Late season Jalapeno finally popping off! 73 and counting!

(The short version, I found 73 total peppers today on my single plant that was started late, growing in a 5 gallon bucket, cheap soil, cheap fertilizer, still another 10-12 flowers that I just pollinated)! 

Now for the details ha! 

I started way late in zone5b  June 10th with a 5-6" tall transplant.  I put it in a 1 gallon jug with the cheapest potting soil I could find, it had lots of mulch in it.  I only get 4-4.5 hours of direct sunlight per day, and by July 4th, it had barely grown, I'd say it was maybe 8-9", July 5th I transplanted to a 5 gallon bucket using more of the same cheap soil, I also purchased some $5 10-15-10 fertilizer that you mix with water, and watered my fresh transplant.  I also added in a couple 43w CFL's to supplement my lack of daylight, so it get's 4 hours of direct sunlight, and I also give it an additional 10-11 hours when the sun isn't out with my CFL.  Unfortunately, I bought 2900k bulbs not knowing any better.

Fast forward, I since have upgraded to 5 total CFL's, 4 of them are 23w 5000k, and still use one of the 43w 2900k.  I have a bad habbit of over fertilizing, when I water, I always deep water so just enough comes out the bottom.  I've had high heats, and have been watering every 1-2 days in 95 degree weather, and 2-3 days in lower temps.  I give them like 3/4 strength nutes once a week, and give them about half strength every 3-4 days, so yeah, lots more than recommended.  I also FLUSH them every 10-14 days, watering them over the course of about 15 minutes 3 separate times, making them "piss" each time to flush old nutes, actually just did that today, then hit them with around 3/4 strength nutes after I flushed.

Today I did an official count on my Jalapenos, 73 are pollinated and growing!  Many of them are just starting, as I just started finger pollinating by running the inside of the flower with my hand a few days ago, but many took to the pollen and have little peppers!  I'm shocked, a couple days ago a quick look, I thought I had around 25ish peppers, but 73!  Plus I just pollinated a guestimated 12-15 more peppers tonight!  
The Jalapeno is now 33" tall at its tallest branch, and most are around 29" tall.  Also, my pair of baby bell peppers in same growing conditions have 28 bells currently growing!  I just harvested 5 ripe ones a couple days ago  I give most my light to my Jalapeno as I want it to succeed the most lol

Oh, and I DID have a "tee pee" setup in my Jalap bucket when I first planted, but took it out a lil bit back as the sticks were flimsy, and read you usually don't need them.  I think I'm going to add supports back to the bucket, if all these fruits grow all the way, I'd hate to have branches fall over!  
Still have a teepee in my baby bells, they are now taller than the sticks I put in there, but it still provides support, plus I sometimes mount one of my lights on top of it aiming down lol

Edit:  haha, most the open flowers are usually hidden and burried, but in my first pic, I spot 7 open flowers!  
 
 
My Jalapeno plant

 
 
Just a lil bit ago after moving them from the front of my 3rd floor porch to the back to setup my CFL's


Lights on to run from 7-9pm, then at 6am I turn them back on to run until sunlight around 3pm

looking good! my serrano is starting to go completely nuts..had 4 initial pods that started about 3 weeks ago, and no other pods until 4-5 days ago..now there's like 25 and many more flowers and potential flowers all over the plant! i'm leaving 'em on 'til they go red i'd post a pic, but raining out(try tomorrow)

hotpeppaharry said:

looking good! my serrano is starting to go completely nuts..had 4 initial pods that started about 3 weeks ago, and no other pods until 4-5 days ago..now there's like 25 and many more flowers and potential flowers all over the plant! i'm leaving 'em on 'til they go red i'd post a pic, but raining out(try tomorrow)

Click to expand...

I can't wait to try some more "rare" pepper varieties next year!  This was a impulse one day at walmart haha, started with 3 bags of soil, the 3 sprouts, a month later I have 14 bags of soil, 5 lights, nutrients, and a baby bell pepper plant going bwahahahah

Most likely going to skip melons next year, they take up tons of space on my porch for 2 melon plants, I can just imagine if I started them way early in the season, omg!  And I even have half my vines going up a trellis to the porches tailing, and they are still all over!  Plus if I don't do melons that cheers up my 45 gallon tote so I could grow multiple crops in it, plus the fact I plan on adding more 5 gallon buckets, and maybe another tote   I wanna have some tomatoes, 1 or 2 rare peppers along with my Jalapeno, and some crops that don't need as much direct light  I got time to plan it out, plus next year I'll be making my soil better, and I'll be starting WAY early inside under my CFL's and get a jump on the season  Can't wait haha
 
 
edit:  Oh yeah I plan on leaving my Jalapenos on until they are red, if all of these that are popping up grow, I will likely also harvest some green ones just to have both

And here you were worried about it never producing !! -- Looking good.

i'm new to growing peppers outside of jalapenos and am eager to get some superhot varities goin next year as well! got a bunch of seeds on the ready(thanks sicman!)

That's some fine work there!!! Enjoy your harvest!

I just went out to hand pollinate my stuff real fast, didn't thoroughly check my plant over as they are in the corner with my CFL's on them for now, but I found 17 fully open flowers on the Jalapeno!  Not to mention, there are (guestimate) another 20+ flowers that'll open in few days, and probably 30+ that are just starting! 

My concern at this point is if my plant can support this many peppers, both food/water/lighting wise, and of course the physical weight.  The physical part I'll be taking care of real soon with a home made cage that can also support my CFL's, but I wonder if the plant can literally grow 70-90+ fruits at once at this size.  The majority of plants I find on google images when I type "Jalapeno plant" are scraggly little things bearing lots of big fruit, so I have hope!

 

Just did a re-count (I know, 2 days later, it's hard to resist) even though counting is actually kind of a pain in the ass, gotta separate each of the 4 main stalks, then go up them making sure not to double count the same pepper on accident =P

So there are 28 flowers fully open, that i've already molested, I mean pollinated with my finger twice today (perfect temps here right now, most flowers drop pollen all over my finger.  Another 12 flowers that are starting to close, which after now learning how they work, I believe all 12 of them are going to close fully, turn brown, drop off, and a Jalapeno will emerge.  And I counted 78 total already growing Jalapenos.  

I need to get off my ass and get materials to build a "cage" for them before long to support it, I don't know if its required, but it can't hurt to have it ready to tie stalks to in case they start leaning right?!  

My biggest worry is can the plant support this many fruit at once in around 4 gallons of crap potting mix?!  I do not want to repot at this point and stress the plant, as my growing season is almost over.  Next season I think I will move up to a 7-10 gallon container and make my own higher quality soil mix, but for now, I want the best results.