Tokyo Off-Season 2020-2021

Crawling back in here, tail between my legs, for another shot at this pepper thing. 
 
Last season I ended up... really preoccupied, let's say, and completely screwed up my grow. The outdoor plants were basically ignored, and the tent plants were in tiny starter pots until today, when they finally got brutally pruned and moved to one-gallon coir bags. Basically, all I've accomplished since February is identifying some -- not even all -- of the plants I started at the beginning of the year. Yikes.
 
But here we are, and after cleaning out the tent and rearranging the lights, I have five sad-ass plants ready to work harder than they should have to so I can eat their babies.
 

 
The guy in the middle is almost certainly either a bhut or the second cousin of one; I'm not totally sure. He got the worst of the pruning anyway, so while I've definitely had plants come back from worse, he's got the biggest hurdles ahead to make his triumphant return to Flavortown.
 
Other than that, I have a CGN 21500, Lemon Starrburst, Alma Paprika, and Nanbu (a Japanese Cayenne-like variety with medium heat and great flavor) that are in pretty good health despite having been painfully rootbound. I managed to soak and massage them into opening up at least a little bit, so hopefully a gallon of coir will be enough to convince them to spread those roots and bush up. Then all I need to do is actually stay on top of the trimming this season.
 
As long as these establish themselves and fruit reasonably well, I'm planning on them being the producers for the foreseeable future, since I don't see myself starting up the outdoor grow again next season, if ever.
 
The bottom shelf is earmarked for one more attempt at some Khang Starr-style micro-Kratky experiments. Since I committed a whole lot of time and work to it the first time and gave them way too much root room, I spent marginally more money to save a ton of work and time, and just used exactly what he does: A koozie, a plastic bottle, and a round net cup. I'm planning to start the following, partially to see if I can get results similar to his now that I should have the reservoirs right-sized, and partially to see if I actually have true seeds for them, since I haven't grown any from the seed batches I'm using:

• 
  Jamaican Red Habanero (seeds generously donated by PaulG! Really excited for this one)
  
• 
  Datil
  
• 
  Sugar Rush Cream
  
• 
  Chocolate habanero
  
• 
  Casados
  

I also picked up a nice big batch of what they apparently use instead of hydrogen peroxide here, so hopefully with tiny bits of that I'll be able to keep the roots clean this time. Fin-gers crossed. 
 
Polishing off what was left on the indoor and outdoor plants from the end of the on-season grow, I threw together a little ferment! Giving this one a month to do its thing.
 

 
Since the garlic is embarrassingly weak here, I've got two bulbs of it in there, along with a bunch of Sugar Rush Peach (man, I love those pods), some Lemon Starrburst, a bunch of Nanbu that dried on the vine as well as a couple that hadn't ripened yet, two CGN 21500, what I assume was an unripe bhut, a single lonely Alma Paprika, and probably a partridge in a pear tree.
 
So here we go again. Fish me luck! 

 

[internationalfish]

Glad to see the JA Red Habanero made the cut.
A survivor of the Chili Powder camouflage episode 

 
Yeah, man, really hoping that thing keeps on truckin'. The CPC Episode continues to impress.
 

Do you have fungicide? Just spray the stuff and
get it over with 

 
Man, just figuring out what to buy here is a chore I don't really want to attempt. It looks like a baking soda solution and possibly a bit of dish soap, among other things, are recommended for DYI fungicide, so I may go that route.
 

I really like the baggie enclosure for isolating pods.
Is the bottom open from the start? Seems like a quick
and easy method, and cheap    There are several
sizes one could use, as well. I'm wondering if it
would work outside, or if pollinators would enter the
enclosure through the bottom.

 
I have the end cut off from the start, yeah. For smaller-flowered varieties, which is mostly what I have, they seem to stay closed until (well, unless) they actually fruit; from what I've seen, it seems likely they'd keep pollinators out. The possible exception would be alma paprika; those flowers are beefy as Holsteins. I think for those I may buy some larger bags and single-use them by not cutting off the bottoms until (unless) the flower sets fruit.
 
First night of humidity control looks good; possibly a little on the low side now, but that'd be easy to fix since at least I know it regulates nicely. And the sprouts are looking happy, so that's good.
 
Still no love from any of the other seeds in coir. That's over four weeks. I guess there's no harm in letting them continue, but the conditions have been consistently good, so it's hard to expect anything. Hopes now turn to the coffee filters. While I'm not certain, it looks like at least one of the Lemon Drop seeds might be poking out an exploratory root. Fingers crossed for the other varieties...
 
[edit: self-

]

 

[internationalfish]

The tent plants are doing reasonably well.
 
The Nanbu is, unsurprisingly, going freaking bonkers while everything else is just kinda bumming around.
 

 
CGN 21500 has managed to produce exactly one pod, again, to no one's absolute shock.
 

 
Alma paprika has set several pods (that I know of, anyway, since the thing is an unmanageable bush), but one in particular is out in front.
 

 
The Kratky seedlings are coming along really slowly, but at least they're not dead, I guess. The helmet-saved Datil's cotys seem to have been damaged, but it is sprouting true leaves, so maybe it'll pull through.
 

 
With regard to the coffee filter seeds, I have at least two sprouts apiece from lemon drop, chocolate hab, and Zapotec jalapeno. Once again, the ones I really wanted -- Casados and SR cream -- appear to be duds, which, once again, really sucks... going to get two apiece of the healthy sprouts into Kratky this weekend, I think, and cross my fingers for the rest.

 

[PaulG]

Sorry about the no-shows, but what you have looks really good!

 

[CaneDog]

Good save on the Datil, 'Fish.  Hope the duds are just slow.  Looks like the tent will be filling out soon.

 

[internationalfish]

Sorry about the no-shows, but what you have looks really good!

 
Thanks! The established plants seem to be pretty happy, so that's a big relief.
 

Good save on the Datil, 'Fish.  Hope the duds are just slow.  Looks like the tent will be filling out soon.

 
Yeah... it seems like a few varieties are germinating just fine, but most aren't at all. At this point I suspect I somehow managed to damage a lot of the seeds I've been storing, though how I'd have managed to kill some varieties and not all is beyond my meager plant knowledge...
 
The micro Kratky containers are definitely going to fill up today; if anything new actually did sprout, I'd need to make a net cup run, as the order I placed a month ago... was placed a month ago and hasn't even reached Japan yet.

 

[HeatMiser]

 
if anything new actually did sprout, I'd need to make a net cup run, as the order I placed a month ago... was placed a month ago and hasn't even reached Japan yet.

 
Hey 'fish
 
If the peppers sprout, they can live happily in their rockwool cube for a while, just make sure to water them every day. I've been keeping a couple seedlings in nothing but their cubes for about a month now. This helps with air-pruning the roots, which will create a bushier, more robust root system down the line.

 

[PaulG]

+1 HM.
 
A little root development fertilizer like Rapid Start
can help them live in the cubes for quite awhile.

 

[internationalfish]

If the peppers sprout, they can live happily in their rockwool cube for a while, just make sure to water them every day. I've been keeping a couple seedlings in nothing but their cubes for about a month now. This helps with air-pruning the roots, which will create a bushier, more robust root system down the line.

 
Hey! The primary problem is that I have a well-established history of mixing up rockwool cubes... keeping them in labeled net cups is how I'm trying to avoid having that problem again.

 

[internationalfish]

Not so great news
I appear to have killed one of my jalapeno sprouts by attempting to prematurely dehelmet it, and failing badly. I still have one that's healthy and should be ready for coir soon, and another that just popped out a root, so hopefully I'll still have two. But bad form, fish, bad form. Additionally, the JR habanero and Datil aren't looking great. It's hard to tell yet whether they're just ugly duckling seedlings or whether there's a problem, so hopefully they'll shape up over the next week or so.
 
Also, the only plant so far that has tolerated those little bags on its flours is the Nanbu (which pretty much just shrugs at whatever I do or don't do to it). Every other plant, including the Alma -- which is otherwise fruiting like mad -- drops the bagged buds. I think the concept is sound, but I need to improve my approach before I give it another shot.
 
Better news
It looks like at least one of my Casados seeds is sprouting. That'd be a minor victory, which I'll absolutely take at this point.
 
Decent news
All of the pods that have shown up seem to be growing larger than they did when I was abusing these plants with tiny containers and underwatering, so that's encouraging.
 
Good news
It looks like I was underfeeding these plants, because I upped the nutrient dosage, and they've responded very well so far.
 
This is after a pretty good trimming (and having raised the light recently, which I may do again, though these are right on the edge of too big for the space).
 

 
The Nanbu continues to pod up, and the Lemon Starrburst just began setting pods. The only thing that hasn't podded at all, of course, is the one I haven't actually identified yet (see? I'm awful about this), which is hopefully either a Naglah or a Ghost. It's also the only plant in there that's still suffering from edema after I fixed the humidity issue; I rotated it to a different position, so we'll see if maybe I have an airflow problem.
 
Excellent news
My overpriced but necessary Thanksgiving and Christmas turkeys arrived!
 

 

[internationalfish]

A bit of not-great news today.
 
The Zapotec sprouts got left in their coffee filters for too long and died. Then I somehow screwed up transplanting the coffee filter choco habs into coir, and they both rotted out. 
 
The established plants are still growing very well, but they're still tedious as hell with regard to fruit. The one pod the CGN 21500 decided to put out ripened nicely, and -- as usual -- the Nanbu just does not care and will fruit regardless of... anything.
 

 
The milestone here would be the first ripe isolated pepper from the tent (the one in the funny plastic hat). So that's good. The same plant has another ISO pod that just needs a bit more time to ripen.
 
For size, though, the star of the show is this absolute unit.
 

 
It's my alma paprika. The plant itself hasn't grown a lot, but the branches are being pulled down and out by the weight of its fruit; I'm probably going to need to stake this thing somehow so it doesn't break its own back. The pod in the middle that's just started ripening is freaking massive.
 
The remaining Kratky kids are doing well, so if nothing else, hopefully I'll be able to keep this on Jamaican Red Hab going to the point where I can clone it a couple times and avoid losing at least one of the varieties I'd really like to get established.
 

 
My wife and son are currently in Korea (in quarantine) waiting to see my mother-in-law, who is likely going to lose her second fight with breast cancer soon... so for the next month I'm alone here. It's quiet, boring, and depressing, but hopefully I'll be able to get a few more varieties growing in coir to join the new Kratky brigade.
 
Stay safe and check for lumps, friends.

 

[The_NorthEast_ChileMan]

Wishing you and  your family the best.

 

[PaulG]

Sorry to hear about your wife's mom, 'Fish.
 
I know what you mean about an empty house.
Hang in there, buddy. Good thoughts for you
and your family.

 

[CaneDog]

Bad news, man.  Hope things go as well as they can and everyone stays safe on the trip.
 
You're never truly alone with all those peppers around

 

[internationalfish]

Wishing you and  your family the best.

 
Thanks. We got started late with regards to procreation, so while my parents are in pretty good health, my wife lost her dad early on, and it seems like our son isn't going to get much time with his Korean grandmother. Fortunately, she has a much larger extended family than I do, so the boy should have plenty of aunts, uncles, and cousins to make sure he gets a proper dose of their culture.
 

Sorry to hear about your wife's mom, 'Fish.
 
I know what you mean about an empty house.
Hang in there, buddy. Good thoughts for you
and your family.

 
Much appreciated. She's a tough old bird (and if I could adequately explain that expression to her, I'm sure she'd love it), and true to form, wife and MIL are already yelling at each other after less than a week in-country despite everything that's going on. Sometimes routine is a blessing, but I'll never understand theirs.
 

Bad news, man.  Hope things go as well as they can and everyone stays safe on the trip.
 
You're never truly alone with all those peppers around

 
Yeah. At least one good thing came of it, as they got PCR tested and came up negative for COVID, so it's a good start in that sense. And as incredibly bored as I am, when I open up the tent and get that nice whiff of plant, it's pretty awesome... I'm not thrilled about spending the holidays by myself, but at the same time, I can and will play Rudolph or Frosty 24/7 and no one can complain. So that's a win right there. 

 

[PaulG]

Happy Holidays, 'Fish!
 
Enjoy those Christmas classics!

 

[internationalfish]

Happy Holidays, 'Fish!
 
Enjoy those Christmas classics!

 
(Very) belated happy holidays to you as well, thanks!
 
After the last pictures I posted, I ended up with this rather nice little tent harvest. Nanbu continues to be the most impressive producer. It's hard to tell whether the Starrburst or the alma take second place; the alma puts out massive pods, but in batches and very infrequently. The Starrburst, on the other hand, keeps a nice pace of fairly small fruit.
 

 
Because I've been even lazier than usual, my wife actually ended up using the almas as part of our son's baby food so they wouldn't go bad. Which, hey, already passing it on to the next generation! I took the seeds out of that beastly one on the bottom left. Freaking massive pod, and a gorgeous dark red.
 
Then... there's this. I finally got an isolated pod off the CGN 21500; looks pretty funny, it somehow didn't occur to me I was trapping it given the pod's shape. Derp. It's the second pod that plant has produced. The second... out of two, despite being a freaking bush. A week or two later, it hasn't even tried to set another pod.
 

 
Which is still better than my probably-Naglah-or-ghost, which has put out nothing since attempting a small pod but giving up and dropping it months ago. So I cut both of them back to thick sticks. If they manage to fruit this time, great, but in the meantime I'm probably going to start seeds in rockwool for both and hopefully have replacements in case they don't.
 
Here we have the current Kratkies, alongside a few pods that I happened across today while feeding the plants. I'm quite happy with how they're doing...
 

 
...with the exception of one that had a bit of root rot. So I prepped some nutes with a bit of sodium percarbonate, checked on them, and realized it wasn't one of my expendable Datils, it's my only Jamaican red hab. Which was a bit of a despair moment. However, it was just one root that was in bad shape, so I pulled it and applied the mix. Hopefully this helps. 
 
Finally, I spent five weeks living the bachelor's life over Christmas and New Year's, as my son and wife were in Korea visiting her sick mother. So here you have it: Oatmeal and lemon sour, Breakfast of Champions!
 

 

[PaulG]

Looks like the new year is off to
a great start, 'Fish!
 
Great looking peppers, and pretty
impressive for a tent harvest.

 

[internationalfish]

Looks like the new year is off to
a great start, 'Fish!
 
Great looking peppers, and pretty
impressive for a tent harvest.

 
Thanks, Paul!
 
Forgot to include this. Started a new ferment with the hot (well, relative to the almas) pods.
 

 
Think I may have to stick it in the tent just to keep it warm enough to work; it's way too cold in the house right now.

 

[internationalfish]

Started some more Kratky experiments. The sodium percarbonate doesn't appear to be harming the existing ones, at least, so hopefully that keeps going well. I also got the spot these will occupy in the tent to what should be an ideal range; as long as that stays where it is, if nothing else, I'm giving these the best chance I can.
 

 
The Casados and SR Cream here are my very last seeds for those varieties, so I'm more than a little nervous, but they're not getting any younger. Oh... same for the Scotch Bonnet Yellow, but that's Pepper Joe's, so I'm expecting it to come up as catnip or something anyway. No big loss there.
 
Also: Tonight's special! Wife-requested Korean style mapo tofu. Turned out quite well.
 

 
If you're interested, the recipe is on Maangchi.com. Excellent site for Korean recipes.

 

[PaulG]

The Casados and SR Cream here are my very last seeds for those varieties, so I'm more than a little nervous, but they're not getting any younger. Oh... same for the Scotch Bonnet Yellow, but that's Pepper Joe's, so I'm expecting it to come up as catnip or something anyway. No big loss there.

Hey, my friend, I can send you some Sugar Rush Cream
seeds and some Scotch Bonnets, as well. Just say the word.