Lespaulde's 2020

Good day to all my fellow pepperheads out there. Given that 2020 is well underway, I figured it's time to get my new glog going. I'm hoping this year's will be full of delicious peppers, learning moments, new things to try out and last but not least, a lot of fun growing these tasty little devils together with the awesome community that makes THP the mecca it is.
 
I'm almost exclusively growing new varieties this year, which is not due to the fact that I didn't like last year's peppers, but rather taking the opportunity to create the illusion of making a dent in trying the many cultivars that have found their way onto my bucket list. I've sourced seeds from various places including Semillas and South Lincs Chili boys, and am forever grateful for the awesome trades I got to do with PaulG and Dr. Cane McDog, which have shaped this and even next year's grow already.
 
So now to the good stuff, the peppers. The list (thus far, after lots and lots of back and forth in Google sheets) looks as follows:
 
Autopot
Sugar Rush Peach
Numex Pumpkin Spice
Numex Lemon Spice
Numex vaquero
Jalapeño Zapotec (CaneDog)
Jay's Peach Ghost Scorpion
Paper lantern
Dorset Naga Orange

Fabric bags
Rocoto Cristobal
Jamaican yellow hot
Hyper Pube (CaneDog)

Buckets
BJ hybrid-2 (PaulG)
7 pot burgundy (PaulG)
Aji Amarillo (PaulG)

Indoor / Tent
BJ Purple x Aji Mango
Aji Lemon x BJ Purple
B. O. C. crosses
Early Jalapeño
Bahamian goat
Rocoto Oculto
 

For those of you that remember my glog from last year, Sugar Rush Peach is the only cultivar I'm repeating, which is because it was a huge hit at home, with both me and the missus enjoying it on lots of different dishes. Sweet, but still with a nice kick, especially when added to a hot meal. Other than that, there are lots of Jalapeno varieties as this must still be my favorite type, and I took a "why not try them all" approach, which I hope to continue over the years. Seeds will be planted in 2 batches, with the first batch having been put in the rockwool just before New Year's:
 
Jay's Peach Ghost Scorpion
Paper lantern
Dorset Naga Orange
Rocoto Cristobal
Jamaican yellow hot
Hyper Pube (CaneDog)
PaulG's BJ hybrid-2
7 pot burgundy (PaulG)

I'm extremely excited to be able to grow some Rocotos this year, so thanks for edging me on to that, CaneDog and others in the forums. I have a feeling they will like the Danish climate which tends to have cool nights even during the summer, and will be grown fully outside, not in the greenhouse (space limitations).
 
I had already started a small winter indoors grow consisting of my own Aji Lemon x BJ Purple cross (F1), which has been making good progress.

Oct 11th:

Nov 14th:

December 5th:

Today (bear in mind it was on a non-sunny windowsill for 3 weeks during the holidays in order to not let it dry out under the intense lights, where it also aborted its recently set first fruit):

Once the other seedlings made their way outdoors, I will expand the indoor grow according to the plan above (yeah, right! xD) and keep that going too, simply just to get as many peppers sampled this year as possible. 

So at the start, the tent looked as follows:

Soon after, I moved the bulk of the seed starter rockwool cubes into a heated dome, and am transferring the cubes to the tent as the seeds pop. Currently, the JPGS, Jamaican Yellow and PaulG's BJ hybrid have already popped, so let's see how quickly the others follow. From seed to seedling in basically a week is as good as I could have ever asked for.

As always, thanks for reading and any input/criticism/feedback you may have, and I will try to keep it saucy in terms of pictures and taste reviews etc.... Happy 2020!

 

[Bhuter]

As promised, a little update of the various things that have happened, and things seem to be going pretty smoothly despite the weather having turned for the worse a week ago.

First of, thanks for the tip regarding dehydrating at lower temps PaulG, the colors remain so much nicer when you do that! Aji Lemon dried over night at 40C/104F and actually remained yellow:

Made some powder too, combining Aji Lemon, Aji Mango, Sri Lanka Red and Sugar Rush Peach:

Also turns out that frozen peppers dehydrate extremely well still, which takes a lot of pressure off during the height of the season... Throw em in the freezer, and dehydrate at will...

The Rocotos are loving the northern European climate it seems, as both plants refused to set fruit indoors, but 3 days after moving outside (day and night, as low as 4C/39F, the first pods set, woohoo!

Currently have about 3 on the hyperpube and 1 on the Cristobal, and there are more flowers on the way so let's see how they do. They will move out of the greenhouse later this week once the current storm passes and I can harden them off safely.

Dorset Naga Orange is having the first very tiny flowers opening, and even they are setting despite the cold nights. First picture to give a clue as to how tiny the flowers are, second picture is of the first set pod:

Greenhouse is pretty full, but with the 3x 60L fabric pots moving out soon, plus the Aji Amarillo, things can be put in their final place and the autopot watering tank hooked up. Then it's just about grabbing a beer, sitting back, and hopefully watching the pods popping up left right and centre...

Indoor tent is getting pretty empty, with mainly some tomatoes and the starts to 2x DWC plants: a revisit to the Bhut J. Chocolate that failed last year (was down to the last 4 seeds and given they were very old, I figured I had to try and at least get some more seed stock for the future. Another one I ended up buying when I bought tomato seeds was the Jaloro, apparently a nice Jalapeño variant. I'm a sucker for Jalapeños and could foresee myself having a Jalapeño only grow one year to really find the best ones. #onecanonlydream

The remaining extra chili plants are being handed out to friends and family when time allows due to COVID-19.

Indoor Early Jalapeño is growing rather large, but flowers are not setting for whatever reason. I will give it some time and hope it will soon change its mind about it. Find it very weird as Jalapeños always seem to self pollinate so easily that I did not expect any issues whatsoever...

First tomato and cucumber has been planted too, the other 2 tomatoes will be planted later this week, again due to a delay with hardening off given the current storm

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Great update, Erv! And thank you VERY much for this info and doing the experiment:
"Also turns out that frozen peppers dehydrate extremely well still, which takes a lot of pressure off during the height of the season... Throw em in the freezer, and dehydrate at will... "

One of my crosses (Black Naga x Peri-Peri) Has pods that are PERFECT for my taste in chili. The F2 grew brown and looked exactly how I wanted. I harvested all of them and threw them in the freezer.

I throw about 10-15 in a pot of chili (they're tiny) and it makes me not care how hot it is. Not superhot, but hot enough to where it gets hotter if you stop eating it.
Knowing the dehydrator trick now, I can spice up other things on the go....! Another bonus, like other Frutescens and Frutescens crosses, the innards of this pepper is very......I don't know........tomato-like? Mushy with "plasticky" skin. A lot of them get mushy while still green.......something I hope to breed out of this cross. So, I can dry them And avoid the entrails.......

Everything is looking amazingly!!!!! Very nice work!!!!

-Adam

EDIT: Oh, in response to your liking all Jalapeños, member Stefan (MeatFreak) has created, stabilized, and now vendors have for sale a Dark Chocolate Jalapeño that he's named Azabache Jalapeño.
https://www.barney.dk/produkt/jalapeno-azabache-c-annuum

He bequeathed seeds to me and I'm growing one this year.

 

[lespaulde]

Interesting, I was afraid of leaving my plant outside these days, as I feared 3-4C might was too low. Perhaps I should start leaving it outside?

I might be hesitant to throw it out to such low temps in one go, but now that temps are more like 5-10C during the night, I don't see any risk in doing it and probably quite some benefit. Reading around the forums, people really seem to be having most luck with rocotos when there's a large difference between daytime and nighttime temps, so you might indeed increase your pod yield by throwing the plants on the balcony every now and then...

You are living my dream right there! Sounds perfect 

Thanks buddy, it's nice to keep having dreams and I'm sure one day you'll be able to enjoy a huge greenhouse somewhere in a nice and sunny spot!

A Jalapeno only grow sounds exciting, with all colors available with different hairloom varieties to find the very best. You have my vote for such a glog! 

I like the sound of that as well - will just have to actively scavenge out some more varieties too and narrow it down to like 15 or so different kinds per year. Then I'd keep the indoor DWC for some other types like e.g. superhots. Although, if that Aji Amarillo is as good as it sounds, it will have to be on my yearly must-grow too LOL!

Hmm thats strange, mine always sets right away, but idk if the DWC have anything to do with it? I would imagen that pH change would affect the plant quicker, but im reaching here - Perhaps time is really all it needs 

Yeah I'm really weirded out by it as Jalapeños normally always set without any issue, hence why I didn't consider at all I'd be having problems. I checked pH and it's right around pH6.2, and nutes should be around 500ppm (will check this though) and are the same as last year (Plagron Hydro A&B). I'm going to have to figure out what's happening, and hope to get that done within a matter of a few weeks to still get good production this season.
 

Great update, Erv! And thank you VERY much for this info and doing the experiment:
"Also turns out that frozen peppers dehydrate extremely well still, which takes a lot of pressure off during the height of the season... Throw em in the freezer, and dehydrate at will... "

One of my crosses (Black Naga x Peri-Peri) Has pods that are PERFECT for my taste in chili. The F2 grew brown and looked exactly how I wanted. I harvested all of them and threw them in the freezer.

I throw about 10-15 in a pot of chili (they're tiny) and it makes me not care how hot it is. Not superhot, but hot enough to where it gets hotter if you stop eating it.
Knowing the dehydrator trick now, I can spice up other things on the go....! Another bonus, like other Frutescens and Frutescens crosses, the innards of this pepper is very......I don't know........tomato-like? Mushy with "plasticky" skin. A lot of them get mushy while still green.......something I hope to breed out of this cross. So, I can dry them And avoid the entrails.......

Everything is looking amazingly!!!!! Very nice work!!!!

-Adam

Adam, so nice of you to stop by! Finally found your glog and am still catching up on all its contents and entertainment, but loving it so far! Glad that info was of use to at least one other person, as I couldn't really find any clear answers online and figured why the hell not just try it. Definitely on the thin walled Ajis it is no problem, and will compare the fresh jalapeños later during the season as the frozen ones came out kind of hard (rather than brittle), but that may of course just be due to them being much thicker walled. Curious how your cross will end up responding to dehydrating, keep us posted!
Your chili must be phenomenal since it even contains a homegrown breed of pepper! And I also love just taking out some frozen peppers whenever you need, chop them up and add them to whatever you're cooking - it makes it so easy! But curious what those flakes would turn out as, the color in any case is very pretty.

EDIT: Oh, in response to your liking all Jalapeños, member Stefan (MeatFreak) has created, stabilized, and now vendors have for sale a Dark Chocolate Jalapeño that he's named Azabache Jalapeño.
https://www.barney.dk/produkt/jalapeno-azabache-c-annuum

He bequeathed seeds to me and I'm growing one this year.

That looks like one AWEsome pepper, thanks for sharing! If you have any extra seeds at the end of the season, and would be willing (and allowed?) to share, I'd be very happy to set up a seed trade. Will be keeping my eyes open for lots of different jalapeños this year for the next season, and this one looks amazing!

 

[PaulG]

Your dried Aji Lemon pods look great, LP.
Should have made a beautiful powder. The
yellow is almost glowing!

 

[PtMD989]

Hey Erv, ya into jalapeños, eh. Cool. I’m growing a jalapeño that my daughter picked up seeds while vacationing in Spain , prepandemic. The package didn’t have much info on it, so I don’t know what variety it is[emoji848]. I plan on saving seeds and I can send some your way if you like. [emoji16]


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[lespaulde]

Your dried Aji Lemon pods look great, LP.
Should have made a beautiful powder. The
yellow is almost glowing!

And all credit goes to yourself Paul, that was really a golden tip to lower temps while dehydrating! Still only took overnight as I cut them in half and they crushed with only a few pulses of the blender - delicious!

Hey Erv, ya into jalapeños, eh. Cool. I’m growing a jalapeño that my daughter picked up seeds while vacationing in Spain , prepandemic. The package didn’t have much info on it, so I don’t know what variety it is[emoji848]. I plan on saving seeds and I can send some your way if you like. [emoji16]

Haha thanks Bryan, let us know how they are and would definitely appreciate a 'pencilling in' for another possible seed trade at the end of the season! We were supposed to be in Spain 3 weeks from now, but that ain't gonna happen unfortunately. One can only dream about the opportunities we used to have, and hope that next summer we are fully back to normal. Glad your daughter managed to go there before it all crashed down, must have been an amazing trip!


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[Devv]

Glad the peppers from the freezer do well in the drier
 
Speaking of cooking with frozen peppers. Last year we had way too many Poblano peppers. LB prepped them for stuffed peppers. Then was able to take the frozen peppers out of the freezer, stuff them and put them directly in the oven.
They came out perfect. We make both Italian, and Mexican style stuffed peppers from them.

 

[lespaulde]

Awesome that even stuffing still works after freezing - nice to get all these things cleared up! Useful to know for once I'm fully hit by the (expected) Rocoto fever and will grow the gelbe riesen next year that CaneDog so kindly sent me seeds for. Should make some nice stuffing peppers I reckon?

Figured it was time for some plant shot updates, starting first of all with the greenhouse overview. Still lots of space for now, but who knows how long that will last... [emoji6]

The outdoor ladies, going from right to left (Cristobal Rocoto, Hyperpube (CaneDog) and Jamaican yellow hot):

Found some organic chicken fertiliser pellets at the local supermarket which I think will come in handy for feeding these plants, especially during rainy bouts.

Dorset Naga Orange:

JPGS:

NuMex Lemon Spice:

NuMex Pumpkin Spice:

Jalapeño Vaquero:

Jalapeño Zapotec (CaneDog):

SRP:

Paper Lantern:

And last but not least, PaulG's BJH-2, with interesting colors on the leafs, not sure what's going on there. Can't really capture the right color, as in real life it looks kinda silver, whereas on the pics it looks more plain green. The plant seems to finally be branching out, which is nice as its already for sure 2 feet tall and even taller than the Aji Amarillo (also from PaulG) which was hidden by the Jamaican Yellow in the first picture. Crazy plant, and hope it will soon start putting out flowers like mad once things heat up a little more in June [emoji28]:

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[CaneDog]

Things are looking great, LP, and the greenhouse really looks amazing!  What a head start to be in your position and it's not even June.  Looks like you should have plenty of jalapenos headed your way - if one can ever really have "plenty" of jalapenos, that is 
 
I don't remember seeing you grow the pumpkin spice jalapeno before.  Is this your first time with it?  What's your take on the Lemon vs. Orange vs. Pumpkin?
 
Keep up the good work.  Things are really looking great.

 

[Devv]

Plants looking great
 
Love the Jalapeño Vaquero pic, and how Annuum's can always throw a single pod out there like it's the only one they're going to produce
 
I was thinking the silver on the Thunder plants was a sunburn?

 

[PtMD989]

Let’s hope that greenhouse fills out and looks like the rain forest [emoji16][emoji106], but without the mosquitoes and other annoying bugs [emoji16]


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[lespaulde]

Indoor plants are also progressing, and I'm extremely happy to say the Early Jalapeño has finally set its first pod! I checked pH which was around pH6.7; turns out that me adding a little bit of tap water to the distilled water for added calcium etc, also drastically increased pH. Now we're down to ~pH5. 8 which might be why it's finally setting pods, woohoo! FYI, those are 5L (1.3gal) buckets they're in, for size reference:

On the left is the Rocoto Oculto, which has grown substantially over the last 3 weeks and developing some nice foliage:

Just look at how tiny it was on May 6th!

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[lespaulde]

Things are looking great, LP, and the greenhouse really looks amazing!  What a head start to be in your position and it's not even June.  Looks like you should have plenty of jalapenos headed your way - if one can ever really have "plenty" of jalapenos, that is 
 
I don't remember seeing you grow the pumpkin spice jalapeno before.  Is this your first time with it?  What's your take on the Lemon vs. Orange vs. Pumpkin?
 
Keep up the good work.  Things are really looking great.

 
haha great point with the "can one have plenty of jalapenos" - I guess I'm heading in the direction of finding out I suppose? Otherwise next year we go all in on those suckers hahaha!
 
And good catch, I haven't grown any of the jalapenos I have outside before, so I really hope I can find some nice cultivars this year. Will for sure be comparing them later in the season which will hopefully be useful for others. Last year I was extremely excited about the Biker Bill's, but the seeds I had at least gave rise to pods with no heat whatsoever, which was very disappointing. Would be nice to find another source at some point to have another go.
 

Plants looking great
 
Love the Jalapeño Vaquero pic, and how Annuum's can always throw a single pod out there like it's the only one they're going to produce
 
I was thinking the silver on the Thunder plants was a sunburn?

 
Yeah isn't it crazy! It dropped the other 3-4 flowers it had, and focused completely on this one. Guessing another 2-3 weeks and it should be ripe, so I'm definitely excited!
 
You're probably right, although I didn't think an Indian heritage plant would have trouble with Danish spring sun intensity...
 

Let’s hope that greenhouse fills out and looks like the rain forest [emoji16][emoji106], but without the mosquitoes and other annoying bugs [emoji16]


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Haha, yeah, please none of those hornets CaneDog was talking about over here please!
 
Thanks for the encouraging words guys, looks like we're all having fun with better weather these days!

 

[Mr.joe]

Wow, Scott! LB DOES like the German Pink? That's great! Tonie is that way, also. If she has to only have one tomato, German Pink would be her choice. Lol

I'm so glad that the Syrian Haskorea is still making the rounds and you are interested, Erv! Thanks again, Bryan, for getting it out there! I should be heading to that same greenhouse within the next couple weeks, so I may find another diamond in the rough. That's where I found the no-heat bishops crown, too. Many oddball varieties show up there because the owners brother works at a main greenhouse in Toledo......about an hour from here. And their Reapers are usually spot-on, (except last year) so I don't start one. Lol

Fantastic-looking plants, Erv! I too had Rocoto Oculto difficulties. Also had a helmet head, but when removed, it had tri-cotyledon. So it was too big had to be Caesarian-born. Lmao!


-Adam

Could almost start a separate haskorea grow thread since so many of us are growing them this year. Thanks to the two of you.

 

[Mr.joe]

When I posted that last comment I had no idea how far i was from the end. Lots of great reading and my favorite the pictures. Your plants look to be doing great.

 

[Bhuter]

Wow! Great looking grow! Pumpkin spice is a winner!

I snapped a few pics of my pubescens today. Two have shed their bottom leaves, one being the Oculto CLEF in the middle, Brown Rocoto: left, Rocoto Marlene: right

Oculto forking

My Oculto seeds came from Guitarman in Italy, which he got from Chili-shop.org.

Great looking everything!!!!

 

[lespaulde]

Wow! Great looking grow! Pumpkin spice is a winner!

I snapped a few pics of my pubescens today. Two have shed their bottom leaves, one being the Oculto CLEF in the middle, Brown Rocoto: left, Rocoto Marlene: right

Oculto forking

My Oculto seeds came from Guitarman in Italy, which he got from Chili-shop.org.

Great looking everything!!!!

Those plants are looking super healthy man, when do you expect these to start fruiting? And what size of containers will they end up in? And last question, do you know the ripening length of general rocotos? I'll be watching closely to see how your Oculto pods turn out as I'm curious how true mine will be. So far all seeds from that place seem to be growing true so I'm hopeful...

Those pumpkin Spice I'm also very excited about too, you've grown them before?

When I posted that last comment I had no idea how far i was from the end. Lots of great reading and my favorite the pictures. Your plants look to be doing great.

Thanks Joe, appreciate it! It's been a pretty OK season so far, just a bit colder than it should be in June so I'm hoping things will pick up this month in terms of heat and plant growth.

Which also brings me to a question for the experts, what do you guys think is going on with my JPGS?

Top view of the plant (on the left), where you can see the leaf curl that's happening:

Close up of canopy:

Some yellowing of older leafs, but also some normal (?) looking growth further down the plant I think (?):

I started using predominantly rain water now that I can collect it, so I'm suspecting a calcium deficiency perhaps, also as there's no sign of bugs. Other plants on the same water source are fine, although some (e.g. Jalapeño Zapotec) are showing a bit of leaf yellowing (3rd plant on the right, from the bottom):

Now with rain water only, I guess I will need to increase my ppms to ensure sufficient nutrition (as I now start from 50ppm, instead of 350ppm from tap water), but didn't want to do that too enthusiastically. I used to end up around 800ppm, and therefore was aiming for around 500ppm with rain water... Any suggestions/opinions are very welcome of course...

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[PaulG]

Cal-mag to the rescue!
 
Plants look good  overall. I really like the
square pots and watering trays you are
using. The leaf curl is similar to what some
of my plants have, usually from too damp
conditions. To avoid calcium deficiency, I
usually add bone meal to my plant-outs.
A spray with kelp/cal-mag combo can be
helpful when our weather dries out a little.
 
Looking good in Denmark!

 

[Mildfruit]

Those plants are really enjoying the autopots, or east2grow pots by the looks of it. I was afraid they were positioned to close to each other, but seeing your pictures I may reconsider. 
Is it the 15L pots? 
 
Hard to say what is the reason for the curl, I've over the last few seasons read tons of reasons for the curl, and for me the reason have always been the environment i.e. too much light, too hot and such. Normally it reverts back to normal in a month or two. But you're growing outdoor, so I would check for possible bugs and such, but im sure you already took a close look. 
 
Whats the black plant in far back? 

 

[CaneDog]

I'm thinking along the same lines as Paul and MF; that the curl looks environmental more than deficiency based.  Calcium deficiency interferes with complete leaf development during formation, but those look to me more like properly formed leaves that are rolling in reaction to something. I suspect transpiration is outpacing water supply to the leaves and the culprit is a deficiency in the root system. Too small a container early in plant life (certain varieties seem susceptible to this, others don't); cooler, wetter media; and root rot can have that effect.  My best guess looking at the whole plant would be that the media is staying cooler and wetter than the plant is liking and the roots aren't developing properly throughout the container.

 

[lespaulde]

Thanks guys, just hearing from people with your level of knowledge and experience makes me much calmer and relaxed, and the level of detail in your responses is awesome, thanks!
 

Cal-mag to the rescue!
 
Plants look good  overall. I really like the
square pots and watering trays you are
using. The leaf curl is similar to what some
of my plants have, usually from too damp
conditions. To avoid calcium deficiency, I
usually add bone meal to my plant-outs.
A spray with kelp/cal-mag combo can be
helpful when our weather dries out a little.
 
Looking good in Denmark!

 
Cal-mag is a really good idea Paul, I will try to source some, and from what I understand from your wording, you mean to use it as a foliar spray, right? Bone meal during plant out is probably also a good idea, especially if I'm going to count on using mainly rainwater in future grows too. I recently got a rain collection kit for the greenhouse, and it works rather well in terms of amount of water collected, so I'm quite keen on using it (at least mixed with normal tap water) to save the environment, on bills, and keep the autopot tubings clear.
 
But glad to hear you think most of the plants are looking good, as it means a lot coming from someone as successful as yourself!
 

Those plants are really enjoying the autopots, or east2grow pots by the looks of it. I was afraid they were positioned to close to each other, but seeing your pictures I may reconsider. 
Is it the 15L pots? 
 
Hard to say what is the reason for the curl, I've over the last few seasons read tons of reasons for the curl, and for me the reason have always been the environment i.e. too much light, too hot and such. Normally it reverts back to normal in a month or two. But you're growing outdoor, so I would check for possible bugs and such, but im sure you already took a close look. 
 
Whats the black plant in far back? 

 
Thanks MF! And you've got a keen eye, indeed they are the Easy2Grow pots rather than individual autopots. If I could buy it all again, I would probably choose the individual pots, but in all fairness, indeed they tend to have enough space to spread out in the other directions, but if you're keen on keeping genetics uncrossed, I'd for sure go for the individual units. Most of them are the 8.5L pots, but the ones on the top right (with the Zapotec and Vaquero) are in 15L pots; can't really say I noticed a big difference in terms of plant size last year, but haven't done a controlled experiment to really conclude something. The 15L pots are very tall though, so if you're concerned with height, I'd go for the 8.5L pots.
 
I know what you mean, you can find 100s of reasons and all that I've been able to exclude are bugs so far. Probably it's an effect of the still rather cold weather, and I'm going to start by drying out the pots a little to ensure the media is not too wet.
 
The black plant is PaulG's BJH-02, rocking a nice big fat pod so far. It's finally branching out now, and I'm a bit scared to see how tall it's going to grow over the next few months...
 

I'm thinking along the same lines as Paul and MF; that the curl looks environmental more than deficiency based.  Calcium deficiency interferes with complete leaf development during formation, but those look to me more like properly formed leaves that are rolling in reaction to something. I suspect transpiration is outpacing water supply to the leaves and the culprit is a deficiency in the root system. Too small a container early in plant life (certain varieties seem susceptible to this, others don't); cooler, wetter media; and root rot can have that effect.  My best guess looking at the whole plant would be that the media is staying cooler and wetter than the plant is liking and the roots aren't developing properly throughout the container.

 
The media being too wet is definitely a theme both you and Paul immediately touch on, and I was actually also looking at the pots earlier this week thinking it may be a little on the wet side. It's simply been much cooler than we normally have at this time of the year, so too cold and too wet is most definitely a likely culprit. I appreciate the clear explanation and train of thought from your conclusions and learnt a lot, thank you for that. My imminent plan is to close off the water source for a week or so until pots have dried out a good amount. Then I will also go back to mixing 1:1 or 1:2 with tap water like I did last year (we have l.o.t.s. of calcium in our water), and hope that with the inbound warmer weather this coming weekend, that things will stabilize. Very interesting that it's only 1 plant showing this with exactly the same media, nutrients, etc., so I agree I should not do too many things and rather make some smaller corrections and then watch what happens.
 
Again, thanks everybody, the support is immensely appreciated!