Stefan_W's 2013 Pods A-Ripenin'! Glog

I am going to start the new glog for my upcoming growing season on a bit of a personal note. One year ago tomorrow (January 3rd) is the one year anniversary of the day that my daughter was diagnosed with a tumour that is lodged in the middle of her brain. The past year has involved treatments and hospital stays, and there were at least three different points when we were pretty sure she was not going to make it. But she is a fighter, and nothing could keep her down for long.

Sofia has personally planted every pepper and tomato seed that I have started in the past three growing seasons. She beat the odds last year to help me, and once again she is defying what medicine has to say to help me out this year.

We started a jalapeno plant about a week ago just for the sake of watching it grow, because we both love it so much. One of the jalapenos grew to the point that it had its firt couple of leaves, so we transplanted him into a bigger pot. While we were at it I decided to put in some aji lemondrops, partly because they take a long time to fruit up and I wanted to give them a huge head start.

This is the jalapeno plant. I pulled the second one out because we did not need it, and discovered that the roots had grown all of the way down to the bottom of the cell.

My daughter personally doing the transplant.

Her aim is better than mine, and so it turned out perfectly.

Next up was taking out the lemondrop seeds from peppermania.

I need a few extras of this type, so I asked Sofia to plant two seeds in each of the four cells. Two plants will be for us, and whatever else grows will be given away to good friends.

Two of the three tiers in my lighting stand are currently being used as toy shelves, which is cool for now. The lights are adjustable, and moved down to get close to the seedling.

The heating pad works extremely well, and once the cells are covered the top clouds up in no time.

A happy early jalapeno seedling in his new home. I thought I heard "feeeeeed meeeeee" coming from that direction, but I'm not sure.

That's it for today, folks! Welcome to my new glog

 

[Stefan_W]

Likewise, I hope as many of our plants as possible pull through and shake this off quickly!

 

[GA Growhead]

Strange weather this year for sure. Hoping the best for you!

 

[KiNGDeNNiZ]

Looks great. I had someone send me seeds label MMm janette. I wonder if its gonna be the same. Keep up with the updates.

 

[amps]

Hoping all your plants made it through. I think the frost wasn't as bad it was supposed to be.

 

[Stefan_W]

Strange weather this year for sure. Hoping the best for you!

Thank you very much! If I can get the plants through this one it will be a huge relief.

Looks great. I had someone send me seeds label MMm janette. I wonder if its gonna be the same. Keep up with the updates.

The Madame Jeanette is a rare type of Hab. I actually had to hunt my seeds down, and ended up finding a seller in Australia. Your friend gave you a great gift!

Hoping all your plants made it through. I think the frost wasn't as bad it was supposed to be.

It was not as bad as it could have been, but I think I lost a couple for sure. The sweet peppers were the ones that have done the worst so far, which surprised me.

 

[Stefan_W]

....and I came home from work today and discovered that we had a major hail storm in this part of the city.

I'm now waiting for locust to strike, and fire and brimstone to rain down upon my peppers.

On the plus side, they are getting hardened off like nobody's business.

 

[stickman]

Ouch Stefan... be careful what you look for... you might find it!   We're having a much cooler spring than we had last year, but we can deal with this! Stay string bro'!

 

[Stefan_W]

Ouch Stefan... be careful what you look for... you might find it!   We're having a much cooler spring than we had last year, but we can deal with this! Stay string bro'!

Yeah, good news is on the horizon. I looked at the forecast, and the overnight lows are still cold for peppers but much more reasonable. I figure whatever springs back to life will do so over the course of the next few weeks. The worst hit were the sweet peppers, which sucks but at least they are easy to replace from any garden centre.

I hope this last nasty bit misses you!

 

[stickman]

Yeah, good news is on the horizon. I looked at the forecast, and the overnight lows are still cold for peppers but much more reasonable. I figure whatever springs back to life will do so over the course of the next few weeks. The worst hit were the sweet peppers, which sucks but at least they are easy to replace from any garden centre.

I hope this last nasty bit misses you!

I may lose a few that got too thirsty before the rain and too cold in the last snap, but the sweet peppers are all standing strong. I'm glad, because with the exception of the Marconi Rosso and the hybrid Kapias they're all varieties I got from abroad that can't be easily replaced.
 
I hope further cold nastiness misses you too! I'm ready to kick it up into overdrive and put the hammer down!

 

[Stefan_W]

This is almost getting funny.

After the hail storm cleared out and it looked like smooth sailing, an earthquake hit! It was a 5.2, but the epi-centre was a ways off so it just shook us around for a half minute or so.

Still, it sort of makes me wonder what is in store next. My plants are mostly sticks at this point after all of the abuse mother nature has inflicted upon them.

To try to stem the tide, and encouraged by the fact that the temps are starting to climb, I bought 100 worms from the fishing store and distributed them among the pepper pots. I have had excellent success with adding worms in the past, so putting 4 or so into every pot should help them bounce back.

At some point when looking at my pepper sticks no longer makes me frustrated I'll start posting pictures again.

 

[Dshlogg]

Sorry to hear about your plants. Mine are sticks too at this point. Frost though not hail.

If we had a 5.2 near here people would think the endtimes are near. Earthquakes freak me out. We had a 3 point something last year and I ran out of my building in seconds. The Washington Monument took a lot of damage. It's still closed now.

 

[stickman]

Hi Stefan
   It gets even weirder than that... I have it set up so I get an Email from the Geophysical Institute in Alaska when there's a Coronal Mass Ejection from the Sun, and therefore the likelihood of Northern Lights in the night sky. There was one yesterday, so there's a very good chance of seeing it for the next couple of nights. http://www.gi.alaska.edu/Auroraforecast
 
Sorry to hear your chiles are looking like sticks, but where there's life there's hope, and once it finally warms up I'm sure they'll do well. Cheers!

 

[WalkGood]

Stefan I’m sad to read about the hail and earthquake, bite your tongue on locust striking I’m rooting for you mon, so I hope your worm idea sparks some life back into your crop. That wooden stick I had coming out of a pot finally sparked new growth so it’s possible you might have some come back. I’m keeping mi fingers crossed on your behalf … Have a great weekend brethren!

 

[DocNrock]

Oh man, Stefan, I am so sorry to hear about the weather issues you are having.  I really hope things pull through for you.  And sorry to hear about the job, but at least you already have a job. 

 

[3/5King]

They will pull through Stefan! The tops got battered but as long as the healthy root system is intact, they will bounce back and start putting out some new bushy growth in no time. I lost all the leaves on my starts last year and after a few weeks they were bushy and lush, producing a decent amount of pods by the end. I hope/expect yours to do the same buddy!

 

[Stefan_W]

Sorry to hear about your plants. Mine are sticks too at this point. Frost though not hail.

If we had a 5.2 near here people would think the endtimes are near. Earthquakes freak me out. We had a 3 point something last year and I ran out of my building in seconds. The Washington Monument took a lot of damage. It's still closed now.

 
Yeah, the shift from leafy wonders to sticks began for me when we had an unexpected late frost and about a week of overnight lows hovering around zero. The poor guys never stood a chance. Hopefully both of ours will bounce back in time to produce at least a partial harvest.

Hi Stefan
   It gets even weirder than that... I have it set up so I get an Email from the Geophysical Institute in Alaska when there's a Coronal Mass Ejection from the Sun, and therefore the likelihood of Northern Lights in the night sky. There was one yesterday, so there's a very good chance of seeing it for the next couple of nights. http://www.gi.alaska.edu/Auroraforecast
 
Sorry to hear your chiles are looking like sticks, but where there's life there's hope, and once it finally warms up I'm sure they'll do well. Cheers!

 
 
Nothing surprises me at this point! Yeah, I'm sure they'll recover but my only big concern is the short growing season. If they don't get moving quickly I'll end up with hundreds of green peppers at the end of the year.

Stefan I’m sad to read about the hail and earthquake, bite your tongue on locust striking I’m rooting for you mon, so I hope your worm idea sparks some life back into your crop. That wooden stick I had coming out of a pot finally sparked new growth so it’s possible you might have some come back. I’m keeping mi fingers crossed on your behalf … Have a great weekend brethren!

 
 
Thanks for the positive wishes! I'm sure they'll come back, but oi!

Oh man, Stefan, I am so sorry to hear about the weather issues you are having.  I really hope things pull through for you.  And sorry to hear about the job, but at least you already have a job. 

 
 
I'm not too worried at the job, but my peppers are getting me a bit down. I'm waiting for locusts to hit next, and maybe a drought to cap it all off. I'm just going to chalk it up to one of those years, and if I can manage a good harvest anyway it just means that I'm awesome at this stuff

 

[Sanarda]

Really sorry to hear that.  Mine are bouncing back from burn.  It truly sucks when you put so much into the first few months to have lush plants turn to sticks in a matter of hours.  Im sure you will have a comeback.  Keeping fingers crossed.

 

[Stefan_W]

They will pull through Stefan! The tops got battered but as long as the healthy root system is intact, they will bounce back and start putting out some new bushy growth in no time. I lost all the leaves on my starts last year and after a few weeks they were bushy and lush, producing a decent amount of pods by the end. I hope/expect yours to do the same buddy!

 
 
Thanks for this info! I knew they would bounce back, but I was wondering how long it takes. If it is only a matter of a few weeks then I'll be fine. I notice the sticks have small growth all over them, although the ones that managed to keep some leaves around are doing way better than the ones that dropped all of their leaves right away. I'm crossing my fingers!

Really sorry to hear that.  Mine are bouncing back from burn.  It truly sucks when you put so much into the first few months to have lush plants turn to sticks in a matter of hours.  Im sure you will have a comeback.  Keeping fingers crossed.

 
 
Yeah, I was kind of expecting burn because I end up with that on some of my peppers every year. But after a week of scorching weather every went haywire on me. I wish you all the best dealing with the burn! I found pruning the leaves that are really burned as early as possible helped production later in the year.

 

[PeriPeri]

Hey Stefan. Just crawling out from under my rock - been bogged down with work... sorry to hear your turn of events. Head up my friend. Those chillies are robust and I know you will come right. I have found chillies that were cut at the base by cutworm come back more ferociously than before and produce probably even better than plants that had it easy. Fish/Seaweed pellets always helped me give them plants the boost they needed. Good luck!

 

[Stefan_W]

Hey Stefan. Just crawling out from under my rock - been bogged down with work... sorry to hear your turn of events. Head up my friend. Those chillies are robust and I know you will come right. I have found chillies that were cut at the base by cutworm come back more ferociously than before and produce probably even better than plants that had it easy. Fish/Seaweed pellets always helped me give them plants the boost they needed. Good luck!

 
Thanks for the tip! Yeah, I used seaweed on all of my chillies to give them a fighting chance. At this point they need to leaf up quickly to get back into the game.
Ok, time to put some pictures. I should put up a parental advisory, because this is going to be ugly. Having said that, gardening is about the good, the bad, and the ugly so my glog would not be complete or honest without showing where they are at right now.
 
My Tabago Treasures are alongside the house, and were thus spared a lot of the hail damage that happened to my other plants. They had the frost damage and lost some leaves, but I expect them to bounce back fairly quickly.

 
The paprikas were more exposed to the hail. I picked off the dead leaves after the frost damage, so the leaves next to the plant were destroyed by hail. What happened is the leaves hit by hail pellets broke at the stem, often in several places. Even though they were hanging on a bit I ended up having to pick them off so that the plant could focus energy on starting new sets of leaves. 

 
Somehow the Firecracker chilli managed to avoid the worst of the hail damage even though it was right out in the open. It was my only pepper plant out in the open that did not have many leaves destroyed by hail. Even that one pepper that flowered early is still there. Normally I would pluck that guy off, but considering it is a small miracle that the pepper survived this long I figured it best to leave it be for now.

 
I put three sweet peppers in each large pot to save space. This is what is left of all of my sweets after the frost and hail, each of which killed of about half of the leaves.

 
Did I mention the hail storm was brutal? This is what is left of my peach bhut. The dead leaves sitting on the mulch are all ones that the hail destroyed, because I picked the frost damaged ones off last week.

 
The madame jeanette sits right next to the peach bhut and had the exact same thing happen. This shows how well the growth iis going after about 2 days of decent temps.

 
The overwinters are perfectly fine after all of this. They were already pretty much dormant, so they just stayed that way. The growth is starting to come in, and I expect these plants to take off in a hurry very soon.

 
The worst looking of the hot peppers is easily the Jonah. It was a runt to begin with, and I almost tossed it several times before it made it into the garden. Because it was such a runt I only have an inch ot two of stem sticking out from the mulch with, of course, no leave. Lets play find the Jonah in this picture. My goal is to get 2-3 peppers from this plant so I can at least try it to see if I like it.

 
From worst to best. The giant jalapeno that Sofia and I planted early seemed to shrug off the frost and hail damage. It lost leaves like crazy, but it was so far along that it just picked up where it left off.

 
This shot shows a couple of rows of my hot peppers, which are in varying stages of damage and crappiness. 

 
At the end of the rows on the right hand side is my Butch-T. It was always one of the best looking peppers that I had, right up until I put it into the garden. It was still find after the frost, but its extremely large leaves meant the hail did a number on it. Still, it managed to keep some leaves intact and was thus able to bounce back quickly.

 
There you have it. Not pretty to look at, but that is where I am at right now.
 
Thanks for taking a look, and I hope you are not too traumatized by the experience.