Sawyer '15 - Killing frost 11/22 + pics

Plantguy76 · Mar 12, 2015

Sawyer said:
You know, Jason, I think those seeds are no good. I got none to germinate from my first planting, replanted 3/4 and have none from the second planting either. I sent you quite a few so maybe you can mass sow them somewhere out of the way. Maybe you'll get lucky. I'm going to send you some of the Peach version. Those have germinated 8 out 9 last time I checked and there may be a good chance some of them will revert to red.

I have chosen ten seeds & I am soaking them in a water tea solution .
Since they been difficult I will try that paper towl method for the first time.
I am normally a dirt guy but will give this a go with these.
I am also soaking ten peach congo (PL) seeds I will put those in ocean forests potting soil.
I tried a peach Congo flak got instant heat really didn't get any flavor that flak must of had dried oil on it lol
I thank you for the offer of sending some of those peach Arkansas reapers but you keep them for yourself this time
Wicked mike is sending me seeds and Nigel plus I got that order form jungle rain
You need those seeds more than me so you can keep the Arkansas Reaper alive !

Sawyer · Mar 12, 2015

Plantguy76 said:
I have chosen ten seeds & I am soaking them in a water tea solution .
Since they been difficult I will try that paper towl method for the first time.
I am normally a dirt guy but will give this a go with these.
I am also soaking ten peach congo (PL) seeds I will put those in ocean forests potting soil.
I tried a peach Congo flak got instant heat really didn't get any flavor that flak must of had dried oil on it lol
I thank you for the offer of sending some of those peach Arkansas reapers but you keep them for yourself this time
Wicked mike is sending me seeds and Nigel plus I got that order form jungle rain
You need those seeds more than me so you can keep the Arkansas Reaper alive !

I'm strictly a straight-to-dirt guy myself, so maybe your idea of soaking will work. I hope so. If you're sure about the Peach Reaper, okay, but I have plenty of those seeds. I was also going to send you some second generation (state name redacted) Reaper seeds, too. I didn't see those on your list. Just say the word, but I understand you have to draw the line somewhere.

Plantguy76 · Mar 13, 2015

Sawyer said:
I'm strictly a straight-to-dirt guy myself, so maybe your idea of soaking will work. I hope so. If you're sure about the Peach Reaper, okay, but I have plenty of those seeds. I was also going to send you some second generation (state name redacted) Reaper seeds, too. I didn't see those on your list. Just say the word, but I understand you have to draw the line somewhere.

Well John you have convinced me I accept your offer &I think you for your kindness(I guess few a more plants want hurt if it comes down to it I could always plant the seeds next year if need be )
Hopefully this method will work with the AR Reaper seeds I soaked the peach bj ss last time and then to dirt so the paper towl is new to me & so is soaking seeds .
I am more comfortable with straight to dirt and most seeds I've planted where done that way.
Thank you again John for your kindness and generosity
PS no I don't have that second generation reaper sounds interesting and hey another peach and an a reaper who can turn all that down lol
Thanks John

Plantguy76 · Mar 13, 2015

Well John a little update
(Code Name Bad Batch ) I ended up with seven seeds I put them on a wet paper towl.
I then put a wet paper towl over them and into my four tier greenhouse.
Hopefully some will germinate and live if they do I will send you some seeds in the fall.

Devv · Mar 13, 2015

Busy are ya John? It just get crazy from here on...

And my experience, not really much difference between the T8 (4600k) and T5 (6500k). Except the T5's tend to "purplelize"

<--yeah new word.

@Plantguy: I have plenty of seeds (2013OP) from two Reaper phenos. One is the "true reaper", the other is what I named the "funky reaper". Just like John's but a bit smaller, and amazingly prolific. I couldn't tell the difference between the two when sampling. PM me if interested...

Scott

Sawyer · Mar 14, 2015

Happy Pi Day, everybody!

Plantguy76 said:
Well John you have convinced me I accept your offer &I think you for your kindness(I guess few a more plants want hurt if it comes down to it I could always plant the seeds next year if need be )
Hopefully this method will work with the AR Reaper seeds I soaked the peach bj ss last time and then to dirt so the paper towl is new to me & so is soaking seeds .
I am more comfortable with straight to dirt and most seeds I've planted where done that way.
Thank you again John for your kindness and generosity
PS no I don't have that second generation reaper sounds interesting and hey another peach and an a reaper who can turn all that down lol
Thanks John

Jason, I missed the boat on the mail today, so I'll get these sent out on Monday. And I recommend taking Scott up on his offer. His Funky Reaper is incredibly prolific. I have some seeds, but they are from 2013. I imagine he has fresher seeds from last year (and one generation more stable.)

Plantguy76 said:
Well John a little update
(Code Name Bad Batch ) I ended up with seven seeds I put them on a wet paper towl.
I then put a wet paper towl over them and into my four tier greenhouse.
Hopefully some will germinate and live if they do I will send you some seeds in the fall.

Got my fingers crossed. But, hey! One of mine germinated today! Maybe more will follow, but one is infinitely more than none.

Devv said:
Busy are ya John? It just get crazy from here on...

And my experience, not really much difference between the T8 (4600k) and T5 (6500k). Except the T5's tend to "purplelize" <--yeah new word.

@Plantguy: I have plenty of seeds (2013OP) from two Reaper phenos. One is the "true reaper", the other is what I named the "funky reaper". Just like John's but a bit smaller, and amazingly prolific. I couldn't tell the difference between the two when sampling. PM me if interested...

Scott

Yeah, Scott, things are going to be crazy around here this year. I may have already mentioned, but I'm trying to find locals to help me grow some of these, in an isolated fashion, so the seed will be purer. Got a verbal commitment to grow about 45 pounds of jalapenos every other month for a local processor. If that falls through, I can use them myself. In addition to all the growing, I'm ramping up the pepper products efforts. I've just started the third and final phase of a series of workshops on starting a food processing business, offered by the local University's Food Innovation Center. They have a commercially-certified kitchen and will basically walk me through from start to finish to having legally-salable product at the end. After that, I can reserve time as needed and crank out ~200 jars of product at a time. I'm starting with some sauce/condiments, but will soon expand to include marmalades and pickles, really just about any pepper-based food product. I've got some other pepper projects going, but I don't want to say anything about them yet, lest I jinx myself.

I knew a girl once with purplelize.

I replaced one of the defective T12s on the lower shelf with an old, but NIB duplicate. The other NIB T12s I have require some assembly, but also have the old ballast type, not the newer electronic ballast. So I replaced the other two defective units with two new T8s with one 5000K and one 6500K bulb in each one. Boy, I can really tell the difference in brightness compared to the old ones. I moved flats 1, 2, and 3 to the now-brighter lower shelf and moved PF5 to the top shelf, along with PF4, 6, and 7. The heater mat on the lower shelf draws only about 50W maximum and just barely keeps the flats at 80ºF during the day. At night, it drops to 70 or lower. Ironically, since the room this setup is in is directly above the furnace, the room temperature is cooler now with the warmer outside temperatures than it is when the outside temperature is colder and the furnace runs more. Because of this, the germination in PF5 has been slower than I would like while it was on the lower shelf. The upper shelf heater mat draws up to 90W (though it is adjusted to about 50W) and with the heat from the lights below, it stays plenty warm for good germination.

I measured the mats' power draws with a Kill A Watt monitor. I found it interesting that all six 2-bulb fixtures are using a combined total of 375 Watts. I would have expected 8x40 + 4x32 = 448 Watts. Not that I'm complaining.

So yeah, the big news today is that one of my Arkansas Reapers has germinated. :dance:

I once had my doubts about it being worth propagating, but when it looked like none of the seeds would germinate, it suddenly became my most desired variety. Go figure. I've also had a flurry of Yellow Brain Strain germination, most likely from the replanting on 3/4. On the down side, I lost an Aji Amarillo. It was a helmet-head and never should have been counted in the first place.

New germination data are tabulated here.

Plantguy76 · Mar 14, 2015

Sawyer said:
Happy Pi Day, everybody!

Jason, I missed the boat on the mail today, so I'll get these sent out on Monday. And I recommend taking Scott up on his offer. His Funky Reaper is incredibly prolific. I have some seeds, but they are from 2013. I imagine he has fresher seeds from last year (and one generation more stable.)

Got my fingers crossed. But, hey! One of mine germinated today! Maybe more will follow, but one is infinitely more than none.

Yeah, Scott, things are going to be crazy around here this year. I may have already mentioned, but I'm trying to find locals to help me grow some of these, in an isolated fashion, so the seed will be purer. Got a verbal commitment to grow about 45 pounds of jalapenos every other month for a local processor. If that falls through, I can use them myself. In addition to all the growing, I'm ramping up the pepper products efforts. I've just started the third and final phase of a series of workshops on starting a food processing business, offered by the local University's Food Innovation Center. They have a commercially-certified kitchen and will basically walk me through from start to finish to having legally-salable product at the end. After that, I can reserve time as needed and crank out ~200 jars of product at a time. I'm starting with some sauce/condiments, but will soon expand to include marmalades and pickles, really just about any pepper-based food product. I've got some other pepper projects going, but I don't want to say anything about them yet, lest I jinx myself.

I knew a girl once with purplelize.

I replaced one of the defective T12s on the lower shelf with an old, but NIB duplicate. The other NIB T12s I have require some assembly, but also have the old ballast type, not the newer electronic ballast. So I replaced the other two defective units with two new T8s with one 5000K and one 6500K bulb in each one. Boy, I can really tell the difference in brightness compared to the old ones. I moved flats 1, 2, and 3 to the now-brighter lower shelf and moved PF5 to the top shelf, along with PF4, 6, and 7. The heater mat on the lower shelf draws only about 50W maximum and just barely keeps the flats at 80ºF during the day. At night, it drops to 70 or lower. Ironically, since the room this setup is in is directly above the furnace, the room temperature is cooler now with the warmer outside temperatures than it is when the outside temperature is colder and the furnace runs more. Because of this, the germination in PF5 has been slower than I would like while it was on the lower shelf. The upper shelf heater mat draws up to 90W (though it is adjusted to about 50W) and with the heat from the lights below, it stays plenty warm for good germination.

I measured the mats' power draws with a Kill A Watt monitor. I found it interesting that all six 2-bulb fixtures are using a combined total of 375 Watts. I would have expected 8x40 + 4x32 = 448 Watts. Not that I'm complaining.

So yeah, the big news today is that one of my Arkansas Reapers has germinated. I once had my doubts about it being worth propagating, but when it looked like none of the seeds would germinate, it suddenly became my most desired variety. Go figure. I've also had a flurry of Yellow Brain Strain germination, most likely from the replanting on 3/4. On the down side, I lost an Aji Amarillo. It was a helmet-head and never should have been counted in the first place.

New germination data are tabulated here.

Glad you got one to germinate John hey that might be the start that is how my five BJ Peach SS did so fingers cross buddy and yes one better than none :clap:

Thank you John for the seeds and your kindness things are getting busy now I have my peach congos (PL) form Judy planted ended up planting 16 seeds added six more to those I soaked what is wrong with me lol :high:

PaulG · Mar 15, 2015

Awright, AK Reaper on the move!

Trident chilli · Mar 15, 2015

AK Reaper great story John ... all the very best

Sawyer · Mar 15, 2015

Plantguy76 said:
Glad you got one to germinate John hey that might be the start that is how my five BJ Peach SS did so fingers cross buddy and yes one better than none
Thank you John for the seeds and your kindness things are getting busy now I have my peach congos (PL) form Judy planted ended up planting 16 seeds added six more to those I soaked what is wrong with me lol

Those Peach Congos look really interesting. I'll be interested to follow your experience with them.

PaulG said:
Awright, AK Reaper on the move!

Trident chilli said:
AK Reaper great story John ... all the very best

Thanks for the sentiment, guys. One small point, though. AK is Alaska, Arkansas is AR. Anyway, it's still standing today, though it is kind of scrawny.

PaulG · Mar 15, 2015

Sawyer said:
Those Peach Congos look really interesting. I'll be interested to follow your experience with them.

Thanks for the sentiment, guys. One small point, though. AK is Alaska, Arkansas is AR. Anyway, it's still standing today, though it is kind of scrawny.

Thanks for the correction. AK reaper somehow sounds
more menacing than AR Reaper for some reason, matey! Arrrr!

Sending good vibes your way.

Plantguy76 · Mar 15, 2015

Sawyer said:
Those Peach Congos look really interesting. I'll be interested to follow your experience with them.

Thanks for the sentiment, guys. One small point, though. AK is Alaska, Arkansas is AR. Anyway, it's still standing today, though it is kind of scrawny.

Yes I hope they germinate I want to try and cross one with a Bahamian Goat but I will taste one the congos and one of the goats before I make a final decision on that.
I will keep you informed on the peach congos that flake I tried was instant heat and centered on the tongue kinda tingled but did not last as long as peach BJ SS & the heat for the BJ spread all around the mouth but at lest I got a bit of flavor form it.

Sawyer · Mar 15, 2015

PaulG said:
Thanks for the correction. AK reaper somehow sounds
more menacing than AR Reaper for some reason, matey! Arrrr!

Sending good vibes your way.

Thanks, Paul. Ha! I guess you might be right, but it'd be easier to grow a quantity of AR=15 than AK=47. :rolleyes:

BTW, Today I received the seeds you sent (yesterday, I guess, but I didn't check the mailbox until today). Thanks for sending! I'll use those to fill in some of the empty cells I have.

Plantguy76 said:
Yes I hope they germinate I want to try and cross one with a Bahamian Goat but I will taste one the congos and one of the goats before I make a final decision on that.
I will keep you informed on the peach congos that flake I tried was instant heat and centered on the tongue kinda tingled but did not last as long as peach BJ SS & the heat for the BJ spread all around the mouth but at lest I got a bit of flavor form it.

Cool. I like the size of the Peach Congo pods and the reported productivity. I hope the flavor is good, too. A cross with the BG seems like a good idea.

stickman · Mar 15, 2015

Sawyer said:
Thanks. With any luck, I'll have some LED products ready in a few months. May try to get some THPers to beta test for me.

I'd definitely be up for seeing what you come up with for LED grow lights. Will you post it here or start a new thread?

Yup... you got you a monster grow underway John! Good luck with getting outside help growing some of your heirloom varieties to sequester the seed. I hear ya 'bout the possiblility of snow in early April... we get it too some years.

Sawyer · Mar 15, 2015

stickman said:
I'd definitely be up for seeing what you come up with for LED grow lights. Will you post it here or start a new thread?

Yup... you got you a monster grow underway John! Good luck with getting outside help growing some of your heirloom varieties to sequester the seed. I hear ya 'bout the possiblility of snow in early April... we get it too some years.

Rick, I'll probably start a new thread, but some of the preliminary stuff will show up here. Parallel with this I want to set up a spectral measurement system and offer measurement services to folks. I already have access to a system, but eventually want my own hardware. I'm taking some 4' T8s (3000K, 5000K, and 6500K) and one 6500K CFL, maybe an incandescent for comparison, in Tuesday to measure them. I'll post those results here. I think a lot of people would like to know precisely what spectrum their lights are producing. I can provide the actual measurement fairly inexpensively (tbd, but for sure <$50), but for 4' tubes the shipping costs will probably be prohibitive (client will have to pay shipping both ways). Spectral analysis is critical as I move into the LED realm, where CCT ratings are ill-defined.

Thanks for the wishes of good luck. It's going to take a lot of both good luck and hard work to make this work this year. Got my fingers crossed for a spring like that of '12 (last frost by mid-March), and not like '13 (May snow!) or '14 (May frost!).

PaulG · Mar 15, 2015

Glad the seeds found their way to your mailbox, John.

I hope they work out for you. I'll feel bad if they don't pop.

Your LED light project sounds very interesting.

Sawyer · Mar 16, 2015

Thanks again, Paul. I'm sure the seeds will be good.

Today it got above 70ºF and was bright and sunny. Everything is still extra soggy, but at least it was warm. I found a few harbingers of spring:

I planted these ramps only two or three days ago:

They had some green showing when I planted them, but wow, did they pop.

This potted comfrey (Bocking 14) is showing life:

I think I saw life from some of the in-grounds, too, but the ground was too soft to stand around looking long.

I was very pleased to find this shooting star peaking out:

Way back around the turn of the millennium, my then SO and I were hiking a woodland trail and came around a curve and in the draw in front of us there were literally thousands of shooting stars in full bloom. Possibly, likely, the most impressive woodland flower display we'd ever seen. Right in the middle of the trail was this one poor trod-upon specimen looking quite sad and derelict. Taking pity on it, we dug it up and brought it back to my place. By 2007 it looked like this:

By 2012 it was even larger, but in need of division. I dug it up and divided it into 18 pieces and planted each in a 3.5" square pot. They all grew. However, a plant sale failed when my helper quit unexpectedly and through the heat and drought of the rest of the year, I lost a few of them. Likewise, in 2013, I lost a few more. By 2014 I was down to 5, still in the 3.5" pots. They were surviving, but not thriving. I gave two of them to my now former SO (we're still good friends) to plant in her front flower beds and I kept three. One of hers has just come up and that prompted me to look at mine. So at least from these two, I hope we can propagate the plant.

capsidadburn · Mar 16, 2015

Sounds like that would have been a sight to see John! Looks great! I hope mine look that nice someday. They have germinated but are just tiny.

stickman · Mar 16, 2015

Nice pics of the Shooting Star flower John... it look kinda like the Snowdrops we get up here. C'mon Spring! :party:

Sawyer · Mar 16, 2015

capsidadburn said:
Sounds like that would have been a sight to see John! Looks great! I hope mine look that nice someday. They have germinated but are just tiny.

Maybe you said over in your natives glog, but how did you germinate the seeds? I have a pack of seeds for the pink form of D. meadia, but I'm afraid I've waited so long they may no longer be viable. It's still worth a shot, though.

stickman said:
Nice pics of the Shooting Star flower John... it look kinda like the Snowdrops we get up here. C'mon Spring!

Thanks, Rick. Definitely, c'mon Spring!, but now that's it's almost here, I'm realizing just how much I didn't get done through the winter. I've still got fencing to do. At least with all the rain we've had, the T-posts will be easy to drive.

Pepper Flat #5 is showing quite a bit of germination activity, but I'm not updating the PF5 chart just yet. I left the front foam board guard off last night, so the shelf cooled off more than I would have liked. I guess the big news this morning is that I have a hook in PF2-18, Naga Morich. If I'm generous and count the single Jigsaw that germinated but is so puny I haven't included it in the charts, the only varieties in PF1-PF4 for which I have no plants at all are the PdN, 6-4, Datil, Trinidad Congo Red, Orchid, Charapita, and CARDI. I'm still holding out hope for all of those except Datil, Charapita and CARDI. I'll have to fill in those gaps next year.