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Better Late than Pepper

Terrible puns aside, I'm getting a very late start to the growing year.  This is my first attempt at growing peppers, but I'm hoping that I can get some experience and some hot sauce by the end of the year.  Fortunately I live in a mild climate and I think that means I can grow into winter.
 
My plan was to get started in March, but due to what's happened this year, I haven't had the opportunity until recently. On top of that, two separate orders of seeds I ordered never arrived so I'm not getting to plant all that I wanted, but I've got a few seeds in the works. I've been raring to go and annoying my wife :P , but I decided to get started with what I have on hand and try to salvage what's left of the year.  Here are the seeds I've planted so far:
 
Cherry Bomb
Yellow Moruga Scorpion
Red Moruga Scorpion
Carolina Reaper
Bhut Jolokia Chocolate
Orange Habanero
Red Caribbean Habanero
Hot Lemon Habanero
Naga Viper
Jalapeno
Serrano
 
I was able to get a mini greenhouse and heating mat for the seeds so they're tucked away in the dining room. I'm winging it and going off of what I've seen on youtube and read online. I feel like I've watched hours and hours of pepper videos and I'm excited, can't wait to see what happens and I hope the wait has been worth it.
 
 
 
 
 

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It's definitely way too hot here. Today it was 100+ and tomorrow will be even worse. I'm definitely going to have to wait a bit before I can get these plants outside. They'll have to tough it out in close quarters for a little while longer. I gave the Hungarian Hot Wax flowers the ol' cough and tickle and saw some pollen come out. With how close everything is together, there might be some unintentional crosses going on. That will be fun to see in the coming months.
 
I'm in the process of hardening off the serrano and jalapeno. I was finishing up lunch with my wife the other day when I suddenly realized that I had left them outside for way too long. After saying aw f**k aloud and bolting outside, I thought they were goners. Boy did they look awful, completely wilted and wrinkled. Fortunately a soak with water, a spray down, and sitting in front of the fan helped bring them back from the brink..won't be making that mistake again. 
 
 
 

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Did a little watering today and saw the first peppers on the Hungarian Hot Wax, super exciting! Since it's gotten so crowded in the grow tray, I didn't even notice that some pods had appeared. With how fast some of the other plants were growing and their sizes, I wouldn't have guessed the HHW would be the first. I'm interested in trying these because they're new for me. Some other plants have started flowering, but I've noticed some flower and leaf drop on a few. I'm not too concerned right now, but I'll be monitoring to see if it continues.
 
After a lot of lollygagging, I've come up with a plan for getting the peppers in their final homes. In a couple of weeks it should start cooling down enough for them to live outside so that gives me some time to get the rest of the supplies ready and start hardening off. When I pot up everything, I think I'm going to add fish/bone/blood meal and some epsom salts to the the pots. 
 
My wife's cactus has just put out some flowers for the third time this summer. The stems get suuuper long. It's a shame they only bloom for a day before they're gone.
 
 
 

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Some interesting things have appeared on various plants and I'm chalking it up to being so close together. One plant has some curling leaves and another has localized discoloration on one leaf. I'm hoping that will all clear up once the plants are separated in a week's time. More plants have started flowering so that's good to see. The Brazilian Starfish has really taken off and has grown quite tall.
 
 
 

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All stocked up and ready to go, picked up all the pots and soil mix I'll need to move the plants outside. That being said, I've been a bit lazy about hardening off the majority. I had been putting a few of them outside everyday for a couple of hours, but it seems like that hasn't been doing much because each time they've wilted a noticeable amount when I bring them in. I'm going to try and push back the move date a little bit in hopes of getting some cooler weather. 
 

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You've got a great grow going!  With that soil, what nutrient amendments are you going to use?  This year I'm trying Roots Organics Green Fields and it seems to being doing well with my hungry beasts.
 
Great looking starts!
 
dlsolo said:
You've got a great grow going!  With that soil, what nutrient amendments are you going to use?  This year I'm trying Roots Organics Green Fields and it seems to being doing well with my hungry beasts.
 
Great looking starts!
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Thanks! I'm pretty proud of how the plants are looking..now for the fruit part  :lol:  As for the amendments, I'm trying to keep it simple despite my urges to add everything I've read about. Probably will end up being a little bit of fish/blood/bone meal, some epsom salts, and extra perlite thanks to ahayastani's suggestion. I'm tossing around the idea of adding some worm castings as well, but haven't decided. Part of me thinks I'll overdo it and end up handicapping growth, but who knows.
 
How are you liking the Green Fields? I'm always interested in other mixes for future seasons.
 
More peppers on the way, the Sugar Rush Peach, Lemon Drop, and Poblano plants have some pods on the plants. Lots of flowers all of a sudden too, which I'm thinking might be because I haven't fed them in a couple of weeks in preparation for the transplanting/laziness. I'm fully expecting a slow down once they're in their new homes, but that's okay with me since the warm weather will persist at least into December. Today's the big day for potting up and it's going to take me a while to move everything because I go pretty slow, but one last look of the mini jungle before its goes outside. 
 
I've already been checking out some sites for new varieties next year..it's like an addiction with peppers.
 

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As I was taking the plants out of the tray, found an unexpected guest  :sick: No idea how long the cuki had been in there, but fortunately my wife was around to kill it  :lol: I planned on adding a bunch of perlite to the medium, but it turns out I don't read too good as I thought I ordered 50 liters, but it was really 5 liters..no wonder it was so cheap. By the time it arrived I had everything prepped and I didn't feel like going out to get more or waiting so I just made do with what I had.
 
I'm afraid I butchered the plants that were in the metal containers because there was a bit of a lip that made it impossible for me to get the plants out easily. I ended up tearing a lot of roots in the process and I'm hoping they can recover, but only time will tell. It would be a real shame because those plants were some of the varieties I really wanted to try. At the very least, there were only six of the 25 plants in those containers so I'll have some consolation peppers.
 

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FarWestPep said:
As I was taking the plants out of the tray, found an unexpected guest  :sick: No idea how long the cuki had been in there, but fortunately my wife was around to kill it  :lol: I planned on adding a bunch of perlite to the medium, but it turns out I don't read too good as I thought I ordered 50 liters, but it was really 5 liters..no wonder it was so cheap. By the time it arrived I had everything prepped and I didn't feel like going out to get more or waiting so I just made do with what I had.
 
I'm afraid I butchered the plants that were in the metal containers because there was a bit of a lip that made it impossible for me to get the plants out easily. I ended up tearing a lot of roots in the process and I'm hoping they can recover, but only time will tell. It would be a real shame because those plants were some of the varieties I really wanted to try. At the very least, there were only six of the 25 plants in those containers so I'll have some consolation peppers.
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Pepper plants are quite sturdy in my experience. They can take neglect and endure mismanagement, they still survive. They take time to recover and won't be giving you any peppers soon, but they recover. So unless there is possibility of frost on your balcony in winter, I wouldn't despair.
 
ahayastani said:
 
Pepper plants are quite sturdy in my experience. They can take neglect and endure mismanagement, they still survive. They take time to recover and won't be giving you any peppers soon, but they recover. So unless there is possibility of frost on your balcony in winter, I wouldn't despair.
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I sure hope so. I'll have to be optimistic and resist my urge to overlove the stragglers.. maybe some music and singing will help  :lol:
 

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Overdue update: Plants are doing alright even with less sun now that it's getting later in the season. Still waiting on pods from most of the plants, but there are some that have finally started producing like Lemon Drop (finally ripening), Brazilian starfish, HHW, Naga Viper, Biker Billy, Sugar Rush peach, and Serrano. So far though, I've only been able to harvest pods from the HHW, which were good on burgers and sandwiches. I would definitely grow that again in the future.  Since the move outside, I've been dealing with various bug attacks. Still working on whiteflies, but a couple of the plants got hit hard by aphids. In what seemed like 24-48 hours, they completely infested two of my habaneros. I sprayed a tooon of a neem oil spray and it looks like it did the trick. All of the carcasses are still stuck on the plant, but I think I caught it in time before any real damage took place. I will make another batch to spray the rest of the bunch before anything else happens.
 
All of the plants have grown since the transplant, but some seem to be doing so at a glacial pace. The Brazilian starfish is turning into a tree with how tall it's gotten, but others like my 7pot bubblegum and Bahamaian goat have stalled out. Similarly, others have grown, but refuse to produce any flowers or pods. Probably just haven't given them enough time with how late of a start I got this year, so maybe something will happen before the season is over with. Not sure what, but my Bhut Jolokia chocolate is really struggling. Might lose it, but perhaps it will pull through.
 

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