Been a good while since I gave an update on my plants that are still indoors...
Around a month ago (see previous posts) when I began transitioning all my Ghosts, Habaneros, and a few others to a life outside there was around three primary reasons for the move - to free up space in my small grow room, to see if these babies could flourish if they were put in natural sunlight and, most importantly, to hope that by having them outside that ladybugs & others might help eradicate the aphids off of them. The cold/frost outside didn't end up a little past mid-June here, so most of those I put outside ended up losing a ton of leaves - and they're just now beginning to begin growing new leaves and branches (and oddly enough, they seem more determined to grow buds).
Since that transition I began becoming much more diligent about attempting to eradicate the aphids on my babies that are still indoors, and I also picked up a few new babies from local stores/greenhouses. Sadly, I've pretty much lost the Habanero seedling I bought, along with another baby. And before finally getting the aphids down to a manageable number (most are on my Brown Naglah.. ugh) I nearly lost nearly all my other babies. So, rather than post pictures of my babies at a low point in their lives where they were nearly all void of leaves I decided to wait and see if they might recover.
I think my original Cayenne is nearly (if not already) dead (even the green from the stems is fading away), but most others - I'm very proud to say - are recovering!
So without further ado, let the photos begin (sorry about the blurriness of a few! - bit tough getting steady photos with a hurt foot):
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Carolina Reaper
He's hanging in and really starting to fill out again.. Only trouble is that even his new leaves are going tough and wrinkling & folding inward. Calcium deficiency, maybe? I've topped his soil with some Calcium Sulfate pellets/powder so hopefully that'll help him some in time. *crosses fingers*
Any other suggestions?
. and I'm sad to report that his little spider friend that was hanging around for over a month is gone 
Butch T
This poor little fella was planted around a month before my Brown Naglah (so around the first of December) and the furthest he's gotten was to start flowering.. but he's had a rough life from the very start because of the damn aphids. Like so many others of my babies I ended up topping him (around the end of May/early June), but now he's looking pretty damn happy so maybe he'll finally make some real progress!
007 Red
This has been the one I've been hoping on the most ever since the good folks at Buckeye Pepper Company sent the seeds to me as a freebie (if I remember correctly)! It's had a tough life because of the aphids, but it's starting to look good - again:
7 Pot Bubblegum
This poor bugger is one that I ordered from Buckeye and I've been so excited about growing a baby that'll actually see the color of the pods bleed into the stems (seems so cool to me).. yet, at every turn this poor guy has been beat down. I thought for sure he would be dead (just look how poorly thin his poor stem is), but he's really starting to do well. I stuck the stick in the ground yesterday to hold him up because he has this secondary stem growing out one side that's about 2-3 times as thick as his main stem and I don't want him to snap himself when he's just finally branching out! .. He was planted a day after the 007 (late February).
Mystery Plant (seeds from Gotrox)
Of the six seedlings I started from the spoonful of mixed seeds I received from a contest that
Gotrox held, this guy is sadly the only one to survive. Germination rates were great and they all were growing quite well (awesome seeds Gotrox!), but they were no match for the aphids.
.. I really hope this fella begins to flourish so I can see some pods and maybe find out what he is!
Sweet Heat
This is one of the new babies I picked up from a store in the past month or so. The pods growing on him were already there when I picked 'em out (part of the reason I grabbed this particular one). He's been putting out flowers, but none have turned to pods yet. The aphids nearly got 'em, but I won this round and I'm keeping it that way. In the past week his branches have started growing out and he's getting taller pretty quickly.
"Pimenta 'Cayennetta' Cayenne Hybrid"
.. That's the name on the label. I picked it up because I figured I could use some more pods that grow long, and because it's quite leafy. Right now it's reminding me of the Super Chile - very bushy and not getting too tall. It's starting to flower and seems to have plenty of pollen, but no pods just yet.
.. And here's my first small harvest of beans (first I've tried to grow since elementary, I think lol):
Brown Naglah
.. and finally my prize baby. I really wish I could get him outside, but I can barely even lift the large plastic bin he's in -and-, much more importantly, he simply won't fit through the doorways unless I lob off a lot of his branches and I really, really don't want to do that. But I do want him outside in the natural sun so that he might spend the rest of the summer pushing out tons of pods... It's a dilemma.
He's still dealing with aphids, but I'm doing my best to keep them down..
p.s. you can't see all of him in this photo.. too damn big in a small room lol
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... In the past couple weeks I actually made a valiant effort to clean the glass casing my HPS light is in (it was really, really dusty.. but it's tough for me to even take it down from the ceiling) and since then I've been leaving it on 24/7. Yeah, that's going to jack up the electricity bill, I'm sure, but my babies are finally bouncing back and I've noticed a definitive difference in the aphids.. The constant light seems to slow those damn little buggers. *nod*
.. P.s. those aren't all my babies, just the one's recovering/doing the best. I have one other picture right now, but it's far too blurry. lol
