Back in the saddle, a 2023 glog

Hello there pepperheads, long time no see!

Spoiler: Cover photo

I haven't grown anything since the 2018 season which was not a great one for me. Had okayish yield for an indoor grow, but I was swamped at work and tried too many new things which kind of made me burn out on the growing.

I live in an apartment in the city, with no balcony, so I'm a strict indoor grower which has it's challenges regarding space, light, and so forth. But I've had quite good yields despite this.
This year is no different, pure indoor grow in the same apartment with the same limitations.

This first post will be a bit long since it covers the first month, but I will do my best to do frequent updates for your reading pleasure.

With that said, let's go back to late 2022, and I got the itch to grow again after talking pepper growing with a colleague.
But this time things were going to be different! Scale back on number of plants(not have 30+), don't try a bunch of fancy things or new grow techniques, keep it simple.
So I sorted through my seed collection (106 varieties ), narrowed it down to 15ish candidates, I only planned to have at most 12 plants.
Then black friday came around, and TexasHotPeppers promotion was just too good to pass up considering there were a lot of interesting varieties I wanted to try.
Back to the drawing board:

In the end I decided on 13 plants and 13 different varieties:

• GRIF 9165
• SB7J
• White Bullet Habanero
• Sugar Rush X Mango
• Dieghito Jalapeño
• Galapagos Isabela Habanero
• KS Lemon Starrburst
• White Moruga
• Olho De Mutum
• Yellow Bullet Habanero
• Chiltepin Amarillo
• Chupetinho White
• Trinidad Scorpion X Congo Chocolate

Since I've lost much of my tolerance for the super hots I decided to try and cover a lot of the scoville scale to help me ease back into eating my favourite peppers, Moruga Scorpions

Now the thing about not trying out new things lasted about two shakes of a lamb's tail, because I wanted to change my grow space. It was previously on shelves in the kitchen, but now it was going to be in the living room, so I needed to restrict the amount of light from the the grow space.
So say hello to my new Mars Hydro grow tent. It's 120x60x180cm (4x2x6'):

With that out of the way it was finally time to start growing. Seeds went into dirt on the 27th of December, two of each variety in case I would have germination issues:

I always start the grow with T5 lights for the extra heat output, so I generally don't need heat mats or other forms of heat generation:

First hook came on 2nd of January, Chupetinho White:

Then the others started following:

All in all I got all varieties to germinate, but 4 seeds failed to germinate so in the end I have 22 plants and the plan is to give away the ones I won't keep and stick to the plan of 13 plants... or so I thought, but more on that later

Since the grow tent becomes it's own environment I felt it was prudent to keep an eye on temperature and humidity, and since I like technology I got me some "smart" sensors:

They've been added to my "smart home" setup and it's quite nifty to see how humidity and temperature changes based on lighting, when you water, and so on. This might be expanded on with more sensors, automation and whathaveyou, unless I actually manage to keep it simple

Fast forward about a week and the plants are growing nicely, but they are getting leggy:

My plan was to swap out the T5 for some LED lights I have so I can have the lights closer to the plants and not get any sunburn on them.
But as I swapped lights I realized that the light coverage was not nearly good enough, and even if I used my two LED lights it probably wouldn't be optimal.
So I went researching and hunting.
I've always been a fan of Mars Hydro products so I found a decent deal on a new LED light that was perfect for the tent.
Say hello to Mars Hydro SP 3000:

Initial impressions are really good and the possibility to dim the lights is really good because this thing gets very, very bright. Currently have it on 50% but 25% might also be enough.

Grow space has been adjusted and plants moved:

Still quite happy, except for the front left one on the middle tray which I accidentally let dry out and it never recovered:

Plants took a liking to the new light and grew some more, but they did start showing signs of nutrient deficiency:

I use soil that is almost devoid of nutes, so it's time to very carefully start feeding them some nutrient solution when watering.

Now we are caught up...

So my plan this year is to have 6 plants in the grow tent and the rest will go on my window sills, I'm still undecided on pot size for the tent but I'm leaning towards 2 gallon.
Or rather, I should say that was my plan, because my employer has asked me to relocate which I have agreed to. There is no rush, but there most likely will be a move within 6 months and perhaps that will give me an option to continue the grow outdoors, and to keep more plants
We'll simply have to see.

As for this Glog, I'm going to do my best to keep updating it and not stop towards the end of the season (I've failed every time, but this year will be different! )
I'm also going to get back to using my photography equipment and take beautiful pictures of the plants and peppers.
Plus I intend to do tasting of the peppers and give reviews, only in text and images though, no videos.

Here's to a great grow season in 2023 fellow pepper heads!

 

[MarcV]

Pods?

 

[Ohjay]

Pods?

Yes indeed!
And on several plants as well, going to inspect the plants carefully and share more details on the next update.

 

[Ohjay]

The plants are growing well, so well in fact that I had to start moving some of them out of the tent since it was getting a bit crowded.
Some family photos first, here's the first set of plants I put in the window earlier:

And here are the plants I moved out of the tent yesterday:

Which gave me more space in the tent for the plants to grow and make watering a bit easier for me:

The Sugar Rush X Mango in the tiny pot is, well, happy but also not.
It has four pods but leaves show a lot of signs of nutrient deficiency. I'll increase the nutrients slightly but I suspect it really wants a larger pot:

This is what it looks like under the pot:

The other plant in a small pot is a Trinidad Scorpion X Congo, which looks a lot healthier, but on the other hands looks like this underneath:

The experiment with these plants will continue for a while longer, at least as long as I feel I have space for them.

Speaking of comparisons, the following image is of a Yellow Bullet Hab (L) and White Bullet Hab (R):

The white bullet plant is a lot more compact, very thick foilage while the yellow bullet is a bit more open, but they both show their bushy features.
I loved the last time I grew the White Bullet, perfect snack sized peppers and a plant with perfect size for indoor growing on a window sill.
It's not a competition, but if it was, then the Yellow Bullet is currently winning

I have another Sugar Rush X Mango plant in the grow tent which is in a larger pot. This one is healthier and is also getting some pods:

There is beginning to be some growth heightwise for the plants in the grow tent, but most of them are still quite short and stocky.
Although no pods yet, the K.S Lemon Starrburst is looking very happy:

The GRIF 9165 is a slightly weird plant, the leaves feel very dry and as if it was beset by oedema, but there are no signs of it.
Either way, it is happy and I might actually have a pod on it now:

As I took the photos today I noticed a little guy I had not seen before. Say hello to my first superhot pod of the season, Trinidad Scorpion X Congo:

I've mentioned before that Olho de mutum is a pretty plant and I think it's even more evident when it starts having brand new offshoots to give it various variations of green. Can't wait to see where this is going:

Although only one pod is visible in this photo, the Galapagos Habanero has several already:

It's always good to reflect during the season and one thing I will change up next time is when I start the plants. I think I started too early this season and had to move plants outside of the grow tent a bit too soon. In previous season I had almost twice the space for plants under lights, which I didn't account for when I started this season. Perhaps I should also consider starting seeds at different times instead of starting all at the same time. After all, some varieties take longer to grow than others. Oh well, we'll see what happens

 

[CaneDog]

Things are looking great with your grow, Ohjay. I like the look of your Sugar Rush X Mango pods and the way they grow upright at first, then bend downward. It reminds my of Berry Amarillo, but the pods have their own unique shape.

 

[Ohjay]

Things are looking great with your grow, Ohjay. I like the look of your Sugar Rush X Mango pods and the way they grow upright at first, then bend downward. It reminds my of Berry Amarillo, but the pods have their own unique shape.

Yeah and the pods have quite a heft to them, they are by no means lightweight.
Gonna be very interesting to try one once it has ripened.

 

[Ohjay]

An update is long overdue, but here it finally is.

The Sugar Rush X Mango in the tiny pot keeps trucking on but has lost two pods unfortunately.
One was dropped by the plant itself and I elected to remove the other since it had not grown for a couple of weeks.
Still no signs of ripening and I am wondering if the plant will be able to produce enough energy for the pods to ripen. Either way, a photo:

As for my other Sugar Rush X Mango plant it is an absolute monster in terms of pods. It keeps producing a lot, so much in fact that I'm starting to worry about branch integrity. This might be a fantastic variety to plant in bigger pots which could become extremely prolific.
Pods have a lot of different shapes as well but I'm not sure if this is a stable cross yet:

Circling back to the experiment with plants in tiny pots, the Trinidad Scorpion X Congo has decided to join the party:

Not sure how easy it is to see, but there are three pods on the plant and it is a very, very healthy plant.
The image above is from three days ago, and today it looks like this:

A fair bit of growth on those tiny peppers in just three days.
The other plant in a much bigger pot has not been growing a lot and hasn't produced any more pods yet. I suspect it is still focusing on growing roots and eventually it will start growing like crazy.
The single pod on it is very nice though:

Almost all plants are beginning to set pods now which is very exciting, and one that is especially exciting to me is the SB7J.
Last time I grew it I got no pods at all but this time around I will get at least two. Success!

The K.S Starrburst is a bit shy, but I managed to sneak in this picture:

In the last update I was hopeful for a pod on the GRIF 9165, another variety that didn't yield any pods last time, and it turned out to be true. Not only one pod but at least two, and possibly more on the way:

This is a really bad photo but the Olho de Mutum has exploded as well, it is flowering like crazy and there are several pods on it now:

It is getting crowded in the grow tent again and I have to do something about it soon:

As an ending note for this update I would like to give you, dear reader, a little puzzle to think about.
It is not the best picture, but here is a leaf from one of my plants on a window sill:

This is not the window with the plants in tiny pots, so it's the ones I've moved out of the grow tent most recently.
Now, just looking at that leaf you would think it might be bacteria, or some sort of contamination, but I'm not so sure.
I have four plants in that window, three of them show signs of the same issue, some more than others.
If this was a soil, water or nutrient contamination I would see this on other plants as well, for example in the grow tent, since they use the same soil/water/nutrients.
Perhaps it is transmitted in the air between these plants, but why is one plant completely unaffected?
Last time I grew peppers I had similar issues at this exact window, so my thinking is that it somehow related to this specific window. Perhaps a contamination on the glass? Perhaps something in the air coming from the vents (but all my windows face the same direction, so unlikely). The contamination on the glass is the most probable I think, but these issues started before the plants even started touching the window.
The plants seem healthy otherwise and keep growing and producing flowers although only one of the affected plants have gotten pods.

 

[CaneDog]

Great to see all the activity and all the pods, Ohjay!

That leaf doesn't make me think BLS right away, though I can't tell too much from just that pic. Environmental variables and fertilizer concentration can affect different plants/varieties differently, so you could burn one plant and have a happy green one right next to it. Similarly, some varieties are more susceptible to certain infections than others and may come down with something others don't when all are exposed to the same pathogen. If I were to guess without seeing more though, I'd lean toward it just being a result of transition to the new environment. Odd that it's the same window, again. Perhaps the sunlight is weaker there or the window draft cooler or the area more humid, etc...

Anyhow, cheers on all the pods!

 

[Ohjay]

I've experienced BLS before and I don't think that is it, although it does look slightly similar. I will try to take a few better photos of it.
Of the four plants, three are Chinense and one is an Annuum, and it's one of the Chinense that is not affected.
Three of them are sown with seeds bought this winter, one is saved seeds from 2014, and the plant that is not affected is from seeds bought this winter.

Hmm, BLS...
It's so improbable, and probably impossible, but when I had BLS the last time, the affected plant(s) were in this window. But I really don't think BLS could transfer to a non-organic surface (glass), survive for 5+ years, only to infect plants once they show up in the window.
And yes, I probably haven't washed the windows during all those years

 

[CaneDog]

Hopefully, it's nothing significant and the peppers will just grow out of it.

And perhaps we should avoid the topic of pepper window cleanliness, as I know mine could use some attention.

 

[Downriver]

Plants look happy and healthy @Ohjay! The flowers/pods on that Sugar Rush X Mango are impressive.

Re: window & dropping leaves - Like @CaneDog, I'm thinking environmental. There seems to be something about this window. Thinking out loud....look for heat/ac vents blowing on or near the plants. Is this window near an exit door? Cold air from outside could be hitting the plants every time you come/go. Anything different about this window? Is it drafty? Different kind of glass - i.e. not UV protected? Single pane versus double pane?

Dunno, just some things to think about. Certainly is strange though.

 

[Ohjay]

Thanks for the input @Downriver but I don't think anything differs between this window and the other window.
Both have vents to the outside above them, no other AC/heat vents. The window with the "issues" is a bit further from the exit door but it's probably 6-8 meters (20-26') to the door so I don't think that's the issue either. Both windows also have the same construction (double pane), same type of drafts, same window sill (marble), face the same way.

I honestly don't think the plants will grow out of it without moving them from this window.
Either way, this will only be a temporary issue. I've been mentioning an upcoming move and everything is finalized except the exact date, but it will be in July. Then I will have new window sills for the plants, and a balcony.
And an entire living room I could dedicate to tent growing

Anyway, I promised a slightly better picture of leaves with issues:

And now for something completely different, or well, not really, but it is a plant update
First a family photo from the grow tent. I still haven't moved out the plants I meant to move out, but I don't know where to put them so I'll keep 'em in a bit longer:

I made an attempt to count the amount of pods on the Sugar Rush X Mango but lost count around 20 or so.
The pods are now so heavy that they risk uprooting the plant so I had to make a makeshift support structure for it:

None of the other plants are producing at the same rate as the Sugar Rush, but the pods that have set are growing nicely. Here's the SB7J:

The Olho de Mutum is probably second in amount of pods. Only a few are seen in this photo, but there are quite a few more:

And speaking of pods, the winner in the category of "first to ripen" is the Yellow Bullet Habanero.
I failed gloriously with the photo, but here it is:

I might try one of those pods this upcoming weekend, but I think they might need to stay on the plant a bit longer.
From what I remember of the White Bullet it was really difficult to determine when the pods were ready because they stayed very firm until the plant discarded them.

I also have a pod on the Chupentino:

Now it's only three varieties left that has not given me any pods yet and they are the White Moruga, White Bullet Habanero and the Dieghito.
I'm slowly coming to terms with the fact that I might have to discard the Dieghito. It is not looking really happy, it is very onset of oedema. It was flowering like crazy for a while but has now calmed down.

The window plants have been stretching for light a lot so I had to cut them back a bit which can be seen in the previous picture.
We'll see if and how the Dieghito responds, but unless it starts perking up I think it will have to give way for one of the plants in the tent.

On the other side of the spectrum, I am really, really impressed by my Trinidad Scorpion X Congo plant in the tiny pot.
It looks super healthy and despite being a small plant it is able to support three pods that keep growing.
It will be very interesting to see if they manage to ripen and also what the heat level will be.

I have a second Galapagos Habanero plant which has also set pods which are growing nicely and looks to be bigger than the other plant which is in a larger pot in the grow tent:

 

[Ohjay]

Another sunday, another update.

I ended up tasting one of the Yellow Bullet Habaneros this weekend which was quite an experience considering I hadn't eaten a fresh pepper since 2018. Anyway, first two pictures before a very brief review (ruler is in centimeters):

I first ate the bottom half of one of the halves (i.e. a quarter of a pod) and it was hot but it felt like maybe 50,000 SHU, I then proceeded to eat the upper half with a lot of placenta and it was way, way hotter. It's hard to find a reliable value but several say 200,000 SHU and that does seem plausible, but since I haven't eaten fresh peppers in forever it's hard for me to judge.
When I cut it, it smelled of grass and hints of citrus.
I didn't get any specific flavors when eating it, most likely due to my tolerance being awful. The heat was very frontal and built somewhat slowly and once it reached its peak it remained for 5-6 minutes.
Will definitely eat more, but might need a slightly less hot variety to build some tolerance.

As for ripening pods, the Sugar Rush X Mango in the grow tent is doing it's thing. Not quite there yet but we're getting close:

Also beginning to see a slight brown tint on the Trinidad Scorpion X Congo:

Most of the pods on the Olho de Mutum has now turned purple and supposedly they should end up being purple & peach. Will see what happens:

When I saw this pod on the GRIF I thought it was unhealthy, but I think it's just ripening. But it does look weird:

I have more pods and especially larger pods on the GRIF so even if this pod turns out to be bad I will have more.

 

[Ohjay]

Will be a short update this time around. Almost all of the photos I took yesterday are unusable. I really need to devote some time to refresh my photography skills, the basics are there but I keep messing up the focus.

Anyway, on to the glog, that's what this is all about after all
I did get one decent photo, which is of my second Galapagos Habanero plant which is in my kitchen window. It has much, much larger pods than my other plant in the grow tent. You can also kind of tell that I keep forgetting to rotate the window plants, all the growth is on one side of the plant:

I also decided to harvest one Sugar Rush X Mango pod yesterday. I was a bit worried that it might be too early but that worry was unfounded.
Quite a big pod at 4.5 cm (1.8") and quite heavy. I kind of regret not weighing it:

A couple more photos of the pod cut in half before we move on to the impressions:

There wasn't a whole lot of fragrance as I cut it open so nothing to report on that.
Not sure how easy it is to see in the images but there is some capsaicin concentration near the placenta.
The first piece I ate was just flesh/walls, no placenta, and it had almost no heat at all and very little flavor. So the next piece had some placenta and now I got some heat. Initial impression was that it was way less than the Yellow Bullet, but the heat built up quickly and remained for 3-4 minutes. I didn't get much flavor from that piece either.

Feeling comfortable with the heat I decided to eat half a pod including a lot of the placenta at the top of the pod.
Now it got a lot hotter, still less than the Yellow Bullet and if we assume that the Bullet was 200K SHU then I estimate the Sugar Rush X Mango to be at roughly 100K SHU. Even though this piece was hotter the heat had the same characteristics, but it remained a lot longer on the tongue while it faded from the rest of the mouth.
I also got some flavors, it's mild fruity sweetness and some paprika flavor. It is a very crunchy pod that is enjoyable to chew.
As I reflected on the flavor while the heat subsided I felt that this might be a great pepper for sauces. Can't really say why, it just "felt" like a good pepper for sauce-making.

Since I have a lot more Sugar Rush X Mango pods and several are starting to ripen I think I will start considering what kind of sauce I might make, maybe something with a peach base. We'll see.

'Til next time pepperheads!

 

[Ohjay]

Oh my goodness, it's been three weeks since the last update?

Thankfully I've taken some photos during my absence so you can see some of the progress and changes since the last time.
I guess this image is about three weeks old, the grow tent was still crowded back then and I hadn't harvested any peppers:

Lots of ripe pods on the Sugar Rush X Mango:

Speaking of Sugar Rush X Mango, the other plant in the small pot finally started to ripen its pods and to my surprise they ended up being a striped version:

After I harvested the pods on that plant I finally discarded it. It was an interesting experiment and I am a bit surprised I did get pods.
I saved seeds from the striped pod and ate the rest. It had some heat but not like the other Sugar Rush X Mango I ate a month or so ago, but that could just come down to that there was not a lot of placenta left. But it was a tasty pod with very similar characteristics as the previous one.

As I mentioned, I discarded small Sugar Rush X Mango and I have also discarded both Bullet Habanero plants. That gave me room to move some plants out of the grow tent and I do think the remaining "tent plants" like the additional room:

I have more pods on the GRIF 9165 and these are looking healthier than the previous ones. I'll get back to this shortly:

The KS Lemon Starrburst is screaming at me that it wants to be harvested. That will probably happen this weekend together with a tasting:

I'm also getting a lot of pods on the SB7J. You can barely make out some ripe pods hidden in the foliage:

If we circle back to the plants in small pots, I still have one left, the Trinidad Scorpion X Congo Chocolate.
The pods have ripened on this one as well and they will be harvested and then the plant will be discarded:

I'm also going to eat one of the pods, because I want to see if the heat level is affected by the plant size. Perhaps a smaller plant isn't capable of producing enough energy for the pods to get their normal capsaicin levels. Just a theory and probably a wacky one, but we'll see.

I've previously mentioned that the Dieghito Jalapeno was going to be discarded unless it started giving pods and it finally happened about a week ago. This is how the pod looks currently:

Time for another backtracking exercise. The GRIF 9165, I harvested two ripe pods last weekend and they felt quite dry to the touch and you can see in the image how it has dried/crumpled near the calyx:

This was a very disappointing experience but it could be because of the possibly bad pods.
Not much flavor and felt very dry to eat. Heat was maybe in the 40 000 SHU range, maybe.
I'm definitely going to try another pod and see if it improves. I'll keep you posted

I also got a ripe pod on the Chupetinho White which I've harvested and eaten:

When I cut it open it smelled of fresh grass and that typical Chinense smell.
Didn't get much flavor from it and heat-wise I guess it was around 150K SHU, the heat was also very centered to the front of my mouth and quite prickly. Not a particularly pleasant heat.

The Galapagos Isabela Habanero has also had ripe pods for a while so I've had a tasting of this one as well:

The pods are very small and quite deceptive. Pretty much immediately as I put it in my mouth the heat exploded, there wasn't even a chance to sample the flavor before I had 300-500K SHU making the rounds in my mouth.
Can't really say much more unfortunately, but I do have two pods that are much bigger that is ripening right now. So I will give this one another go.

I think it was after the Galapagos Isabela that I started wondering what was going on. Eating fresh peppers was nothing like I remembered. Yes, there is heat of course, but every pepper so far has had an unpleasant heat, a sort of prickly heat which feels like three million needles are piercing the insides of the mouth.
My memory associates that type of heat with Annuums but I was experiencing it with Chinense and Baccatum as well.
So I started wondering if it was my tolerance that was that bad or if I remembered wrong, or if I simply had become a weakling

After this reflective exercise it was with no small trepidation that I tackled a new pepper, the Trinidad Scorpion X Congo Chocolate:

I was a bit afraid that the pod had gone bad considering the "damage" that can be seen in the lower right in the first image, but my worries evaporated as soon as I cut the pod open. It was looking quite healthy apart from that small part and as can be seen there was nice pools of capsaicin.

The smell was smoky and almost earthy, same kind of scents I remember and associate with brown peppers.
Considering the previous tastings I was actually not looking forward to trying a superhot since I suspected my tolerance for capsaicin was down the drain and the reason for me not "enjoying" the heat of the previous peppers.
But boy oh boy I was wrong. This was an absolute joy to eat. Don't get me wrong, it's a very, very, very, very hot pepper, but despite that it was so much easier to handle the heat when it was not prickly and pokey.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Flavor!
Flavor was sweet and fruity, almost a tropical fruit kind of flavor. The flavor came quickly and built up a little before the heat started rising. The heat rose slowly though but built at an even pace and mostly stayed at the back of the mouth. It might've taken a minute before the heat reached its peak, but as I mentioned it was an even and a smooth heat that was very bearable.
As I experienced this heat I got memory flashbacks from some of the supers I ate a few years ago and this one was not as hot as a regular Trinidad Scorpion but felt quite close to what I remembered of Chocolate Congo. My guess is that the SHU was around 800,000 to 1,000,000.
Having this enjoyable experience eating a pepper I ate way more than I expected too. Granted, I'm not at the point where I would want to put a whole pod in my mouth, but it has really restored my faith in eating fresh peppers.

Can't wait to try the SB7J and Lemon Starrburst. Now if I could only get some pods on my White Moruga