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

 

[fishhead]

CD, I'll hijack your thread.
 
Mostly to give praise tho.  
 
Here is my Arequipa Giant.  From the seeds you graciously provided.  Veg is good.  Starting to produce.  Harvested a few   - less than giants tho. More on the way.  Mucho tasty.  Not a lot of heat.
Thank you for my foray into pubes.  Don't know if my local will be worthwhile in the long run, but, definitely worth a try. 
 
FYI, in a livestock water trough.  Small thai to the left, 5 gal bucket for scale.  Medium at start was - bottom 1/8 oak leaves, middle 3/4 horse manure, top peat.  Seems to be cranking.  Base is about 1 inch diameter.
 
Thanks for all the intel throughout this site CD. Rockstar. 
 
 
 

 

[CaneDog]

Wow! That's a great-looking rocoto, fishhead!   Thanks for posting the pic.  I'm surprised by your report of the pods being smaller and cooler than expected.  I've grown the giant arequipa only in containers, a 5g home depot bucket being the largest container I used.  The pods have been in the 80 gram range and they've definitely had some heat. 
 
Your plant looks super healthy and with the extra foot room you've given it and in your climate (which I'd think is great for rocotos) I'd have expected more size and heat from the pods.   It's been a weird year here in the PNW, though, so who really knows what to expect 

 

[fishhead]

The first couple, which I harvested like 3 days ago, were the initial babies, which I'll not base an opinion on.  A big one on the way soon.  We're cranking on blooms and peps now in the last couple of weeks.  Dry, wind, and uber low humidity now.  Seems to be loving it as long as I can keep the water on it.  Have not had a drip of rain in 2 mos.  Got about a month before temps start to dip, so, we'll see how they progress.  I'll attempt to OW, but the base is already larger than 1" dia., so there will be quite the ball when pulling.  But, it also might be interesting to try and push it into the fall to see how long it can hold on.  I'm guessing longer than everything else. 
 
In an adjacent trough, I've got a Sedona Sun (thanks CraftyFox) ornamental which is supposed to be 1K shu, and is flat out cranking out the little fire pokers.  Those little buggers are hotter than most jalapenos.  So, my medium, my climate, my neglect - who knows.  But, they are tasty, and that is really all that matters to me. 

 

[CraftyFox]

We had the first DeSorta of the season the other night, in an omelet. It was definitely more flavorful this year and a good heat. I was going to clone it, then didn't, now I'm back on the fence.. If I clone it, I can stick the big one in the ground next year and see what kind of pods it can really put out, while still having the back up. The nice thing about this year, is I know these seeds are selfed or crossed with that Texas wild, however unlikely. That Little Brown is such a sweet looking plant.. Just keeps on blooming. Definitely going to clone that one. The Thai Birdseye are both up, as is one of the two KS White Thai.. One of my two Omnicolor is molded in the cup and the look of the other 3 batches of seeds is kinda disappointing. I noticed when I initially dropped the H202 on them, there was no fizzle and I'm pretty sure now that it was flat.  It's all the Omnicolors fault.. They are hate me. I'm glad you are enjoying those Fish, you are making me want to start some again. The Bird's Eye Baby have a similar form, but the flavor isn't even close really. 

​

 

[ShowMeDaSauce]

 
I found the Lemon Spice to be really sweet and mild. It actually reminded me a little bit of Aji Fantasy. But the Orange Spice was much hotter than the Lemon. It might just be the hottest Jalapeno that I have tried so far. 

My Orange Spice have been brutally hot this year. Seeds came directly from the NuMex website. Easily the hottest jala i tried and every last one has been hot. Im going to try the Jalamundo next year.

 

[CaneDog]

Here's a few pics from the last little bit.  Most of the peppers are pushing hard to get production in before the season is over and a good September would sure help.  The 10-day forecast calls for 70's and 80's and dry, so at least the start looks good.
 
Rocoto CAP 1242.  I was a big fan of the pod shape and color of the 1242's last season and this season I'm seeing an even more pronounce collar on the pods.

 
Pumpkin Habanero #2 has some ripe pods.

 
7 Pot Burgundy Pecan from PaulG has a ripe first wave of (small) pods, with a second wave of bigger pods coming along.

 
Good numbers of pods on this Wiri Wiri.  They started off very slow in the cool weather we had in spring and early summer, but since things heated up a bit more they've been really making up for lost time.

 
Aji Guyana is starting to ripen.  It took a while, but not as long as some baccatum. 

 
This is a wild cumari from Leo I'm calling "Cumari Dark" because of the 2 wild cumari it had the darker seeds.  It got a late start, but it's flowering now and looks like it wants to set pods.

 
Front-on shot of the same flower.

 
This is the wild cumari with the lighter colored seeds.

 
Eximium CAP 500 has a bunch of pods now.

 
As does the purple flowered baccatum

 
This Chile Rayado is the first to flower of a few I started very late.  Given that my Rayado are all quite small/young still and I don't expect to get any mature pods outside, I'll probably just bring inside the best-looking Rayado plant - whether it has pods or not - and clean it up and grow it the rest of the way inside in a tent. I'd really like to try these pods before next season.

 
And this is a small Thai Spaz plant in a cup on the deck.  I didn't cull it and it's making the most of the opportunity.  The Spezzano Thai was one of a few new-to-me varieties I've been particularly impressed with this season.

 

 

[dragonsfire]

Glad your pumpkins worked out  

 

[lespaulde]

Nice looking plants as always CD, and keeping my fingers crossed for a great September with lots of ripening coming your way from the weather gods! It's been a rather cold summer overall here too, so wouldn't mind being able to go all the way into October for some of the varieties...

Those 7P Pecans look amazing! Mine aren't ripe yet, but did get a handful of pods setting and the plant will go inside if needed as I'm super curious about them.

Sent from my LYA-L29 using Tapatalk

 

[fishhead]

CD, agree with you on the Spezzano Thai, it is one of my largest plants and definitely my most productive. Medium/large peppers everywhere, and they keep coming on. Looks like maybe a good one for the PNW.

 

[CaneDog]

Glad your pumpkins worked out  

 
Me too. I appreciate you sending me the seeds.   
I have a second, larger pumpkin habanero that has more pods than this one, but nothing ripe yet.  Between the two, I'm expecting a decent little haul.

 

[dragonsfire]

Awesome!

 

[CaneDog]

Nice looking plants as always CD, and keeping my fingers crossed for a great September with lots of ripening coming your way from the weather gods! It's been a rather cold summer overall here too, so wouldn't mind being able to go all the way into October for some of the varieties...

Those 7P Pecans look amazing! Mine aren't ripe yet, but did get a handful of pods setting and the plant will go inside if needed as I'm super curious about them.

 
Thanks, LP.  It seems we each had a cooler season this year - do I remember you said yours started out as the coolest summer in recent history?  I bet your greenhouse was a big help with that.    Hopefully it will keep your plants ripening at least into the early fall.  I'll probably end up rigging some lights in the garage to get an extra month of ripening for my stragglers.
 
And I totally agree - PaulG's 7PBP are slick-looking pods. Looking forward to seeing us each end up with a good bunch harvested.

 

[CaneDog]

CD, agree with you on the Spezzano Thai, it is one of my largest plants and definitely my most productive. Medium/large peppers everywhere, and they keep coming on. Looks like maybe a good one for the PNW.

 
That's great to hear - and helpful for planning out next year.  I grew several of these guys, but due to circumstances I kept them in small pots (Nursery #1 was the biggest) so I didn't know their full potential.  Despite the cramped conditions, mine grew pretty big and bushy and were productive - I just gave away the biggest one to a friend and it was loaded with ripening pods.  With your intel that the plants grow big I'll feel OK with growing out only a couple - but in bigger pots or planted out - and still expecting good numbers of pods.
 
I think you're dead-on about them being a good one for the PNW.  Mine didn't seem phased at all by the cooler weather stretches this year either in growth or flowering and setting pods.  I'll probably start a few extras next season just to share with friends.  Seems like it would be hard to fail growing these and it's a useful pod.

 

[PtMD989]

That 7 Pot Burgandy has great color [emoji16][emoji106].


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Tybo]

Hope the Rayado's do well for you.  Looks like I will get a few pods from mine before the weather turns bad.  If not, I'll do like you and bring them in.
My 1242s didnt get that collar like yours.  Thats a cool shape.  

 

[Wiriwiri]

Hi CD,glad that the weather will cooperate, enabling the pods to reach the finish line...your  wiri plant has filled in nicely also.
 
We had some low 50's @night  for over a week  but the days are warmer to 70ish.I noticed that the cardi has been flowering more
with the cooler weather.
 
Thanks for sharing the photos with us...they are as usual, lovely.

 

[CaneDog]

This guy showed up while I was taking pictures and basically took a bath in pollen.
 

 

 

 

 

[CaneDog]

I finally have a bloom on one of my 2 rhomboideum.  This one grew a lot like Cardenasii tend to for me, starting out like a vine and only later growing upright from the middle.  Next year I might try some of these types as hanging plants from some of the hooks I have under the eaves.  
 

 

 

 

 

[Tybo]

I couldn't get that bee to stay still for a photo even if I offered to allow it to sting me after the photo shoot!
Nice photos CD.  Really liking that rhomboideum.  Are they typically difficult to get to bloom?  

 

[CaneDog]

I've identified this as the front-runner plant from the Chile Rayado seeds macmex sent me.  I started a few of these well into the season, so I'll need to bring this plant inside once it sets in order to ripen pods.  These things are super fuzzy.

 

 
I'll probably have to bring in this Rocoto San Pedro Orange once it sets, too.  This variety was a challenge every step of the way from low germination rates and failure to thrive initially to now very late production.  It finally cooperated, though, and has turned into a decent looking plant.  I'm hopeful the variety will do better with a fresh batch of seeds from this season's plant.

 

 
I'm curious what variety this is.  It's a fairly chunky pod to grow upright, though it's already starting to drop under its weight.  It might be an unnamed wild variety I was trying to germinate, but things got mixed up and I'm not certain it came from those seeds.  Then again, I don't recognize it as anything else I planted, so...

 
The rocotos are starting to ripen, with Aji Lucento leading the way.  So far the Lucento, De Seda, and Hyperpube-X have put out ripe pods, and the Ecuador Sweet Rocoto is just starting to change.  Lots more I'm hoping will get to it soon, as ripening will really slow in a few weeks here when things start to get cooler.
 
Aji Lucento

 
And the Pumpkin Habs are now ripening in earnest on both plants.  I kept these in small pots this year, but it will definitely get a spot in next season's grow and I'm looking forward to seeing how it does with better legroom.  Great shape on the later pods.