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!

 

[lespaulde]

Sorry it took me a long time to get back with you. Things are starting to get less restricted in my neck of the woods, so Covid is still hanging around and spreading [emoji15]. The” babies “ are doing fine, the SRP is setting pods the NewMex OS and Thai are lagging behind, probably cause SRP is in a bigger pot than the other two.

I hear ya on the spreading - we're now officially in the second wave and things are shutting down again. We all just gotta strap in now and do each our part i suppose. Hope things don't go out of hand, neither at yours nor ours!

Glad to hear plants are well though! Those d*rned spider mites keep coming back to my office plants, so I gave everything outside of the tent a good trimming and dose of neem, so hopefully can keep it in check. Not counting on pods on Haskorea this year, but then hopefully will have a year nr 2 plant to put into production next year.

Haven’t had a chance to try a Zapotec, yet,
Erv. Waiting for a tinge of red here and there
before picking. The big pods might make good
pickled rings. They are just so much bigger than
normal jalapeños, way too big for poppers! Maybe
stuffed and baked? 10-20K is hot enough for me.
Over the top for my spouse!

Yeah they do seem to take long to ripen eh? They're the last to turn in the greenhouse, with all the jalas slowly ripening up to completion now. Interesting yours are so big as I'm not sure I'm having that pheno. Did your seeds come from the good sir CD as well? Speaking of big pods BTW, your Aji Amarillo are nearly the size of bell peppers, holy moly!
 

Thanks for posting the SRP pic. 
 
After seeing that, I will wait a bit longer before
picking any. Your Aji Benito is just crazy active!
 
Will post an update pic in my grow log. Both of
those seeds produced great plants.

Yeah the SRP are worth waiting that extra week for. My wife loves them so much she eats them straight on top of an avocado - I'm ever so slowly turning her into a chili head too hahaha!

Your plants look very impressive and I'm glad they survived the storms relatively well. Now crossing are fingers for a few more weeks of frost free nights and decent daytime temps!

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[PaulG]

I hear ya on the spreading - we're now officially in the second wave and things are shutting down again. We all just gotta strap in now and do each our part i suppose. Hope things don't go out of hand, neither at yours nor ours!

Glad to hear plants are well though! Those d*rned spider mites keep coming back to my office plants, so I gave everything outside of the tent a good trimming and dose of neem, so hopefully can keep it in check. Not counting on pods on Haskorea this year, but then hopefully will have a year nr 2 plant to put into production next year.

Yeah they do seem to take long to ripen eh? They're the last to turn in the greenhouse, with all the jalas slowly ripening up to completion now. Interesting yours are so big as I'm not sure I'm having that pheno. Did your seeds come from the good sir CD as well? Speaking of big pods BTW, your Aji Amarillo are nearly the size of bell peppers, holy moly!
 
Yeah the SRP are worth waiting that extra week for. My wife loves them so much she eats them straight on top of an avocado - I'm ever so slowly turning her into a chili head too hahaha!

Your plants look very impressive and I'm glad they survived the storms relatively well. Now crossing are fingers for a few more weeks of frost free nights and decent daytime temps!

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I will try the avocado idea!
 
I wonder if the SR Cream are similar. Haven't had
a chance to try one, yet. Not sure what ripe color
is on those.

 

[lespaulde]

I will try the avocado idea!
 
I wonder if the SR Cream are similar. Haven't had
a chance to try one, yet. Not sure what ripe color
is on those.

So the "recipe" is to fill the hole left by the stone with cottage cheese, bit of salt and pepper and then a chopped SRP. It was her suggesting it and I think it's a winner!

Curious to hear your thoughts about SRC vs SRP as they seem (in your skilled hands) equally productive?

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[lespaulde]

Actually trying my hands on some fermented hot sauce this year:

SR Chili Red from last year, mixed with some garlic and 5% sea salt. Want to let this mash ferment for 2-3 weeks and then store it in the fridge.

These Dorset Naga Orange (50ish pods) ended up in 3.5% brine together with some garlic, red onion and fresh plums. Now a week later its bubbling away nicely and will probably let it go for a month or two as I'm less concerned about mold, kahm etc with everything submerged under the brine.

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[lespaulde]

With the season slowly but surely approaching the end, I figured it's time for a slightly more comprehensive update.

Many pods are ripening, but also quite a lot that will still be weeks out and therefore need a good rest of September / early October to make it. Especially the Rocotos podded up a lot during late July / August, but while gaining a lot in size, the pods are still as green as the day they formed. No matter what, I think 60L fabric pots, straight outside was a good choice for these plants as they've grown quite sizeable:

Hyperpube x (CaneDog):

Rocoto Cristobal:

I also, for fun, cloned a tomato sucker (quite mature, with actual maters on it and flowers etc.) about 1.5 months ago, and it was so easy to get it to take (1 week in a bucket of water), and after planting it, it felt right at home. Now it's as big as its mother plant in terms of height:

The jalas are starting to ripen, with only the Zapotec holding out a bit longer. Really hoping they will start turning this coming week to have any hope of them ripening in time.

NuMex LS:

NuMex Vaquero:

Both of these are quite mild, so not sure I'm growing them again next year. Very pretty pods though, and the Vaquero has very pretty corking action going on which I like a lot.

The JPGS was slow, but started putting out nice stingers!

As I do really want try some pods this year, I put it, together with PaulG's 7-pot burgundy, into the tent for some nice ripening weeks. Let's see how long it takes, but I'm guessing by November I should be having some ripe ones in stock. The tent definitely got instantly full with these 2 plants!

My first office harvest is now also a fact, with 50+ BJ chocolate pods, and a decent Jaloro supply as well. These color up in a very pretty way and should make good poppers; again a bit too mild for my liking, but I'm happy to have grown them and will enjoy the eating.

Had a pretty decent pull from the garden too this weekend, with a collection of NuMex LS, SRP, NuMex Pumpkin spice (which I'd argue are simply red), NuMex Vaquero and PaulG's Bjh-02:

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[lespaulde]

Just wanted to send a quick update on the purple pineapple F2. I planted 4 seeds 3 weeks ago, of which one germinated and is showing quite a promising pheno already:

The other 3 seeds did not look like they were viable, so I planted 3 more as I'd like to grow 4 plants this winter, ideally before next year's grow begins... 3.5 months? That's totally enough time right?!?

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[ahayastani]

Congrats! I haven't seen many pepper seedlings with purple cotyledons.

 

[PaulG]

The other 3 seeds did not look like they were viable, so I planted 3 more as I'd like to grow 4 plants this winter, ideally before next year's grow begins... 3.5 months? That's totally enough time right?!?

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That's the spirit, buddy!
 
Hold that thought...

 

[lespaulde]

Paul, these 7-pot Pecans are M.O.N.E.Y.! Finally got to try one today and their flavor and heat level are simply spot on! Had some slices on a grilled cheese, and got none of the Chinense skank but they definitely lit me up hahaha!

And did I mention how gorgeous they are?!?

Thanks for the hookup my friend!

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[Mildfruit]

What a pleasent watch! You are sure covered in peppers to keep you warm over the winter  !  Great to see everthing are working out so great for you!
I actually had the exact same experience with the Numex LS and Vaquero, being milder than I liked to the point some pods almost had no heat. Shame as the pods are gorgeous. 
 
Good luck on the ferment! I've had some luck using the vacuum method instead, looking forward to see how these turn out for you. 
I didn't know you had such a cool indoor setup, do you have success with the chinense varieties in there? If yes, how?! What kind of light do you use in there? I plan to move my Bahamian goat inside a tent with a 3000K HLG instead of the 4000K HLG in my main tent, hopefully that could change things up a bit. 
 
I will be forever envious of that outdoor greenhouse, someday I'll copy that setup 

 

[PaulG]

Paul, these 7-pot Pecans are M.O.N.E.Y.! Finally got to try one today and their flavor and heat level are simply spot on! Had some slices on a grilled cheese, and got none of the Chinense skank but they definitely lit me up hahaha!

And did I mention how gorgeous they are?!?

Thanks for the hookup my friend!

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So glad they came through for you, Erv.
 
The phenotype looks good from the picture.