Mid/ late season update w/ pictures:
Okay big update coming, I said I would provide full details and here they are:
So everything has gone very well. I have 47 pepper plants that survived to this point.
The plants I ordered from point #4 in my last post, which were delayed again and again did arrive after I contested the order with Paypal. The seller was Matt's Patch. He did cancel the order as I asked but sent the plants anyways, they arrived fairly safely and while I would vet the seller, just be sure you order from them as early as possible. Mine came mid-July and I lost a few weeks or a month of productivity because of that, even though I ordered them in early April iirc.
As you'll see I grew them all in disposable pots from Costco with above ground potting soil. I used a 1/4" layer of vermiculite at the bottom of the pots and drilled 10 small holes in each. I have Bermuda grass and it was necessary to do it that way. This system worked very well but left the plants vulnerable to wind and storms knocking them over and you'll see where I staked the absolute hell out of them and weighted them down. Last year a storm broke a full half of my Armageddon plant off and I lost so much time because of it, this might be overkill but I wasn't taking any chances. Most are just staked to the first Y branch but some with heavier peppers were tied with a slack string to support the weight only if the wind hits them. As far as watering, I water them thoroughly every day and fertilize every 3rd to 5th day, more recently as its crunch time.
When I do get pods, and I've gotten a ton of fataliis and Ghosts, I dry them in a $50 air fryer/ dehydrator I bought just for this and then grind them into powder with a grinder and mortar and pestle I also bought just for this.
Finally, a few issues:
Space: I'm running out of space and when I initially moved them outside I had many on a table which forced them to grow tall to compete for light. This was a mistake.
Time and money: Yeah this was not the cheapest or most efficient way to try a variety of rare peppers
Time crunch/ future plans: It's late August and so far only the Fataliis, Ghosts, Black Jalapenos and Tasmanian Black Peppers have produced any pods and even then the Tas Black pods haven't matured at all. These things are in no rush to produce and with fall coming I am considering whether or not to drop $2k on a greenhouse to keep this not-so-little experiment going. Not sure what I'll do as of now.
Pics:
Note the one with all the pots lined up was about 6 to 8 weeks ago. They are 5 times bigger than that now, I just wanted to show the madness of nearly 50 peppers in one pic. I also just wanted to show the stinger on that Ghost, I thought it looked cool. Then there's two Yellow Scotch Brains that the leaves are all dark and rolled up on, pretty sure I over-fertilized those, not really concerned because I think I have 7 or 8 more YSBs that are doing fine but if you know what causes that please let me know. Then I think the last one shows how my little string system works when the wind is hitting a plant.
If you have any questions or suggestions, let me know. I honestly just kind of made this all up as I went along with the little experience I had previously and I have to say all in all it worked out pretty well. Would I do it again? Maybe? It took a lot of time, money and effort but when they all start producing I think it will be worth it.
