Peppers on the move 2020

Unfortunately for me, the start of my pepper season will have to wait until August due to a move. On the plus side, I will be able to get two growing seasons for the next two years.

In the mean time, I am getting in my stock and keeping it organized. I am going to change my label tag this season to add more info. This are just placeholders for now.

 

[Edaxflamma]

Yeah... even the shade cloth I had set up didn't help. Hoping that I can keep these seedling going through the winter without getting more lights but we'll see how the temperatures hold for now.

 

[ahayastani]

As embarrassed as I am to say it, I underestimated the México heat and sun. My entire first run got obliterated one afternoon where we had highs over 115F (46C).
 

 
I severely underestimated the sun myself... For most of my life, gardening was based on exposing plants to as much sun as possible. And now it seems I have to do exactly the opposite
 
My first seedlings in Mexico were toasted as well. Tomatoes... They had emerged and I put them half a day ba(s)king in the sun. Gone they were... But reconsidering all my stupidity afterwards, I also must say that I have learned a lot from my embarrassing mistakes.

 

[Edaxflamma]

But reconsidering all my stupidity afterwards, I also must say that I have learned a lot from my embarrassing mistakes.

I hope this is me one day haha. Out of curiosity, what level of shade cloth would you guess I should aim for once outside?

 

[ahayastani]

I hope this is me one day haha. Out of curiosity, what level of shade cloth would you guess I should aim for once outside?

 
I don't know, really... We have metal panels over the roof terrace (100% shadow) and my plants depend on light entering from the sides. They do reasonably well, even in this light-deprived condition. Also, solar strength in your region resembles Arizona, Texas, Florida. The latitude of my location is at least a further 10° more to the south, which is a lot.

 

[Edaxflamma]

Well after a few days of slow growth on the seedling front, I decided to break down and spritz them with a worm compost tea/slurry. Man did they perk up! Almost overnight they all kicked out a new set of leaves and I feel like Ive finally made back some lost time.

Also, thanks to a certain Mr. Dangler, I can finally get my hot pepper fix. Look at this haul!

I think this clocks in at just over 35 varieties! Cant wait to do a taste test but based on some of the name tags, I may need to clear my schedule for a few days beforehand.

 

[PaulG]

Wow, what a great hit from HD!
 
Pepper People Are The Best!

 

[Edaxflamma]

Pepper people are the best. I got very lucky with a spectacularly well curated box of peppers. I got to do a full tasting over two days and killed a gallon and a half of milk in the process haha. That having been said, there's a drink down here called Limon & Nada con Pepino that is hands down the best thing I have ever found for helping kill the heat. Immediate relief and when the heat inevitably comes back, its cut by at least 50%-75%. That's the only way I survived those Defkos...
 
I have maybe 20 more pepper cores that need to dry and I will have been able to save seed from the lot of them. Given that each fruit is its own unique pollination event, I have individually bagged each fruit and added it to the database. If there were any unintentional crosses, at least the genetics from each baggie should be the same despite whatever natural variation there is.
 
The fruit itself is in a gallon bag in the freezer for the time being. I'll be blending those up into a sauce and fermenting them in the next week or so. I also might try splitting the batch in half and drying down some of the ferment into its own fermented powder. 
 
Also just transplanted most of my seedlings and got a new light for them. Hoping I can limp along with a 2ft Agrobrite T5 until the new LEDs come in. Once they've had some time to settle in and the new gear arrives I'll update with some new photos.

 

[PaulG]

All sounds really great, J.P.! 
 
Having fun yet?  

 

[Harry_Dangler]

I grow a lot of hot pods .... but this year's Defko is insanely hot.  Those pods are right up there with the hottest I've ever eaten.  Right there with Bhuter's Cinder and the "I'm going to the emergency room" Chocolate Bhutlah   .    

 

[Edaxflamma]

All sounds really great, J.P.! 
 
Having fun yet?  

Oh for sure. Just eager to start producing and giving back. Lots of people here have shared some great information, seed, and produce. I’m hoping once my season comes online in earnest I can get more involved with the community and do things like contribute to the yearly seed exchange, help PollenNut with a few of his breeding projects, start a few of my own, and do more than pester people with questions haha.

I appreciate all the encouragement along the way.


As far as those Defkos are concerned... yeah I agree hottest I’ve eaten for sure. Great flavor and an initial 6-8 seconds of enjoyment, then... well, buckle up.

 

[Edaxflamma]

Bout time for a brief update. Everyone that survived the first run got repotted a little while ago. I had well over 80% germination but lots of seedling die off. Im not sure if they were mostly immature seeds or there was something I did but the cotyledons across the board were fairly weak once they broke out of the seed coat. The most common issue was the cotyledons and growing tip dying back about a week after germinating while the roots remained healthy and stem stayed a beautiful dark green. So if youre looking for some healthy looking green sticks, I know a guy. Though there is one Habanada stick that looks like it may come around. Weird stuff going on at the former growing tip. Ill keep you posted if it picks back up.

As for the successes, they just got moved from an off brand potting soil into a 1:1:1 mix of sterile potting mix, cactus and citrus soil, and worm castings. The amount of worm castings may have been a bit aggressive it seems.The soil is holding quite a bit of moisture and I only need to water once every week to two weeks. Im being extra careful so as to keep myself from over watering. Thankfully there have been no issue so far.

On Friday my lighting upgrade came. This thing is like having a small star in my spare bedroom. This is one of the Series 3 from Budget LEDs. Right now I have it on full blast mounted 36 from the plants and will be decreasing the distance over the next few days.

Today everyone got a quick splash of half strength Neptunes Harvest Tomato and Veggie mix so between that and the castings they should be set for little while at least.

Though there does seem to be a bit of empty space on the right side... Ill have to do something about that.

 

[PaulG]

Your starts are looking good.
They should be very well-fed!
 
Looks like an awesome light source!

 

[Edaxflamma]

Your starts are looking good.
They should be very well-fed!
 
Looks like an awesome light source!

 
A few are a little slow but that's just a numbers game. While new leaf growth doesn't seem to be moving very quickly, new root development is really surging at the moment. Every day there seems to be at least one new 0.5-1" feathery plume of roots in each of the cups. The clear party cups were a good choice in that regard. However I may have a different opinion of them once the algae inevitably sets in. But with as fast as the roots are growing, I'm guessing there will be a new leaf push in the next couple days so that should be exciting. I'm tempted to take a pin and poke some air holes in the cups to try for some air pruning but I don't want to over complicate things.
 
So far the light seems to be doing well. It was a toss up between this and the Mars Hydro TS1000. I'm not 100% sure I made the right choice from a dollars standpoint but other than the initial sticker shock, I can't complain so far. The dimmer, the UV, Far Red, LED efficiency, and the more even distribution of light across the edges of the unit were what tipped the scales for me.  I'm already at about 12" and I'm not seeing any signs of burning or color loss. Leaving UV on for now and we'll see if the Far Red makes any difference during flowering/fruiting. Although hopefully the plants will be outside by then. 

 

[PaulG]

Very nice light set-up.
You get what you pay for.
Usually.
 
Good that you are getting good root growth. 
Algae isn't too much of a problem in these situations.
The plants won't be in those cups forever, and Ive seen
some pretty dank Kratky bottles on the forum! Plants
didn't seem too worse for it.
 
Good luck going forward.

 

[Edaxflamma]

Figured it was time for another update.

We have had some unusual weather in my neck of the woods: hail, snow, rain, and 80F+ (27C) temps all in the same week. Fortunately, there were some nice days sprinkled in there where we were able to open the windows and get some fresh air. Unfortunately, along with the fresh air came what seems like every whitefly in the entire neighborhood.

Traps are probably pulling in anywhere from 20-30 per day and that is with the windows closed. But that is down from the hundreds those first few days. Thank goodness for proactive IPM... I have been using isopropanol gel on a cotton swab to target any egg clusters on the undersides of the leaves and have drastically cut down on the severity of the infestation. I am still waiting on something a bit more broad spectrum to treat the infestation as a whole. Thankfully, I have yet to see any signs of disease.

The new light has been working extremely well, perhaps a bit too well. I am used to leaf burn in a greenhouse setting but wasn't ready for it indoors. Any standing water on the leaves is like a small laser that just scorches the leaves to grey dust in that area. Additionally, I am finding that 18-20in (45-50cm) is about as close as I want to go. Color has gone through the roof but at 12in I was getting a lot of leaf burning. So as much as I did not want to, I had to prune back a few annuums that were outpacing the rest of the lot so they didn't cook themselves. Not sure what I'm going to do with a dwarfed Thunder Mountain Longhorn... might have to try to mimic those traditional cascading Wisteria bonsai.

All that aside, as predicted the lateral growth is really starting to pick up. Side shoots everywhere - even on those I did not prune.

Also I finally got around to zipping up all those peppers I got from HD.

Blue one was sweetened with roasted garlic jam and the red one was sweetened with maple syrup. I think I am going to let these ferment for a while and try drying it down into a powder.

Side note, for some reason all my apostrophes disappear when I post on mobile. Anyone else had that issue?

 

[Tybo]

What light is that you went with.  I tried searching "Budjet LED's" but didnt have any luck.

 

[Edaxflamma]

I ended up going for this one and tacked on the waterproof coating because I'm a bit of a mess.
https://www.budgetgrowlights.com/collections/micro/products/series-3-full-spec-130-watt-dimmable-grow-light
 
Again, its targeted for the cannabis industry but it had the profile I wanted. After having only some some mixed success with LED bulbs, and cheap boards, I was hesitant from shifting away from my fluorescents for home indoor growing but as long as the board life is there and it doesn't start flickering after two years, I'm a new convert. I'm still curious about the Mars Hydro but so far I'm happy with my purchase. 
 
I could definitely raise this thing up another 6-12 inches, double its footprint and still nurse plants through the winter if I had to. I'm still debating another planting between the seeds you sent, a few stragglers from earlier in the season, and now the seed train so that may be what I do. However, I do only have 48 full size pots this year and about 2/3 of those are already earmarked for plants. Based on the heat we had this past year, those will be tough to keep up on as it is. 
 
@Tybo - Your mail went out with the seed train. I'm having to limit my trips to the post due to the craziness down here. Chihuahua has shut down all businesses after 7pm and enacted a curfew along with a few other measures. Combine that with all the mess on the US side and it's been tough. I appreciate your patience. 
 

 
What light is that you went with.  I tried searching "Budjet LED's" but didnt have any luck.

 
Obviously that one totally blew past me on the first read. But I agree I think they missed a serious marketing opportunity. 

 

[PaulG]

Sounds like you are about to get serious, my friend!
 
Good luck getting a new round of seeds going.

 

[Edaxflamma]

Update time.
 

 
So the first lot of plants is hitting cruising speed right about now. Right now we have a lot of leafy growth, the plants are drying out in about 24 hours, and...
 

 
Flowers! Shishitos, Mini Paprika, and Thunder Mountain Longhorns are getting ready to kick out fruit.
 
On the whole these guys are begging for another repot but I'm not keen on putting them into 7 gallon pots with another 6 months until spring... I think I'm going to need to get more pots. Definitely should have waited a couple more months to start these guys.
 
That having been said, I doubled down on my mistake and started a second planting.
 

 
Last time I planted, the germination was decent, but weak overall. Expecting the same, I made my own soil mix and double seeded to help boost my numbers. Well, it worked. I have way too many seedlings now so some will need to be culled. Maybe they just needed some encouragement from the microgreens - who knows. 
 

 
I'm also going to roll the dice and see if I can keep a few gourds from taking over the spare bedroom over the next few months. 

Finally, after losing one of my pepper mash jars to mold, I dried down the remaining jar and blitzed that into powder. Definitely hot, definitely funky but despite my best efforts I still pepper sprayed the house in the process. Might have to call this one Hell in HD due to the heat, the aggressive aerosol that permitted the house, and as an ode to grower.

All in all things are going well. White flies are knocked out now, plants are going gangbusters. Midwinter and early spring are going to be a bit hectic but we should have some good variety on deck. We'll see if I can keep up.

 

[Edaxflamma]

Another month in. Only what, five more until spring? The spare bedroom is getting pre-tty crowded and I'm worried I might not make it until then. 
 
That having been said, all in all things are growing well. Despite moving the plants another 6" away from my lights, everyone has retained their color and the flowers are coming on strong. Pretty much everyone has at least a few small flower buds. There are a few stragglers but for the most part they are all ready to fruit. 
 

 
Plants in this batch are:
Aji Jobito x2
Aji Panca
Aji Pineapple
CAP1475
CGN21500
Elysium Oxide Scotch Bonnet
Habanada
Honeypeño
KS White Thai x3
Mini Piperka
Pimenta Luna Habanero
Pink Tiger X Bhut (dark leaf pheno)
Pink Tiger X Bhut (light leaf pheno)
Scotch Bonnet Foodarama
Scotch Bonnet MOA x2
Shishito x3
Sugar Rush Peach
Sweet Datil
THSC Black Scorpion x2
Thunder Mountain Longhorn
Trinidad Perfume
White Hot Lime x3
 
 

 
A few of the farms I have worked with have grown shishitos but I don't remember the plants ever flowering this aggressively. So far I think maybe one or two flowers in total have dropped and the rest seem to be taking. I may be able to cut back to only one or two plants if they continue to be this prolific.
 
 
Similarly, the Mini Piperka has also been very doing well. While it isn't as prolific, it was one of the first two plants with flowers. I am hoping that this peppers stops growing soon. I really don't want to have to dig a hole in the pot to accommodate this thing. I might try gently bending it to the side with some strategically placed cardboard.
 

 
Oddly enough, one of my neighbors is from Macedonia and is thrilled that I'll have mini and full sized Verzena Piperka later in the season. I don't know much about Macedonian wine or cuisine but I get the feeling that I will know quite a bit very soon haha.
 
 
A few others are coming along nicely like this Sugar Rush Peach. I wasn't expecting fruit this early but I'll take what I can get. From what I read they can take a while to mature so I might as well get them set early on.

 
The THSC Black Scorpion Tongue is starting to send up some nice purple flowers as well. 

 
This next lot is going to be what does me in. I can feel it.
 

 
My second planting has finally started picking up steam after their initial transplant shock and I figure I have a month, maybe two before they will need to be repotted. A few of the pots have multiple plants so I will likely have to make some tough calls sooner than I would like. 
 
In this planting we have:
Aji Charapita
Aji Mango
Aji Pineapple
Aleppo
Bird's Eye Baby
Blended Lemon Yellow
Bonda Ma Jacques
Cap 270
Cheiro Refife
Clavo Peach
El Oro De Ecuador
Farmer's Market Jalapeno
Galapagos Habanero
Habanero Oxkutzcabian Orange
Hallow's Eve
Jamy
Korean Gochu (smaller pheno)
KS Lemon Starrburst
Lemon Drop
Peach Gum Tiger
Piazinho
Pimenta Da Dog
Pink Habanero
Pockmark Orange
Purple Cacho White Leaves
Sugar Rush Stripey
Testanera Choco
Tiger Jalapeno
Trepadeira Werner
White Habanero
 
We'll see how things progress. I am hoping that I can get some quick fruit off of this batch and the batch prior and then start culling varieties that aren't to our taste. I would like to isolate some seed from the large majority of these and try to kick some back to the community but growing space may dictate what can and can't be saved.
 
I'll check back in another month or so and let you know whether I've started using a machete as a second house key. Also I'll see what I can do about preventing the blurry washed out photos for next time. The new lighting has made photos a bit challenging.