Let It Grow, Let It Grow, Can't Hold It Back Anymore...

2022-04-15

Red Fire Pepper, 146 Days - Reddit (2 years ago)

This evening I received my order from Amazon and AeroGarden, the 9 Pepper Kit. It contained the expected 3 Red Fire Pepper pods, 3 Purple Super Hot Pepper Pods, and 3 Mini Jalapeño Pods. I hadn't realized that the Jalapeño pods in the description were more of the same that I already have planted. Digging deeper, I found that the Purple Super Hots are no hotter than jalapeño peppers. Though edible, they are mostly ornamental. The red fire peppers can get up to 30K SHU* and will be the hottest peppers I currently grow other than those in the Smart Gardens.

The problem of the moment is that despite adding the AeroGarden Harvest to the lineup, I've run out of space. If I were growing herbs and lettuce, I could fill every hole in all of the decks. The Harvest and the iDOO units are doing just that, and every slot is in use, a total of 24.

The Smart Gardens are filled and crowded and early on, I should have done more research, especially as regards pruning. The Smart Gardens are mostly supporting peppers and a pair of tomato plants. All of those need elbow room. We'll see what we see.

The QYOs are each supporting two tomato plants. The left one has two maturing Rosie Finch plants that are flowering and bearing unripe tomatoes. They hog all the light and space and everything else (mostly salad greens) that once shared that unit is elsewhere. The right one has Heirloom Cherry Tomato plants and four Mini Jalapeño plants. One Mini Jalapeño plant is a month old, and has been pruned once already. Everything else has not yet germinated, having only been planted last Tuesday, after cleaning and refilling the deck.

There is no room, anywhere, for a Purple Super Hot or a Red Fire pod, unless a Mini Jalapeño fails to germinate, and I need to give them all at least 21 days. Or I could buy an eleventh unit. That's not on - there are no electrical outlets for another unit. I've reached a hard limit.

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* Scoville Heat Units

Inventory updated:

• 0 Black Seeded Simson Lettuce

• 0 Deer Tongue Lettuce

• 3 Red Sails Lettuce

• 5 Marvel of the 4 Seasons Lettuce

• 0 Rouge d'Hiver Red Romaine Lettuce

• 3 Parris Island Lettuce

• 0 Romaine Lettuce

• 3 Genovese Basil

• 2 Italian Parsley Herb

• 1 Mint Herbs

• 2 Oregano Herbs

• 1 Savory Herbs

• 2 Thyme Herbs

• 1 Chives Herbs

• 2 Dill Herbs

• 0 Rosie Finch Tomatoes (6 were planted. 2 survive, for now)

• 15 Heirloom Cherry Tomatoes

• 6 Golden Harvest Tomatoes

• 1 Mega Cherry Tomato

• 3 Mini Jalapeño

• 3 Red Fire Chilis

• 3 Purple Super Hot Peppers

• 0 Thai Chilis

• 1 Poblano Pepper

• 1 Bell Pepper

• 1 package of Green Onion Seeds

• 14 3-oz bottles of Miracle-Gro AeroGarden Liquid Plant Food (plus one in use)

• 3 each 100-mL bottles of Plant Food A and Plant Food B (plus one each in use)

• Sufficient empty pods and seedless pod sponge inserts for every position on all the units, with leftovers, and too many hot-house domes. (Today's kit included 9 more domes)

• 2 pipettes for administering nutrients, and a pipette cleaning brush.

2022-04-16 23:40

One of the Rouge d'Hiver/Red Romaine Lettuce pods has germinated. That's one out of five, total. I'm still watching the other three in the Harvest. Also, I'm watching the six Romaine pods in the iDOO bucket. I may have overfed them, so I dumped the bucket and refilled it with the right amount of nutrient.