Rookie Superhot SoCal Glog Updated: 5/11/15 (1st page Growlist)

Slizarus · Jul 9, 2014

Still waiting on several to leave the soil, the delay makes me paranoid and wishing I was using coir or rockwool.

Just gotta trust their nature to rise.

Anyway, every day this next week and for the past week I've had temperatures over 100, so to inhibit this heat I erected a shade cloth made from a weed barrier I bought at the 99 cent only store and brought some empty tomato trees nearby so I could shade my seedlings. It seems top be working, I'll Post pictures of it for a clear view.

Slizarus · Jul 9, 2014

Uh oh! My first attack of mold on seeds

I thought surely if I don't look at my newest seeds every day that they would sprout before I knew it.

Well some did, and those weren't the only sprouts!

Mold spores started in on some seeds.

Thankfully I make my own colloidal and ionic silver.. I soaked most of them in a bit of silver and H2O2 and planted several early before they popped including my bubblegum 7s, I really want them to sprout.

Slizarus · Jul 15, 2014

I need to post more pictures!

My only purple bhut seedling was stolen by a rodent this morning.

It was Pretty outrageous.

Thankfully though, I have seen 3 moa hooks popping out and I am praying they don't get eaten in the middle of the night by something that flies.

Time Will tell.

Bought my first superhot pods, they're in the dehydrator now. I'm really enjoying peppers.

HurtsGood · Jul 15, 2014

Great looking little grow you got going. Yeah seedling are vulnerable to all kinds of things. I had a tray here month ago a grass hopper diced to check out.

Slizarus · Jul 16, 2014

Thanks Hurts! Yeah, it was incredibly lame

I've gone back to putting my seedling tray under my shade cloth with a big screen on top of it. Flying bugs might get in, but otherwise it's much safer.

It's the Green bin on top of the concrete in the lower half of the picture, I had them in that area but without the bin so they were more vulnerable to things for just one night and lost my Purple Bhut

ah well. This picture is outdated, I need a new one, my setup looks a lot better under here now.

Scene of the Burglary. I had just organized them. Thankfully, 3 of the Yellow/Purple pots have since sprouted, they contain MoA's

Pepper Seedlings! In the top you can see where the "seedling tray" (i.e. ones that haven't popped out of the dirt yet) were when they got burgled. That said, these seedlings look great

Same as above, more recent

My Black Prince

that pod dried when it was still black and has since ripened, I don't really want to eat it like that so I've left it there. It looks pretty nice, I recently pruned it and it's been doing great.

All Tomatoes except the green straw square pot Douglah on the left

Just an experiment with squash. I wish the soil level was higher, but the secret is that they're all growing on straight compost with some twigs in there. Now, to help this, there's a Black Soldier Fly colony in the bin too which is reallllyyy gonna go far to helping these plants actually be successful given their amazing role as composters.

Glam Shot, you see some Orange Habs (OO), 7 Pot White (YY), Bhut Carbon (BR), Peach Bhut (YB), White Bhut (BB) and some others

I just ordered an SFRB of Mixed Superhots

Hope they arrive in great shape, I'll be sharing pictures!

Slizarus · Jul 17, 2014

My custom drip irrigation system setup works exactly how I envisioned! I'm very pleased, it was my first time doing this and I'm happy.

It's a 1/2" mainline laying atop my tomato trees with a length of 1/4" soaker tubing coiled inside the top of each tree. Will post pictures later

My next project btw is gravity feeding my dripline so I can let the water gas off the chlorine and I can add teas. So exciting! My only concern is that the hose is elevated 5'. Anyone know how high I'll have to hang my reservoir?

Slizarus · Jul 17, 2014

Pictures!

Pics of my Seedling setup and pumpkin tray

Drip Irrigation set up

Under the Lid of my tomato tree, this one is only watering my eggplant. Eventually the soaker hose will be buried under mulch.

My Eggplant's first flower! This is an Ichiban. Do you see my insect friend?

Slizarus · Jul 19, 2014

It's a day under 90 degrees! We had a rain that lasted 5 minutes, I took the shade cloth down and it stopped. Bah, well, leaving the cloth down today Anyway. They were getting a little dry so I watered their trays.

I have 65 pepper seedlings and 32 tomatoes.

I'm growing everything out right now, I'd hate to cull any of them. I told the plants that I would see them all grown and fruiting if I can.

Still, I think I'll be trading some plants away, especially as I have about 14 varieties trying to germinate still and I'll be receiving a couple mail order plants next month.

That said, my plans right now to make this all work:

I need to build a simple shade cloth canopy to cover my plants. Why?

Simple answer: Birds.

There are a lot of birds in my area that love seed and fresh fruit. When they don't feel like persimmons, I would expect them to hop on any of my 90+ fruiting plants and eating their fill.

I can't say for sure that they'll do it, but it's better to prevent it than to deal with it.

And next I'll be buying geotextile fabric rolls, natural glue, and making my own bags. How to fill all the bags?

I'm going to take advantage of the greatest thing that I can't get without a truck or a trailer:

Horse manure. There's tons here, I just need to haul it, it'll be free, I figure I'll get several hundred pounds and then let my black soldierfly larva colonize it, turning it into valuable compost

Ah, working with nature.

Slizarus · Jul 21, 2014

Afternoon

Yesterday was a strange day! Good and Bad, but I made it home and everything's fine. So that's a plus in my book

I went to the Farmer's Market to see my local Chili Man, Charles, to bring some seeds to trade and I brought him a gift for introducing me to the wide world of chilis with his stand, without him I wouldn't have found you guys! And Yeah, it's only been a month, but you guys make the hobby a whole lot more fun

Here's my gift to him

The Yellow Blue Straw is a Peach Bhut, the Yellow Purple Straw is a MoA Scotch Bonnet, and the unmarked one is an Aji Lemon Drop,

Naturally I got a photo of him to show you guys

I think the Capsaicin shirt is enough for you guys to know he's one of us

Now when I handed him the plants, he was so happy about it he told me to help myself to his table and take home as many plants as I wanted. Now that's some generosity! I took home 11 of them. Considering he was selling for $6 a plant, I made out like a bandit with the trade. I showed him my seed collection, let him pick whatever he wanted, and told him I'd bring him a plant of each of the varieties I had showed him but were already spoken for.

He also gave me some of his ripe scotch bonnets, I got a yellow and a red, the yellow was pretty sweet, but the red gave me the heat I wanted

I chopped these up for dinner with roasted potatoes and some fried eggs. 2 bonnets and a handful of ripe banana peppers.

I have plans to go see his operation once school lets out, I asked nicely to see 'em because I love the thought of seeing his pepper bushes, he grows a lot of ornamental annuums so I know it'll be pretty. I told him and his Wife about the forum, I haven't seen 'em join yet, but maybe they've lurked? Ah well, in time.

I feel like I need a THP TShirt, I met a lot of chili newbs yesterday and gave them some pointers based more off my research and your guyses experience than my own. I would like to bring them to the information here. Someday, definitely when I have my own table selling plants, pods, and powders, etc. I'll have some laminated poster: Go to TheHotPepper.com !!!

I'll update with pictures of the plants I picked later, I dumbly didn't get a pick of them in the flat and when I got home I planted them into my system. I'll post pics of that

For now, the list of my additions

2 Bhut Jolokia, very appropriate that I get 2 more from him, he gave me my first several months ago and started this thing. Since I had no red Bhuts sprout, I'm happy for this.

2 Antilles Caribbean Reds

3 Trinidad Scorpions

2 Pequin

1 Tepin

1 Peach hab

Slizarus · Jul 29, 2014

It's been quite a day!

My grandmother is watching my plants because I'm house sitting. She has been babying them so much that she thought she killed them.

So I was rushed over at 9 to See em, they're ok, they've grown quite a bit since my last update, some look big, some have stayed small, and those in the trees have been fruiting aplenty!

I'll update with pictures when I come home for real this Friday.

I got my seed trade in and I have a bunch of foreign sweet peppers

Bull horn Red and Yellow varieties
Golden Marconi
Dulcetta Red
Trinidad Perfume

I got more hot ones too

Ot Hiem
Cheongyang Gochu
Pepperoncini
Dong Xuan Viet Market
Jwala
Trini mystery pepper
Trinidad Tiger

Im also planting some Aji Lemon Drop. I have some already, but I want to get plants with the right phenotype, so I'm trying them from this grower too.

Also got some tomatillo purples, green zebra tomatoes, and I'm starting Okra and Marigolds. And that's just today

Looking forward to sprouts!

Slizarus · Jul 29, 2014

Oh snap, I just looked up Red Tamarillo. It's S. Betaceum, the tree tomato!

I must start some of my seeds, I can use it as rootstock for pepper and tomato grafts

AZ-Mason · Jul 29, 2014

Just read your whole glog! Interesting stuff! Your varieties are great. I love the look of the BBG7's and all those bhuts. Looking forward to later pictures of all your plants!

Slizarus · Aug 6, 2014

Waiting at the courthouse for a restraining order hearing, so I have a moment :p

The plants, some are great, some have died, the rest are growing steadily.

Ive gotten my first pods of the season with my lowes plant, a Gypsy pepper, quite yummy! Its so nice to see plants podded up.

My 11 gifted transplants are doing great too, I stripped most of them besides the pequin and tepin and they are already filling with new leaves along the stem.

I have also planted a wide variety of foreign cultivars, which are still sprouting for the most part. My extra lemondrops sprouted and are easily doing the best of my new sprouts.

Speaking of lemon drops, they grow so quickly! My first lemondrops are already taller than my cayenne which is about a month older. I know I will already love them, I am really anticipating my harvest.

Pictures later

Slizarus · Aug 6, 2014

As promised, pictures!

The seedling area:

Lemon Drops, so big!

Trio of Butch T's

Douglah is the green straw big one

Thai Hot and a Jamaican Hot Chocolate

Pimiento, man has it grown foliage! Easily the most lush growth. I had stripped it originally, compared to the others, it's doing great.

Red Hot Cherry, the birds keep messing with it, I'm leaving the pepper on it atm though it's marred.

Scorpion and Tepin I think. The TS is still recovering from transplant. Slow growing in this heat.

My Gypsy Pepper

And to round it off, a picture of the peppers whose seeds I have, given to me by a friend who vacationed in Valencia Spain, I asked her to bring me back hot pepper seeds. She succeeded! I don't know what the pepper tasted like, but by licking the seeds, I can tell you it was a hot and tasty Chinense. Looking forward to growing it.

Slizarus · Aug 12, 2014

So, being too broke for seedlings hasn't stopped me from acquiring seeds. I've been trading with several people on the forum and I have an order from Judy incoming.

I was perusing the wild peppers thread, not expecting a bug to really bite, because I was all like "Tiny peppers? Who needs them?"
But then people kept talking about unique flavors, growing habits, seed colors, beautiful GORGEOUS flowers, and hairy stems and leaves.. they were all just so interesting, that I decided I wanted some semi wild seeds from a reliable source and so I ordered them from Pepperlover, in addition to a couple other kinds that I've been dying to grow (Can I say I already love Baccatums? Their growth habits make me giddy)

The Starfish and Bishops Hat especially, I can't wait for pods, this year or next, I don't really care when my plants produce, so long as they do eventually

So, in sad notes.. All of my White 7 pots have been sunburned, along with most of my MoAs, I don't really know how or why, for all I know it could be chemical burn (Unlikely, no chemicals used) They're mostly small, I'm just letting them do their thing.

I've been trying to water my plants less, but when I do, it leads me to more anxiety I think because I'm afraid my seedlings will dry out and wilt (Ugh peat pots) so I'm working on forming a good schedule, because atm, I water once or twice a day and mist several times. And it works, but Idk, just ruminating on it.

Mind you, these problems are only with my seedlings.. All my tomato tree planters are doing great with their drip irrigation, and I've added a bunch of homemade compost to cover the soaker tubing I'm using as irrigation, and I would say watering them once a day is almost too much water atm. Suffice to say they're doing well. I cannot wait till my plants are big enough to all be in the watering system and this seedling anxiety will be over. (For the peppers atleast.. for now.. if I don't buy more seed!! or trade them.. bugger)

I have essentially come to the conclusion that I intend to buy powdered organic ferts and grow kind of container hydro with my tomato trees. Eventually their bags will be filled, there will be 3-6 plants in each one, and the soil will become exhausted as I'm sure the rootmass will make it unlikely for my black soldierfly larva to continue inhabiting them and so they can't add to it like they are.

I need to do more research on which ferts are best for their price.

Also, I did break down and buy some pyrethrin just in case in some dark future I have an infestation of something that is beyond the capabilities of Dr Bronner's Soap. I hope I won't have to use it, primarily because of my black soldierflies and the mantids in my garden, but it's there just in case. I'd rather have it before a pest colony reaches it's exponential rising point, than have to wait 2 days and lose control.

Slizarus · Aug 13, 2014

Pics coming tonight if I dont forget.

Found out that there is indeed a large grey rat on the property. If he doesnt mutilate my plants, we can live in peace. Time will tell during fruiting.

Slizarus · Aug 13, 2014

Here's most of my biggest Pepper seedlings

Here's the bulk of the other seedlings, mixed ages, mostly still small

Here's a pic of seedlings that I hope do great and will stop looking small or pitiful. This includes my bubble gum 7, the only sprout I have of it's cultivar.

Here's a surprisingly big Bhut Carbon, the Blue Red straws

The Pumpkin project.. Irony, the biggest plant inside here is a cucumber.. I don't know if they're pickles or lemon cukes though. Alternately, they could be squash!

Here's my actually biggest seedlings, including the stem and couple leaves of a black brandywine. The hot thai in the bottom left is from lowes though, it's just chillin'.

For those curious about my Birthday party cake (you probably weren't) here's some pictures! I made a giant oatmeal cookie crust in a springform pan, then filled it with frozen yogurt I made with my cold making machine and then topped it with another giant oatmeal cookie filled with chocolate chips.

It's been 6 days, I'm almost finished with it

It was so good, I am doing this again, but doing it better next time

ribbedturtleneck · Aug 13, 2014

If I were closer, I'd volunteer to help you finish that.

Slizarus · Aug 13, 2014

So, I broke down and got an Organic fertilizer. some Gardner and Bloome Tomato, Veg, and Herb ferts that I'm going to mix into my plants, I just want them to grow big and strong! I will not let them get Nute burn... prolly.

Anyway, I charted down the plants I have in what I'm just referring to as "The System" or "my system", and I have 7 trees running with only 10 free spots left.

I'm really waiting on my financial aid (What? I'm a Bio major

) so I can bring in butt loads of horse manure which I will proceed to compost in our ludicrous heat combined with my BSF larva (Have I detailed this before?) and then create soil with it which I will pot everything up into fabric pots I'mma make from 6 oz geotextile fabric rolls.

Then I'mma erect a pvc structure and drape bird grade shadecloth over it and allow my garden to spread out into bigger pots without a risk of sun stressing baby plants.

This is my plan, I wish I had a price idea for the structure and the shadecloth. Definitely on my research list.

Slizarus · Aug 15, 2014

You know, I was dreaming about planting them in bales of straw this year, but the only bales in an area of agriculture won't be available for a month, bleh.

Oh well, I just found a connection for Horse manure, I found a boarding stable that would love to give me their crap if I can get an open trailer or truck to haul it in, both my truck and trailer are enclosed lol.

But this is still super exciting, the stables in their area get a lot of money, so I'm sure they're fed well and their crap will be highly nutritious. I actually also hope to grow some edible varieties of mushrooms in a patch of my backyard that seems ideal, and by ideal I mean I see all sorts of mushrooms grow there, I guess it's not too hot, not too cold, perfect goldilocks conditions. Or something like that. It's also shady so it stays somewhat damp compared to the rest of the yard.

In my world of plants, I guess some seeds that take forever to really come out of their seedcase even after germinating (Tamarillo in this case) are prone to rotting if not planted (suspicion of mine) because I lost my only popped seed and coincidentally had another pop in the same night. So I'm going to plant that today.

No action on my Pubescens seeds, or indeed, anything else Hog sent me.. But I'm doing something I don't normally do, I direct sowed without even soaking, it was parts impatience and part experiment. I'm also keeping them outside on my patio in shade without extra water but covered so they don't dry out entirely. Honestly, it could be too hot for Pubes seeds (I don't know for sure) so I have 2 pubes inside too where it remains 70 degrees all day and night. We'll see what happens.

I got a Trini mystery to pop, this means that out of WM's seeds I have everything up except for the yellow bull horn and venezuelan tiger. I had yellow bull horns come up, but something must have happened in the interim. Venezuelan tigers never popped. Ah well, they're still in my germ chamber, so there is always hope till they rot.

Speaking of till they rot, I threw some seeds into the compost, I don't do this until I really don't think there's any chance, usually dark ugly almost rotten seeds.

Now over a week ago I took some of that compost and mulched a bunch of my plants including the MoA standalone pot. In the ring of mulch, a pepperseed is growing.

It could be lots of things, but it's smooth shape makes me think it's an annuum. I'mma let it grow, this is my first volunteer seedling.

My Dong Xuan Viet Markets aren't doing so hot, but they got pretty dark stems (just their pheno), I hope they do better overall, maybe they're just taking their time before skyrocketing like most baccatums do for me so far. I planted extra seed for 'em, so I'm expecting sprouts at some point. I want this pepper.

So, as I suspected, Ants are farming aphids on my pepper seedlings. So we're gonna attack them with boric acid jelly and more castile soap after I see if I can spray them off without damaging the leaves. If that isn't successful in moderating them, I'll pull out some low dose pyrethrin spray. Not what I want to do, but that's what it's there for. To take 'em on before they get worse.