested in the comment section that it might be getting to much water. While I’ve made assumptions before, checked, and tried again about the ability of this container. Perhaps it is getting to much rain after all. My assumption was between it would overflow, evaporation and the plants inside the tray was enough and the fail safe of it overflowing would ensure things went smooth. Any time I would lift the starting tray from the reaming system I never noticed extra water pouring out and the soil that comes with it has always seemed to absorb and hold a fair amount.

This week I thought I’ll just toss out all of the water every time we get rain. Needless to say what came next was a shocker to me. Been a while since I have and I should have known better for the area I live in. Hundreds if not thousands of tinny like something swarmed me as I did this. Perhaps this turned into a breeding ground for mosquitos, maybe the whiteflies have somehow adapted to using this to breed. At the very least that issue has been dealt with. I won’t have that be a massive issue waking up one morning wondering why the entire enclose is swarming in whatever they were.

I noticed some slight improvement with less water or no water in the trays. Thank you very much @cmplxty for making that comment about not enough draining. That seems to be my theme for the week! I’m sure soon enough there will be a drought all that rainwater would have been welcomed at any time. For now, it’s a blessing in disguise at under covering issues and allowing me to work out a solution to the best I can for now.

Jalapeno

Last week this guy was leaning almost sideways inside the planter I had it in. Clearly, it was not big enough on top of that he seems to need some kind of support system. Thankfully I had a reaming cage that I had found beforehand, a stick to tie it to, and an old and bigger planter to use. Not quite sure if what I did to this guy is cringe-worthy or the smart move.

I with care and love placed the cage over it and moved the branches around trying not to cause any damage. That was my fear going into this. I also hope transplanting him into a bigger container will not cause undue shock to the plant or other issues in the future. At least this week I’ll count it as a success!

So far I have eaten two Jalapenos this plant has produced. I’m not someone who tends to use this as an ingredient. In fact, only a couple of times a year do I even buy one at a time to use in something. So I’ve been having fun dicing them up and it on: hamburgers, eggs, tacos, and a burrito! There were three remaining after I picked one fresh off the vine the other night. This guy is really into producing and I’m going have to think of more ways to consume!

So far this plant has been my biggest success story of this project. I’m rather thrilled something is going great. I just need to kill off whatever is trying to eat it. Thankfully things are starting to look up and up on that front as well. I’m still combating things and I’m hoping by next month I will be free of those nasty leaf thieves!

Red Pepper

This plant is the comeback story as far as things recovering. As you can see most of the leaves now seem to have recovered from bad drainage issues. It is also quite hard to see but there are tinny little green buds at this plant as well. Still, no flowers but I’m hopeful it's out of the wood and will start producing soon enough.

I assume at some point I’ll have to get a stick and tie it to that to stay up straight. I’m out of cages and this guy just seems to be too wide for that anyways. Still, some things chewing away on the leaves but this plant has been through much worse. I’m really looking forward to some Red Peppers!

Green Pepper

This is the second week now that it has tinny little green buds. I’m not quite sure when they started last week but I’m hoping soon I’ll start to see some flowers or whatever is the next step.

Still trying to kill off whatever has been attacking it as well. Thankfully it has slowed down and I am hoping I’ve managed to get some control over things on this front as well. It will just be a while in having to keep killing whatever larva that keeps hatching and hopes they do not build up an immunity before I wipe them out.

While I prefer red over green peppers, well, I would be thrilled to see this one take off as well. I’m assuming at some point I’ll need to find a stick for be tied along. Kind of strange they don’t’ hold up their own weight of what they are growing. Perhaps this is simply because they are in the container and not deep within the ground. Maybe at some point, their root systems will be developed enough to handle the extra weight of what they are growing.

Only one way I’m looking to find out for sure. Keep progressing and checking in on this trying to show them some care when needed. Have an amazing Wednesday. I hope the weather has been great and many are trying to grow things as well!

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Photos were taken by @enjar using a Photosmart M627.