Sunday, October 02, 2011

Capsicum

Each time I visit some of my favorite garden & veggie patch blogs, I get so envious (in a good way of course :) of the gardening space they have and the variety of plants they could grow which of course leads to bountiful harvest. As much as I would love to have a spacious garden, I can only be satisfied with my plants in my containers and cherish my small harvest from time to time.

For now, one of my containers is growing capsicum. I am happy that it works out so I've sowed some more seeds in 4 other containers. I guess other plants will have to wait for its turn to occupy the pots.

This is my second capsicum and I've eaten it before the ants could damage it, like my first capsicum. I hate those pesky ants! The crawl all over my capsicum and chili plants and they encourage the growth of the white powdery mildew. What I did was to boil a few dried chilies and use the water mixed with a few drops of dishwater liquid and cooking oil, give it a good shake and spray at the ants and powdery mildew on infected plant. This needs to be done every day in the morning or evening until the disease is gone. I tend to forget and the disease multiplied before I could control it. That was what happened to my beautiful marigold plants that I had to sadly pull out last month. If anyone has more lethal solution to get rid of ants and the powdery mildew insect...please please share :D!



I am really getting a hang at growing capsicums now. It was sweet and crunchy but a little thin. I should perhaps use more organic fertiliser to fatten it.



Capsicums are really easy to grow. Just scatter the seeds of a capsicum that you buy from the market and they will sprout in less than a week. It's easy to care too...just water as normal and feed with fertiliser once every 2 weeks.

6 comments:

  1. Your capsicum look very healthy. Mine look so dreadful after they gone through winter. It is a battle to let them go or survive. How about growing some herb together with capsicum in the same pot to deter pest?

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  2. Your capsicum looks cute and 'delicious'! Easy to grow? Let me try...! :)

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  3. I read somewhere that ants hates kunyit. Something like it won't cross over kunyit. Maybe putting up a border or serbuk kunyit around the plant can help. I never tried yet though this method.

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  4. MK girl, thanks for this tip!! I will try. But these days, it has been raining a lot and the serbuk kunyit will be washed away. I'll wait until the rain season stops to try this method.

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  5. Wow, you grow capsicum in your garden! I thought it only grow in cold climate or highland like Cameron Highlands. How lovely!

    I have red ants problem in my garden. They are huge and gives me creep whenever I sighted them. My neighbour said ants love plants with big leaves (my Bunga Kerak Nasi is attracting them) where they can build their nest. So now I have a lot of them in my vegetable patch. Had been bitten by them several times. So I stay away from them these days.

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