producing ever more

It is October and the temperatures have dropped. And yet, the tomato plants and hot pepper plants continue to produce flower and fruit. It's baffling to me, or perhaps this is not surprising to seasoned gardeners. In any case, it's great to see! The tomatoes have been very juicy and tasty! The jalapeño still lack the heat I expect but the cayenne does pack a surprising punch!

I am pleased that I will continue to have tomatoes and hot peppers into autumn.

we have cayenne peppers!

I was originally worried that the hot pepper plants were not going to produce fruit. As pretty as the downward facing flowers are, they would drop without setting fruit. The problem as I discovered was, they needed to be pollinated. I went in and pollinated them manually either with a Q-tip or finger. I also added a bit of fertilizer too, and I think that helped give the plants a bit of a boost!

This past weekend while doing a survey of the plants, I noticed large cayenne peppers under leaves. I was amazed how many I found! I would push aside some leaves, and another one would appear and there are more to come!