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]

Who'd have thought you'd get away with those blue cups all those months ago? Just goes to show there is only a weak correlation between solo cup colour and plant health

Great growing as always!

Thanks, cc. Maybe I should have gone with the red, because it was a bit of a bumpy grow. It's serving its purpose though, for selection and seeds production.

I'm always surprised to see fruiting pepper plants in a coffe cup!

If you're drinking coffee in your solo cups, Marc, then I think you're doing it wrong

The solo cups did better for me outside last summer than inside this winter and some of the summer plants were surprisingly productive. I think a lot of it comes down to how attentive I can be of them in those small containers. There didn't seem to be much leeway for keeping them watered properly inside, especially when the heat and humidity were higher early on. If I can stay on top of things, the solo cups should work well for some varieties (especially bushier, smaller-fruited, annuum, it seems) though others are probably better off in at least slightly larger containers.

 

[MarcV]

So that's why my coffee tastes earthy!

 

[CaneDog]

Looking good CD! It's great to see that you can grow plants to full maturity in solo cups in order to get isolated seed. Those upright clustered pods sure do look like Thai Dragon - nothing wrong with those! They are good producers...

Hey HM. Glad to have your input that these look like thai dragon. I'll still have to treat them as unidentified, but I like having a clearer idea in mind of what they likely are.

 

[CaneDog]

Well, I now know what was up with the antep aci dolma that I posted yesterday. Although it looked like it had crossed with a brown pepper (Mulato Isleno being the most likely culprit) it didn't make sense that it would ripen brown as an F1 with the chlorophyll retainer gene being recessive. Well, overnight the majority of the chlorophyll degraded and the pod appearance suggests it's a second phenotype; just one that I haven't seen recently.

The predominant phenotype from the AAD seeds I've been growing is a blocky. almost square pod with deep creases throughout. To me, the creases are what's distinct about this variety and a good specimen should show these well. The less common phenotype, which I haven't seen for a couple seasons, is a taller, more rectangular, though still blocky pod, with the creases being fewer and less pronounced.

Here's a side-by-side (top-by-bottom?) of the two plants I have growing now.

Once brown pod, ripening red, a taller, smoother pod.

Preferred phenotype antep aci dolma - pods heavily creased and more equivalent dimensions.
I'm really psyched about this plant as it's quite strong/vigorous and the early pods are showing very favorable characteristics.

 

[Ratatouille]

The plant in the last picture does have very pretty pods indeed.

 

[Kooky]

Wow such healthy plants and indoors at that… remarkable.

 

[CaneDog]

The plant in the last picture does have very pretty pods indeed.

Thanks Ratatouille, I'm pretty happy about it Plus the seeds are from a fellow THP source, so I'm more vested in this than I would be if I'd just bought seeds somewhere.

Wow such healthy plants and indoors at that… remarkable.

Thanks, Kooky. My indoor season hasn't been without a few bumps, but the annuum and baccatum are ripening now and the chinense and frutescens shouldn't be too far behind.

 

[CaneDog]

I've got a couple of helmet heads - I'm going to try this CD, it better work.

ETA - just by reading your post one helmet head has escaped already

Guaranteed. Results while you read or your money back!

If you try it, let me know how it works for you. For me, it's all about catching the helmet heads at the right time. If so, it generally works well. If not, I don't try this method.

 

[CaneDog]

Here's some of the chinense growing inside right now. These range from 17 - 20 weeks (excepting the younger fatalii). I'm hopeful to get a modest ripe harvest from these guys (mainly to bank isolated seeds) then prune them back and pot them up outside for a second, bigger harvest.

Chocolate Habanero "Gurdy"

Two ookskutzcabe... ookkut... ookz... habanero.

Scotchbonnet TFM - Trenton Farmer's Market (left) and Bahamian Goat (right)

Upstart Fatalii

 

[Sulsa]

Two ookskutzcabe... ookkut... ookz... habanero.

 

[ahayastani]

Oxkutzcab > osh - cutsh - cab (sounds close enough).

Reminds me of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano, which they call el volcán impronunciable (the unpronounceable volcano) in Spanish.

 

[Grass Snake]

That helmet head trick is genius!

 

[CaneDog]

Oxkutzcab > osh - cutsh - cab (sounds close enough).

Reminds me of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano, which they call el volcán impronunciable (the unpronounceable volcano) in Spanish.

If I ever get any Icelandic pepper seeds I'm going to switch to a code system like @ChilliCrosser uses.

That helmet head trick is genius!

Haha. It's genius when it works

I have to say I was sweating it a just a bit posting before the results would be known. Thought I might be tempting fate for a failure

 

[PaulG]

Those 4 and 5 month old plants look great, CD!

 

[CaneDog]

Those 4 and 5 month old plants look great, CD!

Thanks Paul I hope they'll cycle and be ready to go outside when the time arrives.

 

[PaulG]

Thanks Paul I hope they'll cycle and be ready to go outside when the time arrives.

Looks like you are on track for that, CD!

 

[CaneDog]

I have rocotos at two stages right now; sprouts (just a couple/few weeks old) and the four below, which are a bit farther along. The sprouts are Largo, De Seda, Giant Red Arequipa, and Oro. I'm keeping the sprouts under lights and the older plants on a south-facing windowsill.

Ollantaytambo Amarillo (L) and Puno Amarilla (R).

Orange Arequipa.

Puno Blanco. This guy struggled a bit early, but is doing better now.

In Scotch Bonnet news, I've been waiting for the last two varieties to germinate and they finally just came through. I planted SB Chocolate and Cappuccino seeds on Jan 28 with a bunch of others and these two did nothing. On Feb 16, I dropped a few more of SB Choc seeds. Then, a few days back I moved the 3 seed cups out of the germination rig (humidome over heat pad) and into the general grow room under lights. Yesterday, I got a sprout from each of the two SB Choc cups (at 32 and 13 days) and then this morning I saw a cappuccino hook. Fingers crossed that the cappuccino comes up okay and then I'll have all my bonnets underway for the year.

2 SB Chocolate sprouts.

SB Cappuccino hook

 

[CaneDog]

I put a mostly-annuum round into the humidome last night. Some of particular interest in this batch include:

Canoncito - I also started chimayo from two different sources and am interested to compare them all.

Serrano Huasteca and Sinahuisa - I'm curious to see how these compare to the Hidalgo and Tampiqueño serrano I typically grow.

Chile Taviche and Chile Tuxta - The dried pods @CraftyFox sent me were awesome, so these were green-lighted as late additions.

Most varieties in this grouping are either of Mexican derivation or are "thai" type varieties. My plan is to determine which varieties and sources among these peppers I'll prioritize as future staples and isolate a good batch of seed from each.

This round will go in a standard humidome-topped tray on a heat mat with an Inkbird controller.

Tucked away between towels under a grow table to cook a bit before I start checking on them with increasing frequency

Last pic is this Scotch Bonnet cappuccino that hooked Friday morning. It doesn't appear to have progressed much over the past few days, but I'm hoping it will do ok. For now, I'll just assume it's been focused on growing a killer root system and will explode with growth any day now This is from the last of the original seeds I got from trident chilli in 2018, so I'm vested here.

 

[PaulG]

Looking good, CD! Some interesting
annumm varieties in your list.

 

[CaneDog]

I started Culantro today. It's germinated well for me before just sprinkling seeds on top at the corners of a damp cube then sealing for humidity retention and setting it under the T5HO lights with some top-spraying of water every now and again. By concentrating the seeds in the corners, I can easily cube each cube into 4 cubes when it's time to transplant, with each hosting a selected sprout. I'm realizing that despite all the planting I've done so far, I still have a lot to do if I'm going to stay timely for the season.