Canedog Offseason Season 2022/23

Well, shoot. I don't know that I should start a new glog with as poor as I was about updating my last one, but here it goes. My offseason season started late, with most of my plants being probably four to six weeks old now. I'll start by posting a few of the newer ones.

This guy is an Oxkutzcab/Oxkutzcabian Orange Habanero. I have three of these growing and a couple Caribbean Red Habanero that are smaller. The Oxkutzcab seem to be out-pacing the reds, but they've also been around a little longer. In this pic I particularly like the transition in the stem at the cotyledons.

@HeatMiser sent me some of his wild texas tepin seeds - what, a couple years ago now? - and I've been trying to grow the variety to production ever since. The seeds were collected off a wild-growing bush in 2014 and still sprout just fine. I have three of the plants growing that I've overwintered, but it's been a very long-season variety for me here in the pnw and between that and the impact of an aphid infestation last winter I haven't yet gotten any of them to ripe pods. I started this new one with the idea of getting it well-established inside and hopefully it will be mature enough to produce by next season. I may just keep it inside until it does.

Aji Guyana. I've grow this variety for a couple seasons now after Wiri Wiri shared seeds with me. I always end up topping it, so I got that out of the way early this time. I'm hoping once will be enough, but if it gets unruly it may end up seeing the scissors again. Great production out of these and pretty early for a baccatum.

This is a second generation (with me) ollantaytambo amarillo rocoto. I was hoping the parent's pods would be more pale that they were, but it produced great-looking yellow pods this summer, which I thought had great flavor. I'm curious whether this next generation's pods will be unchanged, plus it's likely getting crossed with one or two other rocotos I have growing now that are close to the same age.

Uvalde Pequin, from @CraftyFox - thanks man! It looked a little rough when it first came up, but it's looking much stronger now.

I'm working with several mexican culinary varieties, growing given varieties from multiple sources and in different variations to find out what I like best. Pasilla Oaxaca, Pasilla Negro Bahia, and Guajillo are among them. These guys are the most recent sprouts. The others have been growing a while and are more established.

Guajillo

Pasilla Oaxaca

Pasilla Negro Bahia

I'll close with this guy. I thought I'd run out of the orange arequipa rocoto seeds I'd acquired a couple years back, but I found one scraggly seed in the corner of a seed baggie and that scraggly seed has turned into this scraggly young plant. When it germinated I thought the roots might not be strong enough for it to survive, but I've tried to water it just right and it keeps getting stronger day-by-day. If it keeps improving like it has it might make a good match for the ollantaytambo amarillo rocoto.

 

[CaneDog]

A few quick pics.

Chocolate Habanero "Gurdy" started to set in earnest and now sports over a dozen pods. Plant size is 20 inches tall (including 6 inches of container height) and 22 inches wide (about 50 x 55 cm). Not sure yet whether I'll keep this inside or whether I'll mark the isolated pods and pot it up to go outside. I'd like strong production this fall, so I'm leaning toward the latter.

Habanero Oxkutzcab. Fewer pods than the Gurdy at the moment, but with a nice glossy green look.

An update on the Canoncito, is that the younger Canoncito I had in a 5.2 oz poly port cup also started to show budding with serious intent, so I potted it up to a red Solo for what will be the red vs. blue Solo cup Canoncito challenge! So far this variety is living up to its reputation as being very quick to develop/produce. It's hard to see it in the pic, but in person it seems the laterals are getting ready to go as well.

 

[Tybo]

Hey CD. Is the Habanero Oxkutzcab just an orange hab from that area in Mexico. I've never heard of it so I curious.
Also, where are your chocolate hab seeds from? Things are looking good!

 

[CaneDog]

Hey CD. Is the Habanero Oxkutzcab just an orange hab from that area in Mexico. I've never heard of it so I curious.
Also, where are your chocolate hab seeds from? Things are looking good!

Thanks, it's great to have some of the older plants producing, as most of my grow is at that in-between stage where nothing much exciting is happening.

Yep, it's just a local variation grown in the Yucatan. Supposedly, it has a more flavor and sweetness, but I've yet to confirm whether that's true and if I like it.

The "Gurdy" Chocolate Habanero has been awesome for me. I grew the dremen/Redwood Seeds chocolate habanero for years and somewhere along the way lost or ran out of seeds. CraftyFox sent me seeds for this one and it's performed so well it will be the new staple going forward.

 

[CaneDog]

The bigger pod on the antep aci dolma finished ripening, so today was harvest day for the 2 seed pods. I pretty-much "sticked" the plant midway up from the fork. After a couple weeks to rebound it should be primed for the regular season.

AAD - the plant looks raggedy, but the pods look great!

You can see I'd already started to cut into this pod before I decided to take a picture.

AAD "sticked" and ready for round II with plenty of node activity

This is a simple red bhut variety I've been growing for some time that has done well for me. I almost didn't think to grow it this season. Seems happy and to be progressing well toward an early June plant-out date.

I have a handful of new baccatum fragilis sprouts; six in all. They're about 50/50 from isolated (bagged) and open pollinated seed. I had several baccatum varieties growing near the parent plant last summer, so if I have a fortuitous cross hidden in one of the OP seeds it could be interesting.

Here's the new overflow table I set up. Conditions are cooler in this room and I have them under an HLG100 R-Spec LED. It's an eclectic mix, including Verde, Amarylla, and Malinalco tomatillos; Stupice, Oroma, and Beefsteak tomatoes; Married Man Pork Basil; and various Pubescens and other, generally more cool-tolerant, peppers. I only noticed looking at the picture that the Malinalco are blooming, so I ducked in quickly and did a little manual pollination between the two plants with flowers. These guys are kind of spindly, but can be planted deep like tomatoes so that will be happening.

 

[HeatMiser]

Nice progress CD!

That AAD looks like a good specimen. It's been great to have pictures of your setup and see how things are progressing on the whole. The nice Saturday weather we had tempted me to start thinking about taking some of the plants outside, but I know better now! This is just a tease!

 

[CaneDog]

Nice progress CD!

That AAD looks like a good specimen. It's been great to have pictures of your setup and see how things are progressing on the whole. The nice Saturday weather we had tempted me to start thinking about taking some of the plants outside, but I know better now! This is just a tease!

Hey HM! We didn't get quite all the sunny days last week that they promised, but we got several and it sure was nice Saturday. Definitely too early to count on that kind of weather to prevail around here, though.

I'm shooting for the weekend of 5/13 for the first round of plant-outs - provided the weather cooperates - so I'm just starting with the hardening off.

You got your big garbage cans ready for this year's super-Kratkies?

 

[Tinkerbelle]

Hey CD - what size pots are you using for your micro-grows?

 

[CaneDog]

Hey CD - what size pots are you using for your micro-grows?

Hey Tink. First transplant up after germination I'm using solo cups. Some varieties go to to production in the Solo and others get transplanted up once more into McConkey 5.5" square pots at ~ 2.2 liters. A key for me is to take time with the progression from Solo to larger so they age into production time with controlled root systems.

Pretty much all the chinense go to the 5.5 McConkey pots and most annuum stay in the Solo cups; that's if I just want to grow them for evaluation and to collect seeds. For useful (but still modest) production, I'd bump up most varieties to the 2-liter containers. For the varieties you recently started, the mulato isleno is most likely to need the bigger container as it grows into a taller, tree-like plant. Also, Inek boynuzu has pretty chunky pods so the pods probably won't reach full size in a solo.

 

[Tinkerbelle]

thank you muchly - that helps a lot

 

[HeatMiser]

Hey HM! We didn't get quite all the sunny days last week that they promised, but we got several and it sure was nice Saturday. Definitely too early to count on that kind of weather to prevail around here, though.

I'm shooting for the weekend of 5/13 for the first round of plant-outs - provided the weather cooperates - so I'm just starting with the hardening off.

You got your big garbage cans ready for this year's super-Kratkies?

Oh wow, you're already working on hardening them off eh? I just started this week. I'm thinking maybe around the 20th I'll feel confident enough to leave them outside if the weather cooperates. They definitely need new pots now, so I might be stretching my luck.

That being said - we just decided which varieties we'll be growing this year in the big kratkys - one Jimmy Nardello and one Piri-Piri. The only difference is that I didn't start them in hydro because I ran out of room last year. So I need to transplant them to hydro first, and then harden them off. I hope they'll be ready by the first week of June. They should take off shortly afterwards!

 

[Mildfruit]

It brings back memories of seeing the AAD again. I grew your seeds a couple of seasons ago, and I remember them as the highlight of the season. Almost bell pepper looking, but a great taste and upper mid-heat if I remember correctly - really a great pepper!

Good to see things are progressing nicely, plant out day can't come soon enough

 

[CaneDog]

The weather forecast is looking sunny and warm for the foreseeable future, so everything that hasn't started hardening off yet will be going outside tomorrow. I don't plan to bring them in for overnights, but I will have to take care to protect them from the heat of the day.

Canedog's forecast. Best one I've had this year

A few pic's.

Chocolate Habanero. Prepped to go outside tomorrow. The pods that set while isolated indoors are marked with strips of painter's tape.

TFM Bonnet. The early indoor pods didn't set the shape they do outdoors. I suspect it's merely environmental.

Caribbean Red Habanero. I picked up the seeds riding the train a few years back; contributed by Walchit.

I've been on the fence about whether to grow out my 1 papa dreadie inside or outside and I think I've decided on inside. At least for now Maybe after it sets some pods I'll move it out to the back deck as they do tend to get big.

Last pic is Aji Guyana. I've had this guy hardening off outside for a week or so now and the pods that set indoors are beginning to ripen.

 

[ahayastani]

A few degrees more and you reach my winter

 

[CaneDog]

Pretty much everyone that won't be staying inside for the duration went out to the deck today. I'm keeping a dozen or so that are just starting to produce inside temporarily though, until I can mark a few isolated pods on each. Then they'll get the bum's rush out the door.

I plan to keep two tables inside - each 4'x2' = 1.2m x 0.6m with an HLG-100 R-Spec. I like the LED for summer as the heat:light ratio is relatively low. I'd rather have just one table, but even if I could manage to fit everything on one the cramped space would probably be more work than it's worth.

Here's a picture of the main part of the deck with everyone getting some morning sun.

The older chinense that just went out this morning.

The trays are a mix of mostly annuum, chinense, and frutescens, with a few baccatum. I put the rocotos on another side of the house where they get morning sun, but get some shade later in the day.

This tray has many of the older annuum and baccatum that already produced once inside and have been sitting on a window sill awaiting plant-out. They're a bit of a scraggly lot, but with well-developed root systems that should have them putting on size quickly once transplanted. I see I have a few pods in there to mark as having set while isolated, indoors.

On the subject of "scraggly," these Malinalco tomatillos have suffered from a secondary standard of care that most all non-peppers receive when things are busy. Separating the roots will be a pain, but they're strongly vigorous once they get outside and can be planted deep and trellised.

Some of the OW's that survived the dark, cold garage. All my OW's were in an unheated garage from late October to mid April and, despite having no light for the vast majority of that time - and little watering and attention - most survived. In this pic are CGN and USDA cardenasii, rocopica, eximium, and lanceolatum.

More of the OW's, including cardenasii, lanceolatum, rhomboideum, chacoense, and flexuosum. The galapagoense doesn't appear to have survived the rough treatment and the jury is still out on baccatum fragilis (front left).

And just for grins, this prik leung set some nice pods indoors, which I need to remember to mark as "isolated" before I forget. These guys have proven to be strong plants and grow and produce well almost regardless of the level of care.

Feels great that the and has finally arrived. Cheers!

 

[Tinkerbelle]

you're making me feel better over the amount of pepper plants I have
Good to see your OWs to check mine are on the right course

 

[Downriver]

Plants look awesome CD! Now are the older Chinense in those 5.5 McConkey pots you told Tinker about earlier?

 

[OCD Chilehead]

Wow! Just Wow!

All caught up.

Very nice setup! Plants just look fantastic in those small containers. Congrats and happy growing.

Question if you don’t mind? How often do you feed them? I may have missed it in the posts.

 

[CaneDog]

you're making me feel better over the amount of pepper plants I have
Good to see your OWs to check mine are on the right course

Always nice to hear my going overboard helps justify others doing the same, as there's always more cool seeds to plant than there is space to grow them. I try to cut my OW's back to where they have more limited growth nodes to focus their energy and encourage quicker growth, but I was concerned that if I went too far I might remove the only viable nodes. They seem to be doing well though.

Plants look awesome CD! Now are the older Chinense in those 5.5 McConkey pots you told Tinker about earlier?

Thanks DR! It feels great to get them out of the house.

And yep. All the older chinense on the deck have been potted up to 5.5's - all the indoor chinense too, except for the Faria Scotch Bonnet, which will be up-sized from its Solo today.

Wow! Just Wow!

All caught up.

Very nice setup! Plants just look fantastic in those small containers. Congrats and happy growing.

Question if you don’t mind? How often do you feed them? I may have missed it in the posts.

Hey OCDC! Thanks for the good words. These are planted in a mix of Stone's Edna's Best container soil, compost, and a little composted chicken manure. In the 5.5's they also get a little bit of Hendrikus Complete™ 6-4-4.

I typically don't fertilize further right away, but once they've settled in I typically start adding liquid fish w/ kelp every other watering, very diluted at first and then progressively less diluted and/or more often as their needs increase. By the time they're producing in the small containers they're getting a still-diluted, but decent concentration most waterings as I figure there isn't much the small amount of soil is contributing anymore. This season I've been using some Dr. Earth 3-2-1 Tomato fertilizer too, though it stinks just as bad as the fish and cost a fair amount more. I think the broader macros in the Dr. Earth may have additional value once they've been in the soil long enough to have sucked-out most of the nutrients, but probably is wasted early on.

 

[CaneDog]

I took a few pic's of the indoor plants now that the others have moved out and there's more elbow room to work.

Mari Wiri has finally started producing. It's not setting heavily yet, but several pods have formed over the past few days.

Habanero Tabaquite, just before getting potted up into a 5.5" container. I'm glad to give it the extra leg room as it forked very early and has grown like a beast, since.

Datil (Pure Florida, courtesy of Tybo) was starting to act up with leaf canoeing. I checked the roots and it's desperately in need of potting up, which I'll do today. I have an almost identical one of these growing outside.

Faria Scotch Bonnet appears to be getting ready to bloom. Hard to see in this picture, though. I potted this one up recently and the "after" foliage is looking better than the "before."

Yaki Blue. I really like these, but found I had given away all but 2 seeds when it came time to sow this season. Luckily, I got a sprout!

Cabai Burung Ungu. Haven't grown these before.

Chile Rayado (seeds courtesy of macmex). They always do the twisted lead thing when I grow them. My working hypothesis is they may prefer lower humidity and cooler nights, as they seem to do better in the cool room under LED than in the warm, more humid room under the T5HO's. They also like the local late season weather better than the earlier when outdoors. I need to work on my method still to get them prettier indoors, but at least I've have a few isolated pods ripening. After this mini-harvest, I'll likely move this guy outside.

Peppa Peach is going aggresively into its second round of production. Seems plenty happy in a Solo, still. I was surprised that the first round pods had the "Stripey" striping on them and I'll be curious how this bigger round looks.

Prik Kaleang. I got these seeds in a mixed bag with Prik Leung. After all 12 seeds in the first bag grew Prik Leung and no Kaleang, I got a second bag of the mixed seeds. The first several from that bag were also Prik Leung, but now, finally, I have a Kaleang. Lot's of work in getting this one so it's definitely staying inside until I get isolated seeds.

Last, here are some young rocotos that won't go outside this season. Back row left to right are Oro, Giant Red Arequipa, and De Seda. In front is a Tatiana F6 that I planted more recently. I'm keeping these at the very perimeter of the grow where it's cooler and the light's less intense, but I haven't been rotating them all quite enough to prevent some leaning.

 

[CaneDog]

Figured I'd get out early this morning and capture a few pic's of the overwintered wilds as they embrace spring.

Flexuosum. This is the smallest of 3, all of which are doing great.

Rhomboideum. This guy showed a very monopedial growth habit for the last couple years, but now appears headed toward a more bushy growth habit this season.

I thought I lost all three Tovarii while they overwintered in the garage, but one of the two big ones is now showing growth. The growth is focused much lower at the base this season than in prior ones, so I pruned both it and the other larger one back quite a bit. Hopefully the other will show signs of life soon as well.

And a little closer. It's cool how'll they'll have new growth at the very woody base despite no apparent growth nodes.

CGN Carenasii is starting to getting bushy.

USDA Carenasii "A" and "B" should be soon, as well.

Chacoense Most Prolific

And it looks like my Cappacino Tepin wil survive another year, despite that it's look quite dead up until a couple days ago. Like like the gnarled woody bases many of the wilds get over the years, but couldn't really get a decent angle to get both that and the new growth into focus.

Lastly - and a total non sequitur - this puya is starting to set pods, so I'll be able to move it outside soon and clear a little more indoor space.