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]

Looking good. Them lemons are very prolific. I had so many last year off of one plant that i didnt even have anything to do with em all.

Thanks for stopping in and thanks for the info. I was planning on growing two because I was worried that only a few pods would ripen in our short growing season. Maybe I need to re-think that. How long did it take from setting the lemondrops out and the pods ripening?

Lime zest, salt, pepper and a diced lemon drop, put that on a filet of fish for 30 minutes before grilling and it is money!

Thank you very much, this is first on my list of recipes to try when the lemondrops start to ripen! Well, second if you count dicing and putting them on a plate of nachos and melted cheese.

Ah, the Lemondrops. .......Great tasting, especially for those folks that never tried them before.....

I actually just stopped back here to see that "Wing" photo again.................ok, now I'm really starving.

Even your comment about the wings is making me hungry. Man did they RAWK!

 

[Pr0digal_son]

Just read this for the first time. I really needed the reality check...thank you for the grace you've shown with your family health issue. It's easy to sweat the petty things,and then you see issues others endure and it gives you that life "SLAP" that you need to pull your head out of your arse. God bless you and your family,and good luck with your season.

 

[megamoo]

Good luck with the season and everything. I'll be watching

 

[Stefan_W]

Just read this for the first time. I really needed the reality check...thank you for the grace you've shown with your family health issue. It's easy to sweat the petty things,and then you see issues others endure and it gives you that life "SLAP" that you need to pull your head out of your arse. God bless you and your family,and good luck with your season.

Thank you very much for your kind words. When you have a seriously ill child you learn to never take things for granted. One thing I have learned about human nature is that deep down inside the vast majority of people are decent and good right down to the core. When we were going through daily radiation for a month members of our local church brought up home cooked meals each and every day, and during our last 5 week stay at the hospital people in our neighbourhood took turns brings meals to the hospital so that we could eat. Very appreciated when you are in ICU and you are terrified to leave the room for even 5 minutes. God bless you and your family too, thank you stopping by and especially for caring

Good luck with the season and everything. I'll be watching

Thanks Moo! I'll keep putting loads of pictures up until you can't stand to see another perfectly cooked chicken wing

 

[Stefan_W]

After the Hot Pepper Awards I tried contacting a few of the winning sellers to see if I could get ahold their sauces. Living in Canada means I have to specifically ask each seller to see if they will ship across the border. Some completely ignored me, a couple were polite and said no while giving excuses of customs issues. The only one to step up to the plate for me was Lucky Dog Hot Sauce, which finished in second place in a couple of different categories. The first thing I noticed was how awesome Scott is to deal with, which is always important to me.

The three bottles I ordered came in the mail today. Luckily the weather took a turn for the better and is hovering around freezing now instead of being well below that. The bottles of sauce were in perfect condition on arrival, and they were very very cold which is totally cool.

I already bought subs for dinner on the way home, so the timing could not have been better. I popped open a bottle of the medium to give it a quick taste, and the flavour was more complex than I was expecting. Definitely something that is great to have on hand, and that will go on a lot of different things.

I slathered it onto my sub, and it was heaven. Easily one of the best sauces I've ever bought, and I am definitely looking forward to trying the other ones.

Just a note to buyer, because the sauce is pretty thick, Scott (correctly) does not put the plastic insert on top that slows the flow rate down. So when you first pop a bottle it will take a bit to come out, and then a lot may come out at once. Be aware so you don't accidently waste any, because you'll want every drop of this stuff.

 

[HillBilly Jeff]

Good luck to you.

 

[Stefan_W]

9 days after planting, 6 of the 8 aji lemon drop seeds we put into the ground have sprouted. I'm pretty sure we would get to 100% germination if I left it for another week, but I only need 4 or 5 of these. The next step either today or tomorrow will be to put these bad boys into 4 inch pots.

Tabascos are much harder to germinate. After the first 7 days none of the 20 or so seeds we planted (half in rapid rooters, half in the soil mix I usually use) have popped. I knew tabascos were brutal to germinate, which is why I selected them for this little experiment.

 

[Stefan_W]

A couple of new things going on this evening, so I decided to take a few pics and put them up here.

As of yesterday I had 6 aji lemondrops, which is too many.

I decided to tansplant them into four inch pots with some myco. This is my first time using myco (shown below), so it is a bit of an experiment. I dipped the roots in it before Sofia planted them, but next time I will just pour some in the hole instead to make life easier.

The lemondrops surrounding the early jalapeno, which is getting set to start putting out its true leaves.

8 days ago I started an experiment with tabasco peppers, where I put a bunch of seeds in my regular potting soil and about the same number of seeds in rapid rooters. The ones in the potting soil are not showing anything yet.

But the first of the seeds in rapid rooters is showing a hook and getting ready to take off.

Brent mentioned earlier that he has had little luck germinating his rocoto seeds, so I decided to plant some of my own this evening to see what happens. My daughter, as usual, planted all 8 giant rocoto seeds and all 8 red rocoto seeds. Another one of her jobs is writing the names on the markers, although she lets her dad help with that one if she gets bored.

As usual, she is very careful about making sure every single seed goes in the right place.

These are the seeds on the go: about 20 or so tabasco seeds in two different growing media, 8 red rocotos in four cells, 8 giant rocotos in four cells. More pics to follow as things develop.

 

[DocNrock]

Love seeing Sofia get into this with you. I can tell her entire mind is focused on the task at hand. I'll be interested to see how your Rocotos fare. I'm pretty sure mine are bad seeds. When I got them, the envelope was not a bubble envelope and it was hard to tell, but I think many of them were fractured from their journey through the postal service. I have seeds from another source on the way for my final go at them. Good luck with yours. And very happy to see some life from the Tabascos.

 

[Stefan_W]

Love seeing Sofia get into this with you. I can tell her entire mind is focused on the task at hand. I'll be interested to see how your Rocotos fare. I'm pretty sure mine are bad seeds. When I got them, the envelope was not a bubble envelope and it was hard to tell, but I think many of them were fractured from their journey through the postal service. I have seeds from another source on the way for my final go at them. Good luck with yours. And very happy to see some life from the Tabascos.

Thank you very much! Just let me know if you need any other rocoto seeds. I am planning on growing two rocotos this year, one red and one giant mexican, so I only used about a third of the seeds in each of the packets. So even if the new seeds that are on the way don't work out you're still covered.

 

[stickman]

Hi Stefan
My Ajis were the first to pop as well. No hooks yet, but I did the coffee filter germination so I know they're on their way...
It's too soon to add the Myco that's in my fertilizer... I guess I'll have to see if the local hydroponics shop I found the airpots in has it.
Nice to see you and your helper doing things up!

 

[Stefan_W]

Hi Stefan
My Ajis were the first to pop as well. No hooks yet, but I did the coffee filter germination so I know they're on their way... Nice to see you and your helper doing things up!

I figured I should start them really early because they are very long season, and if I start them at the usual time I wont have any ripe ones until late Aug. What I didn't count on was the seeds popping like microwave popcorn! I thought they would be more like tabascos, which are also very long season. Hey, maybe we can race!

 

[PaulG]

Stefan, Sophia is absolutely adorable!
You have a great start on your grow!

 

[Stefan_W]

Stefan, Sophia is absolutely adorable!
You have a great start on your grow!

Thank you very much, Paul!

 

[WalkGood]

I’m away a few days and everyone’s blown past me … hard catching up and still a lot for me to do, so not much time reading the forums this week :/ That said, I just caught up on yours and nice updates with the aji lemondrops pop’in, some lucky dog sauce in sub, tabasco peppers in rapid rooter starts and Sofia working her magic on the transplanting … awesome mon!

You should take some notes along the way, so as not to forget and write a brief review on the hot sauces down the line when you’ve tasted them enough. This would be a nice/fun read … keep up da great work and I’ll try updating my stuff soon

 

[roper2008]

Cute little helper you have there. You can tell she is being very precise with her work.

Good luck with the rocoto's. I have 2 red rocoto's sprouted. That's about all I want to
grow. I have to get them through our hot summer.

 

[patrick]

Stefan I'm curious as to why you dipped your roots into the Myco prior to transplanting them. I always thought it was supposed to be watered in.

 

[Stefan_W]

I’m away a few days and everyone’s blown past me … hard catching up and still a lot for me to do, so not much time reading the forums this week :/ That said, I just caught up on yours and nice updates with the aji lemondrops pop’in, some lucky dog sauce in sub, tabasco peppers in rapid rooter starts and Sofia working her magic on the transplanting … awesome mon!

You should take some notes along the way, so as not to forget and write a brief review on the hot sauces down the line when you’ve tasted them enough. This would be a nice/fun read … keep up da great work and I’ll try updating my stuff soon

Thank you very much I wanted to get more hot sauce winners from the Hot Pepper Awards on this site, but Lucky Dog Hot Sauce was the only one that agreed to ship to Canada. I am definitely game for writing up a longer review once I am through the three bottles, which will be soon seeing as I am putting the stuff on absolutely everything now. The only I buy at the local hot sauce store is the Marie Sharpe hot habernero sauce, which I love, so I could put up a review of that one as well. But for the most part I usually just make my own sauces, which can be hit or miss but are fun to make all the same.

Cute little helper you have there. You can tell she is being very precise with her work.

Good luck with the rocoto's. I have 2 red rocoto's sprouted. That's about all I want to
grow. I have to get them through our hot summer.

Thank you so much for stopping by! This is my first year growing them, but I hear they can be a challenge in full sun/intense heat conditions. My plan to put them along the west side of my house so they get partial sun that does not beat down on them, but I am not sure whether this will work out. I am also gearing up for a two year plan with rocotos, because I hear they don't produce much in year one and pretty much need to be overwintered to become productive.

I'll have to track down your glog so I can keep up with your grow.

 

[PIC 1]

Stefan, Great start with your glog, It's like looking at a magazine with plenty of photos...............and I do like photos..................

 

[Stefan_W]

Stefan I'm curious as to why you dipped your roots into the Myco prior to transplanting them. I always thought it was supposed to be watered in.

The short answer is because I absolutely, positively have no idea what I am doing with the stuff. This is my first year using myco, so as I go through the first seedlings that I don't really need I am trying out different ways of growing, transplanting, fertilizing, etc. I gather that the best place for the myco to be effective is along the root system, so the trick would be getting as much of it there as possible. This could involve mixing it in with water, which would spread it out, dabbing the roots in it, which leads to root loss at the seedling stage because the roots are sometimes attached to clumps of dirt that fall off as you dab them. My next attempt will be to just put some myco in the whole I'm about to transplant the seedlings into and see how that works. In all of these scenarios you add water after the transplant, and I have even seen some people add in some seaweed juice so the myco has more to feed on. That last one sounds interesting to me, and I have liquid seaweed leftover from making compost teat last year, so I can see giving that a go in the next little while.

Thanks for popping in

Stefan, Great start with your glog, It's like looking at a magazine with plenty of photos...............and I do like photos..................

Thank you very much I take a lot of pictures and only a small number of them make it here. Last year I think I was too caught up with focusing only on peppers, and my plan for this year's glog will be to include more general garden pictures that people may like, and more pictures that go with my absolute favourite recipes. The thing I love most about this site, aside from the fantastic people I continue to meet, is picking up new ideas that I use when I'm cooking.

I can't compete with the quality of your glog or your grow, but I do try to keep things going and make whatever small contribution I can