Blafa's 2019 (Copenhagen/Denmark)

Hello everyone!
 
Decided to keep track of my growing this year and hopefully you’ll join in!
 
Did some pretty big seasons back in 2010/2011 but since then I’ve had to keep it small due to restricted living space – Not anymore! Finally settled in a beautiful apartment in Copenhagen with relatively large terrace. Fingers crossed for a warm summer and I should be set!
 
This year I am growing some of my old seed crop from 2010 (Mostly just to see if there’s any life left in those seeds), together with seeds from White Hot Peppers and Bjarne (Local seed supply & creator of the Bhut Orange Copenhagen)
 
Starting the seeds and repotting once indoors, hoping to have my plats outside in early June depending on weather. Right now germinating on a heat pad under a 90w LED light, with a setup of 60% red, 30% blue and 10% white LED's.
 

 
 
For some of the old seeds I’ve used some Jiffy Pellets I had laying around, the new seeds is sown in a slightly sandy potting soil mixture with a good amount of clay and perlite.
 
The following varieties has been sown:
 
Old 2010 Seeds - Started 4th of February
C. annuum CAP 1042 aka. Prik Ki Nu
C. annuum CAP 1473 (C. microcarpum)
C. annuum Nepal Snakebite
C. baccatum Don Xaun Market
C. baccatum CAP 220
C. chinense Habanero Lemon
C. galapagoense (Overwintered from last year) Germinating this f**er again with old seeds is a no go!
C. pubescens Thurbo Pube
 
Bjarne Started 7th of February
C. annuum Ancho 101
C. annuum De Arbol / Chicostle       
C. annuum Jalapeño
C. chinense Bhut Orange Copenhagen
C. chinense Naga Morich
C. chinense Rimmerhus Fun Strain F5
C. pubescens Rocoto Guatemala Yellow
 
White Hot Peppers Started 14th of February
C. annuum Aji Charapita
C. annuum Hair Pepper (Kil Biber)
C. annuum Joe's Long Cayenne
C. annuum Santa Fe Grande
C. annuum Satan's Kiss
C. annuum Vallero
C. baccatum Aji Ahuachapan
C. chinense 7 Pot Bubblegum (BBG7) Chocolate
C. chinense 7 Pot Jonah
C. chinense Bhut Jolokia x BBG7 Huge Pheno
C. chinense Habanero Roatan Pumpkin
C. chinense Jay's Peach Ghost Scorpion
C. chinense Jigsaw x Moruga
C. chinense Reaper x Chupetinho
C. chinense Scotch Bonnet Alan Boatman TF
C. chinense Scotch Bonnet Freeport Orange
C. chinense Scotch Bonnet WHP
 
Most of these are completely new to me! Anything in particular I should be excited about?
I have spare seeds of all the ones from Bjarne & WHP, if anyone is interested in trading.  
 
Cheers! 

 

[Trident chilli]

Great read .... love the Chocolate Fun Strain ... all the best for the season

 

[Blafa]

You are having success with germination.
Good luck with the older seeds; I haven't
been all that successful, 2014 seeds being
the earliest to germinate for me.
 
As for using Jiffy Pellets, I have found it
necessary to 'massage' them after soaking
to further break up the compressed disks
of peat, and fluff them up a bit. Those tips
came from GeorgiaGrowhead and helped
me a lot with them. Really increased the
germination rate with the plugs.

 
Thanks for the support! I still haven't had luck with any of the old ones yet but I have started to change the environment so fingers crossed. I still have a couple of old seeds left which I might play around with, doing some soaking and nutrient additions with...
 
As for the Jiffy Pellets, I'll move on to those in my next post.
 

Very best of luck mate. Some awesome varieties you are growing there.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 
Thank you! I'm very much looking forward myself.
 

Great read .... love the Chocolate Fun Strain ... all the best for the season

 
It is likely to be one of my favourites for this year. I will try to grow more than one plant since it's still early in the lineage. 

 

[Blafa]

So time for an update!
 
I was getting more and more frustrated with my growing setup. The self-watering, styrofoam setup just didn't work for my needs. The larger holes in the bottom of the tray in combination with my sandy soil led to sink holes and soil caving in, covering seedlings and seeds. In addition to that I felt that the soil was too dense. I saw no root development on young seedlings and very slow growth.
 
In my other tray with Jiffy Pellets I had other issues, they were all turning sour, as in acidic. I am not sure if I was using an inferior product but the peat/soil mixture was smelling foul and sour. Growth was stumped and the seedlings looked really unhappy. This together with quite poor germination results made me think. Something had to be done.
 
I headed out this morning to the local nursery and was able to pick up some small square pots and I went to work repotting all seedlings from both trays that had sprouted as well as resowing some of the ones that failed to germinate (I have still kept the old tray in case something does decide to pop up). This was definitely not ideal seeing that many were way to small and had much underdeveloped root systems, but I felt it had to be done. I mixed up a much softer sowing mixture soil with perlite and vermiculite, this I have had success with in the past. 
 
Everything went quite smooth and I almost dare say that my babies are looking much happier already. 
 
Before we move on to the pictures, a little update of what has germinated so far:
 
C. chinense Bhut Orange Copenhagen
C. chinense Naga Morich
C. chinense Rimmerhus Fun Strain F5
C. pubescens Rocoto Guatemala Yellow
NEW C. annuum Chilipitin (This one from the kitchen cabinet, picked up on a market in LA. 2 years ago) 
C. annuum Aji Charapita
C. annuum Hair Pepper (Kil Biber)
C. annuum Satan's Kiss
C. annuum Vallero
C. baccatum Aji Ahuachapan
C. chinense Bhut Jolokia x BBG7 Huge Pheno
C. chinense Habanero Roatan Pumpkin
C. chinense Jigsaw x Moruga
C. chinense Scotch Bonnet Freeport Orange
 

 
Lucky my girlfriend wasn't home
 

 
New seeds in the ground, together with some tomatoes and the old Jiffy Pellets. 
 

 
New setup, on and off! 
 

 
The two main trays... probably already more than I can fit on the terrace. I'll probably end up giving duplicates away to family & friends.
 

Leader of the pack. Never had a season with so many strong chinense seedlings.
 

Close second
 

Seems to be some mutation going on here, time will tell. 3 cotys growing like a fist.
 

And finally... Someone who really seems to be liking the light. I gave the top a slight pinch to encourage a bushier growth. 
 
Thanks everyone for following along! I feel quite rusty this year, but now we finally seem to be going somewhere. 
 

 

[PaulG]

It's always good when you see the green 
 
Sorry you had to contend with soil issues,
but sounds like you did the right thing!

 

[CaneDog]

+1, a big undertaking, but good to get it done early and usually good feedback quickly from soil improvements.  Happy feet for happy plants.
 
Hope you cleaned up that counter real nice!