Julian's 2009 Growing Journal.

19 September 2009
Amazon Chile Roma, a mild chinense I haven't grown before. Lovely looking pods, but flavour not as good as Trinidad Perfume.



Fatalii crossed with a brown Peruvian chinense. I was told there was a 50% chance I'd get brown peppers. Haven't tasted these yet.




Murupi Dolce, another mild chinense. Haven't tasted a ripe one yet, only just starting to ripen.





PI238061. These are quite hot! A friend described them as one of the fruitiest peppers he had tasted - and he has tasted quite a few.






White rocoto, isn't actually white, but pale yellow. Patrik kindly gave me the seeds and he said he did have one white'ish pod.

16 August 2009
An update on the mystery pubescens. It definitely isn't a San Isidro. The early pods (there are not dozens!) appear to have reached full size and as you can see from the photo, they aren't like a pubescens at all. They look a lot like the pods on wild varieties. I had the suggestion Rocopica - the Rocoto Ulupica cross, but the flowers don't seem right and the pods appear less rounded.

27 July 2009
I have a bit of a mystery developing in the greenhouse. The first white rocoto plant I kept quite small, foring it to flower early. It now has three or four small pods. The other two seeds I germinated for the variety have grown into plants that look quite similar, except that they haven't forked as is characteristic of the pubescens. Instead they are very tall. The leaves and stems are clearly pubescens but the mystery arrived when the first buds appeared to be white. While searching for a white flowered pubescens I was pointed to the Rocoto Largo San Isidro. However, the flowers have now opened and while they do have the pale purple patches, they also have very pronounced baccatum markings. So is this the San Isidro, or is is something else?

This second photo is of the first flower to open on my CGN 19198 Eximium plant. I knew it was going to be a nice flower because I have already seen photos of them, but I didn't realise it would look this good. I have a handful of wild varieties this year but this is the first one to flower. I had two Rhomboideum plants but gave one to my mother. I am told that hers is in full bloom while mine is showing now signs of buds.

12 July 2009
OK so the photo shows tomatoes rather than peppers, but it illustrates how much better hydroponic growing is. And how well the QuadGrow can do for those of you who like the idea of hydroponic growing without having to have electricity to run pumps. I planted two pots with tomatoes and two with peppers. Foolishly I put the peppers at the back, in the corner of the greenhouse. They are doing amazingly well, it's just that they are completely hidden by the tomatoes, making photographs difficult. The QuadGrow and the autopot are growing off the same tank of nutrient. So far there is no obvious difference between the two, both are growing amazingly well. I have flowers on most varieties now, including the mysterious white rocoto.

25 May 2009
The photo shows the base of the autopot which consists of a water tray and a float valve. The main difference between the autopot and quadgrow is the autopot plants sit in water where the quadgrow plants are raised slightly above. The autopot plants are off to a great start. They look very healthy, despite the lack of sunshine. The autopot contains three plants: two murupi dolce and one fatalii x Peruvian Chinense. 50% of this variety give normal red fatalii pods, and 50% give brown fatalli pods. We shall see...

20 April 2009
This is the QuadGrow kit that will be taking up this year's hydroponic space in the greenhouse. Very nice looking bit of kit it is too. In a nutshell you have a reservoir of nutrient that is channelled by gravity to the water tray at the bottom of the unit. The water is taken up by the plants as they need it and by using a float valve, the water level is maintained. No need to keep visiting your plants with a watering can and no need to over or under water them. In theory the plants should always have the exact amount of water and nutrient that they need which should allow them to always be in a state of perfect growth. At least from an H2O perspective! Greenhouse Sensation claim the benefit of their system is that the plant does not sit in the water.

Let's have a look in more detail. First thing to do is fill the generous 11 litre pots with compost. Each pot has a hole in the bottom which corresponds to a hole in the feeder tray they sit on. The plants draw up water from the water tray at the bottom through a SmartMat Strip, which acts like a wick. Make sure the SmartMat Strip sticks up into the compost as well as out of the bottom of the pot so that it can reach down into the water tray else it will not be able to drink.

The next step is to fill the water tray. Making sure you are on a level surface is a good idea at this point! The water trickles slowly into the tray until the white float valve shuts off the supply. As the plant then drinks up water, the float valve is released and more water can trickle in. It is a very simple yet effective water management system. I did a test fill with the feed tray removed (as shown in the photo) and it all worked perfectly.

And here are the first two plants in the QuadGrow. The two varieties are Amazon Chile Roma and Murupi Dolce. I am going to add another mild Chinense variety and a tomato. You can see the 25 litre black bucket that is supposed to house the nutrient, but I am actually using this to support a larger 45 litre reservoir which will feed both the Quadgrow and an Autopot. More about the Autopot later. The larger reservoir has an airstone in it to keep the nutrient oxygenated and should keep the plants watered long enough to allow me to go on holiday, which is always a bonus.

First impressions of the Quadgrow are good. The plants went in on a hot day but unlike the rest of the peppers I potted up at the same time, they showed no sign of transplant shock or wilting. Four days later the soil still appears bone dry and my normal instincts would be to water, but the plants are clearly getting what they need so I am leaving them alone. Next job is setting up the Autopot that my friend Lee has kindly lent to me for this season. Details to follow...

11 April 2009
I will go into more detail later, but for now I can tell you that I am largely growing a mixture of wild varieties and sweet chinenses. I am also growing far less than last year because by the time summer was in full swing the greenhouse was crammed full and I am sure the plants would have done even better had they had more space. For the first time I have started all my seedlings in rockwool cubes in a heated propagator as soon as roots were showing they were moved to an aeroponic propagator. Which is where they are as I type. From there they will all be going into soil. Some in normal plant pots, some into an autopot and some into a Greenhouse Sensation Quadgow.