A Fishy Winter Grow: Stuff in a Tent

Be it ever so humble...
 

 
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.

 

[internationalfish]

Mine too. It occurs to me that the root mass is displacing more and more liquid as it grows. So while the growing plant's demands are no doubt increasing, they seem to be increasing even more than that.  I find I'm on the floor filling more and more often, but the actual amount I'm pouring to reach the fill line has been decreasing.
 
I've also noticed the plant tends to slurp up a lot right away after I've topped up. Are you seeing that? 

 
Unfortunately, I'm not monitoring them often enough to say one way or another regarding how much they're drinking right off the bat. Mine also get topped off during the day while the lights are off, so that might impact whether they'd be particularly thirsty right then; I don't really have any clue.
 
I'm sure the root mass increasing means there's less volume available for go juice, but based on the empty and full weights (at least how they feel, anyway), I don't think mine are reaching down nearly as much as they're bushing out. But then that's a whole lot of feelings and guesswork, so it's probably not worth much.
 

Your dried seed looks great. Should be
some good ones in those little baggies.

 
Thanks! Fingers crossed. Think I'm going to start a germ test today.
 
[edit:

]

 

[internationalfish]

Started a germination test.
 

 
So here we go. Got the dried one from my Japanese friend in there along with a sampling of both the ones I think are probably good and the ones that seem boned.
 
Unfortunately, while attempting to de-helmet my CGN 21500 sprout, I beheaded it. Which might just have been inevitable, given how solid that seed still was, but still, it sucks. On the plus side, I have two hooks coming up for yellow Scotch bonnets; back on the minus, those seeds are from Pepper Joe's, sent by a well-meaning trade partner who apparently wasn't quite aware of that vendor's reputation.

 

[Bou]

I found that spraying a bit of water a couple times before trying to take those helmets off is helping a lot as it softens the shell

 

[internationalfish]

I found that spraying a bit of water a couple times before trying to take those helmets off is helping a lot as it softens the shell

 
Makes sense. This one was already soaked, though; it's very humid in the containers I have the rockwool in. I think I'd have needed an x-acto and a microscope (or, you know, some kind of talent or skill) to have had a chance. All of these things, unfortunately, are in short supply.
 
While painting my Kratky containers dealt with the algae in the solution handily, the green monster kept going strong in the rock wool, which I was seeing regularly but somehow just completely ignored until today. There isn't enough room in those net pots for hydroton (or even perlite), but hey, this ain't no fancy tent! So I applied the best solution at hand.
 

 
In the gettooooo... in the ghettooooo!
 
The SRP on the right continues to be the only one to set fruit so far. But it does seem intent on making up for its lazy brothers, and those pods are coming along at a pretty good clip.
 

 
So far they look on-pheno, but who knows. Once again... fingers crossed.

 

[PaulG]

The Suger Rush Peach pods look great.
Really coming along.

 

[lespaulde]

Yeah those SRP look spot on! Curious to see how long they will ripen in the tent, as some say they take up to 90-120 days. My experience (outdoors) is more like 60 days, but they are worth it for sure.

Fingers crossed for your germination test

Sent from my LYA-L29 using Tapatalk

 

[internationalfish]

Yeah those SRP look spot on! Curious to see how long they will ripen in the tent, as some say they take up to 90-120 days. My experience (outdoors) is more like 60 days, but they are worth it for sure.

Fingers crossed for your germination test

 
Wait, 60+ days to ripen?! How do I keep picking these slow-ass horses?

 

[PaulG]

 
Wait, 60+ days to ripen?! How do I keep picking these slow-ass horses?

 
That is pretty typical for most baccatum
species, in my experience.

 

[internationalfish]

That is pretty typical for most baccatum
species, in my experience.

Son of a...

 

[internationalfish]

Back in Office Land, my 7JPN is a... weird beast. This is its oldest pod, which has been around for months, I think, and has pretty much always been black.
 

 
Its newest (and only other) pod... has pretty much only ever been this kind of reddish brown.
 

 
Starting to think I'm radioactive or something and that's why my plants keep growing completely bonkers.

 

[internationalfish]

Well, the poor little ornamental at the office is starting to look better.
 
Gave it a bit of a trim, too.
 

 

[PaulG]

Looks like it will survive in good shape, 'Fish!
 
When you feel comfortable, you might cut the dead
stick ends back to the new growth. It will make the
plant look better, and reduce the chance of diseases,
etc getting into the dead wood.
 
At some point, you might want to thin out the new
branches after they grow out a couple of inches
to control the shape a little bit.
 
That is going to be a great plant!

 

[internationalfish]

When you feel comfortable, you might cut the dead
stick ends back to the new growth. It will make the
plant look better, and reduce the chance of diseases,
etc getting into the dead wood.

 
I did that yesterday; it's actually why I took the picture. Everything there should be alive; I'll make sure to keep up with it, though.
 

At some point, you might want to thin out the new
branches after they grow out a couple of inches
to control the shape a little bit.
 
That is going to be a great plant!

 
Well, I can't have it doing too well and making my not-quite-7JPN look bad... 

 

[Uncle Eckley]

Looks like it will survive in good shape, 'Fish!
 
That is going to be a great plant!

 
Nice save, 'Fish!

 

[internationalfish]

Damnit, I suck at this SO MUCH. 
 
The round of seeds I started while continuing my attempt to get giant white habs to sprout continues to suck; nothing at all on the habs or corno di toro. I got another CGN 21500 sprout, which just replaces the one that died of helmet, and some Pepper Joe's yellow Scotch bonnets that'll probably be cayenne or something.
 
When I checked this morning, the latest round of seeds, which are for the varieties I want outside this year -- naglah, Zapotec jalapeno, and alma paprika -- all had at least one hook. Which is good! And then I fumbled the damn container and mixed up the rockwool cubes. Now I have no idea which is which.
 
You're a dumb one, mister fish. 

 

[CaneDog]

Been there before with the mix ups.  Shouldn't be hard to tell those apart early, though.  The naglah will be chinense (mostly).  The JZ will be annuum.  And the alma paprika will be blowing-the-freaking-doors-off vigorous, at least if your past history is any indication of your future results.

 

[internationalfish]

Been there before with the mix ups.  Shouldn't be hard to tell those apart early, though.  The naglah will be chinense (mostly).  The JZ will be annuum.  And the alma paprika will be blowing-the-freaking-doors-off vigorous, at least if your past history is any indication of your future results.

 
Thanks; I'm mostly just annoyed with myself for my hangover screwup. Yeah, don't be careful with the non-individually-labeled rock wool cubes, fish, I'm sure everything will be just fine if your impaired ass tosses them around a bit.
 
In more pleasant news, my kinda-Friggitello ripened some more delicious pods. I thought the 1000W light (which I've downgraded, unrelatedly, because I think it's frying things) was giving the pods a wicked tan, but it turns out they're ripening through dark brown on their way to red:
 

 
I don't even know if that's on-pheno for anything. Don't really care at this point, though; I'm definitely saving seeds from this batch of pods. Starting early, don't want to risk waiting until the plant for some reason dies.
 
My germ test is unimpressive so far (and the picture isn't much better). The feudal seeds have all sprouted, while a couple of the red habs and possibly one goronong have come out. Granted, it's only been eight days, but I'm kind of wondering if I've dehydrated them excessively. It's still early, though... eh.
 

 
All of my four Kratky plants picked up a lot of algae and a little bit of root rot before I got them into blacked-out bottles. There's no more algae, but I guess I didn't get enough rot out of one of the purple UFOs, because it's the only one still having root issues. I cut them back quite a bit, and while I think I got most of the rot, I also probably took too much root along with it. Neither one is setting fruit anyway, but then neither is the second sugar rush peach; just waiting on the first one to ripen its three beefy charges.
 

 
These plants were being overfed (again) and probably over-lit; both have been corrected. If they start getting leggy, I'll know I was wrong about the lighting being excessive, but I'm pretty sure I pushed the nutes a little too far. Ah well, they're alive.

 

[PaulG]

Hey, ‘Fish. Sorry to hear about the tumbling cubes.
I’ve made way dumber mistakes than that 
 
Do your Rockwool cubes come in paper sleeves?
I just write the name right on them.
 
Since some of your seeds are germinating, I
would say your drying technique is okay.

 

[internationalfish]

Hey, ‘Fish. Sorry to hear about the tumbling cubes.
I’ve made way dumber mistakes than that 
 
Do your Rockwool cubes come in paper sleeves?
I just write the name right on them.
 
Since some of your seeds are germinating, I
would say your drying technique is okay.

 
The best results are coming from the ones I didn't dry myself. Of course. 

 
My cubes didn't come in sleeves, no (and I still have quite a few of them left to use). It's pretty clear I need to get something figured out to tell them apart next time, though, so I suppose I'll probably go Freddy Krueger on a couple of the little plastic labels I use in my planters, make little spikes to stick in the cubes, and color code them.
 
It's not all that big a deal that I suck at juggling, since I was going to grow out as many of these as I could Kratky-style anyway, it's just kind of a "WTF, fish, get your shit together" moment.

 

[internationalfish]

Since some of my rockwool sprouts are up and healthy, I figured I should probably start bottling them. And I've overextended myself on bottles; still have to prep two more ASAP, and probably at least one more shortly after that, for the rest. Of course, if everything I have in there germinated, I'd need a whole lot more. But that's a problem I'd be OK with...
 
Anyway. The CGN 21500 (back right) is the only one that hasn't shot some sort of root out of the bottom of the cube yet, so I swapped it out after taking this picture for one that actually has something to hang under the net cup.
 

 
In the front: Mystery peppers thanks to fishy fumbling. In the back left, a Pepper Joe's Scotch Bonnet. So basically... another mystery pepper. But wow, those guys are rooting like crazy, so it seems like it'll at least be healthy.
 
The other two unknowns, waiting for homes.
 

 
Unrelated: I picked up a little jar of good honey last week. It wasn't raw, but then finding raw honey here seems to be almost impossible, so I figured I'd try fermenting garlic in it anyway.
 

 
Working like a charm and smelling brilliant, just a couple days in.