Duston 2015 Glog

This year is my first year that I am going all in. I've helped with the family garden in the past but I would say I am pretty new to peppers for the most part. I've done a lot of research in the past few months regarding next year's approach. Here's what I have came up with so far:

• I am planning on growing roughly 120 pepper plants of differing breeds and heat levels. Roughly 50% of the plants with be Jalapeno or lower for the rest of the family and friends.
• I am planning on doing a the bulk of the plants in the garden.
• As an experiment I am toying with 1 plant in DWC (5 gallon bucket), 1 plant in "fogponics" (5 gallon bucket) and 6 plants in a DIY low pressure aeroponics system (27 gallon tote). I may scrap the "fogponics" idea mainly because I'm not hearing good reviews about it and go with a drip or DTW.
• I'd like to put the hydro outdoors to avoid having to upgrade my light old T8 light fixtures. I'm going to take measures to mitigate temperature issues in the summer. I'm still research that... 
• Also, I plan on overwintering a few of my favorite plants to get a jump on 2016.

Here's my grow list for 2015:
 
 
7 Pot / Trinidad Douglah
7 Pot Brain Strain Yellow
7 Pot Bubblegum
Bhut Jolokia
Big Sun Habanero
California Wonder Bell
Carolina Reaper 
Cheiro Recife
Chocolate Habanero
Early Jalapeno
Fatalii Yellow
Fish
Fort Knox Hybrid Bell
Inca Red Drop
Long Red Slim Cayenne
Magnum Orange Habanero
Mako Akokasrade
Prik Chi Faa
Santa Fe Grande
Scotch Bonnet Yellow
Tangerine Dream
Tequila Sunrise
Thai Dragon
Tobago Seasoning
Trinidad Chocolate Scorpion
Trinidad Congo
Trinidad Moruga Scorpion
 
I started germinating my Capsicum Chinense seeds via the ziplock/paper towel method. Most of those seeds were started on 1/18 with the exception of Mako Akokasrade and Tobago Seasoning which I received after I started the others. The Mako Akokasrade and Tobago Seasoning seeds were started on 1/20. 
 
On 1/26 I planted 4 varieties (7 Pot Brain Strain Yellow, Cheiro Recife, Magnum Orange Habanero, Trinidad Moruga Scorpion) that sprouted into pre-soaked expanded peat disks. I planted 2 or 3 sprouted seeds in each disk to attempt to avoid an empty disk if a seed fails to pop through the surface.
 
On 1/28 I noticed I had 4 other varieties (7 Pot / Trinidad Douglah, 7 Pot Bubblegum, Bhut Jolokia, Scotch Bonnet Yellow) that had 1 seed that had sprouted well ahead of the other seeds in the ziplock. I decided they would be the lucky ones to get to be part of the hydro experiment. They got moved over to some pre-soaked rockwool. 
 
I'll keep everyone updated on my progress.

 

[PaulS]

Plants look great dude
Do you have a link to the plans for your dutch bucket setup or did you make it from scratch?

 

[dustonj2008]

Paul,
Thanks man! My dutch bucket system is a DIY setup that is mostly lifted from mhpgardener's YouTube video here. Jeff H on THP gave me some great advice as well. Here's a thread I found of Jeff's that was helpful. So credit where credit is due. 
 
I made some tweaks due to space constraints and ease of draining the reservoir. I'll have to pull together a YouTube video sometime to show how it works. It's a pretty easy setup to be honest. I'm always looking to make it a little better if possible. My next addition will probably be a rain collecting barrel that attaches to the reservoir with a float valve so that way it let it go on autopilot (also Jeff's idea). I have a feeling this summer it's going to be a choir keeping the reservoir from drying out.
 
I had a timer go out that controls my pump in the reservoir about a month ago. Luckily it wasn't overly hot out at the time and I noticed something was wrong before it was fatal to the plants. Hydro is not without it's cons but these plants are definitely WAY AHEAD of my soil plants in terms of growth and production.

 

[PaulS]

Paul,
Thanks man! My dutch bucket system is a DIY setup that is mostly lifted from mhpgardener's YouTube video here. Jeff H on THP gave me some great advice as well. Here's a thread I found of Jeff's that was helpful. So credit where credit is due. 
 
I made some tweaks due to space constraints and ease of draining the reservoir. I'll have to pull together a YouTube video sometime to show how it works. It's a pretty easy setup to be honest. I'm always looking to make it a little better if possible. My next addition will probably be a rain collecting barrel that attaches to the reservoir with a float valve so that way it let it go on autopilot (also Jeff's idea). I have a feeling this summer it's going to be a choir keeping the reservoir from drying out.
 
I had a timer go out that controls my pump in the reservoir about a month ago. Luckily it wasn't overly hot out at the time and I noticed something was wrong before it was fatal to the plants. Hydro is not without it's cons but these plants are definitely WAY AHEAD of my soil plants in terms of growth and production.

It looks like you've done a great job dude.
Thanks for sharing those links, I just watched quite a few of mhpgardeners videos, they were really helpful. He has a really interesting accent, what is it?
 
I have a few simple homemade hydro pots going on that are kind of similar but I think I'll give this a go.
Thanks again. Happy growing!

 

[dustonj2008]

Came home from a hard days work in the garden with some goodies:
 

Mostly annuums to munch on this week.
 

Soil web is alive and well
 

Aji Starfish
 

Red Bhut
 

Pimenta Puma
 

Bhutlah
 

Tomatoes have EXPLODED!

 

[dustonj2008]

So here in central Ohio we've been getting an absolute TON of rain recently. IIRC there's been like maybe one or 2 rainless days in the past three weeks. It doesn't really appear to be helping the majority of my pepper plants overall but I'm still getting a decent harvest:
 
Back porch dutch bucket hydro harvest (7PBS Yellow, Reapers, White Bhut, 7P Primo Red)
 

 
Garden + hydro harvest:

 
My ally at the garden:

 

[tsurrie]

Great n' tasty lookin' pods. Congrats!

 

[dustonj2008]

Thanks tsurrie!

 

[dustonj2008]

Hydro/container pepper update:
 
Took some pictures today of my back porch plants. Enjoy!
 
Hydro Jay's Peach is absolutely LOADED down

 
Same with the hydro White Bhut

 
Hydro 7 Pot Bubblegum

 
Red Rocoto in Happy Frog mix

 
Red Rocoto in home made mix

 

[chocolatescotchbonnet]

So here in central Ohio we've been getting an absolute TON of rain recently. IIRC there's been like maybe one or 2 rainless days in the past three weeks. It doesn't really appear to be helping the majority of my pepper plants overall but I'm still getting a decent harvest:
 
Back porch dutch bucket hydro harvest (7PBS Yellow, Reapers, White Bhut, 7P Primo Red)
 

 
Garden + hydro harvest:

 
My ally at the garden:

dang man! Nice pods! Mine are just starting to ripen.

 

[dustonj2008]

Yea CSB I've been getting some pretty decent harvests this last month or so. We've been pretty busy picking, deseeding, drying, canning, etc. I've got to catch up on my GLOG and get some pics posted.