So here's the overall view of the stuff so far. Still all peppers so far.. hot peppers, that is. I'll be putting some bell peppers in a propagator later today, but they're not in here yet. You can maybe see I still didn't have the heart to toss those Jalapenos, and in fact potted them up into HUGE pots (well, comparably..) they're like, 5 inch diameter pots, I think they call 'em 1 gallons.. not sure though. I had to prop up the whole propagator setup on a few 2x4's to get 'em even close to the lamps. No sign still from the Habaneros, and the Fatalii's are still sleeping as well. I have had mucho success with the new batch of Jalapenos so far with 17 of the 18 planted seeds germinating just fine, and I think 80% of the Hot Cherries have also popped up as well.
 |
| Overall of the curent setup.. |
Here's a closeup of the Hot Cherry peppers that I pulled out of the paper towel germination cup setup that i had going on. I was using that method that I'd heard good things about to test germination rates and just get a feel for how that operation worked. I learned a couple of things. One, it's super easy to set that whole thing up and running, literally wet a small piece of paper town and put some seeds on it, then cover it up so the stuff doesn't dry out and you're done. Like yeah, that fast and easy. I also learned that stuff germinates super fast when you can see the rootlet popping from the seed casing after just a few days.. I would say, if you don't have a fancy self watering propagation setup like mine, or the APS units I've seen on the 'net in various places that are so popular, I'd say the paper towel idea is a good bet, because it keeps the seeds evenly moist and then you can tell for sure which ones are going to pop out and then you can transplant some known good seedlings. The downside that I found was that pulling the tiny little delicate buggers off the paper towel was a bit of a pain in the neck, and then getting them situated in the new seed starting media in the six-pack style containers was also a chore. I did it with these five plants just fine, but there was a bit of swearing and carrying on involved. I'll say it was a *lot* easier just pricking out the other seedlings from my dirt propagator setup from the Super 7 and transplanting those guys. That was seriously no brainer work. I also have some to the conclusion that if they won't pop up in the Super 7, they're just not going to pop at all. I thought maybe the original Hab's in there were unhappy in the machine there, so I tried the paper towel method with 10 seeds.. I have yet to have one open up. Clearly, my Habanero seeds are shot this year.. which, come to think of it, are really last years seeds. So, yeah.. I lucked out with one good one, but that looks like all the habanero's I'm gonna get this time unless I go buy some started plants. Then again, who really needs more than one habanero plant.. sheesh!
 |
| Hot Cherry transplants |
And finally, here's a glimpse of the huge (heh.. yeah) pots I put the Jalapeno's into in the back left corner here, and you can just catch a view of the little Habanero in the lower right corner. Still looking good right there! There's actually pods forming on the Jalapenos now.. and I'm not sure that's a good thing for them to be doing at this early stage of the game. I think they got stressed out along the way and they're making a break for it with seeds now. I guess I screwed those guys up a bit.. well, that was the whole point of this experiment in January anyway, right? To learn a thing or two for the real event..
 |
| Big Jalapeno's back there.. tiny Habanero up front on the left. |
No comments:
Post a Comment