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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:
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
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Here is the germination pod try I'm going to try this year
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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
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turbo said:
Micro Climates!
 
So I think I'm noticing a micro climate difference between my two raised beds.  One bed gets full sun all day long (sunny-bed), and my other bed next to the house gets sun from about 9am - 3pm (shady-bed).  Both beds have equal(ish) number of baccatums and chinense between them.  Sunny-bed's baccatums are fairly small and only have a few pods on them, but it's chinese plants are probably twice as big and have many green pods and a few that are starting to ripen.  Shady-bed on the other hand, its baccatums are nicely developed and full of green pods, but its chinese have almost no pods on them at all. 
 
 
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Literally just went and moved my pots around. I've had some under a large plum tree where they get filtered light and have sort of been hardening off, and it's also sheltered from the wind. Just put all my chinenses into the sunniest spot I have, which gets full sun nearly the whole day. 
 
Have you by any chance made any observations on annuums?
 
Comptine said:
 
Literally just went and moved my pots around. I've had some under a large plum tree where they get filtered light and have sort of been hardening off, and it's also sheltered from the wind. Just put all my chinenses into the sunniest spot I have, which gets full sun nearly the whole day. 
 
Have you by any chance made any observations on annuums?
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Yea, my jalapenos and cayennes seem to like the shady spot a bit more than the full sun spot.  The have bigger foliage, but both spots have pods
 
Turbo,
 
Nice bit of observation and sharing.   As for the Pubescens, I have only grown them for a couple of years, is my experience s very limited.  Last year, the ones I had in full sun produced more ripe pods, but the ones that grew in a partially shaded are, did grow larger plant wise, but took longer to produce pods, thus did not produce as many.  So my results have been kind of mixed.  I know they do not seem to like the real hot temps, as they seem to drop blossoms real easily if the heat goes up much.  They do seem to handle cooler weather or at least cooler nights better.
 
Hope others can provide a bit more knowledge and experience.
 
The Chinense plants are loving the heat this year.  I noticed another difference between my sunny and shady bed.  Many of the flowers dropped off the Chinense plants that are in the shady bed, but not in the full sun bed. 
 
Last year I had a beautiful MOA plant, thanks to BPWilly.  It was big and bushy and only produced one (perfect looking) pod.  I saved the seeds and have two going this year.  One in the shady bed, with no flowers at all, and this one in a bucket.  Its full of flowers and has a couple of pods growing.
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I usually don't buy hardware store veggies, but was at Lowe's getting stuff for a project a few months back and they had a pot with 3 jalapeno plants in it.   I have to water them every day, but they are producing a lot of peppers.
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My Aji Panca is being odd this year.  I heard they are hard to grow and don't produce very well.  When it was still indoors, it was full of flowers, and two flowers developed into pods.  But once I transplanted it outside (in the shady bed) it haven't grown another flower.  Totally flowerless  :violin:
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My White Fatalii is starting to put out some pods.  I'm really excited to see what this tastes like.  I think an all White Fatalii sauce would look really cool.
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My Caribbean Red Hab is the only Chinense that is producing pods in my shady bed.  I've got another Caribbean Red Hab in the sunny bed which is being as equally productive.
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My Brazilian Starfish  is packed with pods.  Every branch has 5 - 8 pods on it.  Can't wait until they start to ripen
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My Aji Lemon is pretty small so far, but producing nicely
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This is my first Cheiro Roxa pod.  These look so beautiful.
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A couple of cayennes
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My Aji Peruvian (freebie from PepperLover) is another amazing producer this year.  Its got TONS of little 2" - 3" pods on it.  The first ripe ones should be ready in the next few days.
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My best Chinense variety this year is my Trinidad Scotch Bonnet.  Its probably got 25+ pods on it, and I've already pulled 4-5 ripe ones so far.
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Beautiful Trinidad Scotch Bonnets
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Here is my regular veggie garden.  I'm a big believer in vertical growing since I don't have lot of square footage.  I should be inundated with ripe tomatoes any day now
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Turbo your garden looks amazing. Pepper plants are looking great as well. Nothing like fresh pods. Do you think you'll get a couple harvest's this year? I think your temps are milder than mine. I was thinking you can bust out the plastic for a extended grow.
 
OCD Chilehead said:
Turbo your garden looks amazing. Pepper plants are looking great as well. Nothing like fresh pods. Do you think you'll get a couple harvest's this year? I think your temps are milder than mine. I was thinking you can bust out the plastic for a extended grow.
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Thanks OCD! Based on my past history and the heat trends for this year in the Pacific NW I'm thinking I'll get 3 good harvests this year.  I usually get a small baby pod first harvest, a solid second harvest, and then a third round where half the pods are still green by the time the temps drop in the 40s and the rain kicks in 25 hours a day.  But this year, they are predicting very warm temps all the way into late October.  So I may have a really good third round of pods.
 
Your spot on with pulling out plastic this winter.  We're supposed to have a warmer / drier winter than normal as well, so I was going to trim the plants back at the end of the season, and put the plastic tarp back on the beds and see how long the peppers can keep going.  It'll be a fun experiment
 
turbo said:
Thanks OCD! Based on my past history and the heat trends for this year in the Pacific NW I'm thinking I'll get 3 good harvests this year.  I usually get a small baby pod first harvest, a solid second harvest, and then a third round where half the pods are still green by the time the temps drop in the 40s and the rain kicks in 25 hours a day.  But this year, they are predicting very warm temps all the way into late October.  So I may have a really good third round of pods.
 
Your spot on with pulling out plastic this winter.  We're supposed to have a warmer / drier winter than normal as well, so I was going to trim the plants back at the end of the season, and put the plastic tarp back on the beds and see how long the peppers can keep going.  It'll be a fun experiment
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Three harvest's! That's sounds great! Will be nice if you get some OW's. This year when I was dumping my pots from last year, I found that a couple containers had roots that did not freeze. Amazing for Colorado. Temps below zero a couple times.

Good luck

Grow looks fantastic.
 
Turbo,
 
Looks like you will be having a great harvest this year.  It is pretty cool seeing those Brazilian Starfish.  Neat shape.  Your Cheiro Roxa is farther along than mine,  but my plant that I got from you sure has grown tall in this heat, so I still have great hopes on that one.  
 
Way to go!
 
bpwilly said:
Turbo,
 
Looks like you will be having a great harvest this year.  It is pretty cool seeing those Brazilian Starfish.  Neat shape.  Your Cheiro Roxa is farther along than mine,  but my plant that I got from you sure has grown tall in this heat, so I still have great hopes on that one.  
 
Way to go!
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Thanks Bill, I have two Cheiro Roxa plants going this year, one in the sunny bed and one in the shady bed.  During our little heat wave a few weeks back the one in the shady bed dropped all its flowers, so its just starting to flower up again.  The one in the sunny bed (shown above) is smaller, but now has about 4 little baby pods going.  They seem to be a bit finicky compared to some of the other Chinense
 
My first ripe Brazilian Starfish...get in my belly!!!!
 
[Edit]  Wow, I love this pepper.  Its got good flavor...like really good flavor.  I think its the sweetest hot pepper I've ever tried.   But with a nice back note of lemon, kind of like a lemon hard candy.  The heat is pretty mild, like a low to mid jalapeno, but lasts a fair while.  This would be a great pepper for newbies who want a bit of heat, but not too much.  I'm thinking it would make an amazing fresh sauce mixed with my Aji Peruvian, which is a bit less sweet, but very fruity.
 
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Can't go wrong with any of the Fatalii's. Those are great sauce maker's. Starfish is my favorite sweet pepper. I agree, it's almost like a Jolly Rancher. Can't wait to see what kind of sauce's you come up with.

Congrats and thanks for sharing.

Chuck
 
OCD Chilehead said:
Can't go wrong with any of the Fatalii's. Those are great sauce maker's. Starfish is my favorite sweet pepper. I agree, it's almost like a Jolly Rancher. Can't wait to see what kind of sauce's you come up with.

Congrats and thanks for sharing.

Chuck
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Thanks Chuck!  For the Starfish I've been thinking about a very simple sauce.  Something with few ingredients to try and highlight its flavors.  Probably a mix of Starfish and Aji Peruvian peppers, some white onion, garlic, cane vinegar, some lemon juice, and salt. 
 
Pull Update
 
Pulled my first big batch of peppers this morning.  Up until now its been one or two every couple days.  From left to right, top to bottom:
 
Fatalii, Brazilian Starfish, (tiny) Jalapenos, Cherry Peppers, Aji Lemon, Cayenne, Aji Peruvian, Aji Panca
 
I'm excited to try the Panca.  Its been a bit of a butt this year.  When it was inside, it was full of flowers and started growing two pods back in late April.  Once in the ground, it dropped all its flowers and hasn't grown another one since.  These are the two pods that started indoors 5 months ago.
 
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Yea  Color!   Nice pull.   I have been having struggles with the Aji Panca as well.  I do have one plant hat has plenty of pods, but all are still green, so your doing OK to get a few ripe ones.   I did not do so hot with they last year either, but figure that I might find the right environment for them someday.  They do take a long time to get ripe if I remember correctly.
 
The temps have cooled off here in Seattle.  We're alternating between one week in the 70's, the next back in upper 80's, and little rain.  My plants seem to like this way better than the upper 90's we had a month ago, as I've seen a big growth spurt the past 3 weeks.  Or...thats just their normal growth pattern and it has nothing to do with temps.  I don't know. 
 
Lower, sunny bed is nice and happy
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Trinidad Scotch Bonnet is starting to show some sings of color
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Both my Cheiro Roxa have doubled in size the past two weeks.  This one has about 20 pods the size of a large marble.
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Cheiro Roxa pod
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Shady bed is also looking happy.  Good plant growth, and lots of green pods
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Last year bpwilly donated a couple plants to me, including a MOA that grew into a huge beautiful bush...that only produced a single pod.
 
Well, I kept the seeds and figured I'd give MOA another shot this year.  Doesn't look like I have the same issue as last year.
 
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This sucker is full of pods
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Picture perfect!
 
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Looking nice,  Better than mine, and your getting the true shape.  A bonus in my book, as they taste great either way!
 
Congrats!   Your garden is looking very nice.
 
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