Sluggy 2014 Glog

Early this year. Lots of Thai varieties, and superhots under DIY LED setup. 

Much to my horror, an aphid infestation seemed to get worse and worse to the point of diaster, resulting in many, many casualties.  ARGH ! DAMN THOSE BUGS !!!

I like to experiment with different light sources, indoors. 
Left : Brain Strain grown under DIY led panel. Right : Brain Strain from the same batch of seeds, that grew under regular neon tubes (2 x 18 watts). The difference in size is quite dramatic. 

3 x Brain Strains and 3 x Habanero Peach in natural light. I'm in hopes of crossing these this year, just to see what happens. 

Overwintered Carolina Reaper, recovering from severe aphid damage. It's doing much better now the bugs are exterminated, and it shooting out new green everywhere, even beginning to bud. 

I'm taking some risks here, because it can still get pretty cold in this northern climate at night. Nonetheless I've started  populating my little greenhouse with some plants : 

The long stalky thing on the right is a Mexican PUYA chilli. For some reason, and despite being completely negleted, it did survive the winter, and is now going for a second round. I still need to scrape / powerhose that funky green stuff from the greenhouse windows. Algae or whatever the hell that is. 

Reapers, Morugas, Jolokia Chocolates, still small. But warmer temperatures will do them right. 

Assorted superhots growing in the hallway / stairs of my apartment. They seem to like it there. 

A bunch of priks. 

More updates shortly. 


 
















 

 

[Rymerpt]

I have six little Thai plants out on my appartmant balcony and am trying some supper hots too this year. I love the Thai varieties as well.

 

[Sluggy]

These are PRIK CHEE FAH, PRIK KARIANG, KRIK KEE NU, PRIK LUANG. 

 

[savingprivaterye]

happy birthday

 

[tsurrie]

yeah, happy f'in birthday Sluggy

 

[Sluggy]

Thx guys ! 

I got a nice cake  

 

[Sluggy]

Some of the plants growing in the hallway / stairs outside my apartment. This space is only 2 x 3 ft or so, but home to about 6 superhots. All they get is natural light from one window. Weather has been overcast with some sun here and there.  I'm beginning to think stable conditions (as in no sudden changes) and room temps may be more important than perfect light, when growing indoors in Northern climates. 

Mr. Brain Strain is doing very well, starting to chuck out some buds. 

Naga Scorpion. As far as I know, a still unstable Naga Dorset / Trinidad Scorpion cross, but holy moly the pods I chomped on last season tipped off the scale in terms of insane heat. Hope to get similar results this time. 

Butch T, , a (big !) Brain strain, and juvenile Naga Scorpion and Jays Ghost Peach, 

I'll post some pics @ my little greenhouse this weekend. We've had a lot of rain but are expecting a few days of summer temps so yay. 





 

 

[Roguejim]

Man, they all look great. Are you settling on a light source? When I switched from T8s to HPS, there was no turning back. Best of luck!

 

[Sluggy]

Thx Roguejim ! 

These plants only get natural light through the window. 

For comparison, I put other superhots from the same batch out in the open on the balcony. 
The difference is dramatic. Even though the balcony plants theoretically get more light, they are small, scrawny and struggling to survive. These are obviously NOT happy campers. 

I am convinced this can be attributed to the temperatures outside. It's been pretty damn chilly the past few months with some night temps just barely above freezing point. The peps need warmth. thankfully temps are rising. It's actually sunny now. 

For indoor lighting, I'm working on several DIY led projects at once.  Pics soon. 

 

[Jamison]

Nice looking grow!  I too hate them aphids.  Have fun with all the chiles!

 

[Sluggy]

Alrightee. We've had some sunny days with pleasant temps, and boy are the plants loving it. 
Things are really beginning to happen. 

We got the first flowers on a habanero peach. I'm in hopes of crossing a few haba peach plants with superhots, just to see what happens next year. 

Reciprocally I am trying to pollenate some superhot flowers with pollen from the Haba Peach (indicated by adhesive tape). 
It's just an experiment. These indoor / window sill plants are beginning to chuck out flowers and even mini pods. 

 

Flower on the Viper / Scorpion hybrid, to my knowledge still unstable but off the scale hot. 

They're looking healthy. YAY ! 

 

 

[maximumcapsicum]

Warmin up in the Netherlands! Grow is looking good man. Love the hallway plants... was considering doing the same here.

 

[Sluggy]

One of many experiments I'm conducting, just for fun : 

3 x moruga and several Thai Prik Chee Fah on my windowsill,
All of these were germinated and planted *very* (if not ridiculously) late in the season. They only got natural light (not a lot of direct sunlight) and were roughly the same size. Up until 2 weeks ago that is ! That's when I added a little mini DIY LED panel, only 24 x 1 watt.

Now look at this : The morugas receiving the extra light appear to have grown a little bit bigger, and certainly have darker, healthier looking leaves.
But the Thais in the top right corner, which actually get the LEAST natural light from the window went all Jack and the beanstalk on my ass

They are almost twice as big as their only natural light getting cousins. I would say that's a pretty dramatic difference after just two weeks !

Unless these findings can be attributed to some kind of strange genetic anomaly or coincedence, my experiment seems to indicate that supplemental LED light in the right spectrum, even in relatively minute quantities or doses, can still be extremely beneficial to chillies, esp. annuums.

I will repeat the experiment later. 
 

 

[Sluggy]

Greenhouse Brain strain

Greenhouse Puya 

Greenhouse peps, doing alright. 

Baby pods on the reaper. 

 

 

[Sluggy]

Habanero peach I'm trying to cross with a superhot. We'll see if it worked next season. 

Jay's ghost scorpion peach with a nice stinger 

Sole bubblegum 7-pod on a plant that is not a real happy camper I think : 

Indoor jungle, barely beginning to bud up

The enigmatic CAP219 strain going ape. Hundreds of pods on this one. Not ripe yet. I hope they taste good ! 

BAby Jay's ghost scorp peach pods : 

 

 

[Sluggy]

Looks like it's starting to happen. 
Jay's Peach Ghost Scorpion whatchamacallit is kicking out the buds now. 

"Klokkie" (meaning "clock" or "bell") pods that I got from South Africa are beginning to grow. This looks like a Bishops crown or variant thereof. 

The Cap 219 is going nuts with flowers and pods everywhere. Not ripe yet. I tried one and it was pretty dismal. Bitter, and zero heat. Hopefully that will change once the pods ripen. 

Indoor superhot jungle. They only get natural light through one window. 
No pods to speak of yet. WHY IS IT TAKING SO DAMN LONG !!!??

O look who's here ? It's a Naga Viper pod.  You're going in an omelette next month, buddy. 

 

 

[Sluggy]

Yay ! Finally a ripe pod...Nice stinger on this Jay's Ghost Scorp peach. All my Jay's scorps have stingers. 

Let's see what's inside....
Not a lot of seeds, but there is glistening oil.  I touched it with my pinky tip and tried it. The burn is instant. 
But the big surprise is the flavor of the pepper. Very floral, and very, very hot. Nice one ! 

Picked up some pods at the Dutch Chilli fest.

 

 

[Sluggy]

Believe it or not but these pods came off the same plant.. Very odd. 

A couple of harvested White Bullets. Nice jellybeans. 

 

 

[PaulG]

Nice work - your grow turned out great!