Ohjay's first adventure in chili-land - New pepper tasted

For the first time in my life I've decided to try and grow something, and since I like spicy food and especially chilis, the choice was simple. Chilis for the win!
 
Since my previous experience with growing anything is practically non-existant(I helped mom plant carrot seeds when I was a kid) I started with basic research. What did I need? How does it work? What's the process like? Can it even be done purely inside, only relying on sunlight?
My, very patient, sister got several(read: tons of) questions, and still do. She's a saint
 
All said and done, I ordered seeds, soil, pots, fertilizer, etc... everything I could come up with that I would need for the first two months of my adventure.
 
The seeds I decided to grow were:
3x Elephant Trunk
4x White Habanero
3x Hawai
3x Bulgarian Carrot
4x Hot Palette
3x Hot Lemon
 
Anyway, my adventure started in late february, 27nd of february to be exact.
The seeds went straight into the soil in my miniature greenhouse, added some water and then came the anxious wait.
 
Sorry for the few images, I hadn't planned to share this journey, but I've reconsidered.
 
This image is from the 27th of february:

 
 
6th of march. Who knew that something so tiny could make you so happy?

 
The Elephant trunk and Hawai were the first to sprout, but the others soon decided to show their determination as well.
10th of march, all seeds but 5 had sprouted:

 
Two weeks later came the next scary moment, repotting. The first plants were a disaster, but towards the end I sort of got the hang of it, but I was so scared that I had harmed my precious little plants.
21st of march:

 
16 out of 20 planted seeds were repotted that day. Two seeds refused to sprout, I accidentally killed a plant when I tried to remove a seed capsule, but I had a glimmer of hope for the final plant, it had germinated but not quite sprouted yet.
 
8th of april. Am I growing sticks or am I growing chilis? I find this image funny for some reason... the sticks probably are overkill but to me it seemed that several plants were leaning too much so I tried to straighten them with the sticks:

 

 
Fast forward a couple of weeks and we arrive at the 27th of april. My little plants are slowly becoming a little jungle of plants and I'm getting my first buds on a few plants. Since I don't really know what I'm doing I freak out a bit since the buds are at the top of the stem and I start to think the buds could be of the 'terminal' variety. I get friendly and great advice here on THP though and I've since calmed down a bit about it.

 

 
The observant reader will notice that my little late-sprouter has joined it's siblings now. So out of 20 planted seeds, I¨ve gotten 17 healthy plants. Not bad for a first-timer in my opinion.
 
The plant on the right side, closest to the camera, has very droopy, flimsy leaves and I'm thinking about pruning it, but I'm not sure it's necessary(or that it will help the plant).
 
I'll update in the next few days with better images(not taken with a mobile phone like these), and I'm getting close to the next repotting window, which of course will be documented and shared with you all.

 

[Ohjay]

Another quick update...
Bought a macro lens that arrived yesterday, still learning and getting the hang of it, but it sure is fun
 
My White Hab's are finally starting to set pods. I've had a lot of flowers but so far none has turned into pods until a day or so ago:

 
I was surprised to see that these peppers are starting to change color, they are so small still. But that's normal for first round pods I guess?
I'm at work and memory is a bit foggy at 4.22 AM ( ), but I believe these are my Hawai plants:

 

 
The Bulgarian Carrots have the biggest pods so far:

 
While the Hot Palette is producing the most pods:

 
 
I'm still waiting for a couple of new arrivals. I thought they'd arrive last week but nope... the nursery ship the plants out sometime during a 3 week period that started last week. Hopefully they arrive this week, but at the latest next week.
 
Not sure what to do about my Hot Lemon plants that are affected with bacterial leaf spot. They are producing new leaves and they are producing flowers, but the plants are extremely leggy and none of the flowers turn to pods. Not sure when to say enough is enough and pull the plug on 'em. I could use the space for the new plants if the Hot Lemons won't produce. I'll try to get some good photos of them soon and show you guys.

 

[Ohjay]

Woke up to a nice surprise, the plants I ordered had arrived.
Here they are just recently put into their new pots:

 
From left to right: Piment de Padron, 7pot Brain Strain, Purple Habanero, Okrazne Spicare, Jalapeño, Hot Orange
 
I plan on only keeping the 7pot & Purple Hab at this point, I'll probably give the others away. I have serious space issues as it is now with 22 plants. I simply can't fit them all on my window sills.
I'm also questioning container size, most of them are now in ~0,75 gallon(3 litre) pots but I'm thinking of repotting them to 1,5 gallon(6 litre) pots, I can fit it, if I get down to 15 plants... Or I could perhaps build some makeshift contraption to be able to fit more plants near the windows.
Decisions decisions

 

[Comptine]

I'm sure you'll have fruit in 3 liter pots too if you want to keep all. I would not be able to let go of a plant if I only had one of them myself, it would break my heart.

 

[Ohjay]

Sorry for the lack of update folks but work has been crazy lately.
 
But now it's time for an update and things have been moving along quite nicely.
 
I transplanted my new arrivals about 10 days ago or so and so far they seem to really like their new pots.
This is the Purple Hab:

 
This is the 7pot Brain Strain:

 
Both went into 1.5 gallon pots(6.5 litre).
The others were put in 0.75 gal pots and the Jalapeño is already starting to set fruit:

 
I culled one of my BLS-infected plants, mostly for space reasons to be honest. I still have two that are affected by BLS but it is not nearly as severe as before.
This one is my healthiest one with a ton of new growth but it's not putting out a lot of flowers:

 
This is about the maximum BLS it is showing on any leaf at the moment:

 
We had a very nice heatwave last week that coincided with the first peppers starting to mature.
The Hot Palette was first and I can't wait to try my first homegrown pepper, should be ready any day now:

 
That image was shot 2 days ago and I also shot this image of my White Hab:

 
I suppose that they are meant to be bullet-shaped but some of them are showing distinct Habañero shapes.
Fast forward to today and that plant is now looking like this:

 
Speaking of White Habs, this is another White Hab plant I have which is not producing very much at all. I have three plants and the one in the previous picture is my most prolific one, and the one in the upcoming photo seems healthy but just isn't producing much yet:

 
The Hot Palette wasn't the first plant to have fruits changing color though. That was one of the Hawai plants. Absolutely nothing has happened to them since though and now they're starting to show stretch marks. Not sure what to do about them. Pick 'em off or leave them?

 
All of my Bulgarian Carrot plants have peppers on them but they aren't very big peppers. Or well, they are thick but not long. I'm hoping the second batch of peppers from them will be even better:

 
It took forever to get flowers on my Elephant Trunk plants, but they've started flowering a little now and I'm beginning to get peppers. I see where the plant got its name from:

 

[Ohjay]

So today I had the pleasure of tasting my first home-grown chili, a small Hot Palette chili. Instead of diving in head first, I decided to eat one half at a time, which turned out to be a good idea...
Unfortunately my capsaicin tolerance is not what it once was but I was surprised by the heat that this little pepper packed. According to my supplier it should only reach 30 000 Scoville, but this thing was seriously hot to me. Due to the heat it was a bit hard to get to know the flavours but it tasted fresh, sweet and had a slight grassy taste.
The heat made me sweat slightly and the heat remained inside the mouth for at least 8-10 minutes. The heat on the lips recedeed a bit quicker than that. The main intense heat didn't last long, maybe a minute or two, but the remaining heat was still quite hot. 
 

 
Can't wait to try my White Hab which should be ready for tasting any day now. It will be interesting in terms of flavor but even more so to get a better reference of heat, since it's supposed to go up to 100 000 Scoville. 

 

[santis00]

looking good! I am going to collect my first haul tomorrow. 

 

[Ohjay]

You know you're a chili-head when you come home from work in the morning, take a quick look at your plants and see something new and immediately  say out loud to yourself: "Holy $h*t, that's cool!".
This is what caused that:

 
The image didn't turn out as good as I hoped, it does not show how translucent red the pepper actually is. It was a good moment this morning.
Oh, it's a Hawai pepper.
 
 
On todays to-do list was to try out a new pepper, so without further ado, here's a White Habanero:

 
After the experience with the Hot Palette I decided to start with just a quarter of the pepper since this one was supposed to be at least twice as hot. There was a decent amount of heat but it was very pleasant heat, not at all acrid which is how I would describe the heat from the Hot Palette.
Had a second quarter-sized piece and had the same experience.
So... then I thought, why not eat the final half? It can't be that bad. Wrong, just wrong. It was definitely a lot hotter than a Hot Palette, my eyes started watering and I even hickuped a couple of times. The heat was pleasant though, sort of sweet and it didn't linger quite as long as the Hot Palette.
I'm still trying to learn how to properly identify tastes of the peppers so I might not be very correct in what I taste of them, but for what it's worth I felt that the White Hab tasted a lot like lettuce, but also very fresh and a bit sweet.

 

[Ohjay]

Things are moving along quite nicely in my indoor jungle of peppers.

That's just one window out of three that are occupied with peppers.
The elephant trunk plants(middle of image) has really strange leaf growth but seems to be normal for this strain.
 
Speaking of elephant trunk, I really can't wait for these peppers to ripen:

 
The Rocoto Canario finally got it's first flower, let's hope the pollination worked:

 
The mystery bell pepper(probably Bishop's Crown) is beginning to get a few pods. Can't wait to get a ripe one:

 
And my BLS-afflicted Hot Lemon is finally getting a few pods as well. If I can just get one or two to ripen I will be very happy:

 
As for the late arrival plants that I bought from a nursery, well, they are all quite healthy but not all are setting pods yet.
In this image you can see the 7pot Brain Strain and Purple Hab(2nd and 3rd from left). The 7pot is flowering but no pods yet. Not a single flower on the hab:

 
The Okrazne Spicate has got a few pods on it now:

 
Seems that the Hot Orange plant is extremely prolific, it's getting more pods every day. One interesting thing about these pods is that they seem to be very thin-walled. You can see through them when they start growing and as the grow older you can see the placenta grow and the walls thicken. Quite cool too see for a pepper-newbie like me:

 
I'm also getting closer to getting ripe Bulgarian Carrot pods. It's nice to have a pepper that's not red:

 
Last but not least for today... This is my supposed Hawai plant:

 
One of the peppers before I ate it:

 
I've tried two peppers from this plant and both have been way, way, way hotter than they're supposed to be. They should be like a very mild Jalapeño but these are as hot, or possibly hotter, than the Hot Palette I tried earlier. That should put them at ~30 000 SHU.
As for taste, I can't say they're anything special. Fresh and slightly "green" taste, the heat is very frontal, mostly hitting the lips and the tip of the tongue.
From the images I've seen of these peppers, the shape & size is wrong. All my newly sprouted pods on this plant are just like the ripe ones in the above image.
My other Hawai plant has much bigger pods that look a lot more like "true" Hawai peppers, so these smaller ones might be a cross or not even a Hawai at all.
Quite strange... Maybe I should get some opinions from the pepper I.D. section?

 

[Comptine]

Things look really good! I can't help getting jealous. 

 

[Ohjay]

Time for another update.
Things are moving along quite nicely and I'm getting a ton of pods on all plants except a few of the nursery plants. The 7pot is producing a couple of flowers but so far none has produced a pod. The purple hab has not even given me a flower yet which is quite disappointing, there's a lot of season left though.
 
One nursery plant that is producing is the Okrazne Spicate. It's actually producing like crazy. Here's a small example:

 
It's also beginning to ripen a few pods:

 
The Hot Orange is also producing like crazy(see earlier post) but no ripening yet.
 
Here's an image of my Elephants trunk, it's a few days old and it actually started to turn red today:

 
Still waiting for my unknown, supposed Bishops Crown, pepper to ripen. The plant has tons of pods and some of them are quite big:

 
The BLS-affected Hot Lemon is producing like crazy as well and the BLS is not as prominent anymore. None of the pods are ripening yet tho:

 
I've also been able to taste a few more pods recently.
This is the Bulgarian Carrot, I couldn't wait til it ripened fully. 

 

 

 

 
This is a pod from my other Hawai plant, which I'm not sure actually is a Hawai. I made a post over in Pepper I.D. about it.

 

 

 
Couldn't help myself from pickin' a Jalapeño the other day. It was way too early for the plant to put out pods though, so no harm done. 
I liked the calyx on it:

 

 

 

[Ohjay]

I'm so excited, and I just can't hide it...
 

My first tiny, tiny pod on my 7pot plant. I have two or three more pods forming. Hopefully none of them will abort and I'll get a few supers this season.
 
 
Yesterday I did some long overdue harvesting. It's not much compared to others but I'm still proud of my accomplishment.
Top left: Hawai
From bottom left: Hot Palette, White Hab, Bulgarian Carrot

 
I put the hot palette & white habs in the dehydrator and I'll make powder of these.
This is the first time that I've processed a "large" amount of peppers and despite them not having excessive heat I did have some slightly tingly fingertips since I didn't use gloves.
On the upside I couldn¨t stop licking my fingers since I could get a little heat kick from them   
I think I'll invest in some gloves for when I need to process anything above 100k SHU.
 
Speaking of SHU, the other day I finally got to try a new pepper. The Elephant Trunk:

 

 
These images were taken in really bad lighting, but I hope you can sort of tell why it has the name it has.
 

 
Quite a lot of placenta but not a whole lot of seeds.
I'm not sure if I picked it too early or what was up with it but it was a very lackluster experience to eat it.
Not much in taste at all but it felt really dry in my mouth. You could barely make out any heat but that was expected since it's only supposed to be at 1000-2000 SHU.
Going to let the next one mature even more and see if it's a better experience.
 
On the flip of a coin:

 

 

 
This is an Okrazne Spicate pepper.
I've tried to find out a little bit about it but there really isn't much info about it. It seems to originate from somewhere around Slovakia.
The plant is, as I've said before, very productive and it starts producing peppers quite quickly. The peppers are supposed to be around 20-60 000 SHU.
 
This was an absolute treat to taste.
Very crunchy pepper with a slightly sweet taste with tons of freshness. Very pleasant heat that simply warmed your mouth without any acidity or other strange tastes that might come with heat. The level of heat in the one I ate probably was around 25-35 000 SHU.
 
I absolutely loved to eat this one. I am so bad at describing taste and simply cannot do this pepper justice. Highly recommended! 

 

[Ohjay]

It's that time again.. update time. Some of these images are old, as in up to two weeks old. Oh well.
 
First up an old image of a ripening Hot Lemon:

 
And a ripening Hot Orange:

 
A ripening Okrazne Spicate:

 
Oh by the way. I learned that my Hot Lemon and Hot Orange are actually Aji Lemon and Aji Orange. But I suppose you readers already figured that out...
 
So I've also had the chance to taste both Aji varieties. First some images:

 

 

 

 
I didn't think the Aji Orange was anything special the first time I tried it but the second fruit I tasted was sort of a revelation.
The initial taste was a strong Currant one before the heat started blossoming in my mouth.
 
As for the Aji Lemon, it was as described. A taste of citrus before the heat, and overall a very pleasant pepper to eat.
 
My 7pot isn't growing much at all, but I do have two pods. I just hope I get one pod that's big enough to save some seeds.

 

 
My unknown bell pepper started ripening the other day and I now have two that are a bright fluorescent orange. I have no idea when these are ripe though, or what color they have when ripe. It will be interesting to see what happens with them, and most of all, to taste them.

 

 
Colors, colors...

 
Another small harvest from the other day.
From top left: Aji Lemon, Okrazne Spicate, Hawai
From bottom left: White Hab, Aji Orange.

 

[karoo]

Well done !
That is a beautiful harvest and a great collection of plants.
Very good photos, pure pepper porn.
 
Do you only grow indoors?
How many hours of direct sunlight are you getting?
Are you adding artificial light?

 

[Ohjay]

Thank you Karoo.
 
Yes I only grow indoors, I live in an apartment in a big city without any opportunity to grow outdoors unfortunately.
Hmm, direct sunlight? My windows are all facing south(mostly at least) so they get daylight from sunrise to sunset(which today was roughly 12 hours). Direct sunlight though, I'm not quite sure. Today it might've been 6 hours or so maybe. There are some buildings and trees that obscure the sun at times so it is hard to tell exactly how many hours it is.
 
I haven't used any artificial light this season and I'm unsure if I'll ever do it.
My seeds germinated just fine planted straight into soil and getting the heat from the winter sun in february. I did not germinate my 7pot though since I bought that one as a plant. Germinating supers might require some added heating and/or lighting.

 

[Ohjay]

Sent a little care-package to my sister whom as of yet isn't getting any ripe peppers.
It's some White Hab, Hawai, Aji Orange, Elephant Trunk, Okrasne Spicate, Bishop's Crown and a jalapeño.

 
As for Bishop's Crown, I finally had a chance to try one.
A very sweet and tasty pepper with some very intense but shortlived heat. It wasn't really hot by any means but what heat there was was definitely intense.

 

 

 

 

 
As some of you may have seen I've gotten some nasty visitors on my plants, or plant I should say since they mostly show up on my 7pot:

 
I will deal with them during the weekend. I've tried using water with dish soap but haven't had much success so now I'm going to try something a little more nasty.
 
As for the 7pot, one of the pods refused to grow so I nipped it off. The other pod is growing nicely though:

 
Also got a new pod forming the other day and it's been growing well too so hopefully I'll get at least a couple 7pot pods before the season ends.