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salsalady's first grow log

This whole forum has inspired me to attempt to grow a few peppers. After receiving some seeds from another forum member, I decided to give it a go myself. The original plan was to have a local farmer grow them for me, but I'd feel real bad if they did a ton of work all season and they only produced a few pounds of peppers.

SO~ Here we go!

The seeds I received are-
Red Savina habanero
bhut jolokia
trinidad scorpion
7 pot- homegrown
7 pot- other

I printed out the growing instructions from Peppermania to have something to work with, bought a couple 72-cell starting trays, some germination mix, recruited SalsaNut0.5 to help, and set to work.

We set the seeds to soak in warm bleach water, filled the trays with dry germination mix and poured water over top of the mix and into the bottom tray. Rookie mistake! An hour later and the water was still pooled up on top of the mix, hadn't soaked up at all. So we dumped the mix out into a tray, added more water and mixed it up by hand. Back into the cells and after rinsing the seeds, we were finally ready to plant!

While we had the seeds soaking in little cups, 'Nut0.5 bumped one that was pretty full of water and splashed some of the 7 Pot seeds into the Trinidad Scorpion cup. OH WELL!

We ended up filling both 72 cell trays and putting 28 more seeds in a couple other plastic things I had laying around. OMG! 172 seeds! What Have I Gotten Myself Into?!?!? And the really scary thing is......I have some Aji Amarillo, orange Peter Peppers, Fatali and Peruvian white hab seeds on the way! YIKES!


Here's the temporary set up. It's under a SS table out in the salsa kitchen (hope the inspector doesn't pop in for a week or two until I can get the rest of the set up done). There's a space heater to keep thing warm, a blanket to hold the heat in, a thermometer in the tray, and we used colored toothpicks for ID-ing the different varieties.
growstuff.jpg


growstuff003.jpg


all tucked in for the night-
growstuff004.jpg


I checked this morning and the temp in the tray is a nice cozy 80F.


And, in trying to find buckets to grow the plants in, I found these-
growstuff005.jpg


These are 4.5 gallon oil jugs from a restaurant, the kind that fryer oil or salad oil comes in. I picked up about 50 of them at the first place I went. We took the cardboard boxes off them already. I figure we can cut away the tops, but keep the handle, poke some holes in the bottom....what do you think? SCORE or BUST?
 
mel said:
well done SL!! I am impressed by your power tool wielding abilities~! :D

thanks Mel, I LOVE the sawzall! Best way to prune trees ever!

I'll have to show y'all the other DeWalt tool I wield in our day-jobs.
 
Thanks PF,

If I call you Paulky by mistake, it's just the tiara talking. :P
 
Cool a pic of SL. With powertools!
 
Hey salsalady as far as i know the problem with your roots being exposed to light is fungus/mould. If you are concerned about the clear containers some cheap spray paint could fix that, we can buy it here for around $2 a can at the cheapo shops. Fifty containers would probably use about 5 cans i would think. Just a thought.

Great work on your build too.
 
Thanks NC, I thought about that. Don't know how well it would adhere to oil-smeared plastic, but it could be enough to get through the season. :)


And yea, I gotta admit, I luv my power tools! ;)
 
Thanks FTB- I've been following your tobacco-tin set up, also>>>The little sprouts are looking good.

I didn't check on mine for one day......(I know, BAD peppermum!) and today there were 5 sprouts and a hook! Hence the panic to get the lights up.
 
salsalady said:
...At least, I THINK there were 18 seeds?!? Some I couldn't tell if it was a seed or not, so I planted it anyway>>>>

Oh boy...It looks like the USPS has struck again. I don't send crushed or broken seeds so I assume someone along the way beat them up. Hopefully something will sprout from what arrived. A lot of times I send seeds in a bubble envelope but being that it was just the one baggie I figured the index card/greeting card method would work. Sorry about that. Good luck with everything.
 
Josh,

I think the way you sent them is fine, but I have not receieved very many seeds before to know what is a seed, what is normal extra debris, and what is steam-rollered......

I'm pretty sure there were more than 16 legit seeds, and a couple more pieces that were the ones I was trying to figure out if it was a seed or not. Looking at the tiny bits in the package compared to the ones I knew were seeds, the tiny bits added up to MAYBE 1-2 seeds, out of what might have been 20 seeds to start with????

I would definitely say that 90-95% of the seeds arrived in good shape. If one or two got crushed due to the "only powers available", it is the unfortunate price we pay for USPS and a stamp.

Thanks for sharing,



We had a fun day today getting the light frame together and the new seeds in the dirt.


It's all good~
 
salsalady said:
Here's the rough set up. Notice the top of the posts on the left. The store didn't have the pipe connectors I planned on so I had to change the design while in the store and I didn't buy enough 90's. So I stuck a couple screws partway into the bottom of the top piece, hooked the top piece into the upright piece and temporarily secured it with tape.
And with everything in place.
growstuff038.jpg

I bow down the the powertool wielding queen :clap::clap:

the last time i played with a powertool was when we were doing renovations.. mrmel was at golf and i decided i could use the mini jackhammer to remove the remaining tiles on the floor in the kitchen.. ended up forcing a cupboard to fall down from the wall... land on my head and knock out some existing shelves.. havent been near a powertool since then :P
 
This morning we had 10 sprouts and 14 hooks. Will check tonight for a final count before bed. Timer worked perfectly (I'd be in trouble if it didn't!) and it's a cozy 78 F on the table.


Thanks, AJ.
Mel, that is too funny!!! Jackhammering and the cabinet falls down...LOL!

I had to use a Sawzall recently to cut through 4 sheets of 3/4" plywood plus 1/2" sheetrock to retrofit an outlet for a customer. Talk about stressful, trying to wield the reciprocating saw while basically sitting inside a cabinet with conduits and wires right behind were I was cutting.
 
I upgraded the set up a couple days ago and here's the newest picks-

got the last 2 90's on the two uprights, and changed out the fluorescent tubes to 6500K @ $4UDS each. Thought about the 9000K at $10 each.......but didn't think I could get that one past the hubby! lol!

We also (salsakid0.5 and I) got rid of the wire hangers and installed jack chain with hooks top and bottom to raise and lower the lights. Here's a couple of pics in the up position-

growstuff046.jpg


growstuff045.jpg


Edit- We have a couple sprouts with 3 "baby" leaves! Can't remember what y'all call them coty8%*&# leaves. :biggrin:


We have 75 sprouts up right now, but I think I REALLY screwed up! Maybe even to the point of f^*ked up! I planted quite a few new seeds after soaking in 3tsp bleach/1qt water without rinsing the seeds. Are they doomed? :tear::tear:
 
I dont know about the doomed-edness of the bleach seeds.. but your set up is looking great and look!! little chili plants!! yaaay!! :D well done!
 
thanks Mel,

I just hope I didn't murder the douglahs, orange peters, white peruvians and fataliis
:tear::tear::tear:
 
Nova-
I purchased a few seeds from a website that said to soak the seeds for 15-25 minutes in a bleach solution and then ...RINSE UNDER COLD WATER FOR 5 MINUTES......... which I didn't do....which is probably doodoo for the plants:banghead::banghead:


I didn't rinse the bleach solution from the seeds! AAARRRggghhh!





I'm already re-thinking that decision to grow them myself! On the Upside, I did get a call-back from a landscaper who has TONS of pots!
 
Review-
First planting 2/20-
63 bhut jolokia, 108 red savina, trini scorps and (2) 7 pots

Today's sprout count-
11/63 bhut's
94/108 all the others.

of the second planting of 18 douglahs on 2/28, we have 1 sprout
and of the other seeds I bleached and planted on 3/2, there is 1 hook showing.. YYYYAAAAAAYYYYY! I didn't kill all the seeds with the bleach!


Thanks for the offer, Nova, I still have my fingers crossed~~
 
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