HeatMiser's 2022 Glog

HeatMiser · May 14, 2022

OK, seems like we have good weather now. The peppers are outside:

I must say I'm a little anxious about the mix, which is 7 parts Peat Moss, 2 parts Perlite and 1 part Worm Castings. I only realized the Ph of Peat Moss is acidic after they were potted up, so I've added some lime in hopes that the Ph will stabilize. I will be watering with CNS 17. Fingers crossed.

In any case, I've decided to hedge my bets and still have a few plants to pot up. These will be in a mix of Miracle Grow potting mix and Perlite.

PaulG · May 14, 2022

That Rocoto looks super healthy and happy,
HM. The plants in the grow room pic must
be getting bigger as we speak!

Woah, missed the plant out pic! Great to see
them outside. Mine will start going out next
week, I think. Super glad to see the nights
warming up, finally.

HeatMiser · May 15, 2022

PaulG said:
That Rocoto looks super healthy and happy,
HM. The plants in the grow room pic must
be getting bigger as we speak!

Woah, missed the plant out pic! Great to see
them outside. Mine will start going out next
week, I think. Super glad to see the nights
warming up, finally.

Yeah, the rocotos seem to be doing fine so far Paul. I'm really looking forward to trying them later during the season.

Weather-wise, it's been a super wet and cold spring, and the plants were already getting too big for their pots, so I'm glad the night temps are finally decent to leave these guys outside.

Also, for next year I think I'll start my seeds a couple of weeks later and only start seeds for hydro after all the plants have moved outside.

CaneDog · May 17, 2022

Hey HM. Good to see your plants outside and off to a great start. I ran out of room - and patience - a couple weeks back and put the majority of mine out on the deck full time. The weather's been pretty cruddy lately, but they seem ok with it. Glad to see the worst of it may be behind us.

For what it's worth, I've never had a problem with unadjusted high-peat concentrations. My DIY mix this season is over 50% peat (unadjusted) and everyone seems fine with it. Our tap water coming out above 8 pH isn't going to hurt that equation any either.

HeatMiser · May 17, 2022

CaneDog said:
Hey HM. Good to see your plants outside and off to a great start. I ran out of room - and patience - a couple weeks back and put the majority of mine out on the deck full time. The weather's been pretty cruddy lately, but they seem ok with it. Glad to see the worst of it may be behind us.

For what it's worth, I've never had a problem with unadjusted high-peat concentrations. My DIY mix this season is over 50% peat (unadjusted) and everyone seems fine with it. Our tap water coming out above 8 pH isn't going to hurt that equation any either.

Hey CD!

Yes, I can relate to being out of room and patience. This year it was particularly so because we put up a few raised garden beds and I started A LOT of old tomato seeds indoors. These were 10-year-old seeds and I thought I wasn't going to get good germination. Boy was I wrong - ALL of the seeds germinated and I ended up with 40+ tomatoes and the ~20 peppers you see here. So we picked the tomatoes we were going to keep and put them out a couple of weeks ago - they don't seem very pleased with us at the moment but are showing signs of recovery now that we seem to have turned the corner.

Actually it is great to hear about your experience with peat, thanks!. I added the lowest recommended dosage of lime to each pot for good measure, but I got that feeling that it would suck to have to deal with issues due to bad Ph, and dealing with Ph in soil is not the same as with hydro. So once I got done with the batch I mixed I filled the rest of the pots with MG. Good thing is I'll have a side-by-side to see which plants did better

PaulG · May 17, 2022

Nothing wrong with Miracle Grow, HM.
I also really like Black Gold all-purpose
potting soil. A bit lighter and works pretty
good for germinating, as well.

Glad to see the PNW becoming more
hospitable for planting out. Good luck,
buddy!

HeatMiser · May 29, 2022

I'm having mixed results with the plants outside so far. Annuums and Baccatums are doing great, while Chinenses and Pubescens got some sunscald. I'm sure they will recover, but that's something to consider for next season.

Anyway, I haven't posted much about these two monsters - my Zapotec Jalapeno and Lemon Drop currently growing in 5 gal kratkys:

I'm getting close to the point where these will be moved outside to 32 gal Kratky bins. So in preparation to get them acclimated to the outside world, I decided to harvest all the tiny Jalapenos that the Zapotec likes to put out early in the season. The plant is loaded with them:

Roughly 70 pods. They still have plenty of flavor and heat

I quickly whipped up some brine together and pickled them. Made 1 medium-sized jar. This should last a month or so before we start getting more consistent production size-wise from that plant:

HeatMiser · Jun 6, 2022

Well, the weather has been a little unpredictable in my neck of the woods.

It's been raining a lot, and we get some breaks in the weather every now and then, but overall, it has been super wet. The plants are resenting it and some of them don't seem to be enjoying being outside.

Here's how things look right now:

Most plants have a combination of shock and sunscald. I did harden the peppers off for a week before putting them out full time... Lesson learned the hard way for next year - I'll sow my seeds a couple of weeks later and harden the plants off for a bit longer. The worst-looking plant is this White Habanero, which has almost shed all its leaves:

Chinenses are the most affected, but most of them are not doing that bad. These are 5 chinenses that are flowering and starting to set pods:

The rest of the Chinenses are somewhere in between the above two pictures. I think once the weather stabilizes and we get some more heat they will bounce right back.

Anyway, there are definitely some bright spots in the grow. Annuums are mostly unaffected. Here's a Poblano:

And the first pubescens to set pods - Tatiana Yellow Rocoto:

The Baccattums really don't seem to give a damn about the weather and are just chugging along. Here's a Peachadew with a few largish pods already:

And the Sugar Rush Peach is starting to set pods as well:

Finally, here's a Jalafuego that has been sitting in the kitchen as a bonchi for a year and a half. I decided to let it grow outside for one more season. New growth tells me it's grateful to not be confined to a miniature pot:

Now, since my grow room is empty and I need some distraction for those long meetings at work, I started some new seeds that will be grown in hydro:

These are Jimmy Nardello, Piri-Piri, Sugar Rush Stripey, Antep Aci Dolma and Carolina Reaper.

I want to experiment with the Reaper to see if I'm able to get it to set pods indoors. This is something I haven't been able to do with Chinenses in Hydro for some reason. I want to put that to an end. Hopefully I'll figure it out this time.

CaneDog · Jun 7, 2022

Man, the gloom and rain up here just keeps on coming. We'll turn the corner soon, though.

That poblano pod looks awesome. Just a great clean solid pod.

Good to see that things are setting under the nets for you. Are those 5g strainers?

Uncle Eckley · Jun 7, 2022

Dood. Lemon Drop in a 50g container?? Or are you down to 32 now? The thing went bonkers when I did that; daughter was pulling 50 pods off it every morning before school.

HeatMiser · Jun 7, 2022

CaneDog said:
Man, the gloom and rain up here just keeps on coming. We'll turn the corner soon, though.

That poblano pod looks awesome. Just a great clean solid pod.

Good to see that things are setting under the nets for you. Are those 5g strainers?

Yeah, I really hope we turn the corner soon, fishing and bbq-ing have also been affected by the weather, and I don't appreciate that.... :mad:

Yup, those are 5g strainers for the most part. Last year I used the small organza bags and didn't like them because only a few of the flowers I picked set pods. I got the 5g strainers this year to cover more of the plant (preferably all of it if possible). This turned out to be harder than I thought. So as a last resort I bought a crap ton of tulle to make some isolation cages. Still need to sit down and make a bunch, just need some UV resistant tape and think about the dimensions the cages should be so that I can just slide them over the entire plant.

HeatMiser · Jun 7, 2022

Uncle Eckley said:
Dood. Lemon Drop in a 50g container?? Or are you down to 32 now? The thing went bonkers when I did that; daughter was pulling 50 pods off the thing every morning before school.

Nice!

I have two 32g Brute bins that I ended up not using anymore after the move. So I cleaned them up real good and now they will serve as Kratky barrels in hopes of getting some of that same production you talk about. I'm really thrilled about a big ass plant producing hundreds of pods, and I wouldn't mind tons of lemon drops as these make some awesome pepper flakes.

Now that you mention this @Uncle Eckley - how did this thing stand up against the rain? That is one of my concerns and I'm trying to figure out what to do to prevent most of the water from getting into the bin. Was that even a problem for you?

Uncle Eckley · Jun 7, 2022

HeatMiser said:
Nice!

I have two 32g Brute bins that I ended up not using anymore after the move. So I cleaned them up real good and now they will serve as Kratky barrels in hopes of getting some of that same production you talk about. I'm really thrilled about a big ass plant producing hundreds of pods, and I wouldn't mind tons of lemon drops as these make some awesome pepper flakes.

Now that you mention this @Uncle Eckley - how did this thing stand up against the rain? That is one of my concerns and I'm trying to figure out what to do to prevent most of the water from getting into the bin. Was that even a problem for you?

Lol, I actually went through a whole thing on that - made capes from cheap shower curtains and gently choked them around the plants' stems. It worked fine, but I took them off before long. It just didn't take on enough rainwater to be worth futzing with.

I strongly recommend doing two things with giant Kratky - clearly mark the inside of the container where you mean to maintain the fluid level, and keep an identical, empty reservoir nearby for a "plant stand" so you can work on the hosting reservoir.

Also, notice the cage and how it's strongly bungeed to the reservoir. Keep a close eye on it during winds - a plant that big makes a helluva sail.

HeatMiser · Jun 7, 2022

OK, it's done

Zapotec Jalapeno:

Lemon Drop:

There are some things that I still have to figure out, like better support. @Uncle Eckley - I might borrow the cage/bungee approach.

Also, I don't plan to refill the bins, but I might depending on how far into the season we are when they start running low. We'll see how things pan out. Just crossing my fingers...

PaulG · Jun 8, 2022

@Uncle Eckley - The raised bed unit looks really
awesome, Unc. and lots of good suggestions for
filling it up. I really like the 2'deep aspect of it.
Have fun getting it set up. 4'x8' should give you
room for quite a few plants.

PaulG · Jun 8, 2022

@HeatMiser - Watch out buddy,
those plants are going to get huge!

HeatMiser · Jun 12, 2022

Quick update -

Interestingly enough, all 3 Carolina Reaper seeds I sowed last week have sprouted. I haven't gotten a hook from any of the other varieties which were planted a week earlier.

I usually keep one seedling and cull the rest from the rockwool cube. However, this time I wanted to see if I'd be able to save at least another one. After all, I know these seedlings came from the same mother plant. I figure it'd be interesting to watch them grow side-by-side.

After some finagling, I was able to remove 2 of the seedlings from the cube. We now have 3 reaper plants to grow indoors:

I might not end up keeping all 3 - it depends on how many of the other varieties decide to sprout.

MarcV · Jun 13, 2022

I think that lemon drop is going to become really HUGE!

HeatMiser · Aug 4, 2022

It's been a while since I posted. Between being really busy and having a challenging season here in the PNW without much pepper news, there hasn't been much to post.

First, the outdoor peppers - these have been moved to a more sheltered location against the fence since last week we had a heat wave and they were getting too much sun in their previous spot:

The plants finally showing some growth in July after being stunted for all of June. In terms of pods, I guess I can split that up into 3 categories:
1. Chinenses, which have runty pods, if any.
2. Baccatums - they produced well during the sucky, cold and wet June we had. The Peachadew became a new family favorite, and most of the SRP pods dried on the plant during the heatwave :mad:

3.Annuums - most plants have produced a few pods, but the clear winner is the Zapotec in the big Kratky bucket. It is LOADED with fruit and we've already made 3 batches of pickled Jalapenos from this one plant.

It's been interesting to expand my outdoor grow this year. I've learned a few things so far that I'll need to tweak for next year - some thoughts:
1. Potting Mix. I made a mix this year based on comments/recommendations on this site. The mix is 7 parts peat moss, 2 parts perlite and 1 part worm castings. I found the peat moss a little hard to water given its hydrophobic properties. So at the very least I will be cutting the amount of peat moss I use next year. Coco did soo much better last year.
2. Watering. Since the only nutrients in the mix are the worm castings, I've been using hydroponic nutrients every other watering, also based on comments from here. I think with ~20 plants I'm testing the limits of this - watering is a chore because the nutrients have to be prepared. I've been using this method since it's close to what I'm most familiar with (hydro), while still giving me the opportunity to get my feet wet in dealing with all the uncontrollable stuff that happens outdoors. Lately, I've been reading more on organic gardening and I will make that switch next year, at least for a few plants.

Here's a closer view of the Zapotec Jalapeno, loaded with pods. This plant has been quite the producer, so I've isolated seeds to plant again next year:

The SRPs that shriveled on the plant during last week's heatwave - I finished drying these and made flakes. They have a great smell. Some of the seeds seem OK, so I've saved them in hopes of growing this again next year:

Here's a harvest that consists mainly of Zapotecs, with a couple Jemez Pueblo and some runty Habaneros:

I was excited to try the Jemez Pueblo, but I'm not very impressed with them. There's barely any heat, and not much flavor either. So won't be growing them again next year.

Now, indoors in hydro, things are coming along. Here's a look at the 3 Reaper siblings:

The two on the back are using different hydro nutrients (GM Flora on the left and CNS-17 on the right) and there isn't much difference yet. The smaller one is in Coco/Perlite and using CNS-17. I think I will move this one to an organic mix to try out my plan for next year.

I'm thinking about using mostly compost, and there are 2 options here that I've been debating:
1. Use ChilliChump's mix, which calls for 90% Compost and 10% Perlite, with some amendments
2. Use something more similar to what I've been using, about 30% Compost, 30% Coco, 30% Perlite, 10% Worm Castings, and amendments.

We'll see how things go once these indoor plants decide to flower. Hopefully I'll finally be able to crack the mystery as to why my indoor Chinenses don't set many pods.

CaneDog · Aug 4, 2022

Awesome that the Oscar the Zapotec is cranking out pods like it is. Great one to have be the winner!

Name	Year Obtained	Species	Source
Jemez Pueblo	2020	Annuum	SuperHotChiles.com
Numex Big Jim	2013	Annuum	Tomatogrowers.com
Numex Thanksgiving	2012	Annuum	Chile Pepper Institute
Poblano	2014	Annuum	Tomatogrowers.com
Rayados Jalapeno	2021	Annuum	SuperHotChiles.com
Serrano	2013	Annuum	Tomatogrowers.com
Takanotsume	2012	Annuum	Chile Pepper Institute
Zapotec Jalapeno	2021	Annuum	My own seeds
Aji Lemon Drop	2021	Baccatum	My own seeds
Peachadew	2021	Baccatum	SuperHotChiles.com
Sugar Rush Peach	2021	Baccatum	SuperHotChiles.com
Bhut Jolokia	2013	Chinense	Tomatogrowers.com
Bhutlah Scorpion	2021	Chinense	SuperHotChiles.com
Carolina Reaper	2021	Chinense	My own seeds
Chocolate Reaper	2020	Chinense	SuperHotChiles.com
Death Spiral	2021	Chinense	SuperHotChiles.com
Fatalii	2013	Chinense	Tomatogrowers.com
Habanero	2013	Chinense	Tomatogrowers.com
Trinidad Moruga Scorpion	2013	Chinense	Chile Pepper Institute
Trinidad Scorpion	2013	Chinense	Chile Pepper Institute
White Habanero	2013	Chinense	Tomatogrowers.com
Mini Red Rocoto	2021	Pubescens	THP - PaulG
Peruvian Red Rocoto	2021	Pubescens	THP - PaulG
Tatiana Yellow Rocoto	2021	Pubescens	THP - PaulG