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Tokyo Off-Season 2020-2021

Crawling back in here, tail between my legs, for another shot at this pepper thing.  :oops:
 
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.
 
chop-top.jpg

 
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.  :cool:
 
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.
 
new-ferment.jpg

 
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!  :pray:
 
PaulG said:
Hey, my friend, I can send you some Sugar Rush Cream
seeds and some Scotch Bonnets, as well. Just say the word.
 
Thanks very much! Perhaps we can do a seed/care package swap some time soon. I just got isolated seeds off that Nanbu plant, which I don't think are really available outside Japan (at least, I haven't seen them before).
 
bpiela said:
Cool link for the Korean recipes!  Much appreciated!
 
You bet! :) I tend to tweak recipes while I'm cooking, but I leave Maangchi's alone. She really knows her stuff.
 
internationalfish said:
Thanks very much! Perhaps we can do a seed/care package swap some time soon. I just got isolated seeds off that Nanbu plant, which I don't think are really available outside Japan (at least, I haven't seen them before).
 
Roger that, 'Fish!
 
Maybe it's time for a powder shipment  :rofl:
 
The sodium percarbonate doesn't seem to be bothering anyone, and there's been no signs of further root rot. So that's promising!
 
current-kratky.jpg

 
The other rockwool blocks have been marinating their seeds for over a week now, so hopefully we'll start seeing sprouts soonish. Once that happens, I think I'll move the big guys to the lower shelf and start using that light again; currently just running the light up top. Starting to get a little crowded up there with these plants growing happily. They're on full-strength nutrients and having no issues that I can see.
 
Might also need to cut down the bottles further, as even this much reservoir seems like it's giving them too much room to grow.
 
PaulG said:
Roger that, 'Fish!
 
Maybe it's time for a powder shipment  :rofl:
 
Just remembered, last time we attempted to send a package to the US was for Christmas, and they weren't allowing any food in, whether it was commercial and sealed or not. So I'll have to see whether that's still the case; I may not be able to get seeds (or even instant ramen) to you for a while yet.  :confused:
 
internationalfish said:
Just remembered, last time we attempted to send a package to the US was for Christmas, and they weren't allowing any food in, whether it was commercial and sealed or not. So I'll have to see whether that's still the case; I may not be able to get seeds (or even instant ramen) to you for a while yet.  :confused:
I was thinking of sending the powder-encased
seeds to you like last time.
 
PaulG said:
I was thinking of sending the powder-encased
seeds to you like last time.
 
Yep, that'd be ideal. :) I just don't know if I'll be able to send Nanbu seeds to you right now; my wife is going to ask about current shipping restrictions next time she's at the post office.
 
internationalfish said:
 
Yep, that'd be ideal. :) I just don't know if I'll be able to send Nanbu seeds to you right now; my wife is going to ask about current shipping restrictions next time she's at the post office.
Don’t worry about the Nanbu for now.
Don’t want you stressing over the rules
and regs!
 
You wanted JA Red Habanero and
Sugar Rush Cream, right?
 
PaulG said:
Don’t worry about the Nanbu for now.
Don’t want you stressing over the rules
and regs!
 
You wanted JA Red Habanero and
Sugar Rush Cream, right?
 
Thanks! :D Yeah, that'd be excellent. Though if you happen to have acquired any Bahamian Goat in the past year and have some extras, I'd happily bet on my apparently-healthy young Kratky JA red hab to get some goat instead.
 
internationalfish said:
 
Thanks! :D Yeah, that'd be excellent. Though if you happen to have acquired any Bahamian Goat in the past year and have some extras, I'd happily bet on my apparently-healthy young Kratky JA red hab to get some goat instead.
Unfortunately, I do not have any Bahamian Goat seeds.
It’s one I would like to grow again.
 
PaulG said:
Unfortunately, I do not have any Bahamian Goat seeds.
It’s one I would like to grow again.
 
Understood. I'll appreciate anything you send, and will make sure we get you something back in return (and I will grow out the Trippaul Threat and Purple Thunder you sent, I'm just not sure when).
 
internationalfish said:
 
Understood. I'll appreciate anything you send, and will make sure we get you something back in return (and I will grow out the Trippaul Threat and Purple Thunder you sent, I'm just not sure when).
No hurry. brotha!
 
Will get some seeds to you pronto.
 
Minor update: I've got sprouts for CGN 21500 and Sugar Rush Peach in the cubes. Also, the lazy bastards I cut back -- CGN 21500 and Ghost/Naglah -- are coming back absolutely gangbusters with the foliage, so we'll see if they decide to set fruit or whether they'd prefer to just continue making leaves indefinitely and get replaced.
 
I'm pretty sure I've restricted my Kratky plants' root room more brutally than Khang Starr does, and yet I'm still getting comically large plants in those tiny bottles with no buds yet. Thinking of topping them just to see what they do; I'm going to have to start using the bottom shelf light anyway, as large as they're getting, and with at least two rockwool cubes putting out hooks.
 
Currently sitting at four sprouts that'll hopefully keep doing well: PJ's Yellow Scotch Bonnotlikely, Sugar Rush Peach, CGN 21500, and Naglah. Going to have to start culling seedlings soon, which hurts given the state of my bank, but hey. It's just business, guys.
 
new-kratkies.jpg

 
The tent producers continue to do fine. Got some leaf curl going on with the Kratky plants, but haven't really gotten concerned enough to figure it out; they also appeared to have a magnesium deficiency, so everything is now getting dosed with cal-mag (which I had sitting around but was being lazy about mixing in). The oxy-bleach is being applied to everything now and continues to at least not kill anything, so I'm declaring at least partial success there.
 
top-level.jpg

 
The ferment is producing only mild odor at this point, so I think it's probably time to prep it. Got my standard hot sauce infusion, a couple bottles of Blair's Death from one of my wife's shopping trips, so I'm good there, but it's always nice to have the homemade stuff. :)
 
Edited to add: Pulled the existing CGN 21500 and maybe-ghost/Naglah out of the back row to get a picture. 21500 has come back very nicely from its complete demolition, but for whatever reason, the maybe plant appears to have some sort of issue. Nothing else is getting yellowing like that. I honestly don't care a lot, though, as I have no intention of putting up with any more of its shit unless it suddenly starts actually growing peppers.
 
ugly-duckling.jpg
 
internationalfish said:
Edited to add: Pulled the existing CGN 21500 and maybe-ghost/Naglah out of the back row to get a picture. 21500 has come back very nicely from its complete demolition, but for whatever reason, the maybe plant appears to have some sort of issue. Nothing else is getting yellowing like that. I honestly don't care a lot, though, as I have no intention of putting up with any more of its shit unless it suddenly starts actually growing peppers.
 
 
What?!! Actually growing peppers   :rofl: ?
 
Geez, talk about high expectations!
 
HeatMiser said:
Agreed! when space is tight, each plant better bring their A game!... small space growers like us ain't messing around with unproductive plants! lol...
 
Haha, yes indeed.
 
For the new Kratky generation, my only no-shows now are Sugar Rush Cream and Casados, so there's going to be a lot of competition once things get bigger. My two Datil and one Jamaican red hab are big enough to start fruiting fairly soon, so the competition for those top slots is already approaching.
 
I've actually got two Casados sprouts now! So that's the good news! :)
 
The particularly bad news: My wife, bless her heart, noticed a hopefully-early-stage aphid infestation. So now I get to mix up some neem oil and soap, hose everything down again, and cross my fingers, just as I have another generation of plants coming in.  :confused:
 
Sorry to hear the aphids are showing up.
Have you considered a neem oil soil
drench along with the spraying?
 
I forgot which seeds I was going to
send you. Can you refresh my memory?
 
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