seanw first glog (2013) - Racing the End of the Season...

Hello and greetings My first post here, and I'm prepping for my first major season growing. I've done a few small pepper plants here or there, and two summers ago I tried for some variety of ghost chili or other (the pop top cans you can get from thinkgeek), which turned out to look like ghost chilis, but were super mild (may have also been the fact that they were getting almost no sun in the apartment we lived in at the time, and by the time we got the house, they got outdoors just in time for the frost to hit).

I've got a heat mat and a 50 hole rapid rooter en route, and I'll be grabbing some cheapo work lights to give me some light. I also need to rig some sort of container to keep in the heat, they'll be going in my insulated-but-unheated garage until I move them into the garden, thinking either a styrofoam cooler or just putting that silver bubblewrap insulation stuff on a box.

In addition to some herbs and other garden veggies, here's my pepper list for the year:

HP22B
Yatsufusa
Tabasco
Paprika
Firecracker
Early Jalapeno
Moruga Trinidad Scorpion
NuMex Suave Orange Habanero
Chiltepin
Orange Hab
Bhut Jolokia
Red Savina Hab
Hot Cherry Pepper
Butch T Trinidad
Scotch Bonnet

I may have gone a bit gonzo on ordering. We haven't built our garden yet. This will be the second garden, the first is dedicated to berries, and got mauled by rabbits and chipmunks, even with fencing. The vegetable garden is going to be 6'x30', in three sections. Gonna stick peppers and some tomatos in one of the 10x6 section, the other two will be for the other veggies. I'm gonna have to break out some pots for the rest of the peppers. We'll see what happens once we get the garden together, though My current plan is to build a frame around the garden and cover it with 1" or 2" fencing, big enough for the bugs, too small for the critters.

Here's hoping all goes well!

 

[SeanW]

Rocotos are popping! I've got 2 hooks of the 10 seeds (2 per rooter, wanted to be sure) I planted. Suckers are going WEEKS faster than the Reapers...

 

[SeanW]

Ran through my germinator, and here's what I've found:
Moruga 4/4
Butch T 3/5
Red Savina 2/4
NuMex Suave Orange 3/5
Fatalli 3/5
Red Bhut Jolokia 3/3
Reaper 1/5 (the one is a hook deep in the rooter, may not survive)
Scotch Bonnet 3/5 (one was killed...)
Choco Hab 0/5
Yellow Bhut 0/5
Cheiro Recife 3/5
Rocoto 2/10
White Bhut Jolokia 0/5
Douglah 0/4
Aji Limon 1/5
White Hab 0/5
Primo 0/5

If it's less than 5, it was because seeds were lost at sea...

Some of them had 6 seeds in a row, but I killed a couple by accident or by design, and I can't remember which or see which it was. Ah well.

I also have Datil stewing, for planting tonight(ish), and we're about a week out from the Thai pepper growdown, so those 2 will round out my current trays.

I think I've settled on a grow list for once my second tray is clear, we'll see if it changes between now and then:
Poblano
Fresno
Peter
Pasilla de oaxaca
Pasilla bajio
Cherry
NuMex Jalmundo
Bradley's Bahamian
Serrano
Yatzy
Tabasco
Chilly Chili
Dedo de Moca
Almapaprika
Firecracker (pepperjoe shows this as a cayenne type...but a lot of the pictures I see have it shorter and fatter. Guess we'll find out)
Jalapeno Early
Yellow Mini Bell

I'm going to break my "grow 5 of each and cull" thing for the last tray, with the exception of fresno, the jalmundo and the paprika, the rest will be split either 3 or 2, depending.

I think that'll bring me to 37 varieties for the year...not bad considering I started with the plan to grow about 10 or less

 

[SeanW]

Seedlings were showing some calcium deficiency (I think...wrinkled leaves, and I doubt it's any sort of pest this time of year, indoors), so I've got some cal-mag fast tracked on it's way to me (I love Amazon Prime). I'll have to go easy on it, maybe just a teensy bit added on occasion to the germinator trays. Come on, little plantlings!

I don't actually want them to explode in growth, quite yet. I'd like a nice, slow, steady grow period until I can get them outdoors

I have to figure out what to do with the chocolate habs and reapers. I can up-plant any day now, but with the two trays in place I don't have the space, and I can't get rid of that second tray until those two start. Might plant those two along with the others, and just hope they get going eventually.

I have a potential adopter of some of my "excess" plants, so I'll have to cull off less. If I can get rid of enough of them, I may not have to cull at all, which would be cool.

 

[georgej]

Does magnesium lime work the same as calmag? Or should I get Epsom salts if I notice deficiency?

Germination is looking good the first half. Were they all planted at the same time?

 

[SeanW]

Does magnesium lime work the same as calmag? Or should I get Epsom salts if I notice deficiency?

Germination is looking good the first half. Were they all planted at the same time?

Unsure about the lime. Epsom salts, from what I've read, assist with calcium uptake, but contain no calcium on their own. I think there's cheaper ways of getting it than cal-mag, but it's what I found and will work well in the pseudo-hydro environment I have until I up-pot.

Not everything was planted at once. 8 of the 10 in the first tray went in at the same time (red bhut, reaper, butch t, moruga, orange hab, suave orange, scotch bonnet, savina), then choco hab and fatalli went in a bit later. The rest have been trickling into the second germinator. The second tray is sprouting a lot faster than the first, it took me a bit to get the temperature under control, but we're all settled and those seeds are going gangbuster.

 

[SeanW]

Looked something up on wikipedia, and (as is wont to happen) ended up 30 pages away from where I started, which led to Google searches, which led to me finding that these interesting peppers I was reading about are impossible to find seeds for in the US, so now I'm hunting down Aleppo and Urfa Biber seeds. I've struck out at every source that I've found. Even fleabay doesn't have any. If I find them, it'll change my grow list (again), and I guess I'll have to figure out how to isolate...

 

[stickman]

I grew up next to the Dolomitic Lime quarry in Lee, Massachusetts. Lee lime (or any other powdered dolomitic limestone) would do the trick for you, but since it's powdered rock rather than a solution of dissolved Ca/Mg, you'd need moist humus to provide tannic and humic acids to slowly dissolve the minerals. Watering washes it down to the roots. Plants don't need much at a time, and I think this is the perfect way to add it slowly over a long period of time without chancing burnt roots.

 

[georgej]

I think I've seen dolomitic lime here.
It's a real challenge for me trying to find what I need when I don't understand half the letters on a product!
Luckily the hundred yen shop has loads of gardening stuff, and it's bi lingual.. I dunno if I'd buy ferts from there though.

 

[stc3248]

Good luck on your seed search! Did you post a query for them in the marketplace on here? There are many varieties that are "regional heirlooms"...which in translation means their nest egg they don't feel like sharing...or of course as they suggest preserving the integrity of the gene pool. If they can be found this is the place!

 

[stickman]

Looked something up on wikipedia, and (as is wont to happen) ended up 30 pages away from where I started, which led to Google searches, which led to me finding that these interesting peppers I was reading about are impossible to find seeds for in the US, so now I'm hunting down Aleppo and Urfa Biber seeds. I've struck out at every source that I've found. Even fleabay doesn't have any. If I find them, it'll change my grow list (again), and I guess I'll have to figure out how to isolate...

Hi Sean
I got a few Urfa Biber seeds from Meatfreak. You could pm him and ask him for his source. Hopefully it was a commercial one. You might also try googling Turkish seed companies. I had good luck finding suppliers of Kurtovska Kapija seeds that way. Just be aware that there are lots of alternate names and spelling variants out there. The Urfa Biber is also known as an Isot pepper.

 

[SeanW]

I found a source for the Aleppo plants - but they are actual plants, not seeds (from the chiliwoman). While this has the advantage of not taking up space in my germinator, I have to order in packs of 6 at $4/each and $20 shipping...a bit more than a few bucks for a pack of seeds I've looked around for Isot (and, Halaby, in the case of the Aleppo), but no dice. These suckers are hard to find, apparently.

I'll check with Meatfreak and Vladan, thanks for the tips.

Once I move stuff outside, I'll have to try and source some dolomitic lime. The quart of cal-mag I bought probably won't go that far in dirt.

 

[SeanW]

The more I look at the other glogs in this forum, the more intrigued I am. My past attempts at peppers have basically just given me spindly little twigs that give me half a dozen pods, then get killed by the first thing approaching a frost. With my goal of "doing it right" this year, I think I'm going to have DRASTICALLY different results

 

[georgej]

All the bloody best with that! Plenty of access to information on here to cheat nature and have unnaturally big, beautiful plants

 

[SeanW]

All the bloody best with that! Plenty of access to information on here to cheat nature and have unnaturally big, beautiful plants

Thanks. There's some people on here with 300' tall pepper plants that produce a few tons of pods each day. I don't think I'll get to that level, but a decent amount of pods from each plant will be nice.

My search for aleppo and urfa biber led me find the espelette and maras peppers, of which I managed to find the espelette pepper in seed form, so now I've expanded my search by one more impossible to find plant, and my potential grow list has yet another inbound annuum If only these pesky middle eastern peppers weren't so hard to find. The powders seem fairly popular, or at least, in a niche market, so it's surprising that you just can't find the seeds to grow, here. I asked on <insert other forum that rhymes with wardengeb>, maybe someone there will have a source.

and, because I forgot to update on my plants...here's a picture I took right before adding a 1/4 tsp of cal-mag plus.

They are also looking a touch yellow, so I might want to cut back on the water, some. Might have been my imagination, but they were looking a little less crinkled, today, so hopefully they'll be good to go. I was tired when I was looking, this morning, so it may have just been sleepiness Don't mind the random bits of plastic, trying to moisten off some helmet heads.

 

[stc3248]

They're looking ok! Probably ready for some real soil soon. Hope your prediction of a banner season comes to pass. Think mine are doing so well because I am only home a couple times a week to mess with them.

 

[SeanW]

They're looking ok! Probably ready for some real soil soon. Hope your prediction of a banner season comes to pass. Think mine are doing so well because I am only home a couple times a week to mess with them.

Most definitely read for real soil...the only reason I haven't potted is because I have to remove that whole tray to fit any pots (err...solo cups ) in there, and the reapers and choco habs are being bums and not popping. If I don't get motion from them soon, I'll just pot all 5 of each un-popped and hope some come up.

I need to snap a picture of the other tray, it's not quite as far along, but it started later.

 

[SeanW]

Planning to grab some decent potting soil and pot up this weekend, we'll see if I have time amidst the other plans for the weekend.

My rocotos are going crazy, unsure exact count, but definitely doubling up in some rooters. I may try and separate, rather than cull, if I get the cups going I'll move one from every viable double into there. Wasn't expecting that.

I ordered some crushed, dried maras and urfa pepper, hopefully I'll be able to dig up some viable seeds from them. Ottawapepper contacted me, might be able to get some aleppo (aleppo 37) seeds off of him, haven't heard back yet, though.

I am also planning on backing off my watering, I think that's half my problem with crinkled leaves. I might be overcompensating for the drying issues I had early on. I'll keep the rooters moist, and that's it.

 

[SeanW]

Just a shot of the second seed tray going. Plastic is over the rocotos, crazy helmet heads, there. Aji limon to their right, and cheiro recife further right, the plastic on the top left is a white bhut (I think...can't remember what order they are in).

 

[Jamison]

When do you plan on potting these babies up? And remember that Cal is an immobile nutrient, once taken in by the roots you'll see the difference in the new growth. But when you have twisted leaves that are Cal deficient already it won't help them at all. A steady supply of Cal is basically essential for most plants IMO. Do you have a fan on them babies? I read in a post you made you grew twigs last year and that will def help with strengthening the stems. Also consider topping your plants. It really helps them bush out, and with more branches you'll get more pods. Don't mean to sound like a know it all but just trying to help a little Good luck on finding those seeds!

 

[SeanW]

When do you plan on potting these babies up? And remember that Cal is an immobile nutrient, once taken in by the roots you'll see the difference in the new growth. But when you have twisted leaves that are Cal deficient already it won't help them at all. A steady supply of Cal is basically essential for most plants IMO. Do you have a fan on them babies? I read in a post you made you grew twigs last year and that will def help with strengthening the stems. Also consider topping your plants. It really helps them bush out, and with more branches you'll get more pods. Don't mean to sound like a know it all but just trying to help a little Good luck on finding those seeds!

I plan on topping them when they get a little bigger. I am hoping to pot them up this weekend. I have a fan in the mail, has not arrived, yet. Thanks for the cal info, I will keep an eye on them