Already starting season 2006

[luca]

I've already sown some varieties for next year! I couldn't wait and, since I started a bit too late this year, I decided to start already now.  I'll be growing them under fluorescent lights until spring "unfreezes" the sun! :-)

These are the varieties I chose to start with:

PI 441551
Early Jalapeños
Starfish
Numex Suave Orange
Pimenta-de-bode

I'm also planning to plant these (waiting for seeds to arrive from Brazil):

Coração-de-galinha
Murupi vermelha

I'll also try to revive my ají amarillo (that I'm trying to overwinter), keep the ají cachucha and chocolate habanero that are under lights and the ají rojo and paper lantern that are "resting" indoors with very little light.  So, next year I hope to have 12 varieties, which is a record for me! I just hope I can find enough spaceto fit them all in my balcony ;-)

Has anyone else already started planning/growing next year's varieties?

[JartsaP]

Yeah, sure, new seedlings are growing their first or second real leaves by now. And the ones started as cuttings are bigger, maybe 10cm high and trying to start flowering (and I'm trying to prevent them). Early bird gets the bird's eye pepper or how was that?

[ilmr]

Atm my season 2006 consists of:

Aji Andean
Bolivian Rainbow
Canario
Kaleidoskop
Habanero Cappucino
Habanero Red Uganda
Malawi Bird's Eye
NuMex Suave Orange
Lemon Drop
Limo
Long Pequin
Red Datil
Red Fatalii
Starfish
Short Yellow Tabasco
CAP 272
CAP 907
CO 4896
CO 4897
PI 441551

Those are the ones already germinated and 5-15cm tall.
I'll be giving some of these out to my friends so I'll prolly add some more later on.

[bassino]

I've started the next season also. About half of the varieties I'll grow are germinated already. I was planning to do most of the germination process before Christmas time as I'm going to have a holiday after the turn of the new year.

It's kind of funny to realize that chile-pepper growing is actually an all year hobby. The latest plants have finally matured their last pods, and just after that you are sowing the new ones

[Aji Inferno]

It's not necessary to start a new chili year quite this early, but it doesn't hurt, either! Great varieties I do see you have, so let's go on! It'll be a wonderful chili year 2006, on balconies, indoors, in greenhouses, outdoors... And, perhaps, our own Finnish northern wild chili project, "Aji Perkele" might just take out...

[luca]

It's not necessary to start a new chili year quite this early, but it doesn't hurt, either!

Yeah, it certainly won't heart to have a bit more mature plants when spring starts next year! This year I had some problems germinating, so I actually just started for real around april, which was definitely too late (at least for my choco-habas)! And also, now that I have a glazed balcony, I'll be able to make use of the early spring sun, even when it is still rather cold outside. :-)

And, perhaps, our own Finnish northern wild chili project, "Aji Perkele" might just take out...

That's a very interesting project! Please keep posting information on its progress in English too ;-)
And when I come back from Brazil after my trip in May, I'll certainly have some more wild species from there to add to the "stew".  At least that's my primary goal in Brazil next year (as opposed to the usual lie-in-the-beach-and-drink-beer objective) :lol:

[Fatalii]

What I've learned is that it's always a good thing to start very early if you have enough space to grow seedlings indoors, especially when it comes to outdoor & greenhouse growing.
Sun at the springtime is much more effective than autumn sun.
If summer will be shitty and you start too late, it may very easily ruin the whole season.
But if the plants use as much sun at springtime as possible, the chances are so much better even the summer will be shitty!

Especially with rocotos it's good to start "too" early if you want to have proper yields at the first year.
Some slower baccatums are also good to germinate a bit earlier.

Suprisingly, usually chinenses seem to mature in time in the greenhouse even I'm germinating them bit later than pubescenses and baccatums.

In most cases annuums can be started a bit later.
I've germinated 90 varieties so far (30 still germinating and at least 60-90 still left to be germinated) and there's no single annuum yet.
Still I think I have to germinate Jalapeño as it was very good as chipotle powder!

[luca]

Sun at the springtime is much more effective than autumn sun.

Yes, that's true.

I can come up with a little bit of very simplistic science on why this is true.  (Mainly because I'm too bored to do any real work right now! heheheh)

<waste_of_time_alert!>
The summer solstice (longest day in the year) is somewhere around the 20th of June.  Spring starts about 3 months before that (~20th of March) and Summer ends about 3 months after (~20th of September).  The beginning of Spring and end of Summer are marked by the Equinox (when day and night have the same length).  Meaning that, daytime-wise, the end of Summer is the same as the beginning of Spring.
Thus, we can say that total amount of daytime during Summer is the same as the total amount of daytime during Spring.  And consequently, the total amount of daytime during Fall is the same as during Winter.
We can also go a bit further and say that the length of the day 7 days after the beginning of fall is the same as the length of the day 7 days before the end of winter.  So, 27th of September is just as long as 13th of March.
The reason why Fall is warmer than Winter and Summer is warmer than Spring is that it is not only the length of the day that affects the temperature.  It is mostly the sea and air humidity temperatures.  Summer is warmer than Spring, because when Summer starts, the long Spring days have already heated the air and sea (hopefully!)
For most plants, the amount of light is more important than the temperature (especially if you have a heated greenhouse like some of you mega-lucky guys!), so Spring is much more efficient than Fall.

Of course, all the dates above are just examples and are very rough, because the calendar year doesn't match the solar year very well (and that's why we have leap years, leap seconds etc.)
</waste_of_time_alert!>

Okay, sorry for this very long extremely obvious post, but I was just trying to find a way to pass my last few hours at work before the holidays and this seemed to be the perfect choice! heheheheheh :lol:

[Fatalii]

Yes exactly, thats why I think it's much better to stretch the season from beginning, not from the end of the season.

[JartsaP]

And it's not just sunlight, but it tends to be way too humid in the autumn as well. All kind of fungi and mildew grow, and also diseases and pests seem to multiply in the autumn, whilst it's mostly sunny and dry in the spring. That's why I want to start early, and use my precious heating kilowatts in the springtime rather than in autumn.

[Fatalii]

Words of wisdom.
Aren't the sunrays more stronger at the springtime too?
At least the plants seem to like it much more, like morning sun instead of the evening sun.
Or maby it's the changes in the spectrum.

[JartsaP]

Oh, I was thinking about sunlight but wrote "temperature" instead. Corrected now. BTW. I have also germinated the annuums already (or at least some of them), in intension of getting very early crop of popper peppers.

[Fatalii]

I don't know if I'll grow any other annuums than jalapeno... perhaps some ornamentals for the garden.

[luca]

Aren't the sunrays more stronger at the springtime too?
At least the plants seem to like it much more, like morning sun instead of the evening sun.
Or maby it's the changes in the spectrum.

Yes, the spectrum and the strength of the sun rays work in the same way as the daylight time.  The inclination of the sun is what causes changes in the spectrum and strength, mainly because the amount of atmosphere the rays have to cross vary depending on the angle.  So, the same rule applies to spectrum and strength: beginning of spring = end of summer; beginning of fall = end of winter. :-) And I think the fact that plants like the morning sun more than the evening sun is probably because in the morning they're just coming from a period of rest and in the evening they're already "tired", because the spectrum and strength should be equal.  But this is pure speculation.

Also, I don't know in Finland, but my "statistics" from the 6 years I spent in Denmark, show that springtime is usually sunnier (ie. less clouds) than summer itself!

Actually, in Finland it's almost the same, according to FMI: Duration of sunshine hours

In that table you can see that in May, Helsinki has an average of 273 hours of sunshine, and in June and July 275 and 274 respectively.  So the amount of sunshine is almost the same in the middle of the spring as it is in the middle of the summer, even though the days are much longer on summer :-)

[Anonymous]

I am very interested in hearing how/what/when others in northern climates are growing.

I grow on an organic farm as well as at my house in a small city on Lake Ontario. Last year I had ~400 containers of peppers and tomatoes at home. This season I am focusing on seasoning peppers as well as Canadian and European peppers of historical or culinary significance.

I started seeds Jan 1 (on the new moon :>), the first round with the long seasoners:

Baccatum
Aji Amarillo
Aji Cristal
Aji Rojo
Bishop's Crown
Cambuci
Criolla Sella
Dong Xuan Market
Lemon Drop
Rain Forest
Starfish

Chinense
Aji Cachucha
Aji Dulce
Aji Dulce #2
Amazon Chile Roma
Atarado
Datil Sweet
St Martin's Seasoning
Trinidad Perfume

Frutescens
Bradley's Bahamian
Zimbabwe Bird (properly an annuum subspecies?)

Pubescens
Rocoto, Red
Rocoto, Yellow
PI 355812
PI 387838

The rest of the chinense and longer season annuum will be planted by the end of month. Aiming for 108 varieties of minimum 4 plants each.

Jennifer

[Femmefatalii]

Sorry. Thought I was logged in. This is me.

Jennifer

[JohnF]

Jennifer

Here is picture of flowers of my Zimbabwe Bird. What do you think?



and the plant

[Anonymous]

Hi, John.

Well, not frutescens, if mine turn out the same as yours. I would go with C. annuum var. aviculare. But I am still green around the gills when it comes to species identification. To add to the confusion, my seed source originally had the common name as Zimbabwe Birdseye, then changed it to plain Zimbabwe Bird. Still, a few supposedly reputable references do say frutescens, which is what led me to question the species in the first place. What say you on this? Long season, yes?

Will go with annuum for the Quintisho too, especially since you were my seed source.  :lol: Thanks both for the seeds and replying at GW.

My goal this year is to photodoc following your lead. If I can do half as well, I will be extremely pleased.

Jennifer, dealing with more rain and + temps. than snow and cold this month.

[Femmefatalii]

Jeepers, you'll be thinking that I'm a blond...

Jennifer, now logged in

[JohnF]

Jennifer

Even though my source (Redwood Seeds) identifies as C. frutescens, I agree that it looks more like an annuum. Seeds were planted 3/22 with the plant picture taken 9/8 so not especially long season for me.