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.

 

[DWB]

Your pictures remind me I need to get back to growing some herbs. Lazybone has special boxes for that.

 

[Indiana_Jesse]

I noticed (in my experience) that the purple/red Tulsi (holy basil) doesn't get its color under LEDs. Once I put it outside the coloration developed. It is normal for the leaves to be a bit wavy.

 

[Black Compass]

Amazing colors on some of your plants. Do you check and maintain your PH at all, or just throw water and food at them?

 

[CaneDog]

Your pictures remind me I need to get back to growing some herbs. Lazybone has special boxes for that.

Definitely. It's nice to have things growing inside over the winter and the herbs come in handy.

I noticed (in my experience) that the purple/red Tulsi (holy basil) doesn't get its color under LEDs. Once I put it outside the coloration developed. It is normal for the leaves to be a bit wavy.

I just moved it to the LED's a couple days ago. Maybe I'll put it back under the T5HO's. They do a good job of pulling out anthocyanin colors.

Amazing colors on some of your plants. Do you check and maintain your PH at all, or just throw water and food at them?

Thanks. Not usually when I'm growing organically. They're in an amended peat and compost mix that is slightly acidic and the local tap water is alkali. When I have tested, I'm in range and I don't see issues that I'd attribute to pH. They do get some fish emulsion periodically, but for the most part they do pretty well with just water as long as they don't get too big. When I've grown in hydro or coco coir I've always tested and adjusted pH, though.

 

[PaulG]

Great pix, CD! The Yaki Blue Fawn looks stunning.
I miss growing varieties like that!

 

[dragonsfire]

They Look Great !

 

[CaneDog]

Here's a handful of shots from the T5HO table of smaller plants.

Thai Hot Spezzano have done very well for me in solo cups. I have a couple others in the cold kitchen window now that are producing just fine. This guy looks like a really strong phenotype so far and my plan is to use it for my isolated seed base going forward.

Good color on the flowers and strong branching and pubescence

This PC-1 Frutescens is getting ready to flower. Same with the PC-1 Annuum, but I missed getting a picture as they're on a different table. It's probably time to move this guy too as it's right up against the bulbs.

I have breeding pairs of a few different tomatillo (verde, purple, and malinalco), which I'm growing to restock isolated seeds. I'm planning on crossing the verde with the malinalco and might cross the purple with it as well. Anyhow, the tomatillo are pretty fragile when young and I ended up meat-hooking the smaller verde during transplant a while back, so I topped it as a cutting and threw it in a shot glass.

Tomatillo verde cutting.

Roots are coming in well

And so are... blossoms Perhaps there was a little something left in that shot glass that got it going

 

[Downriver]

Plants are looking great CD, especially the Spezzano!

How did the Malinalco perform for you? Mine were a total bust this year. Visions of those bell-sized fruits gave me grandiose ideas for some tomatillo-based sauces, but I ended up with nada. The four plants grew fine, but the fruit never fully filled out the wrapper before they went bad, right on the plant. I think I'm going back to the Amarylla, which did great for me in 2022.

 

[Marturo]

How did the Malinalco perform for you?

Ours out did every other Tomatillos we have ever grown to date. They ripen up very yellow without the end rotting.
The Amarillo did poorly for us for the last 2 seasons. First season for the Malinalco however it made great salsas for us.

 

[CaneDog]

Plants are looking great CD, especially the Spezzano!

How did the Malinalco perform for you? Mine were a total bust this year. Visions of those bell-sized fruits gave me grandiose ideas for some tomatillo-based sauces, but I ended up with nada. The four plants grew fine, but the fruit never fully filled out the wrapper before they went bad, right on the plant. I think I'm going back to the Amarylla, which did great for me in 2022.

Thanks, DR! My Malinalco grew well, but never filled out the husk despite showing a ripe color. I got a late start transplanting them out to the community garden and had just a single harvest at the end of the season. Some went bad while still smaller than the husk. Most appeared ripe, but were smaller than the husk at the time of harvest. Not sure if this is environmental or what, but I'm curious to see how they do indoors and next season.

The verde and purple have done extremely well for me. I grew the amarylla (Baker Creek) for the first time this 2023 season. They also got late transplant (into ground) due to me giving more attention to peppers and didn't do too great.

It occurs to me that I've grown the verde and purple (which did so well) in raised beds with early starts, while I grew the amarylla and malinalco only in the ground and with late starts. Next season I'd like to plant 2 of each of the 4 varieties next to each other in one of the raised beds (with a proper transplant date) and see how they compare. Hopefully they'll do better. I have grandiose ideas for some tomatillo-based sauces of my own

 

[CaneDog]

A few more pics from the indoor tables

It was time to harvest the Paul G Jamaican Red Mushroom pods again. This scraggly little guy has earned his keep, so the current plan is to keep it growing inside until spring plant out. Things are pretty crowded though, so that means others won't be so lucky.

The Huasteca Serrano is also due for another harvest, though that will wait a few days.

This is supposed to be an Urfa Biber, but I'm not sure. I've grown Urfa before and they look much like this, but I don't remember the pods as being so symmetrical. To me, it almost looks like it could have been crossed with bell pepper. I don't have iso seeds and grew the from the original package of what I suspected might be open pollinated seeds, so I'm just not sure.
Anyone familiar with Urfa have thoughts on this?

This Mulato Isleno is finally getting close, after being extremely slow to color up. The two pods are serious bombs. One of them broke its branch some time ago and I had to splint it. There was very little connection remaining, but surprisingly it's done just fine.

Close up of the chocolately goodness and my hurried splinting effort.

I think the best pheno of the 3 Scarpo plants is finely ripening, but not to red like the others. It's been striped like this for a good while now and the pods are feeling ripe to the touch. Comparison below with the immature pod coloration. I like the color variation and hope the pods taste as good as the other (red) ones have.

This is a little Thai Orange Hot, from Semillas La Palma. I don't know if it's the same or different than the Small Orange Thai SSE, but after growing both several times I can't tell the difference. The pods tend to hide in photos when green - in person too - but there a good few in there.

This Tomatillo Verde is currently the biggest of the Tomatillos. I was concerned they'd be too tall and spindly to conveniently grow indoors - they've done that before when I've grown them as starts - but they're all seeming to conform to a good shape.

This is the larger of 2 fatalii. I'm hoping to get a good pod pheno worth growing outdoors next season.

Looks like this one wants to get bushy, but we'll see if that actually plays out.

This last pic is of one of a half-dozen baccatum fragilis I have growing. I wasn't sure the seeds would be good after last season's pods ripened in the cold garage without light, so I overplanted. This variety has been the most challenging pepper I've grown. Some of the seeds are from pods that set among other baccatum and other are isolated. I don't know whether the mutation is dominant or recessive, but I'd be happy to see that one crossed with a baccatum having a larger or different color of pod type.

Cheers all

 

[Tinkerbelle]

Hey CD, I grew urfa biber this year and had fat, stubby pods - like you I had no idea what they were supposed to look like

 

[CaneDog]

Hey CD, I grew urfa biber this year and had fat, stubby pods - like you I had no idea what they were supposed to look like

Thanks, Tink! My memory is that the time I grew them before they were more elongated and with a somewhat irregular surface, like these.
It may just be that this solo pod grew a little different, but I don't think I can count on it for having true seeds.

 

[Tinkerbelle]

yeppy that's them, don't think mine were that long though

 

[CraftyFox]

Plants look great! Especially that Scarpo.. That your own breed? Not coming up on Google. That a hot pepper or??

 

[CaneDog]

Plants look great! Especially that Scarpo.. That your own breed? Not coming up on Google. That a hot pepper or??

Hey CF. Thanks. That one's actually a scarlett's chili x poblano, created by PollenNut. I just shorthanded it as "ScarPo" Tybo send me the seeds, which I think were F3 or F4. This one has the best variegation of the 4 I grew this last season and it's also the only one with variegation and these colors on the pods. I thought all the pods ripened to red - the other 3 I grew did - so this might be something new, though perhaps I just wasn't aware that some have done this. They do have heat, but what I've seen has varied around the jalapeno range.