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.

 

[PaulG]

All those look great, CD!

 

[MarcV]

This is the sole Guajillo to sprout from hundreds of seeds I planted that came out of (heavily) dried smoked pods. Despite the horrible condition of the seeds, it's growing well and seems perfectly normal.

Seeds are really something magical!

 

[Downriver]

Plants are looking nice and healthy CD. I like how the TX Tepin is shaping up as well.

 

[Mildfruit]

Seeds are really something magical!

yea thats amazing that one seed actually sprouted.

I also germinated Scotch Bonnet Schneider Farms this season, but due to space issues it didnt make it into the greenhouse, will be nice to see what I missed out on. I've read they have a great SB phenotype so thats something to look forward to.

Whenever I visit your glogs I always learn about varieties I never knew existed - good job!

 

[CaneDog]

Well shoot, I suppose it's about time for a few more pictures. It's been a bit of a bumpy grow as I haven't had lots of free time to keep up with it. I think I've addressed the main issue though, which was too much heat and humidity, especially with such small containers, and the plants are seeming happier.

Here's a look at a few.

Bahamian Goat Pepper. I've been keeping this particular source going for quite a while as I've been super happy with the grow habit, pods, production, everything.

Chocolate Habanero "Gurdy" from @CraftyFox . I've been super happy with this too, but I used the last of the original seeds last time I grew it and I'm really hoping the seeds I have from open pollinated pods grow true.

This Mari Wiri (seeds from THP's Wiri Wiri) is doing well and seems about ready to flower.

This TFM Scotch Bonnet also came to me seeds courtesy of Wiri Wiri.

Scotch Bonnet Jamaican Long. Unfortunately, it grew taller pretty quickly after transplant into its 5.5" container and I didn't catch it until it had gotten a little too close to the T5 bulbs.

Here are a couple habanero I topped, which are growing back nicely. Orange Oxkutzcabian on the left and Caribbean Red on the right.

Hopefully I got enough of a head start on the season for this Texas Tepin. This guy's growing from seeds wild collected in 2014 that @HeatMiser shared. It's proven to be a long season variety for me, but this year I'm determined to get ripe pods.

Uvalde Pequin, courtesy of @CraftyFox

The plants still in solo cups are pretty much all setting pods now, though most of them are scragglier than the ones that got upgraded into 5.5" pots.

Orange Starfish has set a few pods.

As has this Peppa Peach.

And this Chile de Arbol, from Sandia Seeds. I'm still trying to figure this one out, as I wasn't expecting clustered upright pods from a de Arbol. This is my third season growing these and every plant has looked the same. I have this and another in the current grow from second generation seeds and they both look the same too, so I'm wondering if maybe this isn't an accidental hybrid as I first suspected. It sure doesn't look like what I expect a de Arbol type pepper to look like, though. I have seed of 3 other varieties of Chile de Arbol I'll be growing this summer, so I'll be interested to compare them all both as to growth habits and flavor and heat.

 

[Mildfruit]

Great update as always!
Just to add, my De Arbol seeds last season grew just like yours with heavy upright clusters. But will be intersting to see how the remaining plants behave.

 

[PaulG]

Looking good, CD!

 

[MikeUSMC]

Plants look great, @CaneDog!

 

[CaneDog]

Thanks guys! There's definitely a few uggos in the mix that I'll keep hidden until they recover. The edema's been rough on several, including that "de Arbol," above.

@Mildfruit - at least if it's wrong I have company By the way, did you figure out which Mirasol you'd grow this season? I hope to have a few varieties growing this summer including the Mirasol Mosco and Mirasol Giadone Pueblo from Sandia.

 

[Ratatouille]

I'd love to see the uggos as well. Mostly to read your advice accompanying the pic what went 'wrong', so I can learn from that. Or are they just not mothers prettiest? (Only if you want to share of course!)

The plants you have going here look absolutely fabulous. I don't mind looking at those either.

 

[CaneDog]

I'd love to see the uggos as well.

Sure, Ratatouille, I can oblige with a couple pics right now. In full disclosure, these aren't the most uggo of the uggos, but I don't want to risk traumatizing any of our more sensitive viewers

Here's one of two Er Jing Tiao I managed to germinate from a bag of industrially dried pods - story here in Siv's Er Jing Tiao thread. The edema is quite pronounced on this guy and he has misshapen leaves of the twisting/folding type, where the leaf tissue development is complete, yet contorted. While this guy did suffer some inconsistent watering, he didn't have it as bad as some others and when I look at the plant I don't think of it's condition as being watering related.

My thinking with this plant is it had too much warmth and humidity and that led to both the edema and the leaf twisting. I think a contributing factor was that their small containers allowed the roots to be too warm relative to the foliage of the plant, so the plant was trying to push through lots of water that it couldn't transpire effectively from the leaves. I had solid air circulation in the room and an oscillating fan running periodically across the plants, but I wasn't exchanging air out of the room (the room is an extra walk-in closet). Every time I remember having this type of leaf twisting/folding it's been in circumstances of high warmth/humidity and a lack of ventilation to outside air. My attempted solution was pretty simple. I synchronized the two light fixtures and slightly reduced the day length to create great disparity in day/night temperatures (a longer cooler night) and now I leave the closet door open 24/7 for air exchange. Time will tell, but the plants seem to be doing better and watering requirements have become more manageable.

Er Jing Tiao

This is a Golden Cayenne from seeds @dragonsfire shared with me a couple seasons back. It has the same conditions, though the edema seems generally constrained to the underside of the leaves, thus it doesn't have the awful "sugary" look of the EJT.

Anyhow, these are just my thoughts about what was wrong with these guys and how to fix it. I'm happy to hear what others think.

 

[Mildfruit]

Thanks guys! There's definitely a few uggos in the mix that I'll keep hidden until they recover. The edema's been rough on several, including that "de Arbol," above.

@Mildfruit - at least if it's wrong I have company By the way, did you figure out which Mirasol you'd grow this season? I hope to have a few varieties growing this summer including the Mirasol Mosco and Mirasol Giadone Pueblo from Sandia.

If they were wrong the taste was still splendid so not the worst mistake haha.
Im still in the process of finding out, hopefully I'll have it figured out in a months time when I plant the first seeds

Great size pods on the Er Jing Tiao plant!

 

[Downriver]

@CaneDog - Shoot CD, those uggos look damn good to me. My plants skipped uggoland altogether and went straight to fuggly.

 

[Tinkerbelle]

Wow those pods on the Er Jing Tiao, fabulous - who would have thought it. You'll have fresh seed for next season

 

[jedisushi06]

Great stuff!

 

[Pr0digal_son]

A few things happening about now. Plants have started budding, with TM Longhorn the farthest along at 38 days. Several others are close behind, including it appears, the Er Jing Tian at 29 days.

I need to make a decision soon on whether to top the Texas Tepin. Previously, this variety has grown tall quickly for me and I'd like to encourage an early, more compact, bushy structure. I'm thinking about cutting it on the red line. There's a few nodes showing good growth potential below the line and the stretch begins directly above it, so that or the next node down seem like logical places. It's just a bit hard to pull the trigger with it looking as good as it is.

Another thing on my mind is this cup of 4 seeds, which I hope contains two different varieties. I've been trying to isolate a frutescens and an annuum from mixed seeds, but so far I've had lots of the annuum show up and none of the frutescens. All four planted seeds have sprouted and I think the chances are decent that I finally have one of the frutescens. In the pic below, three of the sprouts clearly show anthocyanin in the hypocotyledonous stem and germinated on the same day. The fourth germinated 48 hours after the last of the first bunch and, so far at least, shows a purely green hypocotyl. While it's far from certain at this point, I'm hoping I'll see additional distinguishing characteristics soon.

Do you feel this is diagnostic of all frutescens or this one? The only domesticated species that I have grown that stay green are frutescens,but not all of them. And,as close as they can appear,who is to say those didnt have any annuum genetics in them.

There are very small handful of wilds that do this also but not many. And most are in the Andean Clade. I admit to being heavy handed with lighting on young plants so this could be why it is not as common for me. I see other growers mention green stems on plants I have grown that turn purple for me.

 

[CaneDog]

Do you feel this is diagnostic of all frutescens or this one? The only domesticated species that I have grown that stay green are frutescens,but not all of them. And,as close as they can appear,who is to say those didnt have any annuum genetics in them.

There are very small handful of wilds that do this also but not many. And most are in the Andean Clade. I admit to being heavy handed with lighting on young plants so this could be why it is not as common for me. I see other growers mention green stems on plants I have grown that turn purple for me.

In this case I was just focused on the one being different than the others, but my memory (now after reading your post) is that I've had other frutescence that show this. I don't remember noticing this as a consistent pattern, but a while back I took pictures of a bunch of recent sprouts to record hypocotyl coloration among the varieties. I don't remember how many frutescens I had in that group, but I'll check it out.

 

[ChilliCrosser]

Nice shape on that Orange Starfish, I tend to find my orange ones have the worst shape.

 

[stettoman]

Hey 'Dog, found time to catch up a bit and read through the entire of yours. Damned ambitious, boy! And mighty impressive too.

62 plants inside, through winter??? Waiter, I'll have what HE'S having!!

Seriously, nice. Here in the Springs we're about to get some sub-zero overnights, and my starts will only fit in the garage (tented, of course). I got it covered, lights maintain 70s plus during the day, a large heat mat on the floor lets it get a bit over 60...for now. I'll put a space heater next to the tent for extremes, but boy am I nervous!!

Super nice grow, mang, don't let it spoil ya for the seasonal stuff coming up!!

And what the 'ell are you using to get those phenomenal baby plant photos? Amazin'!

 

[CaneDog]

A good bunch of the solo cup peppers are ripening now, so I'll be able to clear some space soon for starts for the upcoming outdoor season.

I started this small tray of mostly chinense and pubescens over the course of the last week. Today the habanero tabaquite made its appearance as the first to sprout, at 7 days from planting. Hopefully the rest will follow suit and germinate reasonably quickly now.

Habanero Tabaquite