Hi,
My 2013 growing season is starting off on shaky ground, but hopefully the New England weather will warm up so I can get some huge plants from my overwintered survivors, select some nice F2 hybrids in my breeding attempts, and make more interesting crosses. Holding me back for the time being is a lot of shade (huge oak tree) in the backyard and somewhat limited space/resources. I’m also having to start seeds late and without dependable heat. Despite their being in a very cool basement, I was able to overwinter plants under 4 T8 lights. (Wish I had a warm window in addition to the lights, but that will have to wait). There was a aphid explosion and then flies and mold fed off the aphid waste. I finally controlled the aphids and most of plants pulled though. For a few weeks now, they've been outside during the day (mostly 60’s temperatures) and inside at night with a few extra hours of lights. Now some are looking anywhere from a little limp to a quite sick as you'll see below. Could it be too much water? There was heavy rain last week right after I upped their watering. I had been keeping them fairly dry over the winter.
Overwintered plants:
annuums:
3x chiltepin Sonoran orange
"PRGW" = Puerto Rican generic hot pepper x goat’s weed (the Puerto Rican pepper was probably “large thick cayenne” or similar).
chinense:
2x CAP 691
1 large red 7 pot (my only superhot started last year and seems to be deceased as of a few days ago).
The above chinense were started very late last summer, suffered greatly over the winter from the aphids and mold and then, just as winter was ending, I let them dry out – fortunately at least one of the CAP 691's is recovering.
frutescens:
3x Bradley’s Bahamian - got these as bonus seeds from Pepper Lover and they seem to be nice plants; overwintered well and have dark leaves, a trait I like.
2x Malagueta – got them as a hotter, earlier and darker-leaved alternative to tabasco (though the Bradley’s are darker, seem hardier and are supposedly very early for a frutescens).
1 large tabasco - stems are still green but it may be dead (it was brought in mainly for ripening pods last fall).
Other:
3x “ABCD” - Aji dulce (chinense) x annuum cross – these plants looked very like the Aji dulce mom at first, except more compact. Thought they were all chinense til they got bigger and had fruit. The fruit was much, much hotter than I expected and the winter leaves are much smaller. None of the winter fruit had a lot of seeds, but I hope to get a bunch of F2 seeds soon. I did outcross the first pod last fall and got some seeds. “Plant A” seemed the best last year (maybe had slightly more buds than others) and still looks great, but suddenly the other 2 plants have wilted.
Blue Mystery from Pepper Lover – was a free bonus that I really liked and the plant was the healthiest through most of the winter, but something happened to it in the past few days so it may be on its way out.
Recently sown seeds:
Superhot chinense:
Monster naga – hope this grows fast, like the regular nagas did for me in PR.
Bhut red
Brain Strain
Large red 7 pot
Other chinense:
Datil
Wild Brazil
Bode
Hybrids:
25x PRGW from best plant – will select fuzziest plants, then earliest flowers/fruit, then shape and taste (F1’s didn’t taste much better than goat’s weed); Not a really special cross, but I’m going for a cayenne-like fruit on a pubescent plant that overwinters well; a “Fuzzy Cayenne”. Hopefully I’ll get that black to red fruit trait as well from goat’s weed.
Also Growing a few tabasco x habanero – I know this cross has been done many times, but maybe I can use these as a “bridge” for some later crosses.
Here are some pictures I took today (bear in mind that these were started late last summer and overwintered in far less than ideal conditions):
Chiltepin Sonoran orange:
Does anyone know if the above is good choice to put in one of my largest containers? Chiltepins can get huge; correct? Would it grow significantly in it's second season?
Bradley's Bahamian:
A recovering CAP 691:
Sickly CAP 691 - they both had shriveled, but this one grew back light-colored leaves and then the leaves started curling up yesterday:
Healthy "ABCD" pepper:
A sickly ABCD:
Thanks for looking and let me know if you have ideas about the sick plants. I just checked the weather forecast and it will indeed warm up (80's !) so hopefully I'll get to repotting and see some germination.
My 2013 growing season is starting off on shaky ground, but hopefully the New England weather will warm up so I can get some huge plants from my overwintered survivors, select some nice F2 hybrids in my breeding attempts, and make more interesting crosses. Holding me back for the time being is a lot of shade (huge oak tree) in the backyard and somewhat limited space/resources. I’m also having to start seeds late and without dependable heat. Despite their being in a very cool basement, I was able to overwinter plants under 4 T8 lights. (Wish I had a warm window in addition to the lights, but that will have to wait). There was a aphid explosion and then flies and mold fed off the aphid waste. I finally controlled the aphids and most of plants pulled though. For a few weeks now, they've been outside during the day (mostly 60’s temperatures) and inside at night with a few extra hours of lights. Now some are looking anywhere from a little limp to a quite sick as you'll see below. Could it be too much water? There was heavy rain last week right after I upped their watering. I had been keeping them fairly dry over the winter.
Overwintered plants:
annuums:
3x chiltepin Sonoran orange
"PRGW" = Puerto Rican generic hot pepper x goat’s weed (the Puerto Rican pepper was probably “large thick cayenne” or similar).
chinense:
2x CAP 691
1 large red 7 pot (my only superhot started last year and seems to be deceased as of a few days ago).
The above chinense were started very late last summer, suffered greatly over the winter from the aphids and mold and then, just as winter was ending, I let them dry out – fortunately at least one of the CAP 691's is recovering.
frutescens:
3x Bradley’s Bahamian - got these as bonus seeds from Pepper Lover and they seem to be nice plants; overwintered well and have dark leaves, a trait I like.
2x Malagueta – got them as a hotter, earlier and darker-leaved alternative to tabasco (though the Bradley’s are darker, seem hardier and are supposedly very early for a frutescens).
1 large tabasco - stems are still green but it may be dead (it was brought in mainly for ripening pods last fall).
Other:
3x “ABCD” - Aji dulce (chinense) x annuum cross – these plants looked very like the Aji dulce mom at first, except more compact. Thought they were all chinense til they got bigger and had fruit. The fruit was much, much hotter than I expected and the winter leaves are much smaller. None of the winter fruit had a lot of seeds, but I hope to get a bunch of F2 seeds soon. I did outcross the first pod last fall and got some seeds. “Plant A” seemed the best last year (maybe had slightly more buds than others) and still looks great, but suddenly the other 2 plants have wilted.
Blue Mystery from Pepper Lover – was a free bonus that I really liked and the plant was the healthiest through most of the winter, but something happened to it in the past few days so it may be on its way out.
Recently sown seeds:
Superhot chinense:
Monster naga – hope this grows fast, like the regular nagas did for me in PR.
Bhut red
Brain Strain
Large red 7 pot
Other chinense:
Datil
Wild Brazil
Bode
Hybrids:
25x PRGW from best plant – will select fuzziest plants, then earliest flowers/fruit, then shape and taste (F1’s didn’t taste much better than goat’s weed); Not a really special cross, but I’m going for a cayenne-like fruit on a pubescent plant that overwinters well; a “Fuzzy Cayenne”. Hopefully I’ll get that black to red fruit trait as well from goat’s weed.
Also Growing a few tabasco x habanero – I know this cross has been done many times, but maybe I can use these as a “bridge” for some later crosses.
Here are some pictures I took today (bear in mind that these were started late last summer and overwintered in far less than ideal conditions):
Chiltepin Sonoran orange:
Does anyone know if the above is good choice to put in one of my largest containers? Chiltepins can get huge; correct? Would it grow significantly in it's second season?
Bradley's Bahamian:
A recovering CAP 691:
Sickly CAP 691 - they both had shriveled, but this one grew back light-colored leaves and then the leaves started curling up yesterday:
Healthy "ABCD" pepper:
A sickly ABCD:
Thanks for looking and let me know if you have ideas about the sick plants. I just checked the weather forecast and it will indeed warm up (80's !) so hopefully I'll get to repotting and see some germination.
