AJs 2012 Season - A Pictorial Discussion

PepperJam · Mar 20, 2012

everything ok there AJ? read that you guys got some heavy rains and outages. The storm has hit Houston today. moved all my seedlings inside from hardening. I thought they may be able to handle it, but did not take a chance.

AlabamaJack · Mar 20, 2012

Torno said:
AJ,

You going to bring those plants in tonight with that storm coming through? Im sure the wind is just as bad there as it is here.. seems like it's been non stop today.

-J

PepperJam said:
everything ok there AJ? read that you guys got some heavy rains and outages. The storm has hit Houston today. moved all my seedlings inside from hardening. I thought they may be able to handle it, but did not take a chance.

just left them outside to fend for themselves...got a few broken tops but that's OK..they will bush out..we had wind gusts of close to 60 yesterday and the plants took a beating...talk about hardening off...

ended up with 3.5 inches of rain from 6 last night until 9 this morning...suns out now and it is 70 here at the house...beautiful day...everything smells so clean and fresh

PaulG · Mar 21, 2012

Hey, AJ, your 6" pots look awesome - wave after wave of consistency across
all the plants! I'm really looking forward to seeing the conestoga
full of chile peppers!

Torno · Apr 3, 2012

AJ, it looks like you are catching a LOT of that weather on your side of town.. things ok?

-J

Eephus Man · Apr 3, 2012

Was wondering the same as I watch the radar this afternoon.

cory_huck · Apr 3, 2012

they are saying numerous 'naders are on the ground up 'er.. You ok AJ?

Eephus Man · Apr 3, 2012

Yowsa. I hope everyone is okay up there...

https://twitter.com/#!/KVUE/status/187253202469658624/photo/1

Torno · Apr 3, 2012

Ya there have been multiple tornados in the DFW area... I'm up next on the list, seems we have one heading this way.. but fear not the peppers are safe and sound in the garage... I hope anyways

-J

Eephus Man · Apr 3, 2012

Torno said:
Ya there have been multiple tornados in the DFW area... I'm up next on the list, seems we have one heading this way.. but fear not the peppers are safe and sound in the garage... I hope anyways

-J

Peppers will grow again, J. Take care of you and yours, buddy.

AlabamaJack · Apr 3, 2012

I'm OK over here west side...

didn't even get any wind, and just a little bit of dime/nickle sized hail with 1.5" rain....

hope you guys on the east side and in Dallas county are OK...

Torno · Apr 3, 2012

Good to hear things are good on your end AJ. Was a wild afternoon for a lot of people

-J

PaulG · Apr 3, 2012

Hope everybody is safe and sound!

patrick · Apr 3, 2012

Ma nature on the warpath. Good to hear things are OK AJ. Hope the rest of the folks down that way are good.

AlabamaJack · Apr 5, 2012

It has been a couple of weeks since I posted any progress pictures so this will be a long winded post...and I will probably ramble a bit...I moved the overwinters outside yesterday afternoon...as it turns out, I could have moved all my plants and finished transplanting a month ago but I was definitely afraid of a late freeze...you never know...I may still get some cold weather the middle of this month but it doesn't look like it...I really didn't want to tempt mother nature by second guessing her..

These are my 3rd year Scorpions...loaded with flowers that are producing viable pollen thus I am getting some pod set...yipee...I will have a few fresh scorpions before the heat hits...I am debating whether to leave these in the 10 gallon smart pots or moving them on to 25 gallon containers...they are doing so well, I hate to mess with them...

2nd year Wild Waco Tepins - if you look closely, you can see a few pods on them...these give you an immediate bite...like a very harsh burn right up front on the lips, tongue and even gums sometimes...definitely an ingredient to use in all kinds of spice mixtures...

Salsa bed...tomato's, pepper's, and onion's doing well...it seems like they have grown 2-3" since Mondays rain...

these are Trinidad varieties that are being transplanted to 5 gallon containers this week...some of these actually have pods on them and I know one of them has about 10 or 12...philliperv 7 Pot...pods are elongated..

first plants to their final home for the year...got the fertigation ready to hook up too plus I will be using a "Florida Weave" for plant support this year...stake on each end of your row, then run string/small rope in and out of plants down the line...alternate starting "in or out" each support string...this is a south facing wall that gets full sun...

annuums...I think I messed up this year on my jalapeno's, cayenne's, and serrano's - I did not pot them up and transplanted straight from the seed starting trays to the 5 gallon containers....they are not very happy...

armac · Apr 5, 2012

So how old are the Trinidads that are podding?

I guess they can pod in less than 6 months if well taken care of.

We had hail down here a week ago, really tore up McAllen, weird weather lately.

You still putting some scorpions in the ground in that joint venture you mentioned earlier?

Pr0digal_son · Apr 5, 2012

AJ I am glad you posted the annuums pic. I woul Id like to pick your brain if I may? A lot of debate here about potting up. Last season was my first year growing in pots. The plants I bought had very immature root system and I potted them up into 5 gallon pots. Seemed like it took a month to see any veg growth. Were they spending all their time searching for some footing? That would be my uneducated guess. They became rootbound and the plants did not get very large. Would like to hear your thoughts. I have seen you stress the importance of a good root structure before.

AlabamaJack · Apr 5, 2012

armac said:
So how old are the Trinidads that are podding?

I guess they can pod in less than 6 months if well taken care of.

We had hail down here a week ago, really tore up McAllen, weird weather lately.

You still putting some scorpions in the ground in that joint venture you mentioned earlier?

the young ones that are podding were planted the first week of January...weather here is the usual except a month/6 weeks early if that makes any sense...

Pr0digal_son said:
AJ I am glad you posted the annuums pic. I woul Id like to pick your brain if I may? A lot of debate here about potting up. Last season was my first year growing in pots. The plants I bought had very immature root system and I potted them up into 5 gallon pots. Seemed like it took a month to see any veg growth. Were they spending all their time searching for some footing? That would be my uneducated guess. They became rootbound and the plants did not get very large. Would like to hear your thoughts. I have seen you stress the importance of a good root structure before.

my take on why plants do better using a "phased" pot up technique...

as I have said many times before development of a good root ball and root structure is of utmost importance...I think (this is my opinion from my experience) that the roots will fill up what space they have to grow in...therefore if you develop a good rootball in the starter trays, then move to ~3" containers, you will get a "second" mass of roots around the first one...once you go to 6" containers, you get a third "root mass" around the first two...these densely packed root systems will continue to grow new roots to fill the available area...It is not uncommon for my plants in 5 gallon containers to grow roots out of the bottom of the containers into the ground below...IMO this is a good thing for several reasons, the two most important ones are, they pull water/nutrients from the ground and it adds stability to the plants during high winds...

plants that come out of the seed starting trays straight to the 5 gallon containers lack this dense root ball caused by phased potting up...this is very evident with the annuum's I have shown...they will be OK and most will survive, but I won't transplant from starter trays to 5 gallon containers again...I did it this year because of pure laziness plus the wife suggested it...

bottom line, the more roots you have, the more new roots you will get...I actually could probably pot up again to 10 gallon containers about the middle of July but don't want to shock the plants when they are growing well...I have not tried that yet but may this year...

did that answer your question or did I get sidetracked?

PIC 1 · Apr 5, 2012

I like that "goto" salsa bed.....I've put together an arrangement of patio plants for balcony containers, some folks don't space or dirt to plant in and they opt for a "barrel" planting. But you've got the right idea.....keeping-it-together!
I don't honestly know if stepping up container gradually size makes a big difference with the annuums. Although, what I've noticed by keeping the plants corraled in smaller pots and flooding them with light will bring out the lower shoots from the internodes faster. My Cali Wonders, Waxes, Bananas etc are still in 3" pots they're 4" tall and on their 3rd leaf set. I know once they get potted up to 1 gal they'll start to stretch and branch. That will have to happen when the weather warms up and I can pot up and harden them off in the cold frames.
Regardless, those 5 gal containers will help your plants grow into "monsters".........as usual

Greg

Pr0digal_son · Apr 5, 2012

Thanks to both of you guys. I guess there are other variables that come into play as always. Maybe what I perceived seemed correct but I didn't feed correctly or a number of other things. This year I tried to take advice from you and Greg and let my starters get a large root mass before potting up. Although these are not Annuums I can see what Greg is talking about with his "corralled" statement.

Same variety,same sprout date,and feedings. The plant on the right has similar branching underneath to the one on the left. I transplanted these on the same day into different containers obviously. Maybe a way to save space for someone running out of it like me ? Haha Thanks to both of you guys. Sorry for the hijacking AJ.
BTW.... Great looking plants!

Eephus Man · Apr 5, 2012

Seems like it has to be Goldilocks-sized. As in...just right. AJ's are in too big, and yours to the right is in too small. I wonder if there is a magic number for percentage of root ball size to the next container up for ideal growth e.g. If the rootball = 12-20% of new container, then growth is maximized in X amount of time. Now there's an interesting experiment. Or maybe just to me. lol.