Happy Winter Solstice; 2012: 21 Dec 11:12 (UTC)

And no seeds sprouted; it's been 15 days, hmm...
Time to e-mail Nichols and find out what's going on. I'm going to plant more seeds, probably tomorrow.
This reminds me of when I first started: The germination rates were abysmal, but in the end it all worked.
Cheers.

Planted Six Jalapeno and 8 Caribbean Reds Today

The first 4 just refused to germinate. I used some old coir pucks that had been used before; so this could be a reason they didn't germinate.
Today, I used brand new ones which have been excellent in the past.
My window of opportunity is closing fast, as the optimum growing season here is from December through March 1st; after that it just gets too hot.
My wife has been doing a stellar job of making compost. This will make up the bulk of my potting soil when I'm ready to pot the seedlings. Cheers.

Not looking good...

...zero germination of the Jalapeno seeds. Nuts! I'll have to order from England or the states.
I'll give them a few more days; but I think it's unlikely anything will change.

Yesterday, the 27th, I pre-soaked...

...a batch of seeds (Jalapeno) in a growth hormone I bought at an agricultural supply company. 5ml/1lt. of water and soak for 30 minutes. Remove from the solution and dry completely. When they dried out, I then planted them in coconut coir.
It's also for rooting cuttings; which I tried on a cutting from our Avocado tree. This was yesterday also. I may try it on the three surviving Costa Rican red Habaneros still in the garden.
The bottle of hormone is all in Thai, so I can't really say what it's called or what's in it. I'm pretty sure it's not

gibberellic acid though.

Okay, I've been a lazy sod...

...and will be germinating more seeds this week; well, at least trying. Normally this isn't a problem for me; so we'll see...

Seeds...

I received a couple of hundred Jalapeno seeds from a fellow up in northeast of Thailand. I planted a dozen of them a week ago and none has sprouted. Not sure why; but I'll do a peroxide pre-soak on the next batch to see if that helps.
I'd be interested to know if they were dried naturally or with heat. We'll see; luckily I have a few hundred to experiment with.
I love Jalapenos and really want to see this project go forward.
More in a few days...

Winter, Even here in Thailand...

...and as such; things are dormant. But it is warming up day by day and the evenings here are less cold.
Another couple of weeks and I'll redouble my efforts.
A visitor to this site named Mark has suggested the Asian Fruit Fly is the culprit and I feel strongly he is correct and will henceforth bag my pods.

Yes, this morning I applied the anti-bacterial...

...fertilizer. I expect it will be a few days before I know any results.
I won't even consider the bone-meal until this is resolved; and I'm ready!
So counting; December 4th I'll dose a second time...
Cheers...

Fail! The Worst Results Yet...

...and if I weren't persistent; I'd quit!
I lost all 5 orange Habanero plants in 2 days; and every pepper on the Costa red has rotted and fallen to the ground. Some have worms, but most don't. The leaves are looking very bad on the red and the orange Habs just collapsed.
That's the bad news. 
The good news is; after much traveling and asking, a friend and I found a shop today, which is about 55 kilometers away in Damnoen Saduak (of floating market fame) which has everything; and I mean everything!
Bone meal, lime, and a soil treatment for the root rot which is killing my plants.
The owner speaks English and is very knowledgeable about plant and root diseases. He explained the soil in our area is very bad and described exactly what was wrong with my plants. I of course knew about the bad soil (which has been discussed here a lot) and had gotten Chitosan for the bad bacteria/fungus/nematodes.
Well, Khun (Mr.) Suthep said Chitosan doesn't work; and he's right! But I had to give it a try, no?
That's the very good news.
Tonight I start the soil treatment; and will apply a second treatment in 2 weeks and once a month after that. When I'm satisfied with the results I'll apply a healthy amount of bone-meal. 
I feel I need to move one step at a time so as not to confuse which application did what. If this soil treatment actually works I may well be on my way to finally growing Habaneros in an ongoing process.
I had far better luck growing in pots but they have they're own unique problems; thus my wanting to plant in the ground. Last years rainy season did in my potted plants with gross over watering for months.
My plants made it through the rainy season this year and then went down. Frustrating to say the least.
That's the encouraging news. Cheers...

Calcium, Magnesium, & Bone Meal...

I have never understood why bone meal is nowhere to be found here in LOS. Drove many kilometers yesterday in search of either bone meal and/or a calcium supplement.
The biggest fertilizer store I've found is 20 kilometers from home and when I asked about bone meal; mai me (don't have). Then I asked about calcium supplement; mai me again.
Upon further inquiry and questions they finally came up with a big jar of some kind of foliar chemical powder.
Persistence paid off this time; they had what I wanted but didn't even realize it because Thais don't question the way we westerners are prone to do. It's just too common a growing adjunct not to have in a huge shop like this.
The second largest ingredient was calcium oxide preceded by magnesium and followed by potassium.
Bingo! It also has copper, zinc, boron, molybdenum, and iron.
Yes, I have the Bison organic fertilizer w/bone meal, but I can't find it anywhere, so when I run out (which will be soon) I have nothing else to substitute; now I do and enough to last for a year or more.
The pods are still dropping but I expect next week this will stop as there is nothing else to cause problems at this time.
Another thing that is different this time around is the leaves; they are flat and healthy looking, unlike last year with them all curled up. Now that's headway IME.
Cheers; the adventure continues...