My Peppers

[Shawn]

Keep us posted

[tompepper7]

The 1' extension works fine.

The "hot plug test" works but is moot as I saw the Bounty asks if the power went out when it starts and uses the previous settings after entering the time.

I'll use that whenever I add the extension.

 

[tompepper7]

My Caribbean Red Habanero pepper is over 10" tall and starting to reach both sides of the Aerogarden Bounty.

I may be making a lot of curry sauce as one habanero is what I use for the base recipe.

The Santa Fe Grande pepper plant has 1-3 peppers turning red every few days now.

This is the best producing plant I have grown in the Aerogarden to date (lettuce aside which is not the same as fruit producing plants).

Some other gardens are winding down and I'll need to start some new stuff.

[tompepper7]

So I picked 8 red Santa Fe Grande peppers today leaving one dark orange for tomorrow. There's another dozen pale yellow I'll be waiting on.

But a question.

There have been no more flowers for at least a couple weeks.

Will this plant be done when I get those last dozen peppers or will more flowers show up for more peppers?

[lynnee]

tompepper7, once you get an AG plant that starts producing lots of fruit, you are truly hooked! That happened to me with cherry tomatoes.

If your healthy pepper plants aren't laden with peppers, and have stopped producing blooms, you can try giving them a bloom supplement (e.g, KoolBloom) in addition to the AG nutrients. Go easy on it, though. The label says to add 2-5 mg per quart of water. I find that 3mg in a Bounty is about right.

With slow-growing plants like peppers, it's usually worth trying to get more than one crop. Older plants will benefit from CalMag, too.

[mike]

The Liquid KoolBloom works terrific. But be careful. My first use was on an mature Lemon Aji pepper plant that  had few flowers. I used the max recommended amount, 5 ml. The plant went into shock and dropped all flowers. It never fully recovered. Since then, I've kept it to less than 3.5 ml and that works. Also, I start at 1.5 ml at 28 days, and increase by .5 ml amounts.

[tompepper7]

www.burpee.com/pepper-sweet-habanero-habanada-prod500129.html

Those look interesting. I may start those when the Santa Fe Grandes are done.

[lynnee]

Those do look interesting! Wish I liked peppers more, because they're so pretty and fun to grow.

[tompepper7]

Today I made a hot sauce with some of the Santa Fe Grande peppers.

I made a sofrito sort of thing with onion, carrot celery, garlic.

I roasted 25 peppers in the oven and removed the seeds.

I blended the sofrito, roasted peppers, and some vinegar.

The Santa Fe Grande plant has had a few flowers lately.

There are 8 more yellow peppers growing.

The Bounty says 127 days.

Whenever this winds down I'll be planting the Sweet Habanero Habanada

The Caribbean Red Habanero plant takes up the whole bounty width/depth wise.

It is starting to have some flowers. 

The Bounty says 88 days.

I have seen some here use KoolBloom.

While watching some gardening videos I saw one that stated shortening light hours (in this case real daylight hours) could trigger blooming.

Does anyone shorten the hours the AeroGarden light is on to promote blooming?

 

[lynnee]

tompepper7, I don't fiddle with the lights at all. I keep them at max brightness no matter what the model. The reason I like the Bounty is that it has a 60w light hood, and the plants grow very fast.

Koolbloom causes my plants to produce lots of blooms.

[tompepper7]

Mark Wiens is in Trinidad/Tobago with Trinidad Scorpion peppers.

Something like that pork dish looks like is may be good with a habanero when I get some.

[lynnee]

Love the video, tompepper7! I didn't watch the whole thing, but it's really well done.

[tompepper7]

I thought I would be replacing the Santa Fe Grande pepper plant when a last few peppers were done but besides those last few peppers there are some more peppers starting and now some more flowers are showing up.

The Caribbean Red Habanero is now larger than the Santa Fe Grande and has had a few small flowers but no peppers starting yet at 105 days.

[tompepper7]

I counted the (second batch) Santa Fe Grande peppers and there are 30ish going from some just starting all the way to a couple starting to turn orange.

Also used the Be The Bee on over a dozen more flowers.

The Caribbean Red Habanero plant. still huge and looking good, but just a few small flowers and no peppers. 

[lynnee]

You've got an impressive producer in that Santa Fe Grande, tompepper7!

[tompepper7]

Dec 5, 2022 0:07:50 GMT -5 lynnee said:

You've got an impressive producer in that Santa Fe Grande, tompepper7 !

It's great. The first batch was over 2 dozen peppers and this second batch is also over 2 dozen peppers.

The Bounty says 149 days.

[tompepper7]

Update on the Santa Fe grande peppers.

Previously I said there was 30ish peppers growing.

I have harvested a good half dozen and now I count 40ish peppers growing.

Some of these are short fat peppers, half the length of the others.

[tompepper7]

The Caribbean Red Habanero peppers finally have a couple dozen small flowers growing (Bounty says day 132).

This plant is huge with nice green leaves. It is a couple inches below the extended Bounty light with a number of branches extending 6 to 12 inches wider than the Bounty.

I have seen some sources reference the light time when doing hydroponics.

Saw one recently that specifically stated to switch from 18 hours to 12 hours when flowering started.

I gave that a try about a week ago and am seeing more flowers.

Hoping actual peppers follow.

 

[tompepper7]

Well, finally. The Caribbean Red Habanero peppers have had lots of flowers for a couple weeks and today I see one pepper starting.

146 days.

Looking at the info about the seeds I see mature at 110-119 days.

Apparently I have a pepper at approaching 5 months rather than 4.

[lynnee]

Yay, peppers!