FDR wrote:

"Pam Rudd" wrote in message
...
When last we left our heros, on Mon, 17 Mar 2003 18:22:28 GMT,
"FDR" scribbled:

I read in a book to start two pepper plants together from seed. The idea
is
that they help to support each other and give better shade.

Do others here do that? Does it sound like a good idea to you?

I don't. My pepper plants usually get large enough to be small
bushes. Putting two seeds together would make a mess of twisted
branches. Plus the ventilation would be decreased, which would
increase the chances of a mold or mildew.

What kind of peppers are you talking about? I rarely
have one that needs support, but I mostly grow hot peppers.

I suppose it applied to all peppers; the author didn't say about variety.

I've grown some that for the most part could support themselves. I was just
wondering if this was a good tip or not.



Pam

I don't know about starting two together, but if you have problems with
sun scald, which affects both hot and sweet peppers in hot and sunny
areas, dense planting to provide shade for the fruit helps a great deal.
Sun scald starts as a black discoloration on the fruit, which is
harmless, but can proceed to dead and decaying spots. You can tell that
it's sun scald because it's only on the sunny side of the fruit.
Planting the peppers close together in blocks will shield the fruit
while still allowing lots of sun to the upper leaves.

Lorenzo L. Love
http://home.thegrid.net/~lllove

"Every gun that is fired, every warship launched, every rocket fired,
signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not
fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not
spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the
genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children."
Dwight D. Eisenhower