ChiliNoobs first glog [2014]

Hi all,
 
I figured I should start a glog this year to document all of the mistakes that I'm inevitably going to make.
 
This is my third year growing hot peppers, but only my second year growing from seed.  Last year I grew 30 plants but only managed to get pods on ½ of them. 
 
I did pretty much everything wrong last year:

1. Sowed seeds too late
2. Didn’t give seedlings enough light
3. Didn’t harden off the plants sufficiently
4. Overwatered
5. And so on…

My goal for 2014 is to get ripe pods from every seedling that I plant out.
 
Here is my planting list (so far...):
 

(edit: excel sheet was messed up, it has been corrected and updated)
 
All seeds were sown into peat pellets with the exception of the Anaheim (paper towel method).  My plan is to keep just one or two plants from each variety sown.  
 

 
Some of the seedlings are a bit leggy, hopefully I can cure that by planting a little deeper and busting out the new light that I have ordered.
 
I have more seeds that arrived today, I haven`t decided which ones to plant yet...
 
I am also over-wintering a few of the plants from last year that did not produce pods:
·         Trinidad Morouga Scorpian Blend
·         Naga Jolokia (not sure if this one is going to make it)
·         Chocolate Habanero
·         “mystery” Habanero
·         Scotch Bonnet
·         Piri Piri

 

[Big Kahuna]

Lol, thats an awesome lemon hab plant...

 

Thanks Runescape. I wish my other lemon hab was doing as well, it had just two pods on it, but I had to pull them because they both had holes eaten in them. Same goes for two of my Aji Verde pods.

 

Plants are lookin great! God to see some c pubescens podding up in Ontario -- I'm impatiently awaiting about a dozen flowers to make their minds up.

 

Thanks Aaron. I have about six pods forming so far, four on one plant and two on the other. They are putting on lots of growth, but not many flowers yet. I'm sure yours will start podding up soon.

 

no problem!   ive had a lot of rain as well. im between napanee and kaladar, in the kingston area.  i have started covering my plants, i only have 14 in pots to cover but what i actually do is move them all into my gazebo lol. i havent had to water them in over a month now, and its only a little bit to give them ferts. i know you have quite a few plants to move or cover, but if you can before the rain hits they should be fine.  eventually all this rain will stop anyway lol.   but still your plants look good, and nice pods, i have flowers and buds, and only 6 pods on my ring of fire plants lol

It's rained five days straight now, with more on the way... Last year I moved my plants each time it rained and it was a pain, this year I have twice as many plants to move... I'll have to figure out a better solution for next season. The weather should be improving soon though.

Scored some more peppers from the grocery store, mixed superhots this time.

The bottom row are ghost peppers again, does anyone know what the other are?

In the same type of packaging, they also had "Shisitos", "Spanish chilli" and "mixed hot" (looked like mostly different coloured cayennes with one jalapeño thrown in for good measure).

 

[Big Kahuna]

Picked a few peppers yesterday and I will be picking a similar amount in a couple of days. Funny how the reds are ahead of all of the other colours.

Just realized I have the labels reversed on the NOT Hot Lemon and the Red Fatalii, not that it maters because I think the NOT Hot Lemon is a Fatalii anyway...

My NOT TSMB is putting out pods of all kinds of different shape and sizes. It's my best looking plant this year. I tried that teeny pod on the left - OMG it hurt like hell, it's definitely a superhot of some kind.

Seems like a lot of my peppers are turning out to be something else. I sowed seeds for Aji Limo from two different sources, the seeds from Peru seem to be growing true, but the eBay seeds are a baccatum instead of a chinense, I'm hoping these turn out to be Aji limoN. Also, my white habs are turning orange...

 

[Dot Com]

Good pics. I have trouble keeping track of my peppers as well what with potting-up, labels fading from watering & light, etc... Doesn't make it easier for you given they're all the same color as well. :p

 

[Ragnar]

Nice pull! The not TSMBs may be a tsmb cross, no? Looks like you're doing pretty well! Would love to see some garden shots  
 
How'd you end up liking those supers from naturefresh?

 

[Big Kahuna]

I agree, I think the NOT TSMB is likely a TSMB crossed with something or other. I'll try to get some more pics up at the weekend.

The yellow SB was great, I'll be sowing seeds from this one next year. The ghosts were a little disappointing (I've had habs that were hotter), but I used them in a peach/apple/maple hot sauce and it tastes pretty good. The other reds (scorpion something or other) were really hot, but a couple of them also had a really bitter taste to them.

I have a few orange habs and a yellow Fatalii that are just about ready - woo hoo!

 

[Big Kahuna]

As promised, a few pictures.

 

[Big Kahuna]

Today's haul.

In no particular order:
NOT TSMB
Red Habanero
NOT White Habanero (orange)
Piri Piri
NOT Hot Lemon Habanero
Large Hot Cherry
Aji Pipi de Mono
Aji Cerezo 2
NOT Orange Tree Habanero
Aji Verde
Fatalii (yellow)

The Fatalii and NOT White Habanero are probably my two best tasting peppers so far this year. I'm growing both white habs and orange habs, so it's possible that my orange habs turn out white. Time will tell I guess.

The rest of this post will be documenting the highs ands lows of my season so far, since I have a terrible memory and won't remember next year...

It's looking like I may not get any Aji Amarillo or Aji Panca this year. The plants are growing huge and are probably my healthiest looking plants, but they have only just started putting buds out. (I did have one early pod on an Amarillo, which broke off whilst planting out...). Other poor performers are my mustard hab, it only put out two pods and I lost one due to bug damage. Of my two Aji limos from Peru, the smaller one has four pods that will be ready soon and another four smaller pods that may or may not ripen this season, the the larger better looking plant doesn't have a single pod on it yet (I've no idea why...). Of the two brown scorpions, only one has started putting out pods (they are very small). The Douglah has only a couple of tiny pods on it too. The Aji Dulce is not doing great either, one plant has just 2 pods (full size) and the other plant (which has been a runt since day one) doesn't have any. I've probably lost about 30 pods total due to bug damage this year, normally I only lose a couple. On the bright side, the greenfly have been almost none existent, whereas last year I fought them all year- I suspect this is due to the heavy rain we've had this year. On the Aji Limo from eBay seeds (which turned to be a baccatum instead of a chinense) the one that I topped is looking like it's going to be a great producer, it's got about 16 pods on it that look like big fat fingers and several smaller pods just starting, the two that I didn't top are much bigger plants with huge leaves, but have only just started putting out buds... The Aji Pacays are looking good, however, one has 8 large pods and the smaller plants has 4. The Aji Verdes are doing great too. Of the overwintered plants, the ones that are doing the best (red hab, NOT TSMB, Piri Piri) are the ones that I cut back the least in the fall. The ones that I cut back harder (chocolate hab, red scotch bonnet, other NOT TSMB, other Piri Piri) are staying really compact and took a lot longer to flower and pod up, but they are still going to put out a lot of pods compared to many of this years plants. Wow, you read the whole post? Time to get up off the couch and enjoy what's left of the summer.

 

[AZ-Mason]

Which one is that small pepper at the top and center of the plate? Even if you don't get to harvest some of those aji varieties it's a great grow!

 

[dlsolo]

Awesome harvest.  How's the flavor of those White Habs?
 
BTW, I'm likin' your watering setup.  It is just for water or do you have a inline fertilization system?

 

[Big Kahuna]

Which one is that small pepper at the top and center of the plate? Even if you don't get to harvest some of those aji varieties it's a great grow!

Thanks! The small peppers are Piri Piris. The seeds came from here:

Awesome harvest.  How's the flavor of those White Habs?
 
BTW, I'm likin' your watering setup.  It is just for water or do you have a inline fertilization system?

Thanks. The White Habs are quite fruity and sweet at first, then the heat hits you and builds and builds, mostly at the tip and side of the tongue and back of the throat.

My ghetto watering system was based on the one here:
http://www.countrylivingfamily.com/gardening/what-you-can-learn-from-the-juab-county-pvc-drip-irrigation-system/

I don't have an inline fertilization installed, but am considering one for next year. This year was meant to be a trial run so I could improve on it next year, but it's rained so much here I've barely had to use it. I was hoping it would completely eliminate the need to hand water, but I've found the each plant has it's own watering requirements so I end up watering many of them by hand anyway.

 

[dlsolo]

Thanks. The White Habs are quite fruity and sweet at first, then the heat hits you and builds and builds, mostly at the tip and side of the tongue and back of the throat.

My ghetto watering system was based on the one here:
http://www.countrylivingfamily.com/gardening/what-you-can-learn-from-the-juab-county-pvc-drip-irrigation-system/

I don't have an inline fertilization installed, but am considering one for next year. This year was meant to be a trial run so I could improve on it next year, but it's rained so much here I've barely had to use it. I was hoping it would completely eliminate the need to hand water, but I've found the each plant has it's own watering requirements so I end up watering many of them by hand anyway.

 
I think I'm gonna put those Habs on the next year list.  The slow burn build up peppers are my favorite so far.
 
Thanks for the link.  Pretty simple and looks effective.
 
I've got several hose-end EZ-FLO drip irrigation fertilizers that use for our garden.  I'm planning to upgrade to one inline EZ-FLO 5 gallon system that should be able to handle the needs of our garden.  I've been using Kelp-4-Less 20-20-20 Blend nutes for our garden, with great success.
 
But, I totally understand about having to hand water due to different watering needs...things can't be too easy or everyone would garden.

 

[Big Kahuna]

Today's pick. Mostly red habs and NOT TSMBs, couple Aji Verdes, red Fatalii etc.

I've had around 30-40 pods each from the Red Hab and NOT TSMBs so far. There's another dozen or so pods left on the hab and at least 80 pods still to come from the NOT TSMBs. I wasn't planning on on overwintering any plants this year, fighting with aphids and fungus gnats for months was not fun, but after seeing how these things produce in their second year, I'm seriously thinking about overwintering a few plants again...

I tried eating a marble-sized pod from the NOT TSMB, it was even hotter than the last one and burned for at least half an hour - the thing was loaded with oil. Definitely think this is a TSMB crossed with something or other. I also tried a couple of pods from the Piri Piri, they are surprisingly hot too.

 

[Big Kahuna]

Time for another quick update. First a picture of last weeks harvest:

And now for some pod pics.

Overwintered chocolate hab starting to ripen:

I had this one labelled as an orange hab, but it looks like it's turning out to be white, which makes sense since one I had labelled as white had turned out orange...:

Aji Verde, pulled half a dozen pods from this already:

Aji Rocoto. I have about 10 pods between my two plants, this is the largest pod, I'm not sure that some of the smaller pods will ripen in time:

Mustard hab. This is the only pod that I think I'll get this year, this plant really suffered from flower drop. Also I had to pull one pod due to bug damage and the two other remaining pods are likely two small to ripen this season:

Aji Dulce. This plant also had massive flower drop, there are only four pods on the plant. The pods are much bigger than I expected, about three inches across. Not sure what the final color of these is suppose to be?

Last one for today, I had this one labelled as Aji Cerezo 1, however I think it is a Charapita (pods are really small, flower is chinense, not baccatum like my other plant I have labelled as Aji Cerezo 1) even though the Charapita was supposed to be yellow:

Judging by the number of buds I currently have on my plants, if my season was a couple of months longer I would have about five times the harvest compared to what I'm actually going to end up with... the weather had really sucked this year.

 

[Big Kahuna]

It's getting hot in here:

1. Red scotch bonnet
2. Aji cacho de cabra
3. Mustard habanero
4. Aji Cerezo 1
5. Not Aji Cerezo 1 (possibly Charapita)
6. Hot cherry
7. Red habanero
8. Burpee burning bush
9. Orange habanero
10. Small cherry
11. Chocolate habanero
12. Aji verde
13. Aji Pipi de mono
14. Red Fatalii
15. Yellow Fatalii
16. Piri piri
17. Not TSMB

 

[Big Kahuna]

Latest haul:

First brown superhot (ever) - douglah:

This may be my last post for this season. I am going on vacation for two weeks and there's a fair chance that there will be a frost while I am gone. It's supposed to be 50f on Saturday, dropping to 38f overnight, and I still have at least 250 unripe pods (not counting my piri piri, which has hundreds of pods on its own) and literally thousands of flowers/buds... wish me luck!

 

[Big Kahuna]

I came back from vacation to a few surprises.

The plants survived the light frost that they had in the first week.

I lost a bunch of plants to animal damage, in some cases the plants and pods were eaten pretty much down to a stump. I had one Rocoto just starting to ripen before I left and it has gone, along with some other Rocoto pods, leaving just the newer, smaller green pods. Several of my perennial flowers had been eaten too...

Two orange habs (one which must have been a cross as it had fantastic-looking large orange-mustard pods) had a bunch of branches and every single pod removed (I found a couple of half eaten ones, which I salvaged seed from), same goes for one of my NOT TSMBs and a couple of others.

On the bright side, I got to harvest some Aji Panca, 7 pot Douglahs and brown scorpions (which look just like the Douglahs, not sure they are different). The Aji Amarillos are loaded with pods, but are still green (man those things take forever).

Here is the latest harvest:

 

[chilicheesebeard]

Sorry for your loss. Great harvests though!

 

[Big Kahuna]

Thanks Beardedchunk. The critter (whatever it is) is now making daily visits and is using my plants as a salad bar...

In better news, my surviving "TSMB", which has pumped out a lot of very hot but unremarkable looking pods all summer, now has this handsome beast growing on it:

 

[chilicheesebeard]

You'd think that eating hot peppers would be enough repellent. I'm thinking giant electric fence around your biggest plant and have it bust out. Jurassic park style.

 

[Big Kahuna]

Well the critter is still visiting daily, I'm losing several pods each day. I pulled my first batch of Aji Amarillos today, even though they probably should have stayed on the plant a bit longer. I've already lost a few of these pods to the critter and I was scared that I would lose them all...

I also pulled most of my remaining Aji Verdes today:

Sliced in half, de-seeded and pickled in a sugary brine: