FayahBen's 2012 season

Greetings

With the spring incoming, it's time to start the grow log for this season.
Well, for now it's not a really good start, i had problem with too low temperatures (and a little over-watering with the soil not drying well) with the first germinated plants that has stunted their growth, but they are recovering slowly. The temperature is better, but the plants could enjoy more heat, so they are still growing a little bit slow.
Some strains have been a little hard to germinate too with several retries.
The chinenses have been sown around mid-january, the annums and baccatums around mid-february. I've sown the rocotos in late autumn.

Here's the strain list for this season:
(the chinenses, rocotos and baccatum are goin to be grown in pots, the annums in soil)

Sweet:
Belize sweet
Buran
Corno di toro yellow
Cubanelle
Lipstick
Marconi red
Mini chocolate bell
Orange bell
Pimento
Purple beauty
Quadrato Asti Giallo
Trinidad perfume

Light:
Alma paprika
Ancho 101
Pasilla bajio

Medium:
Bishop's crown
Brazilian starfish
Jalapeno M

Hot:
Aji habanero
Fish pepper
Goat's weed
Lemon drop
Omnicolor
Orange Thaï
Serrano

Very hot:
Bahamian goat
Bonda Ma Jacques
Caribbean red
Cumari
Fatalii
Habanero orange
Habanero peach
Habanero peruvian white
Habanero yellow
Jamaican hot chocolate
Rocoto rouge
Scotch bonnet Jamaican
Scotch bonnet FDA
Scotch bonnet TFM
Scotch bonnet yellow

Super hot (well, some mild ones ^^):
Naga Morich
Yellow 7 pod

And some pics from last week-end...

It's not looking very good, but they are doin better everyday , i've given them a little fert too to help (even if i don't like to do it with little plants with less than 3-4 pairs of leaves, but hell some are now quite 2 months old :/).
In fact the chinenses that didn't germinate at first try are looking better than the others...
(There's some eggplant, tomatillo and physalis seedlings in there too)
Anyway it's going better, but i'll have to wait a little more for the first harvests (i still have plenty frozen anyway ^^).

 

[PIC 1]

Hey Ben,

Your start is looking good. I like the variety mixture that you have. The "Bonnet" seeds you sent me are growing into some nice size plants...
Good luck with your season.

Greg

 

[SuperHot]

WOW, they look really nice!!
You're well on your way to a very excited growing season.
Good luck!!

 

[FayahBen]

Thanks
You say this because the pic is not of good quality and you don't see the yellowish/whitish leaves, or the distorted ones, or the plants which have lost the main bud after the first pair of leaves and is now growing from the 2 axillary buds (which can make a funny plant with 2 main stems ^^) !
Jokin'... they'll look better on the next pics, but the plants from the first germinating session had a kind of dwarf leaves until now.
Greg, i've seen that you're taking great care of your plants, you have some awesome ones, i'm far from this grow quality.

 

[PaulG]

Your seedlings look fine to me,
Ben! And I have my glasses on!
You will have your hands full when
transplant time rolls around!

 

[FayahBen]

I'm not worrying about them, i know they'll be fine, but some are not looking so good, specially with all the nice plants everywhere on the forum. ^^
Here's a little close-up on a few ones:

On the left, maybe the worst seedling, it's an orange hab with small, yellow/white and slightly distorted leaves, it has also lost its main bud, but new leaves look fine.
In the middle it's a bahamian goat which has lost its main bud too growing on 2 stems, it has small leaves too (remember these seedlings are 2 months old).
On the right, it's a yellow habanero which was hard to germinate (2nd session). It has germinated around 3 weeks later than the 2 others, and hasn't grown under the low temperatures. It looks normal with nice sized leaves and it's going to outgrow the others. ^^

But anyway, it'll be fine. For transplant time it will be ok, i'm keeping just one plant of each strain, 3 for the rocotos. But it will take some time to do it for sure.

 

[FayahBen]

Some little news of the small plants, growing slowly but surely. Now they are doin' better, and i think i'll repot some soon.

 

[S.S.Tupperware]

There lookin great, ya still have a lil while til pot up. Some of mine looked crappy, but it seems once it had enough root growth, they took off and weren't yellow any more.

 

[FayahBen]

With the nice weather we have for a few weeks, i couldn' resist this week to repot the rocotos in their final pot.

Even if we have some fresh nights (down to 5°C, but around 25°C during the day), i think they'll be ok. Maybe i'll have to move them for a few nights, we'll see.

And they aren't alone to enjoy the sun...

 

[FayahBen]

Some plants have been repoted in 1L pots, and they seem to be happy. ^^
The others will follow soon (except the lazy ones, hehe)

From left to right:
- bottom: yellow hab, caribbean red, bonda ma jacques, peach hab, orange hab
- middle: TFM scotch bonnet, bahamian goat, another bahamian goat, jamaican scotch bonnet, FDA scotch bonnet
- up: tomatillo verde, belize sweet, peruvian white hab, trinidad perfume

 

[FayahBen]

Most of the plants have been potted up now, only a few lazy ones left. ^^
I have to think about hardening them off now, but we have some bad weather these days, fresh temperatures, rain and few sun...

From left to right,
up: trinidad perfume, peruvian white habanero, yellow scotch bonnet, naga morich, belize sweet
middle: FDA scotch bonnet, jamaican scotch bonnet, bahamian goat, another bahamian goat, TFM scotch bonnet
down: orange habanero, peach habanero, bonda ma jacques, caribbean red, yellow habanero

From left to right,
up: pasilla bajio, lipstick, cubanelle, pimento, orange thaï, purple beauty
below: marconi red, ancho 101, fish pepper, alma paika, orange bell
below: mini choco bell, corno di toro yellow, jalapeno, buran, quadrato asti giallo
down: omnicolor, bishop's crown, brazilian starfish, lemon drop, aji habanero

 

[PIC 1]

Hey Ben,
Your plants are coming along just fine. I too am waiting to start hardening off some pepper plants.
Once they're outdoors in their permanent homes the growth will flourish! I can't wait for that and some ripe peppers.
Good luck with your current weather conditions, better days are just over the horizon

Greg

 

[FayahBen]

Well, the weather conditions haven't changed, unfortunately, still cloudy and rainy with a very shy sun showing just sometimes some days... :/
The temperatures have rised up a little, but the peppers haven't been out yet, the rocotos which are still out haven't grown a lot (at all ?) and are struggling with over-watering, hopefully they don't behave the same as chinenses.
The plants are waiting peacefully for some better conditions and are still in good health, just a little impatient (and they are not alone ^^).

 

[romy6]

Beautiful plants . Can't wait to see those bad boys get HUGE.

 

[LanMan]

Your plants are looking very nice. What are you growing them under? Very nice indeed.

 

[FayahBen]

Thanks.
The plants are under cheap basic fluorescent tubes, some 36W and some 18W, 840 ones (i thought about changing some tubes to 865 ones, but they're growing good like this, no need to buy some more stuff).
They have more room since i've moved out the tomatoes, eggplants, tomatillo and physalis.
At least the sun is showing today, most of the plants will spend the afternoon outside.

 

[FayahBen]

Well, the sun is back for real !
The weather forecast is even annoucing 30°C (with 15°C at night) for the end of the week, i think the plants will love it.

Most of the chinenses have been potted up last week-end:

The others chinenses are waiting patiently their turn under the sun with the baccatums:

And the annuums are waiting for the soil to dry a little to be able to be planted in the little veggies garden:

 

[FayahBen]

Some little news of the chilis...
They all have now been potted up or planted but they are growing a little slowly, they have suffered a little from overwatering and it took time for these big pots to dry up even with the sunny days we had this week. They had a few problems with aphids too, even if there was only few of them, it's still doing some damage on the growth. But it seems ok now, i've seen a few ladybug larvae guarding them. ^^

The scotch bonnets and bahamian goats:

Habaneros, bonda ma jacques and naga morich:

Baccatums, sweet chinenses and latecomers (which had some roots boiled near the face of the pot facing the sun, that's why i've put temporarily some shade clothe around the black pots ont the previous pics, i think i'm gonna let the grass grow around the pots):

The annuums which have been planted 2 weeks ago:

 

[FayahBen]

Hi,
Some little news of the peppers, they are enjoying the summer weather we have for some days now, at least...
Pods are on the way, just a few more weeks to wait now. ^^

Here we have (from back to front, left to right):
- jamaican hot chocolate, TFM scotch bonnet (which is in fact an annuum, so not a TFM, surely a kind of mushroom), yellow 7 pod
- bahamian goat, jamaican scotch bonnet, bahamian goat
- FDA scotch bonnet, yellow scotch bonnet, cumari

- yellow habanero, caribbean red, bonda ma jacques
- orange habanero, peach habanero, peruvian white habanero
- fatalii, naga morich

- brazilian starfish, bishop's crown
- omnicolor, lemon drop, aji habanero
- belize sweet, trinidad perfume

The red rocotos, which had a bad time staying out in april, and it took them a while to recover. But they are settings pods, which is pretty nice, they usually drop flowers at this time of year with the heat, but it seems like the mixed weather we had was good for them.

And here are the annuums, which still don't really like the soil, i'll see what i can do for them.

 

[seaman]

nice glog, looks like you're gonna have a lot of pods as season keeps going!