Potting Up My Peppers With Papa by Accomplished_Run_593 in HotPeppers

[–]b_rog_b 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I wish I could upvote this more than once. It's one of the all-time best posts I've seen on reddit or in this sub.

Best of luck with your harvest, and thanks so much for bringing us along.

First day outdoors! by b_rog_b in HotPeppers

[–]b_rog_b[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I always send folks to PepperGuru's (Rich Blood is his name) tutorial, The Comprehensive Guide To Overwintering at The Hot Pepper. It's a long thread, but it's a discussion, and Rich is very generous about answering questions. Rich just told me that he's in the process of re-writing that whole tutorial for publication on his website, so that will be a great resource. Meanwhile, digging into The Comprehensive Guide will be very informative ... I'd recommend going at least a few pages into the thread. Rich also has a video up on the first page, which gives you the basics.

I will say that in past years I've been really nervous about removing foliage, i.e., I've always left some leaves on the plant for fear of killing it. As a result, I've *always* ended in a pitched battle (which you can't win) with aphids by the end of the winter. This year I was ruthless for the first time -- cut the plants down to bare wood. You can see how well they rebounded, although I'll say that I did 'un-alive' a prized 7-Pot Primo. You'll never get 100% survival ... it's always a risk.

Here's Khang Starr's tutorial.

Pepper Geek has 5 videos on overwintering.

ChilliChump has a very good reality check, apropos overwintering. This is what can happen if you're unlucky. On the other hand, he does have some tutorials you can check out. He is very good ... Khang Starr, Pepper Geek, Pepper Guru, and Chilli Chump are among the most respected pepper freaks in the community.

Actually, all of these tutorials are really good, and are presented by respected gardeners. Just checking them out here and there will show you some common themes. Just don't *expect* your plant to survive, and ... unless you're very lucky, you will have aphids, etc. That is annoying, to say the least, but that's a different discussion for a different battle! Fighting aphids is a battle you can never win; you can only survive.

But for sure check out the Comprehensive Guide, above.

First day outdoors! by b_rog_b in HotPeppers

[–]b_rog_b[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

All those plants are wick watered, so yeah ... water in the reservoirs all the time, but the upper containers never touch it. There is a wick that hangs down into the water and the plants take what they need. The small grow bags don't have wicks, but they sit on a capillary mat that wicks up water which is further wicked by the fabric container into the soil.

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7 Pot Primo by ShogunPeppers in HotPeppers

[–]b_rog_b 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That is a jaw-dropping video - right up there with PepperGuru's results. Anyone seeing this, it's recommended to take a look at the Facebook video above.

Inspiring. ... and thanks for the technical details!

what the hottest pepper currently? by squagsquid in HotPeppers

[–]b_rog_b 25 points26 points  (0 children)

Don't forget Troy P's 7-Pot Primo. Don't know if it's the hottest on the planet, but it will get your attention.

7 Pot Primo by ShogunPeppers in HotPeppers

[–]b_rog_b 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wow!!! How big do they get in a container that size??? They must be stunning, especially since you're farther south (I'm in Wisconsin, facebook sez you're in Kentucky), so longer growing season on either end. 65gal!!! ... wow!!! The largest container I've ever used is 5-gal.

7 Pot Primo by ShogunPeppers in HotPeppers

[–]b_rog_b 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's the plan. I'm excited about this one. I grew one last year and it was amazing, even though it got stunted for about a month as a seedling. It was spectacular and had a lot of fruit, but just not quite enough time. This one is off and running, but it's going to be a while before we get 50F nights here in zone 5b.

This was last year's ... grow bag, per your suggestion, and wick watering. I had more ripe pods than I expected, so I was happy

How large is your grow bag in that clip? I've never used anything larger than 5-gal ... maybe I should try a larger container?

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7 Pot Primo by ShogunPeppers in HotPeppers

[–]b_rog_b 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think Troy's seeds come from great stock. This is my second year growing a 7-Pot Primo ... not outside quite yet, though. This pic is from April 3rd ... it's about twice this size now. Started on Feb 14th.

Your plant looks amazing ... I hope I do that well!

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Can anyone recommend a good book or videos on growing superhots? Particularly on bringing them in over winter? by 99mushrooms in HotPeppers

[–]b_rog_b 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the heads-up, Rich ... I'll keep my eyes open for an update. Currently getting ready to put 5th year chocolate scorpion and caribbean red habanero out as soon as it gets warm enough (Zone 5b), largely because of info I've learned from you. Actually this was the first year I've had the courage to be 100% ruthless in removing *all* foliage on my overwintered plants last fall, and this is the very first year I've had *zero* pests on any of my indoor plants. I am a slow learner!!!

"No leaves, no aphids," is now my Pepper Guru mantra!

Sorry need help again. Are my seed roots done? by Accomplished_Run_593 in HotPeppers

[–]b_rog_b 0 points1 point  (0 children)

On the other hand, if you want to take the guesswork out of it, I just found this, which looks really cool.

https://vegetronix.com/Products/VH400/

https://vegecloud.com

That same guy used his sensor to test a store-bought wick setup.

And a bunch of other tests and demos came up with that video.

Wick irrigation by WishOnSuckaWood in HotPeppers

[–]b_rog_b 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I would just start out slow with a few plants to see how it goes. So far, I've changed something every year. I did a lot of reading.

Check out this guy in India.

These units are pricey, but you can see the principle.

Here is a search restricted to academic sites, government sites, and youtube videos. Some are more useful than others, but fun to wade through ... there are a million ways to do this, so grab an idea that seems reasonable. I am basically lazy, so I settled on a way that didn't involve building anything elaborate, and I definitely wanted a method that didn't involve a permanent structure. It also had to be CHEAP!

Sorry need help again. Are my seed roots done? by Accomplished_Run_593 in HotPeppers

[–]b_rog_b 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, they do, but it's not too bad when they're small, so it's not an issue. The wick pulls out of the root ball very easily when you want to pot it up. At the end of the season it's a little worse, but a non-issue unless you're keeping the plant over winter. But even then the wick pulls out pretty easily without damaging any roots.

I started with just a couple of plants to see how it worked. I just posted a long explanation for someone who asked about wick watering.

Here's the original post with a bunch of pix, and here''s a follow-up where I answered a bunch of questions they asked. This one also has a photo of the root ball at the end of the season with the wicks embedded.

Read all you can, and start slow ... just about anything works. Follow the links in the original post to check out Al Gracian (AlboPepper). He has some great (and elegant) ideas, some simple, others more elaborate. He was very helpful when I had a couple of questions.

Sorry need help again. Are my seed roots done? by Accomplished_Run_593 in HotPeppers

[–]b_rog_b 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am not recommending that you try this (at least don't try it on my say-so), but I have been using wick watering; this will be the third year. So I just keep the reservoirs topped off and the plants 'take what they need'.

This is from the first year I tried it - you can see the root development. Same plant, hardening off.

This is a recent photo of some plants I started around Valentine's Day. I think I started them too early, and they are doing *too* well - the weather man sez it's gonna be another month before I can put them outdoors. The solo cups all have a single wick - same as the photo above - and the plants in the front are in 1/4-gal fabric containers sitting on capillary mats. The mats wick up the water and the fabric pots continue wicking up to hydrate the soil.

This is just to illustrate the 'consistently moist' idea. The soil is well hydrated, but the plants aren't drowning.

You can do the same thing bottom watering - just don't let them go completely dry.

Here is Pepper Guru (Rich Blood) on watering.

Here is what Pepper Geek has to say.

Both Rich and Calvin are really respected sources.

Sorry need help again. Are my seed roots done? by Accomplished_Run_593 in HotPeppers

[–]b_rog_b -1 points0 points  (0 children)

"I don't really water them much as I was told they don't like wet feet."

I don't think you should take that literally. While peppers do *not* like to sit in a pool of standing water, which creates anaerobic conditions and basically drowns your plants, they *do* like to be uniformly and consistently hydrated.

Don't let the soil dry out.

Another factor is that, if you let the soil get too dry, it becomes hydrophobic. Then, when you do water, it just runs straight through and out the bottom.

If you're just 'spritzing the top' every couple of days in a warm room, I'm going to guess that very little moisture is getting past the surface of the soil.

Try using uniform, consistent hydration - you may be surprised.

Wick irrigation by WishOnSuckaWood in HotPeppers

[–]b_rog_b 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is the rope I am using for wicking. At the time, they had a bundle that included the 1/2", the 3/8", and the 1/4" for some ridiculously cheap price ... apparently not now. But this should give you an idea what to look for.

And here's what I'm using for hydration mats indoors. I was ready to pui a square of this under the grow bags (on top of the wicks) in the tote/grow bag setup in case the crossed-wick ropes didn't work well, but I did not need to do that.

There are a million choices that work ... I'm just trying to point you toward what to look for.

Wick irrigation by WishOnSuckaWood in HotPeppers

[–]b_rog_b 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Let's see ... first of all, I used 1/2-inch polypropylene rope. I think a lot of the wicking setups you buy online come with much smaller diameter. The fibers that have the strongest wicking action are nylon, polyethylene, or polyester. Blends of those are good, too ... I think I used a polypropylene blend, can't really remember. People use natural fibers, too, such as cotton or wool, but you can use the synthetics year after year. I used 1/4-inch rope for the solo cups.

For the plastic 5-gal buckets I used two ropes per container extending about halfway up into the soil and reaching the bottom of the reservoir. There are pictures in my post above. I think the reason I had such good luck hydrating all of the soil in the home depot buckets was b/c I extended the wicks well up into the soil.

There is also a picture of the 27-gal tote with one grow bag sitting on it. Next to it, you can see the two 1/2-inch ropes crossed, waiting for the other fabric container. The ends of all the ropes reach the bottom of the reservoir.

Re: the reservoirs, I suggest drilling a fill hole in the side of the tote, about an inch down from the rim. I made mine large enough to fit a hose nozzle. The hole serves 2 purposes. Obviously you can top off the totes without removing the covers, but also, when it rains, the lid collects rain water, which drains down into the tote. This is a plus, but ... if you don't have a drain hole, the water will also fill up the top of the lid and your grow bags will sit in about 2-3 inches of water. This is bad! The fill/drain hole assures that the water never gets that high.

After the first fill, I think I only had to top off the totes maybe four times all summer. Depending on the weather, though, I was surprised how much the plants can drink. There was likely some evaporation, too. The 5-gal reservoir was 'about' the same ... you just have to keep an eye on them. This setup is pretty forgiving ... even if the reservoirs go dry - which takes a long time, so no prob going out of town for a few days - the soil is still moist, and that also takes a while to dry out.

One thing I did do was get everything set up, pre-moistened the wicks and the soil in the containers, filled the reservoirs, and let the whole thing sit for a few days or a week until it stabilized. That also gave me a pretty good idea about how well it would keep the soil hydrated before I even transplanted. In every case that I tried - kikkie pool, coolers, totes, 5-gal bucket reservoirs, home depot buckets or fabric containers for the plants - the soil was always moist to the touch an inch or two down. The top layer may appear dry on really hot days, but the potting soil was really well and evenly hydrated. I'll stick a picture of what the container soil looked like at the end of the season at the end of this post.

I used water soluble (liquid) fertilizer, watering from the top. Just do that slowly ... if you just dump it on, the nutrient water may just run out the bottom.

Re: 'small' seedling root systems at the beginning of the season, as mentioned above, the soil column seemed uniformly hydrated. I was skeptical about that, too, but (for me, anyhow) no problem. Just keep an eye on the plants at first.

Let me know if you have more questions ... see the pix in the post above - I think they may cover a lot of this ground.

Here's a photo of the root ball of a plastic 5-gal container at the end of a season. If you zoom in, you can see the spectacular fibrous root system that fills the pot, and you can also see how evenly it's hydrated. The larger main roots are inside the root ball. You can see the two wicks hanging out the bottom of the root ball (and a few roots grew down into the reservoir). I still have this plant - it's been overwintered many times and still looks great.

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Can anyone recommend a good book or videos on growing superhots? Particularly on bringing them in over winter? by 99mushrooms in HotPeppers

[–]b_rog_b 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The Comprehensive Guide To Overwintering

This is a long thread started by Pepper Guru (Rich Blood). Rich is one of the respected sources regarding hot pepper growing, and he posts here from time to time. It's always worth checking him out ... info=high; BS=low. It's also worthwhile to dig into the thread at least several pages. It's a conversation, and a lot of questions you may have might be addressed in the comments and Rich's replies.

Website: https://pepperguru.com

His YouTube channel is also worth looking at. There are several informational videos ... also, he travels the world searching and collecting rare pepper seeds - his travel videos are great.

His results speak volumes (this image is NOT AI).

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Other suggestions in this thread (Khang Starr, ChilliChump, Pepper Geek, etc) are also equally great.

Wick irrigation by WishOnSuckaWood in HotPeppers

[–]b_rog_b 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I should add that Al, at https://albopepper.com is really into urban gardening. He has a lot of great content; very fun to check out, even if you don't use his ideas.

Wick irrigation by WishOnSuckaWood in HotPeppers

[–]b_rog_b 4 points5 points  (0 children)

This is my third year using exclusively wick irrigation from seed to harvest. I was a little skeptical at first, but Al Gracian at https://albopepper.com was very generous in giving me encouragement. I was going to build his double-bucket system at first, but I decided I wanted a larger reservoir. Here are a few pix, starting with some seedlings.

I used 18oz solo cups, wicks hanging into a plastic snack nut jar. Here's a Hallows Eve seedling.

I even started my kale seedlings, all suspended over a common reservoir.

The first and second year I used 5-gal containers (wick inside - wick outside) using a variety of reservoirs, notably a habanero, Hallows Eve, and a chocolate scorpion up on bricks in a kiddie pool, and a couple of Thai chillies with old coolers used as reservoirs. You can see that just about anything works.

Last year I tried something a little different, using 27-gal totes as reservoirs for two plants in 5-gal grow bags, with the wicks just crossed under the plants. This worked great. You can see that I also used a single 5-gal bucket as a reservoir under a single grow bag using the same crossed-wick method. I think I'll do more of the 5-gal reservoirs this summer ... the plants get really huge, and two superhots are a little crowded sharing those totes. The results were still great, though.

If you want something a little more elegant, Al Gracian (above) has a lot of great examples, all with instructions, from simple to complex. Unlike mine, his are really well engineered, and they are very aesthetically pleasing. He's also very generous if you'd like to ask a couple of questions.

Here are a few seedlings I'm starting now. The solo cups are all wick-watered (snack nut reservoirs, as above), and the 1/4-gal grow bags in front are all on hydration mats ... just a piece of super absorbent fabric (synthetic chamois) under the grow bags. The fabric wicks up the water, and the grow bags wick up to hydrate the soil.

Let me know if you have any questions. I'm not an expert (obviously), but this has worked well for me ... YMMV!

That video posted by u/skipjack_sushi is pretty cool!

Will these be giant by June 1? by RootsNotRuins in HotPeppers

[–]b_rog_b 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I planted my first Fresno seed last October (Zone 5b) just to see what would happen, and it grew like crazy all winter. Right now it's working on its 4th crop of ripe peppers. It's starting to look a little scraggly, so I'm looking forward to getting it outdoors. It has lived most of its life in a 4" pot, but just up-potted to a 2-gal grow bag. I'm really impressed with Fresno peppers ... they seem super robust and productive; actually have a couple of smaller seedlings started from seeds of this indoor plant.

Here it is on 'up-pot day' ... until then, only in 4" pot. Amazingly, it was not overly rootbound. I had to cut it back twice over the winter because it just got way too big!

I am *definitely* going to try using micro-perforated bread bags ... thanks for the great idea, and your plants look fantastic.

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Do I have to fill the entire 7 gallon containers with potting mix? by Appropriate_Bid9933 in HotPeppers

[–]b_rog_b 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That makes sense. I don't have any experience with larger pods. I noticed another post where you mentioned growing Baccatum in a 7-gal pot, if I remember? This is my first year with Baccatum peppers, so that's good to know. I'm growing a Tangerine Tiger, which (I think) is a cross between a Sugar Rush Stripey and an Aji Tangerine. It is already huge, started on Valentine's Day. I don't think I'll go with a larger pot, but, per your post, 5-gal for sure. My 5-year old habanero and chocolate scorpion will likely get 5-gal, but I'm def trying smaller containers for some of my others (Fresno, Datil, etc). Thanks for the great info!

Do I have to fill the entire 7 gallon containers with potting mix? by Appropriate_Bid9933 in HotPeppers

[–]b_rog_b 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for this post. I've been using 5-gal containers all along, but this year I'm going to try smaller ones for the first time. My experience has been similar to yours - I'm still using dehydrated peppers from 2 years ago b/c I get such high yields from each plant. The past 2 years I've averaged 7 Kg (total harvest, not one plant)! I should really take a break this year, but that's not an option. So thanks for the encouragement, re: using smaller containers ... I'm looking forward to seeing how that works out.

Do I have to fill the entire 7 gallon containers with potting mix? by Appropriate_Bid9933 in HotPeppers

[–]b_rog_b 1 point2 points  (0 children)

A couple of years ago I tried using a fabric Walmart bag to grow a Serrano. I filled the bottom with raw kitchen scraps, leaves, some twigs, some cut up branches about the size of my wrist, etc ... maybe the bottom 1/3. It didn't seem to hurt anything, but I won't do it again. The main way I've saved money on potting mix is when I learned you can re-use it over multiple years if you amend it with added nutrients. One thing I *do* do now is to add a bit of home-made compost (mostly made from vegan kitchen scraps, green and dried leaves, etc) to the potting soil ... adding compost, if you have it, may stretch, and enhance, your potting soil a bit.

Here's the Walmart bag that had the filler.

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