glog 2025 - LEAVE OR DIE

CHAPTER #01 - LIKE REPTILES

It's never too early to say "it's never too early to get started" so this year, to counterattack a possible fake summer effect like in 2024, I started 3 months in advance (18th of december).

Chiltepin cappuccino - 2024

I sterilized the seeds with a 9:1 water/bleach solution, and presoaked them for 24h, then I put them on paper towel on every heater of the house.

As soon as the roots emerged, I put them in soil (instead of waiting for the cotyledons to open on the paper, that maybe was causing more stress to the roots).
My friend gave me reptiles heatmats and a reptile UV lamp, that I'm using to heat the soil filled pepper cups (my apartment is cold, now I have 5C degrees more).

Soil is a brand new one, no more fungus-filled recycled one thanks!!

So, everything seems to be better and working well, apart from a big problem... I decided to go all-in and grow 130 varieties, even if I only have a small balcony. I couldn't choose what to remove, so I thought of putting 2-3-4 plants per pot. That's for two reasons: the first is that I'm insane the second one is that, having only 4 hours of sun per day, I realized that for my environment it may be better to grow small plants: I'll expect competition among them, and hopefully many small tastings.

I started with 60 varieties: wild ones, pubescens, and a mix of chinense and frutescens; to be fair, after all this babysitting I've already got the pepper burnout. Also, I'm already out of space! Time to mount a twin structure.

The wild ones I chosed are:
C. lanceolatum
C. chacoense
C. rhomboideum
C. tovarii
C. galapagoense
C. eximium
C. cardenasii
C. flexuosum
Also, a couple of C. rabenii, a couple of C. annuum var. glabriusculum, a C. baccatum var. baccatum, a purple flowered baccatum and some wild chinense/frutescens.

On late january/february I'll start with C. annuum and C. baccatum ones; mutants, variegated and F1 to F4 crosses included.
Some friends are trying to overwinter at home some of my last year's cultivars that couldn't set fruits (especially F1 and C. rabenii), anyway I sowed them again.

C. lanceolatum seeds surprised me because they are black and way smaller than any Capsicum seed I've had, included C. eximium.

I will also radically change the way I grow them outdoors, from the composition of the soil to the way I'll manage insects; but this will be told on march .

 

[Think Pink]

Thanks! I chose a couple of peppers based on some THP users'opinions (e.g., RPFH and Jamaican hot choc from you, and aji chombo from Marturo ). I have others in list, but I couldn't find seeds here (lesya, chile rayado, tasmanian black). Maybe next year!

I put the new heatpads under the plants, and that's good (25C on the pads; the environment goes from 16C during nighttime to 20C during daytime).

But anyway I start to have the usual humidity problems: the top soil is often wet because the powerful LED has to stay far, so I don't have heating from above (the reptile lamp is in the other structure, and BTW doesn't cover a wide area) and some algae or white fungus dots are emerging.

I know that they will start to spread, even if now I am removing them with a spoon. I'll try to reduce waterings more, because I can't find other solutions to dry the upper part of the cups. Any idea?

I also started presoaking all the C. baccatum seeds, plus some unborn ones from the first cycle. Dividing the cultivars in steps is less stressful

And I put away the last 2024 seeds, after more or less 1 month drying. Maybe they don't need 1 full month, but I'm used to do that because it's easy to compare dates.

C. amarillo (one of a few C. baccatum that I started early, because it takes ages to ripen; this is the "fat" one, because I also had a "slim" one) are already the tallest ones.

I am curious to taste it, because the fruit comes from a peruvian market in Milan and it was very watery and almost not hot. The ones I grew were very tasty and hot (they were the slim ones... but I don't think it's relevant). I suppose it depends on the growing methods, and not from the genetic. We'll see.
You can see different stages of auto seed removal. This year I'm not helping them anymore.

C. annuum var glabriusculum, instead, is already compact, and started developing the first set of true leaves.

I don't know if the next one is a human error (like planting two seeds together, even if I manage them one by one), or two rocoto sprouts emerged from the same seed. BTW I like the picture, it reminds me of trees in a microworld

Rocotos often give me some weird cotyledons (here: a tricot and a butterly one nearby), I suppose it's something bound to the species

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[SatanicFlatIron]

some serious pepper porn here. my plants are way behind...

thank you! Year after year everyone can improve in many aspects (when to start, which lamps to use, soil recipe...), I wish you the best

Comedy Waynes World GIF - Comedy Waynes World You Are The Master - Discover & Share GIFs

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tenor.com

lol, thanks, but there are no masters here. Well, I might just be a master of puppets
Just call my name 'cause I'll hear you scream

 

[SatanicFlatIron]

For the first time I really struggled to water the plants, not only I couldn't get through but I couldn't even see the pots by sticking my head into the canopy

Now I've compacted the plants with other stakes, and tomorrow I'll use some green gardening wire to wrap them.

Imagine neighbors and passers-by seeing a crazy guy who at least 1 hour a day walks back and forth between the plants with crab-like lateral steps...

I have the first color stage variations, which occurred on a twin aribibi gusano

they look like teeth with saliva I'm waiting for it to become whiter for the vampire tasting

Among the various attempts, in addition to the previous C. annuum x C. baccatum, it also set a C. annuum x C. chinense

curiously both on the same mother plant which then turned out to be an OP F1 itself (I will therefore have a possible F1 already unstable as phenotypes, but it's not a big problem). So I wonder: is it possible that the F1s, in addition to the various characteristics of hybrid vigor, also have a greater tendency in the fruit setting of the crosses, or was it just a lucky coincidence?

I noticed that at the end of the balcony (yes, I managed to get there...) the stolen yellow is producing a lot of fruit. It might not be a coincidence, since it is also covered by a column that shades even more than the other plants. The rocoto mini olive instead (more in the sun) has lots of flowers but no fruit set. However, finding these fruits was a pleasant surprise, finally this year I can eat homemade rocotos!

The NW-3 cross (black C. chinense x white chinense) has both interesting (already recorded) purple/brown shades in the intermediate stage and a mini orange fruit at the base, I think among the first deformed ones that sometimes you can meet at the first node. I am very curious to check the final color, since many genes are involved in this combo; in addition to checking flavor, shape and spiciness, since I love both parents.

By the way, here is always NW, but also NB, from last year, overwintered by a friend. They are starting to flower now

Mixed photos:

Overall I think I'll start picking some green annuums to eat soon, because my mouth is always watering

 

[NJChilehead]

Hey @SatanicFlatIron, this is a great GLOG, and I've been swamped over the past few weeks so regretfully I haven't been following it more closely (but am catching up now). Good stuff! I look forward to seeing how all of this is looking later in the season. You're going to have your hands full, but in a good way! Keep us posted!

 

[SatanicFlatIron]

Hey @SatanicFlatIron, this is a great GLOG, and I've been swamped over the past few weeks so regretfully I haven't been following it more closely (but am catching up now). Good stuff! I look forward to seeing how all of this is looking later in the season. You're going to have your hands full, but in a good way! Keep us posted!

Thanks NJC! You are very kind. One of my regrets this year is not using cages for rocotos like you did; and maybe I should use them for other species too. Anyway this year I am dealing with the spaces between plants and it is also an educational activity.
Today I used 50 meters of gardening wire to wrap the plants, like a spider web, and the situation improved a little. I will keep you updated!

 

[Marturo]

Hey @SatanicFlatIron this is getting really great I am enjoying every bit of it. Keep up the good work.

 

[NJChilehead]

Thanks NJC! You are very kind. One of my regrets this year is not using cages for rocotos like you did; and maybe I should use them for other species too. Anyway this year I am dealing with the spaces between plants and it is also an educational activity.
Today I used 50 meters of gardening wire to wrap the plants, like a spider web, and the situation improved a little. I will keep you updated!

I wonder if you could do a makeshift trellis or use tomato cages? If using tomato cages, get them in soon before they get too big!

 

[SatanicFlatIron]

Hey @SatanicFlatIron this is getting really great I am enjoying every bit of it. Keep up the good work.

Thank you Marturo. Every day I have surprises, the season is starting to be full of things to see and share!

I wonder if you could do a makeshift trellis or use tomato cages? If using tomato cages, get them in soon before they get too big!

Tomato cages are also a good solution! Not applicable to rocotos (too late! ) because they've already conquered a huge space (like octopuses, entering all the adjacent pots with very hard branches) but it could work well for baccatums that are tall and vertical!
In the meantime, after thinking about it a bit tonight, today I decided to prune the plants. I pruned all the lower leaves (also cleaning the soil) and also the highest leaves that were sticking out into the main corridor. I felt a bit like a gardener cutting hedges It seems that, if repeated as a normal maintenance, it can work in synergy with the wires. Now I can walk and water them more easily.
I'll wait to see how they behave in the next few days, and then I'll evaluate whether to use cages and/or plastic pallets to lift them off the ground.