AHayastani's GLOG 2022

Welcome to my GLOG!


I have a small urban terrace garden where I grow mainly peppers in containers. My location is Chiapas, Mexico. The local climate is tropical with pronounced dry and rainy seasons. The temperatures can sometimes be too much for the plants to bear (especially around Easter), but in general they manage. The climate makes that I can grow peppers year round, although pest pressure is really high. Especially mites are a problem... I apply neem oil copiously, but it does not always work...


This GLOG will follow my 2022 pepper endeavours. Enjoy

 

[ahayastani]

Right on, brother. Heat exhaustion and sunstroke
are no laughing matter. I experienced it climbing
a mountain in the summer when I was young and
bullet-proof.

It was a first for me and I still don't understand well how/why it happened. It was not particularly hot, I was not that long out in the sun, and I even wore a hat - something I normally never do

Based on the length of that shadow the sun must still be quite high in the sky, even though it's winter...

The sun's altitude at our hibernal solstice is comparible to that of the summer solstice in Stockholm.

 

[ahayastani]

I bought a "happy box" from Oaxaca in December last year. Among the things in the box were three types of Oaxacan dried chile (image below, from right to left): chile tuxta, chile costeño, and chile tabiche (often spelled taviche, but the MX Larousse dictionary spells it tabiche).

I selected a few peppers of each variety (shown below) and removed the seeds. I didn't count the number of seeds, but certainly an eyeballed 20+ were selected for germination. Seeds were soaked in diluted H2O2 (~1/10 of a commercial 3% solution) for 24h before sowing. All seeds had sunk to the bottom of the glass.

tabiche​	costeño​	tuxta​
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Germination observations are given in the table below. Seeds were sown on 11 Jan (11012022); the numbers in the table header indicate days after sowing. The numbers in the rows represent the number of seedlings I counted (only if cotyledons were visible). I didn't count the number of seeds that I sowed. In retrospect I should have done so, but finding the germination rate was not my priority at the time of sowing. I just wanted some plants... The results for costeño are not as good as the other two varieties, but I'll have my plant

	6d​	7d​	8d​	9d​	10d​	11d​	12d​	13d​	14d​
tabiche​	1​	4​	8​	17​	22​	26​	30​	30​	31​
costeño​	​		1​	3​	4​	4​	4​	4​	4​
tuxta​		2​	5​	8​	16​	22​	24​	30​	32​

The image below shows the seedlings as they are today (26 Jan).

 

[skullbiker]

The "dump the seeds in" trick usually gets results!

 

[Sulsa]

I like the idea of tracking down local heirlooms, who knows how much beautys are out there to be discovered.
You certainly live on the right continent to do so!

 

[PaulG]

You certainly live on the right continent to do so!

And the right location!

 

[ahayastani]

The "dump the seeds in" trick usually gets results!

That indeed was the "spirit" of the experiment

I like the idea of tracking down local heirlooms, who knows how much beautys are out there to be discovered.
You certainly live on the right continent to do so!

I'm surprised there are still so many local heirlooms that are virtually unknown outside of their traditional area of cultivation.

 

[ahayastani]

Tears of joy...

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The first God Stopper and African Devil are changing colour. That will make for an apocalyptically delightful sauce.

God Stopper:

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The Peri Peri "African Devil" plant is nearly one year old and is loaded with peppers. The first one is changing colour.

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[HeatMiser]

I planted the same strain of piri-piri last year and got a good harvest. I dried them up and used some this past weekend to make piri-piri chicken by following Chillichump's recipe.

It's by far the best grilled chicken I've made. So if you have some of those peppers to spare, I highly recommend that.

 

[ahayastani]

I dried them up and used some this past weekend to make piri-piri chicken by following Chillichump's recipe

The plant has been a good producer. I never tried to dry the peppers though, will do so. Thanks for the tip.

 

[ahayastani]

An update on Tshololo. My plant has been flowering for some time but only recently did I also find its first fruit. This is quite a big plant as well (passed the 1 m-mark, see photo below), but I'm forcing the stems to grow upwards. I have the impression that this plant prefers to extend laterally, but it would consume a lot of space if I'd allow that.

The first fruits are purple/purplish green. An attractive plant so far.

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[ahayastani]

Taj Mahal Pink/Peach, a variety that has been developed by Bryan Townshend from Taj Mahal Orange Tiger, a creation from Enrico Lai. This is quite a big plant, at least 1.5 m in a 4 g grow bag. It has only recently begun to set fruit.

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[Bou]

Taj Mahal Pink/Peach, a variety that has been developed by Bryan Townshend from Taj Mahal Orange Tiger, a creation from Enrico Lai. This is quite a big plant, at least 1.5 m in a 4 g grow bag. It has only recently begun to set fruit.

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Nice "tiger"pod shape mate, spot onI love the taste of Bryan's Taj Mahal orange (tiger/minion). I've tried to grow the mustard variation 2 years in a row but my growing season is not long enough for this one... damn I should have sent the remaining seeds your way!

 

[ahayastani]

Nice "tiger"pod shape mate, spot onI love the taste of Bryan's Taj Mahal orange (tiger/minion). I've tried to grow the mustard variation 2 years in a row but my growing season is not long enough for this one... damn I should have sent the remaining seeds your way!

Even under my growing conditions, this plant has taken its time... It was sown in (early) September I believe.

I fell for the looks of that pepper. The pod shape indeed agrees with the advertised shape Just imagine, half a year of growing to find out the pheno is off... And I'm already very happy with what you've sent, no worries

 

[ahayastani]

I'm growing two Scotch Brain plants. One seedling had a purple stem while the other was completely green. There is quite a big difference in size between both plantlets. The purple colouring seems to be fading. In the photo below, the purple and green stem variants are on the left and right side, respectively.

Scotch Brain "purple stem"​	Scotch Brain "green stem"​
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[Bou]

Even under my growing conditions, this plant has taken its time... It was sown in (early) September I believe.

I fell for the looks of that pepper. The pod shape indeed agrees with the advertised shape Just imagine, half a year of growing to find out the pheno is off... And I'm already very happy with what you've sent, no worries

Strange cause I had better luck with the orange minions back in 2020. Don't know about the pink/peach but the orange was very flavorfull and so were the few mustard I harvested!

I was supposed to try the purple long version this year but now I don't think it's gonna happen... thanks to you Time to open up the vault again and choose a replacement to fill that empty seat!!

 

[ahayastani]

Time to introduce two new players in the game: Aji Ahuachapan and Bih Jolokia Caramel.

I'm growing two plants of Aji Ahuachapan. I've placed one plant at each side of a palm tree (in container) in the corner of the terrace garden. One plant is larger than the other, but both are flowering with many more buds ready. There are some runner beans there as well (I'm growing them to obtain more seeds only).

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Bih Jolokia Caramel is taking off. By the looks of it, it'll become one heck of a plant...

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[ahayastani]

Both of my 7 Pot White plants are producing pods now, although I was initially a bit worried about the pheno. All new pods were long and slender (first image), but the oldest pods are becoming broader and now look more like a typical (Mexican) habanero. The plant that was affected by mites as a seedling is producing substantially more pods (visual impression, I didn't actually count).

long/slender​	"habanero"-shape​
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[Bou]

Time to introduce two new players in the game: Aji Ahuachapan and Bih Jolokia Caramel.

I'm growing two plants of Aji Ahuachapan. I've placed one plant at each side of a palm tree (in container) in the corner of the terrace garden. One plant is larger than the other, but both are flowering with many more buds ready. There are some runner beans there as well (I'm growing them to obtain more seeds only).

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Bih Jolokia Caramel is taking off. By the looks of it, it'll become one heck of a plant...

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Cool, they are both awesome producers and on my must grow list!!

 

[PaulG]

@ahayastani -
Man, I just keep seeing new plants in your Grow Log.
How many are you growing this season, Dieter? They
all look great. Is there an room to move around on
your balcony ?

 

[CaneDog]

Haha. +1 to that! I was thinking just the same thing earlier when I saw your last post, ahayastani .