Successful transplant

From my last examination of the peppers in the bed, I gave them a two-week interval before taking the bold step to transplant them. At first, I wanted to procrastinate and leave them for another one or two weeks because the sun was a bit intense during the afternoon. However, I was certain that rain would come, and that’s what I settled on.

On the day of transplanting, I cleared off the grasses that had occupied the space, dug holes, and carefully uprooted the peppers in twos and placed them there. I did this in the evening when the sun had set, and I watered them even though the soil wasn’t lacking moisture. I didn’t want to take any chances after waiting so long to transplant, and I couldn’t stand the thought of losing them.

In the cleared space, fowls usually come around to seek food, such as worms and insects in the ground, and in the process, they scatter everything with their claws, without caring whether there are plants or not. Thankfully, I was smart about it. I used broken blocks and coconut shells to build a wall, a kind of fence around each of the plants, so that even if the fowls came to look for food, they wouldn’t disturb the peppers.

The next day, the first thing I did was visit the garden. As expected, the fowls were there in numbers, tearing up the ground and the grasses in search of food. But, to my relief, the fence I had built prevented them from disturbing the peppers. I watered the plants that morning and hoped the sun wouldn’t be too intense that day. But alas, my prayer wasn’t answered. The sun was very strong, and I considered whether it was a good idea to water the plants in the afternoon to give them some strength, or perhaps make a shade or canopy for them. Miraculously, a heavy rainfall complemented the high sun later in the evening, and finally, my mind was at ease.

Unfortunately, two plants didn’t survive, and it wasn’t due to the sun. I noticed that a pest had chopped off the top of the plants, and since they were very tender, they couldn’t sprout from any of the nodes.

The remaining plants are doing well, but the only issue I’m currently facing is the infertility of the soil. The plants haven’t been growing well, and as you can see in some of the photos, the leaves of some are too yellowish. I haven’t had enough fowl droppings to place on them to boost their growth. I may have to purchase a little fertilizer to add, since the place where I usually get fowl droppings hasn’t come through. They always clean the fowl house and throw the droppings away, even though I have begged them several times to keep them for me, or better yet, allow me to come and clean the fowl cage myself. Yes, that’s how desperate I am.

Well, let’s see how it goes.

Thanks for reading.

Photos are mine