• Do you need help identifying a 🌶?
    Is your plant suffering from an unknown issue? 🤧
    Then ask in Identification and Diagnosis.

overwintering 12-02-11 Cutback for Overwinter

AlabamaJack

AlabamaJack

eXtreme
this is what all of my plants look like now after the two big frosts we had...this one in particular is a second year scorpion...Monday afternoon they are predicting mixed rain and ice/sleet and a low Tues morning of 30 then on down to 26 Wednesday morning....brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr cold....

12-02-11002.jpg


after it's haircut...

12-02-11005.jpg


two second year scorpions, the rest are first years...3 brain strain, one red savina, one bhut jolokia, one red foodarama scotch bonnet...the two at the bottom are my wild tepins...

12-02-11005-1.jpg


tiny plants but very prolific...and my favorite for adding to scrambled eggs or mixed up in my sausage...

12-02-11008.jpg


I should be able to eat off these tepins for quite some time...

they are in my grow box and the lights are off...it is too bright to get good photos with the lights on...4' X 4' area 18 42 watt CFLs (9 6500K and 9 2700K)
 
Lookin good Jack! That's a serious hair cut right there ha.
That's nuts that you didn't have the bring em in till now.
Whens your season start out of curiosity?
Tepins look nice as well :) I'm still on the fence about trying em out next year..
 
AJ,

This will be my 1st year wrestling with the "Wild Tepins". Is that typical how the plant grows, mound like, and manageable.?

Greg
 
BigCedar said:
That's nuts that you didn't have the bring em in till now.
Whens your season start out of curiosity?
Tepins look nice as well :) I'm still on the fence about trying em out next year..
Click to expand...

typically over the past several years, our first "hard freeze" is 5-7 December so this fits right in...I will start putting my plants out probably the last of february depending on the weather of course...will move them in and out until I get some sort of temporary makeshift greenhouse put up...

IMO you won't ever go wrong with these wild tepins...they will actually make it thru the winters here outside with no attention and sprout back out green in the spring...

PIC 1 said:
AJ,

This will be my 1st year wrestling with the "Wild Tepins". Is that typical how the plant grows, mound like, and manageable.?

Greg
Click to expand...

these are typical of this strain of wild tepins...they came from a wild bush down close to Waco way out in the woods...the mother plant is at least 10 years old and probably 6' diameter...
 
AlabamaJack said:
typically over the past several years, our first "hard freeze" is 5-7 December so this fits right in...I will start putting my plants out probably the last of february depending on the weather of course...will move them in and out until I get some sort of temporary makeshift greenhouse put up...

IMO you won't ever go wrong with these wild tepins...they will actually make it thru the winters here outside with no attention and sprout back out green in the spring...



these are typical of this strain of wild tepins...they came from a wild bush down close to Waco way out in the woods...the mother plant is at least 10 years old and probably 6' diameter...
Click to expand...


Great,
Thanks for the reply,
I'm glad they don't grow "wild and crazy" sized as some of the wilds do.
Now I can throw a few more seeds in the "dirt" and if all is well they'll share some space with my "bird's"...

Greg
 
Those overwintered plants are looking great there AJ!

Just curious, but how did you decide on which plants to overwinter, as i'm sure you had a few varieties to choose from?

Did you choose your favorites or was your decision based on something else.

I know that space is always an issue, so you had to have good reason to choose the ones you did. :cool:

dvg
 
Sorry to hear the frost got you, AJ. Tuesday is mas o menos on a freeze here. If I get past Tuesday, I think I've got one more week. It was 12/17 two years ago. 12/6 last year.

Have my fingers crossed.

And dammit, we better have a mild summer next year! :D

I know you mentioned before that overwintering may/may not have been worth it. Are you doing it sentimentally with these plants, or are you testing some more theories?
 
dvg said:
Just curious, but how did you decide on which plants to overwinter, as i'm sure you had a few varieties to choose from?

Did you choose your favorites or was your decision based on something else.

I know that space is always an issue, so you had to have good reason to choose the ones you did. :cool:

dvg
Click to expand...


Eephus Man said:
Sorry to hear the frost got you, AJ. Tuesday is mas o menos on a freeze here. If I get past Tuesday, I think I've got one more week. It was 12/17 two years ago. 12/6 last year.

I know you mentioned before that overwintering may/may not have been worth it. Are you doing it sentimentally with these plants, or are you testing some more theories?
Click to expand...

The plants I am growing thru the winter were chosen based on pod shape and size for the variety...one of the brain strain plants produced "stingered" pods almost exclusively...I had to choose between 15 2nd year scorpions and decided which two based on the same principle...pod shape and size...plus the one red foodarama scotch bonnet...I may want to back cross it with one of it's "children"...just don't know yet...the red savina and bhut were selected because of their hardiness during the season...the main reason I am keeping these 10 plants is to try and get an early harvest before the late June/July/August heat shuts production down and as you all can see, I have 5X more green pods on the plants than what I picked that were ripening...

these plants need to be repotted during which the root ball will be trimmed and planted in new soil...I just hope they don't outgrow their space in 3 months...my box is not big enough for 8 large plants...it may be big enough for 2 or 3...

I am sure after Tuesday morning all plants outside will be lost...

I will probably strip the plants of all green pods just because....
 
Our first frost came just a hint earlier than Yours. First week in Sept this Yr :( I'm going to try the Wild Tepins next season, Very nice plants!!

Your lighting for your grow box is very cool. Are they set up so you can change the height, or stationary?

Thanks,

Buck
 
Buck77 said:
Our first frost came just a hint earlier than Yours. First week in Sept this Yr :( I'm going to try the Wild Tepins next season, Very nice plants!!

Your lighting for your grow box is very cool. Are they set up so you can change the height, or stationary?

Thanks,

Buck
Click to expand...

the lights are set up so I can raise and lower them one light bar at the time...notice the jerry rigged structure on top of the box...simply two pieces of 1" X 4" with holes drilled in them to fit the PVC that holds them in place with plastic coated cable wrapped around the PVC feeding down thru holes drilled in the top of the box and attached to the light bars...the "T"s on the front are my handles...

010511a001.jpg
 
AJ I grew what was labled as Texas chiltepin this past summer. Look pretty similar to those. Ever hear of these? Are they they real wilds of Texas?
 
Pr0digal_son said:
AJ I grew what was labled as Texas chiltepin this past summer. Look pretty similar to those. Ever hear of these? Are they they real wilds of Texas?
Click to expand...

yes sir, they really are wild..my seed came from a wild plant way out in the woods outside Waco (we ain't comin' out), Texas....some researchers say this is the pepper all others originated from...from what I have read, they came from Mexico and the Yucatan originally and were spread to the southwest via bird migrations/droppings...they are very akin to the Pequin...difference is the pequin is man made via natural selection of growing pods that were more pointed and generally larger than the wild tepin...these were the kind that the Aztecs/Incas/Mayans (don't remember which one) had thousands of years ago...maybe 5000-6000 if memory serves me...I think they found some in one of the tombs of one of the rulers...

...from what I have read on the history and development of chili's....
 
I like your grow box........easy access.
I'd put a couple of heavy duty "drawer slides" under the plywood. This way you could slide everything out as a "package" so you can inspect and water.
As I said before when I 1st saw it...... :cool: ...... and it also doubles up as a dough riser.........not kiddin.
Now that the weathers cooled down and I don't mind heating up the house a bit, we bake several types of Italian and sour dough type breads, and some wonderful 3 day rest pizza dough. I use a plant room to let the dough rise. At times when all the lights are running the room hits the low 80's..... ....that temp gives a pretty wicked dough rise.......ha

Hey AJ,
What size pot do you start out with for your OW project indoors?

Greg
 
PIC 1 said:
I like your grow box........easy access.
I'd put a couple of heavy duty "drawer slides" under the plywood. This way you could slide everything out as a "package" so you can inspect and water.


Hey AJ,
What size pot do you start out with for your OW project indoors?

Greg
Click to expand...

The opening is large enough for me to crawl in and get to each plant for watering...I like the idea of the "drawer slides" but that will have to wait until I remodel the box....

These are in the containers they were grown in all year...I just had to get them inside because of the hard freeze coming...I will repot the ones in the 10 gallon containers to probably 7s and the ones in 5s to maybe 3s...for next year, the then 3 yo scorpions will be going into 25 gallon containers and the rest in 7 to 10s....
 
10 days after cutback in grow box...I like it...showing comparison side by side

12-02-11005.jpg
12-12-11011.jpg
 
thanks Pic...I am going to strive to get ripe pods before our extreme summer heat kicks in here in North Texas...and I may be able to get an early season harvest then a very late season harvest...I am expecting another record setting summer for heat and drought this coming year as I have said before...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top