Deolater 2019

deolater · Apr 29, 2019

podz said:
Jukka (Fataliiseeds.net) doesn't grow those peppers outside, he has greenhouses :-) But in general, yes I think the cool summer nights help.

If you want something that will really bake your noodle, think about this: Anchorage, Alaska (61N) is further north than Helsinki and it is:

Anchorage, Alaska is in [/size]USDA Hardiness Zones 3b, 4a, 4b, 5a, 5b, 6a, 6b and 7a .[/size]

Okay, my noodle is officially baked. I guess the ocean is a bigger influence on climate than the latitude. The whole coastline in that map looks like a tie-dye shirt. I had a boss who was from Minnesota who was in the Coast Guard for a while and was based out of Juneau. He said it was amazing how much warmer Juneau is than St. Paul.

I forgot about greenhouses. In my area, putting a transparent impermeable barrier over plants is used as a way of baking them to death to avoid using pesticide, not something you would do to plants you like ;-)

Bhuter · Apr 29, 2019

deolater said:
I have one or two plants of "Anaheim" seeds that claim on the packet to be numex Joe E Parker. If they grow well this year, I'll probably do a whole bed of them. On paper they're like the perfect mild pepper. One of my friends went to New Mexico on business, but didn't smuggle any seeds back even though I asked nicely.

20 more seeds TONIGHT? You're worse than me!

I really want to plant more, but I'm starting to fear getting a letter from my HOA about my field of pots, which even I have to acknowledge is ugly. Next year I'll build beds and look more professional. I only have seeds for ~5 more varieties that I haven't planted yet. But I'm resisting.

I also need to remind myself that with all the crosses I'm growing, I really should save room for squeezing in a second generation of any pods I like the look of.

So are bishop's crown hot? I've read conflicting reports online.

You have reminded me I should see an allergist to sort out whether I'm really allergic to shellfish BEFORE my beach vacation next month...

Ppfffttt...yeah...around 20 . I guess I'm shopping for overwinters that will hammer out the pods the following year. ‍

I don't know. But I can usually fit around 40 plants in my garden comfortably. So I haven't even begun to have a container mess, yet. lol. Here's a basic view of how my garden usually looks.

You say you only have ~5 varieties of seeds that you haven't planted, yet? Well, we can take care of that! Send me a pm (if you want) and a list of pepper varieties that you are looking for and/or check my growlist in my profile or check any of my past glogs for other growlists. I should still have seeds for everything I've grown before.

I've only tried one "strain" or "version" of Bishop's Crown, and that's the one I grow. Meaning I've never sourced seeds from somewhere else. So I always get the same pods. So I can only speak for these. The internet will tell you that it had Mild-med Heat...especially around the placenta. The "Strain" that I grow has zero heat. If there is any, it's undetectable because my gf doesn't like heat at all and LOVE'S the Crowns. That's HER plant. I started 2 this season. Lol. Here's a link to a thread that I started last fall for a seed giveaway. There's a little about the variety in there and some pictures. I have never met anybody who took a bite out of one and said, "No sir...I don't like it." Lol

http://thehotpepper.com/topic/69601-free-bishops-crown-seeds/

Oh, man...I hope you're not allergic to that delicious goodness.

deolater · Apr 29, 2019

I really should be leaving for work, but instead I popped outside to take some pictures of the grow area.
This is along the side of my driveway and gets dappled sun from 1000-1230 and full sun about 1230-1830

This weekend I'll clean up the driveway and hopefully the whole thing will be less of an eyesore!

I need to fit a few more pepper plants in here, and maybe some tomatoes. I have a similar area on the other side of the house with similar sunlight, and I can expand to there if I have to.

Next year the plan is to pull those bushes out and build some pretty raised beds in that area. More grow area and less eyesore.

This year I just have to live in fear of the HOA.

deolater · May 1, 2019

FIRST PODS!

deolater · May 1, 2019

Also this.

Magnesium deficiency?

deolater · May 4, 2019

deolater said:
Also this.

Magnesium deficiency?

I'm really worried about this plant. First it self-topped, and now this. I gave it (and everyone else) minor elements foliar spray. Now I guess I can only wait. Good thing I have a second Jigsaw.

In happier news, I bought three jalapeno plants from the local independent nursery. I had given away all my jalapenos, so I needed these.

I also bought these guys:

Do I need three red ghost plants? No.
But I didn't know for sure whether I had any red ghost plants (I have one plant that is grown from seeds from last year, but I forgot to write down what variety the seeds are. I think they're red ghost, but not sure).
I traded one plant to my friend for a tabasco plant.

I have too many plants. And now my other thread has suggested several varieties of thai peppers to grow. And my Peruvian neighbor wants me to start some Aji Amarrillo...

All these plants still need pots:

You can also see my back deck herb operation here. Dill, cilantro, peppermint (planted last year, growing like crazy), rosemary (surprised to learn it's a perennial in my climate), basil and thyme...
And like 10 pepper plants hardening off and waiting to be potted.

deolater · May 8, 2019

Just some quick pictures tonight

Here's my very happy 7 Pot Bubblegum Yellow. This guy is just loving the outdoors.

Numex Twilight has a few little purple peppers and lots of flowers.
This is an extremely compact plant.

A welcome visitor on my possibly mislabeled Numex Joe E. Parker

I brought an experimental Kratky Numex Twilight to the office. I've ordered a desktop grow light--hoping to get some peppers in the cube farm.
This plant is really tiny, but it has more than doubled in size since last week.

Another Kratky experiment, this one is Bhut X Primo. It is probably three or four times as large as when I transplanted it two weeks ago. I'm not sure why the leaves have drooped though.

deolater · May 11, 2019

I shouldn't have favorites, that's just bad parenting...

But this Purple Ghost plant is my current favorite. When it was young, the leaves were a beautiful dark purple. They've gone green with time, but stems are still gorgeous. I'm looking forward to pods!

Speaking of pods, I've got my first chinense pods of the season forming. This is a Reaper X Clavo plant, one of many.

Orekoc · May 12, 2019

Did you make the Reaper x Clavo cross? What generation is the plant?

deolater said:
I shouldn't have favorites, that's just bad parenting...

But this Purple Ghost plant is my current favorite. When it was young, the leaves were a beautiful dark purple. They've gone green with time, but stems are still gorgeous. I'm looking forward to pods!

Speaking of pods, I've got my first chinense pods of the season forming. This is a Reaper X Clavo plant, one of many.

deolater · May 12, 2019

Orekoc said:
Did you make the Reaper x Clavo cross? What generation is the plant?

I think it's an F2, it's from Fataliiseeds

Orekoc · May 12, 2019

Fun! The F2 generation is where all the fun starts. There maybe lots of variation in your plants, save seed from each plant seperately.

deolater said:
I think it's an F2, it's from Fataliiseeds

deolater · May 13, 2019

Partial family photo:

I've posted another picture from this view, so it's easy to see just how much growth there has been in only a couple of weeks.

Close-up of a Chocolate Ghost. This plant self-topped and I was pretty worried about it, but now it's doing really well.

deolater · May 13, 2019

Disaster!

I rushed a bit up-potting my successfully-overwintered Lemon Drop and Bishop's Crown plants, and tore up a lot of the roots.

I've pruned the plants and now I guess I just need to hope for the best. Hopefully this is a setback instead of a major disaster.

They were pretty root bound... Well, uhh. Now they're not.

podz · May 13, 2019

I am guessing they will recover with a vigor! Photos or it didn't happen :-)

deolater · May 14, 2019

podz said:
I am guessing they will recover with a vigor! Photos or it didn't happen :-)

They're in the big pots in the center back. Low contrast with the bush behind them, so we can't really see much.

I'll pull them out get an isolated picture in a couple of days. I'm avoiding them to keep from overmothering right now. They're now in 10 gallon smartpots, up from 5 gallon home depot buckets they were in last year. Also the soil is a Coco Coir mix instead of the brick that the organic potting soil I used last year became.

They lost about half the roots, so I cut off like half the plant. I hope it works.

deolater · May 14, 2019

Bonus shot of my back yard with one of my pubes.

It's back there in the shade while one of my others is in the sunny spot with my other peppers. Trying to work out what microclimate is best for them.

I have all those leftover pots from last year, maybe I should start some fast growing annuums....

PaulG · May 14, 2019

deolater said:
The two plants that survived the winter are doing really great. I still need the up-pot them.

That lemon drop was one of my star performers last year, I'm hoping for even better things this year. The bishop's crown only produced like one pod, so maybe this head start will improve its performance.

Two of my favorite eating peppers! The knock I
have on the BC is the huge amount of time it
takes to ripen up the pods here. But, they are
impressive plants. Mine hit almost 7' the year
I grew it.

The lemon drops make some of the best powder,
the favorite of most of our friends. Use it alone, or
mix with superhot yellow powder to mellow it out
a bit. Yum!

deolater said:
Disaster!

I rushed a bit up-potting my successfully-overwintered Lemon Drop and Bishop's Crown plants, and tore up a lot of the roots.

I've pruned the plants and now I guess I just need to hope for the best. Hopefully this is a setback instead of a major disaster.

They were pretty root bound... Well, uhh. Now they're not.

I wouldn't worry, Greg. You can remove a lot of roots from a
plant and it will still grow well (within reason, of course). Plus,
every time a root is cut, it sends out root shoots above the cut,
and you get a bushier root. When I work up my bonsai plants,
I can remove up to 85% of the roots, repot them, and they don't
seem to even notice it. I'll bet those plants do great, with a little
root stimulant fertilizer like General Hydroponics' Rapid Start.

Good luck going forward. Will be fun to see how those do for
you this season!

deolater · May 15, 2019

PaulG said:
Two of my favorite eating peppers! The knock I
have on the BC is the huge amount of time it
takes to ripen up the pods here. But, they are
impressive plants. Mine hit almost 7' the year
I grew it.

The lemon drops make some of the best powder,
the favorite of most of our friends. Use it alone, or
mix with superhot yellow powder to mellow it out
a bit. Yum!

Lemon Drop was definitely a favorite from last season. This plant produced over a quart of pods last year and even kept producing a few pods in the garage during the winter.
I can't wait to get back to this stage:

I definitely need to try making powder. Last year with only like 10 plants I didn't powder anything, but I'm definitely hoping to make some powders this year.

I've heard great things about the Bishop's Crown flavor, but last year I only got one ripe pod, and it was rotten by the time it was ripe. Something was very wrong with the plant: Leaves would curl up and rot, then a new branch would form, only to have it happen again.

Here's a picture from September:

Pretty gross, right?

Anyway, somehow it recovered during the winter in the garage, and so far there's no sign of whatever was happening last year.

Fingers are firmly crossed.

deolater · May 17, 2019

I know I might be kicking off a religious war here, but I need answers.

My little Numex Joe E. Parker ("Anaheim") plant has these two big pods on it.

Would they be good to pick now? Should I wait for them to ripen?

I figure picking them early might be good for the plant's growth. Are they tasty this early?

Also, how worried should I be about those leaves?

deolater · May 18, 2019

I picked my first pod of the year

While this plant was from my Cup o'Rejects, I've decided to try to get it to grow more than one pod. So we'll see how Ramiro tastes green.

Deolater 2019

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