HeatMiser's Keeping it Simple With Old Seeds 2020 Grow

Well here it is - after a two year hiatus, I decided to get myself a new grow light (HLG 100), grow peppers again and join this community.

I decided to it simple this year and grow fewer varieties from seeds I already have. These were packaged in 2014 or earlier so it will serve as a viability test as well.

After talking with my wife, we decided on the following 4 varieties

1 Super Hot:
Trinidad Moruga Scorpion. Seeds from the Chile Pepper Institute packaged in 2013.

1 Ornamental:
Numex Twilight. Seeds from the Chile Pepper Institute packaged in 2012.

2 Varieties for Cooking:
Jalafuego. Seeds from tomatogrowers.com. Packaged before 2014
Chiltepin. Seeds I collected after a trip to Texas in 2014.

I have the following goals for this season

1. Get a decent batch of "hot" Jalapenos. You have to be lucky to find a hot Jalapeno at the store. We plan to pickle them to be used in NACHOS
   
2. Incorporate Chiltepin peppers in our cooking (salsas, tacos, etc)
   
3. Make some powder with the Trinidad Scorpion Peppers. I've made Ghost Pepper Powder before and it's amazing in stuff like Pho.
   
4. Experiment with DWC and Kratky for peppers. My experience is with Dutch Buckets.
   
5. Experiment with outdoor hydroponics. Success here means I'll be able to plant more peppers in future years
   
6. Try crossing peppers. Always been curious, never really tried it. This year, it's happening.
   
7. Growing a Trinidad Scorpion in my office at work. Dare my boss to try one…

The plan is as follows:

• 1 Trinidad Scorpion and 1 Jalafuego in 5 gal DWC indoors.
• Grow 1 Chiltepin and 1 Numex Twilight indoors in smaller Kratky containers.
• Grow 1 Trinidad Scorpion in a 5 gal DWC at work

As the weather improves, I'll set up 1 Trinidad Scorpion and 1 Jalafuego in 5 gal Kratky bucket outdoors. I'll also clone as many plants as I can get away with and put them in soil containers outside.

That's it for plans…

Here's the actual progress so far

12/20/2019 -
• Started soaking Chiltepin seeds in a weak solution of chamomille tea
• Planted Trinidad Moruga Scorpion, Jalafuego and Numex Twilight seeds in rockwool cubes. 2 seeds of each per cube. Placed on a heat mat inside an airtight container with some water on the bottom for moisture

12/21/2019
• Planted Chiltepin seeds
• 3 rockwool cubes with seeds soaked in weak chamomille tea solution for about 25 hours
• 3 rockwool cubes with seeds soaked in 9 parts water, 1 part bleach solution for 5 minutes

12/23/2019
• Noticed a hook in one of the Jalafuego cubes

12/26/2019
• Hooks on all 3 Jalafuego cubes
• One Twilight cube has a hook

12/27/2019
• Hooks on all 3 Twilight cubes. One of them is a bit leggy
• Noticed one Chiltepin seed starting to sprout, from the cube that was soaked in bleach
• Transferred Jalafuego and Twilights to the light and gave them some food, General Hydroponics mild vegetative solution

12/28/2019
• One Jalafuego cube has 2 seedlings, new hook came out.

12/29/2019
• One Chiltepin hook coming out of the cube. Moved the cube to the light
• All 6 Jalafuego seeds have sprouted. 3 seedlings are now upright and 3 hooks are coming out. Germination rate is 6/6

12/30/2019
• Hook from Trinidad Moruga Scorpion came out. Moved to light

1/1/2020
• Hook from Chiltepin seed in bleach solution. Moved to light
• Hook from Chiltepin seed in chamomile tea came out. Moved to light

1/2/2020
• Last Twilight sprouted. Germination rate is 6/6
• Two more Trinidad Moruga Hooks

1/3/2020
• Moved two Trinidad Moruga cubes to light

1/5/2020
• Another Trinidad Moruga sprouted. Germination rate is 4/6

1/7/2020
• Roots from Jalafuego, Twilight and Chiltepin started poking through the bottom of the rockwool cubes. Moved the best plants to their own individual kratky container. Using Mild Vegetative solution from Flora 3 Part solution
• One T5 bulb died. Changed the light to the HLG 100.

1/9/2020
• New Trinidad Moruga Sprouted. Germination Rate: 5/6
• Added an air stone to the Jalafuego Kratky container turning it into a DWC.

1/10/2020

• Moved another Jalafuego to its own Kratky container

Thanks for reading all of this... I'll be posting some pictures soon!

 

[PaulG]

My understanding of Kratky, and Hydro growing in
general, is rather impoverished. Wish I could be of
assistance, HM. Growing in the PNW has its moments, eh?

 

[Uncle Eckley]

My understanding of Kratky, and Hydro growing in
general, is rather impoverished. Wish I could be of
assistance, HM. Growing in the PNW has its moments, eh?

 
The PT machine strikes again, lol!

 

[HeatMiser]

Wish I had more experience with Kratky to offer some ideas.  I like the idea of getting them some outside time.  Those of my plants that I've been giving days out seem to be enjoying the natural sun - though though mid-days have been a bit intense for some of them.  I might consider some pruning back on the Chiltepin that dropped almost all of its leaves.  It seems to be growing from a lot of points and many of them are far from center.

 
Thanks CD!
 
That makes sense, I just pruned the plant. I left a few of the long branches that still have some leaves, but I will be pruning them as soon as some of the other leaves start growing elsewhere. I feel hopeful about that plant - it should definitely look better when I update the glog next week!
 
 

 
Ring of rock salt. 

 
Man, before I tried hydro, I tried containers, and before that I tried a raised garden bed - that was my first experience growing anything. Imagine my surprise when I went out to check on my plants one morning and most of them were chewed down to their stalks, with a shimmery trail of goo connecting all of the plants. Beer cans, copper, slug-go, salt, you name it. I turned that raised bed into a minefield that first season.
 
I know I'll have to deal with them this year since I want to try outdoor kratky, just wanted to wait as long as possible, haha. I'll still try to take them out a bit this weekend.
 
 

My understanding of Kratky, and Hydro growing in
general, is rather impoverished. Wish I could be of
assistance, HM. Growing in the PNW has its moments, eh?

 
No worries Paul, I'm definitely learning the ins and outs of Kratky and different lighting setups this year. Ha, definitely plenty of things to overcome for a successful grow in the PNW. Glad we don't live here only for the peppers though!

 

[Uncle Eckley]

Hmm.  What about moats?  Would that stop them?

 

[HeatMiser]

Hmm.  What about moats?  Would that stop them?

 
Ha! a moat with alligators maybe... as long as they don't bring a trebuchet... then all bets are off!
 
I did have success against them that season using the many methods I described, a combination of one or two of those should do just fine. It is a problem mostly in early spring when it rains more.

 

[HeatMiser]

Still struggling a little with a few plants, hoping some changes I've made will help turn things around. Some of these changes involve more frequent nutrient changes, regardless of water level since some plants have started showing signs of deficiencies even though they still had plenty of nutrient left.
 
Some pictures, starting with the good ones:
 
TS I had at work under the Sansi 36W.
This plant definitely would have become a topic of conversation had a certain virus not shut everything down. 

 
I'm just letting it do what it wants, mostly to compare it to the ones I topped. It can be seen in this picture that the light doesn't penetrate deep into the canopy, making it look a little lanky

 
DWC Jalafuego and TS under T5
Some of the growth tips on the Jalafuego started dropping, so there's little to no new leaf growth. Nutrient was changed to try and remedy this. The plant is loaded with pods though, and I've made another cross with a Numex Twilight
The TS hasn't done anything and I think it is stunted. No new growth coming. Remaining leaves are all burned from being under the HLG100

 
Kratky Jalafuego and TS under T5
It seems like this Jalafuego hasn't done much in terms of growing. It has about 5 or 6 pods growing at the moment, so it might be focusing on those. I've changed the nutrients even though it still had almost 3 gallons left from the original 3.5 I put in early March.
The TS is the one that started showing signs of nutrient deficiency

 
Some crinkled leaves

 
With the underside looking brownish

 
I gave it some fresh nutrients. This plant still had 2.5 gallons left from the original 3.5 I put in early March.
 
Numex Twilight in 1 gal Kratky
I think this one is stunted since it hasn't grown anything in the past couple of weeks. I took it outside for the couple of good weather days we had last week and showed no signs of improvement. I will be experimenting with some H2O2 to see if I can get it to wake up.

 
Chiltepins.
The saddest of the bunch. Now both of them have lost practically all of their leaves and the reason remains a mystery. I don't think overwatering is the culprit anymore as this seems more like shock. The growth is very slowly coming back. I pruned one of them back last weekend trying to leave some leaves on. I might have to prune them back a little more. I will also try the H2O2 treatment with at least one of them and see how they respond.

 

 

[PaulG]

I hope you can get a handle on those issues, HM.
 
Hydro growing is really easy until it isn't.

 

[CaneDog]

Looks like a mix of challenges and successes, HM.  Your work-from-home TS is a beast and how great to have so many pods on the DWC Jalafuego.  In my limited experience with Kratky I've seen plants turn on a dime.  It has to be frustrating not to be able to figure out how to get them back on track when it seemed they were doing so well before.

 

[HeatMiser]

I hope you can get a handle on those issues, HM.
 
Hydro growing is really easy until it isn't.

 
 

Looks like a mix of challenges and successes, HM.  Your work-from-home TS is a beast and how great to have so many pods on the DWC Jalafuego.  In my limited experience with Kratky I've seen plants turn on a dime.  It has to be frustrating not to be able to figure out how to get them back on track when it seemed they were doing so well before.

 
Thanks for the support guys, 
 
Yes, there are both good and not so good things in this grow. I'll see if I can turn things around. I think I might have overdone the "set-it-and-forget-it" aspect of Kratky and I'm now going to be replacing the nutrients every couple of weeks. That should hopefully help turn things around. This is the primary difference I can see with the Dutch Buckets I've grown in the past (and I didn't have these problems), so I'll try that and see where that gets me.
 
What is interesting is the nutrient uptake. The big TS drank 2.5 gallons of solution in the same time that one of the Jalafuegos and the other TS drank 1 gallon tops. Heck, even the pitiful chiltepins have used more nutrients than that so far. That's the main reason why I hadn't replaced the nutrients. Maybe the ratios got out of whack, maybe some macro/micro nutrients got depleted and I'm now seeing the issues. Who knows. If that's the case, a fresh infusion of nutrients should fix the problem. Hopefully.

 

[Devv]

Hello HM,
 
I for one am NOT a hydro expert. I'm just getting my feet wet, well maybe everything else
My initial thoughts were the nutes are too strong. If the plants are the same color as the pics, in which they look really dark green,I would back off the percentages.
The other thing is, you said you're adding more to the Kratky container. If the roots that are now "air roots" get covered the plants can suffer.
 
Light burn? Are the plants 16 to 24"s below the LED lights?
 
Just food for thought...

 

[HeatMiser]

Hello HM,
 
I for one am NOT a hydro expert. I'm just getting my feet wet, well maybe everything else
My initial thoughts were the nutes are too strong. If the plants are the same color as the pics, in which they look really dark green,I would back off the percentages.
The other thing is, you said you're adding more to the Kratky container. If the roots that are now "air roots" get covered the plants can suffer.
 
Light burn? Are the plants 16 to 24"s below the LED lights?
 
Just food for thought...

 
Thanks Dev, I appreciate the help!
 
The nutrient concentration is something that I've recently started questioning, especially after consulting with Unc  and the way he does things. 
 
Regarding the nutrient level, I'm definitely not adding more nutrient than what was previously there. The water level is lower at this point to prevent the drowning that you mention.
 
With regards to light burn - yes, I had that problem mostly with a Jalafuego and TS under an HLG100. This has been corrected when I moved those two under T5s and put the chiltepins and Twilight under the HLG100, which increased the distance from the plants to the light. They are currently sitting about 28" below the light. Shouldn't be a problem now.

 

[Devv]

Aight! Keep us informed, as we all learn from each other

 

[HeatMiser]

It might be the pile of rejects that get to save some parts of my grow...
 
I never got rid of the backup Chiltepin and Twilight plants I started back in December. They were "just there" and I started paying more attention to them when things in the 1 gal container started going downhill. 
 
I still think it's worth it trying to save these plants, at least for the experience. So here's what I'm doing:

• Mixed 1 ml food-grade H2O2 into 1 gal water
• Replaced the nutrients in the 1 gal containers with this mixture and let them sit for 1 day
• Will replace the H2O2 mixture with plain water and let sit for an additional day
•  Will replace the plain water with nutrient mixture.

I'll give the Twilight in the 1 gal container a couple more weeks to perk up. If nothing happens, it will be replaced by this guy:

 
It was never topped, and it's getting close in size to the main one.
 
Now, for the Chiltepins. The backup is still there, but I don't trust its root system, so I will make multiple copies of it:

 
The chiltepins in 1 gal containers are showing signs of life, so I'll give them some more time. If things are not looking good by the time these clones develop roots, they will be replaced. 

 

[PaulG]

Alright, HM, good to have some back-ups, eh?
 
They look good.

 

[HeatMiser]

Alright, HM, good to have some back-ups, eh?
 
They look good.

 
Thanks Paul, it sure is good to keep something around, just in case. I don't know how many times those small containers have gone bone-dry with the plants completely wilted. They perk right up a couple of hours after adding more nutrients. If the main plants don't improve, they'll get benched.

 

[PaulG]

Yeah, send ‘em to the showers!   
 
 Hope the clones root in for you.

 

[Devv]

It might be the pile of rejects that get to save some parts of my grow...
 
I never got rid of the backup Chiltepin and Twilight plants I started back in December. They were "just there" and I started paying more attention to them when things in the 1 gal container started going downhill. 
 
I still think it's worth it trying to save these plants, at least for the experience. So here's what I'm doing:

• Mixed 1 ml food-grade H2O2 into 1 gal water
• Replaced the nutrients in the 1 gal containers with this mixture and let them sit for 1 day
• Will replace the H2O2 mixture with plain water and let sit for an additional day
•  Will replace the plain water with nutrient mixture.

 

This sounds like a good plan. Good luck!

 

[HeatMiser]

Update time...
 
TS Under Sansi 36W
This one is doing quite well. I'm going to be replacing the nutrients every week now. The last nutrient change was 10 days ago and it had 1.3 gallons left out of the 2 that were put in. The plant is currently 2ft tall, and I'll just let it do what it wants to do

 

 
It's currently working on its first pod

 
DWC Jalafuego and TS under T5s
Not much has changed here, the Jalafuego is working on multiple pods and the TS seems to be showing signs of life as new growth is just starting to show up. I believe the nutrient change from a couple of weeks ago helped. It might be a couple more weeks before I see if things are really improving.

 
Kratky Jalafuego and TS under T5s
On first sight, it would seem like not much has changed since last time with these two

 
However, the Jalafuego seems to have gotten the memo from the nutrient change last week and has put on some size on the pods

 

 
The sad bunch
Meh. Still haven't given up on these guys, but the Twilight will be replaced next week if things don't improve

 
The backup Twilight
This one looks a lot better, and it is currently working on its first pod

 

 
I think it's still going to be a few weeks before things start improving with the 5 gal containers. The big lesson here for next time is that this is not really a "set-it-and-forget-it" method, and a setback can take quite a while to fix.

 

[PaulG]

The backup Twilight looks great, HM, nice shape
and foliage. Love the flowering and pod-setting  
That should be an awesome plant by the time we're
deep into Summer!
 
Good to see the plants responding to your efforts  
That Sansi Scorpion has all the makings of a champ,
and that little pod shows great promise.

 

[HeatMiser]

The backup Twilight looks great, HM, nice shape
and foliage. Love the flowering and pod-setting  
That should be an awesome plant by the time we're
deep into Summer!
 
Good to see the plants responding to your efforts  
That Sansi Scorpion has all the makings of a champ,
and that little pod shows great promise.

 
Thanks Paul, I'm pretty sure that Twilight will like to stretch its roots in the roomier 1 gal container. Should grow bigger than the other one.
 
It's definitely been a humbling experience with Kratky this year. At least now things are not getting worse... looking forward to see some of those 5 gal plants recover.
The big TS is definitely a bright spot in this grow, for sure - can't wait to make some powder with those pods!