Hello - Jungle Joe here.
I was given some Carolina Reapers a while back and ran out over the winter making fantastic chili's & what-not. Oh no ! Time to grow my own ! But where do I get seeds ?? - a little quick research and I found Ghostpepperstore.com - it was as a close as I could find to me in Minnesota.
I pretty much stick to organics for all things grown by my own hands, so the seedlings would be as such.
I did soak the seeds I ordered from the Ghostpepperstore.com site in a shot-glass of water overnight and then popped into slits I made in rooting plugs. That seemed logical as they should keep the seeds moist but not in standing water after the initial soak. Into a translucent take home container for humidity on a seedling heat mat. After almost 2 weeks(!), I finally got my starts - 2 of 5 worked their way through. A week later and I put those seed started plugs into organic soil in tiny coir fiber pots and have them under a shop CFL pigtail screwed into a shop light clamping hood. It's not getting warm enough outside yet ! lol
To make sure I had more than just Reapers growing this summer I decided at that point to try some other peppers I had in possession. I had store-bought Anaheim & Serranos, 1 tiny Thai Devil that was from a friend and, of course my very own last years Cayenne. What a fabulous crop of 7 - 8" long cayenne peppers I got from some started plants bought locally. The cayenne were hanging over my sink from a string still as that's how I dry them and use them. So, I simply opened the skin of one of my own dried cayenne and shook out some of the seeds. The rest were still fresh peppers, but I did hack into them and got some seeds out - why not, right ?
Seeds from all of the above got an over night soak. Soaked them over night, even the fresh - and then into rooting plugs just like the Reapers. Of course the only to "pop" were my cayenne. They popped in just about 5 days in fact. All the others are no-go's still. But the Cayenne are so successful I had to distribute tail-on seedlings into other plugs so I could have more chance for success with a variety of seedlings. These have been coming up for about a week now and are just about to hit the low lid of the take home container...
So that's where things are now.
And since I do a fair amount of traveling I am always hoping for major growth changes when I return. I just have yet to see that - go figure... I've never been a patient person though.
I was given some Carolina Reapers a while back and ran out over the winter making fantastic chili's & what-not. Oh no ! Time to grow my own ! But where do I get seeds ?? - a little quick research and I found Ghostpepperstore.com - it was as a close as I could find to me in Minnesota.
I pretty much stick to organics for all things grown by my own hands, so the seedlings would be as such.
I did soak the seeds I ordered from the Ghostpepperstore.com site in a shot-glass of water overnight and then popped into slits I made in rooting plugs. That seemed logical as they should keep the seeds moist but not in standing water after the initial soak. Into a translucent take home container for humidity on a seedling heat mat. After almost 2 weeks(!), I finally got my starts - 2 of 5 worked their way through. A week later and I put those seed started plugs into organic soil in tiny coir fiber pots and have them under a shop CFL pigtail screwed into a shop light clamping hood. It's not getting warm enough outside yet ! lol
To make sure I had more than just Reapers growing this summer I decided at that point to try some other peppers I had in possession. I had store-bought Anaheim & Serranos, 1 tiny Thai Devil that was from a friend and, of course my very own last years Cayenne. What a fabulous crop of 7 - 8" long cayenne peppers I got from some started plants bought locally. The cayenne were hanging over my sink from a string still as that's how I dry them and use them. So, I simply opened the skin of one of my own dried cayenne and shook out some of the seeds. The rest were still fresh peppers, but I did hack into them and got some seeds out - why not, right ?
Seeds from all of the above got an over night soak. Soaked them over night, even the fresh - and then into rooting plugs just like the Reapers. Of course the only to "pop" were my cayenne. They popped in just about 5 days in fact. All the others are no-go's still. But the Cayenne are so successful I had to distribute tail-on seedlings into other plugs so I could have more chance for success with a variety of seedlings. These have been coming up for about a week now and are just about to hit the low lid of the take home container...
So that's where things are now.
And since I do a fair amount of traveling I am always hoping for major growth changes when I return. I just have yet to see that - go figure... I've never been a patient person though.
- Imagine that - ME burning up a Carolina Reaper !!! lol
Phwew !
They clearly aren't dead - but they need something I'd say to get 'em going.
- I see the weather peeps aren't showing any lows lower than 46˚ at night for the extended forecast so why not ?
, so that gave me encouragement to at least try 1 of the 2 confirmed Carolina Reapers outside.
