2023-08-06 14:38:00
Mr. Jean Trauport from La Louvière loves peppers and peppers, but does not grow them very well: poor germination, plants that remain small and low fruiting.
Sweet peppers…
Sweet peppers or peppers produce, for the most common varieties, more or less cubic fruits, sometimes elongated. Their flesh is quite thick and very crunchy. If for classic peppers the color of the fruit when ripe varies from golden yellow to bright red, then others can be purple, brown, black. For lovers of original varieties, we recommend “Apple” with heart-shaped fruits, “Bonnet d’évêque” and its unexpected but very pleasant fruity flavor, “Corno di Toro”, red or yellow and, extra for making succulent stuffed peppers, “Italian Yellow Marconi” orange-yellow when ripe and excellent for salads or for frying and these are just a few examples!
…and hot peppers
The so-called “hot” peppers can have different shapes. Their pungent flavor is determined by the pepper’s position on the Scoville scale, a scale developed in 1912 by pharmacologist Wilbur Scoville. To simplify things, we can give a value from 0 to 10 in relation to the strength of the pepper. Pepper or sweet pepper is at 0, that is to say neutral, at 4 (hot) we find the well-known Espelette pepper, at 5 (strong) there is red Tabasco sauce, Cayenne pepper is at tier 8 (scorching) while the Habanero Chili is at 9 the “explosive” zone. The absolute record belongs to the “Carolina Reaper” pepper whose potency makes it inedible and even dangerous according to some doctors.
Sow early and warm
Peppers can be sown from the month of March at 22-24°C, hence the obvious usefulness of a heated mini-greenhouse. Germination takes ten days. When the seedlings are manageable, they are transplanted into 10-12 cm pots. They will stay like this for 1 month to 1 month and a half to give them time to form a good root system. Planting, ideally in the greenhouse, is done taking care to keep a spacing of 50 cm between the plants. Knowing that peppers and peppers are very greedy vegetables, it is necessary to provide the nutrients necessary for their good growth throughout the season. Watering will be regular. We will keep only 8 to 12 fruits per plant.
Manchurian ivy ©stock.adobe.com
This perennial plant has nothing to do with our ivy (Hedera helix) and is absolutely not invasive. Its other name is Mukdénie de Ross (Mukdenia rossii) and is part of the Saxifragaceae family. In the adult stage the plant hardly exceeds 20-30 cm for a wingspan of 40 cm. It is used as a ground cover in shady, cool areas of the garden and coexists perfectly with Heuchera, Heucherella or even small Hosta. A slightly acidic soil is a plus for him. Native to northern China and Korea, Manchurian ivy is slow growing but its beauty is such that it can be given time to settle. Its foliage, of medium green, is quite large – 10 to 15 cm in diameter – and is elegantly cut into 5 to 9 lobes. They are reminiscent of maple leaves and it is probably for this reason that this plant was called before ACERophyllum rossii! Flowering is spring, from March to May and creamy white in color. Note that in the “Crimson Fans” cultivar, the foliage changes color as the season progresses, ending in deep purple. Except for snails and slugs in spring, Mukdenia rossii is a very resistant plant. Still rare in garden centers, you will have to browse plant fairs to find a copy.
The big green grasshopper ©stock.adobe.com
Very common in the past, the great green grasshopper (Tettigonia viridissima) has become very rare in recent decades. The use of pesticides and the destruction of the places where they live (rotary crushing along the roads, for example) are some of the factors that explain this scarcity. This insect can impress with its size: 6 cm with a wingspan of 10 cm when the wings are spread. The big green grasshopper is… green with a rusty brown stripe across the top of its back. You have all heard the stridulations of the male of this insect: the animal, to put it simply, rubs the left elytron on the right elytron and produces this sound recognizable among all. The large grasshopper is adult in July-August and the coupling can then take place, a coupling which is not really one since the male deposits the spermatophore at the entrance of the genital organs of the female and this without copulation. The life expectancy of this large grasshopper is 6 months. Its food consists mainly of flies, larvae, caterpillars, beetles, which makes it a precious ally for the gardener, even if it nibbles a small leaf from time to time. The predators of the large grasshopper are birds, amphibians and small insectivorous mammals. To encourage it in the garden, leave areas where nature can develop freely…
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#Peppers #galore #watch #potency