ATL 2016 Grow, 12 Varieties

mpicante · Feb 17, 2016

Great setup and list good luck on your grow.

AJ Drew · Feb 18, 2016

Curious, do the lights put off enough heat to raise the temp in the box much?

philosophiser · Feb 18, 2016

They seem to, the lights are keeping the soil temperature between 80-85°F right now. They're only 8W each, so I try to position them as low as I can.

philosophiser · Feb 20, 2016

The Italian sweet, Cherry hot, and Korean hot peppers have all come up. Hopefully being under the warm light will accelerate germination for the rest.

After seeing everyone else's setups and noticing that most line their boxes with reflective materials, I decided to make the inside of my bin more reflective. I used some mercury glass spray paint we had laying around and got great results, the walls are like mirrors now:

It's allowed me to raise the lights a bit further away from the plants and keeps the box close to 90° now. I'm hoping it keeps the guys on the perimeter from turning in as much between shuffling.

Meanwhile I decided there's room for about 4 more starter cups in this box and I want to try planting a couple of habanero varieties (which I've never done before). We got these guys out of the "assorted habaneros" bin at the farmer's market the other day:

These are the ones I want to plant, but I need help identifying them. My best guesses are Caribbean Red and Golden habanero? The red one was very juicy, sweet, and hot, and the orange one was less flavorful, tougher, and a bit milder it seemed.

I obviously want to get the seeds from these guys started ASAP, but have heard mixed things about germinating seeds this fresh. I rinsed the seeds last night and have been letting them dry by an air vent. Would it be wise to try starting them this weekend, or should I want until they dry out a bit more? I'm going to give it a shot tomorrow either way and just see what happens.

More pics on the way once I have more to show.

philosophiser · Mar 2, 2016

It's been about 4 weeks since the my seeds hit the dirt and here's how things are looking:

The big guys on the left and right are the Italian Sweet and the Cherry Hot peppers. The two large guys at the bottom are the Korean Hot peppers. I've gone ahead and culled those.

In the middle are the Lemon Drop, Filius Blue, Tabasco, and Sapporo peppers just starting to take off. In the corners are the Fresno and Banana peppers just getting started. The Banana peppers took forever to germinate compared to the previous two years, maybe they're getting old.

I'm still waiting on the Takanotsume, Jalapeños, Aconcagua, and mystery Habaneros to sprout. The Habaneros are a couple of weeks behind the rest, so that's no surprise, however I'm really worried about the Aconcaguas, they're usually one of the first to sprout. I think the Jalapeño seeds might have been bad, I got them off a pepper where a few of them were starting to turn brown. I've never tried the Takanotsume before, so I don't know what to expect. I already have the itch to sow more seeds though! Patience young grasshopper....

So that's 15 out of 24 so far, I'll take it! Of course, that means I'm going to need to build a second grow box :party:

That'll be a project for this weekend, along with re-potting the bigger guys.

pa1966stang · Mar 3, 2016

Good luck on the grow.

philosophiser · Mar 4, 2016

Screw patience, need more peppers...

Thanks all for the good luck wishes, they are being put into action.

philosophiser · Mar 9, 2016

First the bad news, it seems the Jalapeño, Aconcagua, and Takanotsume seeds are duds. The whole batch of peño seed looked bad, so I tossed it. I'm trying to sprout the few remaining Aconcagua and Takanotsume seeds, but it's not looking good so far. To over-compensate I got a new bunch of peño seeds and have three new varieties coming in the mail, they'll be going in cups soon.

On the positive side, the rest of the plants are coming along nicely.

The Cherry Hots and Italian Sweets are the furthest along.

Really cool color pattern on the cotyledons of the Italian Sweets.

The Korean, Sapporo, Tobasco, Fresno, and Lemon Drop seedlings are catching up.

The Banana peppers took forever to sprout compared to the last couple years. They look stunted and sickly, but are starting to perk up.

The original Filius Blue seedling is doing great, but if you look close there's a late sprouter hiding out underneath. It blended in so well I missed it at first, but it there's no doubt it's different. Which one is the real Filius Blue?

And those seeds from the Mystery Habaneros, they finally sprouted. The seeds were very fresh, dried out for less than two days before planting, so it's good to know that starting them that soon can work.

The Red Habanero seedlings are very uniform.

The Orange Habanero seedlings, on the other hand, have a ton of variation, leading me to believe that the pepper I saved them from was a cross, or cross pollinated.

I'm not sure how to determine which to keep and which to cull. The last thing I want is a mutant dud, but I'm excited about the prospects of a really unique pepper. It's too bad I only have two shots at it, but there are plenty more seeds to play with next year.

Aside from the plants, I think I settled on a good, basic, cheap design for the second grow box. I'll be able to finish it Friday and start potting up the plants. Many thanks to the members who contributed suggestions in my grow tech thread.

philosophiser · Mar 14, 2016

Happy Pi Day! :dance:

We got our first 80 degree temps this weekend and the annual pollenpocalypse is beginning. It was the perfect weather to start garden prep, so we got to it!

In lieu of compost, we have a wall of trees, bushes, and vines at the end of the driveway that spends all year raining down organic goodness. Every spring we scrape up the finished product at the bottom and add it to the garden.

A load of these scrapings along with a bag of composted cow manure went into the beds this year.

The biggest, luckiest pepper plants will go in that front raised bed, with the rest going in containers and maybe a few in that corner patch. We'll be stretching the limits of our gardening space this year for sure!

Meanwhile, the new grow box is lit up and I'm starting to repot the bigger seedlings.

The Italian Sweet and Cherry Hot peppers were beginning to yellow before they got repotted. I've been trying to be really good about not over-watering them this time around, but maybe I still missed the mark. The rest of the plants look very healthy though, and I've started using a much better starting mix since the initial batch, so I'm hoping for a turn around.

Of course, the extra room in my grow boxes means I had to start more seedlings, so we now have a replacement Jalapeño and Aconcagua, along with new Ghost Pepper, Bulgarian Carrot Pepper, and Fatalii varieties. See an updated list of what's growing in the initial post.

The plants should only have to put up with the grow boxes for another month or so before they start getting released. Spring is arriving quickly this year.

philosophiser · Apr 6, 2016

I'd forgotten how fast pepper plants grow once they get going! We had to leave them under the care of a friend for a week while on vacation, and even though they probably got over watered a bit while we were away, they're doing great and just itching to get outside. Things are dense and there's hardly any room left in the grow boxes, but they'll have to stick it out for another week or two.

The Korean pepper plants are my favorite so far, very dense and aggressive looking. One of these will definitely get a prized spot in the raised bed.

The Filius Blue has very similar features on a smaller scale. He should do well in a smaller pot on the front porch. By the way, I ended up keeping the green seedling rather than the purple late sprouter. Next year I'll try to get another purple one.

The Fresno is pretty chill.

The Lemon Drop and Tabasco plants are big and green, but the new growth is doing that crinkly thing that everyone says indicates a nutrient problem. I'm going to chalk it up to the crappy Miracle Grow mix I used before re-potting them into a Fox Farm Ocean Forest mix. No big deal though, I've see this before, it should clear up once they go outside.

The Cherry Hot and Italian Sweet are some big dudes, but they sure don't like to be over watered. Looks like they'll lose some lower leaves before going outside, but it's cool, I'll just bury them deeper.

The Sapporo was growing tall so fast I had to top him so he wouldn't run into the bulb while I was away. As lanky as this plant has grown in the past, I think topping it at this stage was a smart move. New growth is already coming out of the sides.

I tossed one of the Banana pepper plants that looked downright pitiful, and the one remaining is finally starting to look normal. This will be the last year for that seed batch.

Now, those were all the plants from my first batch of seedlings. They were started in a Miracle Grow mix and then potted up to a mix based on Fox Farm Ocean Forest. A couple of weeks later I started these Habaneros I bought from the farmers market. Even though they were started later and took longer to sprout, they are already almost as big as some of the plants in the original batch, and look much healthier. If there's any proof that you get better results with better soil, here it is! I'm sold on Fox Farm Ocean Forest.

Here are the Red Mystery Habanero seedlings.

And the Orange Mystery Hybrid Habaneros. It was tough choosing which seedlings to cull, but I ended up keeping the biggest/greenest of the bunch.

One of them was a tricot!

Then there's the third and final batch of seeds I planted about a month ago, they're just getting started. I'm still waiting on the Jalapeño (I'll be damned if I don't get one to sprout this year!) and Fatalii, but the Bulgarian Carrot, Aconcagua, and Ghost Pepper seeds are sprouted.

Somehow these impostors made it in the mix as well

GA Growhead · Apr 6, 2016

Hey! Plants are looking great.
I live on the north side of the city. I have started way to many plants and will have some extras if you would like a few. Mostly supers to habs, and a couple baccatums. Talk to me if your interested.
I can't wait to get the plants outside. I'm going for it in 9 days, if the forecast doesn't change on us.
Nice blog!
Names Jason btw.

philosophiser · Apr 7, 2016

GA Growhead said:
Hey! Plants are looking great.
I live on the north side of the city. I have started way to many plants and will have some extras if you would like a few. Mostly supers to habs, and a couple baccatums. Talk to me if your interested.
I can't wait to get the plants outside. I'm going for it in 9 days, if the forecast doesn't change on us.
Nice blog!
Names Jason btw.

Thanks Jason, I'm Robert, I'm down on the east side of the city. What a generous offer to offload some plants to us, but like you, even with the modest number of plants we're starting there are way more than we can fit in our tiny urban garden! Funny we all have the same problem, right? I'm going to have to give away all of our duplicates to friends and neighbors.

I read your glog from last year though, and I have to say it was one of my favorites and motivated me to try crossing some peppers this year. I'll keep up with my glog and document any attempts I make. Any tips would be appreciated. You grew some absolutely beautiful peppers, you should sell a photo book for the coffee table!

I agree with your timing, next weekend looks to have promising weather. I was strolling through the community garden the other day and noticed someone had already planted their peppers. I think it's too early with the potential frost coming this weekend, but I'm going to keep my eye on them and see how they hold up. It's nice to learn from other people's failures and successes.

santis00 · Apr 7, 2016

Looking good!

philosophiser · Apr 15, 2016

santis00 said:
Looking good!

Thanks santis!

Over all, still looking good.The Jalapeño and Fatalii still haven't sprouted, so I'm giving up on them, it's too late and I have plenty as it is. Maybe next year. All the plants that had wrinkled leaves or edema (all started in that cursed Miracle Grow mix) seem to have recovered... except for the poor tabasco plants. The new leaves ended up severely shriveled and dried up, so I topped them both in hopes of encouraging new, hopefully normal, growth.

If all goes according to plan, they'll go in the ground and in pots on Sunday when the sun and warm temperatures finally hit. This week has been absolutely perfect for hardening them off, with cool temperatures and cloudy skies, and they've responded very well so far.

Now, which lucky 9 will get the primo spots in the raised bed? Hmm...

philosophiser · Apr 18, 2016

Sunday was the day!

I found some free mulch on the side of the road...

Then I prepped the garden and applied some rooting hormone to the tall guys who lost their lower leaves. I've never planted peppers this deep before, let alone use the rooting powder, so we'll see how this experiment pans out.

Then they finally went in the ground! Here's a picture from today:

The front bed:

Sapporo Italian Sweet Cherry Hot

Lemon Drop Korean Red Habanero

Fresno Orange Habanero Tabasco
(the tricot)

The clay pot on the lower left is where the Filius Blue lives for now, I'll probably pot him up in the future. The Ghost Pepper is in the large pot in the upper left corner. He's looking a pretty stressed today... maybe I was overzealous with the little guy, we'll see.

All the lesser duplicate plants went to friends and neighbors who promised to share some of the crop. Meanwhile, I'm debating what to do with the leftovers...

pa1966stang · Apr 20, 2016

Looking good.

I am in the same boat, I have two flats of leftovers that I am waiting to figure out what to do with. I just can't bring myself to sacrifice them to the pepper gods just yet. They are in 2 1/2 in pots though....so it is just a matter of time before the ATL summer heat dries out the roots and kills them in a day while I am at work.

TW

philosophiser · Apr 20, 2016

Yeah I know what you mean, at some point they have to go in the ground. I think I'll just keep potting them up in small increments until I have somewhere to put them.

Which might not be long based on how my Cherry Hot pepper looked this morning...

Looks like I was a bit hasty hardening them off

I could have sworn they were ready, they had spend two full days in the sun before I planted them, maybe they just hadn't shown symptoms yet. That Cherry Hot is a goner. It might have also gotten choked out from how deep I buried the stem, which was significantly deeper than the rest.

Either way, I'm realizing now that I shouldn't have given away the rest of my duplicates so fast, could have tried planting the other Cherry Hot. Instead I planted the Banana pepper in its place.

As for the other peppers, the Italian Sweet is starting to wilt like the Cherry Hot was, but isn't looking as dire (yet). The Filius Blue and Korean hot pepper plants are dropping their healthy looking green leaves at an alarming rate. Some of the others look like they got sunburn too.

I'm feeling pretty bummed about it at the moment. Pray to the pepper gods that the rest pull though and don't get worse, but at the very least I think this stress is going to set them back.

Live and learn I guess.