glog Scandinavian indoor/outdoor grow

Don't know why I put it off, but it's finally time for another update. Most of these images are at least a week old though....

First the balcony:



They are growing a lot and really like being "outside". Weather has been up and down but I try to open the windows to give them some wind when the weather allows, otherwise it gets way too hot and humid in there.

While we're on the balcony, my Sugar Rush Peach Striped that isn't growing true gave me this little surprise:

Wanted to save seeds from this yellow Sugar Rush but it turned bad way quicker than expected so had to throw it out.

I never manage to get a good photo of it, but this is my Habanero Brown Egg:

Absolutely loaded with ripe pods, a lot more than is shown in the photo. Plan is to harvest them soonish.

And in the hydro department things are going well and I have sowed five new varieties as I've gotten rid of some of the other plants.
The Scotch Brains X.C.P. are showing their nasty side:


This has me unreasonably excited as well:

(Wild Galapagos)

I have of course also tried some new peppers. First up is Papa Joe's Scotch Bonnet:


I'm gonna hold off on the verdict because I only ate two small pieces since it was going to be used in a chili I was making, but first impression was excellent!
Before eating this one I was starting to have some doubts about this years chili journey. None of the chilies I had tried so far really scratched that itch I had about eating fresh chilis, but this one reignited that desire.

Then I tried an Aji Cirel:


This was quite an interesting experience. A subtle grassy flavor which wasn't that interesting but it had a heat that intensified very, very slowly and mostly in the back of the mouth and it gave a very pleasant warm heat. It's hard to describe properly, but you know that feeling when you envelop yourself in a blanket after being outside on a cold winter day, that's what it felt like in the mouth. Great experience!
In terms of SHU it wasnt that hot, maybe 50-60K. This pepper could be a nice addition to a sauce or salsa when you want heat at different stages of eating.

I couldn't wait so I also tried an Olive Jolokia:


It might have been ripe, I just don't know. There was some very minor mustard color at the tip so perhaps that's what it's supposed to get to. I have a lot more peppers on the plant so I'll hold off with those.
I'll wait a bit with an opinion on this as well and see if the other peppers ripen to a different color, but the first impression is good with a fairly strong heat that builds slowly and when you think it has peaked it goes into another gear. Now this is what I wanted when thinking about eating fresh peppers.
I'm simply a sucker for Chinense and especially ones at 500K SHU or more.

Been traveling for a few days, about 4 and a half actually.
I knew this was going to be very rough for some of the hydro plants that tend to want new water after 2 days, so did what I could and watered as late as possible and kept the grow tent open to reduce heat.
It was a calculated risk and this is what I came home to:


Four very, very, very unhappy plants and I was unsure if they would survive, especially the one on the left.
Gave them water as soon as I got home and hoped for the best but prepared for the worst.
20 hours later they looked like this:

Some leaf drop on the three rightmost plants but otherwise they recovered nicely. The leftmost one dropped all leaves (happened as I checked water level after photographing), but it also immediately developed new leaves. Going to be interesting to see the growth of that one over the next week or so.

The balcony plants on the other hand were completely fine as expected since they generally want more water every 7 days or so unless it gets hot and we've had quite poor weather over the weekend.
But they are producing a lot of humidity, this photo was from yesterday afternoon and it was perhaps 20C (68F) on the balcony:

I try to keep a window open but nighttime temps have been quite low and it has been raining a lot so didn't want to risk it lately.

I need to harvest a few plants in the coming days, going to be good to have a decent harvest this early and the second harvest is looking to be big with several plants with 30-50 peppers on them.

Your Balcony looks wonderful ! kind of a greenhouse but I'd imagine it doesn't suffer from the night time temperature fluctuations that my outside greenhouse does which will really help.

Plant's are looking good

Englander said:

Your Balcony looks wonderful ! kind of a greenhouse but I'd imagine it doesn't suffer from the night time temperature fluctuations that my outside greenhouse does which will really help.

Plant's are looking good

Click to expand...

There is some temperature drop of course, but if I keep the windows closed it retains the temperature fairly well.
But now we're heading into proper summer weather so I have to keep the windows open otherwise it gets way too hot in there, but then again, we also have higher nighttime temperatures as well so

Pod-focused update today

As I mentioned in the previous update it was time to do the first harvest:

From top left: Habanero Brown Egg, Sugar Rush Peach Striped, Black Scorpion Tongue, Bonda Ma Jacques, Thor's Thunderbolt, Papa Joe's Scotch Bonnet

And as I had harvested some peppers I of course had to try the ones I hadn't tried previously. Unforunately I'm nursing a cold so that affects the ability to discern flavors, anyway. First up the Habanero Brown Egg:



Quite a heavy pepper, clocking in at 19 gram, and as can be seen in the photos very thick walls.
It had a fruity sweetness that kind of reminded me of red apples. Very mild heat for a Habanero, perhaps 60K SHU, and it built quickly but also faded quickly.

Then the Papa Joe's Scotch Bonnet:


Since I had only had small pieces last time I was quite excited to try this one properly since it showed potential.
Unfortunately this was not the same good experience, it almost tasted sour and the heat was very sharp and intense. Not at all the pleasurable experience I had with the previous fruit. Not sure why it differed so much, maybe this one was overripe?

Up next, Bonda Ma Jacques:


Pleasant citrus smell and it also tasted of citrus and grass. Fairly hot, probably around 250-300K SHU and the heat built quickly and felt a bit acrid.
I was expecting this one to be better to be honest, but maybe the cold and perhaps being over-/underripe affected the experience.
Will definitely try another one later in summer.

Last, but definitely not least, Thor's Thunderbolt:



One of the most beautiful peppers I have ever seen, absolutely gorgeous. I really wish the plant was bushier and gave more fruit, then this would be a definite one to grow every year. I'll get a photo of the plant at a later time so you can see what it looks like.
Anyway, since this pepper is approaching superhot territory and I haven't built my tolerance enough yet I only ate two small pieces so can't really say much about taste but it had a nice citrusy and acidic smell. Heatwise it probably is around 800K SHU and the heat is very explosive and frontloaded, i.e. it stays mostly in the front of the mouth.
Hopefully I can get up to eating bigger pieces of fresh superhots later in the summer, then I will revisit this one.

Hey @Ohjay , interesting feedback on the Bonda Ma Jacques and the Scotch Bonnet. From what I'm seeing, those are both perfectly ripe, I wonder what the driver is for the off taste?

NJChilehead said:

Hey @Ohjay , interesting feedback on the Bonda Ma Jacques and the Scotch Bonnet. From what I'm seeing, those are both perfectly ripe, I wonder what the driver is for the off taste?

Click to expand...

Yeah I'm quite curious about it too. Perhaps the cold is having a bad influence on these two, or maybe it's a nutrient issue, or perhaps I just had a bad day. I have noticed that some days are worse in terms of handling capsaicin and when I tried these two it was a mediocre day at best, that could also influence things I guess.
Going to try them again once I'm better and hopefully they will be a lot tastier.

Ohjay said:

Yeah I'm quite curious about it too. Perhaps the cold is having a bad influence on these two, or maybe it's a nutrient issue, or perhaps I just had a bad day. I have noticed that some days are worse in terms of handling capsaicin and when I tried these two it was a mediocre day at best, that could also influence things I guess.
Going to try them again once I'm better and hopefully they will be a lot tastier.

Click to expand...

I wonder if it's your cold affecting your taste. Not all chinenses taste good to me raw though, they sometimes have that skunk and an acrid flavor that doesn't really jibe with the sweetness and fruitiness that you're looking for. I find it's also concentrated in the placenta, although I would assume that's an effect of a secondary metabolite that's protecting the placenta from seed damage via consumption by mammals. Anyway, I'm not sure if you've tried these before, but if not, note that scotch bonnets make an amazing jelly, and they're both really good pickled. I grew Bonda Ma Jacques many years ago alongside Fatalii, Madame Jeanette, Big Sun and a few Scotch Bonnet types, and the taste of Bonda Ma Jacques was at least as good as these other heavy hitters!

I promised photos of the Thor's Thunderbolt, so here they are:



As you can see it is very lanky and not especially thick foilage and I have pruned/topped it a few time to try and get it to grow wider/thicker but it just grows a new branch that grows vertically.
Since taking these photos I have cut down those long, thin branches. We'll see what happens.
The peppers though are absolutely lovely. Love the dark purple color they start out with and as seen in the previous update they mature to a cream & purple hue. If I counted correctly I currently have 14 peppers on the plant, so not a lot. As I mentioned in the last update, I wish it was more prolific and grew bushier.

After the last update I have also culled the Olive Jolokia plant I had in hydro. Not a bad harvest for a small plant in a tiny bottle:


And it seemed that the peppers would stay green but one or two showed some signs of mustard color but it was just tiny spots:

Feels like it's been a while since I shared any images from the grow tent so without further ado:

The plants are very happy and they all have pods. I probably should raise the lights because I'm getting more lateral growth than height, with the exception of the Thor's Thunderbolt. A good example is the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion Chocolate that's front left in the photo, the branch that is growing inwards along the tent wall is probably longer than the plant is tall.

Speaking of the T.M.S. Chocolate, it has the fewest pods but it does have this gnarly thing:


The M.A. Pale Rider also has pods in various stages, this one might be close to being ripe:


While the Chocolate Hand Grenade has tons of pods with beautiful shapes that looks almost like a cross between a Scotch Bonnet and a Moruga Scorpion (even though it does not have genes of either):


And in the other tent with the hydro plants I now have ripening Scotch Brains X.C.P.:

Most of the pods are fairly small though, there is one or maybe two that I will consider saving seeds from, if not I will have to wait for the second wave of pods to get good seeds for replenishing my stock.


One thing I wanted to improve on this season was nutrients. In the previous seasons I've always had signs of nutrient deficiency in most plants and I figured it was because I wasn't feeding them enough. So this season I have been giving them nutrients almost every watering and it's better, but they are still showing signs of nutrient deficiency.
What I've been using is Terra Aquatica(formerly GHE) Grow, Bloom & Micro with some added CalMag. Been following the directions on the bottles in terms of ratios.
So the past couple of weeks I've been thinking and pondering this and I realized that the NPK ratio might be totally off with these nutrients and, at least for me, it's difficult to calculate when you mix three different nutrients that each have different NPK ratios and you also use various amounts of the liquids.
So I looked up what is the recommended NPK ratio and it seems 3-1-2 is you should aim for, not only for chili but other plants that have a lot of foilage. But finding nutrients with that NPK ratio turned out to be fairly difficult. DynaGrow (now called SuperThrive) is generally not available in Europe and if you do find it, it is super expensive.
I found a few alternatives that were close and eventually ended up buying Plagron Terra Grow which has a NPK ratio of 3-1-3:

I've already started using it and we'll see how it goes, one thing that's better is that it's so much easier to add nutrients when there's only one bottle to use (well, two if you count the CalMag that I add as well).

Question for those of you that do use nutrients with a 3-1-2 ratio, or close to it, how much do you add per litre of water?
Plagron suggest at most 5ml/litre but doesn't actually say if you should use less. So would love some input if you have experience with this NPK ratio.