Beginner with big dreams

Hi there,

I'm a newcomer to the scene from Belgium, we're not a country where eating spicy let alone growing your own peppers is "hot" (pun intended).
Supermarkets in Belgium rarely sell anything but the classic (genetically modified) Cayenne, I've only found some Bird's Eye twice and to my surprise once found a temporary supply of Red Habanero's.

I got bit by the pepper virus about two years ago and it's only a good year ago that I came to the conclusion that I should start growing my own peppers.
So last year I ended up growing a couple of Red Cayenne plants, they were grown from seed and started somewhere around may wich was quite late but still early enough for them to give me a good harvest come the end of summer.

Growing and taking care of these plants, and most of all consuming the fruits has been wonderful and has given me a lot to think about in terms of my future, for a while now I've been thinking about what I want to do later on and I might actually try and take this pepper thing a lot further and start doing something commercial around them, it would certainly be a first in Belgium, but as our climate is quite similar to the UK I believe it might be possible.

Anyway, big dreams and such, but I'm still a realist and would first like to try growing a variety of peppers for a couple of years and see how things go, learning as I go along.

As great classic movies taught us, after a long and boring intro must come a great and rewarding experience, here's to hoping my glog is worth anything to someone out there!

These are the varieties I'm growing this year:

• Jalapeno
• Golden Cayenne
• Fish Pepper
• Chilaca
• Lemon Drop
• White Habanero
• Aussie Black
• Cheyenne
• Madame Jeanette
• Bolivian Rainbow
• Big Jim
• Peter Pepper
• Rain Forest
• Aci Kil Menderes
• Trinidad Scorpion

All seeds have been sown the 26th of february and after sprouting have been placed under a growing light, regular TL mind you, with some heating support under their feet (the setup is on a cold attic).

This is what things looked like feb 26th ...

First sprouts were seen on the 1st of march, they were Peter Pepper wich I found rather ironic. Others quickly followed ... next pictures were taken march 8th.

Fast forward exactly one month ...

Fast forward to just two days ago ...

If you're good at counting you might have guessed I've got around 60 plants going, give or take four of each of the 15 varieties. Yesterday I've potted up one plant of each variety to closely monitor troughout the season, the rest of them is going to be planted around where I can find some room and gifted to family.


This is what all plants looked like before they were potted up:

Chilaca:

Jalapeno:

Cayenne Golden:

Habanero White:

Cheyenne:

Big Jim:

Madame Jeanette:

Fish Pepper:

Bolivian Rainbow:

Peter Pepper:

Trinidad Scorpion:

Aussie Black:

Aci Kil Menderes:

Rain Forest:

Lemon Drop:

Plants are all looking quite good, we've got some bad weather coming the next week and the plants I've potted up are outside now under a sheet of plastic so I hope they won't suffer too much, nights will be going as low as 5°C and we won't be getting a lot of sun, hopefully things will be better soon!

Will follow up with more pictures.

 

[Johnaton]

Its not wasted, its an investment into your future crop

of course its 85 here today, sunny, with a cool breeze, and 12,000,000% humidity (just kidding, but it is always high here in the tropics).

By the way your english is fantastic.

Heh thanks, I just watch too many movies and play too many games I guess!

 

[Smitty]

What are you useing for fertalizer,oh and yes VERY NICE LOOKING PLANTS.... SMITTY

 

[Johnaton]

We finally had two days with some sunshine around here, it wasn't very hot, still had to bring out the sweaters, but at least the peppers were getting some light.
I was overenthusiastic and went a bit too far, a lot of my plants are showing some minor leaf burning, nothing too serious though!
Yesterday I've also inspected how the roots were doing on some of the plants and was happy to see that they are working their way into the new soil since overpotting quite well!

Pictures related ofcourse:

Few horrible days coming up again with low temperatures, rain and very little to no sunshine, wish me luck!

 

[stc3248]

Lookin good! They'll bounce back from that leaf burn! Good luck with the upcoming weather!

 

[Johnaton]

Lookin good! They'll bounce back from that leaf burn! Good luck with the upcoming weather!

Your best of luck to me did not help, it just started snowing here ... because it's only like halfway through friggin may right?
Nex thing you know the sun is shining and it's 75 degrees under the plastic cover my plants are under, never seen a spring like this, for sure this can't be good for the plants!

By the way I'm going to need some advice on how to grow my plants a bit quicker in this climate, I'm seeing all sorts of pictures of Chinense varieties the same age as mine but they are a lot bigger, any secret methods I should know about?

 

[Johnaton]

Excuse my language but the weather is absolute utter shit right now, we barely make 50 degrees during the day and nighttime temps are dropping to below 40 again, on top of that it's constantly windy and raining, I'm trying to protect my potted up plants outside as good as possible but it seems my Trinidad Scorpion is starting to throw in the towel.
Woke up this morning and it looked really bad, like it had just given up and fell to the ground, I'm suspecting it got too wet and too cold so I'm probably gonna toss it if it doesn't show any improvement in the next 24 hours and get one of my reserve TS plants in the pot.

 

[Johnaton]

Allright, the weather is looking up again, no more harsh nights coming up and I'm quite confident this is gonna finally put an end to the miserable weather we've been having, time to get the rest of the peppers out it is ...

I still had 70% of my plants indoor under growing lights with a bit of extra warmth, it totally paid off and I intend on doing it again next year and will wait until late enough to get them outside!
Look at these babies enjoying the outside for the first time in their life:

I've planted 2 rows of plants in my grandfathers greenhouse, he passed away in january of this year and prior to his passing away hadn't been abled to use his greenhouse for several years, quite a sad picture as he was an avid hobby gardener, his greenhouse was a big part of his life! I'm pretty sure he would be thrilled to see his greenhouse flourish again with young healthy plants just the way it was years ago when he was still spending most of his time in there.
I'm very happy to get the opportunity to use his greenhouse, I hope if there is some kind of afterlife he can see that it isn't going to waste and being respectfully used!

On the bottom right corner that's a trinidad scorpion, my girlfriend took amazingly good care of them while they were still under growing lights in her attic and all of a sudden I don't care anymore that my trinidad scorpion wich had allready been in a pot outside was doing so bad.

The coming few days should have around 65 degrees with the occasional sunspell, I'm thrilled to finally have everything planted out and am hoping to see some good progress now, I will soon update with more pictures!

 

[Johnaton]

Soon I'm going to push out another big update in my glog, right now I have a question for you lads though ...

A few of my plants are showing some awkward new leaves in the top, they are curled downwards in the middle and upwards on the ouside, on top of that they seems to stay rather small and feel quite hard and thick for such young leaves, allmost a bit like leather!

This is what it looks like:

I haven't been feeding my plants since potting them over, some of them are in the garden, some in pots, some are having full sunlight, some are indoors, etc ... none of that seems to make a difference, it's just some random plants that seem to be affected by it. Overwatering isn't an issue either, they are well protected from rain and I am watering them like probably once a week when the top layer of soil is completely dried up for at least an inch.

Any idea what could be causing this? I'm under the impression it's stunting growth quite a bit at this point so would like to urgently take care of it ...

 

[stc3248]

I don't know brother. Could be mites or aphids...or maybe a deficiency in the soil. Hard to tell in the pic. I would use a magnifying glass to do a thorough inspection of the underside of the leaves. One other potential cause is temps. Mine did that when night time temps were a little too cold for them. Good luck man! Hope you figure it out.

 

[Johnaton]

I don't know brother. Could be mites or aphids...or maybe a deficiency in the soil. Hard to tell in the pic. I would use a magnifying glass to do a thorough inspection of the underside of the leaves. One other potential cause is temps. Mine did that when night time temps were a little too cold for them. Good luck man! Hope you figure it out.

I'm pretty sure it's not aphids, I can't spot anything on the leaves and it's also very obviously only the new leaves being affected, apart from that many of my plants are also seperated for testing purposes, I believe it's got to be some kind of deficiency but then again I don't know wich one.

I know the picture doesn't say a lot, and to be fair the plant doesn't look all that weird when you first see it, but then you notice that all of these new top leaves are so small and kinda bent, as if they're trying to grow out of their own skin, they also feel very heavy and thick with a leather like texture and seem quite fragile.

 

[stc3248]

I was leaning toward mites though...very hard to see with the naked eye. I would look through a magnifying glass just to make sure. Calcium would be the deficiency I would look for first. Good luck my man!

 

[Johnaton]

I'm guessing calcium, doublechecked for mites and I'm quite sure they're not there.
How does one add calcium without adding anything else in the process, can I use something organic?

 

[HabaneroHead]

Hi Johnaton,

I have read somewhere that if the leaves are curling downwards, it can be caused by low temps, too much water, and too much nitrogen. Since one of my plants were doing the same a few weeks ago, and I applied some extra manure and fertilizer in the potting soil, I would say it is rather the too much nitrogen. Yours is similar to mine:

Balázs

 

[PaulG]

Your plants are stunning - lush and green. Sometimes, my new
growth seems distorted and funky, but with some warm temps
and sun, the new leaves improve and look good. Example is the Red Caribbean.
They just seems to start new leaves kind of bent, but then they grow out nicely.
Go figure! I think the pepper plants are just sensitive to their surroundings in a
lot of ways and that makes it hard to pin down causes of the problems they show.

Kudos to your girlfriend! She's a keeper! And good luck growin'
in your grandfather's greenhouse!

edit: Re: calcium deficiency: Perhaps some CalMag (Botanicare is one kind)
as a foliar spray for a while - don't overdo - and at the same time, work a little
bone meal or crushed egg shells into the soil. They take a while to break down,
so the foliar spray fills in, in the meantime.

 

[jsschrstrcks]

When my plants are in need of some calcium, I take some egg shells, wash them, and then crumble them up in small pieces on top (or even just below) the surface of the soil.... As the plant gets water it runs over the egg shells, and leaches a small amount of calcium off... Should see a change on new growth within 4 or 5 days... commercially you can buy calmag. But epsom salts, and egg shells work pretty well for me. Just need to keep both calcium and magnesium balanced...

 

[gnslngr]

Your Chinenses are doing are fine for your latitude John , and its pretty awesome you are carrying on the greenhouse tradition your grandfather had going.
I'm guessing the downward curl is just a nute issue as mentioned above. Looks like you have blooms on the way- so you are pointed in the right direction, good luck and keep the pictures flowing
Have a good one-
Dave

 

[Johnaton]

I found this picture elsewhere on the internet, looks exactly like my worst affected plant right now, there was no solution given where I found it either, people were guessing it's some kind of virus?!
I also noticed that there is some branching going on on the bottom of my plant and new leaves being formed there seem unaffected wich is what I find weirdest ...

 

[Stefan_W]

I thnk your plants look amazing! Yes, issues will come up during transplanting, especially when an unexpected cold snap hits. But they will bounce back in the same way that plants have always bounced back prior to gardeners fussing over them. I didn't see anything in any of the pictures to lead me to believe you will have anything but a great crop in the end.

 

[Johnaton]

I thnk your plants look amazing! Yes, issues will come up during transplanting, especially when an unexpected cold snap hits. But they will bounce back in the same way that plants have always bounced back prior to gardeners fussing over them. I didn't see anything in any of the pictures to lead me to believe you will have anything but a great crop in the end.

Those are some comforting words, I'm confident I will have a good crop, I just want to learn as much as possible about growing peppers so that when I decide to grow a lot more of them I don't screw something up and waste a thousand!

Anyway, another piece of news, looks like I'll have my first flower on my potted plants this weekend, I'm anxious to go check out my grandfathers (rip) greenhouse as they were growing like weeds there and I haven't been pinching any buds so I'm expecting a few flowers there too!

 

[Johnaton]

I am feeling quite awkward posting this but here goes, I decided to do a little video for this update as it has been a while:

Excuse my nasal voice but I have a cold and am not really used to doing video's of any sort so expect some "uhms"!