CaneDog 2020

2020 is underway, so it's time to start the new season's glog!  Odd times though, as I'm still harvesting stragglers from last season while the earliest of my 2020 starts are already up.  Grow areas are a bit disorganized as a result 
 
This season's grow should be a little more balanced than last season, though I'll still have a ridiculous number of rocotos - many OW's plus a bunch of new varieties - and quite a few carry-over OW wilds, too.
 
A big "thanks" to all who shared seeds with me for this season.  I'm appreciative and excited to have lots of cool varieties in the mix, many of which I got to watch you grow last season and can now try myself.  I think I'm current with everyone, but if by any chance you were expecting seeds from me that may have slipped through the cracks just shoot me a PM.
 
As I mentioned, things aren't super organized right now, but here's a few pics anyway.
 
I planted a few seeds early, just because I couldn't hold off the extra few weeks without planting something.
 
Amarillo de Arequipa Rocoto just popped- Thanks CTB!

 
Ecuador Sweet Rocoto twins - and a big shout out to the two peeps who sent me seeds for these. Both sources germinated and I'm really happy to have them growing.  Disclaimer: they may look overly wet, but these just got sprayed (to avoid HH's) and it's a very porous medium.

 
Put another few rocotos in to soak today.

 
This is a galapagoense that popped a few days back, exactly 100 days after sowing.

 
And this pod contains Jalapeno Zapotec x Purple Jalapeno F1, one of a couple F1 JZ crosses I'll be growing out this season. The other is Tekne Dolmasi x JZ.

 
Finally, I got a solid recommendation on a new media mix I'll be trying out this season in a few variations. The mix is heavy in partially composted bark fines, a fir/hemlock mix as pine's hard to get locally. It's proving to be a veritable mycelium factory.  Bodes well for good symbiosis with the appropriate fungal species this year.

 

 
Heck, they're even fruiting out the drainage holes... 

 
 
That's it for now.  Good luck to all in 2020!
CD

 

[CaneDog]

Maybe that pic of the hook is reminding you
of the creatures in ‘Tremors’ 

 
  Whatever it is, the tent's getting zipped up before I go to sleep tonight!

 

[podz]

Yeah, I remember your wind issues from last season and now I'm feeling your pain!  What a hassle.  Amazing the difference from taking out a few medium sized trees.

 
Yeah my deck is on a wind tunnel. One plant flipped yesterday, I uprighted it and with an hour it had flipped again. I'm gonna start putting weights in the bottom of the pots!

 

[Siv]

Maybe that pic of the hook is reminding you
of the creatures in ‘Tremors’ 

 
I was thinking more of "The Thing". Is it a pepper or is it an alien pretending to be a pepper?

 

[CaneDog]

I was thinking more of "The Thing". Is it a pepper or is it an alien pretending to be a pepper?

 
OK, so now I'm putting the dog outside tonight, too.  Well, I don't actually have a dog, but if I did...
 
So I think it was this scene from Cloverfield, when the two-fingered hand comes rolling up.  Apparently I can't embed with a time stamp, but it's at the 47 second mark. 

Is it just me?

 

[lespaulde]

Such nice progress here CD, great updates! Fingers crossed you are getting your hands dirty planting out this weekend and will have more pods than you can handle come August! Our weather has turned to sh*t for a week already, so I made sure to send the sunshine in your direction and hope it makes it there...

Curious how the 7P burgundy from Paul does for you; mine is about to open up its first flowers by the end of next week I reckon. Given it's an F3 I guess some variation is still to be expected.

Exciting that you got some Jalapeno Zapotec x Purple Jalapeno F2s in the ground now, will be watching closely what happens with those. My JZs are throwing out lots of pods and excitement is high for this type, so any cross with it is likely to be very good as well. Awesome stuff man!

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[PaulG]

Curious how the 7P burgundy from Paul does for you; mine is about to open up its first flowers by the end of next week I reckon. Given it's an F3 I guess some variation is still to be expected.

The 7 Pot Burgundy Pecan threw out the pecan
colored pods two years in a row. Chances are
good  for a repeat.

 

[Wiriwiri]

Hi CD...just adding to similar sentiments expressed here as to the wonderful display.Always  so
great to visit your glog & see what's going on...I see I have some catching up to do but as always I'm so  impressed
with the TLC you give your plants & the returns are so obvious.
Great photography with such detail as always....thanks for taking the time to show us how it's done.

 

[CaneDog]

Such nice progress here CD, great updates! Fingers crossed you are getting your hands dirty planting out this weekend and will have more pods than you can handle come August! Our weather has turned to sh*t for a week already, so I made sure to send the sunshine in your direction and hope it makes it there...

Curious how the 7P burgundy from Paul does for you; mine is about to open up its first flowers by the end of next week I reckon. Given it's an F3 I guess some variation is still to be expected.

Exciting that you got some Jalapeno Zapotec x Purple Jalapeno F2s in the ground now, will be watching closely what happens with those. My JZs are throwing out lots of pods and excitement is high for this type, so any cross with it is likely to be very good as well. Awesome stuff man!

 
Thanks man!  I did manager a trip out and started plant out. I'm late enough I'll have to weed and turn over 400 SF in the new plot again, so it'll be a few trips before I get everything in the ground.
 
Glad the JZ is producing well for you and I'm looking forward to seeing what you decide to do with crossing it.
 

The 7 Pot Burgundy Pecan threw out the pecan
colored pods two years in a row. Chances are
good  for a repeat.

 
The bigger of the two has already set a handful of light green pods, so I'm well on my way to finding out. 

 

[PaulG]

Sounds promising. The pods start out light green
and are generally pecan-shaped.

 

[CaneDog]

Here's a small pepper that managed to escape being marked, but which i think is a Thai Spaz.  
 
The Thai Spaz have an interesting zig-zag alternate node growth pattern, which I don't see too often - I think it looks pretty cool, especially in combination with the node streaking.   It's starting to produce quite young, which further supports the identification, as I seem to remember my previous ones started early too.
 
Here's a look at the top of the plant and the buds.  This guy branched almost immediately after sprouting, but just the one branch you can see in the pics.  That's a combination of mist and pollen on the leaves.  It's under T5HO's next to the galapagoense and I'd just misted the tent and shook the galap as it's currently setting pods.  Guess I should relocate this guy before the flowers open to keep the galap isolated.

 
Here's a better look at the zig-zag nodes.  Seems like it wants to branch out, it just hasn't really done it yet.

 

[CaneDog]

Another trip to the community garden to facilitate my extremely late plant-out.  The old plot is in good shape and filling up with peppers, but the new plot has required more work.  I weeded it and turned it all over about 2 months ago, but I let it sit long enough it became covered with weeds and grass again.  I can't believe how inundated it became in a what was fairly short time - and what's really crazy is that the soil is packed down hard again and jammed with roots, despite that I turned everything over and broke it up. 
 
I decided instead of turning over the entire 40' x 10' plot this time, I'd use a shovel to scoop the top couple inches off and then trench and amend 3 or 4 planting rows.  I think I'll buy some landscape fabric too, so the weeds don't come back like they did before.  My 2 neighbors in this section use it and I think there's a good reason they do.
 
Anyhow, I'm about 80% done with the weeding. Next trip out I plan to finish the weeding and turn over a 40 LF trench along the left side, amend it, and drop in a line of my best annuums. All this should have been prepped at least 6 weeks ago, but I figure 2 more trips out and everything will finally be planted and good to go.  
 

 
The first pic doesn't seem to show scale very well, but you can better see the size of the weed piles in this picture.

 

[Downriver]

Not  sure why I liked ^^^, other than to recognize the amount of work that represents lol. I know all about being late to plant this year. Still struggling myself with the same kind of issues you're facing. But, we're both almost there lol. Keep after it - looking good CD.

 

[CaneDog]

Not  sure why I liked ^^^, other than to recognize the amount of work that represents lol. I know all about being late to plant this year. Still struggling myself with the same kind of issues you're facing. But, we're both almost there lol. Keep after it - looking good CD.

 
Yep, almost there!  I usually enjoy the work once I get going, but sometimes getting motivated isn't easy.     In fact, it's about time for me to head over there again now...
 
A few progress pics of things happening.
 
Aji Limo is in the front yard and setting lots of pods.  The plants out front get the most sun and I'm seeing the darker pods on them.

 

 
This is a Rocoto CAP 1242 x Eximium 1491 F1.  Both varieties are vigorous growers.  I'm hoping to get the orange pods from the rocoto in the F2 generation.  The 1242's also have a semi-collar, which would be super cool to see show up.  

 

 
This is an Eximium CAP 1491 x USDA Cardenasii F1.  The flowers are a bit longer, more Cardenasii-like than I've see in the Rocoto x Cardenasii F1 crosses. 

 

 
The 2 OW Tovarii are almost eye-level in their 5g Homer buckets and growing strong.  Plenty of buds are showing up and the first flowers are opening now.  Last year they produced tons of flowers and pollen, but not many pods.  I'm hoping they'll really crank them out this year.

 
This is a Giant Yellow Rocoto x Eximium CAP 1491 F1.  It's a big/tall plant and the pods are big too compared to many other F1 Rocopicas.  I'm happy to see the first ISO pod is ripening. It looks a bit like a cherry tomato.

 

[Peppergator]

Just stopping by to comment on how fantastic your photos are. You and Guru snap beautiful macros.


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[ahayastani]

Very interesting! Keep us informed, also about their taste 

 

[CaneDog]

Just stopping by to comment on how fantastic your photos are. You and Guru snap beautiful macros.

 
Thanks Gator.  There are some things that just look really cool close up.
 

Very interesting! Keep us informed, also about their taste 

 
Will do ahayastani.  It's cool now that ripe pods are starting to trickle in, but any big harvests are still going to be while.

 

[BDASPNY]

I love how you're able to take such nice clear pics that close up.
 
 
they all look great and off to the races!

 

[CaneDog]

Finished up the grunt work last night.  Nothing left but planting now, or maybe some landscape fabric first.  This is what the local Home Depot has in stock that I could get right away.  https://www.homedepot.com/p/Landmaster-6-ft-x-100-ft-Contractor-Weed-Barrier-Landscape-Fabric-Heavy-Duty-Commercial-Grade-30128P/203065616
 
It's 3oz fabric, which seems to me maybe a bit on the light side.  Of course, some reviews say it works great at keeping weeds out and others say it doesn't ...  
 

 

[PtMD989]

You got your spot looking good [emoji106][emoji16]. What did y’all do with your weeds, eh


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[CaneDog]

You got your spot looking good [emoji106][emoji16]. What did y’all do with your weeds, eh

 
Thanks, I had to take that picture quick before any weeds grew back so I had that feeling of accomplishment!  
 
I let the weeds sit for a day or so to dry out, then I rake them back to where they came from and knock all the dirt out of the roots. Once all the dirt's out I throw them into these big composting bins they have. There's another pile from yesterday's work at the front end of the picture, but out of sight.  Tomorrow I'll rake it through the plot to the far end before I wheelbarrow it out and that will knock most of the dirt off back into the garden.
 
I think this is going to be an outstanding plot for growing peppers.  Even if I'm little late this year, by next season I should have it in great shape and I'm counting on it to really crank out some pods.