Nee's first pepper season. (Australia) Pics, vids & banter.. yey! \\(^o^)//

PaulG · Dec 8, 2012

Your grow has turned out well, my friend! I remember my small
pods from the early season. In a way it was good, since the heat
usually was okay, but they were small enough sample without eat-
ing a whole big pod. If you make powders or flakes small pods
work fine, too. Your grow space has turned out nice; I remember
when you cleaned it all out. Looks like is has always had chili plants in it!

DocNrock · Dec 8, 2012

Nice score on the pots!

nee · Dec 11, 2012

Well, the weather here is starting to get a bit more consistent lately, and i've had a load of pods ripening daily....although most are still on the small side, but each 'wave' seems to be growing in size, so i'm keeping my fingers crossed that by next month they should be of a decent size.

I'm so glad i planted a lot of the 7 Pots, as their taste is amazing!
Here's a couple of pics from today...

7 pot

Fatalii Yellow

No idea what's going on with my Hot Fish (fish pepper) plants. They started off really promising, but i have only managed to get 2 decent sized pods from 1 plant, and now they just seem to be giving me mutant pods....either doubles / triples...but they only get to a tiny size before ripening. I'm probably going to whack both of these in the soil out in the front garden and let them get on with it.

A general view of my grow area....although my 3 main producing plants i have moved to the back of the house....initially i did this to get them out of the wind last week, but have since discpvered that they seem to like it there and don't mind full sun, which i'm guessing is because they are the more mature plants and are more hardy to the sun?

This is the first year that i've managed to get sunflowers growing from seed!!! It's all down to my chilli grow too, as prior to this year and discovering you lot i had no idea about what plants actually needed!
We have 4 growing....one for each of the kids, one for mum....and typically the one for me died!!! How that happened?!! lol

The Scorpion / Dorset Naga / Manzano Yellow / Manzano Red are still growing away in the front garden (in the soil) but progress is pretty slow. I did notice that the Naga has a few flowers on it today, so we'll see how that goes.
The Manzano Yellow has been HAMMERED by caterpillars though! Pretty much all of the leaves on it are 'skeleton' leaves with nothing in between the veins!! Somehow they only seem to like this plant though, and have left the others alone (for now). I have pulled off as many as i could find, so it might survive...but if it's the only casualty and they leave my other plants alone i don't mind sacrificing one plant eh!?

Will post more soon. Have a good day everyone

stickman · Dec 11, 2012

Looking good Nee! Dunno what's up with the fish peppers, but they were mutants to begin with, right? If you have seed-eating birds around your place and you leave the ripened sunflower heads up, I'll bet you'll be seeing a lot of them until the seeds are gone... My wife plants them every year, and they attract quite a few birds until they pick them clean.

What a drag about the caterpillars chewing up your Manzano. If you wet down the plants and then dust with diatomaceous earth, you might slow them down a bit... it chews up their mouthparts... kind of like adding glass to your food. Cheers!

nee · Dec 12, 2012

stickman said:
Looking good Nee! Dunno what's up with the fish peppers, but they were mutants to begin with, right?

Hi Rick, well....one plant gave me my first pod of the year, and a good sized one at that! It then went on toi give me another good sized pod....but then went crazy on me!! (see pic from earlier this year) The other plant has always been a rogue!!
Thanks for the sunflower advice there....will keep an eye out!!!

OK....my Fish Pepper pods before they went weird on me!

And now they are all like.....

lol!!!

It's no biggie though....(literally!) I have plenty of other plants doing really great things

Just tonight i picked another 12 ripened pods from the 7 pot and Fatalii which i gave to one of my neighbours here, as they love hot foods too (i told them to go steady on the amount to begin with though!)

Oh, whilst i'm thinking about it i have still yet to get a Goronong with decent heat. So far they have all been really tame, with no heat at all. I put it down to size to begin with, but lately i have had some decent sized pods ripen but still the same heat level. One of natures mystery's

nee · Dec 16, 2012

I spotted a bit of an anomaly just now with one of my plants. The seed came from my 7 pot red x yellow from Grant, but i have a few of these plants on the go, and this is the first pod i've seen this colour. The other plants are producing pods that start dark green and turn red, but this one is near-white. It's the first pod to appear, so maybe its just a one-off?? Or could it be a different variety? Any thoughts?

Here's a fresh pic of my Macedonian, which is onto another wave of pods..

If anyone in Aus needs a cheap & cheerful dehydrator, i have just spotted that Aldi have some in stock for $39 from this Weds....my lovely wife is getting me one on behalf of Santa...lol

Cheers all

gasificada · Dec 16, 2012

nee said:
I spotted a bit of an anomaly just now with one of my plants. The seed came from my 7 pot red x yellow from Grant, but i have a few of these plants on the go, and this is the first pod i've seen this colour. The other plants are producing pods that start dark green and turn red, but this one is near-white. It's the first pod to appear, so maybe its just a one-off?? Or could it be a different variety? Any thoughts?

Being a hybrid, just a different phenotype perhaps?

Have you heard talk of "unstable" hybrids? I dare say this is nothing more than a good example.

http://kdcomm.net/~tomato/gene/genes2.html (I know they are talking about leaves, but think pods too)

nee said:
If anyone in Aus needs a cheap & cheerful dehydrator, i have just spotted that Aldi have some in stock for $39 from this Weds....my lovely wife is getting me one on behalf of Santa...lol

Cheers all

Mine is a cheapie and does the job. I just wonder how long it's going to last........

DocNrock · Dec 17, 2012

Cool! Didn't know there was an Australian Santa. Is his sleigh pulled by 12 flying dingos? Led by Rudolph the red nosed dingo?

Sorry, couldn't resist. Seriously, enjoy the dehydrator. They're awesome.

Mezo · Dec 17, 2012

This is for you guys up top from us lads down here.

Im sure Nee is toughing it out in the sweltering heat? we had 39.5 today.

Mezo.

DocNrock · Dec 17, 2012

Mezo said:
This is for you guys up top from us lads down here.

Im sure Nee is toughing it out in the sweltering heat? we had 39.5 today.

Mezo.

Exactly! It's your summer. "Our" Santa wears that red hat and a thick red coat. Does he change into shorts and a Hawaiian shirt when he gets down that way?

gasificada · Dec 17, 2012

DocNrock said:
Exactly! It's your summer. "Our" Santa wears that red hat and a thick red coat. Does he change into shorts and a Hawaiian shirt when he gets down that way?

I believe sometimes when it's REALLY hot, he gets around in nothing but his hat. Imagine looking up your chimney to see THAT coming down...... :shocked:

(Thankfully we don't have chimneys! :lol:

)

TheFanMan · Dec 17, 2012

nee said:
If anyone in Aus needs a cheap & cheerful dehydrator, i have just spotted that Aldi have some in stock for $39 from this Weds.

thanks for the heads up

DocNrock said:
Cool! Didn't know there was an Australian Santa. Is his sleigh pulled by 12 flying dingos? Led by Rudolph the red nosed dingo?

not quite.
im sure this will explain how it works.

Trippa · Dec 17, 2012

Thats Gassys own Santa ... :rofl:

nee · Dec 20, 2012

Hi all!

Well, it looks like i'm finally getting some pods through that appear to be of a decent size...and better shape.

I found a few of these earlier on my Fatalii plant...you kinda have to hunt for them as the pods are currently the same shade as the leaves, making them really hard to spot initially!

The rest of the plants are still doing fine.....not a huge amount of pod action currently, but a heap of flowers on most of them, so hopefully i will have some lovely pod shots to post over the next month or so.

I found a few aphids hanging around my smallest plants today, but nothing i can't handle. I have given them a good spraying, so hopefully that will nip them in the bud....

stickman · Dec 20, 2012

Nice looking 'Talli pods Nee. I hope conditions favor you with a big harvest! Cheers

Mezo · Dec 20, 2012

Im at the same stage as you Nee, some have fully ripened only to have some insect burrow its way in there (had that last season).

No sign of pods on my Fatalii yet though.

Mezo.

gasificada · Dec 20, 2012

nee said:
Hi all!

Well, it looks like i'm finally getting some pods through that appear to be of a decent size...and better shape.
I found a few of these earlier on my Fatalii plant...you kinda have to hunt for them as the pods are currently the same shade as the leaves, making them really hard to spot initially!

The rest of the plants are still doing fine.....not a huge amount of pod action currently, but a heap of flowers on most of them, so hopefully i will have some lovely pod shots to post over the next month or so.

I found a few aphids hanging around my smallest plants today, but nothing i can't handle. I have given them a good spraying, so hopefully that will nip them in the bud....

Congrats nee! :dance:

My Fatalii didn't put out a heck of a lot of pods last season but damn it was a nice plant. I reckon it would have exploded in pods in it's second season. I had the plant in the ground at my old place and attempted to bring it with me when I moved but must have damaged the roots too badly and it dieded.

The one I started this season is being all weird. Got this strange leaf curl going on that I've ruled out being pest related. Dunno what's up but I'm going to ditch it and hopefully better luck next season!

Have you tried a Fatalii yet? You'll love 'em, mate! :onfire:

Mezo said:
Im at the same stage as you Nee, some have fully ripened only to have some insect burrow its way in there (had that last season).

No sign of pods on my Fatalii yet though.

Mezo.

Are they little caterpillar things? I always get one or two pods attacked by 'em but this season they seem to be a bit worse than usual.... although nothing compared to the magnitude of damage the fruit fly cause!

Curious Meez.... do you have possums out there? Watch out for them too! I guess having your plants in a tent and having a guard dog has probably helped keep those buggers away. They will get stuck into your plants *and* pods. Nasty things!

Trippa said:
Thats Gassys own Santa ...

Seeing as you recently dropped a whole pile of seeds on me, I'm just going to ignore that one....... :lol:

Trippa · Dec 20, 2012

Good on ya gas ....

And nice growing new.... good to see you might be entering the land of the giants at long last!!

Nee not new

Mezo · Dec 20, 2012

Yeah grubs of some sort, not that worried though as same thing happened before & i lost a few pods but once the plant started pumping out fruit full bore i never saw them again (end of there season i guess?)

Possums are about (can hear them at night) Bandicoots are more of a problem though as they are smaller & quieter, everything on the farm likes my chilli plants, chickens will eat a plant in minutes & Geese just pull the entire plant out of the pot & leave it sitting there, sheep & cows will eat a plant down to the ground (nothing left).

You like me Nee will see an explosion of pods in the new year.

Mez.

nee · Jan 4, 2013

Well, it's felt like ages since i've had anything remotely interesting to post here!
I check in daily on this site, and see the rest of Australia seems to be well under way with their grow, and yet even though i started way sooner than most here, i am still yet to witness anything remotely like the other guys are getting when it comes to pods!!!

The mature plants are still mature....still going...still dropping the odd yellow leaf here and there, but just not producing!!

Hopefully that will soon turn around though, as i have a few pods of a decent size developing now...but the plants aren't exactly "loaded" if you know what i mean.!?

Anyway, here's hoping that the flowers that have appeared lately all turn into pods and things get going here!!

A few shots from today, which reached around 43 here (109.4f)...it was bloody boiling!!! Plants didn't seem to stress though, which is a bonus!

One of my Fatalii Yellows

Another Fatalii from the same plant

7 Pot Red x Yellow

Another 7 Pot Red x Yellow from same plant

These are my main 3 mature plants which i have risked keeping in full sun all day, and despite the recent heat they are doing ok. A 7 Pot / Mag Hab / Fatalii

The bigger plants here are under shade cloth... i am gradually pulling them out and giving more direct sunlight. There's allsorts in here. 7 Pots / Fatalii's / Mag Habs / Bishops Crowns / Bhut Jolokia / Bhut Jolokia Assam / Trinidad Scorpions etc etc

Still getting the odd aphid or 3 on the newbies, but thankfully it's still manageable!

Now this was a nice surprise! I check my plants like 3 times a day, but only just spotted this beauty! It's a pod on my Bhut Jolokia Assam...and i'm guessing it's gonna be pretty HOT!

My Macedonian plant is now pumping out it's 2nd wave of chillies. This thing goes from zero to 100 sooo fast! (Stickman...seeds are in the post on Monday...sorry for the delay with Xmas etc)

Thanks for looking, and enjoy your day