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Why kill last years plants?

Boarider

Boarider

Couldn't think of a good title for this, but it's a two part question.
1. Why do people start fresh every year?
I understand if you can't over winter and live in a cold climate. I live in South Louisiana and grow out of buckets. So maybe 6 or 7 times a year I have to shuffle for frost (Thinking 2 or 3 more times this year). But do most people just like to start fresh or different types yearly?
I'm pretty sure my survivors from last year are going in the ground in my wife's flower gardens that I take care of anyway.

2. When do you snip the lesser of multiply seedlings in the same pot? Starting a couple seeds in the same cube.
I have multiple of the same type and started in rapid routes, so not going to try to separate them.
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Boarider said:
Couldn't think of a good title for this, but it's a two part question.
1. Why do people start fresh every year?
I understand if you can't over winter and live in a cold climate. I live in South Louisiana and grow out of buckets. So maybe 6 or 7 times a year I have to shuffle for frost (Thinking 2 or 3 more times this year). But do most people just like to start fresh or different types yearly?
I'm pretty sure my survivors from last year are going in the ground in my wife's flower gardens that I take care of anyway.

2. When do you snip the lesser of multiply seedlings in the same pot? Starting a couple seeds in the same cube.
I have multiple of the same type and started in rapid routes, so not going to try to separate them.
Click to expand...
 

Hey boarider.  Cool to see pictures of your grow.  Don't think I've seen any before.  For me, I always overwinter some and also start fresh on others. Based on only wanting to deal with so many OW, liking the process of starting seeds and growing young plants, and of course wanting new things and different varieties from year to year. In my climate I overwinter more pubescens than other varieties because they're more cold tolerant and I can keep them outside a decent portion of the winter.
 
When I cull multiples I usually do it around the point you're at with the small ones (even sooner if I'm culling a few) and definitely by where you're at with the bigger ones - I give as long as reasonable to see who earns the right to continue, but cull as soon as I can tell so they aren't detracting from each other. 
 
There's some good options to disrupting both seedlings by digging out and transplanting when you want to save multiple seedlings in the same container.  Have you checked out Paul G's glog kicking around methods of taking mini-cuttings or simply pulling seedlings up with their roots and developing them in water?
 
Here's a cool sequence he shows on some of his aji amarillo seedlings.
 

http://thehotpepper.com/topic/70220-paulg-2019/?p=1601371

http://thehotpepper.com/topic/70220-paulg-2019/?p=1604055

http://http://thehotpepper.com/topic/70220-paulg-2019/?p=1604654
 
 
As for me, I'd love to be able to keep a few plants going every year. But being in NY, that's just not an option for me right now.... the tables will turn once I have my dream greenhouse as for snipping multiplexing a single pot, try maybe uprooting them to plant elsewhere, or snip and root in a hydro set up? If you just want to make sure you have a nice viable plant, I'd give it a few weeks to make sure it's nice and strong then snip the lesser of them.
 
Boarider said:
1. Why do people start fresh every year?
Click to expand...
 
My climate zone is very similar to yours.  And I'm looking at the same question.
 
I plan to save a few plants each year, keeping them in their original pots from last year and protecting them from freezes.
 
I'll compare how they do against plants I grow from seeds every year.
 
I only over-wintered one plant this way last year, and it didn't work out.  I'm not sure what went wrong.  It just started loosing its leaves in early summer, and looked really sketchy.
 
I'll try a few more this year, and see if they work out better.
 
I didn't wanna bring any bugs inside and have to deal with that. A lot of the people I have seen with aphids have overwinters. I suppose if there was something really special I might take a clone or try to bonchi it for the winter.
 
I only have the space to overwinter 3ish plants each year.  Have dealt with aphid issues before (the plants made it thru) but the overwinters I have are taste/sentimental favorites.  I have a fish pepper and a bahamian goat pepper that are both 4 years old now - I dig them out of the garden before the first frost, put them into containers and they go in the house till I put them back in the dirt the following year.
 
As far as culling seedlings, I usually plant 2 seeds per plug then cull the smaller or weakest when I transplant to solo cups. 
 
Due to my climate, I need to bring plants indoors to survive the winter. I only have room for a couple plants inside and the few times I tried, I lost the battle to the aphid army.
 
It's on a backup drive I don't currently have access to, but I have a document from some MoA, Jamaican or Trinidadian, where they discuss plant productivity as a function of age. I seem to recall that productivity peaked in the second or third year and declined precipitously after that.

If I remember that right (a questionable proposition), then except for special favorites, OWing wouldn't seem to offer much benefit beyond a year or two. In my limited experience it does seem to become more difficult to OW an older plant. My personal record is 4 years (have 3 y.o. plants going now). The oldest I've heard/read about was about a decade, I think.
 
If my plants could survive the winter outside then I'd definitely keep them for a few years, until they became less productive.  We had a good summer last year so everything went outside, then when I brought them indoors for overwintering I found I had brought a lot of bugs in with them (not just aphids but caterpillars and some things I haven't even identified.)  There is a very real chance that I haven't eliminated all these bugs and they could wipe out my new seedlings.  Trouble is, I haven't the heart to throw the plants out now, having got them through as far as January.  But next autumn, something will have to really deserve it to get brought back into the house - the general rule will be that everything that's out, stays out - so will die when the frost hits.
 
As for seedlings, I use the damp tissue method for germination so there's no need to cull.  Sometimes too many germinate, in which case I pot up the ones I need and I just eat the spares as sprouted seeds.
 
I tried 2 years in a row to over winter... followed all the guides, etc... with no success.
 
First year I had ~12 plants I brought in... I think 2 survived, but maybe only 1.
 
Second year was just about as dismal.
 
Last year I just chopped em all down and threw em into the compost pile...
 
 
I start seeds ~dec 1 and can usually be in the ground March 1 or for sure mid March.  My new plants grow to be 5-6 feet tall every year and are VERY productive so with my dismal success rate for over winter I just dont mess with it anymore.
 
 
 
I had one Bonnie Ghost that did nothing the first year so I let it set through snow (not often in South Louisiana) and she came strong her 2nd year with a couple of sawyers ghosts.
I'd never bring them inside the house but shuffle from time to time in my shed outside on the worst nights. Seems most are hiding in there. These will go in the flowerbeds and the fresh varieties go in the buckets.

As far as culling. I hate trying to pick the strongest, so I started putting the ones I pull in the areogarden. Little shits take off, but when to put them back in soil?
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