Attack of the Clones

The peter pepper currently being used on the laughing buddha statue is one that I container grew last season for a friend who just wanted to see the pods off it, so it never got overly large, and I left the pods on it when I brought it in to extend the season for it (since I planted it very late).  Never did get a proper chop back for overwintering.

Went ahead and cut it back, and since I am stressing it with this rooting stuff, I went ahead and dug out a small grow light to go with it as well.  While gathering up the clippings, a thought struck me.

That mini hydroponics kit I have some of the spare reaper seeds in, I bet that thing would make an excellent cloner!

So I picked the branch with the most interesting structure, trimmed it into a proper cutting, gave it a quick dusting of rooting hormone, and traded places with one of the reaper seeds (which is now in sterilized coir to finish sprouting).

I have never had any luck getting superhots to clone successfully.  If this thing can get that peter pepper clipping to root, it'll be worth every penny I paid for it.  Never had any intention of using it for more than getting seedlings up, but if it proves to be an effective cloner, its going to see a lot of use!

For starters, the most successful grafting technique for peppers is an approach graft.

http://anpsa.org.au/grafting.html

Reason it works so well is because the scion (the piece you are grafting onto the main plant) has it's own root structure to support it while the two plants fuse.  Once fused, you just cut the bottom off the scion and its now entirely dependent on the stock plant.

Problem is, you normally need a fairly large scion for that to work with, which means sacrificing a full plant.  Not ideal.  But if I can use trimmings from the same plant, root them, and then use that rooted clone for the approach graft, I'm not wasting entire plants just to get a branch in a more visually appealing place than what nature decided.

Not to mention I've got this big 4 year old bhut jolokia that I've used for pod production which is currently overwintering that I could graft reaper branches onto...

Oh yes, if this thing works well as a cloner, I'm going to wear it out.

Lights... Camera... Action!

Okay, the grow light I ordered came in, I've got this uber camera in my new phone, and its been 2 weeks since I started that one seed and I've concluded that between not being 100% sure on this halogen bulb being the best heat source for it and just wanting something I can see more easily, I've decided to start more seeds.

First up, the new grow light along with the first high res picture of the container.  Now these I did run through photoshop (well, technically paintshop pro) to reduce the size, because damn, this camera takes crazy high resolution photos!

The LED is pretty bright, but its entirely directional.  The arc on the LEDs is pretty narrow, so only things directly under it will really get the benefit.  So yeah, glad I'm building a setup that will offer more flood filling CFLs.

As for the other seeds I'm starting, I'm going to be using the baggie method.  For those that aren't aware of how this method works, here's what you need.

1 Ziplock Bag
1 Paper Napkin
1 Seed Heating Mat
X Seeds

The basic idea is to put your napkin in the ziplock bag, wet it, put your seeds on it, close the bag, and put it on the heating mat.  The napkin serves as a wick that keeps the moisture on the seeds without being soggy, the closed bag prevents it from drying out, and the overall thinness of the setup means it all stays a consistent temperature on the heating mat.

Here you can see I've put 4 seeds, one on each corner of the wet napkin.  I specifically put them in the corners because I have successfully used this method in the past and if you don't spot just about the exact instant those seeds germinate, you're not going to be able to take them off the napkin without damaging their fragile little roots.  There's no harm in just moving them to some soil with a small section of napkin though, so this way I can easily tear a corner of napkin off, trim off the excess, and put the scrap with the seed directly in some soil.

It also alleviates the problem I have with the current soil setup in that I can't see if anything is happening or not.  Considering I'm doing this half for the sake of the internet and half just to give me something to do over the winter, staring at a pot that refuses to boil for 2 weeks is getting to me.  Least this way I just look at it and see how everything is going.

We are currently scheduled for a fairly warm day on Sunday, so my hopes are to get the cabinet finished then (or at least all the woodwork) so I can disassemble it, bring it in, reassemble it, and get to work wiring everything up, especially now that my light came in.  Once thats ready, I can move my heating mat into it with these seeds and have everything tucked nicely out of the way.