Comptine's Swedish Glog 2016

tsurrie · Jan 18, 2016

Comptine said:
It's a bit nippy at the moment. We're around -10 right now, but the last few days we were closer to -20. First proper winter in 2-3 years now. Only positive thing is that with all the snow it looks really bright on the sunny days =D

jeez.. if only we had snow... it's sunny and cloudy, temps around 0 to -10 ... but no snow.. last week it was warm and rainy... this winter is terrible, last year was a blast... two big snow deliveries with about 50cm of snow... it lasted for a while.... now I have to go to the ski jumping site to watch it fall

(snow guns)

anyways... sprouts looking good. Congrats!

Adamkaijorg · Jan 19, 2016

Good luck on Your grow comptine!! You bet I'll be following :dance:

Comptine · Jan 23, 2016

The plants begin to slowly reveal their cotys. I find that this stage is a very extended one, it feels like there won't be any true leaves until February. The good news is that nearly all varieties germinated, except for the two Aji Chuncho seeds I had, and until this morning the Bonda Ma Jacques. So last night I put some more seeds to soak overnight, and this morning in a papper towel. The Chuncho gave a problems last year too, when I was trying to turn it into a winter project of mine, the plants were a no show.

Anyway, since nothing exciting is happening with the new plants I want to share an older one with you. Around July last year I decided to see if I could get an extended season indoors, mostly because I had just bought a bunch of new seeds I really wanted to try. One of them is my Star of Turkey from pepperlover. The plant was kept in a 1.4 litre pot (which is tiny), despite this it grew into a small tree. It has had two rounds of fruit actually. First round of fruit produced 6 small but decent sized fruits. The second flovering round happened in December which in Sweden is virtually no sun, I got 4 tiny pods out of that round. None the size advertised in pepperlover's picture, but I never expected that. I've had to trim it down on multiple occasions because it grew so much. I'm sharing this with you because that plant is about to become compost, I'm making space for new plants.

The larger fruit is from the first round, and comparatively it has kept pretty well in the fridge.

mpicante · Jan 23, 2016

Good to see hooks and cotys! Was that a typo -10 ? Wow its 60° out here and reallu cold for us in the LA area.

Comptine · Jan 23, 2016

Haha, nope. -10C is about right. It's gone up a little in the last few days now, we might go into the plusses soon.

mpicante · Jan 23, 2016

Thats just sounds incredibly cold to me.Stay warm my friend.

Comptine · Feb 7, 2016

Things are going pretty well for the most part. Here in Sweden we're gaining just over 5 minutes of daylight a day, which is appreciated.

The seedlings are working on their first set of true leaves.

The only problem I'm having is with the Aji Jobito. Both seeds germinated, but have not made it out of the soil, so I'm inclined to believe that something is wrong with them. I'll start a few more I guess, this is one I'm really looking forward to trying. Actually, I'm having issues with the Aji Chuncho as well. Between last summer and now I must have tried to germinate close to 40 seeds, with not a single one actually showing any sign of life. This is a little disappointing. The seeds came from pepperlover and this in the first time I've ever had an issues with her seeds.

Chilidude · Feb 13, 2016

I also have problems with my C.chinense seeds not germinating fast enough, but maybe i am just too impatient. All the other seeds like Annuums and Baccatums germinated no problem.

Comptine · Feb 13, 2016

Chilidude said:
I also have problems with my C.chinense seeds not germinating fast enough, but maybe i am just too impatient. All the other seeds like Annuums and Baccatums germinated no problem.

The chinenses all germinated fairly quickly actually. The pubes took longer. Even the Aji Jobito germinated, it's just that it seemed to die off at some stage which was odd. The chunchos which are fructescense must be a bad batch of seeds. They've been germinating for a month now without any results.

Trident chilli · Feb 13, 2016

Pleased everything looks like it's ticking over nicely ... will you re-sow the chunchos

Comptine · Feb 13, 2016

Trident chilli said:
will you re-sow the chunchos

Unlikely, I tried at least 40 seeds by now, and there must be something wrong when not a single one of them germinates. It's not like I'm giving them special treatment either, all other seeds germinated fine with the same methods.

Chilidude · Feb 13, 2016

Comptine said:
Unlikely, I tried at least 40 seeds by now, and there must be something wrong when not a single one of them germinates. It's not like I'm giving them special treatment either, all other seeds germinated fine with the same methods.

Maybe the seeds have been taken from a unripe chili or the seed drying process have been overdone, thus killing the seeds.

Comptine · Feb 13, 2016

Chilidude said:
Maybe the seeds have been taken from a unripe chili or the seed trying process have been overdone, thus killing the seeds.

I'm just surprised because they came from pepperlover. I have sent her an email asking about that.

dragonsfire · Feb 13, 2016

Unless they got radiated during postal inspections. I send mine wrapped in tin foil.

Comptine · Feb 13, 2016

dragonsfire said:
Unless they got radiated during postal inspections. I send mine wrapped in tin foil.

I've never heard about that before. Does that actually happen?

No, I don't see how that could have happened as the other seeds from that order germinated just fine. I really can't see any other reasons apart from it just being bad seeds. I'm not too bummed, I'll probably plant another fructescense in it's place. I started these ones early because they didn't germinate last year, thinking they might need some more time or something, and to allow time for a second round now.

I will probably plant the remainder of the seeds at the end of the month now. We get very little sun time during winter, the worst day of the year is only 6 hours of sun. Not ideal conditions for someone growing without grow lights. So I've been closely watching the development there. http://www.timeanddate.com/sun/sweden/orebro At the end of the month we'll have 10 hours 30 minutes, so things are moving fast now. I only have so many south facing windows, and I have tomatoes to plant later.

dragonsfire · Feb 13, 2016

Been happening since 2000
http://www.sfowler.com/investigations/Mail%20Irradiation.htm

bpiela · Feb 13, 2016

I purchased some Aji Chuncho from pepperlover this year as well. The seeds were all dark in color. I thought maybe that might be a thing with this pepper type. I haven't got any of them to germinate as well.

Comptine · Feb 13, 2016

bpiela said:
I purchased some Aji Chuncho from pepperlover this year as well. The seeds were all dark in color. I thought maybe that might be a thing with this pepper type. I haven't got any of them to germinate as well.

These are my chuncho seeds, all that remains of them. Now that you mention they are a little darker, I just thought that was normal for the type. But I'm glad that I'm not crazy and that others have had issues as well.

Comptine · Feb 18, 2016

Tiny update.

We have slow but steady progress. I don't use any artificial lights, it's the good old sun only here. It doesn't help that it's been overcast most days, but we did get some full days with solid sun, and the days are getting longer. I had two Aji Jobito seeds show a taproot before I popped them into the soil, but somehow they failed to emerge. Now I have three tiny seedlings that I started later. It's fun to see the difference between the Jobitos that popped up yesterday and seedlings that are nearly a month old now. I also filled the last empty cell with a back up Chinese Pot, I might just germinate a few more of them and have them as plants I give away to people. I'm already itching to start the remaining seeds, but I'm trying to hold off at least another week, I don't have much space left on my south facing window, so I'm trying to wait for the days to get a little longer and they'll get either an east or west facing window.

Coup · Feb 18, 2016

Those look great, Comptine! Bra jobbat!