Essegi 2014: 1st grow! Winter is coming.

Ok, today i decided to plant seeds.
First of all i want to thank who helped me in a thread and Sarge in particular that helped me to decide what to do! And Lonewolf from pepperfriends forum that has helped me a lot!

My list, all from Semillas, begin of september 2013:
 

• Trinidad Scorpion Moruga Red
• HP22B
• Trinidad Douglah
• Chocolate Bhut Jolokia
• Fatalii
• Fatalii White
• Ferenc Tender

I've planted all but Ferenc Tender seeds, i'll plant them next month or in beginning of March. If i'll plant them.
11 per type.
I've treated seeds for 15 mins in a 3% bleach solution then i washed them very well in water before planting.
During that process i lost 1 seed of Trinidad Douglah and 3 of Chocoloate Bhut Jolokia (i suppose 2 of that lost seeds were too tiny anyway).
 
I've used plastic glasses with an hole:

 
The soil, specific for seeds (here before planting):

• PH 6-7
• C/N 25
• 0,6 dS/m
• organic ferthilizer
• neutral peat 65% volume
• organic carbon on dry content 35%
• organic nitrogen on dry content 11%
• fulvic and humc carbon on dry content 11%

hope the last 4 are translated accurately...
 

 
 
So 62 plants in total. In a 60*100 cm table

• I plan to grow them all by myself until i have to change the vase.
• Then i keep 2 per type (12 in total) of them in a 2,4 L vase each (top external diameter 18 cm). It's ok for my table. The rest goes to friends and relatives.
• Then 1 per type in a 15-20 L vase each and 1 per type in ground. Or all in vases, but probably half on ground. Of course the last vases will go outside, i have a nice spot of 15 m lenght along my house walls that is without wind and quite hot.

Room, that is heating room:

 
That round thing in the left is warm... I've turned on radiator on right.
 
Here measured temps in center table:
 

Considering some parallax error is 27°C or little more (hoping that thing is accurate) which is 81°F
In the night will be lower but i think still above 20°C (68°F)
There's some natural light, hope that helps.
I have to do some funny things for the light, unfortunately at home have prohibited to use drying racks that would have been perfect.
 
I've a 60*3 watts LED light, nearly 10K lumens. I've found a good price and more than half was a birthday present from friends...
 

 
It's the round thing.
Well, no cats or dog allowed in growing room! Hope all goes well..

 

[lucilanga]

 
Oh man! What kind of camera is required for that ?
 
Most probably my macro function on my camera sucks bad.
 
My pictures pale in comparison to your pictures.

 

[Essegi]

Thanks Lucien!
At the moment i have a Pentax k-5 and a Tamron 90mm macro. That stuff is good and compensate my inexperience, otherwise i don't think that are good shots. A good external flash should be helpful for that purpose. And of course experience.

With that lens (and a different and inferior camera , a Canon 50D) this is really an awesome shot:
http://juzaphoto.com/shared_files/uploads/161555.jpg
I must work a lot only to remotely approach that.

Btw there's a guy that shots amazing photos with an entry level dlsr, flash + diffuser, some old inverted prime lens, extension tubes and loads of tries:
http://thomasshahan.com/#photos

 

[lucilanga]

Oh, that certainly explains it.
I'm not entirely sure I would like to carry that monster around the garden,
but it's definitely nice to take this kind of pictures once in a while.
 
Oh I don't know about your inexperience, you've certainly bought me and probably other guys here too!

 

[Essegi]

Here an overwiew of plants at my aunt.
 
Fatalii white:

Left plant has dark branches and has no pods. Btw right one has the biggest pods of the loot at the moment.
 
Chocolate bhut jolokia:

Smallest pods until now. Brushy form.
 
Trinidad moruga scorpion red:

The tallest until now.
 
Carolina reaper:

Has some nice pods. Maybe it's still small, i thought pods would be more round form.
 
Trinidad Douglah:

Still small but nice.
 
Cherries (my home):

 
Other cherries (my home):

 
Bell peppers (my home):

 
Overwintered 7pod (my home) and Fatalii:

i haven't noticed any pod on fatalii, but overwintered 7pod is fine. It has around 30 pods and more are coming.

 

[lucilanga]

Hey Essegi,
 
isn't that way too elongated reaper ? I admit I can't tell much of size from the picture...
The last weeks I've seen all variations of reapers: short, long, hab like, fatali like...even cayenne like.
I'm not entirely sure if this is the most pirated (as in fake seeds) pepper or the most unstable one.

 

[Essegi]

Hey Essegi,
 
isn't that way too elongated reaper ? I admit I can't tell much of size from the picture...
The last weeks I've seen all variations of reapers: short, long, hab like, fatali like...even cayenne like.
I'm not entirely sure if this is the most pirated (as in fake seeds) pepper or the most unstable one.

I think that too. At the moment it's within an inch. Seeds are from Semillas.de. Curiously at the moment i don't find any HP22B on sale from this vendor.
As far as i remember i bought the seeds shortly after HP22B became available (a coincidence, of course i didn't order just because i saw that). I rember the description saying that bastards had been eliminated. I asked Peter via mail about the name, he said he prefer to name HP22B instead of Carolina Reaper to avoid any possible issue.
I just hope not to have messed up seeds...

 

[lucilanga]

As far as i remember i bought the seeds shortly after HP22B became available (a coincidence, of course i didn't order just because i saw that). I rember the description saying that bastards had been eliminated. I asked Peter via mail about the name, he said he prefer to name HP22B instead of Carolina Reaper to avoid any possible issue.
I just hope not to have messed up seeds...

 
Déjà Vu!
I also have seeds from other European places ...  that look like habs.
I'll post a pic tomorrow with my semillas version. It looks like primo or a scorp.

 

[lucilanga]

Semillas version.

 
I don't know what to say... perhaps there's a tail ... it's roundish after all.
Anyway kind of different from yours. I do not think Peter has mixed up the seeds (though I must admit the thought did cross my mind).
Somehow I think yours is more closer than mine.
Unfortunately the only pod for now, summer heat has hit this plant too, it's dropping flowers currently, but it'll be back as soon as temps gets decent again.
 
 
Another German (I think) vendor.
 

 
Habs like, far off the real thang though.
I guess the time will tell, however I already have 5 reaper plants, I would hate to waste space on growin fakes.
And I do not need another hab plant, I have enough of them already

 

[Essegi]

Thanks for comparison. We'll see, though i suppose it should be wrinkled at this stage.
I have 2 plants of HP22B growing, now i'm curious about other...
 
PS: yesterday night i cut my first hot pepper of the year, a 7pod from overwintered plant. It's still green but taste is good and definetly hot. I wanted to cut it to show at some guets i had. So today i must use it... Maybe on a simple pasta...

 

[Essegi]

Some pods and food!
 
Ferenc tender is producing nice pods:

 

The second plant is taller (beteween 2 and 3 feet) and has more pods (that are smaller).
 

Piri piri also are setting pods.
 
And here the pod i had cut, with thyme and oregano:

 
So i made a simple but very nice pasta dish.
 
Marinade pepper, thyme, oregano and turmeric with evo:

It's better to marinade at least half of an hour.
 
Take some breadcrumbs:

 
Roast them:

 
Cook pasta, assemble (if you want you can pan fry to amalgamate better or add more oil if needed):

If you ask me, that is the best way to taste a fresh pod. Of course you can avoid other spices to taste just the pepper.
That was good, i was missing fresh pods!
 
Other stuff here, coated and oven cooked homegrown eggplants!

This is good!

 

[Devv]

Nothing like garden fare!
 
I bought some Carolina Reaper seeds last year, 4 out of 5 looked like they should. The odd one out was elongated, but a great pepper. So make sure you eat that pod. I planted seeds from the mother of the elongated pod and the plant is putting on pods just like it's parent.
 
You're making me hungry!
 
But we're having Stromboli tonight!

 

[Essegi]

Oh, i'll be sure to eat that! I have few varieties so at least i hope to be able to taste them all well.
Nice Stromboli! Believe it or not the first time i heard that type of food was here in thp, in Italy we don't know that stuff, at least i don't know it by this name (i'd call it simply a roll, but a good one!).

 

[capsidadburn]

Lots of pod action going on here SG!  Thanks for the foodie pics, looks delicious!

 

[lucilanga]

I never actually thought of rolling a pizza, but looks damn good. My mouth is watering just by looking at wikipedia's picture.

 

[Devv]

Oh, i'll be sure to eat that! I have few varieties so at least i hope to be able to taste them all well.
Nice Stromboli! Believe it or not the first time i heard that type of food was here in thp, in Italy we don't know that stuff, at least i don't know it by this name (i'd call it simply a roll, but a good one!).

 
Just took it out of the oven. I will be posting it later tonight. One of my favorites, we use my grandfathers sauce recipe and meatballs. This is one of those meals I feel everyone should try at least once.

 

[Essegi]

Then i'll make that too, if there's pizza i am here too!

 

[Essegi]

Today i am at home so with my dad i removed grass with a fork that was growing along peppers at my aunt place. Now it's better.
 
Here some pods. Aside first one they are still quite small.
 

Fatalli white: that is around 2 inches.
 

Chocolate bhut jolokia. This is less than 1 inch, a bit more than half.
 

Moruga red: still within 1 inch.
 
The following are douglah, always within an inch:

 

 

 
For last Carolina Reapers. First one should be above the inch, others below.
 

 

 

Last 2 are from another plant.
This is not compliant, other seems fine btw!

 

[Devv]

Things are looking good here!
 
You should have some color real soon!
 
Can't wait to see how the Reapers turn out and how you like them, a really good pod, but hot

 

[Essegi]

Some random shots...
First of all i needed to put an end to my mad dog silver edition. That sauce is really a killer when it comes to heat. I delivers 750k shu, imho is stronger than any superhot i've tasted until now (not many to tell the truth), at least for contaminating capabilities. Too bad taste sucks (it's good with some meat btw).
I tried to make a sauce with that sauce, a bell pepper and other stuff:

Can't complain about the size of that bell pepper that is homegrown!
Sauce was not good btw... After 2 days of fridge improved and i used to marinade some grilled meat and was nice, but still a bad sauce, probably the worst i made in a long time...
I'm not to buy again extract sauce.
 
So today i demanded revenge.
Some (not fully) ripened cherries.

 
So i picked this up along four 7pod sitll green but that begun to ripen:
 

Here with 6 tomatoes, 6 apricots, a lemon, half of an onion and an head of garlic.
Garlic and the onion are from back of my house. The onion is excellent, i don't know quality name, but it's very sweet and amazing to make salads.
 
So i made the sauce:

Pan fried that half of onion with evo, salt and black pepper.. After a while mashed garlic and pan fried.
Then i put a good teaspoon of honey and cut peppers
Then i put cut tomatoes, apricots and i used lemon juice.
I simmered for 10 minutes then rise the flame for last 5 minutes to dry it more.
Then blended:

 
Some jars:

I've put no effort to preserve this for long, i aim to consume all quickly.
 
That time i'm satisfied, apricots and honey + lemon juice have been a good choice.
I had used more pepper if i had more ripens, it's still pretty hot (while i don't taste cherries i suspect they aid the sting part of heat, where 7pods provides a good burn). It's sweet in a natural way and not in a "dessert" way.
Of course it's quite simple, but often i make sauces in hurry before to go to some friend's place and eat it straight...
 
Here other kind of pods:
 

 

 
At last tomatoes. In back of home we planted 18 plants, 17 died quickly. Replanted and now they seems fine.
 

Figs. These have never a problem.
 

Plums.

 

[FreeportBum]

Enjoying your glog very much! love the pics.