Sarge's 2013 - Sydney, Some extreme variations!

Alright to kickstart off on this forum, I might as well write up a glog where I can show you guys what I have started, what I have and where I hope to be.
 
I never used to be a fan of chilli. Couldn't tolerate the hate and the day after. After time went on I started getting an itch for it and started to like it more and more to the point I eat hot things just to experience the burn. Well I consider my self to have always had a green thumb. Ive grown many plants in the past, mainly fruitful like tomato's strawberries and other types of berries. I then tried Bonsai but with uni and other things in the way it was far too hard to maintain and after a year trying to grow plants from seedlings, it only took one bad day to wipe out an entire batch I worked so hard on; a scorching 43C summer day.
 
Now I'm starting my run with chilli's, namely the super hots. So what did I do? I headed over to eBay and bought some bhuts in reds and chocolate, some trinidad scorpions, morugas, naga x 7 pot just to get me started.
 
I started my seedlings as I did previous plants Ive grown, moist paper towel in a plastic bag behind the fridge or somewhere warm. The bhuts were the first batch I tried and I hit a 100% germination rate after 10 days. These were then sewn into the Scotts seed raising mix which I bought from Bunnings. They were planted in trays in those little mini greenhouse things and I kept an eye on them every day until they broke through the surface. I obtained a heat mat, a reptile grow lamp and built a box in my cupboard to house them in which is lined with aluminium foil to keep light and heat in. After the bhuts cracked the surface I tried a batch of 10 of each of the other seeds. The seeds were from different sellers on eBay. I had 70% with the naga x 7 pot, 70% with another batch and two other batches I had had completely failed on me. I'm not sure what happened, I didn't take pictures but the seeds seemed to change colour, some went black while others stained the paper towel in a yellow colour run.
 
I threw those bad seeds out and named it to a bad harvest of seed. The bhuts I germinated looked extremely better quality than the other seeds which failed. Most of the seeds had little cracks in them, some werent whole, and they looked overly dried out.
 
After the plants got their first true set of leaves I started feeding them, and this is where I request input. Ive been using seasol at half strength every other week and the other weeks between I have been using power feed. I have also got a bottle of Chilli focus but have not tried this out. I feed straight to the soil. I think as of late though I have been over watering slightly. The soil looks too moist for my liking so I have backed off the watering(please reference the attached pictures).
 
I have a couple of questions of things I have seen along the way and things I need cleared.
 
Firstly my plants are grown in my room up stairs in a cupboard, isolated from any other plants. I have noticed a flying insects in there which I have squashed whenever Ive seen them. They are smaller than a fruit fly and when I lift the cover off the seedlings the bugs either fly out or run and hide in the soil. Ive seen about 4 now and killed all of them. There is no point getting a picture, no camera I have would be capable of getting a clear image, these things are tiny as. Are these of concern? How the hell did they get there? The only time the cover is off is when I water.
 
Secondly, should I remove the cover off the seedlings now? A chap suggested I remove it while another suggested to keep it to retain humidity. Checking all the photos I see online, no one keeps their seedlings enclosed. Refer to the pix to see the housing.
 
Third off, and I have a pic for this one, two of the seedlings have strange patches on their new set of leaves, they look like dark spots but they aren't theyre actually thinner spots and the illusion of darkness comes from the fact its the soil being semi visible through the leave. There are no bugs or insects other than the flying ones that I have seen. Nothing leeching off the plant. The leaves otherwise are a nice green colour.
 
For now no more writing, here are the pictures. In two days these will be about 3.5 weeks old.
 
I will post pix and updates as necessary.
 
Hope you guys enjoy!
 
P.S if anyone here is in Australia and has some fresh seed to sell(or even in the US), please PM me. I'm trying to find some pure 7 pot varieties and depending if I can get my red bhuts to germ maybe some fresh red bhuts. The ones which have grown so far are chocolate bhuts.
 
These are the strange looking leaves. Its only the two plants at the front bottom corner of the tray. Any ideas?

 
I found this little bastard growing in one of the cells.

 
Bigger picture of the damaged leaves

 
This is my current setup

 
Soil moisture


 
Soil temp

 
Close up of soil moisture. Looks too wet.

 
 

 

[Blister]

Man those pods look CRAZY! If you're having a problem with the heat, I'll trade you for half of the cold we have here. Been -30c for the last few days.

Neil

 

[ivplay]

Looking very good, Sarge!  You have some bumpy pods there as well.

 

[megamoo]

Good grow and nice pods. 
 
I grew Aji Lemons in my second season when I did everything wrong and killed off almost everything but the Aji Lemon shook it off and kept on pumping out pods.  Gotta love them, just awesome.
 
Chilli plants in shade will develop big fat leaves to catch more sun, and if you move them into lots of direct sun the big leaves may die and the new leaves will be short and thin because they don't need to be big.  If your hydro plant that won't flower is only in ambient light it may not be getting enough sun to fuel pod making and is devoting all its energy to making leaves to catch more sun?  Just a thought.  Also you probably know that when its really hot chillies shut down their flowering, chinenses are worse for this and are slower growing generally.
 
In my experience hydro grows best, then raised beds and last of all pots.  Pots seriously suck.  There is so much that you have to get exactly right and so little room for error.  Coco is the opposite, its forgiving, you can over water and under water and it doesn't really matter.
 
Hope you get it all sorted and get a good superhot harvest.

 

[Sarge]

So true megamoo, in RE to your statement about growth in pots. I had 12 plants in pots. I transferred them all to soil as they looked like rubbish compared to the soil plants. They are thriving now.
 
 

nice... pods!!! any of those seeds i sent ya make it on your grow list...

 
Not this season dude, when the seeds arrived I tried a brown moruga in hydro(fastest way to grow the thing). I left it one day without water, accidentally, and it died. I'll be growing them this year!
 
Here are some pics from yesterdays harvest. I deseeded some of each and started drying the seeds and peppers!
 
The bhut looking things are all off the same hybrid. Two separate plants all producing different looking pods. The ones I am holding side by side came off the same branch. They are a naga x 7!
 
Enjoy
 

 

[MeatHead1313]

Nice looking pods Sarge! How's the flavour of the naga x 7? Sounds like it'd be a delicious pepper.

 

[Sarge]

Taste pretty good. I'm nervous about having a whole one so I had a slice. The smell is like every other super hot, it taste sweet for a couple seconds, just like capsicum, but its brutal. I'm very new to consuming superhots and with my unhappy gut, I gotta build my self up to be able to down a good amount of it.

 

[MeatHead1313]

Taste pretty good. I'm nervous about having a whole one so I had a slice. The smell is like every other super hot, it taste sweet for a couple seconds, just like capsicum, but its brutal. I'm very new to consuming superhots and with my unhappy gut, I gotta build my self up to be able to down a good amount of it.

I understand the new to superhots thing. Luckily I don't have any gut problems from them after eating them, at least until the morning after depending on the variety anyway. Bhut x 7 sounds like a winner though. 2 of my favourite supers. Love the taste of both, and bhuts don't seem to mess with me the next day at all, and 7's very little as well. Sounds like you have a winner right there for sure!

 

[Sarge]

OK I've got, well to me, a HUGE update. The content isn't huge but what is in the content is HUGE!!!!! I just got back inside from the garden. Looking around, checking whats ready whats new and spotted these.
 
Scroll up and you'll see the very first of my naga 7 pods. Its, fat, long, prickly, crinkly and looks mega gnarly. Great! Save some seeds from the similar looking pods.
 
Next I found boxy looking pod on another plant from the same type of seeds. Fat bubble kind of pepper. Cool, save seeds from that.
 
Yesterday I found these. They are about a quater of the size of all the other pods and the plant is setting them left right and centre. I'm talking nearly 40 maybe 50 pods on one plant! The red one near the yellow bhuts that is.
 

 
And then today. From the same plant which gave me the first 7 naga, the spiky gnarly looking pod. I found these. Two of them. My jaw DROPPED!
 

 
Brown ones! They didn't even come from anywhere near a brown pepper. The only thing I know is the guy who I got these seeds off only grows 3 super hots, 7 pots, naga and the choc bhut. Could this be a triple hybrid or is it likely a natural mutation. All I know is I'm excited!

 

[Spicegeist]

Wow, cool.  So one of your Naga x 7 Pot crosses is putting out brown pods?  Is that a red pod on the same plant that's giving you the brown pods?

 

[Sarge]

Wow, cool.  So one of your Naga x 7 Pot crosses is putting out brown pods?  Is that a red pod on the same plant that's giving you the brown pods?

 
The plant gave off about 6 red pods, now its got 2 browns, a couple green and yes that red is on the same plant and that is my single isolated plant!
 
You can feel the difference in the pod too. The red ones are a much thinner, lighter pod. This brown pod is dense. Its heavy. You can't squeeze it, its got no give to it.

 

[fern123]

Awesome pods dude , did you sterilize the string before you strung the peppers?

 

[Sarge]

Awesome pods dude , did you sterilize the string before you strung the peppers?

Crap no I didn't. I just took some string from my mums sewing kit. How would you sterilize it?

 

[fern123]

Crap no I didn't. I just took some string from my mums sewing kit. How would you sterilize it?

You could use rubbing alcohol, mine were green sweet peppers and i didnt sterilize the string , 2 days later they grew mould .

 

[Spicegeist]

 
The plant gave off about 6 red pods, now its got 2 browns, a couple green and yes that red is on the same plant and that is my single isolated plant!
 
You can feel the difference in the pod too. The red ones are a much thinner, lighter pod. This brown pod is dense. Its heavy. You can't squeeze it, its got no give to it.

 
So strange, brown and red pods on the same plant?

 

[Sarge]

 
So strange, brown and red pods on the same plant?

 
Now you can understand just how shocked I was when I saw it go from green to VERY light patchy orange now a solid brown. Its a really heavy pod

 

[Blister]

Man that would be so cool to get a variety of 7-naga's off the same plant. I'd be curious to see how the rest of the pods turn out. Definitely save seeds and possibly overwinter the plant for next year if you could.

 

[Sarge]

Where the plant is located, there is no chance of uprooting it and potting it for over winter but there is a pepper plant next to it which my dad has done 2 years of overwintering on. I will get him to do the same thing with this one.
 
I cut open one of the red peppers on this, it is just as heavy and dense as the brown pepper but its red, while the rest of the red ones on there are thin light peppers. The walls are so thick. I don't have pics of my other peppers but just like any other naga/bhut the walls are pretty thin. Check this one out.