jones1104 said:I added "wicks" to my buckets and they pulled all of the extra, standing water out of the buckets. Such a simple idea may have saved my
plants, thank you Rick.
My scorpion pepper put 2 blossoms out and one has been pollinated. If I let the pepper grow to maturity, will it hurt or help the plant? I'm afraid it's using all of its energy to make a pod for the seeds. Am I close to right, or way off?
Ben, I think helping the drainage was the absolute best thing you could have done for those plants -- I suspect they will do much better now!
I'm not quite sure what you're asking with the 2nd part of your post, though... as far as will it hurt the plant to let the pepper grow, and making a pod for the seeds; I think I'm misunderstanding you somehow, because the whole point of growing peppers is pretty much to GET peppers (which are, of course, the seed pod)
You will, however, get more production by picking the peppers "green" (i.e., unripe, whatever color that may be), than by letting the early ones ripen -- because, as one of my botany profs liked to say (many, many years ago), once the seeds form, the plant has fulfilled its destiny.
On the other hand, with those super-hot varieties, one or two peppers may be all you need!
