Shurb's 2013 Glog - First season growing from seed

Hi guys,
 
Another Aussie here over in crappy Canberra. Thought I'd join in on the glogs and see how it goes.
 
So, after growing peppers for the first time last year from seedlings acquired from a local nursery, I decided to give it a shot growing from seed.
 
I think I got off to a late start for this season, but I really had no Idea until I found this forum a couple of weeks ago.
That's okay, lessons learned and all that jazz.
 
My seeds were sown on the 9th of September, except for the Birds Eye's (I'm yet to find out exactly what they are as I got the seeds from some pods on an old plant that was in the garden of my new house), they were sown on the 29th of September.
 
They were put into a propogator without a heat mat. They had sold out of the one I wanted, and being new at it, wanted to see how it went before I threw more cash at it.
 
Anyway, the varieties sown are:
 
Bell Pepper
Jalapeno
Orange Habanero - I suspect it may actually be yellow though as the few pods I got from it last year didn't turn orange
Unknown Birds Eye type
 
The Bell Pepper and Jalapeno took about 14 days or less to sprout and the Hab followed suit approximately a week later.
The Birds Eyes took a week.
 
After browsing this forum and seeing all the different suggestions etc, I've taken the lone Habanero, a Jalapeno and a Birds Eye and put them under a desk lamp with an energy saving lamp in there on a timer for 18 hours.
I have a heater going in the room, because today only got to 10 degrees celsius... in mid spring, which is weird for Canberra.
 
I also set up my laptop cooling pad to use as a light breeze.
 
 

 
Left: Habanero
Right: Jalapeno
Back: Birds Eye
 

 
These are the rest of the one's that I had that survived being eaten by my cats... Although the Jalapeno on the right got attacked the other day due to my negligence.
These get to sit next to a window and get morning sun.
 
3 Birds Eye at the front, 3 Bell Pepper at the back left, and 5 Jalapeno on the right, but I'd say that's 4 now...
 
They're in foam cups as they outgrew the propogator, and I'd seen someone on here do it. Plus I had a heap of them in the cupboard
 
We had a run of a few 30C days this week, and then it dropped down to 10C today, so I hope the one's under the light take off and start to develop more in the coming weeks. It's been really slow going since sprouting
 
I guess I'll do an update in a few days.
 
Cheers,
 
Shurb

 

[gasificada]

A little bit leggy but they look like really healthy babies, mate. I wouldn't worry about them being a bit slow right now... no doubt they will take off like rockets when the weather improves. In the meantime, just keep giving them as much light as you can. Have you started putting them outside yet on the warm, sunny days?

 

[Shurbryn]

Yeah I realise now that they're pretty leggy lol. That's good to hear that they look healthy
 
Yep all last week they were outside, except for the breezy days. They were out in a slight breeze the other day, but I had my wife keep an eye on them for me. They ended up making it to about 6 hours on the last day they were out before the rain and wind showed up.

 

[Shurbryn]

Another day of cold and rain... Meant to get to a top of 12C, woo-bloody-hoo...
 
Where's my sun, Canberra?

 

[gasificada]

It's a bit cloudy here too today so I can't offer you any of our sun, but can I interest you in some heat and humidity?? Not bad today but last night was disgusting! I may as well have went and rolled in some sort of slime before I hit the sack. Not quite sure why I would do that but that's what I felt like I'd done! Come on, you know you want some... it'll be good for germination.

 

[Shurbryn]

Hahaha yes I know that feeling 
 
I set up a heater in the room that I have the light setup in, hopefully that helps them a bit

 

[Shurbryn]

So, it looks like I'm getting a little bit of growth despite the colder weather. Bring on the heat I say!
 
I also found the macro mode on my phone's camera, so yay for close ups!
 
All 3 under the light.

 
The hab with its new growth. Internodal length looks pretty good yeah?

 
I think this might actually be a Tabasco and not a Thai Chili. Will have to wait and see when pods appear.

 
Leggy Jalapeno, but I think being under the light now is going to help out until the sun decides to come out.

 
 
It's been a few days since watering, so just gave them a light spray. Yay for learning new things!

 

[Shurbryn]

A couple of sunny days in a row. Had my plants out in shaded sun from around 6:30am (c'mon, it's Monday and I hadn't had coffee yet...) and they came in at around 7pm and went back under lights.
Going to try a nice long day again tomorrow.

 

[Shurbryn]

28C yesterday and they were outside for well over 12 hours.
Doing the same today. Meant to be around 29C. 
 
With a low of 12C overnight. I'm thinking I might try and leave them go overnight and see how they deal.

 

[Shurbryn]

So, change of plans...
 
Turns out they got hit by too much sun today and started to wilt. My wife is going to give them a good soak and bring them inside for the rest of the day.
 
I hope I haven't killed too many of them off
 

 

[Shurbryn]

Looks like they ended up worse than I thought.
2 Tabasco(maybe) died
and another 1 or 2 in trouble.
A couple of Jalapenos in trouble.
The Habanero has made it through okay though.

Anyway, pic updates:
 
Habanero - It dropped a seed leaf and a second leaf from the heat.

 
Birds Eye, Thai or Tabasco - I'm not sure. Has damage from the sun at the base. I think it's doomed.

 
The base of a Jalapeno which I think is a goner =\

Oh well, lessons learned...

 

[Shurbryn]

So I decided to go visit the stock at Masters today and grabbed a few plants.
 

 
Trinidad Scorpion Butch T

 
Trinidad Scorpion Cardi Yellow

 
Naga Bhut Jolokia Yellow

 
Habanero Chocolate

 
All 4 were the best looking of the lot. 1 thing I question is some of the leaves on the Bhut and Habanero.
Should I just let them drop the damaged leaves, or snip them?
Here's some close ups.
 

 
Any tips on what I should do to keep them going the best way possible?

 

[Shurbryn]

Time for an update.
 
Habanero Orange:

 
From left to right: Trinidad Scorpion Butch T, Naga Bhut Jolokia Yellow, Trinidad Scorpion Cardi Yellow, Habanero Chocolate

 
In the 2 days while I was away, another sprout appeared. Birds eye of some sort. Hopefully this one thrives and goes well into production so I can finally identify it.

 
Jalapeño

 
Starting to see some nice growth now that the weather has sorted itself out.

 

[gasificada]

The stem damage looks like damping off. It does look like you keep a pretty dry shop, though, so I dunno. What potting mix are you using? I've only ever seen damping off once and I'm sure it was the potting mix I was using. In my case, my soil was dry too.
 
Aaah good old Plan B, hey? haha Not to worry... I ended up going and buying a Fatalii a few weeks back. I have so much trouble with the bloody Fatalii! I've only ever once got a producing plant going. It doesn't matter where I source my seeds, it always goes all funny on me.

 

[Shurbryn]

Nah, the stems were from too much direct hot sun. I had moved them slightly from where they were and just after that, had a killed day in the low 30s. Killed off half of my plants because of it =\
The soil I got was an Osmocote seed raising mix
 
Haha yeah needed a Plan B to make sure I could at least hopefully get some pods this year.
 
Using all of this as a learning experience for next year. At least sprouting seeds seems to go alright for me hahaha.

 

[Shurbryn]

Germinated a Habanero Red! Woohoo!

 

[geeme]

Shur......
 
Stems: I've never seen sun damage like that, only from damping off. I'm not saying it can't be, but I've had my share of leaving plants out too soon for too long, and nothing I've done that to has looked like that at the base of the stems. It's been more like the whole plant went into shock and wilted, never just the base. Because of that, I'm leaning towards damping off.
 
Next thing that makes me think it's likely damping off is that you have signs of over-watering. The yellowing in particular is most commonly caused by overwatering. Also looks a tad in some like the beginnings of fertilizer burn. Your plants are too young to take full-strength fertilizer of any sort, even if it came with the soil or mix you have them in.
 
It's easy to see this one is too young to have any sort of fertilizer. Since I don't entirely know what's in the cup besides bits of bark, I'll just say you might consider repotting with starter mix if there are any nutrients in there.

 
If your larger plants (small, but larger than the one above) are in anything with nutes, I recommend you repot them, too. Even with repotting, I'd suggest you consider using plain water for the next several waterings, to flush out any excess nutes the plants have already taken up. Again, I don't know for sure that fert burn is going on, but something that closely mimics it is. Keep in mind fert burn can be caused by foliar feeding, as well, so stop that if you're using any for a while. When you do return to fertilizing, make sure to only use 1/4 strength and not every watering.  

PS _ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fileinus_taeda_seedling_damping_off_%28cropped%29.jpg
That's a photo from an article on wikipedia about damping off. Note in looking at the uprooted plant from right to left - fat stem to the right followed by constricted stem to the left.

 

[Shurbryn]

Shur......
 
Stems: I've never seen sun damage like that, only from damping off. I'm not saying it can't be, but I've had my share of leaving plants out too soon for too long, and nothing I've done that to has looked like that at the base of the stems. It's been more like the whole plant went into shock and wilted, never just the base. Because of that, I'm leaning towards damping off.
 
Next thing that makes me think it's likely damping off is that you have signs of over-watering. The yellowing in particular is most commonly caused by overwatering. Also looks a tad in some like the beginnings of fertilizer burn. Your plants are too young to take full-strength fertilizer of any sort, even if it came with the soil or mix you have them in.
 
It's easy to see this one is too young to have any sort of fertilizer. Since I don't entirely know what's in the cup besides bits of bark, I'll just say you might consider repotting with starter mix if there are any nutrients in there.
 
 
If your larger plants (small, but larger than the one above) are in anything with nutes, I recommend you repot them, too. Even with repotting, I'd suggest you consider using plain water for the next several waterings, to flush out any excess nutes the plants have already taken up. Again, I don't know for sure that fert burn is going on, but something that closely mimics it is. Keep in mind fert burn can be caused by foliar feeding, as well, so stop that if you're using any for a while. When you do return to fertilizing, make sure to only use 1/4 strength and not every watering.  

PS _ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fileinus_taeda_seedling_damping_off_%28cropped%29.jpg
That's a photo from an article on wikipedia about damping off. Note in looking at the uprooted plant from right to left - fat stem to the right followed by constricted stem to the left.

 
 
Thanks for the info G. Those ones with the yellowed off leaves were from a nursery. They've made a decent comeback and the only thing I've given them was some Seasol a couple weeks ago. Have just given them plain water since. Pics to come
 
Yeah, I'd say it was probably damping off too, but it was only at the top of the soil. When I scraped some of the soil away, it was like a normal stem on the other side. Weird. Oh well, lesson learned.
 
That small one is in starter mix, I don't think it was good quality mix, hence the large bits in there and it's only had plain water. Some of these pics have been taken just after doing a water. I've been trying pretty hard from the beginning not to water too much heh. And before I came across THP, I think I was watering less than I could have anyway haha.
 
 

Sooooo, it turns out that the pics I took earlier when It was still light outside just upped and disappeared
 
Anyway, I'll get some fresh ones in the morning.
 
I repotted my Jalapeño and Orange Habanero this afternoon and boy were their root balls filling the cups!
 
Here's a pic of all I've got.
The Jalapeño is on the far left and the Orange Habanero on the far right. This and the Unknown in the white cup are what I've grown from seed. The rest are from a nursery. (I kept the tags from last year)

 
Jalapeño

 
Orange Habanero

 
The one in the white cup, I'm unsure of what type it is exactly. It's been outside since it sprouted and it's going well. New shoots showing already. I've kept it well shaded but I'm sure it's getting its fair share of sun during the morning.
 
Next season I am prepared to start well earlier hehe.

 

[geeme]

 
 
Thanks for the info G. Those ones with the yellowed off leaves were from a nursery. They've made a decent comeback and the only thing I've given them was some Seasol a couple weeks ago. Have just given them plain water since. Pics to come
 
Yeah, I'd say it was probably damping off too, but it was only at the top of the soil. When I scraped some of the soil away, it was like a normal stem on the other side. Weird. Oh well, lesson learned.
 
That small one is in starter mix, I don't think it was good quality mix, hence the large bits in there and it's only had plain water. Some of these pics have been taken just after doing a water. I've been trying pretty hard from the beginning not to water too much heh. And before I came across THP, I think I was watering less than I could have anyway haha.

Nice glow effect on the tags you have going there...
 
There are a handful of pathogens that cause damping off, and each has different characteristics. Some attack beneath the soil, while others only at the soil line. So yes, still damping off. Glad to hear the yellowing came from the nursery - they do look better with the newer growth. I wish you a highly successful season!

 

[Shurbryn]

Hehe yeah, I was annoyed at the loss of the pics I took when It was still daylight, but the glow is cool I suppose lol.
 
Thanks G