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+ growyourown + 2023 + YEAR OF ALL FIVE +

what up pepper peeps? your boy growyourown here with a bold proclamation:

i challenged myself to try to grow all the five major pepper species for the first time; wish me luck!
(and give me advice, i could use it)

to begin, let's forget what i did last year.
(just like i said last year)

doing the big five became the goal because there are so many pepper types and flavours i have not experienced before, and that by working within those parameters for this year, i have a chance to grow and discover types of peppers which are mild enough that my wife may also enjoy.
(she taps out at habanero heat, but said she'd try the 20-30k range, hoping she might step up to 50k)

let's take a look at what we got going on:

BACCATUM
  • Aji Cito – 50k -hottest baccatum has to offer
  • Aji Omnicolour – 20k -nice looking plant/pods, milder
  • Sugar Rush Peach – 15-25k -very good reputation, milder
FRUTESCENS
  • Purira – 300k -had no ideas about any specific frutescens, just went for the heavyweight heat
  • Lotah Bih – 300k -above reasoning, plus "granddaddy of ghost/superhot" hype on website
PUBESCENS
  • Rio Hualaga Orange – 100k -name is familiar, believe it's a popular rocoto among members here
  • Ecuadorian Pepper from Hell – 50k -cool name, and they were selling it cheaper than other C.pubes
ANNUUM
  • Florida Bird – 100k (free seeds) -free, and quite hot
  • Hawk's Claw – 30-50k (free seeds) -free, cayenne-esque
  • Bolivian Rainbow – 30k -nice looking plant/pods, milder

that's what i bought specifically for this year. plan is to start a 12-cell tray for each category above.

obviously that's only four species, so also on board will be (2 or 3 12-cell trays comprised of):

CHINENSE
  • Alligator Tongue – 100-???k (free seeds) -free, give 'em a whirl, heat level on site literally said "hotter than hab but less than ghost"
  • undecided others from my seed stock -choose several types and do 2-3 seeds of each
MORE ANNUUM
  • generic jalapenos -but i've never actually grown them from seed, waffling on whether to once again just buy cheap greenhouse seedlings in may
  • "Portugal" (x hab?) -i grew some plants called simply "portugal" in 2021, my mom took some pods and grew their seeds in 2022 which according to her were much hotter than what i gave her so i suspect a cross and habs pretty much surrounded where these were located. the portugal pods were typical annuum a la hungarian wax with big broad shoulders leading straight down into a long curled body, but the pods she gave me back (from which i got these seeds) were the same curled shape but not as wide around at the top and with a bit of a corkscrew/twist up near the shoulders instead of the usual stark straightness of wax or jalapeno.

!!_BONUS ROUND_!!

WILD / ANN. V. GLAB.

  • Dwarf Chili Tepin – 50k -free seeds from 2021, never tried yet, what better time than when doing a big variety grow?
peppermeme.jpg

should be fun; my plan is to start the first round of seeds (all but the annuums) the last weekend of january, then do a couple trays of the annuums a few weeks later when some of the first batch are done sprouting. i don't want my plants to outgrow the 4" pots i have before it's time to put them out again, so i hope starting this much later (i was very eager in 2022) will be the sweet spot, but i have zero experience with bacc. and pube. so i hope my timing works out considering my indoor conditions and later my outdoor environment.

thanks to everyone joining me on this journey. next we speak i will have sown something...

toasting to a prosperous 2023, and wishing great success to all!
 
I like your style sir 😅

C. baccatum are generally fast growing, so maybe wait a bit longer before sowing them if you don't want to end up with an indoor jungle in April!
 
thanks for the tip of the cap,

and for the advice; i appreciate it as i'm still a novice at this, especially these types i've no experience with.

i might still start earlier the sugar rush peach, as with all peaches they take forever to ripen sometimes.

and if you are in quebec i trust you on what you say probably applies to me as well.

2023 rock on, brothers and sisters
 
Some years back I did a baccatum season. From what I remember of it, the aji cito was definitely not the hottest one. Aji lemon drop that grew right next to it was hotter and I believe the omnicolor was even hotter! But don't take my word for it, I wasn't a very experienced grower back then (that is not to say that I'm a specialist now)...
 
so here's what went down monday night (was too tired after blowing snow out of my driveway to drop them sunday):

FRUTESCENS
  • 5x Lotah Bih – 300k (P/2023)
  • 5x Purira – 300k (P/2023)
PUBESCENS
  • 5x Rio Hualaga Orange – 100k (P/2023)
  • 5x Ecuadorian Pepper from Hell – 50k (P/2023)
WILD / ANN. V. GLAB.
  • 4x Dwarf Chili Tepin – 50k (P/2021)
BACCATUM
  • 6x Sugar Rush Peach – 15-25k (P/2023)
CHINENSE
  • 2x ? Purple foliage mystery (supposed to have been DBxBS or possibly Reaper) (G/2022)
  • 2x Chocolate Bhutlah (G/2021)
  • 2x 7-pot Oracle – 2+M (P/2022)
  • 3x Dragon's Breath x Brain Strain ? (G/2022)
  • 3x Bahamian Goat (G/2021)
  • 2x C22 (G/2022)
  • 2x 7-pot Lava Chocolate x Bubblegum ? (G/2022)
  • 2x Apocalypse Chocolate Scorpion ? (G/2022)
  • 3x Alligator Tongue – 100+k (P/2023)
  • 3x Jay's Peach Ghost x Bhut Jolokia White – 1.2M (P/2022)
  • 3x Bombay Morich Orange – 1.2M (P/2022)
  • 3x Borg 9 Yellow – 1.7M (P/2022)
NOTES:
-(P/G 202x) indicates seed origin, either from Purchase or from a Grow in that year
-"?" indicates a seed mix-up possibility, either from the original planting or eventual harvesting/preparing of seeds
-exception is "? purple foliage mystery" which grew out looking nothing like anything i had bought
-none of these crosses are my own, anything with an "x" is seeds i bought as a crossbreed
-all purchased seeds came from atlantic pepper seeds (pepperseeds.ca)


and then just for fun and added variety, i also started some seeds of cannabis, which i have never attempted to grow before this year. i don't smoke enough (and the stores here sell it so cheap) that i never needed bother to try to grow-my-own, but as i was given some seeds from a relative, why not give it a go?

here is the matrix of my cell trays, which i hope to diligently update as the sprouts emerge:
seedtrayspic.png


next round in a few weeks will include all the annuum varieties and the other baccatums.

wish me lots of hooks!

-rob
 
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thanks @PaulG

and i have some hooks to announce already! only the "non-peppers" so far, but 7/12 were up. a couple were wearing helmets that i successfully removed, and one lil guy had ejected his whole self from the soil so i tried to stick his root back under the dirt to see if he can make a comeback.
 
quick update, as we have had some action this week - sugar rush peach being the clear winner:

seedtrays23.png


no true leaves have emerged yet on any of the peppers, but i am happy that every day since sunday has brought at least one more seed to life.

8/60 peppers up after 10 days. not gangbusters, but hopefully there will be more showing up each day.

i won't necessarily be posting (or caring) as meticulously about the pot plants, but 9/12 have emerged, of which 2 have since died (the aforementioned ejected one and then i had forgotten to water for two days after removing the dome and 2 were laying right down, of which only 1 rebounded). the remaining 5 that popped earliest are leggy AF though, because i also didn't start my grow light up until after the weekend when the sugar rushes were popped.

this weekend i need to sort out how to go about up-potting the ones that are out.

thanks for tuning in
-rob
 
another quick one. this weekend has been great. it's more like gangbusters now:

seedtrays23.png


FEB. 4, 5, 6, 7
  • (B) Sugar Rush Peach (1 each day, total of 4)
FEB. 8
  • (AvG) Dwarf Chili Tepin
  • (C) Borg 9 Yellow
FEB. 9
  • (P) Ecuadorian Pepper from Hell
  • (C) Bombay Morich Orange
FEB. 10
  • (AvG) Dwarf Chili Tepin
  • (C) ? Purple Foliage Mystery (2022)
  • (C) ? Purple Foliage Mystery (2022)
  • (C) 7-Pot Oracle
  • (C) 7-Pot Oracle
  • (C) Borg 9 Yellow
FEB. 11
  • (P) Ecuadorian Pepper from Hell
  • (C) DBxBS? (2022)
  • (C) DBxBS? (2022)
  • (C) Bahamian Goat (2021)
  • (C) C22 (Peach?) (2022)
  • (C) 7LCxBBG? (2022)
  • (C) JPGxBJW
FEB. 12
  • (P) Rio Hualaga Orange
  • (AvG) Dwarf Chili Tepin
  • (C) Bahamian Goat (2021)
  • (C) C22 (Peach?) (2022)
  • (C) 7LCxBBG? (2022)
  • (C) Alligator Tongue
  • (C) JPGxBJW
  • (C) Bombay Morich Orange
TOTAL: 29/60

still no true leaves out on any peppers, so i have not up-potted anything yet. i may still do the cannabis ones shortly, as i said they are quite leggy and need to get their stems buried. however, super bowl. so it may wind up being a future day's task if i don't get on it right away.

my first time growing baccatum, but the cotys on the sugar rush peach are like massive. is that normal?

so the only disappointment, so far, is that not a single frutescens has come out yet. everything else is developing nicely enough, though.

go eagles! i don't actually care about football, but the super bowl is an excuse to eat indulgently. jalapeno popper dip is on the menu traditionally for us.
 
what's new since feb 12th's post: at the time i was composing my last update on super bowl sunday, my daughter was busy messing with my plant table. only trays 3 and 6 were affected, as all the others still had the domes on at that point and evaded her immediate interest.

decimated were the weed plants, as all the leggy bastards were uprooted and laying about the table. as i had said i might anyways do, this called for the immediate re-potting of those who were now not in any dirt. 2/7 of the original 9 were still tiny and hadn't been ejected from their cells, but they nevertheless failed to make any growth. and of the 5 larger ones i transplanted, all had to be buried right to the bottom of 4" pots for how tall the stems were, and a day later all but two had given up on making a go of it. two pairs of true leaves on the survivors, so we are looking okay there. i'll probably cast a couple more seeds of "big green" down when i do my next wave this weekend.

the peppers living in tray 3 made out okay, thankfully. two uprooted SRP were successfully put back in their cells and survived. the other two SRP each had a coty ripped off (oldest plants, biggest cotys, daughter must have grabbed it from higher up so that the tug ripped off only the coty instead of pulling the whole plant up), but have grown back as well. all of those are showing first pairs of true leaves now. one of my ?-purple-mystery was completely M.I.A. (luckily not the one with the dark complexion, which survived transplant back to its original cell) and one of two oracle never recovered as well.

resulting from this insurrection, i have erected a level 3 force field around the area (cardboard and binder clips). i had previously had a level 1 force field installed (hopes and prayers), which clearly was insufficient. the fortifications:
IMG_20230214_211156.jpg


but on the front of new germinations, the gangbusters have left:
FEB. 13
  • (C) Bombay Morich Orange
FEB. 14
  • (P) Rio Hualaga Orange
  • (C) JPGxBJW
FEB. 15
FEB. 16

  • (P) Rio Hualaga Orange
  • (P) Rio Hualaga Orange
FEB. 17
FEB. 18

  • (P) Rio Hualaga Orange
FEB. 19
FEB. 20
FEB. 21
FEB. 22

total still alive: 32/60


trays: front 1,2,3 rear 4,5
IMG_20230220_195948.jpg

seedtrays23.png

cool pic JPGxBJW with tri-coty on its first day above ground (never had this before; also i am way zoomed in, those perlite pieces are only a few mm in size)
IMG_20230214_204446.jpg


this guy patrolling, shown next to the SRP:
IMG_20230220_200007.jpg


the highlight so far: rio hualaga is a real star doing 5/5, so with any luck i will get a few pods by winter.

next steps:
- re-seed all frutescens due to ZERO germ rate, wtf!
- seed a few trays of annuum and baccatum
- up-pot a bunch of the ones that are growing well



thanks for reading about my plants getting torn up. i love my daughter more than my plants though (she just needs to learn to not touch them).

next seeds going in to soak friday to be planted this weekend. giddy up!
 
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kinda quiet here, but on the weekend i did up-pot all the survivors of the original six trays into 4 inch pots. only drowned one due to a loose soil mix and high water flow out of the watering can, but a couple others were close. here's the roster:

in 4” pots now:

(AvG)
Dwarf Chili Tepin x2
(P) Rio Hualaga Orange x3 (from a perfect 5/5 dammit, one drowned, one wilted)
(P) Ecuadorian Pepper from Hell x1 (+one 90% sure to die)
(B) Sugar Rush Peach x4
(C) ? Purple Foliage Mystery (2022) x1
(C) 7-Pot Oracle x1
(C) DBxBS? (2022) x2
(C) Bahamian Goat (2021) x2
(C) C22 (Peach?) (2022) x2
(C) 7LCxBBG? (2022) x2
(C) Alligator Tongue x1
(C) JPGxBJW x3
(C) Bombay Morich Orange x3
(C) Borg 9 Yellow x2

total alive: 29.1/60

then that same night, i put the new crop of ann., bacc., frut. into cells. included some re-seed attempts at ecuadorian pepper from hell and alligator tongue due to only one seed of each taking, as well as a few more cannabis (winner, one's already up):
seedtrays23-2.png


excited to see what's poppin. the table is looking nicely loaded with the 30 pots and 4 germ trays, sorry no picture at this time, but everyone seems happy (and the force field is holding).

mad greets,
-GyO
 
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