U)<now's 2016/2017 Indoor/Outdoor Glog

U)<now · Mar 15, 2017

Hey all,

My new growth is definitely greener than the older growth. However, I think they ran out of food quicker than I planned for in those little tray cells and the organic seed starter mix. They have been potted up to solo cups for a couple weeks now in the organic pro-mix and started to grow a lot more and the new growth looked great, likely in part to the fresh mix having fresh ferts. My jalapeños exploded in growth and are 3x the size they were 2 or 3 weeks ago, but now are turning really yellow and dropping leaves. I think they need fertilizer so I got some basic miracle gro plant food, 24-8-16 and gave them half teaspoon per gallon of water with tonight's watering. I fertilized my two OW plants in the 1 gal pots once or twice a few weeks ago and they took off, then I stopped and now they slowed down again, so I think it's what they've been missing all this time. These organic mixes just don't feed more than a couple weeks from what I can tell.

I looked at my old grow log pics from 2013, 2012 and 2010 back when I used the same lights, same water, but used miracle gro potting mix with ferts in it and my plants were huge and healthy at this same time of the year and I never had to fertilize til they went out side. Since lights and water were the same, the only variable is the potting mix used, and the main difference there is the amount of ferts in the mix. So I'm betting they are hungry.

I also raised my lights quite a bit as the new growth on the Reapers and Reaper crosses is turning purple again. So lights are now at 14" off the table, which is about 7 to 8 inches above the plant tops.

My replacement seeds from THSC came in. They did not have Douglah's in stock though, so they sent 7 Pod Brown instead. I got those all sowed tonight. That is the last of the sowing for me for peppers since it's about as late in the season as I can start here. With that, I updated my grow/germ list also.

Anyways, here's some update pics :-)

Took them out of the tent for better pics, you can see how yellow the older growth was compared to the newer growth...

The big fella here is a Yellow Scorpion CARDI. For whatever reason, he's loving life and chugging along.

The Mutant Hab... still doing its thing!

Panorama pic of the whole family!

Updated list. Updated quantities and dates of the varieties I had to re-sow today...

Thanks for stopping by!

U)<now · Mar 25, 2017

Hey everyone, update time!

So it's been about 10 days. It looks like the ferts were exactly what the doctor ordered and likely saved my season, along with a few other easy changes. I think I had multiple issues and mistakes all happening at the same time. Hopefully I can help others learn from my mistakes this season. Thank you all for your help and suggestions as well!!!

Issue number 1 - (Likely the biggest one) was not potting up to solo cups soon enough with my first batch, and they ran out of nutes in the organic mix in the seed cells which is where my yellowing started. This was my first season using organic mix. I waited until they had about 3 to 4 sets of true leaves, which was apparently way too long. It may have been ok had I given them some extremely light nutes. I knew something was going wrong as I said in my previous posts, but wasn't quite sure, so I waited rather than panick and risk burning them.

Issue 1.5 - I should have added perlite to the mix as I knew it looked like it needed it. I added 1/3rd perlite to my mix for the second batch. I believe this will help quite a bit.

Before and after adding 1/3rd perlite...

Issue number 2 - Because I left them in the cells too long, I broke up the root balls a bit when potting up, and maybe I was a bit too aggressive. With them already being stressed, this may have stunted them even worse, they basically didn't grow at all for 3 weeks after potting up.

With my second batch of seedlings, I potted them up a week or so ago, which was as soon as the first set of true leaves was about a half inch long and they haven't skipped a beat, in fact, some from the second batch are almost caught up to my first batch now, which are 3 to 4 weeks older, pretty crazy! I have not given them any ferts yet either.

Since they were really small and didn't have hardly any roots yet, it was tricky to get them out of the cells, but it also meant I didn't disturb the roots hardly at all since they had barely reached the edge/bottom of the cells. They key was turning the cells upside-down in my left hand, using fingers to keep them in the cells, and putting 2 plant stems between my right hand fingers and letting 2 at a time slide out of their cells upside-down into my hand, then just dropping them into their new homes. Also helps if you water the day before so the soil holds together, too dry and it crumbles, too wet and it falls apart, since there are barely any roots yet.

Issue number 3 - No fan for air circulation originally, that was fixed early on though and helped correct my leaf curl. It also has made the stocks on most nice and woody already.

Issue number 4 - Having my lights way too close. I was keeping these 2850 lumen T8's at about 3 inches above the plants. I moved them up to be 7 to 8 inches above the plant tops now and plants are still staying nice and stocky with the new growth.

Issue number 5 - I think I had overwatered a bit initially after potting them up. I bottom water and was giving them 2 quarts (64oz) of water per 10x20 tray with 15 plants in each tray, about 4oz per plant. I think with them being stunted and not growing very much, they did not need that much water at the time. I now give them 1 to 2 quarts depending on how dry they are and they've been doing great. I still let them get pretty dry before watering and mostly only bottom water.

Here are 2 comparison pics, 10 days apart.

The first is from 10 days ago which is 3 weeks or so after being potted up...

The second is from today, 10 days later after getting some nutes and raising the lights...

Here are my keepers. I have well over 200 plants total now (not keepers) and really need to give some more away, I've already given away about 50, lol. Only my prospective keepers are in the tent, still 6 of each except a few that didn't have at least 6 germinate. I need to narrow this down to 3 of each at most. My non keeper/spares are on my work bench under some old T12 lights for now.

6 Reaper from Butch T, 6 Reaper from THSC and 3 BTR

6 T. Scorp Butch T, 3 BTR and 6 Fidalga Preto

3 Orange Hab, 6 Chocolate Primo Reaper and 6 Purple Naga Viper (Notice the mutant... more pics on that in a sec)

6 T. Scorp Yellow CARDI, 6 Borg 9, 2 T. S. Moruga and 1 Barrackpore 7 pod

6 Orange Fatali's, 1 Chocolate Hab, 2 Bhuts and 6 Aji Pineapples

6 BBG7, 6 CP115, and 3 Sweet Banana

3 Bhuts, 6 Cayenne and 6 Blue Christmas

And here is the Mutant Hab, still doing well and trying to put out pods like crazy at 2 inches tall...

Good root growth on a couple of the Jalapeños...

My OW Orange Hab is flowering, I need to start picking buds again...

I hit them with the Jobes 3-1-2 today, half strength.

My non-keeper spares and tomatoes...

I think that's about it, as always, thanks for stopping by!! :fire:

Blitz527 · Mar 25, 2017

Looking very good. Those purple nagas are gorgeous.

Bhuter · Mar 25, 2017

^ I agree. Those Purple Naga Vipers have such a deep color. I love it! All of your plants look healthy and happy. You know what you're doing. Great job up north!

-Adam

U)<now · Mar 25, 2017

Blitz527 said:
Looking very good. Those purple nagas are gorgeous.

Thank you, Blitz. I love them also and so far they have done better than most of my other varieties through all the issues I had.

Bhuter said:
^ I agree. Those Purple Naga Vipers have such a deep color. I love it! All of your plants look healthy and happy. You know what you're doing. Great job up north!

-Adam

Thank you, Adam. They are an instant favorite for me. Hopefully I can keep my season on track now until plant out in late May or early June.

U)<now · Mar 25, 2017

I must have reached a limit for Images or length of post as that last image I was trying to post wouldn't post from tapatalk or Imgur... Here it is

My 2 OW plants (BTR and an Orange Hab) as well as 3 Sweet bells, 6Jalapeños, 3 more Orange Habs and 2 spare/late reapers...

U)<now · Mar 27, 2017

Updated my Germ Rate/Grow list today.

New sprouts from that batch of replacement seeds I was sent. Got at least one of everything so far, so I'm pretty happy about that, especially with it being so late in the season for starting new seeds. The BT scorps I only planted 2 seeds since I have some from Butch already, so I just did 2 to fill empty spots I had in the tray. So if they don't germ, no big deal. Still no Chocolate Bhuts though, I was really looking forward to those, but I'll let them sit for a few more weeks yet. Hopefully I get at least one of those.

7 Pod BrainStrain ------ 2
7 Pod Brown ------------ 6
7 Pod Jonah Yellow -- 2
7 Pod Barrackpore --- 1
Moruga Scorp ---------- 4
THSC Choco Scorp -- 3

moruga welder · Mar 27, 2017

all is looking really good ! :party:

OCD Chilehead · Mar 27, 2017

Plants are looking healthy.

Mine are a little stagnant after transplant. I think they will rebound soon.

U)<now · Mar 27, 2017

Thanks guys! Hopefully they stay this way now :-D

U)<now · Apr 5, 2017

Well, time for an update! It's been 8 or 9 days.

I have all of my keepers picked and potted up to the 1 gallon pots. 28 varieties (out of 31 varieties sowed), 2 of each except Chocolate Hab, only got one of those, for 55 keepers total.

Got skunked on the 7 Pod Douglahs, and same so far on the Chocolate Bhut Jolokias.

Growth slowed again and some more yellowing starting again, same exact problem as last time. I think I need to hit them with another dose of ferts, since that fixed the issue last time. I need to get them on a regular fert schedule, I'm just affraid to burn them. A few smaller spares got burned a bit last time, but the bigger ones in the tent all took it fine. I was planning on every 10 days, (about every 3rd watering) but by the looks of things, I may have to go to every other watering which should be about once per week or so. Some were starting to get a bit rootbound so potting up will help also I'm sure. I forgot to mix in ferts and watered them with straight water this time though, so I'll hit em next time.

A little experiment with my late starters, skipped the solo cups and potted them straight to the 1 gal pots, like I was asking about a while back. Gave them less water since they are smaller. If they do well, I'll probably just pick my keepers right away and skip the solo cups next year.

Also hung my fans from my lights with some wire so they are higher up and also won't fall over onto my plants (happened once already...).

This is my big T.S. Scorp CARDI that was doing awesome. It was a bit rootbound and I may have let them dry out too much last time but hes getting yellowing leaves again. Hard to see in the pic, but it's kind of blotchy yellowing. Dark areas are purple from lights being too close prior to this. The other CARDI is doing good still. so I think it just needed to be potted up sooner or fed more ferts sooner.

New fan "mounts" lol...

Pic from my NetCam I have in the tent. I mainly have it in there to watch the temp/humidity sensor, which was not in place for this pic.

Spares plus tomatoes and my two OW plants from last summer, the BTR and Orange Hab... way too many spares!!!

More Spares...

Ended up at about a 71% germ rate (not including the batch of 100 or so duds from first round)

Bhuter · Apr 5, 2017

Everything is looking great! Very uniform! I don't do solo cups myself. I germinate my seeds in paper towels, then plant them in 3 inch pots where they stay until plant out. I've noticed they do better and grow faster that way as opposed to going from cells to cups to pots. That's just my experience. You've got spares of spares! Keep up what you're doing up in da U.P. Lol. You're gonna have a killer harvest(s).

-Adam

U)<now · Apr 5, 2017

Bhuter said:
Everything is looking great! Very uniform! I don't do solo cups myself. I germinate my seeds in paper towels, then plant them in 3 inch pots where they stay until plant out. I've noticed they do better and grow faster that way as opposed to going from cells to cups to pots. That's just my experience. You've got spares of spares! Keep up what you're doing up in da U.P. Lol. You're gonna have a killer harvest(s).

-Adam

Thanks Adam! They are doing pretty good. Wish they were that nice dark green though, like my seasons in the past.

I'm just not used to having to fertilize with using this organic soil. I need to get the hang of when and how much and get it on a regular schedule.

U)<now · Apr 5, 2017

Check out this difference....

Both Blue Christmas, both sowed on the same day and sprouted with in a day or two of each other. Both potted up to solo cups at the same time. The one in the one gal was just potted up 2 days ago, so that's not a factor at this point.

The difference... the bigger one has been inside the grow tent in 84f temps with better T8 lighting, fans and has been fed once with MG and once with Jobes, while the smaller one has been on my work bench in 60f temps and old T12 fixtures and no feeding.

Eximius · Apr 6, 2017

Wow, what a great looking grow! How's the mutant hab doing? Did you let it set pods or pinch it back? That thing is way cool... I'm very jealous!

U)<now · Apr 6, 2017

Eximius said:
Wow, what a great looking grow! How's the mutant hab doing? Did you let it set pods or pinch it back? That thing is way cool... I'm very jealous!

Thanks! The mutant hab is still alive and well. I figured it would drop the buds before they even opened, but it didn't. They actually started opening up about 2 days ago. I'll get some more pics today after work before I pinch them off.

U)<now · Apr 6, 2017

I thought of a better example of grow tent plant vs. work bench plant this morning.

Here is another example of the growth difference... but this time, with an Aji Pineapple and NO FERTS have been given to either one of these plants yet. So again, seed sowed same day, potted up to solo cups same day, and the larger one just went into the 1 gal pot 3 days ago. Just the warmer air temps, better lighting and better airflow inside my homemade grow tent work that much better.

Temps inside the tent get up to 84f with the door cracked about 2 inches. It's hit 91f on accident and was still rising, with the door fully closed. I try to keep it around 82f to 84f. Temps drop to around 61f at night when the lights go out.

Also notice, my second and third batches of plants look so much healthier, (like this Aji) without any ferts yet... I think that's because I potted them up so much sooner. I think the start of all my issues was simply not potting up soon enough. Like I said, next year I'll likely skip the solo cup stage entirely for my keepers and go straight from seed cells to the 1 gal pots.

U)<now · Apr 6, 2017

Eximius said:
Wow, what a great looking grow! How's the mutant hab doing? Did you let it set pods or pinch it back? That thing is way cool... I'm very jealous!

So, here is the mutant hab. It is dropping most flowers, and the super weird thing I just noticed... some flowers have petals, and some don't... I'm not sure if It'll even produce. I'll grow it out regardless though.

(Btw, tapatalk's new update for Android 7.0 is terrible... you can't add text in between pics anymore. It let's you add pics to the post, but they're in like a separate part of the post. So for any labeling of pics, I have to upload from my phone (easier and faster than using imgur or the like) and then jump on my PC and edit the post. It does show you thumbnails of the pics now before you post, which is nice, but still a PITA for labeling pics.)

Eximius · Apr 6, 2017

Bizarre indeed! Those flowers are wild. I would really like to get some seeds from this when you decide to let it set fruit (if it's able to produce). Seems like the the perfect candidate for my Oddball Genetics Program if you feel like sharing!

U)<now · Apr 6, 2017

Eximius said:
Bizarre indeed! Those flowers are wild. I would really like to get some seeds from this when you decide to let it set fruit (if it's able to produce). Seems like the the perfect candidate for my Oddball Genetics Program if you feel like sharing!

I'll definitely share seeds for it. I might even try to cross a few things with it this year if all goes well.