Pash Gets Serious

3/5King · Feb 16, 2012

Looks awesome Pash! I like the twist on the HP (mixing it with Chamomile Green Tea) although I'm not sure if there is any benefits, it really seemed like something done from the heart and has "PASH" written all over it. No one can take that from you

I had the same problem with my list! Not only did I have trouble with deciding what plants I was going and not going to grow, I also had a hard time deciding how many of each to grow. That's the fun part though, if it was all an easy choice it wouldn't be any fun.

stc3248 · Feb 16, 2012

Great list Pash! I also use a weak tea solution with a little hydrogen peroxide! The starts I tried that with seemed to pop quicker for me??? I'll have to go back and look at the exact dates I started each and see what the difference was. Just a warning though, figuring out which ones to plant was really hard for me too....but once you've spent the time to grow those out its even harder to get rid of the plants! My wife calls them my babies...lol. I know I have to part with some, and I'm dreading that almost as much as my daughter getting her drivers liscense next week!

Consider your glog followed!
Shane

LanMan · Feb 16, 2012

Nice going, Pash. Good looking list and I hope thay all sprout!

romy6 · Feb 16, 2012

Very nice list of peppers. When will you put your babies outside?

Good luck

Jamie

PaulG · Feb 16, 2012

Hey, good luck on your take-off, Pash!
Am looking forward to seeing your overwinters!

Pash · Feb 17, 2012

Hey, thanks for the encouragement guys. I'm going to breathe easier once some of these guys are a healthy size.

romy6 said:
Very nice list of peppers. When will you put your babies outside?

I'm not sure yet. I definitely don't have room to grow 72 plants in my closet (which is where the starts will be in their infancy. I have a covered dog run that I've converted into a potting shed that gets some light. A fair amount will go there as soon as they outgrow their jiffy pots. The rest will stay in the closet under lights for awhile. I'm going to play it by ear. I'll be happy just to keep these guys alive.

PaulG said:
Hey, good luck on your take-off, Pash!
Am looking forward to seeing your overwinters!

Thanks, Paul! Here's some photos from October 11th when I yanked out 2011's peppers. I could have left them in the ground much longer, but I wanted to get to work on some cover crops. My Dad had been growing peppers in the same spot for 3+ years and I was anxious to start working on the soil.

Chichen Itza: before and after trim:

They looked like this when I was done. I didn't have alot of info on overwintering at the time, and was going solely on what I read here. I bound the smaller plants (which were volunteers from fallen fruit) hoping they would fuse together. Instead they died, as did the seemingly hearty Biker Billy. I should also mention, I overwintered these guys outside but under cover.

Here they are the survivors last month, before being put in larger pots. I trimmed leaves during the winter. Next time, I'll just let them grow.

SocalChilehead · Feb 17, 2012

Your list looks great especially your overwintered survivors good luck through the season.

Pash · Feb 22, 2012

I had to leave the seedlings for three days when I left town which was nerve wracking. I hadn't really got the temp dialed in; the tray was getting too hot in the daytime (it's near a window. I set up a timer to turn the heat mat on and off in 30 min. intervals to try and bring the temp down. For fear of the peat pots drying out, I put the dome on with vents open and prayed. When I got back, some pots were at 90 deg others at 78 deg and some mold was forming. That was Monday night.

A lot of peppers popping up starting Monday, and are really picking up stream today. The Maria Nagy are coming out very strong right from the get go. I'm pulling out plants once they sprout and immediately putting them in slightly bigger pots and under lights.

Overall I'm very happy with the progress. I'm surprised at how many c. Chinese are popping so quickly (#'s updated above.) Next post will have photos.

stc3248 · Feb 22, 2012

Awesome! Glad you got some action!

Shane

Pash · Feb 23, 2012

Here's where the plants are going as soon as they sprout: the work in progress closet.

My T-Scorp from January (in the Oregon Cherry Can) is now without leaves. It got fried when I left it outside in direct sun under a plastic cover. I am not hopeful, but I'm going to see if it can recover just the same.

I'm playing around with using coffee and oatmeal bags as pots. I can roll them up, making them deeper, if the peppers get leggy.

Here are the 42 peat pots that have not done anything yet. I've moved them toward the center of the tray where I can keep them around 85 degrees. The edges of the tray were only reaching 76 degrees.

30 of the 72 have sprouted, and it's almost been 7 days since planting.

stc3248 said:
Awesome! Glad you got some action! Shane

Thanks Shane, you and me both!

Pash · Feb 23, 2012

Grow Closet got a facelift today; I lowered the lights, put 6500k bulbs in, an put up some foil wallpaper. I've got 4 23w 6500 CFLs and a 15w LED pane I got on EBay for $15 shipped. This setup may change, but most of my peppers are going outside by April, so I'm probably not going to add much more to the lighting.

Sexy seven day old Maria Nagy:

I'm ready to call it; R.I.P. T-Scorp. Fallen pepper, you will live on in my avatar. He was killed by overwatering and burning leaves when I left him in a mini-greenhouse outside.

Six more hooks this morning. I'm praying for the Blondies, PI's, and the lone Infinity Pepper. It's still early, we're 8 days in.

Pash · Feb 24, 2012

More hooks today, I started getting scared as I am not prepared for potting up, so I ordered these 3.5" square pots. I was going to try and use all recycled materials (tin cans and such) but I ran out of time and I've got 72 possible plants a brewing.

A friend is paying a visit, and I convinced her to take four sprouts earlier than we discussed. I was planning on distributing plants once I had them in 5" or bigger pots, but that was a lofty goal.

These guys are moving out today:

I gave my friend some Alaska Fish Fertilizer with instructions. Most of my fertilizer plan comes from this one post. Thanks PaulG!

I refined the grow closet some more; I lowered the lights and added foil. Once the 3.5" square pots arrive, I will start figuring out how best to cram a bunch of peppers in here. For the time being, I'm taking them out during the day to get some window light. They are on a not very stringent 20/4 cycle.

stc3248 · Feb 24, 2012

Pash said:
I'm ready to call it; R.I.P. T-Scorp. Fallen pepper, you will live on in my avatar. He was killed by overwatering and burning leaves when I left him in a mini-greenhouse outside.

I have a few too...

Pash · Feb 27, 2012

Good day today, only 23 of 72 have not sprouted. If I can get just one of the Blondies to sprout, I can rest easy, and count the sprouting part of this project a success.

Guess who woke from his slumber? My one Monster Infinity! Thanks Shane for the seed; he's ALIVE!!! :cheers:

Also, big news for Orange County residents: the Fullerton Arboretum has published the chile and tomato list for their Monster Tomato and Pepper Sale. My family and I have been going for years, and it is how my interest in peppers began. It is a huge sale with 1000s of plants, each only $3. This year they added T-Scorps (at $5.) and some other Trinidad/Tobago types. If you are interested, check out the list here.

I planned on buying a Holy Mole at the sale, but now I will pour over their list and surely find others that I must have.

stc3248 · Feb 28, 2012

Amazing list of peppers! They have Bhuts too! Jamaican Hot Chocolates, Fatalii...plus the scorpions. Tons of other great stuff too! Those Peruvian Whit Habs caught my eye...

glad that Monster Infinity popped for you!

megahot · Feb 29, 2012

Nice glog good luck with your grow!

Pash · Mar 4, 2012

After taking this photo, I decided to pot up.

Roots were starting to poke through the peat on my strongest plants. Because I planned on taking the 'jackets' off the peat pots when I transplanted, I decided to act now. I wanted to keep from disturbing the roots too much when I removed the jackets.

I ran out to Home Depot and Grow Wurks on my bike and picked up a bag of Kellogg's Patio Plus and two 1020 trays. Did you know both could be transported on one's back?

I dunked each peat pot in Myco Blast before carefully removing the jacket and transplanting in 3.5" square pots. I added straight Kellogg's to the bottom of each pot, and filled in with Kellogg's amended heavily with pearlite. Thanks for the tip, Shane!

Here's a photo from Friday night; I'll try to take some better pics today. Cheers!

stc3248 · Mar 4, 2012

Only impressed if you did that on a fixie with that messenger bag...Looking good man! Watch out for fungus gnats with that kellogg. I bought some mosquito dunks to battle them, but once I added the peat to the mix the gnats seem to be less inclined to make a home in there...however I planted some of the beans you gave me in straight kellogg and they literally got eaten alive by the gnat larvae.

Were both of those a bush bean??? Neither variety is putting out runners yet so I can't tell. I think you labeled the anasazi bush...but not the hyacinth??? The hyacinth is stunning! Can't wait for them to mature!

Keep up the good work!
Shane

Pash · Mar 4, 2012

stc3248 said:
Only impressed if you did that on a fixie with that messenger bag...Looking good man!

Hahaha! I did use that bag to carry both the soil and the 1020 trays, but my bike has gears, thankfully. I've only carried that kind of weight a few times, and my back always lets me know it's not happy about it.

stc3248 said:
Watch out for fungus gnats with that kellogg. I bought some mosquito dunks to battle them, but once I added the peat to the mix the gnats seem to be less inclined to make a home in there...however I planted some of the beans you gave me in straight kellogg and they literally got eaten alive by the gnat larvae.

Man that's a bummer about the beans. Thanks for letting me know about the gnat's love of Kellogg's. I had to stop a Portabello mushroom growing project early last week because of a gnat infestation and have set out yellow sticky traps by my peppers. I've trapped one so far. I'm hoping bottom watering will help with the gnats. We shall see...

stc3248 said:
Were both of those a bush bean??? Neither variety is putting out runners yet so I can't tell. I think you labeled the anasazi bush...but not the hyacinth??? The hyacinth is stunning! Can't wait for them to mature!

Keep up the good work!
Shane

The anasazi should be bush beans. I received them in a trade and was told they were bush. The hyacinth are climbers, based on the pictures I've seen of them. I'm planting my beans and corn around April and going to try to get the beans to climb the corn. I pulled up some favas I had growing as a cover crop in preparation for the pepper patch. I innoculated my favas and peas with this stuff, and look what resulted:

Huge globs of nitrogen rich nodules hanging on the roots!

Also, here's some photos I took today of the Peps:

This is the grow closet as it looks today, I may take out the 15W led panel and make a separate spot for peat pots.

The Alma Paprika has been growing very fast!

The Maria Nagy has started out real strong, as well. If this pepper ends up being tasty, I'm going to isolate a plant and distribute the seeds widely.

I did not expect the Yellow T-Scorp to be so explosive, but it is my third fastest grower. Thanks Aji Joe!

More soon; thanks for looking!

Oh, one more thing. Here's the City of Lost Children: all the seeds that refuse to pop.