This is Runty (photo taken on 6/26/2018). Runty is the smallest of a flat of six starter jalapeños we bought from the local garden store. Because he was so small I planted him straight into a 6" self watering pot. I don't use the self watering feature, it's just a pot I had on hand. I've found self watering leaves salt deposits on the surface of the soil and I don't like that. If you look close you can see a visiting grey tree frog among the punky wood mulch.
A few weeks before this photo was taken something cut him in half. I suspect a particularly bold chipmunk that was hanging out on our deck. I topped the other Jalas we bought in mid June and was gonna let Runty run free, but apparently the chipmunk had other plans.
This is runty today (no frog this time). I'm focusing this glog on Runty for now because he is going to win the bloom race. I made some critical drainage errors with my other Jalas and they seem to be a week or so behind. I'll take pics of them and pics of the seriously hurting mystery peppers and seriously hurting Hungarian Hot wax I'm growing as well. But those will be later updates.
My goal, other than delicious jalapeños, is to collect seeds from plants that can handle New Hampshire's annoyingly short and unpredictable growing season. So far we've had nights in the high 30's in June and a 7 day heat wave in July, followed immediately by a night in the 40's. The upcoming week is looking perfect. Highs in the 80s, nights around 60. I figure the first plant to bloom and set fruit will be the one I collect seeds from for this project, and Runty is in the lead. I have to keep reminding myself that we still have most of July, and all of Aug and Sept. October is kind of a wild card.
He's on our deck which gets about 5 hours of direct sunlight and then dappled for the afternoon. We've had success with plants on the deck in the past even with the short light. I've placed 4 of the other Jalas in the front yard which gets 7-8 hours of direct light and one in the back yard which gets closer to 4 hours. Figured I'd just see how they do even though I think I can guess. What I do know is we've had better results with peppers the size of Jalas / Hot Wax or smaller. Anything bigger and we're lucky to get one or two peppers on a plant.
I think that's it for now. Just wanted to get the glog started. I'm really impressed by all your grows! I won't be going as big or as hot. Jalas are about my heat limit.
