Tomatoes and Peppers

Tomatoes, Capsicum and Chillis
Botanical familty:  Solanaceae (tomato, pepper, eggplant, potato). 

Capsicum planted Oct 09, med fertility mix, topped up in spring and autumn with mushroom compost and worm castings. I'm hoping of getting 2 years from it. Pruned back to two thirds of its size Oct 2010 (just after new growth appeared) and fertilised with multigrow (pellitised poultry manure).  Beware of using too much mushroom compost as this will raise the pH level making the soil more alkaline. I've used iron sulphate or sulphate powder to lower my pH.

The main plant grew a prollifc amount of buds over Summer and Autumn 2010 (mainly after lowering my pH). I pinched about two thirds of them off to allow the remaining bugs to turn into large green capsicums. I cut most off when green, leaving some on to turn red.  The ones left on too long went soft and bugs got to them via a small hole near the stem.

Companions: My capsicums and chillis have grown close to each other well. Basil and tomatoe are best friends. I've found lone basil shoots that I didnt plant growing near the base of my tomatoe stems. French Marigolds planted close to tomatoes will help keep away Nemetodes, altho every one of my Marigolds have been eaten by Slaters. 

Pruned Capsium, Oct 2010.  

The yellowing curling leaves is a sign of low magnesium. I treated this with Epson Salts.

Capsicum, Jalapeno and Thai Chilli, Autumn 2010. The chillis went dormant over winter. The capsicum pushed a few more out over winter.

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Roma tomatoe vine. Planted Nov 2008, Photo taken May 2009 after a good summer growth.  I did not prune this vine much (as you can see) but it still gave me around 100 small tasty tomatoes. I removed the vine in winter, so it lasted me about 8 months.