HeatMiser's 2021 Glog

Happy New Year!
 
With the new year comes a new Glog, hoping that 2021 is much better than 2020 (low bar, I know). I'm already pumped to get things going.
 
Here's what I'll be growing this year
 
5 Gal Kratkys
 
Fatalii - Always wanted to grow these. I've had germination issues in the past. Hopefully I'll get to finally grow one this year.
Antep Aci Dolma - I've read amazing things about this pepper. Looking forward to using it in the kitchen.
Carolina Reaper - The one and only. The king of sting. I just had to grow one of these.
Paquime Hybrid - These Jalapenos are gigantic. I see some Poppers in the future.
Yum-Yum Hybrid - Growing these for my wife. She wanted to try a different sweet pepper.
Habanero - A classic. I'm growing this one to fully use the space I have available for my 5 gal buckets. This might get axed if a more interesting variety shows up.
 
 
1 Gal Kratkys
 
Chiltepin - I didn't get to see this one set pods last year due to a broad mite attack. I'm trying again this year.
Numex Twilight - Carrying this one over from my current 2020 grow.
Mystery Pepper - Carrying this one over from my current 2020 grow.
 
3 Gal Fabric Pots
 
Piri-Piri - I follow Chillichump on YouTube and he's all over this one. Figured I should try it and see what I think.
Bahamian Goat - I also follow Khang Starr and he mentions this one all the time. 
Sugar Rush Striped - These look soo cool, like bacon in pepper form. 
Death Spiral - Cool name, don't know what to expect.
Khang Starr Lemon Starrburst - This must be one of the most hyped-up peppers recently. Let's see what the fuzz is about.
BJh-1 Purple Thunder - Got my hands on some seeds from the A-Train. Thanks for adding these PaulG! The pods are really gorgeous. Hopefully I can get them to grow successfully.
 
This grow is going to be a challenge for me in a good way. This is the most plants I'll have ever taken care of, and also I'll be branching out a little and try to grow the 3 Gal Fabric Pots outdoors. I hope I can keep those plants to a manageable size until they move outside.
 
Seeds were already put in their rockwool cubes earlier today:

 
Just waiting for germination. Let's see how this year (and grow) turns out!
 
Hope you guys are having a good start to 2021...
 

 

[Uncle Eckley]

Love the PVC couplings, HM. Great idea.

Looking spiffy.
 
 
 

 

[HeatMiser]

Love the PVC couplings, HM. Great idea.

Looking spiffy.
 
 
 

 
Thanks Unc! Yeah, like your pipe cups, I needed something I could just insert the supports into as the plant grows. The couplings allow me to do this, with the added bonus that we don't need to drill into the lid. I wonder how they'll perform, we'll see...

 

[Uncle Eckley]

Makes it easy to swap out longer tubes as the plant grows. 

 

[HeatMiser]

I think the trickiest part of this grow has been to keep up with the waterings and nutrient changes for plants in different systems and stages of growth. 1 Gal Kratkys get their nutrients replaced every 5 days, 5 gal Kratkys every 3 weeks for the first 2 changes, and then every other week. Coir plants get watered when the top layer feels dry. Reminders on my cellphone are keeping things running smoothly so far...
 
Here's the Numex Twilight and Mystery Pepper. 

 
Some pods on the Twilight have started changing color from purple to orange:

 
The Mystery Pepper is loaded with pods. They are about 2 to 3 inches in length:

 
Plenty of clusters all over the plant. Can't wait to see what these taste like:

 
5 Gal Kratkys are doing fine as well. They should take off any moment now. Here are the annuums:

 
And Chinenses + Yum Yum. The Fatalii (upper right) grew quite a bit this past week:

 
In other news - I finally got rid of the Lemon Drop from my 2020 grow last week. I simply cut it down and tossed it in a raised bed to let nature do its thing. Well, here it was one week later. Not a single wilted leaf on this thing:

 
Since this guy wanted to keep going, I decided to give it another chance. I put it in a pot with the same coco coir/perlite mix I will be using for the other plants. We'll see how it does.

 

[PaulG]

Will be interesting to see how that
Lemon Drop rescue turns out.
 
Softie.

 

[HeatMiser]

Will be interesting to see how that
Lemon Drop rescue turns out.
 
Softie.

 
Apparently I spoke too soon... the plant was wilted within a few hours of potting it. Oh well. 

 

[CaneDog]

Looks like it's getting ready to blow up at your place, HM!  Great shape on the Twilight and Mystery - look like little trees.  Seems like the Mystery should be getting close to ripening.
 
Never seen an AAD grown in hydro before.  That could put out some nice big pods.

 

[HeatMiser]

Looks like it's getting ready to blow up at your place, HM!  Great shape on the Twilight and Mystery - look like little trees.  Seems like the Mystery should be getting close to ripening.
 
Never seen an AAD grown in hydro before.  That could put out some nice big pods.

 
Thanks CD, yes, it's only a matter of time before I run out of room, which is a good problem to have. I'm really looking forward to trying out the pods on the Mystery, so I hope it is close to ripening. 
 
I also hope the nutrient availability in the AAD lends itself to big pods. I'm really interested to see if this pepper lives up to its hype!

 

[HeatMiser]

It's been quite busy over here, with no signs of stopping any time soon. The plants don't seem to mind too much, but there are a couple that seem to resent the lack of attention a little bit.
 
Here's where things stand now:
 
The coco plants are making steady progress. Most of the annuums have been repotted into slightly bigger containers. They were starting to get a little tight in their solo cups. A few of these plants are going to be given to my MIL the next time I see her, so there should be a bit more room under the light for bigger containers. Also, a few mistakes were made, evidenced by the yellow leaves on the Piri-Piris, which I'm monitoring closely. None of the other plants seem to be affected at the moment.

 
I noticed that the leaves on the Twilight were hiding the pods, so I gave it a haircut to let those peppers stand out a bit more. Here is the result:

 
And the 5 gal plants have officially taken off. It takes a little while to reach this point, but from now on, it's going to be explosive growth. I plan on letting these peppers grow into a green wall since I don't have the same time constraints as with my previous grow late last year. 
This is the Annuum group. We can clearly see what they mean by "hybrid vigor" in this picture if we compare the Paquime (biggest plant, bottom right), against the Zapotec Jalapeno (smallest plant, bottom left):

 
This is the second group. The Yum-Yum is starting to take off, and I might switch places with the Zapotec Jalapeno, which is closer in size to the chinenses in the other two buckets. Both Reaper and Fatalii seem to be liking their roomy buckets, and are growing at their own pace:

 

[PaulG]

CD was right - take cover!
 
Things are really getting lush at your place, HM!
The NuMex Twilight is really awesome with the
variety of pod colors.

 

[HeatMiser]

CD was right - take cover!
 
Things are really getting lush at your place, HM!
The NuMex Twilight is really awesome with the
variety of pod colors.

 
Thanks Paul! 
 
The Twilight is one of my favorite varieties due to the color transition the pods go through. It's definitely an eye catcher. One thing I noticed this time is that the colors (especially purple) are not as vivid. Maybe this has something to do with it being an indoor plant grown under artificial lights instead of sunlight.

 

[HeatMiser]

I'm officially running out of space... The coco plants are getting real cozy under the 2 ft. t5 light fixture. Good thing is that some of those plants are going to be moving out soon, leaving me with a more manageable number of plants for the space I have indoors.
 
Here's one of the last pics of this group. There will be fewer plants under this light in the next update. They seem happy and the nutrient issue with the Piri-Piris seems to have been fixed:

 
I haven't taken as many pictures of the Variegated Jalapeno by itself. It seems to be doing alright, but I'm just hoping for at least a couple more green leaves. No signs of flower buds yet on this one:

 
Here's a Death Spiral, which seems to be eager to start flowering. Hopefully it will be a prolific one once it moves outside in a few weeks:

 
On the other light, the Mystery Pepper is LOADED with pods. If we end up liking them I'll be growing this again in a 5 gal bucket. 

 
Finally, a mandatory picture of the Twilight. It's fuller and with more colors than last week:

 

[CaneDog]

Things continue to look great, HM.  I have high hopes for the mystery being a good one.  Given that you picked it up at a food market I'd say the odds are likely in your favor.  

 

[Downriver]

Your plants are rockin HM. The Twilight is quite the looker!

 

[HeatMiser]

Things continue to look great, HM.  I have high hopes for the mystery being a good one.  Given that you picked it up at a food market I'd say the odds are likely in your favor.  

 
Thanks CD, I really feel good about the mystery pepper. On small grows like mine, it is hard to drop in seeds for plants you know nothing about, but in this case I consider myself lucky that I got a variety that is really productive and with some traits that I would like to propagate to other varieties. In addition, I can already envision many stir fries in the not-so-distant future 
 

Your plants are rockin HM. The Twilight is quite the looker!

 
Thanks DR. The Twilight is definitely one of my favorites - I just wish the pods tasted a bit better, but that's a project that is already underway with some crosses. 

 

[PaulG]

I had the same take on the NuMex Twilight.
And the Aji Omnicolor and Bolivian Rainbow
pods, as well, when I grew them, HM. The
ornamentals do make an okay powder, but
the taste of the fresh pods leaves a lot to be
desired, to me.

 

[HeatMiser]

I had the same take on the NuMex Twilight.
And the Aji Omnicolor and Bolivian Rainbow
pods, as well, when I grew them, HM. The
ornamentals do make an okay powder, but
the taste of the fresh pods leaves a lot to be
desired, to me.

 
Thanks Paul, I plan to turn these pods into powder for those times you just need to make something hotter without affecting its flavor that much. Even if the pods were not edible we'd still grow them - my wife always comments on how much she likes the colors on the plant. I guess my grows will need to have at least one ornamental

 

[HeatMiser]

Some of the space issues from last week have been resolved, at least temporarily. These are the plants in coco that I'm going to keep for the rest of the season:
 

 
I had to top the Piri-Piri on the right since it was getting too tall, but otherwise the plants seem to be enjoying the light. The rest of the plants have been given to my MIL. She's a great gardener, but I could see she was a bit intimidated when I gave her the plants. We'll see how they do.
 
Now, for the Kratkys, the wall of green is starting to take shape. Here are the Annuums:
 

 
They are drinking a lot more and are now going to be refilled with 2 gallons of nutrients every other week. I think I might have to play a little bit with the light distance though, because their tops seem a bit droopy once the lights go off and bounce back before the next cycle. There's no canoeing or turning of the leaves, which is why I haven't tweaked the lights yet. Also, as they start growing into each other I will have to move them farther apart, probably within the next couple of weeks.
 
The biggest plant of the 3 is the Paquime, everything about this plant seems to be oversized. Here's one of its lower leaves. I've posted some pictures of big leaves in previous grows, but I think this is the biggest one yet:

 
And this same plant is the first one to set fruit. Even these jalapenos are big immediately after setting. I can't wait to make some tasty poppers in a few weeks:

 
The other group of Kratkys is also looking good:

 
The one notable thing about them right now is the fact that the Reaper now has some flower buds, which are not likely to set based on previous experience with superhots. I'm still crossing my fingers though:

 

[PaulG]

You have some nice Kratky and coir plants going, HM.
Looks like you are getting your grow dialed in!

 

[HeatMiser]

You have some nice Kratky and coir plants going, HM.
Looks like you are getting your grow dialed in!

 
Thanks Paul, I'm still a bit nervous about the coir plants since I haven't grown anything outdoors in a long time. Hopefully I'll be able to get the plants to fruit.
 
I feel a bit more comfortable with the Kratkys now since this is my third grow using that method. So far so good with those, so just need to keep it up!