CaneDog 2019 Hirsute Pursuit – Rocotos, Wilds & Moar

So, here's the new glog for the coming season.  With the indoor grow culled pretty hard now I can focus more on getting ready for what's ahead.  Hoping for a great year, but I’m already a bit behind - the germinators are packed right now and I've still got a round of annuum seeds waiting for their turn.  I guess it wouldn’t feel much like pepper growing though if everything were going perfect.
 
My focus was going to be rocotos with a side of bonnets and some other stuff, but I found I kept planting more and more wilds. Eventually I just kinda went all-in with them and they took on co-main event status. 
 
I’ll start things off with some pics of some of the earlier pube’s.  There’s not too many at this point. Unfortunately, the vast majority just went into germination.
 
First off, Costa Rica Red.  This is the CRR with flattened triangular pods.  I also have an OW CRR that’s a 3-4 lobed “boxy” variety.  I didn't get true seeds off this one last summer, so I have a few of these growing and crossing my fingers they grow true.

 
Rocoto DeSeda.  These guys were from a bush I’d OW’d a few years in a row, but it didn’t make it through this winter

 
 
Rocoto San Camillo

 
 
Gelbe Reisen Variant.  These are from true seeds off a plant I’ve been growing for a few years that was supposed to be Gelbe Riesen, but the pods are more orange vs yellow, rounder/less boxy, and just a touch smaller. I don’t know if it’s a natural variation or it might have crossed with a Costa Rica Orange, but it's a great plant. I have a few of these started and am curious what comes of them.

 
 
Giant Yellow Rocoto.  Suppose I should pinch that bud off.

 
 
Recently hatched Gelbe Riesen sprouts (the parent plant has been a beast for me for a while now) and CAP 217 Hyper-Pube.

 
That’s it for the rocotos for now.  Will try to post up some pics of the early wilds in a little bit. 
 
CD

 

[DWB]

I've been wanting to post a update pic of this lanceolatum for a while, so I took a quick shot while moving stuff around.  Has a cool kinda jungle sprawl thing happening.  I'd like to get a better picture of it with a decent background, but I've been pretty lazy about the camera work lately.
 

 
 

 
Many of my oldest plants out in the middle bale row are adopting the sprawl and spread format. I've not seen much of that before.
 

 

[CaneDog]

Thank you very much! I don't recall if I weighed any of them. Weird. I usually do.

I'll definitely be following along! I liked the flavor or the full sized brown rocoto...I'm sure the smaller ones will be just as tasty! Awesome! I'd love to try some of those seed next season! Thank you very much! My favorite pods are the browns/caramel/cappuccino, orange, and peach. I'd love some seeds from the browns! Woohoo!

 
Another good thing about rocotos is there's no shortage of seeds 
 

 
Wow!  Everything is looking great!

 
Thanks!  Happy to see you're bringing your grow home from the community garden challenges - I actually just moved my first main round of plants out to the community garden today. 
 

 
Many of my oldest plants out in the middle bale row are adopting the sprawl and spread format. I've not seen much of that before.
 

 
Probably just a quick stretch before they go in ballistic growth in those hay bales! 

 

[CaneDog]

I finally managed to get my first round of new rocotos moved off my deck and into hoop houses at my community garden plots.  Been wanting to do that for at least a week.
 
This is my southwest bed, which is 5'x10' using 2x12's.  It's a simple hoop house structure over it, but I'd say it added a full 6 weeks to my season lasts year.  The water jugs do a good job of keeping temps up through the night.  With perhaps half again as many jugs lasts year the HH was pushing 10F above ambient temps and the soil temps are significantly higher too.

 
A little closer in.  I just sunk the containers into the soil for warmth and water retention. They're already hardened off, but they'll hang out like this for a week or two before I move them out and either pot them up or sink them in dirt.  Many of the rocotos will move to my other plot to the north, which is more shaded than this one.  The plots are 10' x 40' each. 

 
Here's my OW rocotos that I decided to stick into the other HH temporarily.  It'llgive them a little more warmth and keep the rain off them for now. These guys didn't get a even a single lumen of artificial light OW and they spend most of it outside on my deck.

 

 

[CaneDog]

Here are pics from my first round of rocotos in the hoop house.  One representative pic for each variety.  Warning, "Devv-post" level of pictures on the way...
 
Aji Largo.  I have only one A Largo so I'll have to be careful with it.  Almost everything else I have at least 2 of.

 
Costa Rica Red (Pendant) - This is the first costa rica variety I grew that has produced the two-lobed pendant shaped pods. I have another costa rica red in my OW's that produuces a boxy, 4 (sometimes 3) lobed pod.  I have a few of these because I want to get a really good specimen for future seeds.

 
Ecuadorian Red - These guys were planted later than the 1st round rocotos, but they've been strong growers so I'm promoting them.

 
CAP 1242 / Burnt Orange (OK, so it looks like a few of these aren't round 1's)

 
CAP 1693 / Red

 
De Seda / Yellow/Orange

 
 

 

[CaneDog]

Continued...
 
The Giant Mini Yellow Brown / Yellow?  Brown?  Hell, IDK.  (got seeds mixed up and it's either Giant Yellow or Mini Brown

 
 
Gelbe Riesen "True"  These seeds came from my OW GR I still have, which produces the prototypical big boxy yellow pods. The plant has a very nice upright growth profile for a rocoto too.

 
 
Gelbe Riesen Varient - These are seeds from an OW plant that grew from a seed from my true-form GR, but the the OW plant is a bit different than it's "true" parent plant.  Not sure if I accidentally crossed it or there was already some heterozygosity present, but it produces smaller (only slightly), rounder and more orangish pods. Same very upright growth profile though.

 
Mini Brown

 
Rio Huallago / Yellow

 
San Camillo / Red

 
Tatiana F4

 
That's it for now
CD

 

[lespaulde]

Things are really looking amazing CD, loving the HH setup you've got going, and must be a great way to introduce the plants to their outside environment - clever! Looks very neat also, and I guess it must be very exciting going out to those gardens every time!

All the plants seem to be very happy and trucking along nicely, great job!

Sent from my ZTE A2017U using Tapatalk

 

[CaneDog]

Things are really looking amazing CD, loving the HH setup you've got going, and must be a great way to introduce the plants to their outside environment - clever! Looks very neat also, and I guess it must be very exciting going out to those gardens every time!

All the plants seem to be very happy and trucking along nicely, great job!

Sent from my ZTE A2017U using Tapatalk

 
Thanks LP.  Feels good to move this first batch out of the house. Hopefully another batch of rocotos will follow later this week and also the (mainly) chinense that remain from my off-season/winter grow.  
 
Hoop house is great. I'd prefer a greenhouse, but then again, I didn't have to dig in a foundation for the hoop house... 

 

[karoo]

Good looking plants , I really like the growth pattern on these Pubes.

 

[DanMcG]

Wow, those are some great looking plants CD! 

 

[Bhuter]

Everything looks fabulous, CD! Wow! Flavor-City! Beautiful plants!

I have a Pube question. What would cause Pube leaves to curl under? The new growth looks fine. But the older, bigger leaves are curling and it looks pretty sad...except the new growth. Over-fert? That's my first guess.

Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

-Adam

 

[CaneDog]

Hey Bhuter. If you look through some of the pics in my last post #125 you'll see something I had show up for a time which was clawing with in some cases tip roll down.  You can see the clawing generally on many of the plants and tip roll is really prominent in pic #3 (middle left) and pics #6 (middle right).  To me that was classic N tox and compare to photo's #'s 5 and 7 where the leaves are flatter and a lighter shade of green.  I amended my container soil differently this season and I assumed that was the reason.  I believe normal watering and laying off nutes with waterings is why it abated.
 
None of my rocotos did that fold-and-twist that your Oro (?) did, but I had 2 praetermissum (and an ayuyo) do that big time and it's a problem I don't really remember from previous grows.  I moved the praetermissum into weaker light (the rocs and praets were both under T5HO) off to the side of a 4K LED where they were shaded a bit by other plants and it was cooler and they've recovered, but it took a while. 
 
Around that time there was some talk in PaulG's glog about this - http://thehotpepper.com/topic/70220-paulg-2019/?p=1623157
 
You can see a very dark green leaf - no surprise with one of Paul's plants as they're all so damn green and healthy looking - with the same convex clawing as some of mine showed and the lower leaves are going into that twisted/folding thing.
 
When I was trying to figure it out, I found this article - https://myfolia.com/journals/103285-tomato-leaves-curling-under and the first comment by a guy who took his tomato plant to Cornell's Horticulture Department with the diagnosis that the upper growth of the plant was exceeding the root capacity caused or complicated by higher temperatures and higher moister levels around the roots.  i think this was likely the case with my praetermissum and ayuyo, and the problem abated in cooler temperatures with less humidity and less intense light.
 
Anyhow, before I write a book here - maybe too late already - here's my Cliff's Notes:
I've been asking that same question.
I think it's a combination of a high N environment with strong light and the roots not breathing well and working efficiently.
I had good results decreasing humidity (around the roots in particular), light intensity, and N.
 
Sorry you asked?

 

[CaneDog]

Good looking plants , I really like the growth pattern on these Pubes.

 
Thanks Karoo.  I was happy to see your Roc's start podding up recently and I'm hoping they do really well for you over the winter.  I think that's likely to be the case with your climate.
 

Wow, those are some great looking plants CD! 

 
Right back at ya Dan. I've been enjoying your pics posts in the 'Pubes thread and yours are coming along great.  I think that thread's going to be awesome this year with a lot of good growers posting cool pics and sharing techniques. 

 

[Bhuter]

Hey Bhuter. If you look through some of the pics in my last post #125 you'll see something I had show up for a time which was clawing with in some cases tip roll down.  You can see the clawing generally on many of the plants and tip roll is really prominent in pic #3 (middle left) and pics #6 (middle right).  To me that was classic N tox and compare to photo's #'s 5 and 7 where the leaves are flatter and a lighter shade of green.  I amended my container soil differently this season and I assumed that was the reason.  I believe normal watering and laying off nutes with waterings is why it abated.
 
None of my rocotos did that fold-and-twist that your Oro (?) did, but I had 2 praetermissum (and an ayuyo) do that big time and it's a problem I don't really remember from previous grows.  I moved the praetermissum into weaker light (the rocs and praets were both under T5HO) off to the side of a 4K LED where they were shaded a bit by other plants and it was cooler and they've recovered, but it took a while. 
 
Around that time there was some talk in PaulG's glog about this - http://thehotpepper.com/topic/70220-paulg-2019/?p=1623157
 
You can see a very dark green leaf - no surprise with one of Paul's plants as they're all so damn green and healthy looking - with the same convex clawing as some of mine showed and the lower leaves are going into that twisted/folding thing.
 
When I was trying to figure it out, I found this article - https://myfolia.com/journals/103285-tomato-leaves-curling-under and the first comment by a guy who took his tomato plant to Cornell's Horticulture Department with the diagnosis that the upper growth of the plant was exceeding the root capacity caused or complicated by higher temperatures and higher moister levels around the roots.  i think this was likely the case with my praetermissum and ayuyo, and the problem abated in cooler temperatures with less humidity and less intense light.
 
Anyhow, before I write a book here - maybe too late already - here's my Cliff's Notes:
I've been asking that same question.
I think it's a combination of a high N environment with strong light and the roots not breathing well and working efficiently.
I had good results decreasing humidity (around the roots in particular), light intensity, and N.
 
Sorry you asked?

No, not at all! Thank you very much! I'm not too sure about the light intensity, cuz I just have 2 CFLs. But it very well could be both the N-tox and suffocated roots. I normally only bottom water, leaving about an inch of dry soil on top...keeps the gnats down. But yesterday, while they were outside, I doused them with the hose, which I've never done. Hopefully with the ability to "use" the rest of the soil in my pots (top inch of soil), this will help root expansion. Or maybe it's aeration it needs??

I'm still dialing in the nute ratio for indoor little pots. I'm using Dyna-Gro Foliage Pro (9-3-6) along with Dyna-Gro Pro-Tekt (0-0-3). I usually feed every other watering...but I think some plants got a double-dose.

Soooooo, I'll try watering the (yes, Oro) plants full to the top and watch the nute intake.

Thank you very much! This is a great help!

 

[Bhuter]

I guess it IS aeration. Humidity could be the cause. "Curling under to reduce surface area." That makes total sense. Maybe I should put those guys in front of the fan. So reading further, it's NOT the watering, it's the fresh air to the roots.

I'm trying to read fast. Lol. I keep missing things.

 

[CaneDog]

Seems hard at times to locate exactly what went off, but focusing on the basics of a good environment and taking a little bit of pressure off the plant will eventually cure whatever the problem is.  I think we're narrowing it down here, but I'd still like to understand it better.  Definitely follow up and post back as you're working through it!

 

[DWB]

Probably just a quick stretch before they go in ballistic growth in those hay bales! 

 
Here's some of my shrubbery. Can't tell where one ends and another begins without sticking your hand in there. Funny thing is I haven't topped a single one of my plants because I wanted then to grow tall. The four in the center of this picture are like ground cover, sprawling out in every direction.
 
The hoop houses look nice. Are those fitted covers or plain ol' 6 mil plastic sheeting?
 

 

[podz]

Absolutely amazing reading through this glog. I'm a fan of pubes and most of those I have never heard of - a lot to learn here!

 

[DanMcG]

 
 The four in the center of this picture are like ground cover, sprawling out in every direction.The hoop houses look nice. 

 
I've got the same thing with a few of mine, growing horizontally. When the time comes to plant them in the ground I'm not sure how much space to give them. hopefully over the next few weeks they'll give me a clue on what to do.

 

[stettoman]

I have a bit of that leaf twist/curl/tip/wither on my OWs. I attribute it to the 2-3 tablespoons (or more) Alaska Fish 5-1-1 mixed into my repot soil. The leaves on my Turbo Pube are the size of my flattened hand. I was told once that, as impressive as it looks, huge leaves are a sign of misdirected energy distribution.
 
I'll be switching to CNS17 3-1-2 as soon as these ladies meet with the great outdoors, but only after a good sobering up from the Alaska adventure.
 
Super nice grow, 'Dog! How did you get your De Seda to go beyond the first pairs of true leaves? Mine have been the size of a thumbprint for weeks!

 

[stettoman]

 
I've got the same thing with a few of mine, growing horizontally. When the time comes to plant them in the ground I'm not sure how much space to give them. hopefully over the next few weeks they'll give me a clue on what to do.

 
Stake 'em! Or train them into a tomato cage. I do the stakes, but they will find their way out again...