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cloning Cappy pruning and cloning 2014

Pepper Ridge Farm said:
Cloning peppers it's a real pain and I just might stick with cloning other plants that don't take forever to root.  Thanks again for any comments you might share.
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Gotta admit, I'm a lil' bit nervous posting this 'cause I'm pretty new here and am also well aware of your standing in the Pepper community, Cappy but cloning peppers is pretty straightforward.
I'm finding my Chinense cuttings are rooting in 20-30 days. Overall strike rate for this year and last is around 80% success.
 
These couple of pics (taken 5 mins. ago) are on the 22nd day.
 
Overall health is good:
r1OjPdd.jpg

 
Plenty of root development on these Fataliis:
BykZq9j.jpg

 
FWIW I work in the Horticulture industry here in Aus. and have taken 1000s of cuttings (unfortunately not peppers :( ) but the principles are the same.
If you're interested I could post a guide on how we take cuttings. Who knows, it may be of benefit.
 
BTW beautiful pod pics!
 
nuclearDays said:
 
Gotta admit, I'm a lil' bit nervous posting this 'cause I'm pretty new here and am also well aware of your standing in the Pepper community, Cappy but cloning peppers is pretty straightforward.
I'm finding my Chinense cuttings are rooting in 20-30 days. Overall strike rate for this year and last is around 80% success.
 
These couple of pics (taken 5 mins. ago) are on the 22nd day.
 
Overall health is good:
r1OjPdd.jpg

 
Plenty of root development on these Fataliis:
BykZq9j.jpg

 
FWIW I work in the Horticulture industry here in Aus. and have taken 1000s of cuttings (unfortunately not peppers :( ) but the principles are the same.
If you're interested I could post a guide on how we take cuttings. Who knows, it may be of benefit.
 
BTW beautiful pod pics!
Click to expand...
 
 
Please make a guide it will only be of benefit to all members here, start a new thread though
 
Thanks for your post and the pics of the successful pepper clones.  I did give up on all but two of the original batch and none had any roots before I tossed them.  Several things could be a factor, no humidity dome was used and they dried out, used regular peat based mix, and my clone-x is several years old.  A trip to the hydro store to pick up some new supplies is coming soon.
 
Your clones all looks succulent and green gives me encouragement to try again.  I have cloned many other plants and am cutting right below a node before dipping in root stimulator with great success.  I just need more patience with pepper cloning and that is in short supply.  Growing peppers has been very good to me and proud to see others growers use the genetics in their breeding programs.  A cloning guide is a great idea.
 
Welcome back Cappy!!  I'm back also, working my way back to wellness and growing peppers again.  The rain has been a bit much but now it has finally started to warm up.  I'm starting to see flowers on the peppers and tomatoes so it's all good.  Your peppers look great as always, very nice to see another familiar face back on here!!
 
Great to hear you out enjoying life in the garden Jackie, funny how some silly plants can be therapeutic and make things feel right again.  Thanks for stopping by and saying hello.  Best of luck with your pod and mater production this summer, big harvest coming in fall.  Take care my friend.
 
Pepper Ridge Farm said:
Growing peppers has been very good to me and proud to see others growers use the genetics in their breeding programs.  A cloning guide is a great idea.
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Cappy, and so you should be proud of what you've achieved in the pepper community and good luck with your future breeding programs. :P
I'll post up a cloning guide over the weekend.

 
 
Great pods!
Cloning is pretty tough, try to keep the plants under a weak light (if indoor) or shaded (if outdoor), so the root growth take over the vegetative growth. Cut in half the biggest leaves and keep moist (the dome may not be necessary but is a matter of preferences).

Good luck!!

Datil
 
Pepper Ridge Farm said:
First round of cloning peppers was much tougher than cloning tomatoes.  I also don't think I picked the easiest variety to clone a semi wild Cumari do Para.  The one clone I did do of a Yellow 7 is still drooping badly but looks to be still alive.  Back to the drawing board and off to the hydroshop before starting round two.  One thing I didn't have was a large dome to cover the clones.  Most of the cumari dried up and stem shriveled before any chance of rooting.  We are now on alert for the first tropical storm of the year Arthur.  Just in time for the July 4 weekend and any plans we might have had about fishing.  Doesn't looks to be too big of a storm and all models keep it offshore so just a rain event.  Took the opportunity to harvest some pods and clean up the plants a bit and give them some food.  Already have had 30 plus days in the 90's and July and August yet to come much hotter than usual.  Some pods went in the dehydrator for fresh powder but most straight to the freezer for sauce.  These early pods are nice this year as most pepper production happens in the fall.




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Them looks good enough to eat!
Amazing pods bro!
 
Pepper Ridge Farm said:
First round of cloning peppers was much tougher than cloning tomatoes.  I also don't think I picked the easiest variety to clone a semi wild Cumari do Para.  The one clone I did do of a Yellow 7 is still drooping badly but looks to be still alive.  Back to the drawing board and off to the hydroshop before starting round two.  One thing I didn't have was a large dome to cover the clones.  Most of the cumari dried up and stem shriveled before any chance of rooting.  
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Typically you want to even prune back the remaining leaves on your cuttings and having two, scored (skinned) nodes to try and root from under the medium surface is best, but that's cuttings. It's much easier to air layer clone pepper plants. Use foil around the plastic wrap so as not to let light in on potential roots. Then you can just unwrap the foil to peek inside. It's much faster this way. 
 
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Thank you for all the pointers of getting my pepper plants to clone.  To be honest I'm am questioning if cloning peppers is even worth the effort at this point as easy it is to just start new from seed of just overwinter a prized plant.  All my clones look unnatural and butchered up.  Anybody who doesn't clone their tomatoes is missing out though, I start a tray of new plants every other week and never lost a clone yet.  I have tomatoes at all stages of maturity, with new plants hitting dirt all the time.  Most years my tomato plants have run their course and done this time of year, not anymore.  I wish peppers cloned as easily. 
 
Cappy, most days I have about the same opinion. Cloning peppers the normal ways is frustrating. Last year all of mine died. The only success I have had is the old fashioned way. In a cup of water on a north facing window sill. I had 2 Scorp Butch Ts and one monzano successful clones that way. Pics of the monzano are in one of the recent posts in my glog.

A word of caution though. They take forever to root in straight water, but they will.
 
Pepper Ridge Farm said:
Thank you for all the pointers of getting my pepper plants to clone.  To be honest I'm am questioning if cloning peppers is even worth the effort at this point as easy it is to just start new from seed of just overwinter a prized plant.  All my clones look unnatural and butchered up.  Anybody who doesn't clone their tomatoes is missing out though, I start a tray of new plants every other week and never lost a clone yet.  I have tomatoes at all stages of maturity, with new plants hitting dirt all the time.  Most years my tomato plants have run their course and done this time of year, not anymore.  I wish peppers cloned as easily. 
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I find water cloning to be the easiest method for chilli cuttings .. cut below a node on a 45 degree angle with at least 2 sets of nodes exposed (leaves removed with sharp blade) on the stem to be cloned. Remove outer layer of stem in a thin strip up one side of the clone. Remove all but the upper 4 leaves on the clone (dependent on leaf size if they are too big they should either be cut in half or removed completely leaving only the growing tip and 2 small leaves).
Then simply dunk in a glass/bottle/jar of room temp water (have used tap and ceramic purified water with equal results) and ensure the water covers the whole stem up to just below the lower set of leaves. Place this in dappled light on a warm but not hot window sill and leave it alone ... top up water as need be as it is used/ evaporates and at the same time remove the stem momentarily and then place it back in ... you can see the roots pop out so it takes the guess work out of soil cloning and also has minimal cars requiments ... no need for a humidity dome ... speed for green stem clones from cutting to water makes for better strike rates but on woody stems using this method I have cloned rosemary cut 2-3 days previously . Hope that all makes sense .. phone typing is not my forte ;)
 
In addition to what Pepper-Guru said, it's also helpful to trim any large leaves you choose not to remove in half, and remove all flowers/pods. In the cutting pictured, I'd even go so far as to remove one of the two main branches entirely (the one at the right side of the picture), prune off one of the two remaining small branches, reduce the surface area of the largest remaining leaf by 1/2, and remove the flowers from the remaining branch. By removing leaf surface, you reduce the amount of water the cutting can lose through transpiration. Leaving only one point of growth and removing all of the flowers allows the cutting to dedicate more energy to root production.
 
I will attempt clone again later but right now busy in the pepper patch keeping plants watered and happy.  Got a break form watering earlier this week with some big thunderstorms but other than that watering everyday.  There are very few flowers on any of my plants right now because of the heat but still able to pull a decent harvest once a week or so.  I am using a lot of homemade compost from kitchen scraps and the worm bin is going strong.  It really seems to help with the firmness and color of all my peppers.  Not expecting any big harvest of peppers till early October, just got to keep them alive till then.  The tomatoes have been off the hook the last few weeks and eating Pomodoro sauce over pasta is like heaven,  BLT's have been out of this world good.  Freezing most for a mash till I have enough.  Thanks for the cloning tips, will try the cup of water and see how that works very soon.

Jay's Ghost Scorpion

Butch T Scorpion

Douglah SR
 
Thanks Rich can't say enough about using homemade compost, it is a must for a healthy organic garden.  The high dollar call girl on the left is Miss Yellow 7 Pod and also my favorite for sauce making.  Mrs. Fatalii is still a hot little number but the sexy Yellow 7 Pod is the goddess of Trinidad.  She will only leave you wanting more.
 
It was 116F in parts of Charleston yesterday and the plants are still yielding some pods.  The pots look dry about an hour after I water but only watering once a day.  Just have to get all your work done in the garden early in the morning before it gets hot outside.  Some more pods I picked this am going to the freezer.  The hot sauce is going to be wicked hot this year looking at these ingredients.  Good year for peppers and tomatoes here in the low country.  Thanks for viewing.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
Thanks Jeff! When I process my peppers I keep just the 4 or 5 best pods of each variety for seed collection.  The rest of the premium pods go in the freezer for hot sauces later on and any imperfect pod or less get trimmed and placed in the dehydrator.  It takes me at least 3 big harvests to have enough pods to start a ferment in my 10L Harsch crock.  The dried pods are also used in the sauce later on.  Next harvest I should have enough as the freezer is full.  These pods are already process and seeds saved.  Eating Biker Billy poppers and BLT for dinner tonight!
 
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