Gourdmasters Grow Log for 2013/14

Hey all, this is my first real post on the pepper, and my ever grow log so bear with me if i seem to fumble a bit. This is also my first year trying to grow some exotic peppers. My dad and i have been growing thai peppers and hawaiian purple peppers for several years, and i also have a red scotch bonnet and a bhut jolokia plant i purchased from the county fair. I cook with the thai peppers all the time, and the red bonnets have been a treat.
 
I ordered ten varieties from a couple different sellers: devils tongue, chocolate scotch bonnets, satans kiss, cherry bomb, aji amerillo, jamaican yellow mushrooms, bishops crown, chocolate bhuts, aji dulce and sweet apple peppers.
 
I intend to keep 3 of each of these plants in my back yard (yes, i know about open pollination!) im not overly concerned about harvesting seeds. I have at least a couple friends who will take some excess plants of the seeds i germinate so i can keep different species away from each other, or even try to coax some hybrids!
 
Here ill keep track of my germination, seedlings, growth and pruning. I live in a hardiness zone 10b in southern california, so im going to try overwintering these plants outdoors. This hasnt been a problem for the plants ive got already, but i know some of these peppers can be rather finicky. So, with all that out of the way i suppose, lets do the first post!
 
I began germination last week monday, 3 seeds of each variety in a damp paper towel in a ziploc, easy peasy. Checked em all out today and had a couple results!
 
 

 
One aji, two of the jamaicans, but one started to mold out, and all 3 of the satans kiss had sprouted. Put the ungerminated ajis back, tossed the dead jamaican and replaced it with a couple fresh ones, which ill check on in another week. Anyways i put the successes in some 5 gallon pots, got some potting soil and mixed some pumice into the bottom half then topped it off and buried the seeds about an inch down.
 

 
Ill be checking the rest of the seeds every few days and ill log successful germinations along the way, ill also do my best to answer any questions or comments about what im doing and how im going about it. I hosted these two images on imgur, but maybe i should just open a photobucket and start building an album there, who knows. Anyway ill keep updating when i have something to show.
 
I did cut one of my thai peppers back down to a nub and tore it out of its pot. No, not an act of murder, i put it in a bonsai pot. Would this be an appropriate place to keep track of that plants progress as well?

 

[magicpepper]

just noticed you posted just before me, i like the look of the choc bonnet, but it would be cooler if it had the true bonnet shape, cant wait to see it fully ripe
 
 
edit: it is very possible you need to add more, being in pots its hard to tell, because some plants use more, and some use less. so if it was me id give them some food asap, and see how that works. also check to see how damp the soil is, i know you've been growing for years but we are human and we all make mistakes lol. a soil moisture meter is pretty cheap as well. i love them

 

[gourdmaster]

yeah, these are still early season peppers i guess too, hopefully a good push in july/august will have some truer shapes
 
 
 
some kind of black bug swarming on some flower buds, found only on the one satans kiss plant, just clipped off and destroyed the infested growth

caribbean goat pepper plant, super vigorous and healthy, has one small, very bonnet shaped pod

this is a peach scorpion, it has some weak looking new growth

top-down of the chocolate scorpion plant, its got a lot of buds but none of the flowers have set so far

the yellow 7 pot/yellow trinidad scorpion cross, there has been the most aphid activity on the plant, new growth looks burnt/curled, dropped buds but some might bloom

 

[magicpepper]

looking at your pics and the yellowing of the leaves and massive curl, id say it was a nute deficiency and possible over watering, in my opinion, and as for those black bugs they are mites of some sort, good thing cutting off the infested parts but look every where to make sure, a good dose of dawn dish soap and water in a spray bottle will do wonders, it kills most mites dead on contact.
 
edit: also possibly a calcium deficiency, add some cal/mag to your water, it might help the new growth leaves to be nice and flat like they should be

 

[gourdmaster]

i guess i can let them dry out a bit longer than i normally do, then try ferting, last time i dosed with the fish imulsion the new growth started curling in a different way, all bunched up
 
 
bhut jolokia is the other 1 year old plant that i think i clipped bakc too far last year. since i clipped off the top of the stem, which was rotting, its been doing a lot better. green healthy new growth and it has already set one pod

 
 
 
thats pretty much what i have pictures of right now, ill get some of the other plants in a week or two and see if theres any change after letting them dry out, and ill have to soap spray everything really well too, thanks for the advice

 

[magicpepper]

no problem, i try lol.  curling with the fish emulsion?  i dont know why it would do that, maybe to much? i cant really say. but id definitely try adding some calcium to the water, get some bone meal and put it into the water, it "should"  take the curl out of the new growth.    look forward to seeing how things turn out. im sure some of the pro's can help even more then what i tried as well

by the way what is your soil mix and how well does it drain and how much water does it retain? i have found out the hard way hot peppers especially the superhots do not like wet feet, they love warm feet but not wet, most people on here say to give the plant a good soaking once a week. and if you let them dry out 80% to 90% they grow faster. they are the pro's lol

oh for the watering thing, try waiting until the leaves start to droop a little, then soak them until water comes out of the bottom, if the yellowing is from over watering, the leaves should go back to green in no time. give it a shot, it couldnt hurt anything, just dont wait to water them until the whole plant droops or dies lol

 

[gourdmaster]

short update; first of my peppers starting to turn! Chocolate scotch bonnet

 
goat pepper is growing rapidly, a litte more than twice as large as it was last week, with a very scotch bonnet shape

 
the yellow scorpion/yellow 7 pot cross is still having problems with its new growth being burnt. a saw a couple mites on it today too. I just sprayed with dish soap a few days ago, do you guys think itd be damaging to spray too often? im not sure what else i can do right now, i also have spinsad pesticide concentrate i could mix up, i havent used that in a long while.
 
Also started some seeds this week; yellow brain strain, giant orange rocoto, 7 pot jonah, and kingleers yellow devils tongue. all these seeds came from KingLeerUK, im going to pull up some of the plants that havent been growing at all to make room for some that hopefully will

 

[gourdmaster]

hey guys, quck update. I got bonemeal on tuesday and put 1-1.5 tbsp on the top of the soil in each pot, worked it in to the top inch or so and watered. pulled a couple sickly/stunted plants to make room for new starts, when i remixed the soil in the pots i found the bottoms to be very wet, i think i need to drill better drainage holes. This may have been causing me some of the issues ive been having. And a few more pics;
 
Peach Scorpion setting pods

 
Goat Pepper getting bigger, also setting more pods

 
MoA starting to turn, not very well shaped but still hoping for a good push during summer

 
Peach Habalokia babies

 
Chocolate Trinidad Scorpion going nuts with flowers

 
Chocolate Scotch Bonnet was bright red, i should have let it sit on the plant for a few more days but i picked it and cut it into my bowl of stew

 
 
ill update in a few days and see if that bonemeal helps with some problems, and drillng better drainage holes will probably help too

 

[Zoli]

Try watering your plants only when they show signs of thirst and start to wilt. Yellowing should go away.

 

[gourdmaster]

yeah zoli i try, the problem is most likely that my mix doesnt drain well, the bottom of the pots stays really wet i dont think i mixed my mix enough. heh.
 
i bought some ladybugs a few days ago and theyre colonizing well, i saw some larvae running around today as well as beetles everywhere.
 
One of the pods from my hawaiian purples has an interesting mutation, usually they ripen through, cream, peach, orange, to red as the pic from the first page shows, but this one has dark purple blotches still while ripening, id like to grow this out

 

[gourdmaster]

couple pics for today, firt is some baby peach habalokias

 
goat peppers doing well

 
a ladybug poses on a peach scorpion, the ladybugs still have a home here, a couple dozen at least are still around

 
and my arabian jamine plant has some flowers open, there are a lot of flower bud closters that will be openning all summer, im super happy. this plant is at least 5 years old and this is the first year is gotten flowers like this, last year it had one cluster and only two flowers

 

[KingLeerUK]

I love the mutated Hawaiian Purple you've got going.