• Blog your pepper progress. The first image in your first post will be used to represent your Glog.

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:
 
Hey glad to see you back for another grow.  I'll be following along.  
When I read this:
"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:"
I didnt get it.  Did you have problems with a root disease?  Sorry, I don't remember from your other glog.  
I grew a couple of Kratky plants outside this year that did great.  The roots got discolored and I even had some algae growth from where sunlight wasn't completely blocked and they still did great.  Actually, I had what was supposed to be a BOC (crossed evidently) that got about 4' tall and very bushy!  I guess I wouldn't worry about keeping the roots clean unless there is a disease.
 
Hope your ferment turns out good.  Let us know how it is!
 
Tybo said:
I didnt get it.  Did you have problems with a root disease?  Sorry, I don't remember from your other glog.  
 
No worries! Yeah, maybe because it was such a tiny reservoir (the point of keeping them small is to push the plant to fruit early), I ended up with severe root problems on all of my plants. When I realized this was happening -- and, for a while, couldn't figure out what to use to clean them -- I managed to save a few by potting up to coir. Hopefully this time that won't be an issue.
 
CaneDog said:
Great to see you getting things underway for the off-season season mr. international fish guy!  I bet those tent peppers will rebound faster than expected given happy roots.
 
And good luck with the ferment!
 
Thanks, man! Five is still one more plant than I actually wanted up top, but just getting it down this far involved giving up on nine or ten that were also growing in the tent, and I couldn't bring myself to pick even one of these leftovers to drop. If these all do well, I'll be very happy with the variety.
 
I'd planned to get started with the micro-Kratky this morning, but step 1 is going to be bleaching the net cups, and I was way too content with my coffee and Path of Exile this morning to get into that. So I bumped it to tomorrow, and today will hopefully be a nice, relaxing Friday... unless work is slow and I get bored. And then I'll probably annoy my wife again by monopolizing the kitchen sink with my mad scientist shit.  :twisted:
 
Work was not slow. I had meetings all day, and then a call with a recruiter. But I still managed to make time to bleach-nuke some net cups and start some seeds.  :D
 
kratky-starters.jpg

 
Starting 3 seeds x 2 cups for each variety, so hopefully I'll end up with at least one true plant apiece. You may notice that everything is actually labeled this time, because I'm seriously pissed off at myself for wasting so much time every damn year juggling with my rock wool cubes.
 
It's cooling down quickly here, and since there's only one light running in the tent, I stuck a heating pad in the bottom and clam-shelled the container for these guys. Hopefully that'll keep the temp nice and toasty for them; got an analog thermometer in with 'em and a digital one outside to keep tabs on the min/max. So even if not a single seed germinates -- which, really, who would be surprised? -- I'm at least putting in a reasonable effort this time.
 
Hopefully, by the time it's clear whether they'll survive, I'll have cross-fertilized pods on the way from some of the kids on top. With three chinense and two annuum, I'm going to try same-species crosses first this time, since I got exactly nowhere with annuum-chinense last time. At this point I'd really like to see this shit work at least once; it'd be a morale boost just to have an F1 seed pod growing, regardless of what it's even a mix of. 
lol.gif
 
Five days in, all of the tent plants are showing at least some new growth, but the Lemon Starrburst is currently taking an enthusiastic lead in the re-greening department. :)
 
re-animated.jpg

 
Hoping they'll all really pick up in the next few weeks. So far, so good.
 
The coir'ed seeds obviously haven't had enough time to pop yet, but for once the temp and humidity range in the tent are staying pretty much where I want them. So hopefully I'll have some progress there this weekend or next week.
 
In the meantime, some wee spicy sausages for you. My wife picks these up frequently; they're not quite as hot as Hyperbole Pepper on the label there would have you believe, but they're pretty decent.
 
otsumami-dry.jpg

 
Not sure who garnishes their microlinks with parsley, but hey, this is kind of a weird place.  :dance:
 
Another grow underway in InternationalFish
waters!
 
Always entertaining to Read your take on
things, my friend! Good luck with the kratkys
this time around. 
 
Good to see the new growth sprouting on the
Lemon Starburst.
 
PaulG said:
Another grow underway in InternationalFish
waters!
 
Always entertaining to Read your take on
things, my friend! Good luck with the kratkys
this time around. 
 
Good to see the new growth sprouting on the
Lemon Starburst.
 
Thanks, Paul! The only one that appears to be stagnating a bit so far is the Nanbu; the rest are showing solid growth, particularly the Ghost I'd stripped down to the bones. 21500 even started flowering this morning, though I nipped that in the bud. Leaves first, friends, leaves first.
 
As of this morning, I've got at least one Jamaican Red Hab sprout from the coir, as well as what appears to be a Datil coming up (and looking determined to keep its helmet on). So hopefully that means good things for the next round of Kratky kids.
 
The hybridization plans are, of course, already swirling. Hoping to get a couple true Sugar Rush Cream plants started for those promiscuous baccatum genes.  :censored:
 
Your have things under control, buddy!
 
The Sugar Rush Cream are amazing pods.
So sweet and fruity with some heat!
 
Glad to see the JA Red Habanero line still
soldiering on there!
 
PaulG said:
Glad to see the JA Red Habanero line still
soldiering on there!
 
Yeah, man, really excited to get those up and running. And, if about ten things all go right (hahahahahaha), maybe crossing them with chocolate habs to see what kind of monstrosity comes from that.
 
Just about two weeks in, the plants up top are looking pretty good.
 
up-top.jpg

 
Ghost in the center continues to impress; all of that foliage is new. CGN 21500 in the front left will not stop budding, so I've stopped picking them. Certainly wouldn't mind if he started turning out pods, since they take FOR... DAMN... EVER to ripen. Nanbu in the back left is still not feeling it; not dying, but not putting out a lot of new growth, either.
 
As for the newbies, 12 days in, it's still Datil with a hook and JA red hab keeping his lead as the first out the gate.
 
downtown.jpg

 
Thinking of just letting him grow like this for a while, soaking the coir with weak nutrients when he gets his first set of puberty leaves, and seeing how well air pruning works.
 
It's a little worrying that, almost two weeks in, I have exactly two sprouts out of 30 seeds (six each of five types).  :confused:
 
The upper-deck plants continue to do well. With the exception of the KSLSB, they're budding, with the annuums unsurprisingly leading the size race (though the CGN 21500 is working hard to make up for its quality with quantity). I've plastic-bagged buds on everything that's got 'em to stock up on ISO seeds as early as possible, just in case I continue being myself.
 
Still sitting at one JR Hab sprout. The same Datil rockwool cube managed a second contender, though it's quite runty... and if I'm going to stick with the air pruning idea, I'm likely going to need to pull it to avoid it interfering with the big one. Still no action at all from the other eight cubes.  :(
 
I've been enjoying Ali Express for a few different things, from mini computers to net cups, so I just ordered a few hundred 7mm plastic balls to mulch the coir and get some more humidity control going on in the tent, particularly with the ambient moisture dropping like a rock thanks to the seasons changing. The plants are growing well, but they're still losing water faster than they should be; plus, hopefully covering up that surface will help avoid incubating another batch of thrips.
 
The alma continues to be so dense it's hard to work with... the plant is less than a foot tall and I just found a nearly-full-size pod I didn't even know was growing on it. I'm interested in seeing if I can cross it with a few different potential partners, any of which should at least result in more manageable foliage... 
lol.gif

 
[edit: Forgot to mention! I found a seller in Japan that advertises just a few types of seeds, but a lot of seedlings, including a lot of really interesting varieties. Even Rocoto! I'd rather buy seeds, but with this kind of selection, I'll gladly stalk his page and throw a nice juicy order at him as soon as he starts selling next year.]
 
I think that seller sounds very interesting.
 
You will be like a kid in a candy store!
 
Still no love from the majority of those seeds (I do have one more hook in one of the coir blocks, but of course it's another freaking Datil, so that's less than ideal). So I'm leaving those to keep trying but also starting some more.
 
new-seeds.jpg

 
This is either the last of the seeds or very nearly so for a couple varieties, which makes it really nerve-wracking. The SR Cream and Casados in particular I'm really hung up on.
 
On the plus side, I'm extremely pleased with how well the five up top are doing. You can see how freaking nutty the Nanbu on the right is; it never really looks all that healthy, but when it decides to put out pods, damn does it ever go to town.
 
upper-decker.jpg

 
The uninvited green stuff is a little annoying, but I think it's something I'm just going to ignore, as I wouldn't expect it to harm the plants. Aside from that, no issues with mold or pests so far. :)
 
After losing only a single bagged bud (I was pretty impatient with how early I did that, and I think I just stressed one out too much), it's looking pretty good for a batch of as-isolated-as-it-gets-here seed pods. Planning to be a little gentler with the dehydration this time, as I'm suspecting the silica gel treatment I've been giving them is excessive... but if I get in the habit of doing this regularly, ideally I won't end up in this idiotic "oh shit I'm running out of seeds" situation again any time soon.
 
HeatMiser said:
Your plants are recovering quite nicely 'fish. Do you actively prune them to prevent them from wrapping around each other? If so, how big are you trying to keep your plants?
 
I've been pruning them to keep them about the size they are right now. The current plan is to stick with just these five on the top shelf indefinitely; they're manageable as they are, so as long as I stay on top of the trimming this time, hopefully they keep filling out and we get solid production.
 
Of course, I haven't had to prune the alma paprika even once, because it's black-hole-level dense and seems happy to just continue collapsing in on itself. 
lol.gif

 
The only one that's not budding like mad is the Lemon Starrburst. While I do like those pods, if it just never decides to get it in gear again, I'd be fine with replacing it -- ideally with the Jamaican Red Hab plant that's getting started on the bottom shelf, if that ends up growing well. But that's a long way off, so the KSLSB has plenty of time to choose its destiny.
 
The Top Five are looking good, 'Fish!  
 
The algae on the plant bags shouldn't be a
concern as far as your plants go. If it gets
to the point you can't stand it, just spray a
little fungicide or algaecide and get rid of it.
 
Having fun, yet?
 
PaulG said:
The Top Five are looking good, 'Fish!  
 
The algae on the plant bags shouldn't be a
concern as far as your plants go. If it gets
to the point you can't stand it, just spray a
little fungicide or algaecide and get rid of it.
 
Having fun, yet?
 
Wait... you guys are having fun?  :mad:
 
So... over the last week or so, I've been noticing more and more that there's fungus amungus!  :surprised:
 
Unsurprisingly, this largely coincides with a sudden spike in the tent's humidity: Since it's been really dry here, I haven't been running the dehumidifier much. Well, guess what? That means nothing has been sucking water out of the tent, and it's been around 80% several mornings in a row.
 
I've opened the vents back up a bit (need to balance that with the fact that it's starting to get chilly) and will plan to run the dehumidifier overnight, and probably leave the tent open during the day.
 
That aside, two bits of better news.
 
I've been losing some blossoms that were bagged for isolation, but I just happened to catch sight of this one. #6 would be a Nanbu. :)
 
mighty-number-six.jpg

 
This plant burns through a lot of flowers, but it also puts out a lot of pods; it's good to see this bag shit works, too, at least sometimes. I was thinking of trying gluing flowers, but that seems kinda iffy to me... anyone have experience with that?
 
Also, I finally stuck my only three seedlings in their final homes. Lefty there just survived really, really poorly done but somehow successful emergency helmet surgery. I'm honestly not sure how that worked. Apparently getting up at 5AM and eating just about nothing until noon will leave your hands... a little shaky.
 
comfy-koozie.jpg

 
You can get a glimpse of our fungal invaders in the background.  :mad:
 
Still waiting on the freaking China stuff. Those plastic beads would be really helpful right about now.
 
Happy Friday!
 
Glad to see the JA Red Habanero made the cut.
A survivor of the Chili Powder camouflage episode  :rofl:
 
Do you have fungicide? Just spray the stuff and
get it over with  ;)
 
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   :D 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.
 
Back
Top