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Siv's 2019 first time glog

I have never grown anything intentionally before but I wanted to try. Last year I bought some seeds from a local supplier here and tried to germinate them and failed. Not a single sprout. I kinda gave up. But around May I saw a sorry looking ghost pepper plant (at least that's what it was labeled as) sitting at Lowes so I bought it and put it in a small pot. Despite my neglect (and being away for a month during summer), the thing grew and put out a good set of pods. So this year, I'm highly motivated to give some serious pepper growing a go.
 
Determined to succeed this time, I educated myself and learned about the need for heat mats etc. I also watched a ton of Peter Stanley and Kangstar's videos which were hugely helpful.
 
I started with the leftover seeds from last year and here's the status:
  • Kraken - 10 started, 6 sprouted
  • Douglah - 10 started, 2 sprouted
  • Chocolate Moruga - 10 started, 0 sprouted
Then I placed an order with Sandia seeds on 4th Feb:
  • Ring of Fire - 10 started
  • Aji Limo - 10 started
  • White Ghost - 10 started
  • Fatalii - 10 started
  • Rocoto - 10 started
Of this lot, most of the seeds have sprouted so I have transplanted around four of each into wicking cups (half in soil and half in hydroton) to see what happens:
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Then Sandia seeds sent a coupon for 25% off and I'm a sucker for a sale so my second order was placed on 19th Feb:

  • Bhut Jolokia Yellow - 10 started
  • Bulgarian Carrot - 10 started
  • Devil's Tongue - 10 started
  • Yellow Jalapeño Lemon Spice - 10 started
  • Mulato Isleño Chile - Chocolate Poblano - 10 started
  • Bell Purple Beauty Sweet - 20+ started
The yellow jalapeno and bulgarian carrot have already sprung up, as well as lots of the purple bell. The first yellow ghost just popped up this morning:
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I probably shouldn't have done this but after seeing the love for these varieties, I made a third seed order yesterday:
  • Bahamian Goat
  • Sugar Rush Peach
So my first lesson learned: Now that I know the importance of heat, humidity and light, I don't need to put so many seeds in. I have way too many seedlings now! I'm only gonna attempt 2 or 3 of the new seeds this time!


 
Now I'm debating how to grow these on. I have plenty of room in my garden so I'm thinking about a whole bunch of 5 gal buckets with one lot as self watering in compost and another as a drip watered hydro. I may do dutch bucket or I may try a venturi style nute injection, not sure.
 
Anyway, I look forward to seeing what happens to all these plants over this year!
 
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I forgot to mention - I must be grateful for small mercies - not a single plant ravaged by horn worms. I was expecting to come back to twigs as I was removing them daily, the last one on the night before I left. But none of the plants show any damage. In fact, the one soil plant that was down to half a leaf is now back and looking like nothing happened.
 
Last night I went through again and checked the roots on the sad looking hydro plants. The Aji Limo, one Rocoto and Ring of Fire are definitely dead, the roots are brown and have mold on them. I have isolated the buckets from the rest and cut them down. Now it's just the Brazilian Starfish and Fatalii that I need to check - they don't seem to be recovering...
 
The Kraken looks just about alive and I may trim it back but I noticed a pod that I didn't see last time - this one is brown as it should be! I'll save the seeds from this pod.
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Although the Anaheim is relatively small, I had a good look and there were loads of pods. Quite a big harvest from such a small plant.
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The hydro fish pepper has lovely leaves but hardly any pods. The soil one, however, seems to be producing much better:
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And I think the horn worms read THP - I found two on a soil white ghost last night! Another plant had tell-tale droppings but I couldn't find anything.
 
Siv said:
 
I suspect the nutes ran out about 4 or 5 days ago. Since I'm not going to be away for any serious length of time for the rest of the year, I should be OK.
 
Next year, assuming a similar length holiday, I will have to work out an alternative. I was already thinking about a two stage float valve with one higher than the other - the higher one will fill nutes and the second a back-up connected to the hose. Another option would be a nute injection setup but these seem pricey. The cheapest solution may be just to add another 30gal reservoir or two. I have a lot of time to think about it!
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Or a friend/neighbor who can top up the reservoirs once they are empty?
Since you said your neighbor is an avid gardener, may be you can teach her how to mix the nutes. lol.
 
saiias said:
Or a friend/neighbor who can top up the reservoirs once they are empty?
Since you said your neighbor is an avid gardener, may be you can teach her how to mix the nutes. lol.
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Sadly my neighbour has put her house up for sale...
 
I have done some thinking though for next year. I definitely like the hydro so I'd like to do more - but I've reached the limit of the current system. I could duplicate it and put it on the other side of the pool (evening sun instead of morning) but this will definitely cause a lot more evaporation so I'll have to have some kind of water supply that is not limited to reservoirs. The benefit of the other side of the pool is that there is a outdoor faucet which will let me do something different. Maybe a nutrient injector is what I have to go for.
 
This weekend's harvest from the soil plants - not too shabby!
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The white ghost seems to be one of my most prolific producers from both hydro and soil. They just keep pumping out peppers.
 
The Datil don't have many ripe pods but there are plenty there.
 
The overwintered bih jolkia is putting out lots, just like last year from a relatively small plant.
 
I salvaged a few Bulgarian carrots but I'm quite disappointed with my "not too hot" peppers. They seem to be very susceptible to bugs and snails. I have thrown out 6 purple bells that have large holes or bits missing from some kind of attack. The Bulgarian carrots all have skin damage and many have holes as do many of the cayennes. I have loads of these tiny snails and despite liberal use of repellent, they are still making their way onto the plants and mainly damaging the fruit. I'm seriously debating if I will bother with the soil plants next year. If I do, I'll stick to the hotter varieties as they seem to be doing much better.
 
And finally, a piece of good news - the majority of the mature pods on my Brazilian Starfish have turned red. I've been clipping off the immature pods and the stems without leaves and now that the pods are red, the leaves are filling out again and don't look so droopy. Looks like this one has just about survived!
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A small update on the soil plants.
 
I have two Ring of Fire cayennes in soil and they have grown vastly differently. One looks conventional like a typical branchy plant and the other has grown straight up but is covered in dense foliage like a bush. Any idea why this happens? The dense plant looks quite odd compared to all the others and although it's producing fine, it's hard to find the peppers covered by all that foliage.
 
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The Brazilian Starfish survived its earlier encounter with a horn worm and is now putting out lots of pods.
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The red "Kraken" is turning into a good producer although the pods take a very long time to ripen:
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White Ghost is one of my most prolific plants, in soil or hydro. I'll have a huge amount of pods from these guys.
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I'm glad to be getting some fataliis from the sole soil plant since both the hydros took a big hit.
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I've yet to try a Datil. Not a huge producer yet but hopefully enough for a good test. I think this is one I'll have to hydro next year.
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Overall things are ticking along. I pulled off a couple more horn worms so definitely not quite the hands off experience I was expecting. 
 
A college buddy of mine came to visit and he's also a chili-head. We tried a lot of pods and then he decided we needed to make sauce. So we did three varieties:
 
Storm Trooper: White ghost, onions, garlic, salt, sugar and white vinegar
Revenge of da Pineapple: Bahamian goat, pineapple, garlic, salt and white vinegar
Baby Ghost: Bih Jolokia, Anaheims, garlic, onion, salt and apple cider vinegar
 
I checked pH and added vinegar until all were 3.9. It surprised me that the pineapple one was at 4.1 without any vinegar.
 
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Since we used raw garlic, they're a bit strong and also all pack a pretty heavy punch heat wise. I'm putting them in the fridge to mellow - I'm guessing a couple weeks and they'll be much better.
 
I can see fermentation bubbles in the baby ghost that was left out of the fridge. I'm definitely going to try a ferment next.
 
saiias said:
What next? Darthvader sauce with purple and black peppers? Lol

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We actually wanted to do that but the only dark pepper I currently have is the Kraken and I only have one pod that is brown (and another on the way). I do have some chocolate poblanos which are still green. Maybe I'll be able to do a Darth Vader sauce with krakens and poblanos. I'll have to plant more dark varieties next year.
 
Inspired by saiias, I decided to try making as dark a sauce as I could. I used my sole harvested Kraken pod, a red "Kraken" and a bunch of blueberries. I call this one Vader :)
 
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So from left to right, we have:
 
Vader: Kraken and blueberries
Baby ghost: Bih Jolokia, Anaheims, garlic, onion
???: Sugar Rush Peach and peaches
Revenge of da Pineapple: Bahamian goat, pineapple, garlic
Lemon Head: Aji Limo, garlic and black pepper
Stormtrooper: White ghost, onions
 
Need a name for my peach sauce!
 
I only have one more true Kraken on the sole plant that's producing the brown pods.
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The float valve on my hydro setup failed - the plants were looking droopier than usual and I found the reservoirs were still full but the bucket level had dropped. It got clogged with salts and I must have damaged it when cleaning as it wasn't working again. I replaced it with a new valve (lucky I had one on hand) and the setup is working again but the level is a bit higher than before so I tried to lower it.
 
All my hydro plants have no flowers now (except for the rocoto which has tons of flowers but no pods) and most are looking sad. The bahamian goat in particular has tons of pods but the leaves have developed lots of yellow spots. There doesn't seem to be any new growth either. I'm probably going to have to do something drastic like a full nutrient flush and trim them back to see if I can get them growing again. With daily temps in the high 90s now, this is my hottest time and I'm not surprised that the plants have decided to take a break.
 
Wondering what to do with all my peppers, I decided to make a Malaysian sambal starter which comprises about 40% white ghost, 50% onion and 10% garlic. This is all blended up and I pressure canned it. I made canned 5x 4oz jars and my wife used the 6th (not canned) to make my dinner last night. You basically fry the sambal in a little oil until it becomes fragrant and then add the rest of your ingredients (for me, vegetables but you can do with chicken etc and a little salt) and then cook it a while and finish with a little coconut milk. Super tasty!
 
I'm pulling off as many peppers as I can from the hydro plants as they're not doing well at all. I think my new float valve has upped the bucket level by a few inches which is drowning them. I reset the valve and will see if they recover. I decided to try fermenting so made three mashes, Bahamian Goat, White Ghost and a mix with Ring of Fire, red Krakens and Anaheims. The red one is already bubbling away!
 
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