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PJ's 2012 Glog with a Kaleidoscope of Colored Peppers

This is my second season growing superhots. I decided to branch out and grow some tasty peppers that others will enjoy. I've been collecting and buying seeds busily!

So i decided to start my seeds early-mid january since last frost date last year was in early april. Here is my list. Some i bought, some i got for free from the amazing THP members! Thanks again all,

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I'll be germinating my seeds in cups. I had great success last year using this method. Once they sprout, i'll move them to my 72 plug seed tray. I'm using gardener's supply germinating mix. It has very fine peat, vermiculite, and trace minerals and is pH balanced. Once they get their true leaves, i'll move them to 3.5x5 inch pots (P86D) and 1 pint root pouches (just to experiment). After that they will go into their 5, 7, 10 gallon root pouches and plastic nursery pots.

I started the kashmiri seeds 1 weeks ago to see if the dried pods' seeds i got from UK were viable. They were! So these were the first to go into the 72 plug tray.

I have some plants in the garage under flourscents that are overwintering since november. They are brain strain, red bhut jolokia and chocolate bhut, red and yellow 7pods, fatalli, and a bhut-habanero hybrid. Also some annums like serrano and kung pao just to see if it works
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I dedicated one room in the house as my "plant room". Pretty bare bone, its a 48 inch wide, 7 foot tall steel rack. 2 of the shelves each have 4 T12 GE aquarium and plant flourscent bulbs. I have a heat mat where they cups are sitting on to help in the germination.

The Plant Room
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The Seeds in their cups
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The Kashmiri Mirch in their 72 plug tray, i'm using little cups as a "dome" to keep humidity in. Using foil to cover the other plugs so water doesn't just evaporate away making the germinating mix really dry and also keeps it from growing algae.
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Lets see how it goes! Wish me luck!
 
Looking great PJ. Those babies aren't babies any more. They are teenagers. Teenagers who are sleepin with random classmates and smokin weed in the back of your corvette....

I digress....Keep the pics comin! When you gonna post a new vid?

Matt
 
Great thread and great inspiration to a newbie like me. Still confused on the soil mix and nutes but getting there. I'm trying figure out if I will go soils or hydroponics as well.

As I don't understand all the terminology - would some one mind explaining to me the soil mix being used for the seedlings to grow?
 
Great thread and great inspiration to a newbie like me. Still confused on the soil mix and nutes but getting there. I'm trying figure out if I will go soils or hydroponics as well.

As I don't understand all the terminology - would some one mind explaining to me the soil mix being used for the seedlings to grow?

I'm using PROMIX BX for the seedlings. I have the seedlings in square 3.5 x 3.5 x 5 deep pots which sit in a 1020 tray. I use botanicaire nutes: liquid karma @ 7.5ml/gallon, pro grow @ 5ml/gallon. I do this every other watering. The other times i just use plain water. I don't want to over nute them. They are watered by watering into the tray and the pots just suck the water.

Epson salt has magnesium which helps makes them be greener. Do a search others swear by this stuff. The wind is to strengthen the stems so they get thick and can withstand the winds when they finally go outside.

For seed starting, i start in jello party cups. Look for seeds vs cups method. I use a very fine peat mix when the seeds show the little root in the cup I move the seed then to a 72 plug tray.

hope this helps. You live near AlabamaJack, and he's a legend in growing peppers. Maybe contact him and see if he can share some of his wisdom and even visit him.
 
PJ,

The 72 plug trays you're using, did you get them from growers solution? I'm not finding any sold outside of by the case.

Thanks,
Gerry
 
So i have been fighting with leaf spot last week. Sprayed them with serenade and removed the infected leaves. looks like they are doing well.

I thought it was time to start putting them out for hardening. Last weekend i took some 4 feet wide x 100 feet long weed cloth and made two 35 feet strips to put my pots ontop of. I am going to use a pvc drip tube along the middle which will drip irrigate all my 80 or so containers. I'll be using pressure compensating 1gph drippers.

Yesterday, went to home depot and bought 3/4 inch thick PVC tubes and parts to make a frame for which i will put a 4x8 frost cloth on top of. This will allow me to harden them off in the sun slowly. It only allows around 43% light transmission. Not much, but i'll be raising the cloth to allow a few hours of sun, and when the sun gets higher in the sky, the cloth will prevent all day exposure.

Anyways, here is the frame with the cloth on one of my rows. You can see the pvc drip tube.
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side view
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Inside the plants are chilling
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I also took out my overwinters, high time they got some sun.
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i'll be leaving the seedlings outside under the frost cloth, should be ok. Hopefully i'll start potting things up next weekend!

And Gerry, i got 72 plug trays from Texas Hydroponics in houston, i think there is a dallas branch. google them.
 
Looking good PJ! Folks often forget the prep work that goes into growing stuff. Good job on the hardening frame and irrigation tubing. Watch those little drippers close! I already had a couple stop up on me. Sucks to figure out one's not working the hard way! They are nice when they run though! Plants are looking good as well. I was worried about your grow when the spots started showing up. Good thing you caught it quickly.
I'll be watching!
Shane
 
So yesterday after work i made my soil mix:
  1. 4 - promix 3.8cf bales = 7 uncompressed = 28cf
  2. 4 - black kow = ~6cf
  3. 4 - 1.5 mushroom compost = 6cf
  4. 10 cf vermiculite
  5. 20lb bag of epsoma tomato-tone
took some time breaking down that promix, but in the end i was happy with it. Really late at night i made my drip irrigation and 1gph dripper setup.

Today morning i got up early and potted up everything in various container sizes:
  1. 15 - 5 gallon root pouches
  2. 25 - 5 gallon nursery containers
  3. 4 - 7 gallon root pouches
  4. 4 - 10 gallon root pouches
After that i sharpened some bamboo sticks so its easy to stake each plant. Then i spaced each pot about 1 feet 3 inches between each other. That way they have space to grow. Then i setup the drip irrigation.

Phew it was a tiring day. I admire all those folks who have so many plants in their growlog.

here are some pics:

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Now that is a professional setup you got going on. Your own private nursery!

Can't wait to start seeing some pod shots! Won't bee too long.
 
Weather is pretty good here, 80's during day, 60's or so at night. Learned about worm tea making so i've been busy making that. I have brewed 3 times already. I'm sure my plants are happy. I was using a tetra 60gph aquarium pump but that was weak, returning that guy and will use a 70 liter per minute pump. Its awesome, so many bubbles, i'm sure those microbes love it. Also been battling with some leaf spot. Did some research and found two organic products. Actinovate and Exel LG. Actinovate is a fungicide using beneficial microbes only. Exel Lg is a systemic fungicide and also gives nutes to the plants. Also see alot of Pill Bugs (rolley polleys) but i heard they don't do any damage to plants. Lets see how it goes!

Off to the pictures!

An overall view of the peppers + some date plants
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Bahamian Goat Pepper
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Aji Limon
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Piquilo
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Peppercinio
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Kung Pao
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Kashmiri Mirch
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Zapotec Jalapeno
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Cheiro Roxa - very pretty
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UPDATE: Can someone post? I have more pics to share :)
 
looking good pepper dude you making me so jealous of your whole setup

please reconsider and try to find any alternate to a systemic.

as a general rule YOU DO NOT WANT TO 'SYSTEMIC' ANY FOOD

good growing
:party:
 
What type of watering schedule are they on? I've never messed with an auto water setup before and have considered something for this summer when I will be away for nine days. Will the water that is coming out in that one picture be sufficient enough to adequately water the plant?

-J
 
Scotch Bonnet Foodarama
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Yellow Fatalli in 10 gallon root pouch
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Purple Bhut Jolokia - for some reason, it went from purple leaves just a few days ago to more green. Wierd
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C. Galapagoense in the front, some tomatoes in the back. Need to pot them up this weekend
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Some of my overwinters from last year, yellow 7pod, brain strain, choco bhut and yellow bhut.
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My first brain strain! Looks just like Cappys! I need to move it out of the 5 gallon to a 10 gallon this weekend. Last year this plant gave me NOTHING! Literally NOTHING. Glad i overwintered it. Lots of buds on this one.
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Thats all folks! Thanks for looking at my blog.

looking good pepper dude you making me so jealous of your whole setup

please reconsider and try to find any alternate to a systemic.

as a general rule YOU DO NOT WANT TO 'SYSTEMIC' ANY FOOD

good growing
:party:

Thanks for the compliments, it looks all nice, but it takes alot of hard work :) Kind of a pain in the butt, but i hope it will pay off with lots of pods!

I believe it is safe. Its a Mono- and di-potassium salts of phosphorous acid based fungicide. Tomato growers use it. EPA says its ok too. I'll use it sparingly though. Thanks for the heads up.

What type of watering schedule are they on? I've never messed with an auto water setup before and have considered something for this summer when I will be away for nine days. Will the water that is coming out in that one picture be sufficient enough to adequately water the plant?

-J

Right now i have it turned off. It is raining alot so the pots are good for a couple days without watering. When i do water, i set it for 10 mins. Its a 1 GPH dripper so you can calculate how much water you think each pot needs. From my calculations i'm putting 1/6 of a gallon. Not that much. When they get bigger, i'll be watering more often.

looking good. Those containers look like they have plenty of room for the roots to grow.

Thanks, yea, can't wait to put the brain strain overwinter into the 10 gallon root pouch. More root space = bigger plants! wohoo.
 
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