Month: March 2016

I did more work the last two nights moving some of the smaller seedlings into bigger containers.

Here is the set up almost full on the one pair of grow shelves. I added the last tray later.

And here is the other tray in my overflow section where I’ll put the bigger plants. The open air and lower heat will slow the growth a bit. It’s mid March, so they need to be under control.

Here is a Naga Brain Yellows. These have some very large, pointed leaves on them. They are pretty distinct in my group of plants right now.

This is a Santa Rosa Bianca – a pepper I got from Tradewinds Fruit that is supposed to go from white to red. They look pretty, sound good, and were interesting. Here is a link to Tradewinds Fruit description.

This is seed for a Bhut Orange Copenhagen that I collected myself. I tried to select a pod that was hidden by growth, hoping it will not be a crossed line, but we’ll see if it grows true.

I had to plant some more seed for the Jay’s Peach Ghost Scorpion, so this is from the second round. I know it’s small, but this new container will pay off in a week or two.

Here is a group of Caramel Brain Strains just prior to being potted up. I have no idea about their taste. I am thinking they’ll be hot though.

Finally, here are the germination numbers and the number of plants I kept. I keep track of such things on a simple excel spreadsheet.

You’ll notice that I have 277 plants, plus the extra 14 on the side, with probably about 12  more to come.  That’s over 300 pepper plants.  I failed at keeping it smaller.  My germination percentage took a huge hit with my first failed attempt where I didn’t have the temperature right as well as due to just a couple batches of bad seed.

That’s all I have for now.

I’ve been in the process of moving the plants from their first containers – which are the smaller, 6 celled starters – to the next step up, which are the 3×3 (or maybe 2 1/2 x 2 1/2) pots. I had a goal of going smaller in scale this year. I think I’m failing.

Here are some of the Scotch Bonnet Black River plants looking nice and healthy.

The taller ones in the middle with a purple tint, were labeled Tsholo (Coheed). I’ve seen them labeled “Tshololo” but the confusing thing is I’ve seen peppers labeled that that are white and smaller and others that are red and a bit larger. I’m hoping for the white ones. Anyway, the plants are off to a good start.

Here is a shot of a Naga Brain Yellow (Romy6). I’m excited about this one!

Here is a flower off of one of my overwintered plants – a Pineapple Rocoto

Here is a shot of the grow shelves filling up.

And some other stuff going on as well – cooking down the maple sap. I only collected a small amount this year. Strange year.

Finally, I’ve got some flowers blooming. One of the folks from St. Johns gave me these. They are Winter Aconite and they bloom super early.

Alright – that’s what I’ve got going on so far.

I’ve got things going for this year’s pepper crop.  I began sowing seeds on Christmas Eve – just a few that first round and did two more rounds in January and two more in February.  I had some trouble this year with my germination rates at first because I didn’t have the temperature in the growing area right at first.  I needed the lights on longer in order to hold in more heat.  The readings in the grow box really need to be in the 80’s for most of the day for me to get good germination rates.  Here’s a shot of my grow box/grow shelf set up:

 

And here is the top shelf of the grow area with peppers germinating:

 

Some pepper seedlings:

 

I have overwintered several plants, mostly C. Pubescens.

 

I did grow some C. Pubescens from seed so I could have some for this year’s draft. Here are some CAP 1695 from the seed bank in Germany. If you look closely you can see the fuzz on the leaves that is characteristic of this species.

 

Here is one that I’m really excited about – a Scotch Bonnet from seed that was collected by some of my parishioners on a trip to Jamaica. They got the seed by a place called, ‘Black River,’ so it’s the “Scotch Bonnet Black River.” I’m excited to see how it turns out.

 

Finally, here’s a shot of some plants that were just potted up into the 3×3 pots.  You can see the cinnamon on them – that’s an antifungal and helps to stop ‘dampening off’ – something that strikes and kills seedlings like this.

 

Alright – that’s it for today. Thanks for stopping by!