Pods -- already !?

[dmforcier]

We didn't have much of a winter here -- certainly nothing you northerners would even call winter -- so many of my plants have been outside since mid-March.

Today, I was doing a final cull (having located a dupe .. er .. new enthusiast to take my overage) and found several plants with pods already well developed.

Piment d'Espelette must be the fastest setting pepper of all time! 60 days from germination and I have a 2" pod and a 1 1/2", with several smaller. The Aleppos I'm giving away today already have pods. And marvel of marvels, a Caribbean Red (habanero) - a long-season C.chinense - has a nice half-inch pod already! Several others have mini-pods (pregnant flowers that have dropped their skirts).

These are all on new plants. The overwintered C.chinense that one would expect to have had a head start (and that have been outside since last year, except for a few days) are sitting there looking serious, but apparently without interest in reproduction. No, I'm not feeding them saltpeter, Abigail. The two C.annuum: Black Pearl has black pearls (they are rarely without), and Lemon Drop is blooming like mad, though I haven't checked for pods yet.

This is a better start than last year, fer sure!

[timbucktwo]

Originally Posted by dmforcier

We didn't have much of a winter here -- certainly nothing you northerners would even call winter -- so many of my plants have been outside since mid-March.

Today, I was doing a final cull (having located a dupe .. er .. new enthusiast to take my overage) and found several plants with pods already well developed.

Piment d'Espelette must be the fastest setting pepper of all time! 60 days from germination and I have a 2" pod and a 1 1/2", with several smaller. The Aleppos I'm giving away today already have pods. And marvel of marvels, a Caribbean Red (habanero) - a long-season C.chinense - has a nice half-inch pod already! Several others have mini-pods (pregnant flowers that have dropped their skirts).

These are all on new plants. The overwintered C.chinense that one would expect to have had a head start (and that have been outside since last year, except for a few days) are sitting there looking serious, but apparently without interest in reproduction. No, I'm not feeding them saltpeter, Abigail. The two C.annuum: Black Pearl has black pearls (they are rarely without), and Lemon Drop is blooming like mad, though I haven't checked for pods yet.

This is a better start than last year, fer sure!

Definitely envious of those in the southwest who get a much earlier start, still a ways away from a plant out date, but peppers in containers will go out - and probably back in on cold nights.

Seedlings moved to Solo cups this week, and 1/2 doz. C. pubescens Rocoto plants arrived yesterday, put them into 1 gallon containers with 5-1-1 mix, they were a bit wilted from the ride here but look like they'll be OK.

[Merediana]

I gave my peppers an indoor headstart under artificial light and surprisingly the two chinense plants were the fastest in developing pods! I did sow them on Christmas and had the first developing pods 7 weeks ago. They now have at least 2 full grown pods plus at least 5 smaller ones. Plant out date is in two weeks.
My annum has baby pods at the moment and the baccatum isn't even flowering. I'm very tempted to just throw it away but now that I've taken care of it for almost 5 months I probably couldn't do it...

[dmforcier]

Christmas, eh? You're two months ahead of me. That's a long time to keep them indoors. You must have good lights.

The baccatums that I've grown have all been rewarding. Keep at it. Lots of year left.

[Starlight]

It's nice to hear when folks are finally having some good growing conditions. Seems weather been so crazy for so long. I hope your plants continue to do well for you. : )