2023 - The Insanity Continues

[DMF]

The three and four year old plants are going strong. This new location apparently agrees with them. The overhang looks like it will block the sun at solstice, but they do get some morning sun. I guess they don't need much to convince them to grow.

• Mammoth jalapeno is no longer mammoth; his now-normal size pods seem to outnumber his leaves!
• Triple scotch bonnet is fully vegged and producing some gnarly looking pods
• Mako akakosrades are a riot of tiny leaves and small pods (normal) and I can see below some pods that are, for makos, monsters.
• Paprika and pimento have already yielded a number of nice, large pods. These guys are champs.
• The two shattahs that are left are doing their shattah thing, though not as rabidly as past years.
• The fataliis have gone nuts. I gave one to my neighbor; she is trimming pods to promote growth. The one that froze off (see my 2020... thread) is back with a vengeance, trying to eat the balcony. The two that had to live in 6" pots for a couple of years have stretch out their toes and are producing some marvelous pods. Some of the best fatalii pods I've ever seen.

Well, that's all very nice, but it's not he insane bit. Read on.

[DMF]

My neighbor downstairs has pots and an small in-ground garden. We've been talking gardening. I told her about dwarf toms, that I have old seeds from the Dwarf Tom Project over on Tomatoville (is that thing still alive?) and I'd try to start some for her. Frankly, I wasn't too hopeful about 7-8 year old seeds, but this is crazy!

• Uluru ochre that I've had some success with in the past, one 2016 seed to clear out the batch - no germinate. (I have plenty more.)
• Chocolate Champion three seeds from 2015 - all germinated, potted, and up. No remaining seeds.
• Tumbling Tom four seeds from 2016 - all germinated, potted, and up. No remaining seeds.
• Summertime Gold three seeds from 2016 - all germinated, potted, and up. Two fell over and vanished. Probably from too-vigorous watering. I've gotten SG up before with no usable production. This is its last chance.

But of course I couldn't just leave it there. I have SO many pepper seeds with dozens of varieties I've never planted. So I started scanning the list. <hmm> Jigsaw Hot ornamental. Wow! Online pics are impressive. A bit like Numex Twilight with variegated leaves.



Ten seeds from 2014. Well, let's put'em down and see what comes up. Ten days so far - 4 germinated, 3 up.

But the insanity was just starting.

[DMF]

Once you get the planting jones, it's hard to get rid of him. I couldn't help myself and put down six more varieties, most that I'd enjoyed previously.

• Bahamian Goat, C.chinense, hot, 2016 seeds
• Brazilian Starfish, C.baccatum, medium, 2015 (one germinating, I think)
• Grenada Seasoning, C.chinense, mild, 2016
• Manzano/Rocoto red, C.pubescens, medium, 2015. These things are a PITA to get going, but when they do, yumm!
• Numex Twilight ornamental, C.annuum, hot, 2013. These are, of course, edible, but I'm not a fan of the flavor.
• Peach Ghost Jami, C.chinense, superhot super gnarly, 2021. I only put down 5 since they're relatively fresh.

Peach Ghost Jami

Dammit, I really should break out my starting tray and lights. <sigh>

[DMF]

Lights really perk up the seedlings, and if you're careful, can warm up the germinating trays. Don't let them get too hot. I set a 3" pot on each just to provide some shade.

After the seeds germinate, I move them into starter flat cells. Here's how I keep track of what's in the flat. (With some flags, of course.)



Update:

• Summertime Gold, last one fell over. Eh. I didn't expect much.
• Jigsaw Hot, Four up and growing. Two more in the flat.
• Bahamian Goat, two germinated so far
• Brazilian Starfish, Lept into action. 8 of 10 germinated and 6 up already.
• Grenada Seasoning, only two germinated so far
• Manzano/Rocoto red, No germ, but it's still early
• Numex Twilight, Yep, annuum. Even 10 year old seeds are raring to go. 5 of 12 so far.
• Peach Ghost Jami, 1 germinated

The chinense and pubescens I'm not worried about yet. They're slow starters. Now what Am I going to do with all these plants?

[DMF]

Awright, Worth. What's so funny. I never claimed not to be anally retentive. I mean, the subject is insanity.

[worth1]

Awright, Worth. What's so funny. I never claimed not to be anally retentive. I mean, the subject is insanity.

Now what to do with them.

[DMF]

Ain't that the truth. Most will be culled. It's a long way to a 10" pot.

I do enjoy the startup ritual, and I have SO many seeds that I can justify it in its own right. But I really would like to harvest some of these, notably the PGJami and the Manzano. Twilight and Jigsaw are for show, and tomatoes are for my neighbor.

If I had more pots (I lost most of my 6" pots in the move) I'd set some out in front of the Loew's across the street for people to take.

[DMF]

To further answer the question, I was trying to start 8-10 year old seeds. I never expected them to be so virile. (Maybe I should start eating pepper seeds.) Here's the germ/grow update.

• Bahamian Goat - 70% germ, 55% up and growing (one failed, one planted on top of another; it's up so I'm counting as 1/2 for stats)
• Brazilian Starfish - 80% germinated, 70% up
• Grenada Seasoning - 70% germ, all up
• Jigsaw Hot - 70% germ, all up
• Manzano/Rocoto, red - 11% germ, not up yet. These can take forever (21-42 days) so still hoping for the 6 in the tray. 2 discarded for mold - it's hard to tell with black seeds but they got fuzzy. They were also staining the paper towel so there's another clue.
• Numex Twilight - 75% germ, all up
• Peach Ghost Jami - 60% germ, all 3 up

With the tomatoes I was necessarily more conservative because I had only a few seeds of each, 8 years old.

• Chocolate Champion - 100% germ, all three up and happy
• Summertime Gold - 100% germ, all three up and died young. Not unexpected; these are weak seeds
• Tumbling Tom - 100% germ, all four shoosting up into the sky. (These are *supposed* to be drawfs, aren't they?)

40 growing plants. I *think* I have enough 3" pots for these but I'll have to buy more potting mix. Most of them will never make it out of the started flat.

[DMF]

This will be a quick summary.

• Manzano/Rocoto - a fkg disaster. The one germ was wimpy and eventually died. I put down like 30 more seeds from different batches. No germs.
• Everybody else new that was up is doing great! This balcony gets tons more sun than the old one, and they all enjoy it. Even with three months (?) of temps over 100F up to 115F on my thermometer, so long as they had water. life was great.
• Younger plants, especially the annums. are starting to express pods.
• The older plants had a really good first crop (for them) but the expected second flush hasn't appeared, and I'm getting slow winter leaf drop, except on a couple, a paprika and the big jalapeno, that re-leafed nicely.

Growing season should extend to December. More to come.

As usual, Worth nailed it. These plants have already outgrown their 6" pots (though as we've seen, that doesn't mean a whole lot for productivity). But even if I triple pot, where the hell are they going to go?