African Bird's Eye Piri Piri 2018+

CraftyFox · Jan 14, 2019

For cloning I used the cup in cup method half filled with 50:50 Perlite:Vermiculite, with chamomile tea as the wetting agent.
I mostly trimmed each cutting up before severing,
some were scraped but mostly not,
dunked in hydrogen peroxide quickly,
soaked in the vase of chamomile tea until all cuttings were made,
set/tamped into holes in media and watered in with the tea.

I bottom watered with the tea until the gallon of it was gone before switching to standard tap. The tea had also been made with tap.

The 2 liter domes were neglected once for a couple days and some cotton mold appeared and well.. They decided to be excluded from the project to partake in another. You probably won't seem them again.
The rest sat here, under the fluorescent lights, being misted from 2-4 times a day, when I noticed the leaves were dry. The dome was pretty warped and had more than enough FAE.

ABE was looking pretty traumatized after all of this.

CraftyFox · Jan 14, 2019

December 10th, about 2 weeks having passed. No roots visible in cupholes.

ABE Mother bouncing back nicely. Also supplementing her lighting with a 50W Kingbo UFO LED

CraftyFox · Jan 14, 2019

Dec 17, 2018
Three weeks forward and I'm getting a lot of leaf drop and have cut down to no misting.. Debate about whether I should continue misting or maybe add some nutes. I decide to do both, lightly, to all but 4 of them.. They only get mist and tap.

Mother

karoo · Jan 14, 2019

Excellent!

Pepper plant ICU and neonatal care.

I hope they reward you in Spring and Summer.

The African birds eye/Piri Piri /Peri Peri is the backbone of spicy food in Southern and Eastern Africa.

CraftyFox · Jan 14, 2019

Today I have 8 of the 12 that look ready to transplant.. The other 4 were the controls that weren't given the first dose of nutes.
Of those, the one of older stock perished.. The other three are struggling.

The mother is looking like she is ready for some pruning.

She wants to fruit, but I'm failing her.. Pretty sure it's humidity. She's under a LED full spectrum spotgrow and a double red cfl set.

CraftyFox · Jan 14, 2019

karoo said:
Excellent!

Pepper plant ICU and neonatal care.

I hope they reward you in Spring and Summer.

The African birds eye/Piri Piri /Peri Peri is the backbone of spicy food in Southern and Eastern Africa.

I've been trying to figure out whether this is an Annuum or a Frutescens species.. I've read conflicting information.
I love the habit of this pepper and made some hot honey with them this year, given the nice thin walls.

karoo · Jan 14, 2019

CraftyFox said:
I've been trying to figure out whether this is an Annuum or a Frutescens species.. I've read conflicting information.
I love the habit of this pepper and made some hot honey with them this year, given the nice thin walls.

Some say the Frutescens is a sub species of capsicum Annuum.

CraftyFox · Jan 27, 2019

Been cutting out some of the larger leaves and deciding what I'm going to try to clone of what needs to be cropped.

A couple of the clones really seem eager to flower, and I wonder how it would be to just keep them on liquid nutes and let them see if they can go the distance. I imagine transplanting them into a potting mix at this time would probably cause them to drop.. Or am I being paranoid?

CraftyFox · Feb 5, 2019

Transplanted most of the clones now.. 4 into bottom watering pots I found at $Tree and 2 into 1 gallon Grey Root Pouches. The ODJOB base was a nice fit for a dozen of the bags. All of the pots are using ProMix green label.. Half of the bags are using ProMix green(left), with the other side being FF Ocean Floor(which came with 2 free adult fungus gnats!!)..
Keeping the flowering one in the cup for now to see what happens.
Note that the rest of the transfers were started in Miracle Grow Organic Garden Soil(Aka MG Death Gauntlet)

Walchit · Feb 5, 2019

Ocean forest is great potting soil, I think the gnats come from the nursery sitting the bags outside. Lets them get water in them and gnats. But Idk for sure. I've been getting it up to 160° in the oven and haven't seen a gnat yet.

CraftyFox · Feb 5, 2019

Doesn't the oven kill a lot of the beneficial fungi at that temperature?
The place that carries the FF Ocean in town keeps it in their all year lean-to greenhouse.. Always something buzzing around in there. One of their associates told me they get lizards in the plants on occasion as well.
I think I'll have to pass on the sticky traps, as I have at least 3 different spider species frequenting the peppers and not much escapes them. I'm definitely going to get them some BT-i for their gullets, as I will need it vs. mosquito this summer anyway. I'll bet that FF Ocean just smells like paradise to them.

PaulG · Feb 7, 2019

Walchit said:
Ocean forest is great potting soil, I think the gnats come from the nursery sitting the bags outside. Lets them get water in them and gnats. But Idk for sure. I've been getting it up to 160° in the oven and haven't seen a gnat yet.

I use both Ocean forest and Happy Frog in my indoor part
of the grow, and have practically no problem with fungus gnats.
I have seen very few since mid-November when I started.
I keep the sticky cards up year-round - no spiders in them - and
keep the tops of the soil dry in the cups on the shelf. The larger
pots, I keep the top inch of the soil loose, and I water from the top.
The top layer dries out quickly, so that helps control gnats, as well.

CraftyFox · Mar 25, 2019

Finally starting to get some pods on my clones, which leads me to suspect my issue with the Mother plant is root related..

Long overdue for a pruning, probably on both ends.

With the current population of fungal gnats I have, I doubt I will ever buy Foxfarm soil again.. Still waiting on my Steinernema feltiae to arrive, any day now. :pray:

CaneDog · Mar 25, 2019

Hey Crafty. Good to see an update, just wish it were all good news. I hate those gnats with a passion and the larva really are hard on roots if they get established.

I'm used to seeing some form of pre-treatment and then Steinernema Feltiae being used once the numbers have been knocked down. Have you done anything to reduce their #'s before the SF yet? Are these guys destined for the great outdoors or will they be staying indoors?

Best of luck knocking those gnats down and your clones and the pods are looking solid!

CraftyFox · Mar 25, 2019

Thanks CD.. They are certainly looking better than some of my other Capsicum. Playing a little bit of catch up right now.

From what I understand, the Nematodes will increase in response to the amount of prey, so they should catch up in short order. I'm hoping to discover some rearing notes on them as well so I can keep a healthy supply on tap. I wouldn't say I'm at dire straits levels in gnats yet. I'm still at under 100 on the sticky traps, which is all I've done so far, outside of relocating some spiders. I think the majority are actually coming from the FoxFarm bag, which I left open to dry out, as most of them are runts.. And not one spider casualty yet.

I need to sort these guys out as well..

As they appear to be thriving enough to reproduce. I've watched the adults eat surface roots of the Mother plant and had given them credit for managing my root pruning.. It'll be really interesting to see whats going on under the surface. First I have little ones that need transplanting.

CaneDog · Mar 25, 2019

Can't tell for sure what's in the picture - ?

Stick a cut chunk of moist potato into the soil at the top of a suspect container next time you water and check it in a day or two. You might get more of an idea what's going on under the surface with the FG larva than you like :shocked:

I've had gnat issues this whole winter and it's been a real PITA. I've been keeping it under control with BTi, but I think the BTi was a bit old and under-performing. I haven't been able to knock them down for the count and it's really messed with my parameters on the grow. Hope you do better. Did I mention I hate fungus gnats with a passion?

Seriously though, good luck taking care of them and good luck with the grow in general. Looking forward to seeing pics of more good things.

CraftyFox · Jun 5, 2019

It's been a while. I keep meaning to post something, along with some pictures.. I've been crazy busy and can't seem to find my USB cord when I do come on here. I think I'll just get another one next time I'm at the store.. Then mine will be sure to show up.
I harvest my first couple of African Devils about a week ago, and they seem to enjoy growing indoors. I would have had more to harvest and earlier, but my little one decided to do some pruning and harvesting of his own..
The cats have also done some damage, but all-in-all everything is looking alright and I'm starting the process of moving them outdoors now. I wanted to last week, but the temps here were still dropping into the 40's and I didn't want to experience a lot of flower drop or delay.
Not sure if anyone here took me up on seed from these, but I'd be curious to know how they turned out if you did. They were all OP in close quarters with a bunch of superhot Chinense.

CraftyFox · Jul 3, 2019

So, here's a picture of the Devil mother.. Still not adjusted to being outside.

And some of her clones, front, looking a little floppy.. Along with some of the Poinsettia, rear.

Still have some indoors too, but I don't seem to have any recent pictures.. Maybe I'll get some up here in the next few days. After the way most of my Chinense responded to indoor conditions, with time, I know I made the right choice last fall.

PaulG · Jul 5, 2019

Don't know anything about the African Devils.

How would you describe them?