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Finally getting somewhere

Skyjerk

Skyjerk

I have my first flowers on my very first pepper plants ever.

LOTs of flowers :onfire:

Caribbean Red Habanero's :hell:

Due to my ineptitude in growing, this plant looks like a bansai with a small, compact top and a short very thick stem.

I was over watering this thing from day 1 and only just figured that out a few weeks back. Had it too close to the lights too.
Its a stunted, gnarly lookin plant but its finally covered with thick, healthy looking foliage and lots of flowers.

If stressing plants makes for hotter peppers, this poor thing should be producing some serious heat...

The first flowers began opening about a week ago. Any idea how long from now (on average for chinense) till I get to taste the fruits of my labor?
 
Sounds like your learning quick, you'll be a huge gardener in no time.:)
I think when stressing for hotter peppers you should wait till there is some pods before stressing or you're just weakening the plant. Not that you were intending on stressing it.;)
 
90-100 days if they are kept warm, you give them loving care and they get plenty of light
 
you are saying 3+ months from when they flower to when you have ripe chili's?

That seems like an awful long time...
 
Yes, that does seem like a very long time, IMO. I transplanted some habs in the second week of June and had ripe pods in September. I'm thinking it was 4-6 weeks from when the first blooms appeared.

The packets say 90-100 days to harvest, but I presumed that was from when they have sprouted or transplanted.

Mike
 
the 90-100 I said was from transplant to ripe fruit...if the plant flowers at 45 days then that would be 45-55 days.......2 months...just a guess here
 
That sounds awfully long, (as we all know by now) my first pepper was a CR hab and although i never actually counted the days it certainly was not very long before the pods were pickable. In fact i always was quite pleased with how quickly they ripened and also how quickly he started flowering again after harvest was done, that's why i never bothered to grow any more since i always had enough peppers. But you should certainly be giving him a good shake every day or two, or just pollinate those flowers yourself cuz inside it totally won't happen on its own.
Also my hab was a very compact plant as well, after three years he was only about 18" and was only ever bushy on top. His stem wasn't super thick but he supported himself just fine and it was pretty woody. So maybe you didn't hurt your plant as much as you think.
 
the 90-100 I said was from transplant to ripe fruit...if the plant flowers at 45 days then that would be 45-55 days.......2 months...just a guess here
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I suspected that is what you meant! But I'm thinking that it took about 30 days or so for my habs to go from flowers to ripe pods (after all - the pods are not that big) this summer. My eggplants - probably 60 days from flowers to ripe fruit. But I'm learning that veggies such as squash, eggplants and cucumbers don't validate the "bigger is better" theory. Harvesting them before they are completely grown means far fewer seeds and skin that is not near as tough.

Mike
 
I wouldn't count on anything until you get a pod. Its not uncommon for many of the flowers to drop this time of year.
 
POTAWIE said:
I wouldn't count on anything until you get a pod. Its not uncommon for many of the flowers to drop this time of year.
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He's right, I would lose a lot of the flowers in 'off season harvests' and it also puts a lot of stress on the plant so you have to be pretty diligent about water/light/fertilizer (no nitrogen!) but this plant is such a producer you'll still have some success. But inside every single flower would drop until i learned about the 'shaking' requirement.
 
GrumpyBear said:
He's right, I would lose a lot of the flowers in 'off season harvests' and it also puts a lot of stress on the plant so you have to be pretty diligent about water/light/fertilizer (no nitrogen!) but this plant is such a producer you'll still have some success. But inside every single flower would drop until i learned about the 'shaking' requirement.
Click to expand...

The first time my wife saw me shaking a pepper plant I was growing in our screened in deck she accused me of being crazy :) I can attest that it works though!
 
POTAWIE said:
I wouldn't count on anything until you get a pod. Its not uncommon for many of the flowers to drop this time of year.
Click to expand...

I began pollinating them by hand (used a Q-tip) as soon as flowers began to open.

LOTs of flower buds on there. None dropping so far and I actually have
3 small pods showing where the first flowers were.
They are no bigger than the size of a pea so far but definitely pods!

I'm psyched :hell:
 
cheezydemon said:
Very cool! What kind of lights are you using?
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I have a 400 Watt HPS lamp and a pair of 3' florescent fixtures
with 2 bulbs each to fill out the blue end of the spectrum a bit more

In a 4'x5' grow room
 
Omri said:
That's a nice setup, well done. :)
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Right now its being enjoyed by one single plant thats less than a foot tall :lol:

This was the experiment. Now that it proven to work I'll expand a bit.
I hgave a mind to grow some Naga Morich as well as more Caribbean Reds.
My wife wants me to grow some Thai Dragons as well.
 
Skyjerk said:
Right now its being enjoyed by one single plant thats less than a foot tall :lol:

This was the experiment. Now that it proven to work I'll expand a bit.
I hgave a mind to grow some Naga Morich as well as more Caribbean Reds.
My wife wants me to grow some Thai Dragons as well.
Click to expand...
I have Nagas under 6500K lights and they're beautiful.
 
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