NH Jalapeños 2019 (Runty Lives)

Runty Lives! He's had a rough winter under the Aerogarden lights, but he's finally adapting well and setting fruit.

 
Runty's first born (Junior) has had a great run in the Aerogarden. This will be our third harvest from Junior.

 
Three seed starting experiments and the lone Cayenne from last summer. The seeds were started under the the AG lights and ran into problems. I had to replace the lights last year and I think there's something wrong with the replacements. Regardless, moving the starts into the window has done all three a world of good.

 
And finally, after seeing all your 2019 starts flood my inbox, I started my own 2019 yesterday. Might be a little early, but screw it, let's see what happens. My original plan was to wait till mid March, but I'll do another round then too. 5 Banana Peppers, 4 Hungarian Hot Wax, and 5 Jalapeños (Runty seeds).

 

 

[CaneDog]

Long time no see TG!  Glad to see Runty's doing well and his progeny will have the chance to thrive this season.  Looking forward to seeing your 2019 grow.

 

[luvmesump3pp3rz]

very nice job getting fresh pods this time of  year in new england. 
 
congrats!

 

[Sizzle Lips]

 

[PaulG]

+1 #3
 
Chilis in the window with snow in the
background cracks me up.
 
Talk about "something doesn't fit here"  
 
Good work  

 

[stc3248]

Great job on the Aero-overwinters and best of luck on your starts! 

 

[BostonGhostReaper]

Nice Stuff! overwintering tough over here, spring coming soon! positive thoughts haha

 

[timegoat]

Long time no see TG!  Glad to see Runty's doing well and his progeny will have the chance to thrive this season.  Looking forward to seeing your 2019 grow.

 
Indeed! Thought I'd stop by sooner than now but family has kept me busy with non pepper related things.
 

very nice job getting fresh pods this time of  year in new england. 
 
congrats!

 
All credit goes to technology!
 

 
Agreed!
 

+1 #3
 
Chilis in the window with snow in the
background cracks me up.
 
Talk about "something doesn't fit here"  
 
Good work  

 
It's weird for me too.
 

Great job on the Aero-overwinters and best of luck on your starts! 

 
Thanks. Dunno if it's gonna be too cold for the seeds in that window, but we shall see. It's warmer than it looks.
 

Nice Stuff! overwintering tough over here, spring coming soon! positive thoughts haha

 
Can't come soon enough. That spring tease we had a few weeks ago got me fired up.

 

[timegoat]

Some notes:
 
Mid March start. I have room for 14 3oz cups in one of those plastic shoe boxes.
 
5+ Runties (I want 10+ total).
At least 1 more Hungarian Hot Wax.
5 Roma Tomatoes
 
That leaves space for 3 more starts, might as well make them Runties..?
 
If I can extract Junior from the AG without destroying it's roots I want to get him into a container this summer as well. Might not happen. He's been in there for 147 days.
 
Cayenne will get potted up for the summer.
 
Runty himself might just stay in his 6" pot for the season. I'd like to see if he'll survive another overwinter indoors and shelf space is very limited.
 
Trying to stay focused this year on what we like and will use. No mystery peppers.
 
Banana peppers in front yard for full light. About 9 hours direct sun. We've tried them on the deck with disappointing results.
Runties on the deck. We know we can get good Jalapeños there. About 5-6 hours of direct sun.
Hot Wax in the backyard. Least light, about 4-5 hours direct sun, but I noticed they put out some big leaves so it might work.
 
That puts about 50 feet between the different types which should minimize cross pollination. I hope to collect seeds from all of them. If it all works I might just get plants that like these locations which is the long term goal I'm shooting for.
 
 

 

[timegoat]

8 days in and no sprouts yet. The three Runty seeds I've already started all broke the surface in 8 days, but those were either in the Aero itself (Junior) or in cups on the Aero deck. So, nice warm conditions. Mrs. Timegoat has had a thermometer in the window for years and I've only just started paying attention to it. It's 50ºF at night and about 65ºF during the day. I think I might move my little cups into the Aero room until sproutage, then move them back into the window for light.

 

[CaneDog]

50F - 65F is pretty chilly,  I'm sure they'll appreciate the warmer climate!

 

[heefy]

Best of luck for your season.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[timegoat]

50F - 65F is pretty chilly,  I'm sure they'll appreciate the warmer climate!

 

Humidity started showing in the domes within a few hours of being moved. This was my Plan A. Start in cups under the Aero lights.
 

 
The only reason I went to the window was because my replacement lights seem too intense. You can see on Junior's lower leaves the yellowing that would end up killing the leaves when the lights were at the recommended few inches away from the plant. I raised the lights to about 10" from the top of the plant and the new leaves are small and green. I had similar issues with seedlings, so those lights are now about 10" from the cups.
 

 
I hope this works, but if new plants show signs of "light poisoning" (assuming that's the problem) they're going right back into the chilly window because that's my only other option.

 

[timegoat]

....and all was right with the world. Runties started popping on 2/26.
 

 

[PaulG]

Alright, TG! More sprouts is a great sign.
Maybe the rest will pop for you, too!

 

[timegoat]

Alright, TG! More sprouts is a great sign.
Maybe the rest will pop for you, too!

 
Fingers crossed, prayers said, so far nothing new has popped. except for one more Runty.
 
In other news, the light issues are starting so I've moved those sprouts to the window. We've decided we just need to write off the big Aeros. Without the lights working for the plants, they're essentially useless. I can still use them for a warm environment and initial light, but that's about it. We have some smaller 6 pod Aeros that I'll break out and try to get things started for the Mid March start.
 
I'm glad I started early and ran into these issues now as opposed to later.
 
p.s. Anyone thinking about buying an Aero or who already owns one, plug them into a surge protector! We didn't and a nearby bolt of lightning took out the lights which began our current failure cascade.

 

[PaulG]

Were the yellowing leaves once at the top of the
plants? Is all the green growth new growth since
then?
 
I don't understand how lamps designed for the 
AeroGarden could be so hard on the plants. What
type of lamps are they LED or flouro? Did 
you try to contact the AeroGarden people? It seems
like they would not want people saying their lamps
kill plants   Money back or replacement would
seem like the least they could do.
 
Sorry about all the questions. It just seems so bizarre.
 
I hope moving them to the window works out for you.

 

[timegoat]

Were the yellowing leaves once at the top of the
plants? Is all the green growth new growth since
then?
 
I don't understand how lamps designed for the 
AeroGarden could be so hard on the plants. What
type of lamps are they LED or flouro? Did 
you try to contact the AeroGarden people? It seems
like they would not want people saying their lamps
kill plants   Money back or replacement would
seem like the least they could do.
 
Sorry about all the questions. It just seems so bizarre.
 
I hope moving them to the window works out for you.

 
Well, let me start by saying up until "The Incident" the Aeros worked perfectly. They are LED lights. It's only been since we bought the replacement lights that there has been a problem. We were well past the money back period when it happened. Mrs. Timegoat and I are theorizing that something in the brain may have gotten fried along with the lights, but we don't know for sure. We just know they worked, the lights got fried, we bought new lights, and now we have a problem.
 
I pulled out one of our smaller Aeros (6 pod LED) which has all the original equipment and I'll be running some seeds in that fairly soon. I should be able to get a comparison then.
 
The yellowing leaves were the top of the plant. All the green new growth has come since I moved the lights as far up as possible, about 10" from the top of the plants.
 
The window should work well enough. They'll have to adjust to the temperature but that might work in their favor when it comes time to move them outside. We get some very cool nights in late spring / early summer. I've had some seedling experiments in that window since about December. Growth is slow, but the leaves look very good.

 

[PaulG]

How did the lights get fried?
The problem could be the
unit itself, maybe?
 
At any rate the plants look good.
You can remove the ugly leaves
a few at a time if they bother you.
I'm not sure how much work a leaf
like that is doing for the plant.

 

[CDNmatt]

Very strange indeed on the light situation...like is it the whole plant doing that or just the ones on the outside of the plant like in the pic??