My pepper plants almost died because I forgot about wind tunnels

I live on the 8th floor of an apartment building in Austin and thought my balcony was totally sheltered. Last Tuesday a gust came through and knocked over all 3 of my pepper pots, snapped two stems right off. I scrambled to repot them into deeper containers and tied the stems together with plant tape. Now I check the weather every morning before I put anything out there and I keep a bungee cord wrapped around the rail. Has anyone else had their plants wrecked by surprise wind on a high balcony?

2 comments

2 Comments

henry1011mo ago

dude yeah I had the same thing happen on my 5th floor balcony but with tomatoes. I ended up putting those cheap bamboo stakes in each pot and tying the plants to them with those soft green plant ties. also started putting a heavy terracotta saucer under each pot for extra weight. the bungee cord trick is solid though I might steal that for my rail planters.

ryanburns1mo ago

Wait, bungee cords on a balcony rail... that's genius actually, I never thought of that. Holy cow, 8th floor and they still got hit that hard?