Update: Emergency Transplant Procedures...

Remember this Costa Rica Habanero? Remember to click the image to see a larger version;

This was 21 days ago. Here is the same plant today;

This Costa Rica Hab hasn't looked this good for over 4 months. I expect it to start producing again sometime next month. 

While the procedure is extreme; it shows that when plants are ailing they can be saved by timely action and the proper treatment. Cheers. 

Dorset Nagas

These sprouted on the 26th & 30th of June respectively, thus their slightly different sizes. This chinense briefly held the worlds hottest pepper title at over 1,000,000 SHU (Scovile heat units).
Remember to click on the image if you'd like to see a larger picture;

This guy is 6" across and 2-1/2" high. Great proportion IMO.

Bhuts & Nagas and Germination...

On June 7th I planted 4 Bhut Jolokias and 4 Dorset Nagas. Nineteen days later 1 Naga sprouted. On the 23rd day one more sprouted. On the 28th day 1 Bhut Jolokia sprouted and on day 29 the 2nd Bhut sprouted. Then on day 34 2 more Nagas sprouted.
That was it until today; 42 days after planting, 1 more Bhut and 1 more Naga sprouted. I had given up and just by chance I checked my mini green-house (Tupperware container) and to my total surprise there they were.

The moral is to not give up and keep the planting medium viable. Bhuts are notoriously slow to germinate, bhut this is ridiculous.  ;)  Happy growing.

Wednesday July 21: Update; day 44 and two more Chocolate Habanero and one more Bhut Jolokia have sprouted for a total of 31 plants.


Wednesday August 4: Update; day 58 and one more Dorset Naga sprouted. I have 2 more Nagas and 4 more Bhuts that have not yet sprouted.   

5 Plants Go In My Raised Bed

For the last couple of months I've been building and grooming a raised bed for 5 of my Habaneros; 2 Costa Rican Red and 3 Orange. I have added composted leaves, grass, kitchen waste (no meat), wood ash, and general yard debris. I also added about 2, 5 gal. buckets of medium coarse coir, to help keep the soil from compacting too much.
Yesterday the Habaneros went in the ground and I top dressed aged, dried cow manure around all of the plants. Last night we had a really good rain, so the plants are looking perky this morning. Here's some photos.
Click picture to see larger image;

Picture Update of the Capsicum I'm Growing

All of the pictures are captioned and if you want to see a bigger shot just click on the picture;

There are 31 30  plants comprising 6 different cultivars of Capsicum; 5 chinense and 1 annum (Early Jalapeño).

Emergency Transplant Procedures...

...for really serious issues regarding soil, roots, over feeding, and general health problems with ones plants.
The original Costa Rica Red Habanero I started with became ill from a collapse of the soil in which it was potted. I transplanted it to the front yard (in the ground) with some potting soil, cow manure, and top dressed in some milled egg shells. That was many months ago and as you can see (pictures below); it's looking pretty pathetic. I fed it everything known to be good nutritionally; nothing helped. Finally, I backed off and have ignored it for more than 2 months. Again, nothing. All it's done is stay alive; that in itself is an accomplishment. Four days ago I decided I'd give it one last try to get it back from the brink. Today I acted and here's the process; from the ground to a pot...
To view a larger picture, just click on it.

This was done yesterday on the 6th of July; I'll update with photos showing the progress of my oldest plant. It produced 4 beautiful and delicious Habaneros before things went downhill; so it's worth saving if I can.

Saturday July 10th 

Update;

This is day 4 after the bare-root transplant. I pruned the plant today to give it a better shape/bushier profile;