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Violentglitter Stumbles Thru 2018

WARNING: I am seriously a newbie. I guarantee I have no clue what I'm doing, so you will probably see me do really stupid things.
 
Well, here I go.
 
A little background...
Fall of 2016, my then 3rd grade son brought home a cabbage with some school contest sponsored by Bonnie plants or something like that to grow the biggest head. I hadn't grown anything since I was a kid and my dad kept a small garden, and thought it could be fun. It didn't live long, and my son bugged me to let him grow something again to "help the Earth". Spring came, and he talked me into buying probably the cheap 4/$1 seeds of all kinds. Something about seeing those hooks pop up had me hooked, and I started growing a few pepper plants to support my love of heat. My couple tiny plants became my obsession, though only 3 ever made it into anything bigger than a solo cup. (One still lives in a solo cup in my kitchen window.)
My husband will eat jalapenos all day every day, but doesn't care for more than that. I was looking forward to sharing some pods with my dad, who is the only person in my family who shares my love of heat, and would jump at sharing any new hot sauces or salsas we could find.  Unfortunately, he passed away before my first habs ripened. I plan to continue the adventure of finding new and better fire. :hell:
 
Anyway...
 
I'm almost embarrassed to say that I haven't tried any pepper in it's raw form apart from the grocery store usuals, and want to expand my horizons. I really don't know where to start, and I want to try everything. I have budget of near zero to grow on, as we've recently had to move, get a new car, taking care of my 3 boys, etc mixed in with not the highest paying jobs ;) I'm not worried this season about maxing out potential, I just found that I thoroughly enjoy growing things, and if that means I end with nothing but a few teeny tiny plants, I'm okay with that. :party: Not to say that I don't want to try to push the limits with what I have and see what I can do. 
 
Last year I started seeds in ice cube trays with holes drilled in them, sitting on my back porch with relative shade and a bit late. This year I've picked up a cheap heat mat and light which arrived today. I know I could've done better with slightly more investment, but the slightly more I don't have right now.
Heat mat with thermostat: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B010GNW6T8/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Light: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075JCLXCW/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
 
For seeds, I was so very lost, and wanted to try *EVERYTHING*. I ordered the mystery pack of seeds from Tyler Farms. So right now my grow list is:
 
???
YBS for growdown
 
I like surprises, though I'm not exactly wanting to end up with an ebay'd mix of maybe peppers, so I'm hoping this will give me a good variety, though I may spend WAY too much time later trying to figure out what the hell I have.  :confused:
 
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Randomly grabbed seeds to maybe germ. Some were slightly cracked, but figured I would try anyway.
 
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The crappy pic of what I've set on an old desk. It had a nail already in the top from hanging something that seems to work okay for now with the light. I took pic as soon as I plugged in, and will make it all a bit more neat tomorrow.
 
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It looks... like a light.
 
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YBS in the expanded pellets with 4/5 hooks. 2 shed their seed coat while planting.
 
As I threw this all on my desk, I realized just how completely clueless I am at all of this.  :mope:  :shh: 
But what better way to learn, right? :dance: :dance:
 
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Ghost Pepper Revolution said:
Chorizo857_62J, on 07 Dec 2018 - 4:35 PM, said:
More heavy rain up here in N.C. FL, and another cold front. Hang in there!
Now we are getting hit with the next cold front. Stay warm!
-
Florida problems

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Click to expand...
 
So much truth. I just harvested some peppers the other day, with more growing. Ahh, January in FL.
 
We are nearing "extreme" temps. The report earlier said a low of 29 for tonight/tomorrow morning. It seems to have gone up a degree, but still.  :sick: 
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PaulG said:
Freezing Winters = Fewer Pests, Snakes, Nasty-a$$ Spiders, etc. the following season   ;)
Click to expand...
Very true Paul, we have been in the negative temps with wind chill. And Monday was the worst so far this year, out cutting wood for my father in laws wood boiler, I had icicles hanging off my moustache not much lives through that. As far as pests and spiders, well I had a few small spiders a couple years ago. Nothing bad. Pests??...... big brown ones, Dam deer like to get into the gardens. Western NY weather is hazardous to my health lol. Anyways, good luck in 2019 Violentglitter.
 
I hate spiders. My boys have managed to acquire various larger toy spiders that they love to plant around my desk and such to freak me out. Our old apartment was overrun by brown recluse... Where I could generally tolerate spiders so long as they weren't too big and in my personal space, those things were bigger than my hand (to be fair, I'm a pretty small person and wear a size 4 wedding ring), not very friendly, and were brave enough to run at you, and sent me over the edge. My husband had to send some of his employees to "rescue" me more than once (AKA come kill the bitch 'cause I can't get within 20 feet without having a panic attack). There were also a few instances where I won the battle armed with a swiffer and scrubbing bubbles cleaner. :lol:  :whistle:  :crazy: 
 
I've toughened up a bit since then, and in the last year plus the only notable incident involved me nearly breaking my ankle when a medium-sized not so threatening one crawled across my monitor while I was working. I pushed back from the desk, somehow my leg went through the opening of the side arm, and chair tipped over, landing directly on my wedged ankle. I couldn't walk on it for an hour or so, and left a nasty bruise, but ended up being fine. :oops: That is with living more in the woods with many more spiders around. Everyone I know loves to pick at me for it, because it's not exactly characteristic of me. I suppose it's one thing that somewhere along the line my brain short circuited and the wires got crossed with something actually mythologically big and threatening. :doh: :doh:
 
Maybe we need more freezing!
 
 
My husband is from the Buffalo area, and is always telling me about that Western NY weather!
 
 
I hear ya on the spider issues. I'm not a fan of them either HAHAHAHA. We don't have anything here that is really dangerous but the dam wolf spiders, grass spiders and garden spiders get to big for my liking. And as far as the hubby telling stories about the weather here, its 100% true I bet. I work in buffalo most days and I live about an hour from there. We got over a foot and a half of snow in less than 12 hours LOL.
 
When this happened last year, I had never seen anything like it in my life and was taking pictures of EVERYTHING with ice:
 
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... my husband laughed. My mom, from Sweden, laughed. I was born and raised in South Florida, and it shows at times. :lol: My husband called me one morning from work the year before to go outside to see the light snow flurries in the air. That is my complete experience with frozen waterstuff not from a freezer. :silenced:  :silenced: 
 
I can agree that spiders are fascinating, when I can bring myself to watch them and they aren't trying to eat me.
 
But as for my grow...
 
I realized the spot I had my heat mat was still in an area of the porch that got too cold, and it was only heating to ~65 during the cold part of the night. So no signs of life yet. :mope:
 
I also couldn't resist ordering more seeds of some varieties that I've wanted to try and a couple that just struck me at that moment. Those are... *pulls up emails because of cluelessness*
 
Hangjiao Space Pepper #9 - Big Bang
Peach Naga Cross - White
Madballz Chocolate x 7 Pot Burgundy
7 Pot BBG- Orange
Aji Lemon Drop
Trinidad Pimento
Sugar Rush Peach
 
I'm hoping a couple varieties will be something more people in my family can enjoy as well. I also have some basic sweet banana pepper seeds that my oldest saw at Dollar General and wanted to get because he's decided they are good. If they grow to be banana peppers. ;)
 
 
 
 
Not a fan of spiders either, I tend to go a little bit crazy and they must be found and killed before I can rest.
:flamethrower:
Living in my area has toughened me up since there are a multitude of bugs, now I kill them with my bare hands if they even come near the kiddos :metal:

Those you added to your list look good, Ill be watching this grow fo sho
 
82 degrees in N. Central Florida today, with a warm dry week ahead.  My plants have "survived" the cold January, but production dropped off, everything is dormant.  The rains didn't help either.  On the bugs, without anything into the 20's here yet, those are still around.  Snakes and wolf spiders are what get me going.  I don't fear snakes, until they pop out after my hand while I am taking a pot off the stack during replanting.  It was just a black racer, but STILL.  All spiders shall die.
 
Oak pollen is already out and about (allergies), and pine will be after April.  I am expecting the warm spell to punch the blooming effect into action.  Sprouts over the winter are Tabasco and sweet red bells (family won't eat the hot stuff).  Red Bhuts, Yellow Scotch Bonnets, and several varieties of Habaneros survived.  Attempted other varieties, but no go.  Would like to go with a Reaper.  Friend sent me seeds, but address was a little off, and they traveled the southeast US for 4 months, didn't end well.
 
Best of luck to all for an early (maybe) Spring.
 
J
 
Ohh the oak pollen, tell me about it!  :rolleyes:  :lol:
 
Glad to hear about the survivors, hopefully this warm weather we've got will get you some more blooms (I'm hoping, too!) 
Apart from my solo cup plants that had a couple pods ripening, mine are dormant too, and some combination of the one night that stayed below freezing for most of the night and potentially too much humidity in my greenhouse made all the buds that were starting (as well as a little of the top new growth) turn brown and a few leaves dropped, but are otherwise fine. My family won't eat the hot stuff either.
 
Good luck getting some Reapers going, and best of luck going into this season!
 
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