HeatMiser's 2022 Glog

Happy New Year!

I've been debating whether I should start a Glog this year or not given that I most likely won't have time to update it as frequently as previous years. I decided to still go for it in case somebody wants to know how a particular variety is doing, and also to document my progress.

We moved to a bigger place last year, and now that we actually have a decent sized yard, my outdoor grow will be expanded accordingly and my indoor grow might not happen at all. This year I'll be focusing on a couple of things:

1) Refreshing seeds I've bought over the years. Some of these are 10 years old
2) Experiment with two big (50 Gal) Kratky Setup. I'll be growing Zapotec Jalapenos and Lemon Drops since these are family favorites.

Here are the varieties I'll be playing with this year:

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

I think that's it for today. I'll be working on soaking up the seeds and putting them in rockwool cubes later today or early tomorrow. Pics will follow as well.

 

[HeatMiser]

When I grow poblano types here in the PNW they're smaller than the store peppers too, but they look so chunky when a bunch of them like yours are all clustered up on the plant

That's been my experience too - with Bell Peppers as well. Imagine my wife's surprise 7 years ago when I grew a bunch of bell peppers and we got nothing but those tiny bells. The seed packets should come with a disclaimer!!

 

[HeatMiser]

Some Jalafuegos from my 2 year-old bonchi:

I also found this pod right next to the plant:

I think a squirrel was feeling feisty and took a good chunk off the top of the pepper. Considering this is the spicy end of the pepper and how much of it was left, I don't think I'll be seeing that squirrel around my plants again!

 

[PaulG]

That squirrel will now just be content with digging
holes in your potted plants. They are a real nuisance
in our yard. We have to pick out tomatoes just before
they get ripe, or they eat big chunks out of them. One
dug up a little c. lanceolatum plant twice, but I have
managed to save it, so far

 

[HeatMiser]

That squirrel will now just be content with digging
holes in your potted plants. They are a real nuisance
in our yard. We have to pick out tomatoes just before
they get ripe, or they eat big chunks out of them. One
dug up a little c. lanceolatum plant twice, but I have
managed to save it, so far

We have our fair share of squirrels roaming around our yard too @PaulG. They caused the most damage against carrot seedlings. My pepper plants had been spared until this incident. Fortunately, they didn't go after our tomatoes this year, and we've had quite the harvest. I'll keep an eye out for holes in the dirt!

 

[HeatMiser]

OK, I've been wanting to write about this for a while, but I had to wait until I could show some results.

For those of you who have followed my previous glogs, for the life of me I haven't been able to get chinenses to produce indoors. All flowers used to drop, and I'd get a meager 1 - 3 pods per plant over the course of a season.

Well, I think I finally cracked the code with my Reaper experiment this year.

I started 3 seeds in late May, all from the same mother plant. I only intended to keep one plant, but they all germinated. I thought this was the perfect opportunity to try different feeding regimes to see if I could encourage more pod set.

Here's how the plants look like right now - sorry about the crappy lighting.

On the left, we have a Reaper being fed with FloraGro, Bloom Formulation
Center is a plant that is being fed with CNS-17 at a rate of 15ml/gal of water
On the right, a 3 gal fabric pot with 3 parts Coco, 3 Parts Perlite and 3 parts Compost, with various organic amendments.

Some observations on this grow so far:

• The FloraGro Reaper has produced the most flowers since the formulation was changed from Mild Vegetative to Bloom.
• The CNS-17 Reaper has produced a lot of foliage, with few flowers.
• The soil Reaper has been more balanced, with plenty of flowers and not as much foliage.

All 3 plants dropped most of their first set of flowers, with only 1-2 pods setting on the hydro plants, and about 3 pods on the soil plant. I did shake the plants every day to try to improve pollination, but didn't seem to help much. I didn't notice much pollen on close examination of the flowers. Even though this was already better than previous years, I was still not happy with the results.

So, I decided to try something I hadn't done before. I grabbed an electric toothbrush and went to town.

I've been going through all 3 plants every other day with the toothbrush, and man it does make a difference. Some flowers release a cloud of pollen when touched by the toothbrush, and the pod set has improved dramatically ever since.

The soil Reaper is the one that seems to be benefitting the most, with "fair" pod set on the one with CNS-17 and "poor" pod set on the FloraGro Reaper.

Here's a pic of some of the pods on the soil Reaper:

This branch alone already has more pods than I was able to get from my indoor Chinenses in the past 2 years combined.

 

[PaulG]

Great call on the toothbrush tactic.

 

[HeatMiser]

At this point, I'm schlepping the plants indoors at night and taking them back out in the morning. Still waiting mostly on Chinenses to ripen.

I've harvested a few hoping that the rest of the pods will ripen quicker. Here's some pics:

Peruvian Red Rocoto, Rayados Jalapeno, Takanotsume:

Habanero:

Fatalii, Bhutlah Scorpion, Trinidad Scorpion:

Death Spiral:

 

[PaulG]

Alright, HM, some ripe pods are better than none.
Those look great, and should keep you in powder
for awhile!

 

[HeatMiser]

Alright, HM, some ripe pods are better than none.
Those look great, and should keep you in powder
for awhile!

Thanks @PaulG. Every pod a victory, right?

I'm definitely glad we've been able to get this thing sort of back on track this late in the season. Superhot powder will definitely go a long way!

 

[HeatMiser]

The pods keep ripenin'!

All plants are now sheltered inside. I've been picking pods as they ripen, so we haven't had a massive haul, but those freezer bags are getting full for sure!

Top to bottom:
Trinidad Moruga Scorpion, Trinidad Scorpion, Bhutlah Scorpion

 

[PaulG]

The pods keep ripenin'!

All plants are now sheltered inside. I've been picking pods as they ripen, so we haven't had a massive haul, but those freezer bags are getting full for sure!

Top to bottom:
Trinidad Moruga Scorpion, Trinidad Scorpion, Bhutlah Scorpion

Awesome group of Scorpions, HM!

 

[CaneDog]

Great to see all these coming through for you HM.

It's really something to be pulling pods that nice around here when it's almost November!

 

[HeatMiser]

Great to see all these coming through for you HM.

It's really something to be pulling pods that nice around here when it's almost November!

Thanks CD!

It's definitely been a loong season full of ups and downs, but ultimately, we seem to be making a comeback late in the 4th quarter. There's still plenty of pods to pull, I guess we'll have enough heat to keep us warm and toasty through the winter!

 

[HeatMiser]

Well I thought I'd post the final picture of my outdoor grow. All the outdoor plants are done at this point and this was the last harvest:

There's a little bit of everything here - Peachadews, Sugar Rush Peach, White Habs, Ghosts, Death Spiral, Trinidad Moruga Scorpion, Chocolate Reaper, Tatiana Yellow Rocoto and Peruvian Red Rocoto.

This was definitely a more challenging year than 2021 with the crazy weather in Spring, but things turned out fine in the end.

My indoor grow is still running, I will post an update with the results of my Reaper experiment.

 

[HeatMiser]

OK, with family coming the next week, my indoor grow has its days numbered.

As a recap, I've always had a hard time getting chinenses to fruit indoors, so I grew 3 sibling Reapers giving them different nutrients to understand if that would impact yield, and to try to find a way for me to be able to successfully grow them indoors. Fortunately, the Reapers have ripened their first set of pods by now. Here are the yields for all 3 plants:

1. Flora Series, Bloom formulation:

2. CNS-17:

3. Organic Mix (Coco, Perlite, Compost):

There is a clear difference in terms of yield between these 3 plants. The plant fed with CNS-17 yielded very few pods despite the constant pollination with the electric toothbrush. This is consistent with my previous experience - big bushy plants with very few pods to show for. The plant fed with Flora Series yielded the most fruit, so there might be some truth to changing the NPK ratio when you want the plant to set pods. Finally, the plant in the Organic Mix yielded similar results to the one fed with Flora Series, but it was fairly low maintenance in comparison (no need to mix nutrients) - this is a plus to me.

I intend to save seed for future grows, and the goal would be to get plants with consistent phenos. Based on the pics above, which plant would you save seeds from? I understand that with only the first harvest it is a bit hard to judge considering the smaller/off-pheno pods you get early on, but that's what I have to work with....

 

[CaneDog]

Hey HM. I think the best pheno pod is clearly the big CNS-17 pod, but the performance of the plant would make me leery about putting all my eggs in that basket. I would most likely select my preferred growing method and grow seeds from the best/healthiest pod from each plant under that method and assess the results and select at that point. How many Reaper plants do you plan to grow in your next indoor run?

Also, I think you should take taste into consideration as well in the selection process by eating one of each to see which is your preference.

 

[HeatMiser]

Hey HM. I think the best pheno pod is clearly the big CNS-17 pod, but the performance of the plant would make me leery about putting all my eggs in that basket. I would most likely select my preferred growing method and grow seeds from the best/healthiest pod from each plant under that method and assess the results and select at that point. How many Reaper plants do you plan to grow in your next indoor run?

Also, I think you should take taste into consideration as well in the selection process by eating one of each to see which is your preference.

Thanks CD! Yes I know there isn't a clear winner here. I wish I could extend the grow to get a second harvest of peppers but I have family coming over for the holidays and need to clean up the room . However, as you mentioned, I don't really have to choose only one plant - I think I'll end up saving seeds from all of them and carry each line separately and see where that takes me.

As far as flavor, they are all

Next year will be the first time I plan on growing multiples of our family favorites, so it should be fun. I don't know if I'll do an indoor grow yet, but if I do I will most likely experiment with small pots. There are a few varieties I'd like to try and don't know if I have true seeds for them at this point. I think that's where things are going but I still have to finalize my plans.

 

[HeatMiser]

It's time to close this one up.

Overall, it was the most challenging grow to date, with the plants being stunted for the month of June. Things changed for the better and we still managed a good harvest.

In terms of the goals I had at the beginning of the year, I was able to refresh my 10+ year old seeds. I was also able to run two 35 gal kratky plants that gave plenty of pods. I will definitely do that again on my next grow.

Some observations and changes I will be making next time:

• Start seeds later: I used to start my seeds on Jan 1st. It was something to do on New Year's Day. However, I quickly ran out of room as the plants grew. I will be starting my seeds a couple of weeks later this year.
• Check weather before plant-out: There was a break in the weather in mid May, which prompted me to take my plants out. Immediately after the plants had been taken outside, the weather took a turn for the worse and the plants suffered. I have analyzed historical weather data and June 1st seems to be the date where average lows start breaking 50F. I'll use this as my target date for my next grow and adjust accordingly.
• Plant multiple of each variety: Sometimes it's good to have backup plants, if only to get more production out of favorite varieties. I'll be planting more seeds next grow and try to keep as many as I can. I've found that some people are willing to take care of extra plants.

We also found new family favorites. Here's a brief recap of these peppers:

Peachadew: These were a big highlight with everybody that tried them. They are especially good pickled, since they have a sweet fruity flavor that plays very well with the pickling brine. Definitely recommend giving them a try.

Sugar Rush Peach: This was our first time growing these. The plant was quite productive, and the peppers make outstanding flakes. This one is a candidate for the 35 gal kratky to make some more flakes.

Chocolate Reaper: The pods on this plant were beyond gnarly. Will definitely grow again just based on looks alone.

Fatalii: I've been wanting to grow these for the longest time, and now that I was finally able to do so successfully, I was not disappointed. They have good citrus flavor combined with searing heat. Will grow some more in my next grow.

And that's it! I didn't have as much time to post as many updates this time compared to previous years, but I did take this thing to completion. Thanks to everyone who followed along, and if there are any questions please let me know! I will be starting a new grow next week.