Dragon49's 2013 Grow Log

2013 Chile Pepper Grow Log:

My normal season begins in the middle of March, as I sprout 2 months before planting out in the garden. I’m dying to grow a superhot, but I have had 0% success in growing Capsicum chinense outside. A number of other factors prevent me from growing superhots in the garden.

I’ve decided on a small indoor only grow. A co-worker beekeeper jokingly offered to bring some bees into my apartment to pollinate, but I declined. If this works, I’ll have to expand my gardening skill set and figure out how to hand pollinate. I’ll also have to upgrade my lighting, as I’ve been told that my 54 watt T-3 florescent, while good enough to start seedlings, is not strong enough to get the plants to produce fruit.

Here we go. I’ve decided to sprout a Red Moruga Scorpion:

 

[dragon49]

This may be the end of the outdoor season for me.  It was a good year for Chile's, but last season was better.  My main producers are always the Superchiles, but this year, some of the plants were runty and produced few peppers.  It's fun to keep growing from my own saved seed, but I think next year, I'll plant traditional F1 Superchiles.  In addition to the inconsistencies, some of the plants matured too late in the season.  The two Aji Cereza's that grew true were a big disappointment.  They didn't flower or pod enough.  I have no idea why.  The two that were hybrids didn't produce anything at all, but that was expected as they turned out to be Capsicum chinense and that variety does not grow in my conditions.  It was still a ton of fun and now I've got my indoor setup year round.
 
Next year, I'm also going to plant out one or two weeks earlier to get a jump-start on the season.
 

 

[dragon49]

The Trinidad Moruga Scorpion is starting to flower again.

 

[dragon49]

 

[dragon49]

 

[dragon49]

Lots of flowers on the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion, but no new pods.  I’m working hard to pollinate.
 

 

[dragon49]

 

[dragon49]

17 Days old and no fertilizer yet.  This must be a world record for me!  The leaves look great.  It now has 3 sets of true leaves.

 

[dragon49]

More Pods from the indoor cross! Face the Pain!!

 

[dragon49]

Finally - More Pods on the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion!

 

[Portuge]

Nice lil harvest... Pods are lookin good

 

[Devv]

NY's a tough place to grow the supers.
 
I say good job!
 
The young plants look happy.

 

[dragon49]

NY's a tough place to grow the supers.
 
I say good job!
 
The young plants look happy.

Thanks for the praise, but these are indoors under florescent lights, so my growing zone is not important.  It is hard work to get pod indoors though!

 

[dragon49]

 
Look at the capsaicin oil oozing out!
 

 
After these Pods are dried, I'm grinding them into a powder and sending them to a lab for SHU testing.
 

 
[SIZE=12pt]I found a fourth pod on the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion!  It’s in a spot making is too hard to get a picture right now[/SIZE].

 

[dragon49]

 

[dragon49]

 

[dragon49]

 

[Portuge]

Nice, i saw a little pod forming off of that plant...

 

[dragon49]

Nice, i saw a little pod forming off of that plant...

Thanks,
 
You are probably referring to the 6th picture that I posted .  Yes, I just found the 5th new pod on the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion.  This is great news, as I had almost given up on it, but it has recovered well from the over-fertilization.  The last picture is of my Aji Cereza X Bode Amarella cross.  I recently picked 8 pods from it.  It has 4 more growing - Those are the pics that I posted yesterday.

 

[dragon49]

There is always some forum controversy about the "correct" shape of pods.  This pod is proof that the same plant can produce different shaped and sized pods.  The others were golf ball shaped - This is more tear drop shaped:
 

 

[dragon49]