Cold winter, Hot peppers - FryPhax's quest to have fresh hot sauce on Christmas.

Fryphax · Aug 28, 2018

My first question is, should I trim the large leaves from my Carolina reapers at this point? (If these are the same pictures as the first post, it's because I want these pictures to be with the post after I change the OP.

karoo · Aug 28, 2018

Nope , keep the leaves , they are still working , catching light and helping the plant.

Fryphax · Aug 28, 2018

karoo said:
Nope , keep the leaves , they are still working , catching light and helping the plant.

Thanks for the insight! There's so much information out there it is overwhelming at times.

Fryphax · Sep 12, 2018

Quick update.

I have my first ripe Serrano!

Also, two week update on the Reapers. Going super strong. I did the FIM method on one today and letting the other go naturally for a while.

I also did a bunch of trimming on my habaneros, it was really difficult to do but I trimmed them back quit a bit for the sake of strong stalks/branches.

I did have an incident where I spilled all my specialty habanero seedlings. I took a bunch of my other seedlings and am trying to do trunk fusion bonsai with them. I have some rapid root peet moss cubes I will be using to start single plants of each in the future but for now I should get at least one decent plant out of these. These are 'Francis Habs', 'M Jalapenos', 'Elephant Ears', 'Yellow Thai' and 'Giant Thai'. There's also some alleged scorpions in there but honestly I don't trust the seeds. They'll be replaced with known high quality plants.

karoo · Sep 12, 2018

Looking good!
If you go to so much trouble , you have to be able to trust the seeds!!

Fryphax · Sep 12, 2018

karoo said:
Looking good!
If you go to so much trouble , you have to be able to trust the seeds!!

Yup, I'm pretty new to the pepper world so any pepper is a good pepper for me! Ordering up some more seeds from Jimmy Pickles this weekend.

luvmesump3pp3rz · Sep 12, 2018

is there a heat source or is it being kept at room temperature? i`m in the northeast but not as cold as where you are. i don`t have space to grow in my living quarters but i have a HUGE attic that i could set up to grow. i would need to supply heat along with light. i`ll follow this thread to see how you do. good luck. your plants look great.

Fryphax · Sep 13, 2018

luvmesump3pp3rz said:
is there a heat source or is it being kept at room temperature? i`m in the northeast but not as cold as where you are. i don`t have space to grow in my living quarters but i have a HUGE attic that i could set up to grow. i would need to supply heat along with light. i`ll follow this thread to see how you do. good luck. your plants look great.

No additional heat currently. I have it next to the water heater and with the lamp in there it stays between 70-80*. If I do need additional heat in the dead of winter I'll probably just add in some t5 bulbs. l

luvmesump3pp3rz · Sep 13, 2018

Nice!

Fryphax · Sep 26, 2018

Wow. What a difference a month makes. Got a grow tent and another light. Planted a bunch more seedlings because I accidentally destroyed most of the ones I had going. Also moved a bunch of my plants indoors.

These are the reaper plants now. I trimmed one and left the other one alone to compare growth.

Some other pictures. Most of these plants were already inside.

I also did a silly thing. Took all the leftover outdoor plants, twisted the roots together and then Zip Tied all the stalks together. Trying to make a 8 pepper bonsai plant out of it. We'll see what happens. It was either this or let them die outside but they all were flowering and producing peppers.

And a group shot.

Fryphax · Sep 26, 2018

Also got my first small flat rate box from a member here as well as some more seeds from Jimmys Pickle Product line. Tom Morrow at JPPL hooked it up big time. I ordered 5 varieties and he sent 13 + a bag of super hot powder that is on point! I am continually blown away at the generosity and camaraderie of the pepper community.

Can't wait to spread the love once I start getting some good harvests!

chelicerae · Sep 27, 2018

Some healthy looking plants here. The what-looks-like wood chips blankets are for..preserving soil moisture? Interesting Frankensai : )

Fryphax · Sep 27, 2018

chelicerae said:
Some healthy looking plants here. The what-looks-like wood chips blankets are for..preserving soil moisture? Interesting Frankensai : )

It's actually Cedar sawdust. It serves a few purposes, one of which is preserving soil moisture. I bottom water and with the sawdust my watering schedule was reduced significantly. Also Cedar is a natural pest deterrent and by having the soil covered it prevents fungi and moss from growing, or at least that's my theory. If nothing else it looks super pretty and smells amazing!

Fryphax · Oct 2, 2018

I got lady bugs! Few pests made it in from outside, lady bugs not only eat the pests but they also will pollinate the flowers. Win Win. 150 of them from Amazon was only a few bucks.

Also with it being harvest season for peppers I was able to pick up quite a bit of different specialty/superhot peppers for a real good price. Picked these up from three different growers. Big box was almost all super hots (Carolina Reapers, Ghosts and the like). These will be used for hot sauce/Chili and spicy peanuts while I wait for my plants to mature.

Fryphax · Oct 2, 2018

Got another t5 fixutre and also a proper seed starting humidity dome. This allowed me to open up a lot of additional room in the tent. I'm also hoping the addditional t5 will help to increase the temp in the tent slightly. Currently hovers around 70*

Fryphax · Oct 6, 2018

Fresh sauces hot off the press. Left is a mix of about ten different pods, call it the seed collector as I was grabbing seeds from my different varieties before I froze them. Middle is a lemon drop pineapple and the right is a death sauce I made for my sisters Guatemalan brother in law who said "His sauce probably isn't even hot.".

Robot Mode · Dec 15, 2018

Fryphax said:
Fresh sauces hot off the press. Left is a mix of about ten different pods, call it the seed collector as I was grabbing seeds from my different varieties before I froze them. Middle is a lemon drop pineapple and the right is a death sauce I made for my sisters Guatemalan brother in law who said "His sauce probably isn't even hot.".

This is awesome! Great grow, I grew up in the UP in Gladstone,MI! Glad to see a fellow yooper on here.

stc3248 · Dec 15, 2018

Man...over a few months youve gone from Mylar blankets to grow tents and from floros to LEDs...badass.

internationalfish · Dec 16, 2018

Looking great! My mouth is watering just thinking about those sauces.