• Blog your pepper progress. The first image in your first post will be used to represent your Glog.

Don't Panic 2021 - No, Seriously... Don't Panic!

Let's get 2021 started!!!
 
My grow list is a blend of my yearly regulars, new peppers I want to explore, and unstable crosses.  Like a lot of people, I can never seem to grow enough pepper plants to satisfy all my desires, so I have to make some decisions.
 
I have a lot of Annuums on my grow list this year.  Even though they're not the hottest peppers, I always seem to find them useful.
 
2021 Grow List
 
  • Jax - A cross from 2020 between a Jamaican Yellow Mushroom and another unknown pepper
  • Bumpy Bottomed Sri Lankan Chili Red - A 2020 cross between a Sri Lankan Chili Red and another unknown pepper.  It had a bumpy bottom compared to regular Sri Lankan Chili Reds, and was thicker-walled.
  • Jalapeño - One of my regulars.
  • Sri Lankan Chili Red - I've found these to be good utility peppers.  I don't worry about it if I don't save every one of them.  I also like the fact that they often surprise you with a totally different pepper.
  • Orange Thai - Another of my regulars.  I like the flavor and heat level of these peppers.
  • Large Utility Cayenne - I shouldn't even call it a Cayenne anymore.  Over the years, my saved seeds for my Cayenne peppers have started to become unstable, and I started to get this larger version last year, but it is more like a pod than a regular Cayenne.
  • Regular Utility Cayenne - I think this variety of mine is crossed or has somehow otherwise become unstable after several years of saving non-isolated seeds.  But it's a good utility pepper, and I like surprises.
  • St Lucia Roxa (Chinense) - This is just my name for this pepper, I've never really been able to identify this variety.  I bought some seeds for a St. Lucia Seasoning pepper a few years back, and this is what grew instead.
  • PGPG Bird Sausage Pepper - I got this cross from PaulG, where one of his entrants for the 2019 Growdown Throwdown grew out to be something totally different.  This one was really popular with the birds last year.
  • PDN x 7 Pot Caramel (Jay Leno) Pepper (Chinense) - I got this cross from a SFRB I bought from Bhuter.  Since one of the peppers bore a resemblance to Jay Leno, I've started referring to it as the Jay Leno pepper.
  • XL Antep Aci Cross - The 2021 Growdown Throwdown pepper.
I'm growing the following varieties from seeds I got from Atlantic Peppers Seeds
  • Mulato Islero
  • St. Lucia Sweet
  • Aji Benito
  • St. Lucia Seasoning
  • Chimayo (New Mexico landrace)
  • San Isidro Rocotto
I'm planning on growing 40-45 plants.
 
I've bought a special seedling deck for my AeroGarden, and I'm going to see how that works.
 
D5vWPpZ.jpg

 
I started 30 seedlings this way on Saturday (Jan 23rd), and I'll see how they do.
 
I'll start the rest of my peppers on February 1st (to coincide with the official start of the GrowDown ThrowDown).
 
Click to expand...
Sweet list, Mitch, should be lots of fun.
 
Are you growing the yellow or red sausage
peppers? I think I remember you leaning
toward the red. I may throw a yellow seed
in just for fun this season.
 
PaulG said:
Sweet list, Mitch, should be lots of fun.
 
Are you growing the yellow or red sausage
peppers? I think I remember you leaning
toward the red. I may throw a yellow seed
in just for fun this season.
Click to expand...
 
 
I'm growing out the Red variety.  I was intrigued that it picked up some purple coloration from somewhere, and the birds seemed to like it.
 
DontPanic said:
 
 
I'm growing out the Red variety.  I was intrigued that it picked up some purple coloration from somewhere, and the birds seemed to like it.
Click to expand...
Be cool if the purple tint carried on.
I think it would have to have come from
Trippaul Threat or Purple Thunder pollen.
Of course at the F1 level, no telling where
it came from, really!
 
I'm planning on growing out three of the red sausage pepper.  I know I should be growing out way more when you have a cross, but I just don't have the space unless I commit my entire grow to just one of the crosses I'm playing with.
 
DontPanic said:
I'm planning on growing out three of the red sausage pepper.  I know I should be growing out way more when you have a cross, but I just don't have the space unless I commit my entire grow to just one of the crosses I'm playing with.
Click to expand...
You could always grow them I’m smaller pots.
I'm going to grow my multiples in 1 or 2 gallon
pots this season.
 
Three plants should give you enough variety.
It will be fun in any case!
 
Great to see you getting things started, DP.  That's the small "SSE-type" Orange Thai you're growing, right?  Should be interesting to see if you get lots of little jay leno's from Bhuter's seeds.
 
Hope the AeroGarden does well for your starts.  They seem really good for that and for cuttings, too.
 
CaneDog said:
That's the small "SSE-type" Orange Thai you're growing, right?
Click to expand...
 
I'm uncertain to what extent these seeds share a lineage with the Orange Thais from Seed Savers Exchange.
 
The seeds I'm growing came from PepperGuru.  Two or three seasons ago, he was offering up SFRB's from his diverse harvest from that year, and I saved seeds from all those peppers.
 
These Orange Thais are smaller, and seem like a Frutescen.  They have an upright growth habit, and are extremely prolific, as well as standing out on their taste.
 
There's still peppers I want to grow out from that SFRB, but I just don't have enough room.
 
The first one to hook out of my AeroGarden seedling starter is a Sri Lankan Chili Red.
 
I don't have a good way to heat the AeroGarden, so 7 days may not be that bad for the first hook.
 
I can see activity in many other cells.  I'll need to wait some more to draw my conclusions about this method of starting seedlings.
 
Z428u5Z.jpg
 
I'll be watching your grow DP.  I've been back and forth about growing the Sri Lanka Red.  I've had seeds for a couple years now and even though I put it on my initial list, it always seems to get cut.  Same for this year.  Maybe.............just maybe............I might sneak it in somewhere. :think:
 
Tybo said:
I'll be watching your grow DP.  I've been back and forth about growing the Sri Lanka Red.  I've had seeds for a couple years now and even though I put it on my initial list, it always seems to get cut.  Same for this year.  Maybe.............just maybe............I might sneak it in somewhere. :think:
Click to expand...
I know it's late, but I have some Sri Lanka Mr. Sausage,
upright yellow pod seed from Don't Panic that came from
his grow of my original sausage cross, an upright red.
 
Just sayin'  ;)
 
Thanks for sharing those back, Mitch. Can't wait to see
what the F3 will be like. would be cool it it actually turned
out to be a thing   :lol:  Your yellow pods looked way cool.
 
Tybo said:
I'll be watching your grow DP.  I've been back and forth about growing the Sri Lanka Red.  I've had seeds for a couple years now and even though I put it on my initial list, it always seems to get cut.  Same for this year.  Maybe.............just maybe............I might sneak it in somewhere. :think:
Click to expand...
 
I've found the Sri Lankan Chili Red's to be a handy fresh pepper, but I don't want to build them up as some kind of amazing pepper.
 
Their heat level is more in the Jalapeno range, and I can dice one up fresh and throw it on with something I'm eating.
 
Overall, my AeroGarden Seed Starter tray is doing well, but there's a few varieties that are struggling.
 
Dx6imLD.jpg

 
 
I was putting 3 or 4 seeds in every sponge, since this was my first time trying out this method.
 
Some varieties are killing it, but I have a few that might strike out on me.
 
I didn't try to engineer any heating, and my house cycles between 62-72 degrees F this time of year.  With the evaporative cooling from the air pump, I'm pleased with the results so far.
 
The strike-outs seem to be falling strictly along variety lines.
 
Unfortunately, my PDN x 7 Pot Caramel (Jay Leno) Pepper are not liking this arrangement.  This is kind of cool for a Chinense, so maybe it's not a complete surprise.
 
The other strike-outs are my Chimayo peppers and my San Isidro Rocoto peppers.
 
Now that I can see how my AeroGarden is progressing, I'm ready to start a second round of seeds the regular way, with dirt, seed trays, humidity domes, and a heating mat.  I'll give all the strike-outs a second chance in dirt, as well as filling out the rest of my planned grow-out..
 
Seems like pretty good results for the temperature it's running.  It's cool enough it could slow things down a little.  I hope the Chimayo comes through for you.  I was planning them this year, but they didn't make the final cut and I was am looking forward to seeing how yours do.
 
You're what, 11 days in?  11-12 days is around the sweet spot for rocotos IME and they don't mind those temps at all.  I wouldn't be surprised to see that San Isidro pop any day now. 
 
CaneDog said:
Seems like pretty good results for the temperature it's running.  It's cool enough it could slow things down a little.  I hope the Chimayo comes through for you.  I was planning them this year, but they didn't make the final cut and I was am looking forward to seeing how yours do.
 
You're what, 11 days in?  11-12 days is around the sweet spot for rocotos IME and they don't mind those temps at all.  I wouldn't be surprised to see that San Isidro pop any day now. 
Click to expand...
 
Today would be day 12, so that's exactly right.
 
I was anticipating some possible difficulty getting the San Isidro Rocotos to germinate.  I'd heard that Rocotos can take longer to germinate, and the AeroGarden may leave them too damp, setting up a race between germination and mold.
 
I'm worried about my Chimayos, though.  All my other annuums are doing well.  I had two cells for Chimayos with three seeds in each cell, and it looks like I'm going to strike out on both of those.
 
Oh well.  The way I look at it, I'm not trying hard enough if I don't have a few things fail on me.
 
Now I'll see how things go with my second round of seedlings in potting soil.
 
Good luck going forward with the traditional 'dirt' 
seed starting! The aero garden is awesome with
30 ports for sponges. I have an old 7-port fluorescent
tube model and have liked how it works, although
I haven't used it for awhile.
 
As CaneDog fearlessly predicted, at least one of my San Isidro Rocotos is starting to hook out.
 
xBKeKM7.jpg

 
 
I got my remaining planned seeds in the dirt today.
 
In order to reverse jinx the peppers that didn't germinate in my AeroGarden batch, I've thrown on a few extra varieties in anticipation of a few planned varieties striking out.
 
By planting these extra varieties, it will guarantee that the struggling varieties will end up turning out fine.  And I'll have too many varieties to handle.  :)
 
The extra varieties are:
 
  • Vaquero - From White Hot Peppers, a NuMex replacement for the Chimayo
  • St. Croix Sweet - Ran across while thumbing through my seed train seeds from two years ago.  Dan Piepho supplied these to the train.
  • Early Perfect - Also ran across this looking through my old seed train seeds.  Dane provided this sweet Italian variety.
  • Florida Wild Bird Peppers - Couldn't resist seeing how these turn out.
  • Ecuadorian Red Rocoto - While these were soaking, the reverse jinx worked, and a San Isidro germinated.
  • Guatamalan Red Rocoto - I also found these from my seed train seeds two years ago.  Edmick provided these seeds.
  • Bahamian Goat - A friend of mine asked me to plant some extra.  I usually throw him a few plants every year.
  • 2019 Utility Cayenne - This is the parent of last years Large Utility Cayenne.  I think these seeds are either crossed, or an F2 of a cross.  I'm curious to grow out a few, and see if they've got some variety.

I've also planted out my remaining Chimayo seeds and PDN x 7 Pot Caramel (Jay Leno) seeds.
 
And I got my GrowDown ThrowDown XL Antep Aci seeds started.  I'd wanted to get these going in my AeroGarden.  I think my AeroGarden seedlings will be much further along due to the grow light.  But the GrowDown ThrowDown starting line wasn't until February 1st.
 
I'm not sure how the seed train seeds will turn out.  I think all these seeds were from the previous year's left-overs, so they've seen a good deal of travel and handling.  And they've been sitting around my house for two years.  Fine! If they grow, I'll replenish my stock.  If not, oh well.
 
You are right. That is a lot of ports for one fixture!
 
Would be awesome for micro greens!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top