Celeste grow log 2010

I been encouraged to post my progress. well, I have seedlings so I guess I'll start!

So, I know I have here somewhere when I started these- I guess its been a week or two?

I'll look it up

I was told to start my scorpions now- so here are my Trinidad scorpions that patrick sent me and Yellow Scorpions-CARDI from Cappy:

and first up- THE YELLOW!

as of 02.01.10 I had three seedlings, and this evening, 02.02.10 I have two more.

They are in a kritter keeper (with plastic wrap on top to holdin humidity) in a large aquarium in a cold room in a south window (but we aint been getting no sun) so they have a hermit crab heater under them and a full spectrum 40 watt above them and been staying between 80 -90 F, I think thats good? and yes, I know I need to go buy a grow light from Wally World, at least until we have a few days without clouds.

My dad has given me some Miracle gro potting soil for the next pot up, and some Schultz 20-30-20 plant food for when I need it, and ya'll can be as free with the advice as ya wanna be, becuase this is my first serious attempt at growing food in a dozen years!

 

[Pepper Ridge Farm]

Hey Celeste good to hear you are hardening off your plants, exciting times for sure. I think you are hurting your plants more moving them around in and out of the house than just placing them in a shady protected spot and leaving them there all day and night. Like on the north side of a big tree in your yard so that they get a little bit of morning and evening sun but no intense high noon sun. No sense moving them if you can find a good protected spot outside for a week, then go for it. We all burn a few leaves hardening off our plant each year, they'll be just fine, your new growth sounds perfect. Congrats on getting this far, soon you will have beautiful peppers.

 

[patrick]

Man knows his pepper growing business Celeste so a good person to listen too.

Don't worry about the sunburned leaves. I got tired of the in and out thing myself and ended up with sunburned leaves on almost every plant. Then throw in three days of 30-40kt winds and my babies were looking sad. I'm happy to say the new growth is just busting out underneath. That's got me excited and really looking forward to this season progressing. I can almost hear the leaves growing.

Before you set them out make sure they are watered real well. When the sun and heat hits them they will most likely wilt. If they have plenty of moisture down below it won't hurt them at all.

Good luck.

 

[Celeste]

update- I repotted the three biggest scorpions about 3 or four weeks ago- and ran out of dirt. bought some more dirt last week, and started repotting today. Yeah, I know its late and they are just a tad neglected, some of them a little pot bound, but I think they're gonna be fine. I have a month or two more growing season here than Patrick, so I think we'll still have a harvest. I'd still been pinching buds on some of them- well, I wont anymore. accept for maybe the habs, I'd like them to grow a bit more, I have to fertilize them they havent grown much outside. all the others have grown pretty dark leaves at the top, and some at the base. I ran out of dirt and ran and bought more, gonna wait now till the shade hits the deck this early evening to pot up the last 5 and then take pics.

 

[Celeste]

My pepper garden, all finally properly potted. Aji Limons on the left in 3 -1/2 gallon buckets, scorpions in same, and the biggest fatalli.

The two habs are sharing a much larger container, the smaller two fatalli's and the mystery pepper are in 2 gallon buckets.

 

[Bleash]

Looks nice.
Guess now your plants gonna take of and hopefully still give you a very decent harvest.
Keep us posted on their progress

Bleash

 

[patrick]

Alright Celeste! Got all the work done now it's time to just sit back and pick peppers. Well there is the water thing you still need to do but that's a piece of cake. Get the boys out there doing it. They can pick weeds too. I'm happy for you girlie.

 

[Celeste]

Update without pics: I had somethin that was taking halfmoon bites out of my pepper leaves. at first, it was just a couple of plants, and specific varieties at that. I though something might be in the soil that was coming out at night, since I never saw any critters. At first, they were just taking bites out of the biggest, oldest, leaves, and concentrating on just a few, especially the sunburned ones. eventually, however, it started spreading to newer younger leaves so I had to do something. got a Hot pepper wax spray that indicated it was good against insects- especially the ones I had noticed on the thp were reported as the biggest problem in peppers. The guy at the nursery said his customers were buying it and reporting good results to repel rabbits, he was not so sure about the insects. Well, I tried it, and it worked! No new bites since I used the stuff.

Now, I'm a tad concerned about my trinidad scorpions, my first peppers to germinate. they did not handle hardening off as well as those I started later. they've lost all of their original leaves, the newer leaves are small, and many of them curl. The habs leaves look funny too, as in, not like the other peppers, but I dont know if thats just because they are a different variety or if there is something wrong. algebra tests today and weds so I havent got time for taking pics and researching leaf curl, I will try to do that on thursday.

Otherwise, we have been getting enough rain I havent need to water much, I have sen some blossoming but I dont know how well thats going with the heat we're having (I think they all drop off). I have some confidence though with the long falls we have here that there will be plenty of time for me to get peppers.

Back to studying!

 

[Celeste]

update with pics:

cell phone- so the orange on this is lighter than shown:

This is on my "mystery pepper" which I am pretty sure is a fatali. Ripe at orange? I should pick it? the habs have some green peppers, too, and it looks like the rest of my peppers my fruit before my grow season ends, as long as we dont get frost too soon.- hopefully not till November.

 

[patrick]

Woo Hoo! Congrats Celeste on your very first pepper. That's got to feel good! Hate to say it but I don't think it's a Fatalii, they're longer and skinnier and taper to a point from the stem end. May even have a few wrinkles on it. It looks more orange habaneroish. Is it from my seeds?

Here's a good example of a Fatalii. http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ6BSMAVFm4NngdUjTgiNy8ZgL75IVjZJCvC_r4iMZg8-PpbPw&t=1&usg=__jf-v5VGv01mekzt73Rr8ZX2qh64=

Keep 'em coming!

 

[Celeste]

Let me think....I got the cardi's from Cappy. Every thing else I got from you. This had to be either a fatali or an Aji Limon, going by the labeling on the seeds you sent sent me, Patrick. I ate it for lunch.

I was just going to cut it up and stir fry it with the onions and garlic and shitakes, but it smelled so good when I cut it I just *had* to taste it!

I put a sliver on my tongue and started chewing....Tinker Bell sprinkled some hot sparky pixie dust in my mouth! -not kidding, like little sparks, bouncing across my tongue- traveled to the back and hit the back insides, then the heat washed forward to the tip of my tongue and my lips caught on fire, too! Lovely! All sparkly! unfortunately, I got the hiccups right away and had to sip soymilk to get rid of them, but the heat warmed me up good. then I sliced the rest of it, put it in the stir fry and served it one bread with a sweet ginger sauce on top. I got nice and warm and had to quite eating about halfway through, I think one of these peppers probably should be in four servings, not one. NOt too hot, but overwhelmed the other flavors- or maybe I should have put it in with some green veggies and perhaps skipped the sweet sauce. Okra and potatoes would have been good.

Tihnk maybe it was a hab/fatali hybrid? Goofy plant, its the scrawniest one I've got, and the first one to give me peppers. The other "fatali's" dont seem to be doing well, their branches and leaves are many though small, and yesterday one of them dropped a bunch o leaves when I touch it. The other two peppers dont look properly pollinated to me (that can happen right, incomplete pollination?) they are rounder- you can see the next one starting to ripen. definately not like the picture you showed. Dont know if my Aji's will give me anything, they get a bunch of flowers and then drop em, over and over, all summer. but they are budding again so I have hope. The pepper harvest lasted till thanksgiving around here last year, I know.

 

[patrick]

If the seeds came from me then it's probably crossed with something. The Fatalii that I have growing is providing me with extremely shiny red peppers that I haven't tasted yet. Yeah I'm a sissy make your point.

Dropping leaves when you touch it sounds like it's about dead. You been watering them regularly lady? You got some peppers in your first year so consider it a success. If you decided to grow some next year you're already way ahead.

 

[Celeste]

hey, I'm thrilled I had fifteen plants live this long! I'm ecstatic I'm getting any peppers at all, and looking forward to doing it again, next year!

-only one plant is dropping leaves- and they've all been getting about the same amount of water from the sky- I've only watered them when it didnt rain and they looked like they needed it- and its been raining regular most of the summer. like, every four days or so.

 

[Celeste]

Its been too long. I've been faithfully taking pics but not uploading them...some of them are not out of my camera yet. However, I have some phone pics so I will trey to upload those later today. Unfortunately, I had kept pinching buds after I hardened off the peppers, and then they dropped blossoms all during the hottest weather. Fortunately we've had a slow cool down, here in the city it stays a little warmer than the surrounding counties, I got lucky and my newly formed peppers did not freeze the first of October. My habs have tons of peppers and I've eaten some and given some away, one Aji has peppers and a few of the scorpions. I knew yesterday we were going to hit freezing last night so I dragged a half a dozen pots in, all with peppers on them. I will probably put them back out tomorrow becuase its supposed to warm up again, hoping some of these will ripen before we hit freezing temps. I'll try to put up a few pics later today.

 

[Celeste]

Here I am to catch up! First temps down just above freezing hit around October 3rd, and then of course, the next week we were back in the 80's. so the scorpions did this:

and the habs did this:

 

[Celeste]

And then the tmps did go below freezing the beginning of NOvember, so I pulled all the ones that had peppers on them inside, they've been in for a few days, and the habs did this:

So I picked them:

And even my Aji's started to ripen, so I had this one in my eggs for breakfast:

And even though I've had the heat on since wednesday, Today its getting up into the seventies again, so I guess I'll leave them out for a couple of days until the next cold front comes in Friday! (think the scorpions will ripen? they just keep getting bigger).

 

[Celeste]

Pepper Porn!

Got new batteries, cleared a camera card, catching up!

I've been busy, and sick, (life happens) but Chilli growing continues. The Cardi Trinidad scorpions started making peppers after October 3rd. I drug them in and out of the kitchen based on the weather, It snowed on Thanksgiving, I had brought them in for good just the day before. Here is some pictures I took on Thanksgiving day, my Scorpions ripening in the kitchen. Thank you Cappy. Enjoy all!

 

[Celeste]

 

[Celeste]

 

[Celeste]

 

[muskymojo]

Nice work! Your plants look good and healthy. Makes me wonder how mine would be doing if I didn't chop them down to stumps. Oh well...