A Fishy Winter Grow: Stuff in a Tent

Be it ever so humble...
 

 
Currently, there are three pepper plants on the bottom (the four all the way on the right are garlic experiments). The one that's nice and rootbound in a tiny container on the right is a manganji, which I pretty much just want to see the pheno from. In the bags on the left, there's shishito (which I found out my wife loves, so that goes on the list), and Greek pepperoncini, a.k.a. Friggitello.
 
I'm really hoping to grow giant white habanero, both over the winter and outside next year, but so far I've had no luck at all getting them to germinate. Which really sucks, because I was hoping to cross those with CGN 21500 and possibly larger sweet varieties. 21500 was also supposed to be the fourth tent pepper. I should have isolated seeds for that coming from my current plant soon.
 
But as I've been attempting to germinate those GW habs, I also started a couple other things. My purple UFO did not grow true, but I started more to see if I can get something on-pheno; on the top shelf, I have two new seedlings from that envelope in rockwool. I also have two very healthy-looking sugar rush peach in there. While I'd prefer to grow the peach outside next year, if I can't get those GW habs to take, I might have to switch, and that could be a pretty good candidate.
 
So the current plan is to have four one-gallon bags on the bottom with a nice selection of mild to medium hot peppers, and go through just as much hybridization experimentation as I can with rockwool and Khang Starr style mini-Kratky bottles.

 

[internationalfish]

My latest family picture...

 
Looking good! Nice big space you've got there. Definitely room for at least 20 more plants...
 
[edit:

]

 

[internationalfish]

My wife came home with a bunch of groceries (since Tokyo is finally about to get its emergency shutdown, she figured it was a good idea, but then only bought cleaning supplies and enough food for dinner), and somehow she found this thing.
 

 
So of course I took seeds. 

 
I have a bunch drying, but am probably going to just stick a few in coir and see how they do. I'm still not technically sure I'll have on-pheno corno di toro yellow, so another few chances at a large sweet pepper for stuffing and crossing certainly couldn't hurt. If I could get one of these growing true outside, holy crap, that'd be awesome.

 

[PaulG]

My wife came home with a bunch of groceries (since Tokyo is finally about to get its emergency shutdown, she figured it was a good idea, but then only bought cleaning supplies and enough food for dinner), and somehow she found this thing.
 
So of course I took seeds. 

 
I have a bunch drying, but am probably going to just stick a few in coir and see how they do. I'm still not technically sure I'll have on-pheno corno di toro yellow, so another few chances at a large sweet pepper for stuffing and crossing certainly couldn't hurt. If I could get one of these growing true outside, holy crap, that'd be awesome.

Now that's what I call a pepper!
 
Good luck getting the seeds to germinate.
They should do well being so fresh.

 

[internationalfish]

Now that's what I call a pepper!
 
Good luck getting the seeds to germinate.
They should do well being so fresh.

 
Haha, yep! Pretty stoked.
 
Unfortunately, one of my grow lights -- the strong one that's been feeding the hydro plants -- just kicked the bucket. So I need to order another.
 
The selection isn't amazing here... guessing I'll get something very similar, since it did work well enough, for the year and a half it lasted. 

 

[internationalfish]

Since the edit feature on this janky board has stopped working again:
 
[edit: And Amazon JP has completely removed unattended delivery options, so they're just telling carriers to leave things at the front door. Thanks, you bastards; now I have to keep checking in case they don't bother with the doorbell and leave my damn grow lamp in plain view, 2 feet from a busy street. ]
 
Trying an edit again...
 
Just found out I'm losing a Kratky plant to root rot. I've washed and pruned it as much as I can... has anyone tried moving a plant like that to a solid medium? I'm wondering if that'd help.

 

[PaulG]

Just found out I'm losing a Kratky plant to root rot. I've washed and pruned it as much as I can... has anyone tried moving a plant like that to a solid medium? I'm wondering if that'd help.

 
Did you try some hydrogen peroxide wash on the roots?

 

[internationalfish]

Did you try some hydrogen peroxide wash on the roots?

 
Unfortunately, we don't have it, and I haven't even seen it here... plus, if I had been able to find it before, I doubt it'd be that easy to find now (they finally started shutting down Tokyo this morning and there's another wave of panic buying going on, this time with cleaning supplies).

 

[PaulG]

 
Unfortunately, we don't have it, and I haven't even seen it here... plus, if I had been able to find it before, I doubt it'd be that easy to find now (they finally started shutting down Tokyo this morning and there's another wave of panic buying going on, this time with cleaning supplies).

Sorry to hear, buddy. I had heard that they
were expecting a second wave of  COVID 19
in your part of the world. 
 
Which Kratky plant is it? 
 
I hope you and your family are well. Stay
healthy and sterile!

 

[internationalfish]

Sorry to hear, buddy. I had heard that they
were expecting a second wave of  COVID 19
in your part of the world. 
 
Which Kratky plant is it? 
 
I hope you and your family are well. Stay
healthy and sterile!

 
Doing the best we can, thanks; so far, so good. Funny that you mention staying sterile, since a vasectomy is absolutely in my future, just gotta wait until things calm down.
 
It's... one of my Silent Majority unidentified Kratky plants. 

 I think it might be an alma paprika, which is why I'm particularly interested in saving it; it's got an early fruit that's looking particularly round, and I know for sure it's not a CGN 21500, since those I actually have marked (and they're distinctively dark).
 
I ended up pulling it out of its rockwool, and it had some decent roots started in there, so I gave it a vicious cut and stuck it in a small pot of coir. It's got several nodes buried now, so hopefully it'll root extensively and survive.

 

[internationalfish]

In more positive news, I just finished cross-pollinating my friggitello and sugar rush peach.
 
I figure the friggitello ripen quickly and are very sweet with thin walls, and the sugar rush peach ripen very slowly and are fairly hot with very thick walls, so while it's not my first choice -- for this coming season's grow, that'd be alma paprika x CGN 21500 or corno di toro/Palermo x Zapotec jalapeno -- since these two plants are coincidentally mature, right next to each other, and seem like a good mix, I'll give it a shot.
 
It's annuum x baccatum and vice versa, so I should get solid germination for the F1s. Perhaps I'll shut this topic down and start the summer glog when I have F1 sprouts to post, hopefully in a few weeks. 

 

[PaulG]

Good luck with those, 'Fish.
 
Will be watching with interest.

 

[internationalfish]

Well, my first attempt at crossing Friggitello and Sugar Rush Peach tanked, 100%. 

 
So today I cut the Fraggle way back, cleaned both plants of most of their buds, and went on a cross-pollinating spree with what was left. Hopefully this time at least one per plant takes.
 
I do have good news about that root-rotten Kratky plant: Hacking off the roots and ransplanting it to coir seems to have worked out extremely well. It's already rooting out the bottom of its new little container.
 
In... less awesome news, I have several other mini Kratky plants that are having the same issue, so I moved the worst of them into coir today as well. They're in various states of screwed-ness, so I'm not sure how well it'll work this time; hopefully the first one was a good indication and not an outlier.
 

 
The one in front has a few of those big red Palermo seeds, which sprouted readily in a bag of water and filter. I'm not all that concerned with whether they grow right now, since I'm pretty sure I'm going to end up transplanting most of the other Kratky plants into coir, and while I have plenty of trays, space under the lights is getting hard to come by.
 
I think my Kratky volume was actually too much. The plants are getting bigger than they should've gotten before producing fruit, at least based on the method... though I think I'm just going to start using small pots of coir instead (I have pots that are smaller than pictured). Not as cool, but way lower maintenance, and hopefully less likely I'll drop them all and lose track of which is which. 
 
We're fine here, just bored as hell in lockdown. I'm occupying myself by trying to lose some weight, which works well during the week, and then... kinda stops working when mandatory booze time arrives.

 

[PaulG]

Good to hear you have salvaged the Kratky plant
with root issues. I hope the others respond as well.

 

[internationalfish]

Well, Saturday was my birthday, and I celebrated hard enough all weekend that I completely forgot to take care of my plants. 
 
One of my CGN 21500 and one of my Trippaul Threat wilted completely... and so did the Sugar Rush Peach and Friggitello I've been trying to cross. I don't think there's any actual damage, but I doubt it did a lot to help set the pods I cross pollinated, which I'm pretty sure all failed again. So that sucks a lot.
 
Most of the plants are OK, though, and the can plants in particular are looking pretty good.
 

 
Left to right: Lemon Starrburst, Nanbu, another Starrburst, and a Trippaul Threat. All three of the latter (other two are in Kratky) are in great shape, aside from one of them wilting.  And I'm very pleased that all of the root-rotten plants I butchered and stuck in coir seem to be doing well. So it's not a complete bust.

 

[Bookers]

Cheers Fishman! Happy birthday to you and many more...

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

 

[PaulG]

Well, Saturday was my birthday, and I celebrated hard enough all weekend that I completely forgot to take care of my plants. 
Happy Belated  Birthday, my friend!
One of my CGN 21500 and one of my Trippaul Threat wilted completely... and so did the Sugar Rush Peach and Friggitello I've been trying to cross. I don't think there's any actual damage, but I doubt it did a lot to help set the pods I cross pollinated, which I'm pretty sure all failed again. So that sucks a lot.
 
Most of the plants are OK, though, and the can plants in particular are looking pretty good.
 
Left to right: Lemon Starrburst, Nanbu, another Starrburst, and a Trippaul Threat. All three of the latter (other two are in Kratky) are in great shape, aside from one of them wilting.  And I'm very pleased that all of the root-rotten plants I butchered and stuck in coir seem to be doing well. So it's not a complete bust.

 
Sounds like a good save all around, ‘Fish!
 
Nothing  like a little drama to spice up your grow!

 

[internationalfish]

Cheers Fishman! Happy birthday to you and many more...

 
Thank you sir! 
 

Sounds like a good save all around, ‘Fish!
 
Nothing  like a little drama to spice up your grow!

 
Haha, man, I've got enough dumbass drama at work (thankfully, the drama queens are far, far away from our little corner of the world, but we're still subjected to them via chat and email). Hopefully the plant drama stays fairly minimal.
 
The local plant shop just started stocking basil; it's got me itching for plant-out. Soon I'll start putting together my little garlic-and-herb pest deterrent experiments, and if I ever manage to figure out what I have growing, maybe even some peppers.
 
Oh right! Forgot about this. I stuck a few of the massive red Palermo seeds that sprouted into coir and they came up over the weekend. Didn't even notice until I was scrambling to revive the other plants this morning.
 

 
Thinking I might give one of these guys a nice big 5 gallon bag o' dirt and see if I can get massive pods like that on the balcony this summer.

 

[internationalfish]

Well, some good news and some not so good news.
 
The not so good news: I definitely have at least one CGN 21500 that needs to be transplanted into coir. 
 
The good news: Everything I've moved to coir so far has improved and rooted well. 
 
Even better news: One of my Friggitello x SRP attempts appears to have worked!
 

 
Obviously I wish more than one had set, but given the neglect they went through, I'm definitely pleased. This is certainly the more convenient one to start with, too, since the SRP take foooreeeeeverrrr to ripen; that plant has a lot of (self-pollinated) pods on it that look great, but I think my son will be in high school by the time they're ready to eat. Anyway, if I didn't botch this, hopefully I'll be able to start F1 in May. Exciting!
 
Since I've really skimped on the pictures lately, here's some gumbo.
 

 
One of those things that tastes a lot better than it looks. 

 

[PaulG]

Hey, 'Fish, kudos on the Friggitello x SRP success!

 

[internationalfish]

Been trying to get to THP on and off for the last two hours... it's alive again! So here we go!
 
A group shot first, since all the colors come through a lot better in these.
 

 
The individual shots are less flattering, but... eh, I took the pictures, so here they are.
 
My Lemon Starrburst all seem to be doing well, Kratky and (booze can) coir both:
 

 
The canned versions seem a little wilty, but I think they might've just gone a day too long without water. Either that or... I don't know, maybe they're drunk?
 

 

 
As usual, the picture does not do it justice, but the canned Trippaul Threat is reasonably healthy.
 

 
The same variety is also doing well in Kratky, and they're all budding.
 

 
My solitary Purple Thunder is happy in his little Kratky can.
 

 
Rounding out the can grows, this Japanese Nanbu keeps spitting out the pods. I keep wanting to trim it, but it's hard...
 

 
I think I'm going to butcher another four or so Kratky plants and stick them in coir this weekend (more than a couple aren't too healthy in the roots). As for the previous transplants, they're all doing well, rooting out the bottom of their containers, and either flowering or fruiting.
 

 
The one I was hoping is alma paprika does seem to be. Took a couple shots in case anyone wants to tell me I'm an idiot; it's not that easy to get a good shot of this rotund little beast, though.
 

 

 
Lastly, the tallest coir transplant is pushing out pods as well, and I'm really wondering if anyone has ID input on this one. I'm hoping it's Zapotec jalapeno, but aside from not knowing much about anything, I've never grown any kind of jalapeno. So any input is definitely welcome.
 

 
So there we go. Finally, a substantial post! Next weekend I'm hoping to plant out the SRP and Friggitello along with some herbs. It's disappointing that so few of my plants have made their identities known... however, if those are indeed an alma and a jalapeno, that'd put me at four for six on outdoor plants. Which I'll be thrilled with, even though it'll take a little time and another pot up to get the coir transplants ready to head outdoors.
 
I keep forgetting about it, but noticed again tonight: I have a single Kratky plant (who knows what it is, of course) that's got a healthy root system that's so freaking dense it's basically packed the bottle. As well as the coir transplants have been going, I think I might try massaging those roots out a bit, wrapping them around that old tombstone toy, and seeing if I can take a better shot at last season's largely-failed bonchi idea.