Too many strains, how to choose?

Dinsdale

Dinsdale

I ordered a lot of seeds recently and I can't grow all those varieties at once.
I'm new to this, so I know I have to grow a lot of different varieties to experiment and see which ones I like/dislike in terms of growing characteritics, taste, heat, and so on.
 
So here's my question: When you have a lot of varieties and not enough space to grow them all, how do you choose what to grow first?
 
who says you have to choose ?
 grow as many as you can afford soil and water for :D
 
I have been enjoying this hobby for years, and each year it is a struggle to choose who makes the list for new peppers to try :)
 
what peppers do you like ?
what will you be doing with the peppers ?
is your goal just to get to taste them, or to make sauces, powders, and rubs, or do you want to have enough peppers to sell fresh peppers ?
 
short answer: I struggle to choose which new to me peppers to grow every year as well.
 
I put up 150 seeds last yr as a noob. Damn near all sprouted.

I let em grow and planted some faves into beds...the rest into pots.

Many contained 2/3 plants in each pot.

By doing so I could see characteristics I liked and didn't like and harvested a mega stash of powders and pods in the freezer.

It gets addictive for sure.... plant as many as you can. You will learn a lot and the reward is awesome.

Good luck.

*I am only grow 20 or so this yr haha
 
Guatemalan Insanity Pepper said:
who says you have to choose ?
 grow as many as you can afford soil and water for :D
 
I have been enjoying this hobby for years, and each year it is a struggle to choose who makes the list for new peppers to try :)
 
what peppers do you like ?
what will you be doing with the peppers ?
is your goal just to get to taste them, or to make sauces, powders, and rubs, or do you want to have enough peppers to sell fresh peppers ?
 
short answer: I struggle to choose which new to me peppers to grow every year as well.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for your input!
 
The limiting factor here is my non-infinite grow tents. :)
 
Not sure yet what peppers I like. I just know I love heat and fruity flavors.
My goal is to get to taste them and cook with them (my wife and I love very spicy food), and then maybe make sauces for family and friends.
 
dragonsfire said:
I did the same thing, just randomly pick or grab what catches your eye.
Click to expand...
 
When I browsed the vendor's website, I felt like a kid in a candy store.
I couldn't make a choice then, but I guess I'll have to make a choice now. :)
 
Masher said:
I put up 150 seeds last yr as a noob. Damn near all sprouted.

I let em grow and planted some faves into beds...the rest into pots.

Many contained 2/3 plants in each pot.

By doing so I could see characteristics I liked and didn't like and harvested a mega stash of powders and pods in the freezer.

It gets addictive for sure.... plant as many as you can. You will learn a lot and the reward is awesome.

Good luck.

*I am only grow 20 or so this yr haha
Click to expand...
 
For sure, I'm gonna grow as many as my indoor grow space allows, i.e. 9 to 16 plants at a time, in order to see what I like and don't like.
 
Quick question: Do you think I should use small pots (e.g. 1-2 liters) to keep the plants short and make them produce pods quicker? And then, when I know what varieties I like the most, grow these in bigger pots (1-2 gallons) to get more pods?
 
floricole said:
I can not make a choice about varieties so I bought a land  :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
 
I would love that, but Switzerland is 37 times smaller than Québec and 60% of its area is freaking mountains.
Where am I gonna find land to buy that doesn't cost an arm and a leg? :)
 
juanitos said:
prioritize ones you will actually use in cooking. Then whatever ones you might make sauce with. lastly ones that just look cool or whatever.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for this advice!
I don't know yet what varieties I will end up using for cooking, making sauces, etc. I will have to get to taste them all first. But I'll keep that in mind for "phase 2", i.e. when I have to decide what varieties to grow again.
 
Dinsdale said:
 
For sure, I'm gonna grow as many as my indoor grow space allows, i.e. 9 to 16 plants at a time, in order to see what I like and don't like.
 
Quick question: Do you think I should use small pots (e.g. 1-2 liters) to keep the plants short and make them produce pods quicker? And then, when I know what varieties I like the most, grow these in bigger pots (1-2 gallons) to get more pods?
Click to expand...
I have a grow room with 600w hids.

I was able to get several pods per plant in 18oz solo cups, but it wasn't my plan. Weather was to slow for spring plant out so they matured early in the cups
I had 3 tubs going at first before setting up on a large table.

I bought tubs from restaurant supply store [the kind they put your dirty dishes in]
Each tub held 24 solo cups.

This yr I will take rooted plugs and go directly into 1 gallon pots for spring plant out.

Dive in, grow more than you want. Give away what you don't want or sell em cheap locally.
 
Masher said:
I have a grow room with 600w hids.

I was able to get several pods per plant in 18oz solo cups, but it wasn't my plan. Weather was to slow for spring plant out so they matured early in the cups
I had 3 tubs going at first before setting up on a large table.

I bought tubs from restaurant supply store [the kind they put your dirty dishes in]
Each tub held 24 solo cups.

This yr I will take rooted plugs and go directly into 1 gallon pots for spring plant out.

Dive in, grow more than you want. Give away what you don't want or sell em cheap locally.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info! I didn't think it was possible to get pods from plants growing in solo cups.
So I guess I could test grow 25 plants at a time in 1 liter pots, which means I could easily grow my 48 varieties before the end of 2018.
 
I have major issues every year trying what to decide what to grow. I just try to rotate my varieties that I have in stock year to year. I dont plan on getting new varieties just using the ton of varieties that I already have. I do need to get some wicked mike peach bhuts though. Lol!
 
If you don't yet know what you will like then start with one of each "type" e.g. one scotch bonnet, one habanero, one bhut, one thai, one indian etc.  Unless you already know you are very fond of e.g. bonnets, then there's no point in growing every type of bonnet under the sun if that will stop you growing other types of chillies.  Try a mix of colours, too, because they do taste different.
 
1 litre pots are very small; I'd go bigger if you possibly can.  Having said that, I did get over 20 pods off my CGN 21500 last year, which was in a pop bottle SWP; it started as a 2 litre bottle then cut in half so the plant can only be 1 litre or less.  You need to keep on top of feeding and watering more with small pots because they dry out quicker, hence my use of SWP (self-watering pots.)
 
Dinsdale said:
 I didn't think it was possible to get pods from plants growing in solo cups.
 
Click to expand...
 
Believe it or not, there was a member here who grew a plant in a ping pong ball and it still produced pods.  :shocked:
 
Mitzi said:
If you don't yet know what you will like then start with one of each "type" e.g. one scotch bonnet, one habanero, one bhut, one thai, one indian etc.  Unless you already know you are very fond of e.g. bonnets, then there's no point in growing every type of bonnet under the sun if that will stop you growing other types of chillies.  Try a mix of colours, too, because they do taste different.
Click to expand...
 
That's what I ended up doing.
First round of seeds was based on colors: one red, one orange, one brown and one peach.
Second round of seeds was based on types: one scorpion, one bhut, one habanero and one "other".
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top