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Growing in the white stuff

Hello all. I figured I start a grow log. It will be mostly for notational purposes. I will need much advice for growing on the Canadian prairie. Today marks the arrival of my final seed order. I have my lights all set up but still need a bit of soil mix.
 
The goal here is to produce peppers that are started indoors but will hit maturity outside. 
 
Last year I started using pots and achieved moderate success. This year I will expand the collection of pots and start in on constructing hoop housing in April with the hopes of getting the plants outside earlier to take advantage of the long days near the solstice. Last year I was able to get the white jolokia to mature but not anything more pigment. 
 
I'd like to get into making powders this year. I would like to branch out from making pickles and jelly's. Depending on my successes or lack thereof I may try something more exotic in my 85 day growing window like a Viper. On paper I think it could work...
 
The list so far:
 
White Bhut Jolokia
B's Bullet (Chinense Ghost Cross)
Jamaican Yellow Mushroom
Orange Ghost (hybrid from Atlantic Pepper Seeds) 
Mustard Trinidad Scorpion
Sugar Rush Peach
Leutshaur Paprika
Urfa Biber (no relation to Justin Bieber)
Yellow Hun replacement known as the brown Freddy's Fryer an annum variety.
Locally climatized variety of orange scotch bonnet (re:not very hot) 
Paper lantern habenero. Still considering this one. 
Bulgarian Carrot
Cherry Bomb
 
Most of the list is new to me outside the w.jolokia, cherry bomb, and orange s.b. Advice as always is welcome. 
I am not trying to grow the hottest pepper. I am trying to grow the best peppers for my cooking which involves pickling, salsas, and a custom rub blend for ribs. Something to add a little zip. I have a couple of spots one of which is behind a 40ft boxelder which suffers for sun exposure and the other which has sun but suffers from plow winds. Will be prone to dessication and snapping limbs. At least the tomatoes were despite being staked and tied. 
 
I will apologize in advance for mixing the pepper content with the non pepper related content. I tend to garden in smaller spaces so it all gets scruntched together. For reference last year's pots, last year's gardens and yes I was even dumb enough to try an early variety of corn. Oh the  joys of being ignorant! All done in drought with vermicompost and a bit of boundless optimism. 
 

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All the best Zips...we have the same fight ahead of us so I will be here to cheer you on all season long. All the best for 2019!!
 
Edit - I should add that this is the model I bought last year though I paid about $30 less ofr it from same seller on Ebay in the fall -https://www.aosom.ca/outdoor-living/outsunny-portable-walk-in-large-greenhouse.html
 
I had to reinforce it as its certainly a get what you pay for item...is a seller on Ebay called "Saveonmany" who sells a similar material hoophouse for about $80 I think it was couple days ago I saw. But even just builing smaller ones you can take on and off your flower beds really help alot I found for my tomatos. Simplce PVC hoops from one side to the other with plastic over the tops worked fine...I even took some young Elder saplings and did the same thing.
 
Zippy said:
Hello all. I figured I start a grow log. It will be mostly for notational purposes. I will need much advice for growing on the Canadian prairie. Today marks the arrival of my final seed order. I have my lights all set up but still need a bit of soil mix.
 
The goal here is to produce peppers that are started indoors but will hit maturity outside. 
 
Last year I started using pots and achieved moderate success. This year I will expand the collection of pots and start in on constructing hoop housing in April with the hopes of getting the plants outside earlier to take advantage of the long days near the solstice. Last year I was able to get the white jolokia to mature but not anything more pigment. 
 
I'd like to get into making powders this year. I would like to branch out from making pickles and jelly's. Depending on my successes or lack thereof I may try something more exotic in my 85 day growing window like a Viper. On paper I think it could work...
 
The list so far:
 
White Bhut Jolokia
B's Bullet (Chinense Ghost Cross)
Jamaican Yellow Mushroom
Orange Ghost (hybrid from Atlantic Pepper Seeds) 
Mustard Trinidad Scorpion
Sugar Rush Peach
Leutshaur Paprika
Urfa Biber (no relation to Justin Bieber)
Yellow Hun replacement known as the brown Freddy's Fryer an annum variety.
Locally climatized variety of orange scotch bonnet (re:not very hot) 
Paper lantern habenero. Still considering this one. 
Bulgarian Carrot
Cherry Bomb
 
Most of the list is new to me outside the w.jolokia, cherry bomb, and orange s.b. Advice as always is welcome. 
I am not trying to grow the hottest pepper. I am trying to grow the best peppers for my cooking which involves pickling, salsas, and a custom rub blend for ribs. Something to add a little zip. I have a couple of spots one of which is behind a 40ft boxelder which suffers for sun exposure and the other which has sun but suffers from plow winds. Will be prone to dessication and snapping limbs. At least the tomatoes were despite being staked and tied. 
 
I will apologize in advance for mixing the pepper content with the non pepper related content. I tend to garden in smaller spaces so it all gets scruntched together. For reference last year's pots, last year's gardens and yes I was even dumb enough to try an early variety of corn. Oh the  joys of being ignorant! All done in drought with vermicompost and a bit of boundless optimism. 

Nice list, liking the ghost varieties. Have you grown all these previously or all new?
 
Thank you Matt for the link it is much appreciated! The plan was to just get a run of plastic and run all my pots as a single row down the walk out to the back. That way I could set rebar into the grass on either side for a pvc hoop. 
 
GPR, I grew B's Bullet last year. I got a total of 3 pods off it. I saved the seed. The pods were red so I hope the seeds reached maturity. It definitely needs another 3 to 4 weeks. Great aroma with a hint of smoke to it. Also grew an orange s.b. and w. jolokia, along with cherry bombs last year. The seed of the cherry bombs I have is so prolific I am getting 100% germination and the plant is loaded and ripe at 56 days. I am thinking of starting these things in the ground this year and seeing where it gets me. The more annums I can grow as seeds instead of transplants the more I can concentrate on the serious varieties. Everything else is new. 
 
The Orange Ghost is there to push the limit. Jason from APS developed this variety for zones 4b. He was able to cut about two weeks off the maturity so I wanted to give it a chance. Will it produce in 3A? I don't know but pushing limits will let me know if I can attempt a 100 day pepper. If it succeeds I have chili salt recipe waiting in the wings. Technically I have another dozen or so varieties I'd like to try but am limited on space so it will have to be a multi year endeavor. 
 
:welcome: to the glogosphere for the 2019 season, Colin!
Looking forward to seeing your northern grow.  I have a lot
of respect for our north of the border friends growing chili
peppers in the cold latitudes!
 
Ruid said:
What all white peppers are out there? I've never had a white pod.
I know a few, but that's all. Peruvian White Bullet,
Giant White Habanero, PdNxBMJ, Smooth White
come to mind. I'm sure there are more.
 
 
 
 
PaulG said:
:welcome: to the glogosphere for the 2019 season, Colin!
Looking forward to seeing your northern grow.  I have a lot
of respect for our north of the border friends growing chili
peppers in the cold latitudes!
 
I know a few, but that's all. Peruvian White Bullet,
Giant White Habanero, PdNxBMJ, Smooth White
come to mind. I'm sure there are more.
 
 
 
 

Dont forget aboot the "white lightening bolt" in my grow..here's a link with a pic for those who care. - https://gnarlypods.com/pepper-seeds/90-white-lightning-bolt-seeds.html
 
I will also be growing a White Bhut this year as well.
 
I noticed nobody is growing the red reaper x JPGS. Those are amazing and I'm bummed that I couldn't get any of them this year.
 
Ruid said:
I noticed nobody is growing the red reaper x JPGS. Those are amazing and I'm bummed that I couldn't get any of them this year.
Start a thread with that title and tell folk you are looking for seed.
 
Speaking of thread titles, when I read this one..my first thought was "Well that's a nutty way to fertilize your plants!"
 
Pepper update. Started soaking seeds on the Feb.1st. Did the baggy method and after a rinse in diluted hydrogen peroxide. Could not find a source for KNO3, not locally anyway so I just went ahead with a chamomile tea soak. Jamaican mushrooms popped on day 5. My ghost cross on day 7 and most of the white bhuts on day 8. 
 
So far my 6 of the 9 hotter varieties have germinated. I'm getting about 2/3's germination rate on the varieties I saved from last year. I did get 100% germination on my chocolate habs I received from Superhotpeppers. As for above ground stems, I only have a white bhut and a jamaican mushroom showing so far. Will probably have something worth snapping a photo of by next weekend.
 
I am still waiting on the Mustard Scorpion, APS Orange Ghost, and Yellow Ghost for signs of germination. I knew these varieties would take longer but hey, I'm an impatient guy!
 
The more typical varieties will be started in mid March. I hope I have enough space!
 
 
 
PaulG said:
:welcome: to the glogosphere for the 2019 season, Colin!
Looking forward to seeing your northern grow.  I have a lot
of respect for our north of the border friends growing chili
peppers in the cold latitudes!
 
 
 
Thank you Paul. I am still in the proof of concept phase. This year I will start culinary development of the more successful varieties of pepper. Or said another way, there are a whole lot of varieties that don't wanna ripen in time that I have to weed out.  I'm looking for stop watch peppers. Clock in, clock out - done. 
 
Update. I had about 50% germination on the hottest stuff. 10-12 days was the average. I'm amazed that varieties with less capsaican just grow and do everything faster than the hotter varieties. Yeah I observe geeky stuff like that. I had a few plants come up with the seed casing on and in most cases could not pull it off without damaging the plant. Good thing I grew more than I needed. 
 
I had a seed pack from last year that didn't germinate and wasn't sure if it was the seed. So this year I attempted to germinate the rest of that pack and nada. No yellow ghosts for me this year! 
 
I was happy with my chocolate habs. 100% germination. Unexpected surprise with the vitality of the seed. I will order next year's seeds from Shane at Superhotpeppers if his other varieties got the same kind of vigorousness. 
 
At what point would it be a good idea to start fertilizing? 
 
 
Zippy said:
Pepper update. Started soaking seeds on the Feb.1st. Did the baggy method and after a rinse in diluted hydrogen peroxide. Could not find a source for KNO3, not locally anyway so I just went ahead with a chamomile tea soak. Jamaican mushrooms popped on day 5. My ghost cross on day 7 and most of the white bhuts on day 8. 
 
So far my 6 of the 9 hotter varieties have germinated. I'm getting about 2/3's germination rate on the varieties I saved from last year. I did get 100% germination on my chocolate habs I received from Superhotpeppers. As for above ground stems, I only have a white bhut and a jamaican mushroom showing so far. Will probably have something worth snapping a photo of by next weekend.
 
I am still waiting on the Mustard Scorpion, APS Orange Ghost, and Yellow Ghost for signs of germination. I knew these varieties would take longer but hey, I'm an impatient guy!
 
The more typical varieties will be started in mid March. I hope I have enough space!
 
 
 
Not sure how I missed your Feb 10th update, I was looking forward too seeing how you were coming along.Can't wait to see some pics in the coming weeks Zips.
 
I had some up and down germ rates myself....Overall it was not terrible, but I had to have extra trays hanging around for a few weeks longer then I wanted as some took almost a month to finally pop.
 
I did some Tea soak and peroxide and I think in the end the tea just seem to work out better for some reason.....My last 2 soaks I changed a fw things and put peroxide in with my tea and it worked great...I really won't know if it was just dumb luck till I do some side by side's, maybe when I do my tomatos and sweet peppers I can try that.
 
CDNmatt said:
 
Not sure how I missed your Feb 10th update, I was looking forward too seeing how you were coming along.Can't wait to see some pics in the coming weeks Zips.
 
I had some up and down germ rates myself....Overall it was not terrible, but I had to have extra trays hanging around for a few weeks longer then I wanted as some took almost a month to finally pop.
 
I did some Tea soak and peroxide and I think in the end the tea just seem to work out better for some reason.....My last 2 soaks I changed a fw things and put peroxide in with my tea and it worked great...I really won't know if it was just dumb luck till I do some side by side's, maybe when I do my tomatos and sweet peppers I can try that.
I considered combining the two but was unsure how caustic the peroxide would be if there was a split in the shell casing. I didn't want to risk damaging the internal structure of the seeds so I kept those two functions separate. 
 
This year I'm reducing my tomatoes down to one variety that will be started from seed. I'm giving maximum spacing to the peppers. Next winter I will try more ghosts and even a 7 pot if I can get this year's attempt at a ghost to work. 
 
Update. These hot peppers are so slow. The growth my other peppers do in a day takes these ones 4 to 5 days. I hope they are worth it. I think I am going to have to cull a bit, I got some with the seed head on. This will also make room for the faster stuff known as annums or "batch two".
 

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Off to a great start, Collin!
 
As for your fertilizer question, I usually start 1/2
strength fish fertilizer when the second set of
true leaves start to emerge. A couple of waterings
with half strength, and then full strength until the
6-week potting-up date. Then I start using some 
Mor-Bloom and Silica Blast as well.
 
Good luck going forward, looks like some of your
seedlings are getting close!
 
 
 
Yeah they certainly move alot slower then most things I have grown so I would agree with you on that part Zips. They are coming along though bud which is awesome to see.
 
As Paul touched on you can prolly start giving them some food to help them along abit more, when I hit mine for the first timeI noticed a huge difference after a couple days. My only question is how often do I actually feed them?? So far its been every 10 days give or take, if anyone reading this could chime in would probably help the both of us.
 
Keep it up Zips and looking forward to your next update!!
 
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