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

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
IMG_1060.jpg

 
Here is the germination pod try I'm going to try this year
IMG_1058.jpg

 
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
IMG_1059.jpg
 
Click to expand...
Turbo, I'm not sure if I've commented on your grow at all, but I have really enjoyed following your progress, especially the KIS(S) part. Keep it up mate.
 
OCD Chilehead said:
Nice looking pods. I can see the lemons and habs in a nice sauce together. Great looking pods.

Thanks for sharing
Click to expand...
 
Thanks OCD, I've been waiting until I've got enough peppers to pull a sauce together, and I think I'm finally there.  Now all I need to do is get off my butt and make it
organic pepper said:
Plants and garden looking great Turbo! Very nice looking peppers as well.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks OP!  Its good to see your late start plants are starting to put out some pods too.  Depending on how long the summer lasts, you might get another round of pods in October
Comptine said:
Turbo, I'm not sure if I've commented on your grow at all, but I have really enjoyed following your progress, especially the KIS(S) part. Keep it up mate.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks Comptine for the encouragement!
 
Turbo,
 
How is your Chero Roxa peppers doing?   I am trying to figure out how I will know when they are ripe.  I am sure they are not to that point yet, but want to make sure I don't let them go bad.
 
The plant you gave me is sure a healthy pepper.  Seems to spend more time growing tall than making peppers, but it finally has a bunch of small peppers  growing now.
 
bpwilly said:
Turbo,
 
How is your Chero Roxa peppers doing?   I am trying to figure out how I will know when they are ripe.  I am sure they are not to that point yet, but want to make sure I don't let them go bad.
 
The plant you gave me is sure a healthy pepper.  Seems to spend more time growing tall than making peppers, but it finally has a bunch of small peppers  growing now.
Click to expand...
 
Hey Bill, my Cheiro Roxa plants went through a big growth spurt the past 3 weeks, tripling in size.  More tall than wide, like you said.  They have a ton is small peppers going.  From what I can tell they don't seem to get any bigger than a large marble.  It also seems that the pods start off dark purple, and when ripening they start to turn dark pink.  I've had about 3-4 so far that have gotten that far.  As the bulk of my other pods start ripening I may keep a couple on the bush longer to see how far they'll ripen. 
 
I tried a couple and sadly wasn't all that impressed with the flavor.  It wasn't a bad flavor, but it wasn't very interesting either.  I'm hoping that if I let them ripen on the bush a bit longer, the flavor will get a bit better.  We'll see. They were nicely hot though, a bit less than a hab.  Not sure what I'm going to do with them.
 
IMG_3072.jpg

 
Grow Update
 
The plants have really being going through a growth phase in late July / early August.  Looking back at my pictures from last year, the same thing happened in mid August.  We got a ton of rain last Friday, lasting all day (after almost 60+ days with no significant rain) and the plants loved it.
 
Shady bed has a lot of green peppers, the lack of sun is definitely affecting how fast they ripen. 
 
IMG_3066.jpg

 
Sunny bed is pretty happy.  I'm pulling 3-5 starfish, Aji Peruvian, and Caribbean Red Habs every 3-4 days.  The Aji Lemons and Fataliis are starting to turn color.  And everything else has a lot of green pods.
IMG_3069.jpg

 
So the lone pepper on the left is a yellow fatalii, and the two on the right are white fataliis.  Looks the same right? :rolleyes:  They are definitely different peppers though.  The yellow fatalii starts off dark green and ripens to yellow, then orange.  My white fatalii starts off light green, then turns a Shamrock Shake creamy green color, then to yellow as you see below.  The white fatalii also has a thicker flesh than the yellow fatalii does. 
 
I'll try to get around to cutting them open and trying them tonight.  I'll try to remember to take a picture of their insides for comparison.
IMG_3078.jpg

 
 
bpwilly said:
Turbo,
 
How is your Chero Roxa peppers doing?   I am trying to figure out how I will know when they are ripe.  I am sure they are not to that point yet, but want to make sure I don't let them go bad.
 
The plant you gave me is sure a healthy pepper.  Seems to spend more time growing tall than making peppers, but it finally has a bunch of small peppers  growing now.
Click to expand...
 
Hey Bill,
I just picked this little guy this morning.  This is what (I think) Cheiro Roxa look like when they get ripe.  They get this light purple / pinkish color to them. 
 
IMG_3087.jpg
 
John,
 
Thanks, that helps.  Based on that, maybe I have a few that are ripe.  I better try them out before anything goes bad.
 
I'm starting to get some good picks as we get into late August.  Picked these today after picking pods just 3 days ago.
 
Top to Bottom, Left to Right: Aji Lemon, Morouga Red Habanero, Brazilian Starfish, (not so) White Fatalii, MOA, Trinidad Scotch Bonnet, Aji Peruvian, Aji Cito, Fatalii
 
IMG_3174.jpg
 
Yea roxas will get a light cream color to them when ripe. there is a drastic change in pod color from unripe to ripe too. Here's how fidalga looks ripe. Should be exactly the same chero and cgn-21500
 
 
Went out to check out my plants and was surprised to pick another 12 peppers after yesterday's haul. 
 
I'm doing a bit of processing tonight in preparation for a couple sauces I wanna make in the next week or so.  I had about 3 weeks of peppers in the refrigerator, so I thought it would be a fun picture to take before I get to work de-seeding.  Its been a good season for me so far this year.
 
IMG_3178.jpg
 
John,
Is the peppers second from the left on the bottom row a Passila De Oaxaca, or?
 
Nice looking haul you are getting.
 
Genetikx said:
Those look excellent Turbo, nice work
Click to expand...
 
Thanks Genetikx!
bpwilly said:
John,
Is the peppers second from the left on the bottom row a Passila De Oaxaca, or?
 
Nice looking haul you are getting.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks Bill.  Nope, its a Aji Panca (or at least the seeds were labeled that way).  My plant has only produced 2 peppers so far this year.
 
Looks like we're supposed to get some serious wind today...40+ mph.  Time to shore up the branches the best we can, eh?
 
Pray for no wind, as I have plans for taking my Grandson out on the motorcycle for a ride over the passes today. (Chinook, Cayuse and White pass).  We call it the 3 pass blast and it is a nice easy day ride, with a excellent lunch joint (BBQ) about halfway.  Like it was made for a weekend cruise!
 
I've got a ton for green pods on my plants, but the night time temps in the lower 50's and day time highs in the mid 60's.  So decided to put up the hoop house to see if I could create a warmer environment that the pods might ripen in.
 
Just checked the temps is its a humid 91F inside, and 62F outside.
 
IMG_3386.jpg
 
Genetikx said:
Wow quite a jump in temp, they'll be ripe real soon in the hoop
Click to expand...
 
Its working pretty well, though slower than I want.  Two days ago it was 71F and sunny outside, and 101F and really humid inside the hoop house.  I've been pulling 4-5 pods ever few days.  But I just looked in today and and are dozens that are starting to turn color.  Hopefully in a week or two I'll have a bunch more

juanitos said:
cute little hoop house.
Click to expand...
 
I like to think of it as a manly hoop house, thank you very much!  ;)
 
Ripening Indoors Experiment
About two weeks ago I pulled my MOA inside and put it under my grow light as an experiment to see if I could convince it to give me a few more ripe pods.
 
After 1 week a couple were turning orange
IMG_3459.jpg

 
Looking pretty good...
IMG_3468.jpg

 
This morning I pulled this bunch off my MOA.  Pretty good for ripening indoors.  I think I'm gonna dig up a few plants in my hoop house that gets the least amount of sun, transplant them and move them inside.
IMG_3469.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top