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Meatball's Chilifarm 2011

M

Meatball

Hello from Sweden!

I thought it was time for me to start a growthread so here it is.:)

I recently bought 3 chiliplants that costed ~10~€ total.
The feeling was awsome when i brought home 1 orange Hab & 2 Apache's.
Now my summer was saved because it was too late to put seeds in the soil.

The week after i bought enother one at another place for maybe 3,5€
It says Chili de Cayenne on the label.

I allso went back to the first place and now i found 3 Jalapeños for 10€ total.

The sum of this is that it is going to be a fun summer.:)

Picture taken May 29 2011.

Fron left to right:
Orange habanero, Cayenne, jalapeño x3 & Apaches x2.
One of the Apache's is starting to flower.

The pots is 5 gallon cementmixingbuckets.
The soil is a mix(by volume) 2/3 peatmoss & 1/3 composted cowdung.
I allso added some clay marbles. I thought about mixing in 5% marbles but because of brainfreeze i mixed in 10%. I don't think the peppers will mind.

I drilled 12 10mm holes in each bucket then put a thin growcloth on the bottom to stop unwished creatures to come in that way.
Then i poured in some claymarbels to help the drainage & ontop of that another crowcloth to stop the soil from mixing with the marbles.
I don't know if the 12 holes is enough but thats easy to correct with a drill if need be.

Now they stand right on the ground but the plan is to let them stand on pallets to make the drainage better.

There will be more photos to see how fast they grow & of course when they show some pods.:)

The next year i will grow chilis from seeds i have sown myself so ther will probably be some changes in the varietys & number of pots(if my brother in law will lend me more of his lawn).

Anykind of positive/constructive input is wellcome.:)
 
Thank you for your comment.:)

The soil seem to hold water very well so they wont dry out too fast.
The risk with it though is that they can get too much water so the roots wil start to rot.
I don't think that they will need anomore water for at least 5 days because it was raining last night so they probably got drenched.

It is going to be fun to make my first jalapeño poppers.
My bbq is placed right around the corner so the pots will travel straight from the plant & on to the grill basicly.:)

There will be some drying, pickling & freshchopped & more.
My mouth is watering allready. :drooling:
 
I've read a study a while ago that concluded by adding drainage material at the bottom of the pot only brings the water table up and reduces the favorable growing area within the pot. They said it's not necessary and the plants benefit more by having a larger area to grow in. In other words higher water table "smaller growing area" and vice versa.

They're others on this forum that's been growing superhots far longer than me and may have more to add to this.

A season without superhots is a very long season indeed!!
 
It is maybe 2-2,5cm of claymarbles on the bottom so they don't steal that much space from the plants.

Anyway it is too late to remove anything as seen on the pic.;)

Joeyk yes pallets is a goos idea & i shall speak with my brother in law if we can fix it asap. The ground is slowing the drainage down so standing on pallets should lower the risk of too much water.
 
Believe me last season I was ready to do the very same thing as you!! When I stumbled onto that study I decided that the extra effort and expense wasn't necessary, therefore I just go with the Pro Mix BX. I'm sure that you will be just fine…no need to panic. Might as well as go with what you have and enjoy the season!!

Good luck and may the pepper gods shine on you!!
 
SuperHot said:
I've read a study a while ago that concluded by adding drainage material at the bottom of the pot only brings the water table up and reduces the favorable growing area within the pot. They said it's not necessary and the plants benefit more by having a larger area to grow in. In other words higher water table "smaller growing area" and vice versa.

They're others on this forum that's been growing superhots far longer than me and may have more to add to this.

A season without superhots is a very long season indeed!!
Click to expand...

+1 also what my research concluded that putting rocks or other low permeability materials in the bottom of your pot is actually counter productive. What happens is you make what they call a "perched water table" which means that the rocks or whatever holds or disrupts the water flow and you have a water saturated space which is what you are trying to avoid.

I know that alot of old time gardeners swear by the rock/marble/chucks of stuff but that was in the old days with todays lighter mixes this method is no longer needed and better to have more mix for roots to grow.

you can also put some more holes at different levels on the pot to allow more oxygen to get to the roots and also use it as a way to check moisture levels throughout the pot.

Anyway great looking plants and best of luck to you on your grow :dance:
 
SRBII said:
+1 also what my research concluded that putting rocks or other low permeability materials in the bottom of your pot is actually counter productive. What happens is you make what they call a "perched water table" which means that the rocks or whatever holds or disrupts the water flow and you have a water saturated space which is what you are trying to avoid.

I know that alot of old time gardeners swear by the rock/marble/chucks of stuff but that was in the old days with todays lighter mixes this method is no longer needed and better to have more mix for roots to grow.

you can also put some more holes at different levels on the pot to allow more oxygen to get to the roots and also use it as a way to check moisture levels throughout the pot.

Anyway great looking plants and best of luck to you on your grow :dance:
Click to expand...


Thanks, I know I wasn't dreaming it…just couldn't remember where I read it.
 
Another concern for me with putting rocks at the bottom is that the bottom of the pot is going to hold a little water regardless of how many holes you have. I have a bunch of empty 7 gallon nursery containers sitting outside and when it rains there is a thin layer of water lining the bottom of the pot that doesn't drain even though there are a lot of nickle sized holes on the bottom and sides. With potting mix there it would just soak it up, with rocks it's going to stay there, and also probably evaporate and create a more humid environment under the roots.
 
Thank you for the info.

Well it is my first growingyear so my experience in growing in pots is minimal.
I just prepared the pots as in the old days so to speak.
I just hope it will work & if not i'll change the strategy next year.
I probably wont make holes in different levels to check the moisture. I'll just stick a finger or a clean stick in.
But there will maybe be some holes drilled along the bottom if the soil stays wet too long.

But i do think that overwatering is a bigger concern than how optimal the pot is prepared.
 
Yeah you should be ok, whether or not it's ideal, it's not going to ruin your season. I've put pebbles in the bottom before and it didn't ruin the plants or anything.
 
Plants look good, I think you would be better off adding some perlite into that mix as an aerator though. It sounds a little heavy. Might be a little acidic too with 2/3 peat moss, since peat moss (at least Canadian sphagnum peat moss) has a pH of about 4. Some people plant blueberries in 50/50 peat moss/compost or 50/50 peat moss/regular potting soil to achieve a low pH. Mine seem to be doing well equal parts peat moss and pro-mix BX with some extra perlite and a little compost, and blueberries need a pH of about 4-5. I think compost buffers pH to some extent, and I'm not an expert in this area by any means, but you might want to check to make sure it's ok. You may need to add some lime if it's too low.
 
The peatmoss they sell here in Sweden is allready phregulated to about 6,0.
The ph on the composted cowdung has a ph closer to 7 i think so the mix should be allright.

I'm probably not going to lift the plants up to mix in something else like perlite because i don't wanna disturb the roots too much.
I don't wanna dig around too much as they stand either of the same reason.

I checked them today and they seem to getting along well.
Some leafes on the Hab has brown spots though but thats probably due to the moving of the plant too their present location when the leafes probably got bruised abit.

I may add some nutes later in the season if it needs to in the top layer of the soil but as long the plants seem to grow as they should i'll leave them alone except for the watering.

When they have grown som more i'll stick some flowersticks(what we call them around here)in for support to minimize the breakingrisk.

I allso marked the stick in the Cayennepot at the plants highest point to see how much it has grown untill next weekend.
 
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