Sawyer '16 - Memorial Day update

Sawyer · Jan 31, 2016

Awesome. I'll be watching for it.

KiNGDeNNiZ · Feb 1, 2016

Wow... you guys sure take time to organize. Maybe one day I'll do the same... happy growing and good luck. Things look good so far..

Sawyer · Feb 1, 2016

KiNGDeNNiZ said:
Wow... you guys sure take time to organize. Maybe one day I'll do the same... happy growing and good luck. Things look good so far..

I'm sure there's a happy medium between organizing and executing, but I haven't found it yet. Sometimes it's better just to dive in.

JoeFish · Feb 1, 2016

Kingdenniz it doesn't hurt he is a genius...

Devv · Feb 29, 2016

Hey there John!

Crazy list as usual

Wishing you success this season!

Sawyer · Mar 13, 2016

JoeFish said:
Kingdenniz it doesn't hurt he is a genius...

Ha, so why ain't I rich?

Devv said:
Hey there John!

Crazy list as usual

Wishing you success this season!

Thanks, Scott. We'll see how it goes. I can hardly believe it's March already.

So I'm about a month, month and a half, late with sowing. If spring is as late as it has been the last few years, this won't be a problem, but this will probably be the year spring is early. Y'all can thank me for that. Anyway, I started Flat #1 last Tuesday and Flat #2 today.
Pepper flat #1:

Pepper flat #2:

PF #1 is almost entirely seeds recently sent to me by generous THPers. (See the list and key in the OP for who sent what.) I feel it would be an insult to people's generosity not to prioritize those seeds, so they went in first. The crown jewel of this flat is PF1-18, P. Dreadie SSB.

PF #2 is almost entirely older seeds. For about half of them, I have fresher seeds, but I find it nearly impossible to throw away seeds that have any chance whatsoever of germinating. For those that yield 0% germination, whatever stock remains will get tossed.

PF2-18, Old Red Ghost, is one I'm especially interested to see if anything germinates. These seeds have been kept refrigerated and are from the very first super-hots I grew, a couple of Bhut Jolokias that I ordered the plants online. I don't remember which year it was, but it was before I discovered THP. I joined in late '11 and lurked for a year or so before that, so I think these seeds date back at least to '09, if not earlier. If I'm interpreting my notes correctly, last year 8 seeds germinated out of 9 planted. Sadly, those are the only seeds I've kept refrigerated, so everything else is more doubtful, even though the seeds are younger.

I have seeds picked out for PF #3 and a flat ready to go, so that at least will get planted tomorrow. It's another 36 variety planting. After that, or maybe one more w/ 36 varieties, I'll drop back to 24 varieties per flat. I need a lot of red, yellow, and brown supers.

Will post a germination chart as soon as something starts germinating. The germination station has been running at about 80º F, a little below my ideal preferred 82º F, but close enough to do the job, I think. Will update again tomorrow.

Plantguy76 · Mar 13, 2016

Sawyer said:
Ha, so why ain't I rich?

Thanks, Scott. We'll see how it goes. I can hardly believe it's March already.

So I'm about a month, month and a half, late with sowing. If spring is as late as it has been the last few years, this won't be a problem, but this will probably be the year spring is early. Y'all can thank me for that. Anyway, I started Flat #1 last Tuesday and Flat #2 today.
Pepper flat #1:

Pepper flat #2:

PF #1 is almost entirely seeds recently sent to me by generous THPers. (See the list and key in the OP for who sent what.) I feel it would be an insult to people's generosity not to prioritize those seeds, so they went in first. The crown jewel of this flat is PF1-18, P. Dreadie SSB.

PF #2 is almost entirely older seeds. For about half of them, I have fresher seeds, but I find it nearly impossible to throw away seeds that have any chance whatsoever of germinating. For those that yield 0% germination, whatever stock remains will get tossed.

PF2-18, Old Red Ghost, is one I'm especially interested to see if anything germinates. These seeds have been kept refrigerated and are from the very first super-hots I grew, a couple of Bhut Jolokias that I ordered the plants online. I don't remember which year it was, but it was before I discovered THP. I joined in late '11 and lurked for a year or so before that, so I think these seeds date back at least to '09, if not earlier. If I'm interpreting my notes correctly, last year 8 seeds germinated out of 9 planted. Sadly, those are the only seeds I've kept refrigerated, so everything else is more doubtful, even though the seeds are younger.

I have seeds picked out for PF #3 and a flat ready to go, so that at least will get planted tomorrow. It's another 36 variety planting. After that, or maybe one more w/ 36 varieties, I'll drop back to 24 varieties per flat. I need a lot of red, yellow, and brown supers.

Will post a germination chart as soon as something starts germinating. The germination station has been running at about 80º F, a little below my ideal preferred 82º F, but close enough to do the job, I think. Will update again tomorrow.

Best of luck John this season I lean toward reds,peach & yellow peppers myself.
The chocolates make me nervous so far they taste like dirt to me.

Sawyer · Mar 13, 2016

Plantguy76 said:
Best of luck John this season I lean toward reds,peach & yellow peppers myself.
The chocolates make me nervous so far they taste like dirt to me.

I'm not sure I can distinguish a categorical taste difference between browns and chocolates. Is there one? In any case, I have three sauces that use the yellow, red, and brown supers, respectively (and a green sauce that uses jalapeños). In order to keep the heat levels to a manageable level for mere mortals, the amount of pepper used relative to all the other ingredients is quite modest. That way, any specific harshness in the pepper flavor itself is subdued and moderated by the other ingredients.

I'm working on a sauce using peach peppers, so I'll definitely be growing a bunch of those.

Sawyer · Mar 13, 2016

Just updated the seed list in the OP.

JoeFish · Mar 13, 2016

Sawyer you ain't rich because you ain't sitting in the right laps or following the right moron.
Your rich in knowledge and awesomeness though! The later is better anyways.

Trident chilli · Mar 13, 2016

Great list I have my eye on Green 12,17,18, 20 and 32 a bit like bingo ... all the best hope you get a full house

meatfreak · Mar 13, 2016

Best of luck with the season, John! Had great germ rates here, hope you will get the same

Sawyer · Mar 13, 2016

JoeFish said:
Sawyer you ain't rich because you ain't sitting in the right laps or following the right moron.
Your rich in knowledge and awesomeness though! The later is better anyways.

Ha! You may be on to something.

Trident chilli said:
Great list I have my eye on Green 12,17,18, 20 and 32 a bit like bingo ... all the best hope you get a full house

Thanks, John. I've got quite a few new-to-me varieties I'm excited about this year. I like it, "pepper bingo". Doesn't Andy do something like that with his annual pepper... thing? Oh, wait, pepper draft, so maybe not.

meatfreak said:
Best of luck with the season, John! Had great germ rates here, hope you will get the same

Thanks, Stefan. Just a little while ago, I noticed something green in the flat I planted last Tuesday, so at least it won't be a total bomb. Glad to hear yours are coming along nicely.

Planted the third flat today:

I intended this one to have some baccatums and annuums in it, but got sidetracked. Those will go in Flat #4, hopefully tomorrow. Lemme go see what's come up today... be right back...

Sawyer · Mar 13, 2016

PF1-5 and PF1-6 each have 1 sprout coming up. :woohoo:

jcw10tc · Mar 13, 2016

Good luck with the grow. Hope you have better results this year. I want to see pics of the thousand plants in all their glory.

PaulG · Mar 14, 2016

Insane list, John. Three flats of pure hellfire!

Can't wait to see all those growing big and strong!

Sawyer · Mar 14, 2016

jcw10tc said:
Good luck with the grow. Hope you have better results this year. I want to see pics of the thousand plants in all their glory.

Thanks, Justin. So do I. I took some pics of some sprouts earlier today. It's going to take awhile to get the hang of taking pictures with a cell phone, but the camera definitely seems to have the potential for some excellent shots.

PaulG said:
Insane list, John. Three flats of pure hellfire!

Can't wait to see all those growing big and strong!

Hey, Paul, thanks for stopping by. I'm bound and determined to do a better job this year than last. It may be an insane list, but what's more insane is not maintaining it once I've spent the effort to build it. I've got 200-300 organza bags I'm going to try to use to isolate pods for pure seeds. I've tried this in the past without a lot of luck, but I'll tinker with my approach and hope for the best. At least some varieties, I'll have someone else grow just those, so those seeds, at least, will be pure.

As of early afternoon today, I had sprouts in Flat #1, locations 4,5,6,7,13,16,31. I won't get a chance to check them again until tomorrow midday, but I made sure everything was well-watered before I left. Also, this morning I picked out the seeds for Flat #4, mostly baccatums and habs. I'll post that info in a bit.

Devv · Mar 14, 2016

Hey John,

Good to read you're having decent germ rates.

Anxiously awaiting pics :party:

Sawyer · Mar 14, 2016

Hey Scott,

Yeah, so far, so good. I'm hoping for a whole bunch of sprouts in Flat #1 when I get home tomorrow. For Flat #2, I'll be happy with 20% germination.

Didn't get a chance to plant them, but I picked out the seeds for Flat #4 this morning. If things go as planned, I'll plant them tomorrow afternoon.

Pepper Flat #4:

Sawyer · Mar 14, 2016

I'm not going to post a picture of every sprout that comes along, but here's a representative shot. I recently got my first ever smart phone, a Nexus 5X. It has a 12.3 megapixel camera and when a shot is in focus, the image detail is pretty remarkable. Problem I'm having is with the native (Android 6.0.1) camera app; I have trouble getting the focus right. It autofocuses but rarely on what I want it to. Anyone know a way around this, or a different app that will allow some semblance of SLR focusing technique? FWIW, I reduced this image from 3024x4032 to 600x800 pixels, so that accounts for the reduced resolution, but the focus problem is in the original.