PjPEPPERS Bonsai indoor/outdoor glog

Well folks...here goes!

Our 2013 indoor grow is the first step for freedom for us. We are planning on using this years seed stocks for next years grow which will then be harvested resale puposes to help put us on the property ladder. It's not a get rich quick plan but more of a plan we believe in and are prepared to see it through to the end. We hope you can join us on this adventure and offer any advice where you can. We are all ears!

(I will include as many pictures as possibe that are relevant to the grow and a few that are in for giggles also) I love looking at pepper-porn of other peoples grow's, it is an excellent research method, so hopefully our pic's will inspire and help you all to get a better understanding of what we are doing.

If you see something we are doing wrong please shout out!​

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Plan of action
By having a 100% indoor grow season we will be able to control the enviroment in which our peppers are culivated in and with lots of hard work, cunning and lady luck..ooh and your advice!, we believe we will be able to grow stable, popular, tasty, hot, beautiful peppers to use for seed in the 2014 mega grow we ar planning.

Equipment
Seed soaking cups for an overnight saltpeter bath
BioBizz light mix organic seedling soil
At least 2 x agralan plug plant trainers
1 x growcube propagation tent (90cm long x 60cm wide x 60 cm tall)
1 x Lightwave T5 4 bulb grow light (24w per bulb, 96w total, 6,600 lumens blue)
1 x Petnap speedy seeder heat mat (49cm x 49cm - 40w)
Both sets of fingers crossed!

If seeds/we are successful, once grown enough, the next step we will be using the following:

1 x self built nursery grow cabinet made from the spare wardrobe (see pics of flat)
1 x Lightwave T5 8bulb grow light (54w per bulb, 432w total, 33200 lumens super blue)
8 x 7cm square black plant pot tray sets - these hold 28 pots in each tray

(Pot measurements are - External = 72x72x71mm (with lip), Internal = 66x66mm (Top), Internal = 49x49mm (Bottom)Tray measurements are - External = 562x315x50mm (with lip), Internal = 552x305mm, Internal = 58x58x50mm (compartments) Volume - 0.2 litres (per pot))

Once plants are big enough they will be going in to the main crop tents, we will have 3 tents in total.

1 x 2.8m long x 1.4m wide x 2m tall.


2 x 65cm wide x 165cm long x 180cm tall.

The largest tent is where we will be growing the widest selection of plants. Our aim is to try and grow approx 195 dwarf or short plants in this tent. Then the 2 smaller tents will have approx 20 - 40 larger super hot's in them.

We have designed a self built plant pot system using heavy duty rubble sacks, bamboo, plastic storage boxes, wire tyes, florist wire and fishing line. A lots of praying!!

The pots we have designed are going to be 10cm squarred at the top, going down 80cm in lenght to a 1 litre approx 9cm round plant pot attached and sealed by tyes. The shape of the pot/sack will be held in a cylindrical shape by the fishing line wrapped around it and the florist wire is used to keep the shape of the top of the pot whilst keeping it open. The bamboo canes will be used the create a cross hatch grid effect frame where each pot rests/hangs in.

The pots will be in grids of 15 and will sit in the plastic storage trays/boxes
The purpose of the round flower pot attached to the bottom is to allow the storage boxes to be flooded when watered and to leave enough flow space around each pot base for the water to be siphoned up by the roots and soil. Hard to explain and pictures will show better, but I think and hope it will work. Will have to try to see! The pots have been designed like this to maximise the space of the tent and allow loads of room for downward root growth. The pots will hold 9 litres of soil this way! Hope that is going to be enough be plant?

We will be using 3 x Lightwave T5 8bulb grow light (54w per bulb, 1296w total, combo of red and blue bulbs) to light up this tent. These light are only 60mm in height and have been choosen to leave max space for the plant to grow from the top of the pot to approx 12 inches away from the light. The tent is 200cm in height, the pots and tray total 92cm in height, minus 6cm for the light, minus 30cm light space means approx 70cm for plant growth. We will be training plants will a huge grid wall we have already. The main tent will look like a SCRog grow.

Not 100% sure on what fan we are using yet but will be a 5inch fan located in the top right pulling air from a passive vent flap on the bottom side of the tent.

That's enough for now I think, plus fingers hurt from typing. Here's a few pic's to see where everything is going. We have a separate studio apartment that we use for our online business which has kitchen bathroom and large open space so this will be taken over by our pepper grow soon.

Please feel free to offer any advice as it is much needed. I will post up some more pics and our list of seeds we are growing tomorrow for you all to view.

Thanks


(excuse the mess - been playing around with the selving to make space)

 

[PjPEPPERS]

Been a few days since done an update so here goes:

Had a bit of a move around as the 3rd tent arrived so that is now up and in place. And have move the cupboard and table around so can get to the electric points and growcube easier. Not using the cupboard to propagate anymore as it just wasn't cutting the mustard, so it's now just holding the tent up out of the way of the electrics.

All the lights have now arrived, went for 4 600w hps in the end. So one in each of the smaller tents and 2 in the large tent. Have moved everything into one of the smaller tetns just for now so can control the climate better rather than having it all squished into the growcube. See how we get on.

The seeds have now arrived so been busy inbetween family visits with the potting up and sowing of new varieties.

This is what is now potted up in to new pots:
Moruga Scorpion
Habanero White
Trinidad Douglah x 2
Numex Twilight
Numex Centennial
Poinsettia
Patio of fire
Filus Blue
Royal Black
Pequin
Khoricha Jolokia
Little Elf
Bird's eye Demon x 2
Choc Naga
Bhut Jolokia Choc
Variegata
Khrishna Jolokia
Naga Morich

A load of the first seeds sown in the propagators have been growing very slowly for the last week or so just waiting for them to get a little bigger and then they are out of there and into the next pots, gotta make room and keep things moving. Hopefully they will be ready tomorrow.

This is what has been sown now in the last week - hope at least one or two say hello.
7 pot yellow x 8
Mem Jolokia x 6
Habanero Mustard x 8
Habanero Yellow x 8
Krishna Jolokia x 6
Choc Naga x 8
Naga Morich x 8
Scotch Bonnet Orange x 4
Jamaican Yellow x 10
Jalapeno Purple x 4
Habanero White x 4
Bhut Jolokia Choc x 6
Jamaican Red x 3
Moruga Scorpion x 6
Jalapeno Orange x 3
Tobago Tresure x 5
Trinidad Congo Black x 5
Trinidad Congo Orange x 5
Most Prolific x 5
Trinidad Scotch Bonnet Brown x 5
Bradley's Bahamian x 5
Trinidad Congo Red x 5
Blue Mystery x 5
Aribibi Gustanto x 10
Wild Brazil x 2
Trinidad Congo Yellow x 5
Bhut Jolokia Red x 10
Black Scorpion Tounge x 5
Trinidad Scorpion FG x 10
Bombay Morich x 5
Fatali Yellow x 5
Bih Jolokia x 5
Datil x 5
White Bhut Jolokia x 5
Red Fatali x 5
Aji Panca x 10
Bhut Jolokia Indian Carbon x 10
Habanero Big Sun x 5
Trinidad Scotch Bonnet Yellow x 5
Trinidad Perfume x 5
7 Pot Chaguanas x 5
Trinidad Scotch Bonnet Red x 5
Barrackpore 7 Pot x 5
Prik Kee Nee Saun x 6

So as you can see been VERY busy. Reason for sowing soo many other than hopeing at least one of each will grow, is we are looking at renting a polytunnel for the rest of the season whilst our land is being prepared. So all of the above will come in vry handy when we need to fill the tunnel, if worse comes to worse I can always sell the starts at a farmers market.

Heres a few pics of whats been happening


New layout with 3rd tent in place

Small side tent with doors open from right to left

Left to right

First load of pot ups - mainly the wife's ornimentals

And some more little ladies

Peace

 

[PjPEPPERS]

A couple of pics for you guys if interested:


Chocolate Naga

Naga Morich

Some of the others are looking ok and some are not. Lost a White Habanero, but have a few more sprouting so not too bad.

Have been suffering from some yellowing and leaf curl. Think it has to be something with the closeness of the lights and water schedule. Keeping an eye on it and hope can either cure it or find out the reason why so I can fix it for the next load of spreouts that come along in a couple of days.

 

[PIC 1]

Thats a ton of plants! Its nice having 3 grow tents to accomadate the seedlings.
Yellowing with on all leaves shows a deficiency, overwatering will start out with lower leaf yellowing. Leaf curl can also be caused by excessive heat, not light intensity.
Quite a selection of seeds good luck with the rest of the indoor grow.

 

[PjPEPPERS]

Yeah sorry that's kinda what I was trying to say, I think I have the light too close to them thus generating too much heat on the little guys. The 600w bulbs do get mighty hot, going to move them up in a bit.

The soil I'm using is light biobizz so don't think it should really be missing anything as such nutrients wise BUT I'm pretty sure I watered them too much when I first transplanted them (they might have been a shade too small to transplant also - but needed space so had to make the call) and then underwatered too much to try and compensate...ohh the drama's! lol

Going to see how they go over the next couple of days and then might give them a spray of some kelp solution if no improvement but don't want to harm them even more at this early stage. I love these guys and hug them everynight, I hope they all make it. lol

Thanks for the input - ALL advice is taken well

 

[theghostpepperstore]

Don't get too upset when you lose a few either. We all have our growing pains. Keep notes, learn from mistakes, and keep on truckin'. Looking great, mate.

 

[PjPEPPERS]

Yeah I feel a bit like a mad scientist will all the notes I have been taking on my clipboard, bit ocd but it will definitley help next time around. I've sown way more seeds than I'm going to keep/use this year specifically to cope with the amount I manage to kill. So fingers crossed all will be well in the end and I'll end up with at least one pepper plant this year lol

Ohh I'm getting used to loosing them alright. After I yelled at the tap(faucet) for flushing a variegata seed down the drain last week, I realized it was time to step back and check myself...."they are only plants...breathe...they are only plants...breathe" was the words that followed. lol. Still a shame though when you loose a team member.

Thanks Brian

Thats a ton of plants! Its nice having 3 grow tents to accomadate the seedlings.
Yellowing with on all leaves shows a deficiency, overwatering will start out with lower leaf yellowing. Leaf curl can also be caused by excessive heat, not light intensity.
Quite a selection of seeds good luck with the rest of the indoor grow.

Just moved the lights up so hopefully that will solve the heat issue. Also looked at all the plants and it is definitley the lower leaves that are yellowing, the 2nd sets look to be fine and nice green colours . So thanks for the advice it has put my mind at rest a bit to what the cause was.

 

[PjPEPPERS]

Well just a little update today:

Going to grow a few herbs in between the peppers, figured got the space whilst they are getting bigger so best to use it as much as we can. Between the 3 tents we are going to have some Basil, Chervil, Chives, Dill and Parsley. Also guna throw down some lettuce and rocket for lunch time salads. Takes the pizz having to pay silly amounts so a bag of salad so guna grow our own and save some funds. Every little helps towards buying our house.

The wife has had a mushroom kit for a few months and had it put away so ut was forgotten about. Well after some moving and tidying it was rediscovered. I'm not keen on Shrooms myself (I may have been the one who put the kit away ) But gota keep the boss happy so have started them off also. They are just white cap mushrooms nothing special but a bit different to grow. I have however relegated them to the bathroom in the studio flat - it's never used and it's away from the tents so moldy shrooms will be ok there.

Will put pics up tomorrow when the sun comes out again

 

[PjPEPPERS]

Quick picture update today:

Overview of a few sprouts

Choc Naga - (same plant as above post)

Naga Morich - (same plant as above post)

Moruga Scorpion

Bhut Jolokia Choc

Variegata

That's it for now, just a litlle update. More to follow later today or tomorrow

Thanks

 

[PjPEPPERS]

A few updates on some of what has either hooked or sprouted now. I have not checked the others so can't give any info on them yet. But so far this is what's what from the last sowing session.

[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Tobago Tresure x [/background][background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]3/[/background][background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]5[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Trinidad Congo Black x 5[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Trinidad Congo Orange x [/background][background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]1/[/background][background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]5[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Most Prolific x 5[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Trinidad Scotch Bonnet Brown x [/background][background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]3/[/background][background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]5[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Bradley's Bahamian x [/background][background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]1/[/background][background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]5[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Trinidad Congo Red x [/background][background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]1/[/background][background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]5[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Blue Mystery x [/background][background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]1/[/background][background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]5[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Aribibi Gustanto x [/background][background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]4/[/background][background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]10[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Wild Brazil x 2[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Trinidad Congo Yellow x [/background][background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]1/[/background][background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]5[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Bhut Jolokia Red x [/background][background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]1/[/background][background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]10[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Black Scorpion Tounge x [/background][background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]1/[/background][background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]5[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Trinidad Scorpion FG x [/background][background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]3/[/background][background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]10 [/background]

Looks like the Trinidad and Tobago seeds are doing quite well for us so far. Looking forward to getting them into their next pots end of next week maybe. Have the inlaws down again next weekend so will have to fit it in around them etc.

Been looking bac over this glog and it's funny how a plan can change as the grow grow's. Trying to say close to what was planned and think we are starting to get things together towards a final plan. I know for sure that we are trying to get 2 good plants of each variety that we are planning on growing. This way we can polinate them from each other thus increase the chances of staying true to the strain. So that being said I relised that we only had 1 of some varieties so planted some more of the one we only have one of so far.
These are what has been sown today in the hope that we can get at least one to grow so we can eventually have 2 of each variety:
Hab Mustard
Filus Blue
Poinsettia
Royal Black
Numex Twilight
Aji Crystal
Hab Yellow
Jam Yellow
Jam Red
Jalapeno Purple
Bhut Jolokia Choc
Moruga Scorpion

Then it crossed my mind that we have LOADS of spare seeds left over from our online business so why not have a go at crossing some peppers. My thinking was that if I find seeds from the biggest growing peppers we have and try to cross them with some of the super hots we are growing them next year we might end up with some massive super hot new peppers.
Heres what has been sown for this experiement - only going to have 1 of each plant and not too fussed if not all varieties sprout as long as we have one type to play with I will be happy. Heres the list:
Anaheim
Sante fe Grande
De Arbol
Black Hungarian
Onza
Joe E Parker
Pablano
Big Jim
Bulgarian Carrot

Guna try something like a Big Jim x Red Bhut Jolokia, so it would be a Big Jim'a Red Bhut
Any suggestions on names for the new crosses if successful?

 

[PjPEPPERS]

Couple more pics today for anyone who's interested:

Filus Blue- really like the colour changes on this plant so far. The leaves with the blue tips started out like the back leaves and have since changed/changing to the green you see now. Very cool.

Numex Twilight - stumpy little fella so far but keeps throwing out new leaves so hopefully will be a very productive plant.

Numex Centennial - Lovely colours again although did suffer from a touch of overwatering but looks like it will pull through.

Other exciting news, sowed about 50 Thai peppers the other day. These are all hybrids so should be interesting to see what we get at the end. Will post pics of these if/when they start to sprout well.

Thanks

 

[Jeff H]

Looks really good so far. How many 600 watt lights did you decide to run?

 

[PjPEPPERS]

Hi Jeff, decided to go for 4 600watts in the end. 1 in each of the smaller tents and 2 in the big tent. Only have 1 tent running at the moment but hoping to spark all 3 up soon. The 600w bulb is amazingly bright and lucky enough for me I have a pair of perscription sunglasses that always get adorned before the tent is opened. I've seen some special blue lensed glasses that you can get specially for working in grow rooms, I think i might purchase a pair before I spark up the big tent as that will have the 2 600w's in it and I'll actually have to go in the tent to look at the plants.


Another pic from this morning - Khorika Jolokia

 

[PjPEPPERS]

100th post - Yay me! lol

Just quick update for today:

Potted on some more sprouts today and cleared the racks. I was not happy with the last load of seeds that were sown, some have taken so long to show any sign of life - nothing wrong with the seeds just didn't plant them correctly. Been getting way too many helmet heads for my liking so salvage what I could and they rest have been recycled. The jelly shot pots I ordered have now arrived so they seeds that didn't sprout the first time are going into a soak and then into the glasses till them germinate. Gotta be more organised with the space and how many seeds we have sown at one time, so fingers crossed this way will help wit that. Been having good success with the propagtors so guna stick with them.

Rigging up the other small tent either tonight or tomorrow and going to transplant some of the bigger plants now and put them into the 10L pots I brought a while ago. Hopefully this will give them a good start and we will have some beast.

Pics to follow soon

 

[Sawyer]

Looking good. Love the setup.

 

[PjPEPPERS]

Thanks Sawyer, it's a constant tweeking mission. Always adjusting this and that, hopefully we will be able to settle on it soon and just watch the plants do their thing.


The jelly shot pots arrived so put some more seeds in for germination. No different varieties to report just the same as the last update on seeds above. Have been reading great reviews of germinating this way and going to give it ago. It's much neater and cleaner than the way we did the last load of seeds so hoping it works now.

Plant pics to follow tomorrow sometime. Gave the biggest ones another spray of liquid seaweed, they always seem to like it the next morning about 1 hour after the lights come on so will take pics then - got to show the ladies off in the best light lol

Thanks

 

[PjPEPPERS]

Few pics today for anyone if interested: Apologies for the poor pics today in a bit of a rush earlier

Little elf​

Mexican Pequin​

Royal Black​

Pequin​

Have moved 4 plants over into the biggest tent which are now in the new 10L pots so see how they go over the next few days. Can't remember off the top of me head what they were - been one of those days today.

The whole set up has to be moved tomorrow as the in-laws are coming down at the weekend- Great fun!. So we might be reducing the whole set up down to just the one big tent. If this is the case it will stay like it becuase I can't be arsed moving stuff around all the time. The in-laws tend to say can we come down next week - all the time - so going to set the room up so whe nthe want to come down I don't have to keep moving everything.

Not all bad though as ran the idea of growin speciality mushrooms to sell to the local restruants etc, past the wife and shes well up for it, so a bit of give and take and everyones happy. We live in a habour resort and our place is like 100 foot away fromthe ocean and there are soo many hotels, resturants, cafes, guesthouses, farmers markets, grocery stores etc etc around us it makes good sense to grow something that can be sold locally to them - so watch this space for giant mushrooms!

Peace!

 

[PjPEPPERS]

So been a while since the last update. Super busy at the moment so I think I will be updating with pics at the weekends and then replying to folks during the week.

We had a bit of bad news a couple of days ago..well more annoying news really. Our landlord who we rent the studio flat off wants it back at the end of April so she can put her son in it. Very annoying as I run my business from there so bringing the whole office and plants upstairs into our family home...should be interesting to say the least.
They say every cloud has it's silver lining though and I think we may have one in our case. Not having to pay out for both properties each month will give us more money instantly so our plan for next year of growing on the land we own is going to happen even sooner. Guna try and get the land finished this year and ready for peppers into the ground April next year. So smiley about that

As I'm now limited by how many plants (these need to fit on a long window sill) I have had to cull a LOAD of the seeds and sprouts. Felt bad doing it to them as they didn't get a chance to do their thing - Will make it up to them next year when they grow in the ground, guna grow some monsters next year for sure. This year will be used as a learning curve in prep for next years massive attack.

This is what I have growing at the moment and it will not be getting any more, I still have to cull a lot more yet but trying to make the most of what I have now. Experimenting with some bonsai now. All the big pots will have 3 different varieties in each. Done a few so far, just waiting for the others to grow a bit more some they don't kick the bucket when I transplant them. Anyway, pictures!

Overview of:
Prik, Scotch Bonnet Brown, Trinidad congo red, Datil, King Naga Morich, Pequin, White hab, Tobago treasure, Trinidad Douglah, 7 pot yellow, Choc naga, Mex pequin, Bhut Jolokia Choc - Just waiting for these to get bigger than will bonsai ready them also.

Bhut Jolokia Chocolate

Little elf, poinsettia, Numex twilight BONSAI PROJECT

Variegata, Royal Black, Filus Blue BONSAI PROJECT

Moruga Scorpion - suffered from some yellow, seems to be pulling through now

Naga Morich - this is the greenest coloured plant I have to date, camera doesn't do it just

Bird's eye demon red, Mex Pequin, Pequin BONSAI PROJECT

2 Patio of fires - these are going to be used for the bonchi competition when they are a bit bigger

Aji Crystal, Bird's eye demon red, Khoricha Jolokia BONSAI PROJECT

Choc Naga, 7 pot yellow, Trinidad Douglah BONSAI PROJECT

The plan is to bonsai all the plants I have now and keep them on the window sill from the end of April and then next year let them go loose and plant them out on our land. If they make it till then hopefully they will become monsters.

That's all for now folks, more pics next weekend.

Cheers
Pete

 

[PjPEPPERS]

Weekend picture update for you all.

Bonsai/Bonchi project - Aji Crystal, Bird's eye demon red and Khorika Jolokia

Bhut Jolokia Chocolate - same plant as shown in the post on the 24th Feb:

Moruga Scorpion - same plant as shown in the post on the 24th Feb

Chocolate Naga - same plant as shown in the post on the 24th Feb

Naga Morich - same plant as shown in the post on the 24th Feb

Overview shot of half of the tent

Just a few pics today sorry.

Progress has been ok with the plants. I have not given then any nutes yet only 2 small feedings of liquid seaweed and foliage spray every few days. This weekend I have been reading up on what nutes and teas to go for so hopefully when I sort it out during the week the plants will be looking healthier next photo shoot.

Here's a couple of pics of where we are for the rest of this season, they in-laws were down last week so took them for a walk around town. Our flat is down by the car park area on the 2nd photo, we are on the 4th floor so have a lovely sea view.

Thanks for looking, more pictures next weekend. Hopefully with improvements on some of the plants.

Cheers
Pete

 

[Sawyer]

What are those truncated cone-shaped buildings?

 

[PjPEPPERS]

They are a theater and a tourist information center and cafe. Bit of an eye sore really! The promenade dates back to the victorian era and they have just shoved these concrete cones up. Shame really as it definitely detracts from the area. They look like military silo's or cannon turrets.