Sulsa's 2022 grow log

As already stated in my welcome thread i'm fairly new to growing peppers. This is gonna be my second year of growing them.
Last year was quite a succes, started out with ten variaties that i could find locally and ended up with a garden full of lush plants and dito harvests. The climate here is not ideal for growing peppers, especially the 2021 season was quite wet arround here. Hoping this year will be a bit more favourable.

The plan for upcoming season is all about diversity in varieties. I'm trying to find the peppers i like the most and find good use for in the kitchen. Also cutting down on the number of plants per variety so i will not have to proces tons of peppers wich i don't really like.

Below my growlist for upcoming season:

Capsicum Pubescens (sowed 1-7-2022)

5x Rio Hualaga
5x Mini choco

Capsicum Chinense (sowed 1-15-2022)

5x Bonda ma Jacques
5x Bahamian goat
5x Habanero red
30x Adjuma yellow

Capsicum Frutescens

20x Chabai green

Capsicum Baccatum (sowed 1-15-2022)

5x Lemon drop
5x Aji mango
5x Sugar rush peach
5x Rainforrest

Capsicum annuum

5x Jalapeno el Jefe
5x Greek pepperoni
10x Cayenne
10x Cayenne #1 (big and beautyfull off pheno that popped up last year, giving it a try...)
5x Rawit
20x Piquillo de Lodosa
20x Kapia
20x Dulce de Espagna
5x Ancho negro

Most of this plants will be grown in containers in my backyard. I also have about 300 square meters of vegetable garden in wich i will grow a few varieties in open field. Did this last year with sweet peppers and this turned out pretty good.

First hook for this season... Rocoto mini choco (7 days after it hit the dirt )

 

[Sulsa]

Potted the chinense today. Kept 9 of the adjuma out of 21 seedlings, keeping the rest as back up and some as giveaway later on. 4 Bahamian goat and 3 Bonda ma Jacques also made it true selection.
Also potted the 2 remaining rocoto mini choco. Still no sign of the rio Hualaga
Temporarely placed them in my growbox i made last year, it's a bit warmer there. Once they recuperate from transplant and start growing again they will move to the new grow closet.
The old one is under a table, so hard to reach and dito for taking pictures!

 

[JJJessee]

...., i did the mixing in my living room (don't tell her... )

Don't give me any ideas . I'm running low.

 

[PaulG]

Once the roots hit the sides and bottoms of
those pots, those plants will explode with
growth!

Cheers, @Sulsa

 

[Sulsa]

Time for a little update. Potted the baccatums today, 5 sugar rush peach and 4 aji mango. The Lemon drop just started to germinate, 2 hooks so far. No sign of the rainforrest at all...had a little peek today and seed looked not viable anymore. Sowed them again today together with the rio Hualaga and habanero red. Hopefully the second attempt will be more succesfull. The chinense all survived the transplant and started to grow their first true leaves.

The Bahamian goat has some broad coty's, probably will make some big leafs i guess.

This rocoto mini choco is also gearing up.

 

[Sulsa]

One of the aji mango seedlings of wich i was convinced had only one coty appears to have two...
Strange enough they are fused together! As you can see at thetip, where i tried to seperate the leaves i torn the outer layer of the leaf. Could cut the coty's away, but i am also curious how it will develop without intervention....
Any of you guys ever had something like this happening?

 

[PaulG]

I think those will eventually split apart. I can see
them opening up at the base of the cotys. The
true leaves should grow out of that split even if the
cotys don't separate. Maybe spritz them every
so often and see if that helps them separate.

 

[Sulsa]

I think those will eventually split apart. I can see
them opening up at the base of the cotys. The
true leaves should grow out of that split even if the
cotys don't separate. Maybe spritz them every
so often and see if that helps them separate.

I noticed that too, it sure is trying hard!

 

[ahayastani]

I've done more terrible things to cotyledons... In my experience, they continue growing as long as they have some leaf left, although they require considerably more time (several weeks). I've occasionally had a seedling where the cotyledons stick together. Eventually they separate, but in one isolated case they didn't. True leaves appeared, but I didn't select that particular seedling for being behind compared to its brethren.

 

[Sulsa]

I've done more terrible things to cotyledons...

You animal!

I'm gonna let it fend for itself, let it fight a bit for excistence like mother nature wants it.
It might split or show some other anomalies, always like plants that do so... they become sort of like pets, might even name it...

 

[Sulsa]

Started soaking the next round.
- Chabai green (frutescens)
First annuums (quite early, but want to give these varieties a good head start)
- Ancho negro (slow ripening in my climate)
- Jalapeno el jefe (slow ripening in my climate)
- Piquillo de Lodosa (grows very slowly)
- Greek pepperoni (just wishing for big loaded plants )

First round is doing just fine.
Bahamian goat

Bonda ma Jacques

Adjuma

 

[PaulG]

@Sulsa - Don't know the Adjuma, but the Bahamian
Goat and the Bonda Ma Jacques are a couple of
classic peppers. They look good!

 

[Sulsa]

The annuums are germinating as planned. I changed the M.O. a bit and switched to vermiculite instead of coco, had some good experience with other sowing projects so giving it a chance. Also bought a thermostat to keep the temperature more steady true the day.

The Frutescens also showing first seedlings

The Chinense are doing fine, slow but steady as planned

The Baccatums don't like the cold environment (arround 60-65F) but are still growing and with plant out more then 2 months away this is just fine!

 

[JJJessee]

Nice job with the the vermiculite. I may give that a try.
j

 

[PaulG]

+1 @JJJessee - looks like the vermiculite works well for you, @Sulsa.

 

[Sulsa]

I'm very pleased with using vermiculite. It's light and airy, holds a lot of water without being wet and conducts and distributes heat quit well. Did some experiments last year with sowing beans and the vermiculite was a clear winner.
Faster germination and superb rooting, almost twice the rootmass and much thicker roots then with the normal soil based grow medium. Another big advantage i found was that you can take the seedling by the stem and just pull it out, without damaging any roots. In soil i have to dig and wiggle and still damage the roots.

 

[Sulsa]

Got myself a Piquillo with three cotyledons

And after sowing 50 habanero red i finaly got one that has sprouted... it has four cotyledons... must be my lucky day!

 

[Sulsa]

Flowers opening up on the O.W. Adjuma. Iet's see if any pods will set.

 

[Sulsa]

Getting crowded, might have to expand the grow space a bit.

Chinense

Baccatums on the right, Annuums to the left

Spare Adjuma on the left, Piquillo and Chabai in the middle and some Jalapeno to the right

Also started to soak the Cayennes, Kapia and Dulce de Espagna today.

 

[SineNomine]

I like the orderly way of your setup.
Good luck with your growth!

 

[Sulsa]

With all the storms battering the side of my house lately, temperatures in my growspace dropped to an average of 12C/53F for a couple of days now. Surprisingly the tropical Chinenses don't mind at all. Still growing strong!
Downside is that the soil does not dry as fast as i would like to see. Would like to start feeding them a bit more nutrients, because i see the first roots touching the bottom of the pots.
They will have to wait a little longer...

The Annuums and Frutescens all settled in and started to grow their first true leaves

Then there is this tray of spare Adjuma peppers... look at them... could any of you discard these?
Think i will be growing an entire field of them this year! .