Can you bury pepper stems like tomatoes?

[feldon30]

Originally Posted by dustdevil

Here is a video showing the new roots growing on a pepper buried deeper:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiO8xrYQeys

Thanks for that. Praxx is not really what I call reputable, but I will see if I can find any other examples of peppers rooting along the stem.

[dustdevil]

If you don't believe me, why don't you plant a few deeper this year and find out first hand?

[RebelRidin]

"John" at http://www.growingyourgreens.com/ has a video showing how he planted peppers deeper yet no roots grew along the stem. Look at time 3:36 in his video... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_pimdio-i8


However..... two of his readers/viewers gave feedback as below....

"John they will root deeper but the roots only come from nodes , so you have to plant them deep enough by cutting off stems(leaving nodes) and getting them below the soil line.
roots don't grow from the stalk like a tomato, they grow from the nodes.

to increase rooting you can treat the nodes with rooting hormone during the process,but I gather you probably won't like messing with hormone powders.
stymye "

and

"One experiment I tried was using a razor blade and lightly scraping the outer coating of the stem on some peppers before I buried them deeper. The result was MUCH better, and they grew a ton of roots all the way up the stem. This was combined with mykos & azos too though. Even though they did have more roots, i'm still not sure if there was a significant increase in fruit production though. They still seemed on par with the plants that weren't buried deeper. I'll do more experiments next season.
ASfx2600"

[feldon30]

Originally Posted by dustdevil

If you don't believe me, why don't you plant a few deeper this year and find out first hand?

I am between gardens. My current apartment living does not facilitate growing tomatoes, but soon I hope.

[dustdevil]

Originally Posted by feldon30

I am between gardens. My current apartment living does not facilitate growing tomatoes, but soon I hope.

That must be torture for you. They don't have community plots in Denmark?

[feldon30]

Even if they did, I'd have to grow inside a greenhouse. In 2010, there were 4 months of sunny 70's so the tomatoes were great that year (I went to the tomato tasting at Toftegaard). Last year, it was cool and rainy all summer so the tomato crop was poor. It would be a lot of effort and crossing fingers for possibly little-to-no harvest. Or I could grow cherries. Cherries grow well in a greenhouse. I found Sungold, Black Cherry, and other varieties for sale.

I can just wait til I am somewhere I can grow lots of plants.

[ContainerTed]

Feldon, I've always buried the plants deeply when potting up and when planting out. I, too, was a bit skeptical at first about peppers and tomatillos adding roots to the main stems. But I did a test with a tomatillo where I kept burying it deeper in a two liter soda bottle as Brokenbar had stated. Then, at plantout, I was trying to salvage the bottle and had the mix a bit too dry. It kinda crumbled out and there were the roots along the main stem as Brokenbar had stated.

This got me interested in the plants and peppers were naturally next. They also did the new roots thing. The extra proof was at the end of the season when we were taking the old plants up to clean out the garden before the fall tilling. All of the peppers (I grow mostly sweet with a few jalapenos) had roots all the way to the surface of the dirt, and that's with me burying them down as far as possible during their final planting. In most cases, this meant at least 4 or 5 inches of stem had added these new "induced" roots.

You could easily experiment with a large plastic bottle of some sort in your apartment window.

[RebelRidin]

I usually only pot up the once. Mine get plenty light so they aren't very lanky then or when I plant out. I do bury them deeper for added support at planting but only by a couple inches or so. I am going to have to pay closer attention at pull out time or just go ahead and start some seed just to run some experiments.

I wonder if the degree of "hardening" when a stem is buried has an effect on a node or stems ability to put out roots?

[feldon30]

Interesting.

Tomatoes have always grown fast for me, even under fluorescent lights, so potting up and burying deeply made a lot of sense to me. Peppers have always grown very slowly for me so I've never needed to bury deeply.

[lakelady]

Originally Posted by RebelRidin

This works well for me and I get a good root structure even though I (please cover the childrens ears or send them out of the room) don't bottom water.
I just don't have the setup or time for that.

LOL

Sometimes I bottom water, sometimes I don't.

[RebelRidin]

Originally Posted by lakelady

LOL

Sometimes I bottom water, sometimes I don't.

Ha! So I'm not the only rebel here!

[Gardadore]

Can one also plant eggplants deeper?

[tjg911]

don't know about eggplant but suspect that you can. i have read you can with cabbage, broccoli and peppers. when i plant these i do it at the 1st set of leaves or remove them and go deeper to the 2nd set.

tom

[RebelRidin]

Definately the case with broccoli and cabbage. If they get a little leggy bury up to second set of leaves (or even higher) and press the soil around them quite firmly and water in well. Last thing you want is a broccoli flopping over. Wimpy cabbage stems aren't too great either...

[Gardadore]

Never knew that about broccoli but good to know as mine did fall over last summer due to excessive rain. (a lot of trees did too, so that was a real exception, I guess!) Some of the eggplants get a bit leggy before planting but I wasn't sure whether it was a good idea to remove leaves like you can do with tomatoes. I will do that this summer to make them sturdier as well. Thanks for the input!