Turbo 2015 Pepper Growing: Keeping It Simple (Stupid)

I've been procrastinating a bit this year, and just got around to starting my seed germination.  Last year, I picked just a few varieties and grew 4-6 plants of each variety.  I realized that if a plant does well, one plant would give me more than enough peppers, so this year I decided to go the other way.  I'm growing 17 varieties, but only 1-2 plants per variety, with the exception of Maule's Cayenne which I'm growing 6 plants (I never have enough cayennes).

My final grow list for 2015:

• Aji Lemon (2) - seeds from plants given to me by BPWilly
• Aji Pinapple  (1) - seeds from pods I got from Jusplayn
• Aji Cito (1) - http://pepperlover.c...aji-cito-detail
• Aji Peruvian (1) - http://pepperlover.c...peruvian-detail
• Aji Panca (1) - http://pepperlover.c...í-Panca-detail
• Aji Verde (1) - http://pepperlover.c...i-290983-detail
• Brazilian Starfish (1) - seeds from pods I got from Jusplayn
• Yellow Fatalii (2) - seeds from plants given to me by BPWilly
• White Fatalii (1) - http://pepperlover.c...talii-pl-detail
• Trinidad Scotch Bonnet (2) - seeds from plants given to me by BPWilly
• MOA (1) - seeds from plants given to me by BPWilly
• Congo Trinidad (1) - seeds from plants grown from seeds I got from kentishman
• Morouga Red Habanero (2) - http://pepperlover.c...epper-sr-detail
• Cheiro Roxa (1) - http://pepperlover.c...iro-roxa-detail
• Caribbean Red Habanero (1) -
• Yellow Scotch Bonnet (1) -
• Maule's Cayenne (6) - my seeds

I'm also taking a different approach to growing this year.  KISS, or keeping it simple (stupid).  Last year I played around with a lot of "stuff": germinate seeds in coffee filters vs paper towels, mixed my own soil for each transplant, topping, trimming leaves, cutting early buds off, different kinds of pots once the plants are outside, etc.  This year I'm gonna try and make the process as simple as possible.  I'm just soaking the seeds over night in water then putting them in peat pods for germination.  I'm using Fox Farm's products for soil.  No topping, trimming, or pinching.  And all peppers are going in raised beds.  We'll see how the simple method works for me.
 
All my seeds soaking over night.  I have a germination heat pad, with a towel on top of it, and the seed tray on the towel so the seeds don't get too warm

 
Here is the germination pod try I'm going to try this year

 
I know I said I was going to try and keep things simple, but I couldn't help myself when I saw this.  Its a thermometer / humidity reader for the germination tray.  Hopefully this will allow me to keep better humidity control of the seedling environment.  Besides, I'm a data geek

 

[turbo]

Everybody seems pretty happy and healthy after the transplant.  There has been some noticeable growth, both up and out.
 
The exception is my white and yellow Fataliis.  Their leaves have shriveled up a bit and they aren't getting any better.  Hopefully they'll pull through
 

 
The Cheiro Roxa are definitely the prettiest plants in the bunch. 
 

 
The Aji Verde won the tallest variety award (so far)
 

 
I'm really excited about my Aji Pineapple.  I bought a box of these from Jusplayn last year and loved the flavor. 
 

 
And to add some cuteness to the post here is my Labradoodle
 

 

[Trident chilli]

All the best Turbo for this coming season ... great pictures of plants and dog

 

[turbo]

All (well most) of the plants are growing pretty fast now they are transplanted.  The tallest ones have probably added 2" in the past week and they all gone through a lot of leaf growth.  I probably should have put them in 4" pots a few weeks earlier, but I was going through some grow light drama and didn't get it done.
 

 
The Cheiro Roxa (the purple ones) aren't growing tall as fast as the others, but they are really spreading out nicely with a good set of leaves. 
 

 
I was all worried about my Fataliis, but they are growing nicely.  They just have the odd, misshapen leaves.  Its probably a nutrient deficiency, but at this age I don't really mess around with added nutrients quite yet.  I'll start with a 0.25 diluted nitrogen centric fert in a few weeks.
 

 

[Pinhigh]

From the yellowing, upwards curled leaves it looks like your fatalii's are suffering from a potassium deficiency and possibly heat stress (exaggerated by K def.). I would be giving them a diluted fert asap. Also if the position they are in is too hot/windy moving them. Good luck, everything else seems good!

 

[turbo]

I gave my babies their first feeding of 1/4 strength fertilizer and they responded very well.  Lots of growth this week.  Many of the stem bases have dense clusters of new leaf growth. 
 

 
The bottom left plant below in this picture was one of the smallest when I transplanted them.  Now its the tallest
 

 
Happy plants
 

 
The Cheiro Roxa continue to fill out nicely.  I was only planning on keeping one, but I'm not sure I'll be able to give them up. 
 

 
My yellow Fatalii (top middle) and white Fatalii (bottom two) still have curled leaves after fertilizing.  But they keep growing, so we'll see how they do in the long run
 

 

[turbo]

Everybody of filling out nicely.  Some are getting pretty tall, and some are getting pretty wide.  I think its close to time for the next culling.  I really hate to do it, but but its starting to get crowded.
 

 
As the Cheiro Roxa get bigger (the purple ones) I love them more and more.  I was only planning on keeping one, but these plants are SO beautiful and I'm not sure if I'll be able to cull them out.  I may keep two and adopt one out to a deserving home.
 

 
Some of these guys are getting pretty tall.  The two middles ones on the right are Aji Peruvian (freebee from PepperLover) and are a couple inches above the next tallest
 

 
Not everything is wonderful though.  I realized (too late) that my light was too close to the plants for a couple days.  There are signs of burn damage on many of the plants, but they seem to be recovering.
 

 
My cranky fatalii was getting really bad (look how curled up those lower leaves are).  I made a solution of 1 gallon water / 2ml CalMag and applied it as foliar spray to this one plant.  It seems to have responded well, as the newer leaves are...better.  After a few days to make sure it didn't die from the spray, I went ahead and applied it to all plants.
 
I was a bit afraid to use CalMag.  Last year every time I used it (for watering) my plants would take a hard downturn for a couple days.  And that was at half strength to what it recommended.  I tried using it 2 or 3 times, and each time the same results.  This year I pH tested my tap water and realized that it hangs between 8.0 and 8.2...pretty friggin high!  So all watering this year has been adjusted down to 6.0 - 6.2.  So I'm curious if it was the combo of CalMag in a high pH water that was messing me up last year.  
 

 

[socalgardengal]

Looking great! Those Cheiro Roxa's are looking amazing...can't wait til mine get bigger
Nice job on the photos

 

[turbo]

Looking great! Those Cheiro Roxa's are looking amazing...can't wait til mine get bigger
Nice job on the photos

 
Thanks!  Have you grown Cheiro Roxa before?  How do you like their taste?  This is my first year growing them.  The plants and peppers are really beautiful.  Hopefully they taste as good

 

[organic pepper]

Those are looking great Turbo! Love those Cheiro Roxa's! Extreme color on them. 

 

[Yellowfin2na]

Turbo I think it is normal for the fatali's to be curling. I also have curl on both of my white fatali's. Alot of other members fatalis look curly as well.

 

[D3monic]

yea I got lot's of curling going on in my fataliis and devils tongues. 

 

[turbo]

Those are looking great Turbo! Love those Cheiro Roxa's! Extreme color on them. 

 
Thanks OP!  I'm really curious what the plants look like when full grown.  I've seen pictures on the interwebs where the plants are mostly green with some dark coloring, and other pictures where the plant kept its dark coloration.

Turbo I think it is normal for the fatali's to be curling. I also have curl on both of my white fatali's. Alot of other members fatalis look curly as well.

 
You know, I've noticed the same thing this year.  A lot of white and yellow fataliis and some devils tongue with curled leaves.  Its kind'a odd because last year my fataliis didn't curl...though they did die off all of a sudden.  Maybe it is a fatalii thing...or maybe fataliis have higher magnesium requirements than other peppers

yea I got lot's of curling going on in my fataliis and devils tongues. 

 
I wonder how closely related fataliis are to devils tongue.  I've only seen devils tongue, but haven't tasted them.  Are they similar flavor?  Which do you prefer?

 

[D3monic]

My first year for either one but they look pretty darn similar. I wouldn't be surprised if they was pretty much the same peppers. 

 

[turbo]

I prepped my raised bed this weekend.  Its 3 feet by 8 feet, and 18 inches tall, and I added in the following:

• 1 cubic feet Oly Mountain Fish Compost
• 2 cubic feet Gardner & Bloom Planting Compost
• 20 quarts (0.67 cubic feet) Gardner & Bloom earthworm castings
• 1.5 cubic feet of perlite

I added this on top of a winter's growth of crimson clover and then worked it all in.
 
I'm kicking around the idea of building a hoop house top to the raised bed (should be easy to build, right?).  This, in theory, should allow me to plant out 2-4 weeks earlier than normal.  I should probably build it sooner than later and put recording thermometers inside and outside the hoop house, and record a couple weeks temps to see what the differences are.  The theory is it'll help keep the temp up at night.
 
Anyone else ever messed with hoop houses?

 

[turbo]

Good growth over the last two weeks.  Its getting crowded so I'm going to weed out 8 plants. 
 

 
Cheiro Roxa are still the best looking plants of the bunch.  My fatalii (back row, third from the right) is still all wrinkly.  I'm just not going to worry about it.
 

 
These guys are starting to get some height to them
 

 
Just look at this Cheiro Roxa...what a beauty!
 

 
Some of these guys aren't getting all that tall yet, but very nice dense compact set of leaves
 

 
Another short dense one
 

 
I'm starting to get some buds already.  Last year I experimented with a couple varieties where I pinched the buds off half and left them on the other half.  By the end of summer I didn't see any difference in plant size or pod production.  So this year I'm going to skip pinching off the early buds.  
 

 
I noticed I've got some edema going on a couple of my plants.  I've been bottom watering with no problems, but I'll have to start watering these guys separately on their own schedule
 

 
more edema
 

 
My garlic bed is doing awesome!!!  120 head planted with 100% germination.  
 

 

[bpwilly]

Nice garlic bed you have going.  Pretty good success rate.   Those Cheiro Roxa sure are a pretty looking plant,  healthy and great color!

 

[Scorched]

Beautiful bunch of plants you've got going. Love the color of the Roxa. I'm not growing them but am growing Pink Tiger and the leaves are the same dark purple. I've had a few plants with edema as well even with a fan going 16 hours a day and I bottom water/fertilize. If it's bad I just pluck the leaves off. Everyone says pruning/topping makes plants bushier anyway. Same with badly curled leaves. Hope you have an excellent season

 

[turbo]

Nice garlic bed you have going.  Pretty good success rate.   Those Cheiro Roxa sure are a pretty looking plant,  healthy and great color!

 
Thanks Bill!  I hope I grew enough.  We use so much garlic when we cook, plus my hot sauces usually have a ton of garlic in them.  How is your grow going this year?  You said you were going to scale back a bit, compared to last year.  How many do you have going?

Beautiful bunch of plants you've got going. Love the color of the Roxa. I'm not growing them but am growing Pink Tiger and the leaves are the same dark purple. I've had a few plants with edema as well even with a fan going 16 hours a day and I bottom water/fertilize. If it's bad I just pluck the leaves off. Everyone says pruning/topping makes plants bushier anyway. Same with badly curled leaves. Hope you have an excellent season

 
Thanks Scorched!  Yea, the Roxa are just amazing looking.  Good luck with fixing your edema issue (wow...that sounds bad!).  I've got my fan going all day also, but I still ended up with it.  I ended up putting half my plants on a different watering schedule than the other half.  About 14 of them just don't need water as often (the edema ones it turns out).  So half are watered every 7 days, and the other half every 10.  

 

[turbo]

I culled 8 plants last week from my indoor grow setup, but couldn't bare to throw them out.  So I just put them outside to fend for themselves, and they've faired really well (I do bring them into the garage at night). 
 
The weather has been pretty warm recently; low 40's at night and 50's - 60's during the day, so I decided to go ahead and put two in the ground as an experiment to see how they do.
 

 
This is my first look at the roots since I transplanted them into 4" pots. My indoor plants still have another month inside before plant out.  It looks like I better transplant them into something bigger soon.
 

 
My first two in the ground!!!  An Aji Cito and an Aji Peruvian.  If they make it through the week I'm going to put my extra Cheiro Roxa in the ground as well
 

 

[Runescape]

dayum, impressive roots dawg...