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

 

[CaneDog]

Hey CD, your adapt a rookie for this year?

Sent from my SM-G973U1 using Tapatalk

 
  Saiias I still need to get up some pics of those cappuccino tepins and cgn 23258 you hooked me up with.  Unfortunately, despite how fast they're growing - which is gangbusters - they're young and still on the smaller side so I've been waiting a bit for them to present me with an interesting shot.
 

 

[podz]

 
Thanks Podz.  Far from that, but I am enjoying having more variety in my grow list than usual and quite a few new-to-me varieties.  Hopefully I'll find some new "old favorites" this season and will get good iso seed from most of these guys - though some will be more difficult than others.
 
On that note, just keep and eye on things and see what you like and talk to me around harvest time. I'm always happy to give back when I can to people that help to make THP such a good place.

 
 
Maybe a cutting would be nice :-) I'm sure that would fly real well with USA and Finland customs officers :-)
 
What makes THP great? So far, I'm loving it here because there are a lot of damned knowledgeable (PaulG comes to mind), passionate people who are super-willing to share their knowledge (Trent comes to mind) and super-friendly (SkullBiker comes to mind). Special interest forums are not always places where folks can feel safe being humble; many of them have an overly competitive nature and are just waiting on new members upon which to execute their speculation-based pyramid schemes. And they ask for membership fees on top of that in order to be considered a legitimate "badged" member. At the end of the day, I guess it's all about from where you find value. One place, I asked one of the admins if my subscription fee would make any difference at all and she said no. I have enough money to keep me happy and then some to spare but I did not subscribe because of her shitty customer service attitude. I am in a position where I serve 20 million customers and to me every one of them are valuable. 'Nuff said.
 
What I am interested in with your grow is the exotic pubescens / cardenasii varieties. I was going to ask you earlier why is the internodal distance so long? Is that a genetic feature or is it simply environmental? Do you need more money for grow lights or would it even help?
 
I am interested in your endeavors.

 

[CaneDog]

Definitely the people make the place and there's a lot of good people here now.  
 
I don't perceive the internodal as being long on these guys generally (definitely not on the pubes), though I have a couple wild varieties that aren't as compact/supported as I'd like. Wilds grow differently than cultivated varieties and some amount of stretch is not uncommon.  Many grow into tall and/or disorganized bushes and benefit from support. 
 
I'll generally keep the internodal distances tight on plants that will continue to spend time indoors, but like to open the plant up a bit when it goes into an environment where height is not a concern - for proper air flow and I prefer not to have lower leaves too close to the dirt.  This tends to happen naturally to a degree during hardening-off in early spring.  The Cardenasii in the above pics started life under T5HO bulbs then, as they got older, I transferred them to an HLG100 equipped tent environment for greater penetration (versus lumen drop-off).  Despite being as close to a deep-penetrating fixture as possible without ill-effect, they weren't/aren't growing quite as compact and rigid as I'd like.  The possible cross one is actually exactly the growth pattern I want, but the other USDA Card and my pair of Wageningen-accession Cards (not pictured) are both a bit on the "loose" side.
 
I just moved the Card's outside to harden off and am hoping with lots of laterals to support now and natural sun and breeze, they will toughen up a bit.  This is my first experience growing true cardenasii, so I expect I'll be learning throughout the process as I get to know the variety better.

 

[CaneDog]

I've been really lax about the pictures lately so I forced myself to get out and take a few.  Of course, I had time at mid-day, so none of those "magic hour" pics will be happening here.
 
Here's a couple blast from the past carryovers from my off-season glog.
 
Baha Goat - getting a bit scraggly as it converts from box light to natural sun.  Still producing though.

 
 
And here's a Yellow 7 Pot transitioning out of bonchi training for the summer season.

 
 
And because I've been planning to do this for a while, here's a look at the Cappuccino Tepins and CGN 23258 that saiias set me up with.  Thanks man! - and sorry about the lousy photo quality. No fun shooting at high noon on a cloudless day.

 

 

[CaneDog]

I've been growing Aleppo from 4 sources in order to locate the best strain(s) I can.  One thing that's quickly apparent is I have two different phenotypes.  The picture shows this reasonably well, but it's even more obvious in person. 
 
On the left shows a narrower leaf with a different shape/texture and a darker green. Interestingly, both these plants are from the same source.  I originally had 4 plants from this source with 3 like the right one and 1 like the left (mono-hybrid Punnett square numbers FWIW). 
 
Making this more curious is that of the other 3 sources, 2 grew only peppers like the one on the right while one source also grew like the one on the left.  So, I save 1 each from the other 3 sources and these 2 from this source (3 rights and 2 lefts = 5 total) and I'll continue watching to see what happens. While it seems possible there's a recessive allele in the mix here, having it show up looking the same from a different source adds a twist.
 

 

[CaneDog]

Back after an interruption to finish posting today's pics.  Here's an update on a few wild varieties:
 
This is the USDA Card I think may be crossed.  If someone familiar with the growth of this variety wants to chime in with thoughts that would be great. My goal today was to get a good picture of it after the last one which wasn't very good. Not sure that I accomplished this today.

 
 
Here's a center shot of a small flexuosum that's going into bloom. 

 
 
CAP 1491 Eximium with one open flower (upper left) and leaning toward the sun.

 
 
CAP 1141 Praetermissum is flowering now (pic below), well ahead of the CAP 1478 Praetermissum (not shown). Neither Praetermissum (I culled back to just 1 each) was a fan of the climate I provided indoors, to the extend they did the funky leaf twist-and-fold thing, not just canoeing or rolling.  I was able to mitigate the condition to a large degree by placing them at the margin of the indoor lights with cooler temps and more circulation where each did better, but now outside and in the dappled sunlight/shade of a tree they appear much happier. 

 
 
And here are my 2 Tovarii, looking scraggly, but with developed growth at almost every node.  The Toverii cuttings seem to be making progress (I took both tops and a middle section from the taller plant on 4/15), especially the one taken from mid-stem on the taller plant. The top cuttings seem ok, but nothing great.  Interesting about the lateral growth is that it has been growing everywhere, not just at the lower or top nodes, and has been growing since before I took the cuttings, but it isn't growing very quickly.  After topping, the top nodes on each did pick up the pace, but the others all seem to be still taking their sweet time.  Hopefully natural sun (just started hardening these) will help.

 
 

 

[CaneDog]

Finally, I took a group shot of representative varieties from my final round of rocotos.  Round 3 is a motley crew of planted lates, malcontents, and ne'er-do-wells - actually they're mostly just planted lates, so their small size is on me.  I've had good production from rocotos at this stage/date before, but I won't be planting any of these directly into the ground or raised beds.
 
The Dixie cup in front is a Cusco, which shows much better form than its 2 larger siblings.  Clockwise from the upper left (skipping the Dixie cup Cusco) are: San Isidro, Large Red, Canario, CAP 1242, XL Brown, Manzano Red, and Turbo Pube.  There's also a Giant Yellow in round 3 that somehow avoided appearing in the line-up

 

[Bhuter]

STUNNED!!!

Are we kidding somebody......? Look at those beauts!!! You're doing fabulous work with your greenery!!! I love your array of Wilds. I just heard from an old friend that she'll be sending me some Wilds at some point. Can't wait for that.

Diggin' the growth on the Flexuosum.

My Tovarii seeds that I've been trying to germ are still sleeping. No sign of life, yet. Hopefully soon!

NOICE!!!!

 

[CaneDog]

STUNNED!!!

Are we kidding somebody......? Look at those beauts!!! You're doing fabulous work with your greenery!!! I love your array of Wilds. I just heard from an old friend that she'll be sending me some Wilds at some point. Can't wait for that.

Diggin' the growth on the Flexuosum.

My Tovarii seeds that I've been trying to germ are still sleeping. No sign of life, yet. Hopefully soon!

NOICE!!!!

 
That's great news.  Are you willing to drop a teaser as to what wilds you're expecting or is it too early and should I just wait patiently for future pictures?  Damn, I really hope those Tovarii pull through for you. Funny how they can take forever and then just like no big deal.  

 

[Bhuter]

 
That's great news.  Are you willing to drop a teaser as to what wilds you're expecting or is it too early and should I just wait patiently for future pictures?  Damn, I really hope those Tovarii pull through for you. Funny how they can take forever and then just like no big deal.  

Here are a few she mentioned:
Flexuosum,
USDA Cardenasii,
Chacoense,
a nice chiltepin Amarillo
A very nice larger yellow fat tepin from Peru from Smokemaster, I grow every year.
Also a nice Cumari du Para from Nigel......

Oh yeah, it started out with us chatting about wilds and I asked her if she had any of Judy's Blue Mystery Praetermissum.
"I DO...but I'd have to find them."
A little while later:
"Found em! First place I looked!"

So I have those coming as well. The only other person that I know who knows/grows that variety is GuatemalanInsanityPepper (GIP). So he might have pics of the Praeter.

 

[CaneDog]

Here are a few she mentioned:
Flexuosum,
USDA Cardenasii,
Chacoense,
a nice chiltepin Amarillo
A very nice larger yellow fat tepin from Peru from Smokemaster, I grow every year.
Also a nice Cumari du Para from Nigel......

Oh yeah, it started out with us chatting about wilds and I asked her if she had any of Judy's Blue Mystery Praetermissum.
"I DO...but I'd have to find them."
A little while later:
"Found em! First place I looked!"

So I have those coming as well. The only other person that I know who knows/grows that variety is GuatemalanInsanityPepper (GIP). So he might have pics of the Praeter.

 
That's awesome Bhuter!  Hard not to get excited about that all-star team!   I'll be very curious to see your USDA Card given the difference in growth pattern in mine.
 
 
I happen to have a few Blue Mystery underway here as well   but no flowers yet...

 

[Bhuter]

 
That's awesome Bhuter!  Hard not to get excited about that all-star team!   I'll be very curious to see your USDA Card given the difference in growth pattern in mine.
 
 
I happen to have a few Blue Mystery underway here as well   but no flowers yet...

That is FANTASTIC!!! It lives on! Lol. So stoked that you have Blue Mystery, too! I think GIP has an overwinter of it.

If there are any that catch your eye, maybe we can work out a swap?? I'll keep you updated on when they arrive. I told her no hurry, though...obviously. Way too late this season.

 

[CaneDog]

Good things happening with my weather.  Looks like just one more night indoors then I'm going to be keeping essentially everything outdoors 24/7.  And if it holds long enough to fully warm the soil I'll be moving plants from the hoop houses into the ground very soon.
 

 
 
And I'll throw in an update pic on my Blue Mystery. Wish I'd kept one more of these when I culled them, but the germination was 7/7 (IIRC), so I had to cut back. Perhaps I was a bit overzealous.  These guys were pretty finicky under the T5HO lighting, either wanting to canoe or stretch with no happy medium distance.  They did better at the margin of LED lighting though, which is what the smaller one continues to get while the other two have gone outside to harden off. Natural sunlight quickly resolved similar problems my praetermissum had under lights, so I'm expecting the same with these. 

 

[Bhuter]

Good things happening with my weather.  Looks like just one more night indoors then I'm going to be keeping essentially everything outdoors 24/7.  And if it holds long enough to fully warm the soil I'll be moving plants from the hoop houses into the ground very soon.
 

 
 
And I'll throw in an update pic on my Blue Mystery. Wish I'd kept one more of these when I culled them, but the germination was 7/7 (IIRC), so I had to cut back. Perhaps I was a bit overzealous.  These guys were pretty finicky under the T5HO lighting, either wanting to canoe or stretch with no happy medium distance.  They did better at the margin of LED lighting though, which is what the smaller one continues to get while the other two have gone outside to harden off. Natural sunlight quickly resolved similar problems my praetermissum had under lights, so I'm expecting the same with these. 

Beautiful! Thank you for this update. The leaves are bigger than I thought and the plant is not as "branchy" as a Chacoense. Very nice! I don't think I've seen flower pics of that variety yet. I'm guessing purple....ish?

Hooray for not having to hike the flats in and out! I've started to harden off twice. Next day, not good weather. Start over! I need a DumbWaiter from upstairs to the ground outside. Lol.

Thank you for following my interests within your grow!

 

[stc3248]

Whatup Dog! Looks like things are moving right along and the tundra is thawing nicely! Love all the wilds and pubes you got rockin! I have grown my fair share of wilds and know the patients and attention to detail many of them require. You obviously have those down pat. Nicely done thus far. Can't wait to see the piles of tiny wild pods next to the giant pubescence pods. 

 

[lespaulde]

Good things happening with my weather.  Looks like just one more night indoors then I'm going to be keeping essentially everything outdoors 24/7.  And if it holds long enough to fully warm the soil I'll be moving plants from the hoop houses into the ground very soon.
 

 
 
And I'll throw in an update pic on my Blue Mystery. Wish I'd kept one more of these when I culled them, but the germination was 7/7 (IIRC), so I had to cut back. Perhaps I was a bit overzealous.  These guys were pretty finicky under the T5HO lighting, either wanting to canoe or stretch with no happy medium distance.  They did better at the margin of LED lighting though, which is what the smaller one continues to get while the other two have gone outside to harden off. Natural sunlight quickly resolved similar problems my praetermissum had under lights, so I'm expecting the same with these. 

Nothing but great news here, CD, well done! I'm so excited for you that you'll be able to keep plants outside now as the lugging back and forth starts taking a toll after a coupla weeks! We're still not quite there yet here so I'm a bit jealous, but I couldn't be happier for ya!

That blue mystery is one hell of a plant, will be interesting to follow how it develops! Interesting how finnicky they are with the lights, and just goes to show how nature has perfected evolution of these species to their natural environment.

Sent from my ZTE A2017U using Tapatalk

 

[CaneDog]

So, it's one of those good news, bad news, good news situations, but at least I have the good news bookends!
 
Good News #1:  One of my plants that turned out to be really cool is now prolifically setting pods.
EDIT - Plant is the top picture in this post - http://thehotpepper.com/topic/71003-canedog-2019-hirsute-pursuit-rocotos-wilds-moar/?p=1630336
 
Bad News:  It was supposed to be the USDA accession of cardenasii, which are self-incompatible, so, it appears it's not true and that I have a Rocopica cross.
 
Good News #2:  Actually 2.  First, I'm happy to have a rocopica especially how this one looks (and I know the seeds will be true self-pollinated F2).  Second, I may have lucked into some isolated USDA cardenasii seeds, so I may be able to try for a second true plant soon to complete a breeding pair.  Can say enough about how cool people can be!
 
The obligatory pics...
 
Rocopica Flower - several of these pics are over-sized, so click to enbiggen.

 
Pod setting

 
Pic showing the purple style with pollen grains and a glimpse of the green stigma. The pistil is from the set pod in front, not the flower in back.

 
I liked the leaf in this shot

 
And I like the tricomes in this pic.

 

[Devv]

CD, you certainly are on top of things!
 
Thanks for the saaweet pics!
 
Good growing buddy!

 

[stettoman]

Impressive!
 
Uh, that's all I got...Unless you want a load of steaming jealous rant.....

 

[DWB]

Impressive!
 
Uh, that's all I got...Unless you want a load of steaming jealous rant.....

 

I'll see your impressive and raise you a WOW.
 
Beautiful flower and one hell of a photograph CD