GyO = 2025 = BACK IN BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL PLANTS MATTER

HELLO AND WELCOME ALL TO THE 2025 EDITION, WHERE I GO ALL BLACK EVERYTHING:

in the past, i have been enamoured with the lovely look of purple/black foliage plants. my mystery plant from two years ago was a pleasant surprise as it should have been possibly a purple reaper, but turned out to be something much different-looking which kept me interested to see it play out. the peppers themselves were nothing great, but the plant was so magnificent-looking.

therefore, it's always been back of mind to want to try more black/purple plant varieties. so this is the year and we're going full tilt with 11 different types in this theme, all of whom are purported in the 1M+ heat range and are strikingly beautiful from the website's pictures which feature either or both of: dark limbs/foliage, antho-mottled pod colour.

sowing shall occur mid-late january for pubescens, and throughout february for everything else.

2025 SEEDS - BLACK BEAUTIES - ALL ARE 1-1.5M SHU

Black Panther Orange
Red Gum Tiger x Chocolate Naga Brains
Pimento De Neyde x Carolina Reaper Orange
Pimenta Da Das Fio
Carolina Reaper Dark Magma
7-Pot Bubble Gum x Jays Ghost Pink Purple
Orion
Mojo Black
7-Pot Bubble Gum Dream
Bhut x Neyde
Black Bhut Jolokia

(example pics from website further down, so that what you see next is my cover pic)

because of course i have to grow a few non-black ones out of my personal catalogue, but i am going to try to keep it under 25% of the total plants. a few "staples" and some retries of types that failed or underperformed in the past. i am not actually deliberately trying to "black-breed" any of these, but my attitude is they'll be placed in the very situation depicted above and come what may. and we'll only know if i try to grow those seeds in a future year and get lucky not to pick seeds from a self-pollinated pod. the ones that i'm currently thinking of including:

planned-
Rocoto (Rio H, EPFH, Giant Yellow) - i can't not? just 2-3 seeds of each and see what makes it, and as the earliest sow to ease me into the season
Scotch Brains Yellow - for sure, as it's highly touted here and i was excited for it but all failed on me last year
Sugar Rush Peach - good chance, to represent milder-level peppers as no or few annuums to be grown, also might be cool if it gets black genes (if it's even possible with baccatum crossed by chinense, i have no clue on that stuff)

considering-
Fatalii - did well for me last year and pods were full of heat and nicely shaped, and if it went black i think it would look fierce
Apocalypse Chocolate Scorpion - nice brown large-pod superhot
7BBG x Lava Chocolate - nice brown large-pod superhot
Oracle - only grown in a poor year and purportedly 2M+ SHU
C22 - only grown in a poor year and purportedly 2M+ SHU
Dragons Breath x Brain Strain - also only grown in a poor year
Bahamian Goat - truly one of the goats
and these are just off the top of my head, once i go look in my seed bag i may find some additions or substitutions.

AFOREMENTIONED EXAMPLE PICS:
WHAT DO Y'ALL THINK?


MEMES:



I HOPE EVERYONE HAD A GOOD HOLIDAY SEASON, AND LET'S LOOK FORWARD TO THE GOOD TIMES AHEAD. #GROWYOUROWN!

comments and suggestions are always welcome. otherwise, next episode will be when the first seeds are down (and hopefully soon up).

(c) GyO productions, LLC. MMXXV All rights reserved.

 

[growyourown]

welcome back, folks, and thanks for watching!

the big batch of seeds hit the cells on the night of the 16th (and some are already up now, since i slacked so long on completing and posting this - i really need to get better at glogging).

here is what was sown:

as you see, i was forced to choose a few extra non-dark varieties because although i mathematically had room to fit 7x each of my dark ones, keeping each type to a "six-pack" in the grid is much easier to look at and keep track of.

here is the layout of the trays:

and here's what we have so far for life on the earlier starts:
(rear tray is rocotos, front tray tazzies and choc bhutlah)

6/9 tas black, 2/3 giant yellow (third was up but died due to helmet), 3/3 epfh, 2/3 choc bhutlah, 0/3 rio hualaga, 0/3 scotch brains yellow. with the casualty it's 13/24 overall. really pissed off about the brains, and glad i dropped another three on the second sowing. i will have to check my records as to whether i even had any germ on those last year...

i will also have to get the pots ready to up-cup these tazzies.

now for the new ones up as of today:
(eye test: how many can you spot?)

there are 11 (but 2 are helmets thus more camouflaged). the other 40-cell only has one up and it's a helmet too. and the 24 cells of black and assorted types also nothing up yet. going to go and rotate them on the mats now, something i forgot/was too lazy to ever do in the last ten days.

and an updated pic of the tazzies with many first leaves formed (and a big EPFH in the back tray):
GAME ON, GROWDOWNERS!

wishing all of you the best with your grows. today is that day for me where the first bunch of seeds pop all at once and it is uplifting to see your efforts reward you so wonderfully.

smell ya later,
-GyO

 

[growyourown]

since this post has likes and the issue it was referencing has been fixed, i'll put a dad joke here - my favourite so far from the page-a-day calendar i got this year.

Don't start a pillow fight with Death, unless you're willing to deal with the reaper cushions.


and i guess you could omit the pillow stuff for a pepper joke like:

Don't eat the hottest of hot peppers unless you can handle the reaper-cussions.

 

[growyourown]

quick update as well with a number of additional hooks showing today:

totals:

just mspaint-ing screenshots is the way to go for now, since i'm recording it all anyway and the copy/paste of cells did not work, but maybe i need to emulate the thp background colour in the white space though so it's not as offensive to your eyes.

but i, of course, use dark mode...