GeorgeJ's 2014 Tokyo-a-grow-grow - Podding Up Like Crazy!

Got my first lot of seeds in last night.

7 pot yellow, burgundy, orange, red. 7 pot chaguanas, maya red habanero, jays peach ghost scorpion.

Planning to add more later.

 

[georgej]

Looking great George! Have you used your seaweed yet?

Last Tuesday. No noticeable acceleration in foliage, but the roots are looking great!

Last pods from last year's grow. They slowly ripened. 7 pot brown!

The screaming face pic in my avatar.

They have been ripening slowly in the cold. Not sure if I should do a review, they might be milder than usual? I'm not sure yet.

 

[filmost]

Or given the slow ripening they could be more deadly hmmm >:-)

 

[stickman]

Out-freakin'-standing G! Nice looking Brown 7 pods! Pods ripening in winter are never as hot... I think they need the warmth and hours of sunlight to really ramp up, but they'll be plenty warm for this time of year. Are you planning on growing them out for another season?
 
How do you like the Kelp fertilizer? I think it's a great soil-conditioner and it provides lots of trace minerals the plants need to be healthy.

 

[georgej]

Out-freakin'-standing G! Nice looking Brown 7 pods! Pods ripening in winter are never as hot... I think they need the warmth and hours of sunlight to really ramp up, but they'll be plenty warm for this time of year. Are you planning on growing them out for another season?
 
How do you like the Kelp fertilizer? I think it's a great soil-conditioner and it provides lots of trace minerals the plants need to be healthy.

I have a couple of brown 7 plants over wintering actually. They are looking really healthy and trying to put out leafs now the daylight hours are getting longer.

I used the kelp fertiliser at 1/1000 dilution. It pushed the first round of seedlings from healthy, to root bound very quickly, with llots of fluffy white roots! Time to get them some bigger shoes.

II'm gonna give my second round seedlings some kelp soon, too. They are showing true leaves and once another set appears they can have some food.

 

[filmost]

George, how are you feeding them the kelp solution, as a spray or root drench?

 

[georgej]

Bottom watering to encourage root growth (its working!).
I'll foliar feed them once they have hardened off. They'll be wanting some magnesium by then, too.

 

[georgej]

My yellow 7 pot is waking up after over wintering

It's starting to get a little warmer here.
A few of the seedlings in the grow box were looking a bit stressed. Checked the temperature - whoops. 37 degrees in there!

The plants not on the heat mat were looking fine. So now the heat mat is unplugged (I'll invest in a thermostat next year!) The heat from the light held in by the insulation should be plenty. Fingers crossed!

 

[georgej]

Here's how the grow is looking today

7 pot yellow looking happy

7 pot orange also happy

Primo

Fatalii are finally starting to look more normal

Douglah also not too shabby

Brown Moruga

My friend has offered to lend me his thermostat, so I can use the heat mat without frying them. I might well take him up on that!

 

[filmost]

Looking great! Looks like those 7 Pots got a fantastic jump on the season!

 

[georgej]

Looking great! Looks like those 7 Pots got a fantastic jump on the season!

Hoping to get some pods this year. Yellow 7 pot is what I'm looking forward to most

 

[georgej]

New video glog

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79bHqn1pNys&feature=youtube_gdata_player[/youtube]

 

[filmost]

Awesome looking babies! Hope this warm weather sticks around.

 

[georgej]

Same. It's gorgeous outside! I wanna get them under sunlight and ramp it up!

 

[georgej]

Hoping to pot these up this weekend and leave them in the sunlight indoors.
Only one that's not looking great is the 7 pot burgundy (in the centre) which is really yellow.

This time iI'm gonna pot up into black polyethylene pockets, rather than bigger cups (which proved fiddley last time). Also bigger.

 

[stickman]

I'm liking those black poly pots G... how close are you to putting your babies outside to fend for themselves?

 

[georgej]

Well the weather keeps going up and down here!

I'm gonna give them a couple weeks on the chilli bench with the fan on (south facing window indoors).
They were coping well with hardening off and today is their first full day on the bench.

Hoping I might get them outside in April. I waited too long last year!
A bit of toughening up In the sunlight with an oscillating fan running needs to be done. Kawasaki can get windy in spring!

Planning to move soon too, so might be a brand new location for the plants. Would love a bit of garden space, but we will see what comes up!

 

[filmost]

Well the weather keeps going up and down here!

 
No joke! -_- It's quite frustrating, but from the looks of it we should start seeing above freezing temps outside starting this weekend ey. Hell it is supposed to be 6c tonight, hopefully the forecasts are right. Still, I am starting to think plant out at the beginning of April would be best, still kind of on the fence.
 
 

Kawasaki can get windy in spring!

 
Likewise Koshigaya (especially along the river where we live) can be brutal. A lot of my plants last year (all started outside) actually had bent main stems, even with staking!
Did you get those black pots at a home center? I ended up using thick, light green ones from Daiso, now I wondering where I will store them all later on haha.
 
I recently found a place on Rakuten that sells all different sizes of fabric pots for a decent price. I recently bought 10 x 21L ones for about 2200yen, which actually comes out much cheaper than the same size plastic ones at a home center.

 

[georgej]

im hoping this weekend is going to be the end of the cold too. its looking that way!

I live next to the tamagawa river. it acts like a giant wind channel from Tokyo bay up to the mountains. it can get really windy! hence i want them to toughen up indoors first.

Yeah the black pots are from the home centre. paid about 130yen for 20 of them.
 
cheers for the link. Id love to be trying fabric pots, but my current set up is hard to explain. im on the second floor, so i hook plants to the railings.
heres a pic from last year.

if i get some extra space when i move, i would like to go fabric

 

[filmost]

Haha sounds like your surroundings are similar to ours then, I am along the Arakawa river.
 
That is a sweet setup you have actually. I might have to do that off our balcony railing for a couple of plants this year and keep them away from the kids.

 

[georgej]

S hooks from daiso, melt a hole in the pot with a screwdriver heated up. Easy!