Scarlet Fire's first pepper grow (purple beauty bells, giant bhut's, hot cow horns)

Hello all. Back in the fall of 2011, I came across a steal on Craigslist for a 400w HPS light and ballast, and ordered up some pepper seeds. That was when I lived in NC and my grow space was confined to my small apartment's walk-in closet. The plants and I have since moved to GA and I now have 8 pepper plants growing in 5-gallon buckets outdoors. All fully organic, and grown in 100% soilless media (peat moss, pine bark, perlite, vermiculite, and coir). I've taken photos regularly along the way, so I'll try to bring you up to date without getting too caught up discussing the old indoor setup.

I sowed some Purple Beauty bell pepper seeds, as well as some Giant Bhut Jolokia's, during the first week of October 2011. They were started in a plain old plastic seed starting dome, with a 20w fluorescent light overhead 24/7, and a 20w heating pad beneath. Not the most ideal conditions, so they took like 3 weeks to sprout.

November 2011

 

[Scarlet Fire]

You have a nice grow going there, Scarlet. Not bad for your first whack at this!

Thanks brother! Every pod a victory, indeed!

June 17

Finally got my 20 seedlings transplanted. 5 Chocolate Habanero, 4 Tequila Sunrise, 3 Lipstick, 2 Charleston Cayenne, 2 Hungarian Hot Wax, 2 Purple Beauty, and 2 Large Sweet Antigua.

There's some sort of method to all this madness. 28 plants total!

Check all the pods on this one Bhut Jolokia! It should give me plenty for my first go with them.

Finally starting to see a little more color on my other Bhut Jolokia, but the pods are fewer and still shaped like Hab's. Until I can taste test the difference, I'm calling these Bhut Hab's. No worries, variety's the spice of life .

This plant has produced the gnarliest peppers I've ever seen with my own eyes (so far).

Still getting Purple Beauty bells about every week.

I keep more Cow Horns around than I can give away. I've harvested at least 100 so far in the past couple months, and many are already 10'' long and have the heat you'd expect from Cow Horns.

More to come next week!

 

[scratchzilla]

Looking great! Keep it up

 

[PaulG]

Nice growin', SF! Plants and seedlings looking just great! That Bhut
looks awesome. Must really like the Georgia weather!

You really meant this was your first pepper grow this year, right?

 

[Scarlet Fire]

Looking great! Keep it up

Thanks, Scratch! Whereabouts in VT are ya? I spent 3.5 years in Poultney myself straight outta high school.

Nice growin', SF! Plants and seedlings looking just great! That Bhut
looks awesome. Must really like the Georgia weather!

You really meant this was your first pepper grow this year, right?

Thanks, Paul! Actually my first grow ever with peppers. I sowed my first pepper seeds ever the first week of October last year, raised them up in my closet in NC for 5 months, then moved them down to my dad's backyard in GA in late March of this year, so I'm learning a lot of this as I go. I got my Associate's in Horticulture Technology back in May, and I'm extremely interested in all types of propagation, organic food production, and integrated pest management. The only pest controls I've used for these plants are Neem Oil and Diatomaceous Earth, other than handpicking. It's been a great hobby, though I only get to visit the plants twice a week now that I've started working full-time a couple weeks back .

 

[BigCedar]

Beautiful plants man! Those bhuts look MEAN! Those purple bells are also very cool lookin. And talk about cowhorns! Hows the flavor of those guys? Congrats on the associates! If I did go back to school that's what I'd wanna go for, very cool. Hope the rest of the year treats you well

Brandon

 

[PaulG]

Thanks, Scratch! Whereabouts in VT are ya? I spent 3.5 years in Poultney myself straight outta high school.

Thanks, Paul! Actually my first grow ever with peppers. I sowed my first pepper seeds ever the first week of October last year, raised them up in my closet in NC for 5 months, then moved them down to my dad's backyard in GA in late March of this year, so I'm learning a lot of this as I go. I got my Associate's in Horticulture Technology back in May, and I'm extremely interested in all types of propagation, organic food production, and integrated pest management. The only pest controls I've used for these plants are Neem Oil and Diatomaceous Earth, other than handpicking. It's been a great hobby, though I only get to visit the plants twice a week now that I've started working full-time a couple weeks back .

I'm a little jealous of your horticulture degree. It's a topic I've always
been interested in, but life took me different directions before I had my
act together enough to realize it! I'd be interested in your take on Neem Oil.
I have used it myself on occasion, but have read a few critiques of it.
It's obvious you are putting your skills and education to good use. Good growin',
SF!

 

[Scarlet Fire]

Beautiful plants man! Those bhuts look MEAN! Those purple bells are also very cool lookin. And talk about cowhorns! Hows the flavor of those guys? Congrats on the associates! If I did go back to school that's what I'd wanna go for, very cool. Hope the rest of the year treats you well

Brandon

Thanks BigCedar! These Cow Horns taste to me a lot like your classic green bell pepper (but with thinner skin) with a nice, mild afterburn. They're perfect to munch on casually. In fact I've been calling them 'snack peppers' lately because I keep a few on me wherever I go and hand them out to whoever will try one.

I'm a little jealous of your horticulture degree. It's a topic I've always
been interested in, but life took me different directions before I had my
act together enough to realize it! I'd be interested in your take on Neem Oil.
I have used it myself on occasion, but have read a few critiques of it.
It's obvious you are putting your skills and education to good use. Good growin',
SF!

I sure do know a thing or two about the sudden curveballs life can throw a guy myself. I mean, after all, it did take me over 6 years of schooling to get that 2-year degree, and a lion's share of the real education took place outside of the classroom along the way. Anyways, regarding Neem Oil, I exclusively use Southern Ag brand, about 1-2 tsp/1 liter H2O in a spray bottle generously on every part of the plant maybe once a week at most. When I grow indoors and deal with fungal gnat infestations, I also incorporate it into their water from time to time. What type of critique gets said about using it? The only downside I've found thus far is that it's a skin irritant, which gives me a rash any time I spray downwind of the stuff. Food grade diatomaceous earth is another amazing organic pest control. Some people eat a tsp of the stuff daily!

 

[Scarlet Fire]

Sorry for the lack of updates, folks. I've been incredibly busy lately and only able to visit my plants on weekends b/c of the drive. But check out yesterday's harvest, plus a couple that have been ripening since last weekend.

June 24

I was also recently gifted a small pod called "Pearl" that is supposed to be very hot and somewhat rare. I'm about to get the seeds out and add them to my heirloom catalog until I can get more info on this pepper. Better and more extensive update next time!

 

[Pinoy83]

very nice and couple more months your new babies will be giant also means more pods

 

[scratchzilla]

Picked a couple cowhorns the other day and they were great. Tasted amazing in a pulled pork chimichanga.

 

[Scarlet Fire]

Picked a couple cowhorns the other day and they were great. Tasted amazing in a pulled pork chimichanga.

I dig your style, dude! My cowhorns taste better every week, and pulled pork chimichangas are awesome no matter how you heat 'em. My next go in the kitchen will be some guacamole w/ my dried green bhut pepper flakes.

 

[Scarlet Fire]

This heat wave sucks! Temps last week reached over 100 degrees for like 6 days straight, and the plants definitely took a beating. Everything was wilted and dry when I went to tend to the plants yesterday, plus many of the small ones have been pretty badly defoliated by insects. Haven't lost one altogether yet, so I'm just hoping it stays under 100 this week and my peppers get a chance to bounce back. The good news: I have a few ripe Bhut Jolokia's!

July 1

I must have plucked off a dozen or so yellow leaves yesterday, but it could have been MUCH worse.

I think my Purple Beauty plant got the worst of it. I had to discard 3 bell peppers that were ruined by the heat.

Ok, so the top and bottom row obviously came from 2 different plants, but they both came from the same seed packet (Giant Bhut Jolokia from Pepper Joe). Honestly, I'm stoked to have the variety, since the plant that yielded the top row has produced 50+ pods already. So far I've dried and crushed 24 big green pods, and the flakes taste great (when used sparingly). I'm still calling the second plant Bhut Hab since it looks as if they hybridized with a Habanero. Any thoughts?

 

[scratchzilla]

Yeah. The heat is hitting us too. One of my habs is hurting. Good luck.

 

[Scarlet Fire]

WOW, it's been way too long since I've had an update. I just got back from the garden for the first time in 2 weeks. It's always hard to believe how much growth takes place when you're away for that long. A lot of the smaller plants are showing flowers, and all of them need to be transplanted. I lost one Charleston Cayenne, so I've got a total of 27 plants left as of now.

July 25

I can't wait to get everything transplanted this weekend or next, and start seeing some more variety before the season's end. My Hungarian Hot Wax, Lipstick, and Tequila Sunrise are all ready to start setting fruit. Everything is now getting fed BioThrive Bloom with BioBud from General Organics, so I expect to see lots of flowers and new fruits popping up in the next month.

Stay indoors, leave the heat up to your pods!

 

[ColoradoRonin]

Looking great!
Nice to see someone else using G.O. Bio nutes with great results.
What are you planning to transplant everything to? 5 gallon buckets?

 

[Scarlet Fire]

Looking great!
Nice to see someone else using G.O. Bio nutes with great results.
What are you planning to transplant everything to? 5 gallon buckets?

I've used nothing but G.O. nutes the whole way through, with the exception of bone meal whenever I transplant, and I couldn't be more satisfied. I'm actually about to order some larger bottles of Bloom and Diamond Black, because I go through that stuff life crazy from the GO Box. There's no over-emphasizing how much I love General Organics.

And yes, I plan to move everything in the smaller nursery pots up to 5-gallon paint buckets like the older ones are in ASAP. Just drill 15-20 holes in the bottom and they get plenty of drainage, allowing for deep watering to encourage better root growth. Since funds are tight, chances are they'll end up in those bright orange Homer Buckets from Home Depot, but those are only like $2.50 so who can complain except the neighbors?

 

[Scarlet Fire]

I still haven't had nearly enough time to catch up on garden maintenance (transplantation is running WAY late), and the plants are suffering as a result. Good thing my big ones were babied in a consistent indoor environment for so long, or I don't know if they would have made it through these high temps on so little water lately. Still producing loads of Hot Cow Horns and gorgeous Bhut Jolokias, and some of the smaller sweet peppers are beginning to fruit.

August 5

^Not even HALF of the pods I've gotten off my single true Giant Bhut Jolokia. Seeds from Pepper Joe = .

 

[ColoradoRonin]

Nice haul on the bhuts!
I've got two giant bhuts growing from the same souce as well.
Can't wait!
The small ones look great for not having been potted up yet.
Once you do, they're gonna explode!

 

[PIC 1]

Those dry bhuts will make you some good chili powder...