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A Fishy Winter Grow: Stuff in a Tent

Be it ever so humble...
 
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Currently, there are three pepper plants on the bottom (the four all the way on the right are garlic experiments). The one that's nice and rootbound in a tiny container on the right is a manganji, which I pretty much just want to see the pheno from. In the bags on the left, there's shishito (which I found out my wife loves, so that goes on the list), and Greek pepperoncini, a.k.a. Friggitello.
 
I'm really hoping to grow giant white habanero, both over the winter and outside next year, but so far I've had no luck at all getting them to germinate. Which really sucks, because I was hoping to cross those with CGN 21500 and possibly larger sweet varieties. 21500 was also supposed to be the fourth tent pepper. I should have isolated seeds for that coming from my current plant soon.
 
But as I've been attempting to germinate those GW habs, I also started a couple other things. My purple UFO did not grow true, but I started more to see if I can get something on-pheno; on the top shelf, I have two new seedlings from that envelope in rockwool. I also have two very healthy-looking sugar rush peach in there. While I'd prefer to grow the peach outside next year, if I can't get those GW habs to take, I might have to switch, and that could be a pretty good candidate.
 
So the current plan is to have four one-gallon bags on the bottom with a nice selection of mild to medium hot peppers, and go through just as much hybridization experimentation as I can with rockwool and Khang Starr style mini-Kratky bottles.
 
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Looking over the schedule I had set, I'm not quite as far behind as I thought I was regarding planting out. I was thinking of moving the friggitello outside in place of one of the plants that's... maybe growing now, but I don't think it'll be necessary. I'm not planning to move anything outside until the end of May, so there's still a lot of time.
 
For the first time in a while, I also went back to the crosses I wanted to try... and it was all giant white hab x [something]. And since that's out of the picture, I looked at what I should have growing, and I think there's a lot of possible combinations I wasn't thinking about before.
 
If I end up with healthy, happy Zapotec jalapenos and corno di toro yellow, crossing those could result in a pretty great mild stuffing pepper. That one just occurred to me, and it's kind of exciting.
 
I know I have CGN 21500 growing, which might also be good crossed with a milder pepper, and if I end up with alma paprika (which I really hope I do), crossing that with CGN 21500 could also be very interesting. Super-thick-walled, medium heat, extremely tasty little pods? Yes please!
 
So it seems like there's some good potential for crosses this season. :)
 
Mildfruit said:
Seems to be working great for you! Do you plan to keep them like this? :)
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Yup! They're for a Facebook group, a can grow competition. Also just a fun reason to grow more peppers I don't need.
 
Though I am looking forward to having the extra plants for Lemon Starrburst and Trippaul Threat. The cans are growing better than my Kratky bottles, annoyingly enough, but I suppose it's not necessarily a bad thing.
 
The whole tent is doing well right now. Really stoked; hopefully I end up with everything I'd planned on growing this year.
 
PaulG said:
The variety of things you have going on in
your grow just about guarantee your success,
Fish. Really fun watching you do your thing.
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Well, we'll see, I guess. ;)

PaulG said:
Hows the coronavirus situation in Tokyo?
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It'd be impossible to keep social distance here, so most people just aren't even trying. It seems like it ought to be worse than it is, but I don't get the impression it's hitting us too hard.
 
Now that the Olympics have been postponed, Tokyo has no reason to keep pretending we should all be going on with our lives as normal. The government is talking about shutting down the city, and suddenly, this afternoon, every pack of meat, every bag of instant ramen, every vegetable, and every bag of rice vanished from the grocery stores.
 
Yes. We're having a hard time finding rice. In... Japan. 
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My family specifically shouldn't have a problem; we have enough random food to get along for quite a while, and I assume the grocery situation will settle down the way the toilet paper situation did (though you still can't buy a mask here to save your life... heh heh... oh wait, that's not funny).
 
I am pleased to report, however, that there is no sign of an alcohol shortage in either the grocery or convenience stores. I am proud of my adopted nation's priorities.  :cool:
 
My wife is currently out on the town hunting her favorite Korean instant ramen. I ordered her a 20-pack on Amazon, but she's afraid the order will be canceled, so now it's just me and my son, chilling at home while Tokyo goes fuck-all insane. I'm absolutely on board with the preventative measures; it's the "oh no there's something wrong I have to buy ALL OF THE RICE because TO HELL WITH EVERYONE ELSE WHO NEEDS TO EAT" people that are ruining lives, and that part just pisses the hell out of me.
 
Cheers!  :drunk:
 
[edit: I went looking for meat online, and the specialty meat site I buy andouille from currently has 12-14 lb turkeys on serious discount, presumably left over from the holidays. I'm now expecting a big tasty bird that might fit in our little countertop oven... I foresee great happiness in our future, despite the pandemic.]
 
Tent update! I've moved back to using both levels since the temperature has gotten consistently comfortable in the office.
 
Up top, the friggitello continues to produce happily, while the SRP flowers like mad. Looking forward to a good round of pods when they ripen, so probably about when the next Olympics starts up.
 
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The bottom shelf is looking pretty good. There's some yellowing on the Kratky plants, though I think that's due to me letting them dry out too much; up until this week, feeding them every weekend was enough, but I'm probably going to have to start topping the reservoirs off mid-week to keep that schedule. Got some buds on several of them, and a nice little flower in the middle as well.
 
The can on the left is a Trippaul Threat, and it's gorgeous. Definitely my favorite foliage so far.
 
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In the lower right is a plant that supposedly grows strange, round, heatless yellow peppers.  :think:
 
Looks like you are maximizing your tent space, friend.
The top shelf plants are quite stunning.
 
Your are right about the Trippaul Threat F8, that is one
beautiful plant. Looks better than mine! Keep up the
good work!
 
At least that lower right plant is in the Solanum genus!
 
So we had an absolutely gorgeous day over the weekend, but... not really in the way that matters on this forum.
 
This is Tokyo telling me that plant-out is... not quite imminent. The view out my front door:
 
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Granted: Cherry blossoms in the snow is something you don't get to see often, and I enjoyed it. But this was the first snow accumulation we've had in the last... three years, I think... and it was at the freaking end of March. It even kept going for a while after I took this picture; for this place, it was a pretty impressive snowfall.
 
I took advantage of it to make up for the ever-disappointing Christmases here, and made myself a hot cocoa in one of my favorite mugs.
 
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Pulled the Kratky plants out to top off their reservoirs; got the timing just right this time, luckily. They're all drinking more, and several had dried their bottles out after five days, with most of the others coming close. It's actually been really interesting to see how the roots develop completely differently on different varieties. Some of these have massive root systems but aren't growing all that quickly otherwise; some of the largest ones are barely touching the bottoms of the bottles with their roots.
 
Since I haven't really been able to get a good picture in the tent, I figured I'd take the opportunity for a group shot. You can see the foliage colors much better this way. :)
 
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I did find some root rot on one of the taller ones (which is the first one to set fruit, and also has one of the smallest root systems. I don't know how this nature thing works, so it's a good thing the plants seem to).
 
A few have flowers, but most of them aren't even budding yet. Hopefully they get the memo and most of them set fruit before I have to feed them every six hours. 
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Really nice colors on those plants, it's rare to see them so lush! It's crazy how much they seem to drink compared to soil plants, but I guess their growth rates also account for it... ;) I'm sure they'll be budding and flowering in a matter of weeks, and then you'll be swimming in pods a few weeks later!

Nice to see you're well underway and we also just had the coldest 2 weeks of the winter, so it seems spring missed the 'start' memo due to all this covid19 craziness

Sent from my LYA-L29 using Tapatalk
 
Bookers said:
Looking good fish! I see a jungle in your future!
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Haha, thanks! Really hoping to plant out before my tent is no longer navigable...
 
lespaulde said:
Really nice colors on those plants, it's rare to see them so lush! It's crazy how much they seem to drink compared to soil plants, but I guess their growth rates also account for it... ;) I'm sure they'll be budding and flowering in a matter of weeks, and then you'll be swimming in pods a few weeks later!

Nice to see you're well underway and we also just had the coldest 2 weeks of the winter, so it seems spring missed the 'start' memo due to all this covid19 craziness
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I really hope they all get their leafy butts in gear, because I won't even know what to pot up until I know what they are.  :doh:
 
Yeah, the weather just gets weirder and weirder.
 
Tangentially, I'm making a video game. And I swear I'm not doing it to avoid my wife and son... 
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Going on 40 years old and I still can't get those old Final Fantasy games out of my head. I've had something like 6 or 7 false starts over the years at putting together something like this, but it seems to be getting a little further this time... I think it's partially because I ditched the standard wisdom of the MVP (minimum viable product) and went straight to giving it a server component for multiplayer. So whenever the UI stuff pisses me off -- which happens a lot -- I can go be happy in server world for while.
 
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