Clone Wars

I decided I could no longer sit around a wait for my seeds to possibly germinate. So I decided to try to clone my venerable 2 year old ghost pepper. I poked around on the web for some tips and came up with this.

1) First cut new growth. Woody growth is less likely to sprout roots.

2) cut trimmings at an angle. I did not use any “root starter” because I’m cheap and wanted to get it done this morning.

3) insert in to watered vermiculite.

4) cover to maintain humitdity. Until the cuttings get roots the apparently the humidity can help the plant from drying out. I covered two of my three trimming with pint glasses to see if this helps.

5) put into grow box and wait. Apparently it takes 2 to 3 weeks.

goog news, community garden plot

My friend Harold got us a commuity garden plot near my house. So I will be able to plant more pepper than I had originally planned. Should be good.

things are getting stressfull

No new seeds have sprouted. Except one more in the same pod as the last pepper. I bought an instant read thermometer to check the temperature of the grow box and the pods the seeds are germinating in. The instant read is nice because I can insert it directly into the dirt and measure the temperature of the pod. I can also poke it thru the insulation I used to make the grow box and read the ambient temperature.

The outcome was the box was not as hot as I thought it was which may explain the poor germination. I upped the temperature by putting the light further into the grow box and covered the ventin hole a little more. No the pods are hovering around 80 durring the day when the light is on.

sprouting green soggy pellet

Well, surprisingly one of the soggy green pellets started to sprout. It is not a ghost pepper but an Aji Lemon. Perhaps more will poke through. In the following days..

a sprout from a soggy green pellet.

visit the nursery

I decided to stop by the Timberline Gardens Nursery to get some advice on germination. Working in a Colorado nursery during the winter must be one of the world’s most lonely jobs. The guy there was not in a hurry and we discussed how he stated the plants they sold in the spring. First he thought I was starting a little early. He started his peppers on Feb 10th. This would not effect germination but he thought the plants would be plenty big for transplanting outside in the spring if started on this date.

He said he had not used peat pellets since he was a kid. I did not take this personally. He started his seeds by filling a pot with soil, placing the seeds on the soil, covering them with a thin layer of vermiculite, and covering the watered pot that with a plastic sheet. He said to remove the plastic as soon as you saw a seed sprouting. I bought a bag of dirt and he gave me some vermiculite.

Peat pellets looking soggy

Nothing has sprouted and the peat pellets are looking rather soggy. A green growth is appearing on some of the pellets. I’m thinking a different germination technique is in order.

Flowers on ghost pepper

My wintering ghost pepper seems to be doing well in the grow box. It is growing dark green leaves and is not growing too stringy. Flowers started to grow on the ghost pepper shortly after it recovered from an aphid infestation. Unfortunately, the flowers started to fall off as fast as they were growing. I’m not sure why but perhaps my light is not bright enough to initiate fruiting.

Seeds Planted

Planted the seeds in some peat pellets. From first row to last: Joe E. Parker, Suave Orange (a habanero with low heat), Aji Lemon, and the ghost peppers.

I’m also keeping my wintering ghost pepper in the grow box that was originally planted Spring of 07.

The grow box hovers around 85 when the light is on (16 hours a day) and dips to 70 at night. Should be reasonable for germination.

Seeds

Got some seeds from the New Mexico State Chile Pepper Institute. The small manila envelop contains the ghost pepper seeds.

Grow box

I had three goals when building my grow box: 1) it should work, 2) it should be cheap, and 3) it should be quick to build.

I already had the grow light, it is a 125 watt compact fluorescent bulb. Compact is somewhat of an understatement it is about a foot long and puts out 8500 lumens at 6500K. I’ve read the 6500 K full spectrum bulbs produce the wavelengths needed for good leaf growth. In hindsight, I wish I would have spent a little more and gotten the 200 watt bulb. This bulb came with a “mogul base” which means it does not screw into a standard light socket. I ended up buying an adapter for another $10 bucks and screwing it into a old school shop light stand. You can also buy pre-wired sockets and light reflectors with mogul sockets.

The enclosure was made from a $10 4′ by 8′ piece of reflective foam insulation board, a scrap piece of plywood, a spare mylar car shade, and some aluminum tape. This board came precoated with a reflective finish. I used the piece of plywood for a base and screwed the insulation board to it. I cut the insulation board with a carpet knife and taped it together with the aluminum tape. The insulation board was ridged enough so I did not need any internal supports. I taped the mylar car shade to the top for use as a door. I cut a fairly large hole for the light and used left over scraps of the insulation to partially cover this hole. I adjusted the space around the light until the box maintained a fairly constant temperature of 85 deg.

In the begining

This story began in 2007. My friend, Harold, gave me a sprouted Bhut Jolokia, also known as Ghost Pepper. Harold sprouted several seeds and gave me one hoping that spreading them around would increase the chance for fruit. He is also just a nice guy.

This story started with this pepper in spring 2007

This plant grew well but no peppers set in the first year. Likely because it was planted a few feet from the North side of my house and there was just not enough sun. At the end of the season I stuck it in a pot and put it in the window at work. It managed to winter over fine and I planted it on a south facing slope that following summer. Here it thrived and set a dozen fruit. Until a deer ate half of it. I was surprised the deer ate that much of the plant because I would imagine even the green bhuts pack a punch.
The plant attempted a comeback but giving the short Colorado growing season only a few more fruit set and only two ripened before the first frost. On the day before the first frost I once again dug it up and brought it to work. It was fairly large and had half a dozen fruit. I cut it back to about 3 feet tall leaving the fruit. I was very intent on ripening the remaining peppers, so I bought a 125 watt compact florescent bulb. The peppers ripened but did not gain any size.
After getting some strange looks for having a 125 watt florescent grow light in my office, I took the plant home and started getting strange looks from my wife. Since then, I have tinkered with my growing methods to produce more peppers with less work and money.