Full Scale Test Run

Its warm, and forecast says its going to stay that way for a while, so I've decided to run my first full scale test using the Halloween peppers I grew for this specific reason.

Now, I have an old skull prop that I used a couple years ago in a stem fusing experiment with three different types of peppers (they were a bhut, a scorpion, and a moruga, if memory serves) that ended up less than successful.  One pepper outgrew and shaded out the others before there was any meaningful fusion, so lesson learned there.  Anyway, I had this laying around.

Old photo I dug out because I again forgot to take a new one before I started.

What you see there is pretty much what you get with this one.  It was a hollow resin skull that I cut the back third off of so that it would lay at that angle.  Looks half buried, but the bottom is entirely open.  Had that laying around (if anyone is wondering, I run a haunted house during October every year, so yes, I have a lot of skulls just laying around), and figured I could use it again.

The dixie cup Halloween pepper has some good root growth.  Good enough that I'm actually a little concerned about the Reapers in the smaller containers.  They're probably good for now, but they're going to have to be up potted here ASAP if they're anything like this one.  Remember, the goal for them is to have good long roots that will be conducive to the root over rock bonsai style, so don't want to have them getting root bound early.  I'm using up the remainder of last year's left over potting soil for this, I'll need to pick a bag or two up when I go out next.

So, laid the Halloween out over the 2/3rd skull and spread the roots out.  Most of the roots are going over the front half of the skull, but made sure to send some across the back for good anchoring as well.

Now, instead of wrapping this one like I did the Buddha, I'm going to try just mounding a thin layer of soil up over everything.  Its maybe half an inch deep across the top and sides of the skull.  This is risky, that soil may not stay in place well when I water, and it will dry out quickly.  I'll have to keep an eye on it.

So why am I doing it this way, and why am I doing it now?  Roots naturally avoid light, they will try to grow away from anything that might peek through the soil, so I'm hoping that will help drive them against the skull.  While the soil will dry quickly, the weather is just going to be in the low to mid 70's for the next few days, then mid to upper 60's following that.  So its not going to be baking summer sun heat, that will help slow the drying out.  I'm also still in the process of hardening everything off, so it won't be in prolonged direct sunlight either.  That should make keeping it moist enough to not die until it re-establishes much easier.

Now, seeing as this is still a young plant, I will not be pulling the soil down on it.  While I know from experience that it can survive that, the process stresses the plant and dramatically slows growth.  I want this Halloween ornamental to get as large as it can (which is one reason why its in this large ceramic pumpkin pot, the aesthetics of the choice were not lost on me however).  This should be more than enough for it to thrive in for the rest of the summer.