Blisters LED Coco grow has reached it's inevitable end...

JJJessee · Jan 8, 2014

Blister said:
The Bhut's were potted up on December 5th 2013. This is how they look 21 days later on December 26th 2013. The plants really seem to respond to the LED lights, coco and the Flora Micro + Bloom series.

.....

I'm voting for this as the 2014 THP Understatement of the Year.

I've been a fan of coir since the minute touched it last year, but only used it as a supplement and not as a primary medium.

You dialed it in very quickly seems to me and I appreicate the level of detail you are giving us.

I think you're right to 86 your original bonnets in favor of the MoA. Thanks to Walkgood they're are on top of my New Grow for 2014. All the cool kids seem to be growing them this year

That Blackstar is fascinating, I may have to get my tekkie to talk to our LED sign mfg/supplier about doing a basement version of that rig.

That Cannazym sounds like a winner too, I'm headed to my grow store this weekend and will check it out.

I wonder how these plants would adapt to in ground planting when the time/weather came.
That plant in your hand is bigger and rooty-er than than anything I set out last year , I'm a mid-May zone also.

Why shouldn't I just wait until April to pop my chinense -that gives them 6 weeks?

Keep the Faith,
jjj

Blister · Jan 8, 2014

ohmatic said:
WOW ! i just saw your pictures of the roots in the pods and must say that i am seriously impressed, i have never ever seen or encountered such an ammount of roots in my pots every, very impressive !

I know right?! I've never experienced ANYTHING like this when growing in soil either. In fact I've never experienced HALF of this when growing in soil. When I was looking into coco, I read so many reports where people had roots poking out the surface when they were growing in coco. I thought, huh, MAYbe that could happen. Now that I've seen it for myself I'm really just blown away. You know when you plant a seed and you get the first little hook pop up as it breaks through the soil? I have about a 100 root 'hooks' popping up on my Jolokias. I can't express just how amazed I am with coco and simply using a combo of Flora Micro, Flora Bloom and Reverse Osmosis (RO) water. It's painfully simple.

JJJessee said:
I'm voting for this as the 2014 THP Understatement of the Year.

I've been a fan of coir since the minute touched it last year, but only used it as a supplement and not as a primary medium.

You dialed it in very quickly seems to me and I appreicate the level of detail you are giving us.

I think you're right to 86 your original bonnets in favor of the MoA. Thanks to Walkgood they're are on top of my New Grow for 2014. All the cool kids seem to be growing them this year

That Blackstar is fascinating, I may have to get my tekkie to talk to our LED sign mfg/supplier about doing a basement version of that rig.

That Cannazym sounds like a winner too, I'm headed to my grow store this weekend and will check it out.

I wonder how these plants would adapt to in ground planting when the time/weather came.
That plant in your hand is bigger and rooty-er than than anything I set out last year , I'm a mid-May zone also.

Why shouldn't I just wait until April to pop my chinense -that gives them 6 weeks?

Keep the Faith,
jjj

Thanks JJJ! This is my first real attempt at growing in coco. I'm going to take pictures of the progress this week. I'm still thinking on turfing the other bonnets, but will wait until I get the MoA's established. The 'bonnets' I have are impressive in their own right, but not the pepper I was hoping for. And yes, I want to be just like all the cool kids! If I'm growing MoA's maybe I can be cool by association... :lol:

I was actually planning on bringing a few plants up to my parents place this spring and planting them in dad's greenhouse. I can't see why they wouldn't take to the soil like any other plant.The difference being is that they have an EXTREMELY well developed root ball before going in the ground. All the other peppers I started in soil in previous years weren't nearly as far along and they still seemed to do alright. I will be potting up the rest of the plants 2 more times. I'm looking at a final size of about 1.5 to 2 gallon pots of coco. Although the final pot size may change as we go along.

Being in Virginia I'd imagine that you could get away with planting seed for the chinense in April and still have a decent harvest. My outdoor growing season is roughly 90 days so I'm on a tight schedule when it comes to the Jolokias and their 160 days to harvest. I didn't have to start them as early as I did, but I got a little trigger happy and jumped the gun

. In previous years I was growing in soil and my Jolokia's had only produced small pods with little to no heat. This includes a 4 year old overwintered Jolokia and Butch T. They never developed. I'm hoping that this year will be different. I want larger pods and I want HEAT! I'm hoping that coco will give me the control I want.

I'll report back on the Cannazym as time goes on. It looks promising, but will the claims hold true?

There are others on these boards that have made their own LED set-ups and had them work well. I don't have the knowledge to do that so I laid out some cash. I'm a happy camper so far! This is the equivalent of running a 180w bulb with little to no heat. I have no idea how it compares to a HPS or MH bulb, but can't complain about the results so far!

Neil

HillBilly Jeff · Jan 8, 2014

Got some nice roots going on there!!!

JJJessee · Jan 8, 2014

Your plant-out it about the same as ours, but we get summer weather through Sept and sometimes a lot of Oct. Last year my Jolokias were about right at 150-160 days from seed to first pod. They popped in mid-Feb so my plants were 90 days in 2.5x2.5x3" pots. I inadvertently slowed them by using homemade soil too I think, but they made it to about 4' by harvest in a crowded bed. Yeild was decent; a pound or more per plant ripe, but maybe that many more unripe when frost hit. So, maybe that time idling in the pots was not totally wasted, but an extra month with some bigger shoes might have been the real ticket. Think I'll start a little earlier this year, but hold off on most of the sweets. I going to research that Hydro-to-Dirt adaptation process before I go all in.

If yours keep growing at this rate, you won't be able to get them out the front door.

Research didn't take long....

This guy is transferring a hydro pepper to dirt.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfuXbkSeuyY
The comments were reassuring since he didn't comment on the results.

maximumcapsicum · Jan 8, 2014

Amazing pictures Blister! The foot of that plant is basically all root. Pretty incredible. Think you're going to get alot of indoor pods?

Fascinating project.

Devv · Jan 8, 2014

Looking good here Blister, I've been missing a fantastic glog!

Keep it green!

Blister · Jan 8, 2014

I managed to snap a few more pictures of my plants tonight while watering them. Without further adoooo.....

I had too many pictures with the "bonnets" so I'll just post the Jolokia's for now.

Root ball from Jolokia #5

Roots popping through the top of the coco. All the white lines you see are actually roots.

Jamison · Jan 8, 2014

Da roots mon, look at de roots! Jeez Neil, them things are gonna break them pots bro!

JJJessee · Jan 8, 2014

I wouldn't wanna meet one of those peppers in a dark alley.

That stem size says it all.

Blister · Jan 8, 2014

Jamison said:
Da roots mon, look at de roots! Jeez Neil, them things are gonna break them pots bro!

They are packed in there TIGHT! It's a fight to get the pot off and twice as hard to get the plant back in! I'm really hoping that the Cannazym will help with that, but we'll see. Other good news is that I checked the MoA seeds you sent and I now have three that have shot out a tap root! WOOT! WOOT!

Devv said:
Looking good here Blister, I've been missing a fantastic glog! Keep it green!

Thanks Devv! It's easy to miss a glog here and there given how many of them have been started and getting updated daily. Quite frankly I haven't been updating mine nearly as much.

maximumcapsicum said:
Amazing pictures Blister! The foot of that plant is basically all root. Pretty incredible. Think you're going to get alot of indoor pods?
Fascinating project.

I'm not sure how many pods I'm going to get indoors, but they are coming.

I wasn't planning on having them set pods, but they are. Seems like they get bigger with more frequent waterings. As it is, I'm watering twice a day. I was up to 3 waterings a day when I was on holiday, but had to cut back since going back to work. Man work always gets in the way of my hobbies!

HillBilly Jeff said:
Got some nice roots going on there!!!

I'm always amazed when I see the roots on these plants. I really am. I'm half considering trying the Airpots or some variant of them. They're supposed to air prune the roots as they grow out the sides, but I haven't decided on them just yet. They are another one of the 420 favorites

JJJessee said:
I wouldn't wanna meet one of those peppers in a dark alley.

That stem size says it all.

You know that's something else I've noticed with this combo. Before I got the LED I had been turning a fan on my plants. Since I got the light I haven't done anything to any of my plants other than water them and mist them with epsom. They're doing all the rest. I've grown under fluro's, but nothing has ever turned out like these. I'm really curious to see how a few of them do in the ground in my dad's greenhouse.

I actually did the opposite of what you were asking earlier. I took a plant that was struggling in soil and put it in coco. It's now under the LED as well. I'm hoping it'll come back because it was really on the edge and not doing anything but going yellow.
It looks like I should be able to post the "bonnets" now that others have posted

.

This is the bushiest of the all the "bonnets" I have.

This is the same plant, just from the top.

Shot of the pods it's setting

This is the tallest of my bonnets and is the one that's setting the biggest pods. I even cut this one back a bit.

This is the third "bonnet" that I have. It's not as bushy or as tall as the others, but it seems to be somewhere in between.

These are the plants that I'm thinking of culling IF I can get the MoA's established. They're not bad plants, just not what I was hoping for when I started the "bonnets"

PaulG · Jan 8, 2014

Neil, your grow is amazing!
I liked the transplant video, too.

Blister · Jan 9, 2014

Thanks Paul! Things have been rolling along much better than expected. I hope everything keeps pace once I finally get to summer. Fingers crossed...

Drifty · Jan 10, 2014

Wow, just amazing.

Those plants are looking sensational.

Seeing how well they are doing under the Blackstar has inspired me to get kicking with my own LED growlight!

Blister · Jan 13, 2014

A few quick updates. Checked my MoA's and noticed that I had one more seed sprout. That brings me up to 4 :-). Going into coco fairly soon.

I culled one of the "bonnets" I had today. I needed the room and getting rid of it really opened up the tub and gave my Jolokia's some room. More on that in a bit... The 'bonnet' rootball. This plant was fed Monkey Juice A+B for the majority of it's life. It has a decent rootball, but the roots are definitely smaller and finer than those produced by the Jolokia's that are currently being fed with Flora Micro and Flora Bloom. That's my boy blurred in the background. I'm surprised my dog didn't get in there. She seems to photobomb every picture I take.

Oh, El' lo Gov'nah! Ditn't see you there!

This is the first jolokia pod to set and grow! Woot Woot!

Neil

Drifty said:
Wow, just amazing.Those plants are looking sensational.Seeing how well they are doing under the Blackstar has inspired me to get kicking with my own LED growlight!

Thanks for the kind words. Things have been going extremely well so far. I've been so impressed with the LED light up to this point. I really had no idea what to expect and quite frankly I was very skeptical. Now that I've been growing under it for a few months, well the results speak for themselves. Then again I have no experience with growing in coco or with hydro so maybe some of the credit should go there too! All the plants are growing so fast that I don't know what to say. I can only imagine how they would be if I kept potting them up rather than waiting.

Neil

maximumcapsicum · Jan 13, 2014

Amazing root growth Blister.

Actually you got me thinking... do you think coir would make a good base for a bonchi soil? Maybe I'll prune and repot one of my in coir to see how it does, especially given that root space and health is the biggest limiter with the little trees. Seems like coir may work better than the porous baked clay in most bonsai mixes. What kind of nutrient regime would you recommend for a small bonsai chile plant?

PaulG · Jan 13, 2014

Great success, my friend! Here's to more of it :cheers:

Blister · Jan 14, 2014

PaulG said:
Great success, my friend! Here's to more of it

Thanks Paul. I can't wait until I can try a Bhut from these plants. I've got one on the way, but it seems like the first few pods are smaller and really don't have any heat compared to a more mature plant. I still need to dabble with the PK booster. I'm guessing that it'll help given that I'm getting a fair amount of blossom drop on my "bonnets". The Bhut's are setting a good amount of flowers though and haven't dropped much at this point. I've been misting the plants with a light epsom solution and making sure to spray it directly into the flowers to help increase pod set.

Neil

maximumcapsicum · Jan 14, 2014

Nice! Noticing that it really helps?

Blister · Jan 15, 2014

maximumcapsicum said:
Amazing root growth Blister.

Actually you got me thinking... do you think coir would make a good base for a bonchi soil? Maybe I'll prune and repot one of my in coir to see how it does, especially given that root space and health is the biggest limiter with the little trees. Seems like coir may work better than the porous baked clay in most bonsai mixes. What kind of nutrient regime would you recommend for a small bonsai chile plant?

I missed your post some how. I'm not sure how well coco would work in that case. From what I'm seeing with my plants the growth is rapid and constant. You also need to water on a daily basis or they dry and wilt.

I've never worked with a bonchi before so i can't really provide much info about them. Would it be better to have slower controlled growth?

Neil

maximumcapsicum said:
Nice! Noticing that it really helps?

Just watered in a small amount of the pk booster last night. Going to have to wait and see over the next little bit :-)

N

Chilidude · Jan 16, 2014

I have been reading the Finnish chili growing site. You should try GHE floramicro+floramato combo and use the measures found in the floramato bottle label to mix the two fertilizers. Mr. Fatalii said to use the GHE floramato a little less in the beginning, than the label says, when growing indoors.