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Too late?

T

tristantmc2

Hey guys! I'm new here so don't yell at me if I screw something up.
I live in southeastern Michigan and ordered some seeds from Pepper Joe a week or so back.
I just got them in the mail about 4 days ago and they've been in the peat pots ever since.
After doing some poking around (I don't know a ton about peppers) I realized that I started them pretty late in the season, and I'm starting to stress out because I'm not sure if I'll see any peppers this year.
The peppers I bought were:
  • Carolina Reaper
  • Chocolate Habanero
  • White Habanero
  • Yellow Bhut Jolokia
  • Yatsufusa
  • Red Peter
How long do they take to germinate on average?
Are there any I may not expect to see peppers on this year?
And one more thing I've been curious about: cross pollinating.
If I'm lucky enough to get peppers this year, how do I cross pollinate/breed them?
Are there any that are incompatible?
Thanks a ton!
 
Germinating usually is 5-15+ days. Depending on seed viability and method used to germinate.
You will have to take your supers and Hab. indoors and under lights when the weather gets cold, ( low temps in the 30's).
Its up to you if you want to cross pollinate them. I'm not sure how stable of a strain the Reaper is.
 
IMO :
- Never, ever use peat with pepper
- Germination : between 10 & 30 days.
- I don't know how long last the seasons where you live
- Cross Polination : put them very close together, let the bees do the job. Or by hand.
- Yeah the Annumm wil not cross easily with the other Chinense I think
 
You should be fine. I want to say a good 90% of seed starting mixes are peat based anyway. I personally use a 60% peat based starter and have had 0 problems starting seeds.

As for it being to late, nahh you should be able to get at least one good harvest off your plants before it gets cold enough to warrant bringing them indoors yet. I'm in WI and I just started a couple more plants that I got seeds for and really wanted to squeeze in this year. Just remember that as soon as you know it's going to frost or stay in the low 40's that anything hotter than a hab needs to go indoors or they will die. Some of the less hot plants will be able to take a frost or two without a problem, had a couple cayenne plants that actually made it through 3 frosts before they started dropping leaves.
 
If everything goes right it should take about 90-105 days before you harvest something. I'd say September for you if they germ fast enough. I started chineses last year on April 1st and had pods by the end of July. But like I said it depends on a lot of things!
 
Jamison said:
If everything goes right it should take about 90-105 days before you harvest something. I'd say September for you if they germ fast enough. I started chineses last year on April 1st and had pods by the end of July. But like I said it depends on a lot of things!
Click to expand...

Wow April 1st and pods by the end of July!!! Thats really fast!!!
 
PHB said:
Indoor for sure it's possible, but outdoor I don't know.
Click to expand...
He will be fine.

Peat pots are fine.
Some Annums can cross with chinense.

As for just cross pollinating:
To greatly simplify this.
You take a moist Q-Tip and rub it around the flower of the first pepper you wish to cross.
Look at the flower you are going to pollinate with carefully, you will see that there is a single thing in the middle poking out. That is one genders part.
There will also be several things pointing out in a ring around that center one. Those are the other genders parts.
On the one you are pollinating to, pluck off all the outer ones leaving only the single one in the center.
GENTLY rub and spin the same Q-Tip around on that flowers center.
To insure it is not a mix, you should now cover the flower with a small mesh bag. Use an Organza Bag or similar.
That will insure isolation as it keeps any other polen from getting to the flower.
 
Actually ALL ANNUUMS ARE ABLE TO CROSS WITH ALL CHINENSE.

Also if you want to guarantee a cross, you have to emasculate one flower (the one you want to be the mother) and get pollen from an opened flower (the one you want to be the male) and put it onto the pistol (female part of a flower) of the emasculated flower. If you wait till the mother plant's flower is open, you cannot guarantee that it hasn't already been pollinated.

One of these days I'll get that through to some people.
 
coheed196 said:
Actually ALL ANNUUMS ARE ABLE TO CROSS WITH ALL CHINENSE.

Also if you want to guarantee a cross, you have to emasculate one flower (the one you want to be the mother) and get pollen from an opened flower (the one you want to be the male) and put it onto the pistol (female part of a flower) of the emasculated flower. If you wait till the mother plant's flower is open, you cannot guarantee that it hasn't already been pollinated.

One of these days I'll get that through to some people.
Click to expand...

Ok I apologize for my bad advice. I though I read somewhere it was very hard to cross pollinate. Sorry
 
You should be fine i started bhuts 2 years ago 3rd week in may and still had a nice harvest. all depends on what type of michigan fall we get though.
 
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