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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.
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My daughter personally doing the transplant.
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Her aim is better than mine, and so it turned out perfectly.
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Next up was taking out the lemondrop seeds from peppermania.
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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.
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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.
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The heating pad works extremely well, and once the cells are covered the top clouds up in no time.
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A happy early jalapeno seedling in his new home. I thought I heard "feeeeeed meeeeee" coming from that direction, but I'm not sure.
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That's it for today, folks! Welcome to my new glog :welcome:
 
Hi Stefan
Hope you're about done with that bug you had last week.

I started my Habaneros about the middle of February and planted them the middle of April last year, and I think that was a smart move in retrospect... They have a 100 day growing season and I was picking ripe pods from them in August. The pods didn't ripen all at once either... I got somewhere between a couple to a handful a day while the season lasted, and I could only count on 4 or 5 weeks until frost. . Some of the hotter Chinense varieties have up to a 140 day season, so I'd suggest you start them now to get them as big as possible before you plant them outside this spring.
 
Hi Stefan
Hope you're about done with that bug you had last week.

I started my Habaneros about the middle of February and planted them the middle of April last year, and I think that was a smart move in retrospect... They have a 100 day growing season and I was picking ripe pods from them in August. The pods didn't ripen all at once either... I got somewhere between a couple to a handful a day while the season lasted, and I could only count on 4 or 5 weeks until frost. . Some of the hotter Chinense varieties have up to a 140 day season, so I'd suggest you start them now to get them as big as possible before you plant them outside this spring.

Thanks! The longest season plant I grew last year, by far, was the tabasco. My bhuts were supposed to be long season as well, but I had some pods ripening by late July and early Aug. So basically I am using the bhuts and tabascos as a yard stick. If anything on my grow list takes longer than they do I need to get them in the ground soon. If anything is in the 140 day class then I'm probably screwed, but I refuse to give up!

Here is the latest draft of my tentative grow list, which is not likely to change at this point:
2nd year Ghost
7 Pod Yellow Gigantic
Moruga Scorpion
2nd year Tabasco
Giant Mexican Rocoto
Red Rocoto
Firecracker Chili (X3)
Cayenne (X4)
Tabasco (X4)
Tobago Treasure (X3)
Leutschauer Paprika (X4)
Pêssego Brasileiro (X4)
Sofia Sweet (X3)
Lipstick (X3)
California Wonder (X3)
Giant Jalapeno
7 Pod Jonah
Trinidad 7 Pod Primo
Trinidad Scorpion Yellow
Madame Jeanette
Aji Lemon Drop (X2)
White Habernero
Big Sun Habernero
Peach Habernero
Red Habernero
Scotch Bonnet Peach Long
Bahamian Goat Pepper
Mako Akokasrade
Biker Billy Jalapeno

I'm thinking the 7 pods and the scorpions may be the longest season, but I don't know because I haven't grown them. There is also the issue of whether they are tough to germinate as well, because I don't have loads of time to replant if nothing pops within 2-3 weeks.
 
On the ones that you feel will take a long time and do not want to risk it, plant dbl what you need. Be prepared to kill them if they all make it, that is the hard part. I'll be updating my list later in my GLOG on what has popped but I am surprised that ones I thought would take longer came up first and things like Habaneros are still not up.
 
The best guestimate I could find for the number of days to maturity for Scorpions and 7-pots was about 25 weeks... January to July. So you probably want to start them as soon as possible. Cheers
 
So things have been quietly moving along here. We are mostly healthy, although we all have a bit of a cough as the last of the flu clears out of our systems.

I decided to try using garden markers from Lee Valley to keep the names of the seedlings straight. Up until now I used painter's tape on the sides of the 4" pots, which worked fine but looked kind of trashy.

Sofia, of course, insisted on writing out all of the names onto the markers and putting the markers into each pot.
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So far I have one giant jalapeno, which we started in order to grow a few jalapenos indoors, 5 aji lemondrops, and 5 tabascos. The lemondrops are just starting to get their true leaves.
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None of the rocotos have germinated yet, but we are only 10 days in so I'm not panicking just yet. Last night we planted eight Yellow 7 Pod Gigantic seeds, and I am hoping to get two seedlings out of it- one to grow and one as a backup in case something happens to the first one.

Thank you for taking a look!
 
Full of win on every level. Love seeing Sofia at work, intent on the task at hand. Seedlings are coming along nicely. I'm not sure if it's just the pubescens in general or if this is just going to be a bad year for them. Everyone except PaulG and Highalt seem to be having problems getting them to germ. Good luck on them. I'm giving them one last go and that's it. ;)
 
Full of win on every level. Love seeing Sofia at work, intent on the task at hand. Seedlings are coming along nicely. I'm not sure if it's just the pubescens in general or if this is just going to be a bad year for them. Everyone except PaulG and Highalt seem to be having problems getting them to germ. Good luck on them. I'm giving them one last go and that's it. ;)

I hear ya regarding the pubes. I am giving these seeds another 1.5 weeks to germ before I call off my plan to grow rocotos. I hear they are awesome, but I have a lot of awesome plants this year without them.
 
Looking quite good Stefan. What are the sizes of those little pots you have going. I like the way the fit in the trays. 6" and 4"?

Yup, I have one six inch for the jalapeno and the rest are four inchers. I used to use three inch pots, which fit perfectly, but the plants were too root bound by spring so I bumped up. Thanks for stopping by!

Good looking babies, I think you just reminded me I think I left Lemon Drop off my list! Ah, it is on my Baccatum list of 1 which I have not started.

Thank you very much! This is my first time growing lemondrops, and I included them because I heard so many good things about the taste and production. I haven't decided yet whether I'm going to put one or two of them in the ground.
 
Yup, I have one six inch for the jalapeno and the rest are four inchers. I used to use three inch pots, which fit perfectly, but the plants were too root bound by spring so I bumped up. Thanks for stopping by!



Thank you very much! This is my first time growing lemondrops, and I included them because I heard so many good things about the taste and production. I haven't decided yet whether I'm going to put one or two of them in the ground.
Put 2, you will thank me later! I lost 3 this year and it was my most popular powder in previous years.
 
Your seedlings are coming along nicely. All I have growing right now is carolina reaper, primo's, orange blob,and 4
rocoto's, two which are helmet heads. Will probably throw those out. I don't want to start my other peppers too early because
I usually plant them out May 1st. I also have tomatoes and eggplant that I have to start from seed. I enjoy it though.
 
Your seedlings are coming along nicely. All I have growing right now is carolina reaper, primo's, orange blob,and 4
rocoto's, two which are helmet heads. Will probably throw those out. I don't want to start my other peppers too early because
I usually plant them out May 1st. I also have tomatoes and eggplant that I have to start from seed. I enjoy it though.

Yeah, this is definitely the earliest I have started pepper seeds. My daughter was asking, and I figured what the hell the worst that will happen is they get root bound, and maybe get a bit tough to harden off outset.

I envy you that you got rocotos to sprout, even if half ended up being helmet heads. I haven't seen a hint of any action from my rocotos yet.
 
Well, if my daughter was asking, I would start them too. Can't hurt. You will probably get peppers sooner this year.

Yeah, that's what I'm hoping for especially with the long season varieties. I can't get them outside until the second week in May, and our growing season is done by mid to late August so it doesn't leave a lot of time.
 
Good to read that you are healthier now, the seedlings look great and tell Sofia she prints better than me :D Don’t give up on dem rocotos, you never know. That said I’m ready to crack open my eggs that didn’t start by next Monday to see how the seeds look, hopefully I'll learn something. I’ll give them another crack when our temps stay warmer, summer works best for me. Keep dem great updates coming and hope you enjoy the weekend :)
 
Good to read that you are healthier now, the seedlings look great and tell Sofia she prints better than me :D Don’t give up on dem rocotos, you never know. That said I’m ready to crack open my eggs that didn’t start by next Monday to see how the seeds look, hopefully I'll learn something. I’ll give them another crack when our temps stay warmer, summer works best for me. Keep dem great updates coming and hope you enjoy the weekend :)

Thank you very much, I hope you enjoy the weekend too! I may be imagining things, but I could have sworn I saw a hook in one of the rocoto cells when I got home from work. I'll have to keep an eye on things to see if one of those little rascals ends up actually popping.
 
Stefan, I am green with envy. You have such an amazing helper. I see how Sofia writes the tags for you... I have a 5 year old and an 8 year old. I wish I could encourage them to help me too, but alas, they have absolutely no interest :)
 
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