Mike's 2018 Glog

mts23 · Jun 6, 2018

Looks like a day of sunlight/ without rain has helped my plants considerably. The potted plants showed sizable growth.
The Biqhinho that was ravaged by aphids is looking much better and has new green growth!

The Bhutlah Chocolate and the JPGS do not look as good, but I think with some care they will bounce back. They are certainly healthier looking than two weeks ago.
I have clones of them that will be ready for dirt in about a week.

These two plants received no different treatment than my other potted plants (and did not get hit by aphids), under normal circumstances I would not consider using them for seedstock, but time will tell if they come back.

mts23 · Jun 6, 2018

I have the beginnings of flowers on several of the plants and am deciding on some crosses to make. The first few plants to get cross pollinated will probably be the Fish pepper, Omnicolor and the Aribibi Gusano. They will most likely get crossed with Yellow Brain Strain, Reaper, Fatali and anything else that is producing pollen at the time. I should be able to emasculate flowers and apply pollen in the next few days. My plans for crossbreeding this year are to mostly cross peppers that I think have some unique or interesting (but not necessarily hot) qualities with some superhots.

Fish Pepper. I was really hoping for a bit more Omnicolor. I've never grown baccatum sp., but from
white striations in this plant, but it is very interesting what I've read, it should cross well with the chinense
looking. and annuum species. I'm looking forward to seeing the
different colors this one can produce.

Aribibi Gusano or Caterpillar pepper. Another baccatum that I think will be interesting to cross pollinate.
This plant is producing a large number of buds; it's easy to see how they can often have hundreds of peppers per plant.

Thanks for looking,
Mike

mts23 · Jun 10, 2018

I got a few pepper/garden tasks completed this weekend; hopefully they will end up being productive.

Mulched the raised bed that came with the house. I've spent a few months killing weeds and digging up/removing roots
in this area. Hopefully it will be productive. This area doesn't get full sun like my deck does; maybe next week I will monitor
how much light it actually gets. After the initial transplant shock, the first plants that went in are doing well and seem healthy
and green.

Afterwards I set about pest inspection. Currently I'm using Safer's soap and my fingers...
Fortunately I'm seeing a lot of good guys and not so many unwanted pests.

Lady bugs! Saw a few of these benevolent creatures Almost all of the plants I have in #3 containers on a table on my deck
on some plants, so decided not hit the plants with have a little spider that lives in the highest node of the plant. I was ready to
any soap. Don't want to kill the good guys!! Wash this one down, but noticed the web full of mites and figured the spider
was doing such a good job I could go with out.

mts23 · Jun 10, 2018

Had several small plants that just didn't seam to want to grow at all and several containers had multiple seedlings in the same cup.
Took care of those problems (hopefully). I had used the compressed peat pod and they were just too hard/compacted for the tiny
plants to grow through. I rolled the pods around until the plant was free and just re-potted in potting mix.

The duplicate plants were placed in a hydro kit. I'm going to compare the early growth differences between hydro and soil.

mts23 · Jun 10, 2018

Emasculated some Bishop's Crown flowers before they opened and brushed some Thai Dragon pollen on.
I'll be paying close attention to the flowers on all my plants over the next week or so and hopefully be making more crosses.

I had planned on building a recirculating DMC, but ended up cutting holes in some buckets to make some air pruning containers.
I started out making one for the tomato plant (I think It's a Great White) and ended up making 3 more for a Fatali, Carolina Reaper
and a Jonah's Yellow Brain.

Of course the re-potting resulted in some cutting and trimming, which absolutely necessitates all removed branches be rooted (or at least make an attempt). I haven't tried propagating in ziploc bags, but I think I saw Khang Starr doing it this way, so I figured I would give it a shot.

Hopefully this method works, seems like it should.

mts23 · Jun 15, 2018

After this week, I've noticed the peppers I have in the raised bed don't seem to get enough sunlight, I will try and move them into containers this weekend so I can get them into more light. I haven't decided on if I'll go self watering pots (double 5 gallon buckets) or the air pruning pots (5 gallon buckets with holes cut in. I also ordered some fabric bags to try out. It is 10 plants, so I will probably use the five fabric bags and figure out something for the others. I still have plenty of #3 pots as well.

Same cup as pictured last week, good root growth but some of the plants have a little dark coloring on the leaf tips. They have definitely shown more growth in a week vs the 3 weeks previously. I figure the darkening around the leaf tips is too much nutrient in the solution, so I've diluted it a good bit, while maintaining pH at around 6.2. Will see how they do over the next few days.

mts23 · Jun 16, 2018

The plants that went into the 5 gallon buckets last week showed considerable growth, the top of the Fish pepper really opened up.
I have a few more plants that need to be potted up, maybe I'll make some self watering buckets today.

Those buckets are on milk crates; my wife's dog really likes to dig in the buckets that have blood meal...

mts23 · Jun 17, 2018

Prior to the weekend, I had ordered some fabric grow bags; I figured 5 gallon would be plenty big enough for my rear deck container gardening. I was pretty excited when the package arrived; I had several plants in the ground that were not getting enough light, looking poor and basically needed a stat transplant to a container so I could keep a closer watch on them.

The little UPC sticker said reads: 5 pack 5 gallons; I expected them to possibly be #5...

...wait for it....

What a bummer, but I still needed to make a few transplants, so I decided to use them. I won't let the mislabeling from the seller sway my judgement on the actual fabric pots. At first inspection they seem to be fairly well made and of a thick felt type material. Going off the couple that I have already planted the 3 gallon (or #3) size is actually nice in a bag (not that I have used bags before); I will see how they hold up after a season or three.

My first transplants today were a Choc Bhutlah and a JPGS. They have both been growing poorly and I suspected their pots were not draining very well. I dumped their pots out and found mostly granular mud...I must have potted them in substandard mix (or not mix). I re-potted using MG potting mix, a with a couple handfuls of coco, perlite, vermiculite and a bit of blood meal stirred in. The CB is in a plastic #3 and the JPGS in the fabric bag (pictured below left for comparison). Hopefully these guys will start showing some growth soon.

Above right is a Brain Strain (red) that was in the ground,,,it didn't seem to be doing as well as the other peppers in my raised bed, so I decided to pull it and put it in a container. I'm going to trim the dead from the leaves and watch it snap back to life in the next couple of days.

mts23 · Jun 17, 2018

I also made some 96 cent air pruning pots this weekend. I went to wal-mart to pick up some 5 gallon buckets (one can never have enough 5 gallon buckets) and decided to look at trash cans as potential grow containers. I ended up in the laundry basket aisle and recalled a posting by jimbo53 and decided to go for it.

Here's what I ended up with.

Moruga Scorpion and Bishop's Crown transplanted into the 96 cent laundry baskets...good thing is, they fit in my 12 inch watering trays. They seem to hold around 5 gallons.

mts23 · Jun 23, 2018

Dusted pollen covered Black Pearl anthers onto some Brain strains today.
Also made some Fish X Lemon Drop and Fatali X Lemon Drop crosses.

Walchit · Jul 8, 2018

I hope your crosses take! Idk if I will attempt any or not.

peppamang · Jul 8, 2018

everything looks great !

mts23 · Jul 15, 2018

Been a while since an update so here goes:

I'll start off with the Brainstrain red (left ) and JPGS from the bottom of post #9. The Bhutlah Choc is doing about the same, but indoor hydro.
They are both doing much better now.

I'm also really liking these fabric pots, despite them being the wrong size.

One month ago I had these little guys (unknown superhots) my wife started for me.

With a couple of plastic storage boxes and an aquarium water pump they look like this less than 4 weeks later.

From A to B in 4 weeks or less.

Here are the other tent-dwelling hydro plants, pictured below.
Goronong and Bhutlah Choc in the front and unknown superhot and a locally sourced Jolokia in the back.

DWC with a GH Micro at around 600 ppm and pH adjusted to between 5.9 and 6.3 seems to be working just fine for these guys.

mts23 · Jul 15, 2018

Some more interesting fare:

Bishop's Crown (note: I have fairly large hands)

It is one of my 96 cent laundry basket plants and is doing just fine!

Two different Johan 7 Pot Brain phenotypes, I really like the second one and will saving seeds from it.

Reapers starting to show signs of "tails"

The little Bhiquino that was sun-scalded and aphid ravaged has made a great comeback!

Here are two peppers growing from one bud/flower on this caterpillar pepper plant.

And I finally have a Fatali; it took the longest of any of my pepper plants (I have about 35 varieties, this year) to develop flowers/fruit.

mts23 · Jul 15, 2018

The planter box/ ground plants have started growing a lot since I last pulled flowers from them and fertilized. They get a mixture of fish/kelp/guano.
4 of the 8 plants: a Cleo's Dragon, Bhut Jolokia, Primo Yellow and a Devil's Tongue. Not pictured are some Jalapeno and Bell Peppers. I plan on making some crosses of the Bishop's Crown and Devil's Tongue in a week or so.

Several of my crosses are taking/producing fruit after about 20 failures! This is one that I am looking forward to trying to grow out: Bhut Jolokia X Aji Omnicolor

Lastly, I'll end with this mornings micro harvest:

Clockwise from 1200
Tomatoes are Cherokee Purple, Roma, Great White, Indigo Rose
Peppers are Aji Limon, Thai Dragon, Golden Cayenne, Aribibi Gusano (caterpiller), Aji Omnicolor (these have a fantastic citrus fruit flavor), Dedo De Mocha, Fish pepper, Brainstrain (picked green) and Bhiquino.

Thanks for looking,
Michael

mts23 · Jul 28, 2018

The constant rain here in Maryland is at least flushing out my container plants

It looks like the in-ground plants were beaten down and started to grow like a vine with stretched branches.
I straightened them and staked them, hopefully we will get some sunlight today and they will reorient.

All the container plants are doing really well, except the Moruga Scorpion; It has been treated just like all the other plants, but is showing very light green/ yellow color leaves. It is in a laundry basket/self pruning pot. Other plants I have planted the same method are doing well; Bishop's Crown pictured beside the Scorpion.

mts23 · Jul 28, 2018

Below are some of individual peppers:

Jonah 7 Pot X Yellow Brain

Reaper and Fatali

Fish Pepper and Black Pearl and BrainStrain Red

With all the rain we have had recently, they are all about due for some fertilizer.