Gassy's 2010/2011 Pepper Growing Thread Thingy

[gasificada]

Went to check my plants today and, well, I'll get the bad news outta the way first....

Firstly, looks like bloody mites are back!

Once again, only two or three plants are showing signs so hopefully I've caught them early. I will Rogor the infected plants, Neem the rest and re-evaluate the situation in a few days. If any more plants start showing signs, I guess another full-scale Rogor nuking will be in order. However, I am going to refrain from using chemicals on any of my plants that are producing until after I harvest. If any of those start showing signs, I will quarantine them and will just have to go hard with the Neem for now.

Secondly, my fussy plants are never happy! They've been continuously complaining that the sun is too hot for them and start carrying on and dying and all that, so I give up my time, toil and lug them all inside only to find out that that's not good enough for them either! They've decided to protest by turning all their nice new green growth yellow. Ungrateful little buggers.... I had only planned to keep them inside for the week for their sake to give them a break!

Plants! Can't live with them, can't live without them.... :shakes head:

 

[gasificada]

Now onto the good news....

The ripening continues!

Mr Happy (aka an erectish Sweet Chocolate) starting to show a bit of colour:

A Purple Beauty pod that isn't really purple anymore:

And some more random shots:

 

[Timmmy newbie]

Damn Gas, sounds like your having a hard time. Yellowing plants can be so frustrating.

Good to see you have some peppers going nicely

 

[gasificada]

Also, the weirdest thing happened. I grew a Yellow 7 Pod last season that only grew to about 4" inches tall and then stopped totally. It only grew about five or six true leaves and that was it. Since then, I kept watering and fertilizing it but it still didn't do anything except for it's stem grew a little "woodier".... it didn't grow taller, it didn't grow any new leaves, it didn't drop any leaves, and it didn't die. It did this all through the season, through the winter and into the start of this season. Now, within the last week and after bringing it inside, it has exploded with new growth! Absolutely bizarre!

Has this ever happened to anyone else?

 

[gasificada]

Damn Gas, sounds like your having a hard time. Yellowing plants can be so frustrating.

Good to see you have some peppers going nicely

Cheers!

And yeah, totally, this yellowing is driving me insane.

I guess the only thing left to try is to rig up some shade cloth and hope the rain P.O's as well.... got a funny feeling that although the last lot of rain did them good, they will very quickly change their tune to a prolonged deluge!

 

[gasificada]

Also, in the name of taste testing (and the fact that I couldn't control myself), I picked a few greenies to have a go of. I chose the smallest fruits on the plants as production at this point is only small and I would prefer to have them ripen.

(not so) Giant Jalapeno, Kung Pao and Pusa Jwala:

Kung Pao: Hotter than expected! Wasn't massively hot but sure took me by surprise! It was most definitely hotter than the red Birds Eye chillies we have in our supermarkets here. Very nice flavour too with a hint of sweetness. Can't wait to try a ripe one!

Pusa Jwala: Quite disappointing. Not as hot as expected and a tad bitter. Heat was much less than Kung Pao and left very quickly. However, I'm wondering if environment, growing conditions, or the fact that it was of such a small size that may have it affected it's taste and heat. Not to mention that the plant it came of is rather unhealthy.

Giant Jalapeno: I will refrain from commenting on this one until I get a chance to taste a bigger pod. The pod was severely undersized and by the looks of it, even stunted. One thing I will disclose however is that it was very tasty!

 

[Dot Com]

Things are coming along nicely enough....

Kung Pao:

The plant I have might be a Kung Pao. The smaller symmetrical pod looks like the one I got my seeds from.

 

[gasificada]

Plants being smashed by mite infestation at the moment but can't really do anything as I have been busy as. Nonetheless, got meself a little harvest today!

Some Kung Paos, Aji Lemon and Jimmy Nardellos:

And hopefully will have another harvest in a couple days....

It sure is a shame about the mites though as plants really bouncing back now that the rain has pissed off.

Will hopefully have a chance tomorrow to Rogor and Neem.

 

[gasificada]

Also, lost a couple babies recently due to what I guess is damping off.

I have them at my place and they were left in my bathroom with no air circulation.

 

[gasificada]

The plant I have might be a Kung Pao. The smaller symmetrical pod looks like the one I got my seeds from.

Don't forget, that was an old photo though and the pods ended up growing longer.

 

[Sandgroper]

Also, lost a couple babies recently due to what I guess is damping off.

I have them at my place and they were left in my bathroom with no air circulation.

I would have thought it looked too big and healthy for damping off but you guys live in a much more humid state than we do.

 

[gasificada]

I would have thought it looked too big and healthy for damping off but you guys live in a much more humid state than we do.

Yes, I had thought so too! Perhaps it is just plain old root rot. I am under the impression that essentially they are both the same thing?

If you look closely, the base of the stem is deinitely messed up and rotten.

And yeah, definitely much more humidity in these parts! Plus with the floods and water all around and the rain prior to it all, was alot of moisture in the air.

 

[Sandgroper]

I imagine it would have been up around 100% humidity for awhile. Nasty. We have had a couple of weeks of high humidity here when the cyclone was around a cfew weeks ago. Great growing weather but hard to work when all that sweat is pissing off you.

 

[Dot Com]

Plants being smashed by mite infestation at the moment but can't really do anything as I have been busy as. Nonetheless, got meself a little harvest today!

Some Kung Paos:

And hopefully will have another harvest in a couple days....

Are those similar or the same as Thai Peppers? My seed came from a red pepper I got at a Thai grocer & looks like this:

 

[gasificada]

Funny you should say that, Dot Com.... after now tasting a ripe Kung Pao, the taste, heat and look of them are very similar, if not exactly the same as some I buy at the local markets labeled "Long Thai". Really wouldn't be able to tell you though. I guess there are a fair few pods out there that look like that and would be very similar.

 

[gasificada]

Some more goodies to try today....

Guntur Hot, a green Hot Summer, Jalapeno, and my odd shaped Giant Jalapeno:

Had to pick the Giant Jap prematurely as had a worm in it and wanted to salvage at least some of the pod before it did too much damage. Damn little shits!

 

[gasificada]

Finally got around to nuking damn little shit mites today. Haven't had time to even consider attacking the bastards this last week but took time out today to do so.... they are really starting to murder my plants! It's a shame.... since the sun has been back out, most of my plants have started bouncing back with nice new green growth and buds but all of it is quickly being destroyed by the mites.

 

[SeeYouJimmy]

Sorry to see your mites are back again Gas, but I'm glad your plants didn't get washed away.

 

[gasificada]

Sorry to see your mites are back again Gas, but I'm glad your plants didn't get washed away.

Cheers mate! Most of my plants are at my mum's place anyway so wasn't too concerned about them washing away but have a bunch here at mine that I was sure worried about!

 

[gasificada]

Some more little goodies I picked the other day....

Jalapeno, tiny little Pequin, and Hot Summer:

I'm getting some decent heat from my pods too. My Jalapenos are easily the hottest I've had to date, and my Aji Lemons.... hot damn!!! Looks like the intense hot sun I was complaining about a month ago really wasn't so bad after all and stressed them real good....