Turbo 2014 Pepper Growing: An Anecdotal Methodology

turbo · Apr 8, 2014

I've never had really good luck with hot composting. The bacteria and microbes just never would take off and get going. But then again, I never really knew much about compost and bacteria. I would just randomly put leaves and grass in the compost bin at different times, turn the stuff every now and them. nuthin

Recently I read "Teaming with Microbes", a great book on how all the living stuff in soil interacts to the benefit of your garden, and there is a great chapter on composting.

So two days ago I emptied out all of the “stuff” in my compost bin onto the ground next to it. I had a full yard’s load of freshly cut grass from that day, and I added 4 inch layers of fresh grass, then the old mulch, fresh grass, mulch, etc, back into the compost bin. Then I let things sit for a bit to get going.

This afternoon, two days later, I went out to give it a good turn and see if the microbes and bacteria started doing the thing (it was 55F and raining at the time). When I pulled the cover off, the compost pile was giving off a nice bit of steam. I used my laser thermometer to test the surface temp and it was 90F. I stuck my garden fork down about 12 inches and opened the pile up for another temp reading: 130F! That stuff is cooking!

turbo · Apr 16, 2014

Transplanted my cayenne varieties into Solo cups today. 9 made the cut; 1 Charleston Hot, 4 Maule's Red Hot, and 4 Cabai Merah Rawit (Indonesian peppers). My germination rates were pretty bad for this batch. Only one out of 7 Pablano seeds germinated and it was so sickly I didn't bother to transplant. 2 out of 7 Charleston Hots germinated, one was the largest seedling in the tray and one was the smallest. 6 out of 14 Maules germinated. My best performer was the Indonesian peppers, where 6 out of 7 germinated. I had to pick the best 4 because I'm just out of room. I have to thank allaKAZAAM for sharing those seeds!!!

The hots are all doing well. The Paper Lanterns are taking off, though I've read they can get pretty tall at the end of the summer. The fatallis are the shortest of the bunch. Great dense set of leaves, but not really getting taller. Not too worried about it though.

About half the hots are already producing buds, so I'm trim them off about every 3 days. I'm a bit worried that I still have a month and a half before they should be going into the ground. I might run out of room before then since I only have a two foot light. Might have to trade it in for a 4 foot light. On the other hand, "they" are saying its going to be a pretty hot summer this year in the Pacific NW so I might be able to get them into the ground a few weeks earlier. We'll see...

bpwilly · Apr 16, 2014

Turbo,

Best of luck to you, and I am also hoping that we will have as nice warm and dry summer here in the Seattle area.

turbo · Apr 18, 2014

So a bit of a shout out to 1000Bulbs.com here. I purchased a 2ft 4 bulb light from them 3 months ago, and within a month one of the light plugs quit working. This week I finally got around to contacting them about it and they sent a very nice email back offering a full refund and paid shipping for me to send the light back. It sucks to get a faulty product, but they handled it first class.

So I decided to upgrade my light to a Sunlight Supply Sun Blaze 4ft T5HO light. My plants are pretty crowded trying to fit under a 2ft lamp, and I want to start some other garden plants soon anyway. Hopefully this one will work out better

thirdcoasttx · Apr 18, 2014

Its always nice to get good customer service. I'm sure your plants will love the new light.

turbo · Apr 22, 2014

I've got these two 30+ year old rhubarb plants in my backyard, and every spring it amazes me how fast they grow and how big they get. These two pictures were taken a week apart (Labradoodle shown for scale). By June the plants will be double in size from the lower picture, about 8 feet wide and 6 feet tall.

I'm definitely going to have to play around with a rhubarb based hot sauce this year.

turbo · Apr 25, 2014

Got my new 4 foot t5 light yesterday and set it up this morning. The extra space allowed me to space out the peppers a bit so they aren't quite as crowded. Doesn't everyone look happier?

The cayenne peppers are coming along slowly. I realized I forgot to poke holes in the bottoms of their SOLO cups. But luckily they are still pretty small and their roots shouldn't be down so far they were sitting in water

All the hots are also coming along nicely. I find it interesting that up until a few weeks ago the peppers among the different varieties were all different sizes. Within the same variety some were tall, some were short. With the exception of the Fatallis, which were all short.

This week I moved the fan to the left of the plants and then lined them all up from shortest to tallest so the fan will be able to blow across everyone. When I looked at the labels on the plants I realized that the varieties are all now grouped together when ordered by height. Paper Lanterns being the tallest, followed by Aji Lemon as second tallest which I also find interesting because they were the sickliest and smallest of the plants during the first two months.

turbo · May 6, 2014

There is some crazy growing going on in the past week. My two Aji Lemon Drops have been sad, small, and scrawny since they sprouted. Then all of a sudden this week they hit their teens and had a huge growth spurt and are now the biggest of the bunch and have really thick bases. They are a good 4 inches taller than my Paper Lanterns which have been the biggest plants all year.

On the opposite end of the spectrum are my 4 Fataliis, which are not growing at all. Two are shriveling up and their leaves are getting hard, and the other two haven't grown in weeks. Its kind'a odd, I'm not sure whats going on. I don't think its too much or little water, because I've played with both. I don't think its nutrients, because they are getting what everyone else is getting.

One crazy non-pepper note: I started 6 spaghetti squash seeds last week. I literally put them in the dirt 7 days ago and they are already 6-8 inches tall. Its nuts. I wish my peppers all grew this fast!

I'm planning on putting the peppers in the ground / pots / raised beds in two weeks if we can get a break in the rain and warm up a bit. I hope it wont take too long since they are starting to get really tall! Should be a good season this year.

EDIT: poking around in my peppers this morning I noticed I was totally wrong about the Congo Trinidad peppers. They are actually doing just fine. Its the Fatallis that are stunted and small. Carry on...

turbo · May 7, 2014

First day spending some time outside hardening. Only 30 minutes today. Everyone seemed happy to be out in the sun.

bpwilly · May 7, 2014

Turbo,
While I am not sure if it is normal as I have only grownthen last year, my Congo Trinidads that I grew last summer were also very short. In fact on a few of them, They were about 12-18" tall, and 24" or better wide. Like a very low umbrella. The good thing is that they are very productive, but you have to brace the branches, else they can break. The Aji Lemon took a long time to ripen, but I got a boatload of peppers off it by the time the season wound down. They do get very big if you let them. They seemed to handle the colder weather better than some of the other hot peppers like 7pot, etc.

Fingers crossed for some good warm weather this year.

turbo · May 7, 2014

Last year I tried growing a couple Rocoto plants. I had poor germination and only one survived, then through the summer it grew REALLY slow, and never had any flowers. For some reason it just reminded me of "the little train that could" so in the fall I brought it inside for the winter. At which point it started growing. The odd thing is that the main stem was only 4 inches tall. It just got kind'a brown and dried up one day, and all new growth was from the 4 side branches.

This picture was back in early February

Fast forward 4 months and this is what I have. Its kind'a crazy! All this from sitting inside next to a window. The main stem never did grow anymore, but the side branches have become like vines. I've got three stakes in the pot and plastic tape all over the place to support it.

Also, Its got an odd growth pattern to it. When most plant's branches split they come out in a Y shape, each offshoot continuing to grow in the same direction as the main branch, but angled out a bit away from each other. This guy likes to do everything at right angles. Instead of creating a Y, when it's branches split it creates a perfect T where the main branch stops, and new growth comes straight out to each side at a 90 degree angle from the parent branch in a perfect T shape.

Still no flowers on him yet, but hopefully it'll grow fruit this year. I'll have to figure out a trellis for it when I move him outside for the summer.

turbo · May 9, 2014

{ begin manly monolog }

I absolutely love this time of year in Seattle. The gray clouds of winter are starting their migration to other lands, and the blue sky and brilliant sun are pushing their way through. And for one short month EVERYTHING is in bloom. Its amazing how something as simple as flowers can transform a gray/green landscape into a overwhelming kaleidoscope of brilliant shapes and patterns. I love walking through the neighborhood and seeing all the flowers. So many amazing shapes and colors, highlighted against the mountains in the background.

And then in a few short weeks it'll all be over. All the petals will fall to the ground like too much paint dripping off its canvas. I'll mourn their passing, but the memories I've collected will hold me through while I wait for the next spring to arrive.

{ end manly monolog...I think I need to go drink some bourbon and hammer nails into stuff }

bpwilly · May 9, 2014

Turbo
I hear you on the spring here in Seattle. After all the gray and green (50% moss) it is nice to see other colors in the yard. Now to let the garden dry out enough so that I can start to get some of the peppers in the ground and out of the little pots.

That is a pretty nice looking Rocoto. I have some Giant mex Rocotos that I got from Pepperlover, and assorted Manzanos that I got from Smokemaster. They are all doing fine, but only 2 of the Rocotos have blossoms. Been hand pollinating them, but will need to find a semi-shaded place in the yard for these. Nice to know it grew in the house over the winter, might have to try that if these work out OK this year.

You must have plenty of Humming Birds and bumble bees around those Rodies!

turbo · May 9, 2014

bpwilly said:
Turbo
I hear you on the spring here in Seattle. After all the gray and green (50% moss) it is nice to see other colors in the yard. Now to let the garden dry out enough so that I can start to get some of the peppers in the ground and out of the little pots.

That is a pretty nice looking Rocoto. I have some Giant mex Rocotos that I got from Pepperlover, and assorted Manzanos that I got from Smokemaster. They are all doing fine, but only 2 of the Rocotos have blossoms. Been hand pollinating them, but will need to find a semi-shaded place in the yard for these. Nice to know it grew in the house over the winter, might have to try that if these work out OK this year.

You must have plenty of Humming Birds and bumble bees around those Rodies!

Tons of humming birds and bumble bees! Love them.

Quick question: all my hots are spitting out buds like crazy. 3-5 per joint. But the plants won't go in the ground for another 2-4 weeks. Do you clip the buds or leave them on while they are still inside? I've read from many sources the arguments both for and against clipping early buds. But its all anecdotal as far as I can tell. I'm interested, as a fellow Seattle grower, what do you do? What results have you seen?

turbo · May 10, 2014

I think I've figured out whats wrong with my 4 Fataliis. Today I was moving the tray they are on and noticed the tray felt very heavy compared to the other tray of peppers. After lifting each of the pepper's Solo cups I realized that the Fatalii cups were twice as heavy as everyone else. I also remembered the last time I watered them, no excess water drained out of their bottom.

They were essentially waterlogged.

So this morning I performed emergency transplants into fresh soil on the two Fataliis that looked the worst. The root systems for both Fataliis were huge and dense, almost filling the cup (but at least not starting to swirl around the bottom). They were essentially blocking the water from flowing freely through the cup when I top water.

Hopefully the transplant and paying more attention to how I water will help them recover.

thirdcoasttx · May 10, 2014

Hopefully they bounce back, looks like they will! I bought those same sticky traps this morning.

Jamison · May 10, 2014

Some beautiful plants you got going and an awesome yard! I'll keep checkin in. Enjoy the weekend!

turbo · May 13, 2014

Spent tonight building the future home of my peppers. 8 foot by 3 foot by 18 inches raised bed. Didn't really think about how much soil that is....36 cubic feet. Man, tomorrow is gonna suck trying to fill that thing.

juanitos · May 13, 2014

looks good to me. If you plant one every sq ft you will have 11.25 gallons for each plant so nize

turbo said:
Spent tonight building the future home of my peppers. 8 foot by 3 foot by 18 inches raised bed. Didn't really think about how much soil that is....36 cubic feet. Man, tomorrow is gonna suck trying to fill that thing.

turbo · May 13, 2014

Got the bed moved into place. Not sure what made me decide to put a raised be on a slope. Got 8 inches from each of the 4 of the corner 4X4s buried in the ground, so its solidly in place.

Put all the compost I have into it and only got about 4 inches filled. I'm gonna need a LOT more soil.