Lytton's 2019 grow

Current seed list:

Biquino red (C. chinense)
Biquino yellow (C. chinense)
Demon red (C. annuum)
Lemon drop (C. baccatum)
Purple flash (C. annuum)
Cumari Alongado white flower pheno (Now in its third year) (C. praetermissum)
Purple flowered baccatum (C. baccatum)
CGN 22084 (C. chacoense)
Tepin x Lemon drop F5 (C. annuum x C. baccatum)
CAP 1141 ( C. praetermissum)
Jalapeno Rocky F1 (C. annuum)

Sweet pepper seeds planted (All C. annuum):

Mini red
Mohawk
Snack box mix
 
I also built a grow cabinet this year. Currently running a rather large 200W CFL bulb.
 
 
 
 
I'm perhaps naively disappointed in the growth rate however. I've had seedlings in there for nearly a fortnight now and they've barely changed in form. I'm concerned i'm blowing the electricity bill for no good reason. With the heat generated by the bulb the cabinet temperature can get up to around 30 degrees C on a warm day. Night time temps are dropping to around 10 degrees and I'm thinking this may be where the problem is lying. Cold temps have stunted my seedling growth in the past so I'm going to see about getting a better heat mat to keep the trays a bit warmer. The seedlings themselves are not looking unwell - no wilting and no discolouration, they're just sort of frozen in time and aren't really doing much, I can only see one in fact developing its second set of leaves. I've introduced a desk fan which I'm switching on for a couple of hours a day just to blow some cool air in and also help with the hardening off. Will experiment with different heat sources to see if this helps. Tomato feed (very diluted) added and a new bottle of chilli focus is coming in the post.
 
 
Most of the Tepin x Lemon drop seeds have sprouted, and I've got a few CAP 1141 seedlings. Only two of the purple flowered baccatums popped their heads up and both were stuck tight in their seed helmets for days. I tried to delicately clip the seed helmets off after no movement however I suspect the seedlings have not survived, really gutted as I was very much looking forward to them, their seed casings were unlike any other baccatum i've grown before (perhaps the purple flower pheno carries this tricky seed casing trait). No chacoense have popped up yet sadly. All my sweet peppers and Jalapeno Rocky F1s are up and on their way. Tried inserting pics from two different sources but the board is telling me that they are prohibited, so I've 'attached' pics instead via the attach feature. Here's to a fruitful 2019, hopefully. 

 

[karoo]

Looking good!
Great hardware and list. Looking forward to more pics.

 

[PaulG]

 to TheHotPepper, my friend!
 
Yeah, nice grow closet, Lytton, should
make a nice home for your starts. As
long as the seedlings look well, no
discoloration, cupping, wilting etc. I
think you are okay. A little more nighttime
heat may do the trick for you.

 

[Mitzi]

Does the light go off at night?  As they are in the cabinet, could they have their "night" during the day and vice versa?  That way the light would help to keep them warm in the wee small hours.

 

[Lytton]

Does the light go off at night?  As they are in the cabinet, could they have their "night" during the day and vice versa?  That way the light would help to keep them warm in the wee small hours.

 
Yeah I'm giving this some serious consideration after it was suggested elsewhere. I'm paranoid about fire risk as 200W is a lot of power really for a small wooden cupboard lined with bubblewrap. I've got a 45W LED square on the way which should pose much less of a fire risk, although I expect the temperature output will be considerably lower too, as well as the lumens. Hopefully the weather picks up soon and the night temps are less bruising.

 

[dragonsfire]

Good Luck! looks good

 

[Sizzle Lips]

Nice grow list....good luck.

 

[CaneDog]

That is a nice grow list and anytime you first set up indoors it takes a bit to work the kinks out. Hang with it and I'm sure things will start producing well for you.  The box looks great.  Do you have the ability to run that CFL on a horizontal orientation?  I  believe that type are much more efficient that way versus vertical.
 
FYI - the 1141 has been finicky for me indoors.
 
Good luck!

 

[CDNmatt]

That is a nice grow list and anytime you first set up indoors it takes a bit to work the kinks out. Hang with it and I'm sure things will start producing well for you.  The box looks great.  Do you have the ability to run that CFL on a horizontal orientation?  I  believe that type are much more efficient that way versus vertical.
 
FYI - the 1141 has been finicky for me indoors.
 
Good luck!

 

I was going to add the same thing aboot the light....A reflector would help alot as well both horizontal or vertical but the optimal position for it would be horizontal for sure.
 
You can see the light on the sides higher up the wall kinda being wasted abit, but hey you gotta make due sometimes though eh and work with what you gots.

 

[Lytton]

That is a nice grow list and anytime you first set up indoors it takes a bit to work the kinks out. Hang with it and I'm sure things will start producing well for you.  The box looks great.  Do you have the ability to run that CFL on a horizontal orientation?  I  believe that type are much more efficient that way versus vertical.
 
FYI - the 1141 has been finicky for me indoors.
 
Good luck!

Yeah this has been suggested to me several times now ha, its ashame that Id already punched a hole in the roof (with great difficulty). My DIY kit is highly minimal so Id have to fashion a mount out of some spare pieces of wood. I figured the reflective radiator sheets would help bounce the light around a little. Has anyone tried working with mirrors before for maximum reflection? I guessed glass would be the most reflective material possible but havent been able to source any on the cheap. Ive got two 1141 seedlings which isnt bad out of six so far. Its the chacoense that is showing zero activity in my heated propagator. Must be patient.

 

[CaneDog]

Haha, sorry Lytton.  I didn't mean to jump on you about the light.  It will do the job just fine the way it is, no worries there.  My understanding is mirrors and aluminum foil can be harmful to plants as reflection though, due to their potential to concentrate the light and that you're best off with reflectors, white surfaces, and mylars, which will diffuse it. 
 
That temperature drop from 30c to 10c is really going to hurt you. II'd try to keep at least 20c as their minimum when the lights are off.  Some of the varieties you're growing may take a long time to germinate. I had wild varieties take > 40 days recently, and then basically all sprout at once. Those are extreme examples, but certain varieties just take a long time.  If you keep your temps and moisture within optimal ranges they should cooperate, they may just take their sweet time doing it!
 
Looks like you put a lot of thought into your grow list and I'm looking forward to seeing your success with all of them.
CD
 
 

 

[Lytton]

Haha, sorry Lytton.  I didn't mean to jump on you about the light.  It will do the job just fine the way it is, no worries there.  My understanding is mirrors and aluminum foil can be harmful to plants as reflection though, due to their potential to concentrate the light and that you're best off with reflectors, white surfaces, and mylars, which will diffuse it. 
 
That temperature drop from 30c to 10c is really going to hurt you. II'd try to keep at least 20c as their minimum when the lights are off.  Some of the varieties you're growing may take a long time to germinate. I had wild varieties take > 40 days recently, and then basically all sprout at once. Those are extreme examples, but certain varieties just take a long time.  If you keep your temps and moisture within optimal ranges they should cooperate, they may just take their sweet time doing it!
 
Looks like you put a lot of thought into your grow list and I'm looking forward to seeing your success with all of them.
CD
 
 

Thats a fair point about ultra reflective materials actually, I dont want to accidentally fashion some sort of James Bond super laser inadvertently zapping holes through my cabinet. With the germination techniques I should probably clarify that my heated propagators are located indoors at the moment. The ambient temperature is much more reasonable inside and the heated trays are keeping the seeds at a fairly constant temp in the high 20s. The grow cabinet pictured is currently hosting three overwintered plants plus a seed tray which has already germinated, so theyre tiny little seedlings rather than pre-germination. That being said the temperature drops at night that you noted are probably still bruising their delicate nature at present. Theyre sitting in a heated tray which is running st 8W but its barely having any effect at night, which is testament to how cold that garage gets at the moment, thats with the doors closed and all the bubble wrap I lined it with. The overwintered plants seem to be responding more positively to the CFL bulb at least. The biquino yellow, bhut jolokia and joes super long are really pushing out new growth. Will see about an electric heater for the garage, if I can find a cost effective solution anyhow. Thanks for the tips.

 

[CDNmatt]

For your image hosting issue Lyton.. I essentially just use Imgur now but have tried a few others that worked ok on here.
 
Flickr
Photobucket (Think still works on here)
500px
Image Venue
Tiny Pic
 
I played around a tad with the ones listed above but really prefer Imgur, and found it much easier to use then a couple of the others.

 

[internationalfish]

I have my own setup on Amazon's developer infrastructure that's dirt cheap, but it's a bit involved... without getting into that, imgur is a really great host, provided you don't really care whether your pictures could possibly disappear some day if the company goes away (far less of a risk with imgur than the others, since imgur is massive). Which, really, doesn't matter when we're just posting pictures of plants.

 

[Lytton]

Thanks for the picture hosting suggestions above. Let's try it. Picked me up a pack of these today finally, they're always sold out everywhere I go so happy to have found a pack, but only 4 seeds inside, tight gits.
 

 
This is how the grow cabinet currently looks, although since taking the photo I potted on and buried the tomatoes:
 

 
And this is a rather poor quality photo of my Cumari Alongado (C. praetermissum) now in its third year. The bathroom windowsill is nice and warm and gets a moderate amount of light. The boss however is applying increasing amounts of pressure unto me, she does not want the windowsills littered with stupid chillis I believe.
 

 

[CaneDog]

 I dont want to accidentally fashion some sort of James Bond super laser inadvertently zapping holes through my cabinet.  You totally do!  Every time I log onto THP I'm hoping someone has done something like this!

 
 

Thanks for the picture hosting suggestions above. Let's try it. Picked me up a pack of these today finally, they're always sold out everywhere I go so happy to have found a pack, but only 4 seeds inside, tight gits. 
 
The boss however is applying increasing amounts of pressure unto me, she does not want the windowsills littered with stupid chillis I believe. This is the genius of picking up those Candy Cane hybrids which will make more chilis an easier sell.   Heck, lasers, james bond, genius (evil genius?) all on page 1; this should definitely be worth following!
 

 
Looking forward to seeing that cumari when it's flowering and producing.  Should be a beaut!

 

[Lytton]

 
 
 
Looking forward to seeing that cumari when it's flowering and producing.  Should be a beaut!

I absolutely love it, the only plant Ive kept into the third year. I have a white flowered phenotype which Ive seen being disputed elsewhere; some have suggested its a wild baccatum rather than a true Praetermissum. That being said Praetermissum is part of the Baccatum complex anyway so it wouldnt surprise me if those represents some sort of bridging variety or a stable wild cross. Either way the pods are fantastic and numerous which makes it easy to keep adding into dishes to taste. Im not actually much of a super hot fan because one pod could overpower a dish and then theres no going back, especially when virtually all my dishes are being shared by my 2 year old and 3 year old. Man I can see it now, benefit scum father tortures kids with spicy dinners, boo hiss.

 

[Lytton]

Following good feedback from others I got me some 45W LEDs. Performing a side by side comparison with my 200W cfl bulb to see which is best value. Control sample is pretty small to be fair, 2 demon reds and 1 tomato plant might not give me conclusive results but if the LED growth is as good as or nearly as good as the demon reds and tomatoes under the CFL then Ill probably drop the CFL altogether, mainly for the sake of my electricity bill over anything else. Just assembled the LED panel inside one of those flimsy grow-cabinets that are designed for the garden. I simply assembled it in the garage as from experience they tend to just blow away when placed outdoors, especially with storm Gary or whatever it is that were experiencing at the moment here in the UK.

 

[PaulG]

Sweet little unit, Lytton.
I hope it works well for you.

 

[Mitzi]

That Candy Cane looks quite similar to Fish Pepper - I would put money on Fish being one of the parents of the F1 hybrid.  I'd love to see how it grows for you to know whether it's worth paying for the expensive hybrid versus the freely available Fish.