Patrick's 2011 Grow Log

Here we are again. I can't believe how fast the time goes by anymore. My pops always said the older you get the faster it passes us by.

I am especially excited about this year, I'm going to try and cross a couple of peppers, on purpose! Haven't made the final decisions yet though.

Anyway, here's a few that I overwintered. The one on the left came from a 7 Pod Barrackpore cutting. It struggled for a bit but the roots are starting to grow so I'm hopeful. Center front is a "large" 7 Pod, center rear was a very robust Dorset Naga and the one on the right is a 7 Pod Primo. The latter three I removed from 5-7 gal pots, trimmed the roots and cut them down to just the stem. They sat in my foyer where they got some limited sunlight through a window. I'm very happy with them.

This is the first tray of seeds I stuck in coco coir last night. I've had success before with this medium as a seed starting mix so see no reason to change. It is nutrient poor so I start using fertilizer at an early stage in the plants life, at a very reduced rate.

Here is what I've started so far:

7 Pod, Brain Strain PRF…………………………..………........ 5
7 Pod, Brown Judy………………………………..………............ 6
Bhut Jolokia, Yellow…………………………………..………........ 5
Pimenta Tiger, AISPES004...................... 5
Trinidad Scorpion, Butch T Judy…………….………...... 8
Trinidad Scorpion, Chocolate AISPES108…....……. 5
Trinidad Scorpion, Morouga HSC……………….……....... 5
Trinidad Scorpion, Yellow AISPES109..……....... 5
Trinidad Scorpion, Yellow 2 SS………………….………..... 5
Trinidad Scorpion, Yellow Morouga AISPES107...…3

Not all of them are in the photo.

They are on a cookie sheet which is on a heat pad. Current temp in the coco coir varies from 75F - 80F. I would like it warmer and may mess with the heating pad settings. I plan on picking up a couple of heat mats tomorrow for more trays.

I have several other varieties to get started and would like to keep my total at under 90 plants.

Here we go!

 

[millworkman]

They were just destroyed by hail and they still want to put out pods, thats sweet.

 

[patrick]

I'm afraid that pepper hasn't done any growing, not sure if it's going to make it. However the rest of the plants are beginning to make a come back.

First up is one of the annuums.

The one and only 7 Pod Brain Strain. This I'm very happy about

A yellow Bhut Jolokia that is exploding with new growth. Going to get it potted up today I hope.

And finally a chocolate Habalokial

Still have around 20 plants left to pot up. They're currently getting hardened off. Won't be long.

More to come

 

[patrick]

Here's the strangest thing so far this season. This is what's left of one of the four I overwintered. Sometime back in February or March I found them infested with aphids and I set them outside. It got below freezing many, many times. Three out of the four are dead. This particular 7 Pod Primo however decided that life was worth living.

Got to love that.

 

[RedtailForester]

Glad to see your plants are making a good recovery. Best of luck.

 

[Bleash]

Good to see your plants are recovering.

Now they will come back stronger than before and will produce lots of pods!

Bleash

 

[patrick]

Time for a little update.

The yellow Bhut Jolokia that was pictured above is still exploding with new growth. Makes me smile every time I look at it. Ma nature tried her best to put it in an early grave but the plant wasn't having any of that. I finally got around to potting it up too. Roots were nice and white and rarin' to go. Here it is again with four more days of growth.

The silver thing in the right side of the photo is my guard cat. He specializes in moles.

Here's the right side of the driveway. This is kind of depressing. By this time last year I had 35+ plants in this spot.

Left side, front of the compost pile.

And finally the back of the left side. Still have a few to pot up. Should be done by the end of the week.

See ya next week!

 

[WGB]

great garden Patrick!

 

[lazienfat]

Wow what devastation, thats pretty heart breaking. Glad to see they are making a come back!

 

[capsidadburn]

Patrick to bad about the hail damage. Glad to hear they are coming back and the Primo fighting to live is great.

Good Luck Mike

 

[patrick]

Geez, talk about not updating a log.

Time for an update and a whole lotta pics! I love pics. Others more than my own of course well unless it's pics of me then I really love them and can't really compare them to...... nevermind.

First up is five of the most seriously hail hammered. They are showing growth but it's pretty slow. I will be surprised if I get any pods from these before the weather begins to cool off.

Next up are the plants on the right side. Some have been through the hail, some were still inside when it hit. Those got a bit of a sunburn on a few leaves but are doing well.

Left side. Same as the right, some hail damaged some not.

Here are a couple that have just exploded with new growth. Wish I knew why.

Chocolate habolokia

more to come....

 

[patrick]

And this is a Yellow Bhut Jolokia from Asia Gardens

Proof that I am growing peppers!

These are annums, Espelette Basque. First time growing these.

And last a new issue I have to deal with--mites.

I wasn't sure what the problem was with these but suspected mites due to other folks pics and posts. I grabbed a couple of leaves and put them under a microscope. I caught one of the little bastages running at high speed and never seen another one. Thought you know if I hadn't seen that one single mite running away I never would have figured this out for sure. They have been nuked.

 

[millworkman]

Glad things are turning around Patrick. How wet is the soil in the pots on the plants that aren't doing much? I noticed after my hail issues that the plants whose soil dried out a bit more sprang back to life a whole lot quicker than those whose mix remained wetter. Just a thought.

Oh and I am with you on the pictures thing. Sometimes I find myself going through all my old and current grow logs just to look at old pictures.

 

[patrick]

Hey millman. Thanks bro. We got rain for several days after the hail so they didn't get a good drying out for a while. Yesterday was only the second time I've watered them since the hail. They may not be getting the same amount of sun. I'll be checking. Thanks for the help.

 

[Beaglestorm]

I found the same thing to be true with my containers. Out of the 50, 15 are exploding, 20 are growing well, and 15 are kind of just lolly gagging around. Only thing I can think of is that some were more susceptible to being set back by the aphids than others. It’s humbling how similar our plants look in progress … except I did not have a devastating hail storm whittle my plants to stems. LOL

Any way, my plants are growing 100 times better than last season for me so what ever I get at least I will feel like I have improved my gardening skills a bit. Hope you show a few pics of your AISPES plants. Yellow Morouga TS and Tiger is coming back strong the Chocolate TS is one of the ones doing the lolly gagging.

 

[Silver_Surfer]

Looks like most of your plants are starting to bush out after that horrible hail pruning. This doesn't look like a banner year for weather.

Good luck with those frustrating mites.

 

[madhatter]

Glad to see some of those plants coming back Patrick. Still a lot left from the season and i expect to see pictures of pods for next month.

Cheers!

 

[wayright]

Looking like a great comeback Patrick!!
I got mites first time ever this year! very frustrating!
The Yellow Bhut is beautiful!

Kevin

 

[gasificada]

Fantastic comeback, patrick!

There must be something special about Yellow Bhuts.... I pruned one back to more or less just a twig not so long ago and the thing absolutely exploded with new growth not long after! Damn possums got to it the other night and ate all the new growth so back to square one, but not worried as already seen the plant in comeback action....

 

[gasificada]

And last a new issue I have to deal with--mites.

I wasn't sure what the problem was with these but suspected mites due to other folks pics and posts. I grabbed a couple of leaves and put them under a microscope. I caught one of the little bastages running at high speed and never seen another one. Thought you know if I hadn't seen that one single mite running away I never would have figured this out for sure. They have been nuked.

NOOOOOOOOO!

Hit them HARD!

 

[patrick]

I do not like opossums. At all. Hope you can find a way to kill er uh deter them Gas.

I plan on hitting the mites as hard as legally possible and as often as necessary. Nasty buggers.

Beagle, the AISPES Tigers are recovering, one pretty good. I'm down to just one Chocolate Scorpion and it seems to be doing well. The TS Morouga AISPES are going both directions, couple doing well, one doing not so well. Strange these pepper plants, you can treat them the same and they do what they want.

Thanks for the well wishes SS. Totally agree with you too, the weather has been very strange this year and not just here but all over the world.

Thanks Hatter. I hope to be posting pod porn soon! I still have a couple of those madballZ plants growing and I hope to be sharing them with you at the end of the season. Keep those fingers crossed.

Thanks Kevin. Hope you get a handle on your mites too.