Week 15 Dixon - Circle of Life

These pictures (and the original intent for this post) were from last Thursday, April 25. So the first pepper that was turning red last week started to get  a bit mushy at the end...which is typical of Blossom End Rot - which is a likely side-effect of me depriving the peppers of the amount of water that it seems like they would prefer (I am doing this in an effort to fight back against the Fungal attacks). Shortly after that one turned red, the other 2 original peppers turned REALLY red in a big hurry. Below is one of those BEAUTIFUL peppers. I had tasted the green ones, but figured this one would be even hotter since it had fully matured. I took it to work, and a few co-workers and I cut some pieces and tried them. Wow.....totally unlike any spicy pepper I've ever eaten. Most hot peppers have a aggressive "front" end of the taste, that sticks in the front of your mouth and slowly diminishes. This pepper was literally disappointing in the first 5-10 seconds, but then began to reveal that there was a train of pain coming, which ran over me and didn't stop for about 5 full minutes. I would estimate the green peppers I ate were around 50,000 Scoville units, and the Red one was close to 80,000 Scoville units. But realistically, I have almost nothing to base that on (other than internet research, etc).

Here was the full garden. Herbs doing absolutely insane, as always.

In a moment of decisiveness, I decided it was time to thin the herd. I decided to CULL the smallest pepper plant to make room for the other 2, that had now resumed significant new growth (once I cut off the original pepper). Here is the last photo taken of this plant inside and alive....the leaves were the most yellow of the 3 plants, it was the shortest, and had the fewest peppers.

Speaking of, here is one of the larger of the 2 plants....you can see here the silhouette of about 10 new peppers that are now about 2-3 inches long. This is all new growth in the last 2 weeks, wow!

Growth has resumed...shooting up to 24 inches. Gotta stay ahead of Shaun!!

Rosemary BUSH growing! Need to harvest.....

New pepper buds....

What you are about to see is graphic in nature. Viewer discretion is advised.

Cayenne plant vs Alaskan "Spring".....we know how this story ends.

I took the pot off, and the thing held its shape. Look at all those roots!!!

You can even see the original PEET pod that I planted into the pot.

I cut the stalk open to see if there would be a dark fungal ring (there was not). What was remarkable is how much energy it took to cut this thing open, it literally had the consistency of tree wood.