Experimenting with a later start this year

[JDFan]

Forgot to start the plants this year so only have a few of Bonnies plants ( Jalapenos, shishito pepper, tabasco) that are doing well but finally decided to try a few of the reaper seeds I got from Juanitos around Halloween. 
 
Figured the Bhut I grew a few years back never podded up during the summer heat anyway - plant got nice and big while dropping flowers and wound up with a total of 1 pod !!

 
 
 
so decided to try a later start on the reapers this year to see if they would hold up better in the heat by starting later and still be ready to pod up later in the year. Took awhile to sprout and wasn't sure if they'd get going but now they are 1 week old and getting their first true leaves - so the experiment begins ( Hopefully I'll get more than 1 pod from these !!)
 

 
 
 
 
 

 

[mlittle74]

I bet you were looking under every leave for another pod. 
 
I wonder what makes a plant not give a bunch of peppers.
 
Hopefully these guys give you a bunch.  Good luck.
 
Mike

 

[JDFan]

I bet you were looking under every leave for another pod. 
 
I wonder what makes a plant not give a bunch of peppers.
 
Hopefully these guys give you a bunch.  Good luck.
 
Mike

 
Around here it's the heat during the summer months the night time temps sometimes stay in the mid 80's and 90's with 100+ temps during the day for weeks and most of the super hot pepper plants just want to survive so drop pretty much all of the flowers - some others still do well in the heat (Jalapenos, Big Jims, Thai ornamentals) but the chinense's don't like it and flower nicely but then drop them instead of pollinating - got the one pod when we got a couple days of thunderstorms where it cooled down a little and it flowered at the right time. 
 
Figured I'd try a later start and see if the smaller plants might still produce a few pods later in the year (and then will also try to overwinter them and see how they do next year as well.)

 

[MRpeabody]

Good luck with the later start. Was it too hot last year? We had some high temps for a week straight and all of my plants stopped podding up. The last week or two has been cooler and I've got 12+ on my Reaper and Butch T. My ghost's started to show their first few as well. 

 

[mlittle74]

 
Around here it's the heat during the summer months the night time temps sometimes stay in the mid 80's and 90's with 100+ temps during the day for weeks and most of the super hot pepper plants just want to survive so drop pretty much all of the flowers - some others still do well in the heat (Jalapenos, Big Jims, Thai ornamentals) but the chinense's don't like it and flower nicely but then drop them instead of pollinating - got the one pod when we got a couple days of thunderstorms where it cooled down a little and it flowered at the right time. 
 
Figured I'd try a later start and see if the smaller plants might still produce a few pods later in the year (and then will also try to overwinter them and see how they do next year as well.)

 
I hear you about the heat.  Mid to upper 90s here in South Carolina the past couple of weeks.  A little cooler now so I hope my plants start flowering.  Hope yours are doing well.

 

[suchen]

Forgot to start the plants this year so only have a few of Bonnies plants ( Jalapenos, shishito pepper, tabasco) that are doing well but finally decided to try a few of the reaper seeds I got from Juanitos around Halloween. 
 
Figured the Bhut I grew a few years back never podded up during the summer heat anyway - plant got nice and big while dropping flowers and wound up with a total of 1 pod !!

 
 
 
so decided to try a later start on the reapers this year to see if they would hold up better in the heat by starting later and still be ready to pod up later in the year. Took awhile to sprout and wasn't sure if they'd get going but now they are 1 week old and getting their first true leaves - so the experiment begins ( Hopefully I'll get more than 1 pod from these !!)
 

 
 
My bhut is doing the exact same thing! Zero pods so far but it's the size of a darn VW beetle. Hopefully it survives to September/October when it begins to cool down again. Best of luck with the later start!

 

[JDFan]

1 Week later 1st set of true leaves getting bigger and 2nd set starting to show up - also had a fourth sprout decide to join in (so had 4 of the 8 seeds planted sprout !)
 
Pic of the 4 seedlings this morning :
 

 

[JDFan]

Well another week gone by and down to 2 plants of 4 left (well maybe the 3rd will live but doubtful)
 
Went out 3 days ago and had lost 1 plant to something that pulled it out of the pot and left the entire seedling on the ground a foot or so away from the pot and just a hole in the soil where it was planted (too late to save it as it had dried out already) - Then this afternoon went out and found another one cut off with just the cots left (this was the largest of the remaining 3) - It was fine in the morning when I watered at 7am. but by noon looked like in the top 2 shots of the pic below.
 
Think it is a blackbird that has been hanging around the yard that did both the pulling of the first one and the breaking off of this one - So have moved the remaining 2 to another area where hopefully they will not be accessible !
 

 

[Galveston340]

JDFan, I have the same problem with dropping flowers due to the heat down here near Galveston as well. I have 14 Reaper plants going to town and only one pod thus far. The other peppers are doing just fine. Almost to the point where I'll bring them inside and let them enjoy the A/C!!

 

[BigB]

i think it also depends on the variety too. My chinense trini perfume seems to keep podding even when it's 95 here in miami every day. I think it has a lot to do with keeping the soil from getting bone dry completely. But a few others like my venezuelan tiger aren't producing much at all, a few pods here and there between two plants.

Question about seedlings though, I just started some as well to get a heads start for fall. After you transplant them, do you want the soil to be moist constantly or should you let it dry? I know when they're more mature, drying out the soil then watering is good to promote the roots to seek water. I currently have my seedlings under lights because the bugs and the heat will decimate them

 

[JDFan]

BigB -
 
Here I have to keep it moist (pretty much need water every morning ) - If they dry out even for a short time they Die around here due to the heat and not well established root system - Once they get a bit larger they can withstand the soil drying for a bit but when small seedlings there is no water stored in the plant and the root system is fairly shallow so if they dry out they quickly shrivel up and never recover. ( YMMV ) as we have a pretty dry and hot environment. ( a couple years ago I lost about a dozen month old seedlings in Solo cups by forgetting to water them for 1 day - the afternoon sunlight and 100+ degree temp. dried the SOLO cup out enough that they fried themselves. - sense then I usually go straight from the jiffy seed starter directly to a quart size+ pot and place them on the patio out of direct sunlight for at least a month or two - until they develop a better root system and several leaves)

 

[JDFan]

Week 4 down - and good news is the one plant I thought was a goner is making a recovery - it is reacting as if it was topped by the bird damage and has now started to grow 2 stems to replace the one that was chopped off !! So back up to 3 plants going.
 

 

[BigB]

talk about early topping haha. nice to see your little guys rebound though. I have 44 seedlings that were looking like pip-squeaks a week ago but now they're all looking like ballers. They're all indoors though under some lights. They'd be deader than a door knob if i had them outside right about now

 

[mlittle74]

The Winston Churchill of pepper plants.  Never give up!
 
M

 

[JDFan]

talk about early topping haha. nice to see your little guys rebound though. I have 44 seedlings that were looking like pip-squeaks a week ago but now they're all looking like ballers. They're all indoors though under some lights. They'd be deader than a door knob if i had them outside right about now

 
 

The Winston Churchill of pepper plants.  Never give up!
 
M

 
LOL - Yeah I had pretty much given up on him but after a couple days noticed the new growth popping out of both sides of the stem - always amazes me how resilient these things are.