HabaneroHead - 2013 - New Hope

Hi Everyone!

I started my season quite early this year... I was making the same mistake...again, and managed to cook my seeds. Despite of that there were 2 Naga Morich seeds germinating,this is the reason I am calling them 'The Survivors'.
At the end of February I was on a business trip to London, my peppers germinated just before of that. When I returned two weeks later, the seedlings were still very small, no improvement was seen, and the leaves were almost completely purple. I was searching on the forum, and I arrived to two possible reasons:
- Suncald: well, it was snowing, and practically it was winter, I really doubt that
- Lack of Phosphorus: caused by the poor soil. Since mine was fine, it wasobviously caused by the too cool soil, which was preventing the uptake of this element
I was giving them some light, and heat, and in two weeks the issue was resolved.
I have the following plants now (30 in total):
- Bhut Jolokia Indian Carbon (8 plants)
- Trinidad Scorpion CARDI Yellow (6)
- Naga Morich (9)
- Red Habanero (8)

I repotted them this week, and 19 of them is wearing 1.4 liter shoes, and 11 of them has 0.75 liter.








A week ago I was starting some more seeds, received from Rick (Stickman), except the Tobago Seasoning :
- Gochu
- Chimayo
- Serrano
- Jalapeno
- Tomatillo
- Tobago Seasoning
- Kurtovska Kapija
- Belcato Kapija

Thanks for watching!
Balázs

 

[stickman]

Hi Balázs
   With the tops gone they should branch like crazy for you. I've got to do some of that with my leggier chiles too. Cheers!

 

[HabaneroHead]

Hi Balázs
   With the tops gone they should branch like crazy for you. I've got to do some of that with my leggier chiles too. Cheers!

 
Hi Rick,
Yeah, it is something which is quite predictable. The same is happening with the planted out peppers. Before planting out, the leaves get big to collect more sunshine (or artificial light). After putting them in dirt, and having direct sunlight, the plant realizes that the big leaves mean more transpiration, even if the plant itself was hardened off. The plant gets sunburn, and those big and healthy leaves will drop off eventually. This is the point when the plant starts pumping out the side branches, and what is more important: smaller leaves. This is what is happening automatically with the plants which hit the dirt, even if they are not topped. The high dose of sunlight does its job. Peppers on the windowsill will not do that normally, they will fork out, and become leggy. With topping them we are forcing them to pump out the side branches.
 
 
19th of May 2013
Side branches are forming, I also realized that they are producing buds in their crown, so I pinched them off... It hurts for me, but it will be good for the plant: it will focus on the new branches, which means more nodes, more buds, flowers, and...pods!
 
The garden feels like a real desert...The peppers are watered practically every single evening. The funny thing is that in the rest of the country it is raining...even today...and we have not seen a drop of rain since 4-5 weeks...but we had 30 Celsius degrees in exchange.
Anyways, even if the ground looks dry, it is not, since it is a clay soil, its colour is misleading, under the surface it is pretty wet, since the plants were watered.
 

 

 
Ghetto hailstorm protection is on: 

 
 
Thanks for watching,
 
Balázs

 

[stickman]

Love the armoring Balázs... Things are very unsettled in the American midwest right now, and I've been hearing of a lot of hail/strong winds/tornadoes out that way. Your pic looks like a cheap and effective method for dealing with the extreme spring weather, though in the case of the folks in "tornado alley" I'd probably stake down the slotted plastic boxes so the wind couldn't carry them away. Your plants are looking nice and sturdy too... they should do well for you!

 

[HabaneroHead]

Hi Rick,
Thank you. Yesterday the rain has arrived, and the boxes helped a lot, since there was a small hailstorm. Of course they would not be effective against tornados, but looking at the news, tornados are destroying way bigger staff (even houses), than these boxes....

 

[JoynersHotPeppers]

Great idea for hail protection! 

 

[HabaneroHead]

Update time :-)
 

 
Gochu

 
Hungarian coloring (black pots) and Kapija (white pots)

 
 
Chimayo

 
Cheers!

 

[stickman]

That's what I like to see Balázs! Looks like things are moving forward at a good pace for you. We had pea-sized hail yesterday afternoon, but only a little. It was mostly just a torrential downpour that lasted about a half hour. 
 
I have Almapaprika and Tomato peppers that are growing quickly... I'll be hitting you up for some recipes pretty soon.
 
Cheers!

 

[HabaneroHead]

That's what I like to see Balázs! Looks like things are moving forward at a good pace for you. We had pea-sized hail yesterday afternoon, but only a little. It was mostly just a torrential downpour that lasted about a half hour. 
 
I have Almapaprika and Tomato peppers that are growing quickly... I'll be hitting you up for some recipes pretty soon.
 
Cheers!

Thanks, Rick! :-)
My Mom called me on Wednesday, that they finally had a whole day of raining, whic is good news. She has already planted some Gochu, Coloring Pepper (Paprika), Bell and Kapia in the ground, which are doing fine due to the rain. We also had some hail, but it was not so big, and arrived with a good amount of rain, so no damage...and of course the ghetto hailstorm protection was on :-)
I am following your glog, and I'm glad to see your success with the Hungarians! Flowers, pods, wow! I have only small plants in my flat (aparting from the superhots), and today morning I realized a bud on one of my Chimayo pepper...I pinched it off immediately, since the plant is just 12 cm tall.
 
Golden Habanero, OW

 
 
Same plant, pods

 
 
Same plant, flowers

 
 
Same plant, look what is growing there! I suppose it is a pepper...wondering from where the seed got into the pot. Looking forward to see what this bastard will be. Wait a second...I got it... I was emptying some pots in which the seeds did not germinate, and put some potting soil into this pot...I just do not remember what it should be :-)

 
 
Trinidad Scorpion CARDI Yellow

 
 
Naga Morich

 
 
They are in 6 liter pots. From left to right: Bhut Indian Carbon, Naga Morich, TS CARDI Yellow, Habanero

 
The non-supers, Belcanto Kapija, Kurtovska Kapija, Gochu, Chimayo, Jalapeno. Rick, thank you again the generous offer!

 
 
Cheers

 

[stickman]

Hi Balázs, i'm glad you like the selection...   It's all looking good my friend, and plants in the ground are surely a bonus! Cheers

 

[HabaneroHead]

Hello Everyone!
 
It's been 2 weeks since my last update.
I was complaining about having no rain for 6 weeks... Well...Almost 3 weeks continious rain/hailstorm was the response to it. The ghetto hailstorm protection was on, and it turned out to be quite useful, since we had hail with almost 1 cm diameter! There was only two Red Habs which were not covered...they look sad now, but they are pumping out the side shoots, and they will recover. With the rain we got a real cold weather, night temps went down to 5 Celsius, and daytime temps went up to 15 Celsius...like in late October... Despite of the rain, due to the cold, the peppers could not grow that much. Now the cold is gone, the temp is staying within the 10-28 Celsius range, which it should be in June. The only plants are doing well in the garden are the weeds...they are trhiving.
 
Entire bed, look at the weeds :-)

 
Close-up

 
Bhut Jolokia Indian Carbon - These plants are the biggest right now

 

 
Unprotected Red Hab - hailstorm damage

 
Cheers!

 

[stickman]

Hi Balázs! Looking at your pics, your chiles haven't grown upwards much, but there's lots of side branches developing on all of them. When you get enough warmth and sun I think they're gonna just explode with new growth! Even the hail damaged plants look very good, and I think you're poised on the edge of a great growing season. Good on ya my friend!
 
I picked one of the Almapaprika to sample... it was about 4cm and yellow with moderately thick flesh and under the stem had a big wad of placenta covered with seeds. I like the taste... sweet pepper flavor with just a hint of heat. I'm definitely looking forward to stuffing and pickling these if I can keep from munching on them when I'm working in the garden!
   Cheers~

 

[WalkGood]

• Very nice looking plant out, they’ll soon jump with warmth and sun
• Great idea on the hail protection
• Beautiful pod on the Golden Hab OW
• All the seedlings look very health & lush
• Wishing you a bumper crop in 2013!
• Have a great weekend!

 

 

[HabaneroHead]

Hi Balázs! Looking at your pics, your chiles haven't grown upwards much, but there's lots of side branches developing on all of them. When you get enough warmth and sun I think they're gonna just explode with new growth! Even the hail damaged plants look very good, and I think you're poised on the edge of a great growing season. Good on ya my friend!
 
I picked one of the Almapaprika to sample... it was about 4cm and yellow with moderately thick flesh and under the stem had a big wad of placenta covered with seeds. I like the taste... sweet pepper flavor with just a hint of heat. I'm definitely looking forward to stuffing and pickling these if I can keep from munching on them when I'm working in the garden!
   Cheers~

 
Hi Rick,
Indeed, my friend, the side branches will rock'n roll soon!  I was pinching off the buds from the plants, since I prefer to get 100 pods a little bit later, than to get 10 quite early... trying to make the plants bigger. It is interesting to compare the plants I put into the ground later: those which had hail damage have grown at least 4 times bigger side branches than the others. They are so simple, and amazing!
I'm glad to hear you have already have your first Hungarian! You will love them pickled, I'm sure, just try not to eat all of them raw!
Looking how the non-supers were setback by the cold weather, I will have ripe pods earlier on my superhots than on the Kapija/Gochu/Chimayo etc plants... Non supers look very sad, and small, I guess it would take another month to recover somehow.

 

• Very nice looking plant out, they’ll soon jump with warmth and sun Thank you, Ramon!
• Great idea on the hail protection Thanks, though thee crates should not stay long outside, since the sun will weaken the plastic, which will eventually break... So I will have to install another protection next year, some shading fabric called Raschel-net.
• Beautiful pod on the Golden Hab OW Thanks again   To be honest I was not really satisfied with it last year... Approx. 5 pods were on it, and even the same type in the ground did not do well. (mold inside, sick plants, small fruits&yield) I just left it during the winter, put it to the windowsill, and let it live :-)
• All the seedlings look very health & lush
• Wishing you a bumper crop in 2013! I wish you the same, and I hope all the hurricanes/tornados will not hit your area, and let your plants thrive!
• Have a great weekend! Same to you, my friend!

 
 

 
I know that right after the rain hoeing is just a waste of time, but I just wanted to loosen the ground around my plants to let the roots breath. I also removed the buds, just like the leaves touching the ground to avoid any infection.
I made two real bad pics with my phone, just right before sundown.
 

 

 
Thanks for watching!
 
Balázs

 

[HabaneroHead]

Hello Everyone!
 
It's been almost 2 weeks I updated my glog, so here I am :-)
The reason for that is I was fighing for my life...we had one week of desert weather....with 98 F daytime temps. Needless to say that we do not have any AC in our flat (within 1 month we are moving), and having 86F during the night is not really confortable...well it is if you'd like to lie in your own sweat.
I am now sitting on a train heading to my parents. Hungary is improving...there is free wifi on the train, but the aircondition is not working.
 
Tomorrow I will post pics about the in-ground peppers, till then please check out the indoor ones below.
 
I have 4 plants (Bhut IC, TS CARDI Y., Naga Morich, Habanero) in 1.5 gallon pots, and they are doing file.
All of them were topped (the crown was removed), and they responded separately to this method. 3 of them started bushing out, but the Bhut became real leggy. I believe she responded to the excess Nitrogen with this, since last year when I was applying a lot of cow manure in the pot of the Bhut, it did the same. This year I applied worm humus, and I can see the difference on the others. It is a miracle, I have healthier plants than ever.
 
I have non supers, too. They became real leggy, but they have plenty of nodes, and I think they will be bushier later. I have Jalapeno, Gochus, Chimayo, Kurtovska (the biggest), Belcanto Kapija.
 

 

 

 

 
Thanks for watching,
 
Balázs

 

[WalkGood]

They're looking very lush in that windowsill, great pics!

 

[stickman]

Looking good Balázs! Hope you get your move done soon so you can put your plants outside in the sun. Cheers!

 

[DocNrock]

Balazs, firstly, thank you for the info regarding the Rapires F-1 in my glog.  That is really helpful.  I love the term "economic ripeness!"  Makes perfect sense.
 
Your grow is looking great.  I followed your grow last year and look forward to following this one, as well.  You have a great variety of supers and non-supers...with a lot of plants in total! 
 
Love the tubing to water the root zone and totally dig the "ghetto hail protection!"  Sorry to see that some of the plants got hail damage, but it sounds like they are just going to get bushier because of it.  Love to see everything coming up in the garden space.  Hopefully you can keep yourself cooled off during the summer months!

 

[MisterNo]

Hey neighbour

Your plants are looking great, don't worry about non supers, they gonna catch up with new growth quickly.

I feel for you about the weather, I've been having same problems this week, it's hot as hell here. But we are up for a refreshment next week, with 65 to 70 F temps and 60 litres of rain, hope it will refresh you too

 

[HabaneroHead]

They're looking very lush in that windowsill, great pics!

 
Thank you, Ramon!

Looking good Balázs! Hope you get your move done soon so you can put your plants outside in the sun. Cheers!

Thank you, Rick! I can't wait!
 

Balazs, firstly, thank you for the info regarding the Rapires F-1 in my glog.  That is really helpful.  I love the term "economic ripeness!"  Makes perfect sense.
 
Your grow is looking great.  I followed your grow last year and look forward to following this one, as well.  You have a great variety of supers and non-supers...with a lot of plants in total! 
 
Love the tubing to water the root zone and totally dig the "ghetto hail protection!"  Sorry to see that some of the plants got hail damage, but it sounds like they are just going to get bushier because of it.  Love to see everything coming up in the garden space.  Hopefully you can keep yourself cooled off during the summer months!

Well, I was reading these terms on a Hungarian webpage. I was just translating them. :-) But yes, it makes sense. Harvesting peppers in their green stage might be weird, but in case of these peppers it means that they are crunchy, juicy and it is their best state to be harvested. If you would like to harvest seeds, that's another story, but I can assure you they won't taste as good as green. Have you tried them?
Thank you, it is nice to see that you are reading my glog, just like I am reading yours. I would like to try new superhot varieties next year, maybe some 7 Pot or chocholate types, but this year (if God helps me), the 30 superhot plants will keep me more than busy.
Tomorrow I am going to try out those tubes. Today we had a storm, which brought a lot of rain, so today I can give them some Epsom salt and fertilizer, to give them a good start.
 

Hey neighbour

Your plants are looking great, don't worry about non supers, they gonna catch up with new growth quickly.

I feel for you about the weather, I've been having same problems this week, it's hot as hell here. But we are up for a refreshment next week, with 65 to 70 F temps and 60 litres of rain, hope it will refresh you too

 
Hello neighbour!
Thank you for the kind words, I hope they will be bushy, soon. The issue is that I do not have bigger pots for them, so they have to do the magic in the current one. :-)
Man, this heat is killing me... I understand that mother nature fired up the oven, but when we have 37 Celsius outside, we have 30 inside. This is why I cannot wait to be in the office, again...under aircondition :-)
Yeah, they forcasted storms for the next week, which actually started today...we had a big storm, bringing almost 10 cm rain, and practically hammering the small non-supers into the ground in the garden. The good thing is that even though they are lying on the ground, they are not broken, just could not stand the strong wind. Hopefully they will recover soon. I will post pictures later.
I wish you some refreshing rain, too, but without hail and strong wind!
I made these pictures during the day.
Since the weather forecast was saying possible hail, I turned the hailstorm shield on. Some of the plants were too big, though...and the crate would cause more damage than the storm, so I left them unprotected... Kind of gambling....so far so good.
 
Gochus 35 bush in total, saying bush, because in many of the cases 2 or 3 plants were planted together for staking purpose
3 rows here

 
1 row here

 
Still Gochu, closeup

 
Kapija (saved seeds)

 
Bell pepper row in the middle

 
My favourite 3 rows...my Mom forgot to put the labelling, and planted many varieties together. Curious to see the results :-)

 
Bhut Jolokia Indian Carbon

 
Naga Morich

 
Thanks for watching,
Balázs

 

[stickman]

Hi Balázs,
   Your chiles have grown quite a bit since the last set of pictures you posted, especially your Chinense varieties and Tomatoes! What a strange growing season this one has turned out to be... everybody I've talked to has had extreme weather of one sort or another. Continued success my friend, I have every confidence you'll have a great grow this year!