Megamoo's 2012/2013 Glog

Trippa · Dec 2, 2012

Nice harvest and good looking sauces ... nothing nicer then the smell of homemade sauces jams and chutneys ... reminds me of my childhood

megamoo · Dec 2, 2012

stickman said:
Nice looking sauces Moo! I suppose there are worse fates than having a house that smells like a barbeque pit... So far I've only made sauces that used carrots in the recipe for thickening as well as flavoring... Is your green sauce made of Jalapenos?

Yeah the green sauce is my own jalapenos. First sauce I've made with my own produce

I only used about a third of what I had picked and the sauce is too runny for my liking....... So I could solve both those problems by processing the rest of the jalapenos into a paste, adding it to the sauce and reducing it until it thickens up.

Maybe tomorrow because I am cooked out! Today I reheated the runny BBQ sauce and added some arrowroot, and now it looks awesome! It wasn't hot enough so I chucked some bhut jolokia powder/flakes in. Tastes freakin amazing, I'm so pleased with my first try at it. :onfire:

Then this afternoon I made up a batch of pineapple mango sauce. I've done this recipe 5 or 6 times and getting really good at it, good consistency, flavour and heat. The hand I used to wash out the pot afterwards is burning. I half expect to turn off the light and see it glowing in the dark.

Trippa said:
Nice harvest and good looking sauces ... nothing nicer then the smell of homemade sauces jams and chutneys ... reminds me of my childhood

Thanks Trippa I know what you mean. I made chilli chutney/jam for the first time about a month ago, gave away a few jars and everyone is hassling me for more

But damn it takes soooo long to toast and peel all the paprika and chillies, and then what you started with reduces down so much. I need to get one of those chilli skin burning contraptions.

stickman · Dec 2, 2012

Sounds like when I made ajvar this fall with red bell peppers... Lots of work for only a few quarts of relish, but damn that stuff is good! I opened one jar right away because I just couldn't help myself, and I'm saving the rest for the holidays.

DocNrock · Dec 2, 2012

Sauce looks awesome, MM. Reminds me that I have some smoked Bhuts and Brains in the freezer that are intended for sauce. Nothing planned for today. Hmmm. I might have to pick up some eggplant from the store and try my hand at Stickman's Ajvar, as well. That stuff sounds awesome!

megamoo · Dec 3, 2012

stickman said:
Sounds like when I made ajvar this fall with red bell peppers... Lots of work for only a few quarts of relish, but damn that stuff is good! I opened one jar right away because I just couldn't help myself, and I'm saving the rest for the holidays.

DocNrock said:
Sauce looks awesome, MM. Reminds me that I have some smoked Bhuts and Brains in the freezer that are intended for sauce. Nothing planned for today. Hmmm. I might have to pick up some eggplant from the store and try my hand at Stickman's Ajvar, as well. That stuff sounds awesome!

Never heard of ajvar before but a google search makes it look good!. It looks a little bright red in the pictures, the chutney I made was dark dark red/brown because you cook the onions and chillies until they completely caramalise, plus the recipe calls for dark brown sugar. It ended up very sweet in the end, like a jam but still very good.

I'll have to grab a jar of that ajvar next time I see it in the imported/gourmet foods section.

I have made the decision to not sow any more seeds this season. So I'll post my finalised plant list. It's a bit chinense heavy, but I didn't get to all my annums and others. Made a decision not to do any pubescens or wilds this season. It's more detailed than you need to know but its sort of a stocktake for my records also.

These have at least one healthy plant growing:

7 Pot Barrackpore
7 Pot Brainstrain
7 Pot Jonah
7 Pot Primo
7 Pot Red
7 Pot SR Red
7 Pot Yellow
7 Pot Yellow (different source, can never have too many)
Aji Lemon
Beni Highlands
Bhut Jolokia
Bhut Jolokia Chocolate
Bhut Jolokia Indian Carbon
Big Jim
Bih Jolokia
Brazillian Starfish
Cayenne Gold
Cayenne Red
Charleston Hot
Cheiro White
Congo Brown
Congo Trinidad
Datil
Dorset Naga
Douglah
Fatalii Chocolate
Fatalii Yellow
Habanero Chocolate
Habanero Magnum
Habanero Orange
Habanero Peach
Habanero Red
Habanero Rojo
Habanero White
Hot Cherry
Hot Fish
Hungarian Black
Jamiaca Scotch Bonnet
Limo Blanco
Mystery Pepper (red savina?)
Naga Jolokia Purple
Orange Lantern
Pimenta De Neyde
Purple Tiger
Rocotillo
Scarlet Lantern
Tabasco
Trinidad Perfume
Trinidad Scorpion
Trinidad Scorpion Butch T
Trinidad Scorpion Chocolate
Trinidad Scorpion Moruga Red
Trinidad Scorpion Moruga Yellow

Newest seedlings. Didn't use a heat mat with these cos I'm slack.

How many cells have sprouts / how many cells were sown (Not neccesarily number of seeds) - Name
4 / 4 - Corno Di Torro Rossi
4 / 4 - Pusa Jwala
3 / 4 - Takanotsume (this was 4 / 4 but some heavy handed thinning out killed 1 :oops:

)
3 / 8 - Bahamian Bird Pepper
6 / 8 - Goatsweed
4 / 4 - Czechoslokian Black
4 / 4 - Harissa
8 / 8 - Mulato
1 / 8 - Chihuacle Negro
4 / 4 - Broome Chilli
3 / 4 - Cumari
4 / 4 - Piquillo
3 / 4 - Quintisho
7 / 8 - Chilaca Pasilla
3 / 4 - Antohi Romanian
4 / 4 - Large Orange Thai
4 / 4 - Royal Black
4 / 4 - Tazmanian Red
4 / 4 - Zimbabwe Black
1 / 8 - Jamiacan Hot Chocolate

These are 0 germination but just put them above the lights so its like a heat mat. Could hook at any time.
Blondie
Cayenne Ring of Fire
Cayenne Long Purple
Cochiti
Fushimi
Guampinha De Veado
Santa Fe Grande

This is the `whole lot of nothin` section

Sowed tons of seeds of these and nothing happened. Really expected more, sourced from well known vendors.
Aji Panca
Pimenta Di Bico
Paprika

These sprouted but the seedlings struggled and never grew large, finally died. The seeds were old and from a trade though. Never had good germination rates from them.
Naga Morich

Had these down as getting one sprout but can't find them anywhere. Must have died.

Aribibi Gusano
Wasp

Can't blame these seeds cos they sprouted last season but this time nothing. Used all my stock up.
Nagabon
Habanero Peruvian White
Habanero Big Sun

Only sowed two seeds of each so not too concerned about these.
Bhut Jolokia x Giant White Hab
Bhut Jolokia x Pimenta De Neyde
Datil x Limon

Only had one grungy old seed left and thought I'd give it ago. Was a freebie so not complaining either!
Bahamian Goat Pepper

This glog will be a great resource for next season. I could have gotten double the plants if I had started off at the right time in the right way instead of all the trial and error along the way. But the experience has been gained. Now to learn how to grow the plants to maturity

stickman · Dec 3, 2012

megamoo said:
Never heard of ajvar before but a google search makes it look good!. It looks a little bright red in the pictures, the chutney I made was dark dark red/brown because you cook the onions and chillies until they completely caramalise, plus the recipe calls for dark brown sugar. It ended up very sweet in the end, like a jam but still very good.

I'll have to grab a jar of that ajvar next time I see it in the imported/gourmet foods section.

Hi Moo
The pepper/onion chutney sounds very good too, but didn't you add lemon juice or vinegar for tang? Every chutney I ever ate was sweet/sour, not just sweet...
By all means try some commercially prepared ajvar to get the idea of what it tastes like, but homemade is always much better!

Man, that's an ambitious list of peppers to grow for just one season... or were you planning on keeping them around for more? Either way, It looks like it'll absorb most of your free time for quite a while. Cheers!

Trippa · Dec 3, 2012

Nice list mega .... a little limited mind you ... why didn't you go bigger

just joking bro ... best of luck with that monster grow ...

megamoo · Dec 3, 2012

stickman said:
Hi Moo
The pepper/onion chutney sounds very good too, but didn't you add lemon juice or vinegar for tang? Every chutney I ever ate was sweet/sour, not just sweet...
By all means try some commercially prepared ajvar to get the idea of what it tastes like, but homemade is always much better!

Man, that's an ambitious list of peppers to grow for just one season... or were you planning on keeping them around for more? Either way, It looks like it'll absorb most of your free time for quite a while. Cheers!

Yeah it had a crapload of balsamic vinegar in it. I probably just put in too much sugar. Sometimes I just make a recipe without measuring everything exactly, just sort of chuck in what I think looks right.

If I don't kill them with incompetence hopefully some should overwinter themselves. Such is our climate.

Trippa said:
Nice list mega .... a little limited mind you ... why didn't you go bigger just joking bro ... best of luck with that monster grow ...

Hey your joking but I look down my list and think it is limited! Might have written in an earlier post that I have 90 varieties that were going to be planted but I ran out of time..... and more that I have held over for next season. Could make a whole new list with completely different varieties but just as long.

My name is megamoo and I'm a chilli-seed-aholic :drunk:

wildseed57 · Dec 3, 2012

been reading your glog from start to finish, was imprest by all your labor you put in it, I use heat mats all the time till the seedlings get there first true leaves. One thing you might try if you can get the chems , On all old seed and seeds that are hard to start you can do a warm soak over night in a 3% hydrogen peroxide at a 1 part H.P. to 2 parts distilled water then a quick dip or spray of giberilic acid to break seed dormacy and as the seed starts to grow soak in root hormone. I have found that even old seeds will respond to this treatment, also cuttings will root much faster when dipped in rooting hormone, using giberilic acid can cause plants to grow very tall when used at certain growth stages. Having said all that crap , your plants look like they are doing great even though some were beat to death by high winds, we often get 60 to 80 mile straight line winds during the early and mid summer so I started making my own custom cages to keep the winds from ripping the plants out of the ground, problems fixed. I hope you have good luck with all your plants, your sauces look great i bet they taste just as good as they look.

megamoo · Dec 4, 2012

Thanks for following wildseed

The pineapple/mango and BBQ are great, I'm really pleased with how they turned out. I'm going to reprocess the Jalapeno to get more heat, colour and better consistency and flavour. I'm designing labels right now to stick on them and I have heat shrink seals to put on also.

I soak all my seeds in hydrogen peroxide followed by chamomile tea and it works for most seeds. I've heard of the gibberellic acid and have tried to find some but its not that easy or cheap to get it. I've heard its prized by marijuana growers so I guess I should visit the seedy underbelly of society

Having so many varieties covers me if one type won't grow, so I'm not that fussed. I do get a little annoyed when seed sold by a large vendor doesn't germinate because you shouldn't have to go to extremes to get it to work. But its no biggy.

DocNrock · Dec 4, 2012

List looks great. And I can empathize about the germination. I have at least three varieties that had limited or no germination from well-regarded vendors.

megamoo · Dec 6, 2012

Thanks Doc.

Three of my `nothing yet` varieties are from an Australian vendor I hadn't tried before. They have lots of vegetable seeds and not many chillies, and in my experience you get upwards of 50 seeds for a low price when this is the situation. I got about 50 seeds of each so I planted lots to ensure I got some sprouts, and then I could thin them out. That was the plan anyway

They are:
Cayenne Ring of Fire
Cayenne Long Purple
Santa Fe Grande

Everyone knows chinense are hard to germinate but these are annuums and you would expect a very common variety such as cayenne to have no trouble germinating. Coming up on 3 weeks now and still nothing.

Plus I found a mistake on their site. A variety I ordered called Hot Romanian was labeled a "fruitescence", and described as hot. The picture they had was the exact same picture as used on thechilliman.org to show a variety called Romanian Sweet. It was described on thechilliman as sweet and an annuum. The pictures had different copyright watermarks too.

I sent the vendor an email pointing this out and they took the listing down and confirmed it was an error by their supplier and it was in fact an annuum. They also sent me a free packet of seeds of my choice. Which is great customer service but the free one "cayenne ring of fire" and two others are still yet to germinate.

I think the moral of this story is to get your seeds from someone who speciallises in chilli and grows them personally.

Trippa · Dec 7, 2012

Moral of the Story ... cheap isn't always better

megamoo · Dec 8, 2012

After looking back at the dates of my last photos and I now realise I've been impatient with wanting my chilli jungle to take off. That's why I pushed the ferts.

This shot was taken on the 19th November.

and these were taken today 8th December

I think that's pretty good growth for just under 3 weeks considering they were battered by a storm, then I went and poisoned them.
Look at the difference in the tomatoes! They've exploded in their cages. I was pinching out the suckers but can't get in there now, its a tangled mess!

I've been flushing everything with just water and they seem to be doing better. The nasty wrinkling leaves isn't getting any worse and there is some clean new growth.

PDN starting to resprout

The first Naga Jolokia Purple pods must be ripening. They were black but are changing colour. I guess its light green then red?

It's hard to see on most of them but the Jalapenos are all filling up with pods again. This one gets restricted sun and doesn't have much foliage so you can see all the pods on it clearly. Every single jalapeno pod, big or small was picked only nine days ago.

The other plants in full sun have bigger pods and more of them too. I've made my green sauce so I'll let this crop ripen before they are picked.

When I last potted up I tipped the nonsprouted seed cells into a bucket and left it under a table in the garage. Today....

I think this is a case where fluctuating temperatures break the dormancy of seeds. In nature the ground doesn't stay at an ideal temp, it goes up and down with day and night. Some techniques call for putting seeds in the freezer then on a heat mat to simulate this. I might have to deliberately try this with my current nonsprouting seeds.

Have more photos, need a bump.

stickman · Dec 8, 2012

Nice looking plants Moo. (Bump) Over-fertilizing didn't seem to have done much harm now that you're flushing them. Nice shade cloth setup too. I like the way you have your chiles planted about waist high so you don't have to kneel to pick them.

Interesting observation on the relationship between temperature fluctuations and germination. I'll have to try giving my pepper seeds a shot of cold in the refrigerator for a few days before setting them out on the heat mat.

megamoo · Dec 8, 2012

stickman said:
Nice looking plants Moo. (Bump) Over-fertilizing didn't seem to have done much harm now that you're flushing them. Nice shade cloth setup too. I like the way you have your chiles planted about waist high so you don't have to kneel to pick them.

Interesting observation on the relationship between temperature fluctuations and germination. I'll have to try giving my pepper seeds a shot of cold in the refrigerator for a few days before setting them out on the heat mat.

Cheers stickman

It's just worked out that way and its sparing my back!

There was a discussion about this way to break dormancy and a link to an article in the winter-summer in oz thread a earlier in the year. From what I remember it was properly researched and tested.

Some photos of tiny pod beginnings.

Bhut Jolokia. I harvested the seed from a bought pod and was never quite sure of its pureness but this looks suitably bhutish

Its a really dense bush and I had to look deep to find a second pod.

I think this is Habanero Red

Magnum Hab Same pods as earlier post... but they're bigger

Congo Brown double rock!

Also getting some tomatoes
Golden Cherry ripening

Purple Calabash going to get bigger

Taxi in a low light area. Something is eating the leaves but its a really awkward spot to get down and check for caterpillars.

I don't have the experience but does anyone know if a full sized gnarly pod like a bhut jolokia shows its final shape when its really young? I always had it in my mind that it starts off smooth and slowly gets more pimply and gnarled as it grows.... if so my pods might be shaping up to be undersized??? I just don't know one way or another.

PaulG · Dec 8, 2012

Wow, Mega, you have a boat load of plants underway! You should
get enough pods to start a little business venture selling pods and
powders or sauces! It seems as if you have conquered most of the
problems with you earlier grows; that raised bed along the fence is
looking really awesome and should provide a great space for them
and be easy to work on. Good luck going forward into your summer
season, buddy, watching your progress will help warm up our cold
winter months here!

megamoo · Dec 9, 2012

PaulG said:
Wow, Mega, you have a boat load of plants underway! You should
get enough pods to start a little business venture selling pods and
powders or sauces! It seems as if you have conquered most of the
problems with you earlier grows; that raised bed along the fence is
looking really awesome and should provide a great space for them
and be easy to work on. Good luck going forward into your summer
season, buddy, watching your progress will help warm up our cold
winter months here!

Thanks Paul. Selling a product from this massive grow is something I have seriously considered. I've made three types of sauces and I'm doing the labels at the moment but only for xmas presents. Commercially selling sauces requires a lot of work that I'm not prepared to do right now. Just trying to get a harvest. If I manage to get regular pods I'll start isolating and saving the seeds to sell. Anything that recoups some of the cost will be welcomed.

I extended and fine tuned the retic today and prepared places in the raised bed for transplants. This week I'll be able to put at least 24 more plants in the ground.

DocNrock · Dec 9, 2012

megamoo said:
Thanks Paul. Selling a product from this massive grow is something I have seriously considered. I've made three types of sauces and I'm doing the labels at the moment but only for xmas presents. Commercially selling sauces requires a lot of work that I'm not prepared to do right now. Just trying to get a harvest. If I manage to get regular pods I'll start isolating and saving the seeds to sell. Anything that recoups some of the cost will be welcomed.

I extended and fine tuned the retic today and prepared places in the raised bed for transplants. This week I'll be able to put at least 24 more plants in the ground.

Lots of work, and with that, I hope comes lots of reward! You are going to have a chile jungle, my friend. Keep it up and keep up with the pics!

PaulG · Dec 9, 2012

MM, you are turning into a growing machine!