ChilliCrosser 2021 Belated Glog

OK, I know this is late in the season but having just registered on this forum I thought it was better late than never.
 
This year my aims are:

• Grow a wide range of varieties that I’ve not grown before to find some new favourites.
• Attempt some new crosses because it’s fun to try them even if they don’t all succeed or result in anything desirable.
• Grow out some crosses I’ve been working on over recent years.

 
Growing methods being used:

• Vast majority of these are growing outside in containers in the UK, so not the longest season and variable weather to contend with. I’ve found keeping the containers slightly smaller improves the chances of getting ripe pods in our climate when growing outdoors.
• A small number of plants in smaller containers within a small glass grow house.
• Some plants also inside the grow house but in a flood and drain Wilma system, clay pebble media, first season trying this.
• A selection of other plants indoors in mini Mason jars using the modified Kratky hydro method. I keep these plants small and in small jars to try and speed fruit production. I tend to create most of my crosses using these plants.
• A trusty Aerogarden Bounty for growing on some crosses in the off season.
• A Botanium indoor flood and drain planter, not the biggest fan but I have an early season Sugar Rush Stripey that’s been loving it.

 
Seeds were started during January and February and then spent way too many months indoors as we had very late frosts this year. Fair to say I had lots of root bound plants by the time they made it to their permanent homes.
 
Varieties I’m growing this season are............
 
C.Annuum - I’ve not grown many annuums over the years so making up for it this season

• Antep Aci Dolma
• Buena Mulata
• Candy Cane Sweet
• Farmers Market Jalapeno
• Fish
• Hawaiian Sweet Red
• Indian Chilli Bullet
• Jalapeno Hercules
• Maules Red Striped
• Mulato Isleno
• Orange Fish
• Purple Tiger
• Red Ramiro
• Scarletts Chilli
• Sweet Apple Kambe
• Thor Sweet
• Thunder Cacho Brown
• Variegated Jalapeno
• White Birdseye

 
C.Baccatum

• Brazilian Starfish Orange
• Brazilian Starfish Red
• Brazilian Starfish Yellow
• Sugar Rush Peach 2020 Long
• Sugar Rush Stripey

 
C.Chinense

• BOC x Aji Pineapple (Chinense X Baccatum)
• Chocolate Ghost WHP
• Chocolate Reaper
• Clavo Peach
• Golden Reaper
• Habanero Cappuccino
• Jays Peach Ghost Scorpion
• Naga Smooky Rainbow
• Pimenta De Neyde
• Pimenta Moranga Peach X
• Reaper x Peach Bhut
• Reaper x SRTSL
• Scotch Brains XCP Chocolate
• Star Scream
• Super Bhut Jolokia JW
• Swiss Chocolate
• White Bhut Jolokia JW

 
C.Rocoto - first time growing any Rocoto

• Mini Rocoto Olive

 
Wilds

• C.Rhomboideum

 
Lots of these are new for me and I’ve selected some purely for traits which may help me in some crossing projects. Also the first year I’ve grown any type of reaper variety.
 
Not gone well so far
My wilds didn’t go well this year
I managed to get some C.Cardenasii to germinate and also C.Eximium but they were both very weak. The C.Rhomboideum was doing OK until it got transferred outside and I think it has been affected by the very wet weather we’ve had.  I’ve successfully grown C.Praetermissum and C.Galapagoense multiple times but this year the wilds just seem to be unhappy in general.
I’ll need to regroup, source fresh seeds for next season and forget this year. Luckily I have way too many other plants to keep me occupied this season.
 
Most looking forward to
Some of the varieties I’m really looking forward to trying this year are

• Antep Aci Dolma
• Mini Rocoto Olive
• Pimenta Moranga Peach X
• Sugar Rush Stripey
• Swiss Chocolate

Crossing projects
I’m also growing out some of my own crosses, F1 - F3, and have attempted some new crosses this season. Would crosses be better in a separate post to add to over the years or just include in here? Thoughts?  Have now started a dedicated thread for my crossing projects over here.
 
If you’ve made it this far down the post then hopefully that serves as my introduction
 
----
 
Edited: added link to a dedicated thread for my crossing projects.

 

[ChilliCrosser]

I organize a neem-party about every four-five days. After a while, they don't like to frequent the parties anymore. Mites are of a different breed... Still difficult to get them under control.

I ordered seeds from WHP last year and there were a few varieties that did not come true. Always a risk when you buy OP seeds of course, but I got the subjective impression that the risk was somewhat higher with seeds from WHP.

I've found their seeds to be OK actually, have had several orders with them. For this plant it was more I know it is a recent cross so likely not fully stabilised and I'd read somewhere that some people were getting red sometimes and not peach. Their comments weren't directed at WHP AFAIK as multiple vendors have this cross. I'm glad my single plant did in fact turn out to be peach as I'd wanted that as the foundation for some crossing. At least on WHP they clearly state what is OP and what is isolated, which is better than some.

 

[ChilliCrosser]

Good stuff CC. Those AAD's look really beefy!

First time growing them, don't know how I've not planted them before! Not tried them yet, really looking forward to it as have heard great things.

 

[ChilliCrosser]

Neglected this general glog as I've been mainly posting updates on my crosses thread. So time for a quick catch up on here with a selection of things from the last month.

More Antep Aci Domla, rapidly becoming one of my favourites


Some small Habanero Cappuccino on the left


Buena Mulata, winning second prize for my prettiest plant this year


Orange Fish, winning first prize as my prettiest plant this year. Plant in a small pot but kicking out great variegation and the orange pods are a really vibrant contrast. Pods bigger than expected and bigger than the regular Fish that I have in the same size pot.


Mini Olive Rocoto, plenty of pods on my experiment of growing in an outdoor 25L kratky, a while away from ripening still


Hawaiian Sweet Red, which is hot and sweet rather than no heat


Mulato Isleno, getting some pods almost turning a deep chocolate, so close to ripe. Looking forward to taste testing this one.


Variegated Jalapeno, just the standard one


Some bigger ripe pods from Pimenta Moranga Peach starting to appear plus more Variegated Jalapeno


Sugar Rush Stripey pods taken from one of my four plants. On this plant I'm getting some decent striping but also one pod has reverted to type and is mainly red.

 

[PaulG]

Great results, @ChilliCrosser!

 

[talas]

Nice to see some lovely choices in your grow..with lots of flavor at its heart,well done buddy.

 

[ChilliCrosser]

Guessing game, ripe, not ripe, Pimenta De Neyde. Will start to harvest a few and see.


Starting to pull a few ripe pods from one of my Orange Fish plants, really liking how these plants look.

 

[talas]

With Neyde they will feel a little softer when fully ripe then pull them.
Fish looks great C have you done a taste test yet.

 

[ChilliCrosser]

With Neyde they will feel a little softer when fully ripe then pull them.
Fish looks great C have you done a taste test yet.

Thanks for the tip on PDN.
Not taste tested the Orange Fish yet, have a pile of other peppers to de-seed yet ;-)

 

[ChilliCrosser]

Orange Fish taste tested, was a better flavour than I thought it'd be for such a pretty plant. Would grow again.

I also tried some of my Hawaiian Sweet Red, albeit slightly over ripe. It really surprised me, I expected sweetness with some heat but after the sweetness I got some saltiness. Not in an unpleasant way, more in a 'I need another bit of that' way. I'd not seen that mentioned anywhere before.

 

[talas]

Thank you will grow the orange next year for sure now.
There are some unusual peppers out there I had one in 2008 called Azeda (sour) which that exactly what it was sour heat most unusual but in the context of the fish pepper both where mainly used for fish side dishes one in the Carib and one in Brazil.

 

[ChilliCrosser]

It's happened, my first ripe rocoto. Grown outdoors in the UK in a 25L Kratky, set and forget, went outside early June and left as is. Not a big plant but loaded with 50+ pods. Had seeds for a couple of years and just never fitted it into my grow. I've seen several people on here have grown it, so the unique flavour won't be a surprise. You can't grow them all but do wish I'd grown this one sooner.

Has anyone powdered these? I'm wondering if the fruity flavour is lost when powdering, stays as is or is amplified? Any experience?

Mini Olive Rocoto

 

[PaulG]

Alright, congrats on your patience! The red and
yellow mini rocotos are super juicy and sweet,
especially the reds.

 

[ChilliCrosser]

Alright, congrats on your patience! The red and
yellow mini rocotos are super juicy and sweet,
especially the reds.

I think I have the mini red seeds already so thanks for the tip, these ones didn't disappoint. Pubescens are my most under-grown group over the years, need to correct that.

 

[talas]

Pubes powder really well C holds the flavor well in most cases..no slash that all of the ones I've powderd great to see the 25 kratky did well was wondering how it would do and nice to here it worked

 

[ChilliCrosser]

Pubes powder really well C holds the flavor well in most cases..no slash that all of the ones I've powderd great to see the 25 kratky did well was wondering how it would do and nice to here it worked

Once I have a few handfuls of ripe ones I'm going to try powdering them and see what the flavour does.
It was a bit of a risk trying this plant in an outdoor kratky. I had to hold the plant back indoors in a small solo cup for ages whilst waiting for frosts to go away this year. It started to look sorry for itself but seemed to pick up ok once in the kratky. The plant is not very big at all but has pods everywhere.

I also have another plant that's done well in a similar 25L kratky, only showing signs in the last week on some leaves that it might need some reservoir attention. This was planted out and filled early June, like the Mini Olive Rocoto, and gets quite a lot of shade during the day. Again, not touched or checked anything on the liquid since I planted it. Unfortunately this plant seems sterile, it is a BOC x Aji Pineapple hybrid I got from WHP, a second plant I had was also sterile. Not to bothered about no fruits as it has helped convince me this might be a viable setup for my local climate. If it had more fruiting then no doubt the nutrient situation might have been different, although the smaller rocoto has plenty of fruits and no issues there.



It has made me wonder if I could do more of these in future years though. Other than the initial setup they've been untouched in 4 months, so the definition of hassle free. Less work and better growth than my outdoor soil based pot plants this year. Food for thought over the winter.

 

[talas]

Definite food for thought there and thx for sharing have a few old 25l pots lieing about and may join you in 2022.
The Nutes maybe the key to this,thx for sharing buddy and sharing your knowledge.

 

[ChilliCrosser]

@talas My normal good note keeping fell foul on those kratky, I noted down what I used and how but can't find at the moment

From memory the nutes, after transplanting plants into the 25L buckets :

• one I know I used up some Advanced Nutrients phPerfect 3-part, that's buffered, standard 4ml/L for each part, added Vitalink CalMag @ 1ml/L, might have also ph balanced it anyway, will have to check
• one I know I used GH Flora Series 3-part, will need to find ratios I used, CalMag @ 1ml/L and also ph balanced the final mix to ~5.9-6.0

 

[ChilliCrosser]

A few slightly past ripe Naga Smooky Rainbow


plus starting to harvest Pimenta De Neyde

 

[thoroughburro]

Would you mind describing how you’ve found the Naga Smooky Rainbow? It’s at the top of my wishlist, currently. I’m especially interested in the culinary properties.

 

[ChilliCrosser]

Would you mind describing how you’ve found the Naga Smooky Rainbow? It’s at the top of my wishlist, currently. I’m especially interested in the culinary properties.

I think it's still pretty unstable as I've seen quite a few different colours on other pictures. At one point I thought the plant was sterile as it took forever to set any pods by itself. The first pod that formed was one I manually pollinated as a cross. It only formed a couple of other pods, none in my isolation bag. I'm suspecting all pods that formed are from accidental insect crossing rather than the plant being self-fertile.

Taste-wise I can't add much yet as only harvested these pods this afternoon. They are slightly past ripe but as long as they are not bad inside I'll try one soon and post back my thoughts.