Blafa's indoor garden. [Many pictures]

[blafa]

Hello everyone, Doing my first real post here after being a long time reader. I'm a novice chiligrower, growing for my first year in a basement where I also live. Chilis and hot foods have always been a passion of mine. My favourites in taste and cooking have been the hot chinense's variates and that's what I'm focusing on, though I'm growing a quite wide selection of other chilis I've come across and found interesting. Seeds have been collected, some bought from Fatalii, The Chilli Pepper Company as well as swedish nursery Örtagården.

This is a list of I'm what growing currently, still awaiting 1 more delivery from Fatalii and hopefully I will germinate those seeds this year.

[Last edited 04/08]
C. chinense 'Habanero, Red ' 
C. chinense 'Habanero, Caribbean Red '
C. chinense 'Habanero, Brown Large
C. chinense 'Habanero Lemon'
C. chinense 'Habanero, Orange'
C. chinense 'Fatalii'
C. chinense 'Naga Morich' - Nagaland strain. Imported seeds.
C. chinense 'CPI. Bhut Jolokia' - Seeds from The Chile Pepper Institute
C. chinense 'Trinidad Scorpion' - Morouga Blend, said to be hotter then a Bhut, time will tell!
C. chinense 'Pimenta da Neyde' - Very hot, black or purple leaves.
C. chinense 'Pink Habanero' - Habanero taste without the heat!

C. annuum "Hungarian" - Bought at a market place in budapest, medium hot typical annuum look.
C. annuum 'Apache'
C. annuum 'Chiluacle Negro'
C. annuum 'Hot Lemon'
C. annuum 'CAP 1042'
C. annuum 'CAP 1473 (C. microcarpum)'
C. annuum 'Fish pepper'
C. annuum 'Monkey Face'
C. annuum 'Nepal Snakebite'
C. annuum 'Short Yellow Tabasco' - Ornamental plant with stingy heat.

C. baccatum 'Jamican Bell'
C. baccatum 'Starfish'
C. baccatum 'Don Xaun Market'
C. baccatum 'CAP 220' - Fastest one to germinate, 4 days.

C. pubescens 'Turbo Pube (PI 585267)' - Large, yellow, tasty rocotos.

C. unknown "Thai red hot" - A small hot red chili from thailand. Bought dry pods from a local asian market. I don't have a proper name for it but its a common variety and its used for everyday cooking.

Wild chili's:
C. lanceolatum - Wild chili pepper species was though to be extinct for over 50 years until it was recently rediscovered!
C. parvifolium - 1/3 germinated in soil, 29 days. New batch on rockwool started 26/3
C. galapagoense - 0/3 germinated in soil. New batch on rockwool started 26/3

From fatalii's suprisemix:
C. unknown - Black seed, Most likely C. pubescens, Took 8 days to germinate
C. unknown - Black seed, Most likely C. pubescens, Took 12 days to germinate
C. unknown - Took 8 days to germinate, fast bushy growth, might indicate a annuum or baccatum species.
C. unknown - Took 11 days to germinate, slow growth, thicker leaves, might indicate a chinense.

Unfortunately I didn't have my camera available until just now so I have no pictures of the germination process. I started of with a HPS lamp but recently switched to LED's. I'm now growing under two 90w LED lights with a setup of 60% Red, 30% Blue and 10% White LED's. Im also running a rotating fan most of the time when the Lights are on.



These two pictures show the HPS lamp I was using at first, I borrowed it from a relative but it didn't work to well, It got a bit too hot around it and the plants seemed to grow a bit spindly and not bushy. At the left on the low table my heatingpad is shown, this have worked great when germinating seeds. I can keep it at a steady temperature with a thermostat.



This is how my growing setup looks as I'm writing. I had to turn on the other lights in the room to get a better light to photograph in. On the shelf on the left I'm trying out a few bonsai experiments.



This is the annuum box, I'm growing my annuums and baccatums here. The plants have been germinated at different times, the larger ones in the back is Jamaican Bell, Chiluacle Negro and the Hungarian one.



Same picture in daylight.



View from above, the bushy ones are called Apace, a annuum common in Mexico and South America. The larger plants on the right is Hot lemon, I think they are the same as lemon drop.



This is the chinense box, here I grow the hot varieties!



Daylight view



View from above, the larger ones are all Red Habaneros, the little seed on the left is the parvifolium.



Germination chamber, a few seeds are resting inside in rockwool cubes. I started of all the other seeds in soil but when I got my hands on rockwool I couldn't help starting of a new batch to see if I could get better results. I'm trying to keep a steady 29 degrees



Once inside it took this jolokia seed 9 days to germinate, In soil it took the same seeds 12 days.


Id love some constructive criticism on my garden!

More pictures later!

[Fatalii]

Very neat looking indoor garden!
It´s very hard to give any constructive critisism as everything really seems to be in order.
That shows some great example for many of us.

At some point, you have to be careful for the big plants not to shade the little seedlings too much.

[blafa]

Update!
I raided my kitchen and decided to actually germinate some of the chilis I'm also using for cooking. I'm also posting some pictures of bud nipping that I did yesterday.
What goes into the ground today is C. chinense 'Habanero, Orange' and C. Unknown "Thai red hot". The orange habanero I've bought in a normal supermarket so it might be cross pollinated, that's a chance I'm taking when taking seeds from fruits bought at a supermarket. I don't even know its origin. The one I'm calling Thai red hot is a small hot chili from thailand. I bought dry pods from a local asian market. I don't have a proper name for it but its a common variety and used for everyday cooking. Most likely a Annuum.


Rockwool cubes, I'm not sure these are the best kind, the seem to differ a little bit from other cubes in colour but it was the only thing I could find.


Soaked cubes, I'm sowing three seeds in each cube here.

Around 35 days after germination my hungarian one and the Chiluacle Negro decided flowering was in its place. I'm not sure if I should leave the flowers buds be or nip them off since from what I've read flower nipping is mostly done on chinense's. But it seemed like a good idea at the time because I wanted them a bit bigger. Id be glad to get some advice here. On a note I can say that I haven't started fertilizing them yet.


The hungarian plant seen here. The stem is starting to split up here aswell. In the middle was the flower bud that I nipped. As you can see there are more buds on its way, so Id like to hear what I should do here.


Chiluacle Negro flower buds. Nipped 2 from this plant.

[blafa]

As for an update: I think I gave them a little to much water the last few days so I will have then dry up a bit and then I'm starting some fertilizing. I don't have a optimal fertilizer at the moment but I will go with a pretty generic one for the time being. It's a NPK based fertilizer with the ratio being 7-2-5. If you disagree or think its a bad choice please say so! Might come some pictures tonight

[blafa]

Finally! The seeds from Finland arrived, and I think its a interesting mix, List follows:

C. lanceolatum - Wild chile pepper species was though to be extinct for over 50 years until it was recently rediscovered!

C. chinense 'Trinidad Scorpion' - Morouga Blend, said to be hotter then a bhut, time will tell!
C. chinense 'Pimenta da Neyde' - Very hot, black or purple leaves.
C. chinense Pink Habanero - Habanero taste without the heat!

C. pubescens 'Turbo Pube (PI 585267)' - Large, yellow, tasty rocotos.

C. annuum Short Yellow Tabasco - Ornamental plant with stingy heat.

Hopefully I'll find time tonight to germinate them all!

[blafa]

Update!
Today I sowed the seeds I received yesterday. I heated up water to around 40c/104f soaked the cubes in it, Wrote the labels and then planted the seeds. Pictures follows




These are the C. lanceolatum seed, it's a very rare wild chili. It's hard to germinate and these seeds must bee the smallest ones I've ever seen for a chili. Even with tweezers I had a hard time grabbing them.


Seeds planted and labelled up. A lot of different colours and sizes this time.


All of them together with the other cubes. Notice the fish pepper and the thai pepper germinated over the night. The thai pepper now shares the 4 day record in germination time, though its looking awfully white. I'm afraid it might be an albino.

[lee]

Looking good Blafa!

[blafa]

Update: 10 days

Much have happened in ten days, Ill start off where I left last time. Seen below is a picture of the seeds that germinated to far. Most of them have successfully germinated I'm just waiting for the wild ones and the turbo pube.


In the Annuum/Baccatum box some of my plants is just growing to fast for their own good. I decided to tie them up. Seen in the first picture below is the wire I used, it works great and is easy to use.




C. annuum 'Chiluacle Negro' For some reason the leaves are curling a bit on this plant. I have no idea why that is, this happened before I even started to fertilize it. I'm not  worried though since the plant is growing nice and looking healthy apart from this.

The Chinense box is growing a bit slower but I'm still seeing great results here. This is a overview of the plants. On the left you can see two 'none chinense', These are C. annuum 'Apache' that I just re-potted, another picture of this variety later. I have ordered a package of Biobizz nutrients from a shop nearby, Bio-grow, Bio-Bloom and  TopMax. I'm still waiting for them to arrive but it will be interesting to see if I can notice any difference using them compared to the mediocre fertilizer that I have at the moment.



I also re-potted all of my C. chinense 'Habanero, Red '. The colours might be slightly off in this picture but let me insure you that they are looking really good.



C. annuum "Hungarian". I'm actively nipping flowers on this one, this plant seem to have the same leaf curling as the Chiluacle Negro, But the rest of the plant is looking fine. Any ideas what this might be?

C. annuum 'Apache' This is one of my favourite plants so far, its just looking SO decorative and good! I have 2 plants of this variety, I'm nipping the flowers on one of them but not on the on one in the picture. I have hopes for some early fruits here if its strong enough to produce pods.

[blafa]

Update!
It's been a while and I've been busy and my plants as well, or so it seems.
In the end of the month I'm moving to a new apartment, so I will probably continue to be busy for a while. I won't be able to bring all of my plants with me. Luckily enough I can store the ones I don't bring with me at my mothers place.

I repotted almost all of my plants now and I've moved most of them out of the cellar, though a few favourites is still left behind! I also have a few seedlings left here.

Overview.


C. annuum 'Chiluacle Negro'- Beer bottle experiment


C. annuum 'CAP 1042' Flowering


C. annuum 'CAP 1473 (C. microcarpum)' Flowering


C. chinense 'Naga Morich' Flower buds


C. annuum 'Apache' Pods maturing


Bonsai Projects/Experiments


Last batch of seedlings, I'm so glad I got the C. galapagoense to germinate


A lonely C. unknown "Thai red hot" seedling, most likely a Annuum.


Here follows three pictures from my "main farm". Hopefully I will update with some more interesting pictures with the weather is better!

Annuum's and Chinense's


Baccatum's, Pubescens and a few Chinense


Overview.


That's all for now. Don't hesitate to ask questions if you want to ask something. Greetings from Sweden!

[Ryhis]

Nice garden you got there! Capsicum Lanceolatum was the only wild chili that I could germinate and grow so it has to be easy for you too. Galapagoence and Pratermissum didn't germite at all, I had two different sets for germinating for three months and NADA!

Sorry fot the bad english, been years since I last wrote this language!

[blafa]

That is very weird! I've only got 2/6 Lanceolatum seeds to germinate!

For Galapagoense and parvifolium I have a special trick that I discovered on mistake by not keeping the humidity up. I went away for a few days and seeds must have been 3-4 weeks into germination process and still not showing a sign of any life. So what happened was, I usually keep my rockwool cubes wet, but this time I'd forgot too pour new water in the box before I went away. So when I got back all the seeds and the rockwool was completely dry. I thought all seeds had died but I couldn't give up that easy so I soaked them in water again and just after a few days the first Galapagoense sprouted. I was surprised but could only think that it had something to do with the "drying" process so I tried to dry another seed but this time for 4-5 days. I put it back it in to warm humid germination chamber and just as I thought I sprouted after less then 3 days.

After this experiment, I did the same with the last galapagoense seed as well as the two other parvifolium seeds I had growing and it worked. Now I have 3 Galapagoense seedlings(unsure if one will make it though) and 2 parvifolium seedlings. After doing some reading up I found out that some seeds are just programmed this way, not only in the capsicum family. In fact a whole lot of plats work this way.

To sum it up, Germinate for 2-4 weeks in heated 28-30c, high humid environment. Move seeds out of chamber, let dry for 3-5 days, put them back in. Success!
Remember that this have only worked with galapagoense and parvifolium for me, all other plants that I have grown germinated good on their own.

[blafa]

Smal Update!

Here is some pictures from when I re-potted one of my favorite plats, a great looking lush C. chinense 'Red Habanero'.

Before I changed pot.


Roots looking quite good! Defiantly time to re-pot if I want it to continue growing bigger.


New pot, 8-10 Liter, not quite sure. I'm getting pots in this size for free from a local market. I simply asked if I could have them because they was just getting thrown away, a good tip if you need cheap pots!


The last thing I want to share is a picture of this amazing looking C. chinense 'Fatalii'. I just love its colours and the way it grows!