mjdiamond83's 2012 Grow Log

Sethsquatch · Jul 3, 2012

Hey Matt! Save me some seeds from those Hot Portugal peppers. My wife is of Portuguese descent and I'm trying to get some peppers for her!

Spicegeist · Jul 3, 2012

I just got some fish and sesame oil to mix with water and spray for what looks like a mite problem, picked it up at a hardware store...

Funny how the SB7J doesn't look like the parent, oh well, with those genetics though there is a chance it will be hot and tasty...

mjdiamond83 · Jul 3, 2012

stc3248 said:
Matt my man glad you updated! Those plants look to be rockin for you now!!! The three SB's that I started from you have had their share of issues and fell way behind in the growth department, but are finally starting to pull out of it. Thanks again for the seeds man, really cool of you. Hopefully the restaurant reno works out for you too...

Shane

Thanks Shane! They're really enjoying the mid to high 80 temps we've had recently. I was getting a little worried I wasn't going to get any peppers off my chinense plants, but they're looking a lot healthier now. Hopefully those SB's will start producing for you soon. My larger SB plant set its first pod last week, about time since I've been watching the thing grow since late January. You're welcome for the seeds!

Sethsquatch said:
Hey Matt! Save me some seeds from those Hot Portugal peppers. My wife is of Portuguese descent and I'm trying to get some peppers for her!

You've got it Seth! I have one that should be fully ripe in a day or two. I'll pull some seeds, dry them out, and send them out to you. With how quickly Annuums grow you might be able to still get a couple pods this season!

Spicegeist said:
I just got some fish and sesame oil to mix with water and spray for what looks like a mite problem, picked it up at a hardware store...

Funny how the SB7J doesn't look like the parent, oh well, with those genetics though there is a chance it will be hot and tasty...

Good luck getting the mites taken care of, they killed a lot of new growth on my plants. They're destructive little bastages.
You're right, the SB7J doesn't look like the F1 or either of the parents at all, but its still a cool little pepper. I needed something to heat up some Garlic Scape pesto the other day, so I used an upripe one. Even at the green stage it had a ton of flavor and quite a bit of heat. I'm looking forward to trying a ripe one soon.

PIC 1 · Jul 3, 2012

Hey Matt,
Its nice to see pods forming on the plants.........Its a long growing season, everyone has their priorities...Family and work come first, .....for me the garden is just another one of the hobbies.
Hey, as the plants get larger they basically can survive on good rain and some side fert dressing. Then all you;ll have to do is pick some pods and get the dinner menu together...
Good luck with you ventires

Greg

mjdiamond83 · Jul 5, 2012

PIC 1 said:
Hey Matt,
Its nice to see pods forming on the plants.........Its a long growing season, everyone has their priorities...Family and work come first, .....for me the garden is just another one of the hobbies.
Hey, as the plants get larger they basically can survive on good rain and some side fert dressing. Then all you;ll have to do is pick some pods and get the dinner menu together...
Good luck with you ventires

Greg

Thanks Greg! It definitely is a long growing season. Next year I'm going to start my plants a little bit later. One of my largest plants and the one (by far) the most peppers on it is the variety I sowed at the beginning of April.

It's been hot and dry over the past week; the peppers are loving it. Here's a few pics from this morning.

Aji Cachucha loaded up with newly formed pods.

These were supposed to be purira, but I think the seed must have either been mislabeled or they crossed last year. Regardless, this plant is a workhorse. It has about 30 peppers on it already.

I'm not sure what this variety is, I never had it labeled and it doesn't look much like anything else I'm growing. The pods are a real light yellow color

Joe's Round

Yellow 7 Pot pods. This plant was nearly dead earlier this year. I moved it to a hydroponic setup to revive it, then transferred it back to soil. It didn't mind the stress much and is doing really well.

stc3248 · Jul 5, 2012

Hydro to the rescue! Nice recovery! The color on those yellow peppers reminds me of my Aji Omnicolor. Hard to tell, but the flowers on yours don't look Baccatum from that angle though...

mjdiamond83 · Jul 5, 2012

stc3248 said:
Hydro to the rescue! Nice recovery! The color on those yellow peppers reminds me of my Aji Omnicolor. Hard to tell, but the flowers on yours don't look Baccatum from that angle though...

The only baccatums I'm growing are Aji Limon and one Inca Red Drop plant, but most of the seed I'm growing were trades, so maybe an odd variety slipped in somewhere along the way. I'm thinking it could be a Purira based on what those peppers look like.
Hydro really does work miracles on plants. I wasn't sure how it would do going from the hydro setup back to soil, but it really didn't take long for the roots to take hold again. I think next year I might start all my peppers later on, in hydro. I could probably start them a month later and still have plants the same size by plant out.

mjdiamond83 · Jul 8, 2012

On May 26th my transplanted peppers were doing terribly. They suffered severe transplant shock and although a lot of them survived, the road to recovery has been slow. Here is one of the success stories.
Chocolate Bhut x Cajamarca on May 26th

Here it is today, setting a fair amount of fruit (about 10 so far)

The Yellow Scorpion I started for fun in November is really taking off now. It turns out that this must have crossed, maybe with a yellow 7, but nonetheless, the one ripe pod I've gotten so far was hot and delicious. The weather for this week is supposed to be perfect, if half these blossoms set pods, I'm going to have a nice yield from this plant.

This Jalapeno plant got really productive this week, I'm going to have a bumper crop of 'penos this year

Ananas Noir Tomato enjoying the last hour of sunlight

SocalChilehead · Jul 8, 2012

Great recovery your plant did MJ and the pods look awesome. That yellow TS possible cross sound amazing I actually just started a 7 yellow x TS yellow cross can not wait to see how they turn out.

Pulpiteer · Jul 8, 2012

Glad to see things going well. I love that tomato pic with the sunset. Nice.

Spicegeist · Jul 8, 2012

Nice update... nice recovery!

mjdiamond83 · Jul 8, 2012

SocalChilehead said:
Great recovery your plant did MJ and the pods look awesome. That yellow TS possible cross sound amazing I actually just started a 7 yellow x TS yellow cross can not wait to see how they turn out.

Thanks! That cross you're growing should be great. Superhot yellows definitely have some of the best flavor of any variety out there.

stc3248 · Jul 9, 2012

Great recovery pics Matt! Getting there, won't be long now! Glad to see they're still kickin'!

Sethsquatch · Jul 9, 2012

I have no idea how you are kicking out the pods while juggling the whole open a restaurant thing. Did you make a fraking human cloning machine!?! Cause that would be TOTALLY wicked. Especially if it's programmable. Like "Go work in the garden Matt clone whilst I relax!" or "go unclog the toilet maintanence Matt clone, I must drink!"

Nice rebound on the plant. Did you defoliate it or was that simply a result of the shock?

O-K-Dough-K. Adios.

mjdiamond83 · Jul 9, 2012

Sethsquatch said:
I have no idea how you are kicking out the pods while juggling the whole open a restaurant thing. Did you make a fraking human cloning machine!?! Cause that would be TOTALLY wicked. Especially if it's programmable. Like "Go work in the garden Matt clone whilst I relax!" or "go unclog the toilet maintanence Matt clone, I must drink!"

Nice rebound on the plant. Did you defoliate it or was that simply a result of the shock?

O-K-Dough-K. Adios.

Haha, yeah, I've got a stem cell lab in the basement. Want me to make you an army of garden Yeti?
But for real, I just spend an hour in the morning watering and admiring all the plants. Potting up and transplanting was time consuming, but now it's not bad at all. Can't wait for more ripe pods to come in!
That plant (and all the other ones that I incorrectly though were hardened off enough) defoliated themselves. Luckily, I got them out real early this year and its still only early July. Still have another 2 1/2 months or so til the first frost. I should get a nice harvest.
Oh yeah, those hot portugal seeds are all dried out, I'll be sending them out to you today or tomorrow!

Sethsquatch · Jul 9, 2012

mjdiamond83 said:
Haha, yeah, I've got a stem cell lab in the basement. Want me to make you an army of garden Yeti?
But for real, I just spend an hour in the morning watering and admiring all the plants. Potting up and transplanting was time consuming, but now it's not bad at all. Can't wait for more ripe pods to come in!
That plant (and all the other ones that I incorrectly though were hardened off enough) defoliated themselves. Luckily, I got them out real early this year and its still only early July. Still have another 2 1/2 months or so til the first frost. I should get a nice harvest.
Oh yeah, those hot portugal seeds are all dried out, I'll be sending them out to you today or tomorrow!

Awesome! It's nice the plants are so forgiving. I lost one this year due to total neglect but everyone else is thriving in spite of me. I will have to make sure to get you some seeds from the F1 IC bhut x yellow 7. The pods look really mean!

mjdiamond83 · Jul 11, 2012

First SB7J ripening; the plant is back to being completely healthy, this hot, dry weather has really helped fix a lot of the problems I was having last month.

Here's a couple pics of my potted plants. There's about 55 of them in pots. The SB7J and 2 TS Moruga plants are the only ones in isolation at the moment.

Inca Red Loaded with pods

Pico De Gallo Pepper; took awhile to flower for an annuum, but it seems to be doing well now.

Scotch Bonnet just set its second pod (in the shadow). This one is definitely going to have the prototypical SB pod shape.

mjdiamond83 · Jul 22, 2012

Just when I thought I had all my problems sorted out, mother nature threw me another curveball. The past couple days there have been a ton of fuzzy white flies occupying the airspace in the backyard. I didn't think much of them, but tonight I decided to look to see what they are. It turns out they're Wooly Aphids. Their larvae are mealybugs, which apparently suck sap and cause disease much like aphids. I'm hoping they're more attracted to other plants in the backyard and leave the peppers alone. I don't need another setback, especially when my chinenses are in full pod-producing mode. Here's a pic of a spider prepping for a wooly aphid feast.

Enough of the bad. Here's some pod pornage:
Azguy sent me some seeds for a pepper called pico de gallo. I couldn't find much info on it, but its apparently a wild variety from Mexico. It's a real cool 'hairy' plant that sets a heavy yield of thin, 2-3 inch pods. I've got 4 of these plants loaded up with pods, so if anyone wants some of these seeds for next year, let me know.

First yellow 7 is ripening up!

My Trinidad Scorpion is setting some real nice looking pods.

The sharpie I used to label a bunch of my plants decided it didn't want to be a 'permanent' marker, so I'm not sure what this one is. It is loaded up with pods, but doesn't really look like anything on my growlist (aside from scotch bonnet, but I know this isn't a SB; all of them are accounted for elsewhere). Most of my seeds were donated from THP members, so it could be an unintentional cross. It looks like it has some Trinidad Scorpion genetics in it. Any ideas what it might be?

stc3248 · Jul 23, 2012

Great poddage Matt! No idea on your mystery plant??? Your "Pico de Gallo" looks like my Goat's Weed though. Mine was labeled Black Cobra, but I believe that is just a marketing name to get folks to buy it. I finally have the first small pods on the Scotch Bonnet plants from the seeds you sent! :dance:

Great recovery man...keep them kickin!

mjdiamond83 · Jul 23, 2012

Thanks Shane! That 'pico' definitely has the same growth pattern as your Goat's Weed. How long were your Goat's Weed pods green before they turn black? Congrats on getting some pods on your Scotch Bonnet plant. My SB is really producing now. It set one pod pretty early (which is starting to ripen now) then waited about a week to set a 2nd pod, and now a couple weeks later there must be 20 blossoms that set fruit. It definitely takes awhile to get going, but looks like it will have a heavy yield once its established!