Parrot+ Pepper Glog 2023

This will be my first big foray in to pepper growing because of these two. Jasper (left) and Tin Tin (right) are my official taste testers. I myself have a fairly poor spice tolerance, tabasco is spicy for me but frank's red hot isn't so I'm working on it! The rest of my family have tolerance and my partner also appreciates spice so all is not lost, however.

So far the lineup is:

Annuum:

• Espelette (sourced from a chef friend, the lines go back to the French Laundry chef's gardens in California and prior to that were smuggled out of France - I have 200 of these I'm willing to share while keeping my own stock too!)
• Chile de Comida
• Ancho
• Bola
• Hawk's Claw
• El Incendo
• Fish
• Grandpa's Siberian Home
• Mystery Hot (hot is relative, 1000-5000 SHU)
• Mystery Sweet (up to 500 SHU)
• Florida Bird

Chinense:

• Alligator Tongue (anyone know anything about this pepper?)
• Peach Habanero

Baccatum

• Piri Piri
• Aji Omnicolor
• Aji Fantasy White

I also have a pack of entirely mystery seeds that I'll be germinating this week. Hopefully the Annuums in this mix don't get too big before planting out but you never know! Lots of overlap between my list and growyourown's so it'll be interesting to see the differences and similarities from our grows esp because our overlap is sourced from the same place.

If I grow any superhots out of the true mystery pack I'll give them to a friend who's a true spice fiend, I have another friend who is taking a few seedlings and the rest I'll try and figure out. For this reason I'm going to double cup hydroponic the true mystery pack, hoping they fruit fast and I can figure out what I'm dealing with (is this a good idea? Can you tell from the leaves sometimes which sub variety they are, instead of waiting for flower?) The mystery sweets and hots I'm planning on growing in 1 gallons (I want to try everything and if I really like a variety I'll save seeds for a bigger container next year).

The birds plants are Bola, Florida Bird, Piri Piri, Alligator Tongue and El Incendo. I haven't decided on a final pot size for these yet because they can only eat so much in a day, fresh or dried, but I have a few other parrot owners who would take a bumper crop if I have any. I might not start Grandpa's Siberian Home until fall as they apparently fruit in winter even with the low light. The rest are for your typical uses, I've yet to decide if I want to grow the Hawk's Claw or give them away because I'm up to my ears as a balcony grower already but I also might be moving at some point during the growing season so no matter what I'm all containers.

In any case I'm excited to see what the year holds. Now to figure out how many of each of my known varieties I'm starting!

 

[Simcows]

Back from my unintended absence! Covid kicked me pretty hard and I didn’t have the mental energy to do more than water my plants. This means that I didn’t rotate the trays inside my house and well, some of them got legs This makes choosing my keepers easier but am I really supposed to just dispose of the others?

 

[growyourown]

keep them all. i've seen leggier. how's your florida gator tongue birds doing?

 

[Downriver]

Sorry to read you had covid @Simcows. That can be some nasty sh*t to deal with. Glad you're feeling better.

I'd top them leggy sob's and see what that do with that! Good luck with it.

 

[Ratatouille]

That sounds like you had a rough time. I hope you feel better now.

If you have room for the leggies, pot them up and nurture them back to health. They really don't look all that bad.

 

[Tinkerbelle]

Hope you're feeling better now - leggy plants aren't looking bad, keep them all - pot them deep and they'll be fine.
We'll have no euthanasia of plants here

 

[MarcV]

I was also going to suggest to top those leggy plants

 

[jgundo]

leggy plants ----- Plant them deeper + Topping = Lots of good looking plants You got this!

 

[Simcows]

keep them all. i've seen leggier. how's your florida gator tongue birds doing?

Gator tongues mostly doing well but the one I repotted didn’t like the sun patch it was in (too sunny?!!) and the one in the cup currently looks healthier.

Florida birds I had two be self supporting and one was in a weird angle on the track and went a little sideways so now I have it tied up like a bean sideways one has bigger leaves - trying to get more sunlight probably.

All in all looks like a good experiment

 

[Simcows]

Peppers planted out! We’re past frost but not past cold nights. The balcony is a bit more insulated than leaving them outside so I’m just running with it.

Big round blue pot towards the end is my grow off peach stripe. Along the sides we have my own peppers in 1.5 gallon pots and two 3 gallon grow bags for the ornamentals (Fish and Omnicolor). Two of my mysteries also are in those smaller pots, and the other three mysteries I kept are in the black rectangular ones. The rest are flowers and various veg.
I’ve now given away almost all of my seedlings this year, just a few left on the tray you can see.

Once again, photos being photobombed by my neighbours dog

 

[Simcows]

Man, I’ve been through it. Post COVID, my computer totalled itself, then I was away on work trips, now back and new computer in tow. Then the surrounding green roof (except around my balcony) got sprayed for spiders so for a week I was doing battle with spider mites before all the area spiders moved back in to my balcony and got the population under control. The mites did some damage to the peps but more damage to my flowers that are theoretically meant to attract the bees that my building also keeps on its green roof.

Almost all my peppers (mostly in 1.8 gallon pots, some in 3 gal grow bags) have taken off but a few have yet to make me a Y split. Debating topping the holdouts. My Florida Bird has been going gangbusters and I stopped pinching the buds about a month ago because there was truly no point, same with one of my mystery plants. The only other one I’ve allowed to fruit is the Espelette, everything got pinched till yesterday and from here on out whatever happens, happens (except for my non forking ones because I haven’t seen any buds there either - just focusing on growing!)

The 1.8 gal pot gang

Mystery #1 - this was my first mystery plant to sprout and has consistently been weeks ahead of everyone else in growth even though it only had a 1 day head start on some of the others.

One of my other mysteries

Florida bird giving me a run for my money. And this is in a 1.8 gal pot!!

 

[jgundo]

Right on, They all are looking so good.

 

[Simcows]

I JUST got over spider mites and now I have WHITEFLIES????

 

[Tinkerbelle]

I feel your pain - red spider mite, some kind of leaf eater thing and now flea beetles everywhere - pass the flame thrower

 

[growyourown]

that sucks dude. wouldn't wish it on anyone. hope you and yours can soldier through and make a go of it still.

passing on some good vibes.

-rob

 

[Simcows]

Early July update!

I’m just getting over the white flies, and then I turned around to look at my zinnias again to see this:

Can I get a break??
checked all my peppers leaf by leaf and the Florida Bird had 10 or so on it but everyone else is unscathed so far. I’m hesitant to spray anything because the humidity for the next 48 hours will be through the roof (feels like temp of high 30s to low 40s c!!) and don’t want them to wilt so right now it’s manual. Only one zinnia of the planter had the beasties but it’s only a matter of time.

Anyway, here’s a plant by plant update for the solo pots:

Chile de Comida
Nice fork, finally getting some flowers


Espelette
The Espelette actually has an almost ripe pepper but I didn’t photograph it from that angle because I wasn’t thinking


Bola
Finally some small buds! Took a long time for this one to get going


Aji Omnicolor
Some small developing peppers, I think it’s really interesting to see the layers of growth below and above the fork


Wild Florida Bird
This plant is loving this weather. A lot of buds and baby peppers have fallen but I think that’s because the plant simply cannot support so many



Fish
Getting a few peppers set now, otherwise it seems ok after being stagnant for awhile


Mystery #1
Very happy plant. Dropping lots and lots of peppers/buds but once again I think it’s because the plant just cannot support that many peppers. Hopefully I have an ID on it soon, just waiting for it to colour up!


Peach Habanero
Last round I pinched all but the current pod so I’d have one a little earlier. It’s so cute at this size


El Incendo
Another one of my slower growers, it took awhile for it to stop giving me u curls in the leaves. Finally starting to bud after my last pinch as it truly wasn’t growing


Aji White Fantasy
Had to bring out the extra reinforcements on this one. Baccatum going to Baccatum, I guess? One pod will probably be ripe tomorrow, another two hot on it’s heels.


Ancho
This one also took forever to stretch out but now is flowering/setting pods


Hawk’s Claw/Takonotsume
Really lovely growth on it after it didn’t love early June outside. Lots of new growth and buds etc


Mystery #2
Just starting to flower and finally darkening up outside. Odd to me that it had a tan under the lamp, then stopped, and now has a tan again but only on the upper leaves. Cute little purple flower, I love it a lot and hope it’s tasty and pretty!


Gator Tongue
It’s current shape reminds me of the classic tree silhouette from the African savannah. It’s starting to reproduce, too.


All the (plastic) pots put back in their place after hiding them from the rain

The grow bags are on the risers to the left.

The mystery corner:



Last but not least, the sugar rush peach stripe for the grow off:


I put a tomato crater on it which will theoretically help it’s growth. Whether or not it will is one thing, but I don’t think it’ll hurt so that’s going to live there now.

Bonus: twinned leaf on my Espelette!

 

[Downriver]

Plants are looking awesome @Simcows!

 

[Bou]

Nice plants @Simcows! If you can catch a ladybug and add it to your zinnia it will feast on your aphid colony! Hopefully they dont spread to all your plants

About your Aji Fantasy, they dont seem ripe yet to me. I grew this one for 2 or3 years and mine always stayed in this cream color state for quite a while before finally turning almost pure white (they taste better when white too). I squeeze them lightly near the peduncle to gauge their ripeness, just like I do with mustard pods if it helps.

 

[Simcows]

Thanks @Bou! I thought they stayed creamy and didn't go all the way white so I will wait longer.

 

[Bou]

Thanks @Bou! I thought they stayed creamy and didn't go all the way white so I will wait longer.

Maybe try a cream-colored pod, then you can compare them with the whiter ones so you can then choose your preferred stage of ripening later on. Just like Sugar Rush (and other slow maturing strains), I've noticed that they can get stuck in that color almost forever, so be patient!

 

[Simcows]

first harvest! A single Espelette. This one had under 100 seeds in it, but the pod I got it from (was given a dried pod) had over 200. I wonder why the discrepancy is so large?
It was nice and sweet and fruity and pleasantly spicy to my taste. I’m a bit of a pepper wimp, to be fair. Even the dog got some that the parrots threw out of their cage and she ate it without batting an eye, so Simcoe might have a higher spice tolerance than I do!!