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Any Tips for Growing Baccatums?

This will be my first year growing baccatums. So far they seem to be a little trickier than my usual annuums and chinense varieties. I set up a small indoor grow tent for a few plants to keep me occupied over the Winter. I bag-started a few Choc. Habs, S.B. Yellow, Aji Pineapple, Bishops Crown, and Aji Fantasy. Surprisingly, all seeds, about 25 total, germinated within 3-5 days! I planted them in a starter mix and the Habs and Bonnets took off instantly. The Baccatums were much slower to pop, if at all. The ones that did eventually died. I decided to try again with just Bish. Hat and Aji Pineapple. This time it took the seeds 20+ days to sprout, which is normal I think? I raised my lights up a bit, and started bottom watering. This seemed to do the trick, as all plants are growing normally. I guess I should mention that since my seeds sprouted much quicker than I had anticipated on the first go around, my tent was not fully completed, so I just propped up my t8 fixture so that it was a couple inches above the plants. Once I got it setup right, I raised the lights up a bit, and all the plants seemed to benefit from that. Anyway, am I doing anything wrong? Are there any tips you guys can give me for growing baccatums?
 
D3monic said:
I start Baccatum later than my Chinense because they get bigger/mature faster. I'm usually starting to set pods on my baccatum before plant out. 
Thanks. I am starting to see that. My second batch of Baccatums are quickly catching up to the Habs and Bonnets.

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I'm following.

I have a damn near obsession with growing at least one producing aji amarillo. I grew a row of lemon drops a few years ago, and they were prolific. Problem is I forgot how I managed it.
 
Keep your starting mix very light.  I would start them in vermiculite, if I were growing inside.  They seem to damp off very easily.  
 
I agree with the rest. Baccatums are by far the easiest peppers to grow! (Too bad they're not as popular as the annuums.) I would suggest you top the plants once they get big as they can easily outgrow most other pepper plants.
 
solid7 said:
Keep your starting mix very light.  I would start them in vermiculite, if I were growing inside.  They seem to damp off very easily.  
Thanks, I will keep that in mind. I lost a good number of my seedlings to damping off last season. I was over watering. Live and learn.
 
I suspect you're the victim of a bit of bad luck, or an unknown issue.  IMO, baccatum are vastly faster/easier to germinate than most chinense.
 
While a rare event, I've had baccatum seeds pop in 4 days. A week usually does the trick for the 'slow' ones.   ;)
As mentioned, they do at least as well as most annuums and better than 95% of the chinense in hot weather.
 
Geonerd said:
I suspect you're the victim of a bit of bad luck, or an unknown issue.  IMO, baccatum are vastly faster/easier to germinate than most chinense.
 
While a rare event, I've had baccatum seeds pop in 4 days. A week usually does the trick for the 'slow' ones.   ;)
As mentioned, they do at least as well as most annuums and better than 95% of the chinense in hot weather.   
 
 
 
My luck is the same as the OP.  Yes, they pop up fast, but they don't seem to love humidity, and in my garden, they are always the first victims of deficiencies and/or pest attacks.  The damping off was a problem for me with baccatums that I didn't have with other varieties.
 
Treat them like any other Capsicum species while indoor. If you grow long enough,you will eventually have issues with bad seeds or poor growth in a few plants,it's genetic or technique and not species related.

The only differences I see with baccatums are related to size and ripening time in the large pendelums. They are huge plants and pods can take quite some time to fully ripen.

I am not sure where you are located,but I couldn't start them in December in zone 5. Would be 5'tall by June plant out.
 
Pr0digal_son said:
Treat them like any other Capsicum species while indoor. If you grow long enough,you will eventually have issues with bad seeds or poor growth in a few plants,it's genetic or technique and not species related.

The only differences I see with baccatums are related to size and ripening time in the large pendelums. They are huge plants and pods can take quite some time to fully ripen.

I am not sure where you are located,but I couldn't start them in December in zone 5. Would be 5'tall by June plant out.
 
I'm starting some aji amarillos right now, and I'm in zone 3. Naturally my question's gonna be; Do they trim back well? Being in zone 3 with the lack of a tropical growing season, starting early is yuge, but just how tall does one usually need to allow a baccatum to be to stay healthy and produce? My aji lemons were no more than 3 feet at their peak, though they spent their entire adult lives out of doors.
 
If you have the room to start them this early,I suggest that you do. The amarillo plants get damn big,and take quite awhile to ripen. I start them in mid to late March and they are some of the last to ripen.
 
I am not sure what you mean by how tall they need to be to produce. If you are pruning for size indoor,they will rebound just fine,be sure to let them got moving a bit first though. You can keep them restricted in smaller pots to dwarf them also. 
 
Amarillos get tall and lanky and heavy with pods.  The combination has resulted in several broken branches on my plants.  None of the other baccatum I've grown have suffered the same issue.  Suggest you use some manner of tomato cage or other support.
 
Geonerd said:
Amarillos get tall and lanky and heavy with pods.  The combination haws resulted in several broken branches on my plants.  None of the other baccatum I've grown have suffered the same issue.  Suggest you use some manner of tomato cage or other support.
 
This is very true.  Also, if you grow indoors, you'll want to stay light on nitrogen.  (and use the right light to keep them a bit more squat)  Otherwise, you end up with those "elephant ear" leaves, and that's a bad combination with the lankiness of those plants. 
 
Yellowish cotyledons--Too moist? I'm eye-dropping water, and sparingly.

Too little light? I'm only seeing this with one plant. The others are fine. For now I usee a 2-t8 4' flourescent w/Phillips GroTubes.

Nutrients? I mixed a quarter teaspoon of Schultz 17-19-29 in a gallon of rain water (thawed snow), and all the plants are fed the same.

Does this one seedling realize it's not in Peru and is suicidal?
 
15390777_218068421975784_8018184194106730240_n.jpg
 
You don't need to feed any nutrients at that stage, but your ratio is way out of whack, nonetheless.   Any particular reason why you want to feed almost twice as much K as N?
 
It could just be a throwback in the gene pool.  Sometimes, there are just runts that don't make, regardless of what you do.
 
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