White Pepper

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The Auto Purple Bastard Eater has been doing MUCH better the last couple days. It's drinking a lot more water and even showing signs of wanting more nutrients, I just made a new mix with about half as much as I'd normally give plants at this point. There's lots of branchy leaf growth all over, and it's transitioning into flower and starting to stretch.

The JEMs are doing all right, particularly since they've been subsiding on the APBE's extremely light nutrient mix. Day 16 from sprout for the front two, the other is 4 days behind. They will probably show sex in a couple days.

 

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Day 46 (APBE), Day 19 and 15 (JEMs), Day 73 (Pakistan Ryder)

The two WWbx1s, Sweet Trainwreck, and Bobby's Widow are chopped and hanging now, but I moved the Pakistan Ryder to my other tent to finish.

Here's the full tent, for scale. It's a 2x2x4', there's an old HLG 135W QB at the top back, angled forward so that it isn't hitting the Pakistan Ryder straight on and badly burning the tops. The PR is about 26" tall, the Auto Purple Bastard Eater is maybe a foot tall (wider than it is tall), and the JEMs are quite squat so far. There are a few chili pepper seedlings in the back. The JEMs haven't shown sex yet but that will probably happen in the next week.

Focused on just the APBE. I don't know if I'd top this one next time -- it seems like it's inclined to get branchy no matter what, and because of the ABC leaf structure there's no problem with light getting through to the lower branches.

Zooming in further, on just one of the APBE branches. It's getting pompoms now. I'm planning on pollinating some branches in a couple days.

It also has a ton of new root growth at the bottom and is very happily bottom-feeding now. Compare that to this picture from a week ago. I wish I'd included a wick when I set up the pot, it probably would have given the roots a big head start.

The Pakistan Ryder's top colas facing the light get a bit too much, the rest gets a bit less. I've been turning it a few times a day, but still trying to rearrange the plants in the tent to give the others enough light without it giving it too much. The tent is pretty short so I can't raise the light further away.

 

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Harvest for Pakistan Ryder, pollination for the APBE

Pakistan Ryder, pre-harvest. There are some white stigmas but most are darkened and the trichomes are mostly cloudy throughout the upper and lower branches.

PR tops.

The full tent, now without the Pakistan Ryder. There are three JEMs in the tray on the right, if any prove to be male (and they should show sex any day now) they'll move to a pollen isolation chamber. There are also a couple chili pepper seedlings in the back.

The Auto Purple Bastard Eater, now with lots of pompoms. There's lots of good spots for localized pollination since the plant is so branchy. I applied Anvil, Wizard's Apprentice, Wizard's Apprentice x Blue Microverse, and Bobby's Widow pollen, and I used more pollen/flour mix than normal because some of the pollen is pretty old. I'll have a better idea which cross(es) to work further after I've actually tried the flower.

From above. It's wider than it is tall: about 12" to the top of the air-pot to the highest leaf tip, but 18" across.

A single branch, with a close-up showing the leaf shape.

 

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Everything from the main batch is trimmed and curing aside from the Pakistan Ryder, which is hanging and will get dry-trimmed in a couple days.

Auto Purple Bastard Eater front/left, three JEMs in the windowbox, a couple chili peppers in the back.

All three JEMs are female this time. That's cool -- last time I tried growing JEM both male, so I saved pollen but haven't been able to actually try it yet. Hopefully the pollen is still viable. This is JEM #1, which has started stretching, #2 should start any minute now. #3 is ~4 days behind the other two and was the last to show sex.

The APBE is flowering hard, big clusters of stigmas everywhere that have been visibly bulking up day by day. It's been exciting seeing this one develop, it's still got several weeks to go but I'm massively curious how it will turn out.

Close-up of one of the branches.

 

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Full tent. Auto Purple Bastard Eater on the left, JEMs on the right, and a few pepper plants tucked in the back, in case anybody is having a hard time telling them apart.

It's day 30-35ish for the JEMs and day 62 for the APBE.

JEM #1. This one started out a bit ahead of the other two, but they've mostly caught up now. The red zip tie branches on all three JEMs were just pollinated with JEM pollen I saved last August, when I popped a couple JEM reg seeds and got all males. The water droplets are from misting inside the pollinated branches' ziplock bags, to deactivate any stray pollen. I did two first or second node side branches on each plant.

JEM #1's top. All three have a decent amount of stigmas now, and these are probably going to be ready to harvest around 70-ish days from sprout, so now's the time to pollinate if I want to have mature seeds ready around then.

JEM #2. I decided not to top any of the JEMs, but I've been doing some leaf tucking on all three. #2 isn't as apically dominant as the others.

JEM #3.

The APBE's buds are continuing to swell and it's developing a pleasant berry smell. (And APBE is back in stock at RocBud's site.)

Close-up of one of the APBE tops. There's a LOT of stigmas, but some purple bracts are peeking through. I also saw a few seeds forming on the pollinated branches, but didn't focus on those in the pictures.

One of the leaves, showing the ABC leaf trait shape. There's some tip burn and discoloration; I got really busy and haven't kept up with watering to runoff, so there was some salt buildup. I dealt with that and should be able to stay on top of it the rest of the grow, but those fan leaves may not recover. Oh well.

 

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The full tent. Day 70 for the APBE, 40-44 for the JEMS. I moved JEM#1 to the back left because three was too tight in the windowbox.

JEM #1.

JEM #2.

JEM #3, 4 days behind the others. I found and removed a single malformed bract with what looked like a mangled anther coming out of it, about two nodes up on the stem. Probably a one-time thing? (No sign of intersex traits on the other two.)

The APBE has a few stigmas starting to darken here and there, it probably has a couple more weeks still but the end is approaching.

One of the APBE tops. This is going to be really easy to trim!

Another APBE top.

I extracted seeds from the pollinated branches on the WWbx1s, Sweet Trainwreck, and Bobby's Widow. A pretty disappointing yield all around -- most of the freezer pollen turned out too old to be viable, a few dozen WWbx1 x Anvil seeds but nothing else. The fresh Bobby's Widow pollen made shockingly few seeds too, just one on the Sweet Trainwreck and not many on the others. There were only 7 BW4 x BW1 seeds (from the male with no intersex traits), I was expecting like 10x that. No idea why. I've got a quart jar full of frosty broken up buds that should sift really well, at least. The Pakistan Ryder was harvested later and it's still drying, but based on that I'm not expecting very many PR x BW seeds.

 

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Full tent, with the Auto Purple Bastard Eater hogging the spotlight, a couple Fatalii chili peppers tucked under it, a JEM behind it (#1), and JEMs #2 and #3 on the right. The APBE is on day 75 from sprout, the JEMs days 45-49. The Fatalii a bit older than the JEMs, and will have more space soon.

The APBE's stigmas have withered and turned orange over the week, starting at the very top and making noticeable progress day by day. They were almost completely white a week ago. I'm planning on harvesting this one in a week or so. The trichomes on the upper branches are mostly cloudy, I haven't bothered checking the lower branches yet because I'm going to wait a bit longer for maturing seeds in the lower branches regardless. It's not super loud but smells fruity, in a blueberry direction.

One of the APBE's many tops.

Another.

Meanwhile, JEM #1 is having a rough time. Some of it is probably from moving it in the back corner, though according to my lux meter the light intensity there is even with what the other two are getting. It looks to me like it wants more nitrogen and a bit less light, so I'm trying to accommodate that, but I don't have a better spot to put it until the APBE is harvested. It's also got a bit of algae in the pot, but I doubt that would make this much difference.

JEM #2 looks much better (as does #3), flowering and slowly bulking up.

JEM #3.

JEM#3's main cola is starting to get frosty.

 

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I could have harvested this a week ago, but I was waiting until 5 weeks since my last pollination pass. That was yesterday, so here we go.

The Auto Purple Bastard Eater (with flash), immediately before chopping the stem and hanging it to dry. Its smell has stayed consistent for the last week or so -- it doesn't have any sharp skunky/acrid edge to it, just a pleasant berry smell that stays mostly in the background unless the plant is jostled.

One of the tops. This is going to be so easy to trim. Just snip a few petioles here and there, done.

Close up of one bud.

Another, one of the lower ones.

And another. Lots of color peeking through!

 

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Now that the APBE is out, the three JEMs and the Fatalii peppers have more elbow room. The JEMs look like they'll be ready to harvest soon (currently day 55-59 from sprout), but I'm planning on waiting about two more weeks so seeds in the lower branches can mature.

JEM #1 has used up and dropped a bunch of fan leaves, now it's looking pretty naked. I think moving it to the back corner gave too much light exposure to the semi-translucent pot's side, and algae in the pot took over and started stealing nitrogen from it. I also watered the tub too deep once, which probably stressed adapted air roots within the pot. I usually don't have problems with algae because the leaf canopy and the opaque windowboxes block most of the light, but it got out of hand this time.

JEM #1's top.

JEM #2 is doing much better, though the top fan leaves are looking a bit stressed. I'm going to reposition the lights now that the APBE is out, I think they want a bit less light intensity.

This one has a distinct smell the other two don't. I can't put my finger on it, but an herby, green, savory smell that makes me think of a jar of pickles. Not caraway, not dill exactly, but something along those lines. Kinda cool, I wonder that if will stick around though curing.

Close-up of one of JEM #2's side branches.

JEM #3.

JEM3_top.jpg

Close-up of JEM #3's top.

JEM #3 has so much root development within the cup that it's lifting the coco mass up an inch or so. This has happened in some of my previous grows, too.

 

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Day 65-68 for the JEMs. #3 is a bit behind the other two and some of its stigmas haven't darkened yet, but they're all close to done. I'm planning on harvesting all three next week.

JEM #1. It lost most of its fan leaves. I'll take better precautions against algae next time I move a single plant to a separate clear tray like this.

JEM #2. This one still smells distinctly like pickle spices. Not dill, but something close.

One of JEM #2's tops.

JEM #3, a few days behind the other two.

Close up of JEM#3's main cola.

A couple Fatalii peppers, soon to be transplanted. They tend to start out really squat and have bumpy leaves like this. As they mature and approach flowering the stem stretches -- the one on the right hasn't stretched yet. The peppers are excellent, roughly the same heat level as habaneros but even more fruity. I got the seeds from Seed Savers Exchange. I tried cross-pollinating some with other peppers I'm growing outdoors, but I'm planning on keeping these indoors and better isolated so I can rule out random crosses from bees.