Hand pollinate pepper plants, not many bees around this year, plenty herb varieties planted around the trough

[JPadronMiami]

Hand pollinate pepper plants, not many bees around this year, plenty herb varieties planted around the trough, noticed lota of butterflies around the porter weed, milkweed, cosmos, and other butterfly attracting varieties, no bees, plenty mint interplanted between the pepper plants, to keep the mice away, and most insects like aphids it works, but im thinking the bees dont take to mint? what do you folks think? I shake the pepper plant to pollinate the flowers or use finger to rub the anther and stigma to get "some" peppers out of them right now. My cream corn, broccoli, doing good. wish i could get the mint around the chicken coops and runs to keep the rats away, but horses eat them and chicken eat the b4 they can set and send the runners all over the place.

 

[Growley Monster]

Hand pollinate pepper plants, not many bees around this year, plenty herb varieties planted around the trough, noticed lota of butterflies around the porter weed, milkweed, cosmos, and other butterfly attracting varieties, no bees, plenty mint interplanted between the pepper plants, to keep the mice away, and most insects like aphids it works, but im thinking the bees dont take to mint? what do you folks think? I shake the pepper plant to pollinate the flowers or use finger to rub the anther and stigma to get "some" peppers out of them right now. My cream corn, broccoli, doing good. wish i could get the mint around the chicken coops and runs to keep the rats away, but horses eat them and chicken eat the b4 they can set and send the runners all over the place.

I tap the back of the flowers when they are fully open. This shakes the pollen loose and onto the girly parts of the flower. A sharp and repeated finger tap will do it. Some folks use an electric toothbrush, brought into contact with the back of the flower. This works GREAT for tomatoes, too, which are not pollinated very efficiently by bees. Naturally, the wind and rain does this, but toothbrush or finger bring higher yields, for tomatoes or for peppers. TBH I only grow jalapeños and I don't know if it works as well on other varieties.

I suspect that a big patch of mint plants will likely repel bees, but I have seen them near my small planter of mint that we keep for cocktails and such. Entire rows between veg rows could be a repelling sort of thing.

If you notice how the stem to each flower bends over and down, at the top, the back side of the curve, is the place to tap or vibrate. Simply contact this with the back side of an electric toothbrush for 2 or 3 seconds, is the easiest method that gives the best results. On a very still day, with no wind and good sunlighting, you can sometimes even see a little cloud of pollen shaken free from the flower. The idea is that some of it will cling to the female part of the flower.

Good luck!

 

[JPadronMiami]

I tap the back of the flowers when they are fully open. This shakes the pollen loose and onto the girly parts of the flower. A sharp and repeated finger tap will do it. Some folks use an electric toothbrush, brought into contact with the back of the flower. This works GREAT for tomatoes, too, which are not pollinated very efficiently by bees. Naturally, the wind and rain does this, but toothbrush or finger bring higher yields, for tomatoes or for peppers. TBH I only grow jalapeños and I don't know if it works as well on other varieties.

I suspect that a big patch of mint plants will likely repel bees, but I have seen them near my small planter of mint that we keep for cocktails and such. Entire rows between veg rows could be a repelling sort of thing.

If you notice how the stem to each flower bends over and down, at the top, the back side of the curve, is the place to tap or vibrate. Simply contact this with the back side of an electric toothbrush for 2 or 3 seconds, is the easiest method that gives the best results. On a very still day, with no wind and good sunlighting, you can sometimes even see a little cloud of pollen shaken free from the flower. The idea is that some of it will cling to the female part of the flower.

Good luck!

thank you, good info, looks like i may have been employing 1 or 2 methods from your suggestion, come to think of it, just yesterday did notice that little cloud of dust as i tapped the back of each flower, i try not to use my finger so much, as I read it could have pathogens that might not be good for the plant, Im all over the place when Im outside, and may not keep my hands as clean as I like, i do have a hygene protocol that I follow, going between chicken coops and chicken runs, to try and keep the hens safe and contaminate free. I'd like to exchange with you a bit further on growing peppers, I have several varieties usually tieing back to varieties used in cooking, my favorite is the essential Bell Pepper, red, green , and yellow, and a ghost pepper that is really quite hot, too hot for cooking with it I think, but i use it in a mix I make organically to deworm my chickens, along with some of the other herbs I grown just for them. have a great afternoon

 

[Growley Monster]

thank you, good info, looks like i may have been employing 1 or 2 methods from your suggestion, come to think of it, just yesterday did notice that little cloud of dust as i tapped the back of each flower, i try not to use my finger so much, as I read it could have pathogens that might not be good for the plant, Im all over the place when Im outside, and may not keep my hands as clean as I like, i do have a hygene protocol that I follow, going between chicken coops and chicken runs, to try and keep the hens safe and contaminate free. I'd like to exchange with you a bit further on growing peppers, I have several varieties usually tieing back to varieties used in cooking, my favorite is the essential Bell Pepper, red, green , and yellow, and a ghost pepper that is really quite hot, too hot for cooking with it I think, but i use it in a mix I make organically to deworm my chickens, along with some of the other herbs I grown just for them. have a great afternoon

Pest control has always been a problem for me, with sweet peppers, and anyway I only use jalapeños for cooking unless I am cooking mexican or tex mex food. I prefer their flavor very much over bell pepper and similar. I don't like super hot peppers. Not enough flavor for all that fire. I ate a can of ghost pepper chili a couple weeks ago, or tried to, couldn't finish it cause it was so hot, with an afterburn from hell, but not enough chili flavor or aroma. I can see using them for deworming, though.

 

[JPadronMiami]

Pest control has always been a problem for me, with sweet peppers, and anyway I only use jalapeños for cooking unless I am cooking mexican or tex mex food. I prefer their flavor very much over bell pepper and similar. I don't like super hot peppers. Not enough flavor for all that fire. I ate a can of ghost pepper chili a couple weeks ago, or tried to, couldn't finish it cause it was so hot, with an afterburn from hell, but not enough chili flavor or aroma. I can see using them for deworming, though.

ok, I understand, i interplanted the mints bcuz i had read up on how it repels-mice they dont like the smell, the other insects i learned as an after effect by seeing a lack of other insects on the plants including ants ?? dont like that bees are not around, and butterfly go to other areas in my yard, but not so much where the peppers are, im going to wait until a mature Crepe Myrtle I have in the back yard is in full bloom mid July-August they love heat and sun hundreds of bees are attracted by those clusters of flowers if that doesnt work will cut back on the amount of mint kept in that trough