ChiliNoobs first glog [2014]

Hi all,
 
I figured I should start a glog this year to document all of the mistakes that I'm inevitably going to make.
 
This is my third year growing hot peppers, but only my second year growing from seed.  Last year I grew 30 plants but only managed to get pods on ½ of them. 
 
I did pretty much everything wrong last year:

1. Sowed seeds too late
2. Didn’t give seedlings enough light
3. Didn’t harden off the plants sufficiently
4. Overwatered
5. And so on…

My goal for 2014 is to get ripe pods from every seedling that I plant out.
 
Here is my planting list (so far...):
 

(edit: excel sheet was messed up, it has been corrected and updated)
 
All seeds were sown into peat pellets with the exception of the Anaheim (paper towel method).  My plan is to keep just one or two plants from each variety sown.  
 

 
Some of the seedlings are a bit leggy, hopefully I can cure that by planting a little deeper and busting out the new light that I have ordered.
 
I have more seeds that arrived today, I haven`t decided which ones to plant yet...
 
I am also over-wintering a few of the plants from last year that did not produce pods:
·         Trinidad Morouga Scorpian Blend
·         Naga Jolokia (not sure if this one is going to make it)
·         Chocolate Habanero
·         “mystery” Habanero
·         Scotch Bonnet
·         Piri Piri

 

[Devv]

Looks like you're on your way to a nice grow, you can keep those temps!
 
I don't EVER want to see those here!
 
good luck this season!

 

[Big Kahuna]

Thanks Devv.

OK, riddle me this - how come my overwintered piri piri that has been literally covered with flowers for weeks does not have a single pod yet, but my little seedling manages to put out a pod from it's very first flower???

Piri piri:

First pod of 2014, large hot cherry, standing under the piri piri:

 

[Big Kahuna]

Just a couple more pictures.

Top shelf, mostly annuums and baccatums. I had to top a couple of plants and will have to top a few more soon. Note the two lamps at the sides; this is because yet another ballast has failed on my T5 fixture (that's 3 out of 4 now):

Second shelf, mostly chinenses:

 

[Moshun]

My little Cayenne is just three months old, and already flowering. I took a chance and pruned, to hopefully see a bigger yield in summertime.
Think it's normal for happy plants to produce pods too early into the season. From the reading I did here, I think it's better to wait them out for better times.

 

[Big Kahuna]

My little Cayenne is just three months old, and already flowering. I took a chance and pruned, to hopefully see a bigger yield in summertime.
Think it's normal for happy plants to produce pods too early into the season. From the reading I did here, I think it's better to wait them out for better times.

I am pruning some of mine and others I am just going to leave alone and see what happens. I have a very short growing season here; last year I had lot of large plants, but not many pods when the first frost came. I don't want that to happen again this year so I am going to try and encourage a few plants to fruit sooner. I'd much rather have smaller plants with a few ripe pods than large plants with no ripe pods at all.

 

[jonnyb]

I've heard (and found) that often when a plant is stuck in a pot too small for it (I.e. crowded roots), it may set fruit early as a survival method to pass on the genetic information to the next generation. I had a 7" scotch bonnet in s 200ml cup set fruit and an aji amerillo that I completely ignored in its seed tray that set a chilli when it was only 3" tall! On the other hand my 2 ft chocolate hab had no fruit at that point. All the flowers dropped. There are many reasons why flowers drop. Look at the one of the many threads out there. Some varieties are more prone to it than others too. bhut jolokia is an example of notoriously bad flower drop for genetic reasons. My guess is to do with available light. Either not enough and/or the days are still too short, although it's just guess work on my end.

 

[Big Kahuna]

Hi jonnyb,

I'd wondered if that might be the reason why some of the seedlings are flowering so soon. It's going to be another week or two (at least) before I can start potting these up, so they are going to have to take their chances.

I think the reason why the piri piri is not setting pods is, like you say, because it's not getting enough light. As the days are getting longer here, there is less light coming in through the window, so even though it's in a south facing window, it's probably only getting direct light for maybe three hours per day. There's no easy way to give this one any supplemental light either, since there's no outlet nearby and I can't really run an extension cord half way across the kitchen... Still, I think I see one pod finally forming.

Here is another picture of the large hot cherry, all four flowers are now forming pods. I going to enjoy watching this one to see how it performs.

 

[Big Kahuna]

Over a month since my last update already, where does the time go?

One week to go until plant out, I was hoping to have planted already by now, but the weather just did not want to cooperate this year.

I've spent the last week hardening them off and they seem to be doing really well. I didn't manage to cook any of them, unlike last year where I lost at least half a dozen plants while hardening off.

Here is a shot showing all of this years new plants; it's getting very crowded in there. Some of the plants are doing really well, other not so much (some of the baccatums are looking particularly sad). The chinenses, for the most part, are coping well in their small containers.

Aji Arnaucho - I'm loving this plant right now:

Some pod porn, first Aji Pipi de Mono:

Next up, Aji Paprika (this is one of the mouse-eaten plants):

Aji Amarillo, first pod forming (note lower yellow leaves):

I had a family of foxes hanging around the back yard for the last couple of days. Probably here for the rabbit that spent the winter under my deck...

Here's mom & pup, dad was hanging around too.

 

[Big Kahuna]

Potted up the plants just over a week ago, all seem to be doing well.

Some critter dug one of them up (likely a raccoon), but I repotted it and it seems to be ok.

Scored these ghost peppers at the grocery store yesterday, first time I've seen a superhot for sale in these parts.

 

[Big Kahuna]

Just some pod porn.

Top left - Hot Lemon hab
Top right - Aji Verde
Bottom left - overwintered "mystery" hab
Bottom right - overwintered piri piri, finally getting some pods!

 

[Runescape]

Plants are lookin awesome, dude... neat blue flowers too lol

 

[Ragnar]

Plants are looking good! Hey where'd you pick up the grocery bhuts? Sweet score. Heh and I recognize those pots... maybe that's why there were only a few left when I got there.

 

[Big Kahuna]

Plants are lookin awesome, dude... neat blue flowers too lol

 
Thanks Runescape.  The blue flowers are some irises in the background.  I never feed or water them at all and they just keep coming back each year better than the year before.  I wish peppers were that easy
 

Plants are looking good! Hey where'd you pick up the grocery bhuts? Sweet score. Heh and I recognize those pots... maybe that's why there were only a few left when I got there.

 
Thanks Aaron.  The bhuts were from Foodland.  I've found chocolate habs there a couple of times in the fall and one time they had cherry bombs, but I've never seen anything like this.  The smaller pots I've had for a couple of years and I used those for the "extra" plants. The bigger ones I just picked up this year;  I had to make three trips to get this amount and cleaned them out each time 

 

[Big Kahuna]

First mini-harvest.

My orange tree hab turned out to be an imposter, though I shouldn't really complain as these seeds were freebies and I'll still make use of the pods.

 

[Runescape]

Awesome pods, what does the pipi de mono taste like?

 

[magicpepper]

looks great, plants look healthy.    awesome grow!

 

[Big Kahuna]

Awesome pods, what does the pipi de mono taste like?

Thank Runescape. The Pipi de mono tasted perfumy at first, but that quickly went away and all I was left with was sweet and hot. Similar to Tabasco or piri piri, but less "peppery", if that makes any sense.

looks great, plants look healthy.    awesome grow!

Thanks magic. We had a lot of rain here the past couple of weeks or so which is starting to worry me; the soil isn't getting a chance to dry out and a few of the plants are starting to yellow.

A few more pics.

Aji Rocoto, Aji Paprika, Aji Arnauco and Aji Panca:

Aji Cacho de Cabra, Aji Cerezo, I forget and Hot Lemon Habanero (small but fully loaded!):

 

[Runescape]

Lol, thats an awesome lemon hab plant...

 

[Ragnar]

Plants are lookin great! God to see some c pubescens podding up in Ontario -- I'm impatiently awaiting about a dozen flowers to make their minds up.

 

[magicpepper]

Thanks magic. We had a lot of rain here the past couple of weeks or so which is starting to worry me; the soil isn't getting a chance to dry out and a few of the plants are starting to yellow.
 
 

no problem!   ive had a lot of rain as well. im between napanee and kaladar, in the kingston area.  i have started covering my plants, i only have 14 in pots to cover but what i actually do is move them all into my gazebo lol. i havent had to water them in over a month now, and its only a little bit to give them ferts. i know you have quite a few plants to move or cover, but if you can before the rain hits they should be fine.  eventually all this rain will stop anyway lol.   but still your plants look good, and nice pods, i have flowers and buds, and only 6 pods on my ring of fire plants lol