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overwintering Winter-Summer in OZ "Comparison" / Aussie Blabberers

Who will win?

  • A muppet

    Votes: 20 34.5%
  • A muppet

    Votes: 15 25.9%
  • A muppet

    Votes: 23 39.7%

  • Total voters
    58
:cry: Poor beer mega. I thought it was bad having to sacrifice a lil bit of hamburger pattie to the mousetrap. Got the bastard tho.

@ new guy your seedlings look great but as JR said watch that water!
 
Do chilli's enjoy Caffeine as much as i do, i see loads of people put coffee grounds on the soil but would my chillies "trinidad scorpions" appreciate this ?
 
Do chilli's enjoy Caffeine as much as i do, i see loads of people put coffee grounds on the soil but would my chillies "trinidad scorpions" appreciate this ?


Coffee grounds need to be broken down (fresh have no beneficial effects until they start breaking down) in a compost to have any beneficial effect on soil (usually for 3-6 months) and make available nitrogen for the plants.

Also keep in mind that they actually use nitrogen while they break down so need extra nitrogen added to aid the plant and help the breakdown of the grounds (the same as most organic un-composted ferts, hence why they often promote the use of compost accelerator which helps with this breakdown).

They are also meant to be great for attracting earthworms as a bonus and keeping compost piles at a higher temperature.
 
Good luck with the new soil/cups Mega ... hope all those issues are behind you now ...

Thanks Trippa, they have been completely absorbing my attention for the last few weeks. Want to get my growing methods sorted before the weather warms up and sail into summer full of chilli pods.
 
Was it you mega who had the problem of leaves going purple?
Checked back in the thread and yes it was.

I've had no end of dramas since I've used lighting.
Previously with no artifical light, everything looked good.

Now I've got leaves going purple, dark dark purple especially on the czech black and jalapenos. (edit: refering to the Cotyledon leaves going purple/black here on the top, the under side of the cotyledon leaves are green)

I've been watering a fair bit because the light and the heat from the light dries my seedlings out. They really are bone dry nearly every day.
Also now what hasn't got purple cotyledons and has some true leaves are now yellowing from either over watering (doubt it because the soil is pretty dry, will crumble to nothing and the roots of the seedlings aren't deep).
Maybe some other problem, like the light made them start growing but everything went to crap for some other reason than too hot/too dry/too wet? Definitely not too cold, as they have a lot of heat from the lighting. I have made the lights sit higher up to reduce heat, but not a lot of response from the seedlings over the past week, more went black/purple seedling leaves, more yellowed. There's one with a white withered edge to it's leaves like it's sunburnt. I just ripped one other out as all it's leaves were dropping or drooping about to drop so it looked a goner, but it was fine before put under any artificial light, and it's roots looked OK.

Seedlings aren't doing well at all, just as well they were old ones I didn't care about. As such they were just in 60mm small round pots and regular potting mix. I think I had given them a bit of seasol and that's all.
Growing under lights is hard, really easy to dry them out, really easy to over water them, burn them etc. If these don't recover (going to sacrifice a few to let them wilt to the point they need water which by then a few will be dead), I'm just going to wait until warm weather outside before I grow my new chillies from new seed.
 
Can you guys suggest the most efficient ways of adjusting the pH balance, and also, if the pH balance is too far at one end at the spectrum will the flowers not pollinate - out of curiosity.
 
Pablo I am fairly certain that the purpling in my case was sunburn, (or lightburn) and heat. My theory is that some varieties are more susceptible to sunburn than others. These are the purple/black varieties, and they only need a small amount of light to turn purple. In the same sort of way that fair people burn easily.

Last summer with plants I had out in daylight, I had some purple lines running from the leaves down the stems and I was told this was sunburn and nothing to be too worried about.

When my seedlings turned purple this time I had the plants very close to the lights and lots of tubes lit. Since I have moved them further away, added a fan for cooling and air circulation, stopped watering so often, and had less tubes on the purpling has stopped completely. (except for the purple varieties)

It may have something to do with the fluorescent lights as well. HID light setups seem to produce very fat green leaves. I don't know anything about the difference in technical terms like lumens and frequency etc.. but I'm sure someone does and that it's a factor.

What type of lighting setup do you have? It could be any combination of things causing the purple leaves and you have to examine all the variables and tweak them until you get better results. Gardening is about trial and error and gaining experience.
 
Can you guys suggest the most efficient ways of adjusting the pH balance, and also, if the pH balance is too far at one end at the spectrum will the flowers not pollinate - out of curiosity.

Like Raelacea said Lime is common. Have you done a test?

If the pH is too far out then the nutrients that are present will become unavailable to the plant and it will starve, its called nutrient lockout.
 
Yeah I agree, that's why I was just throwing some seeds in dirt over winter, to learn and experiment.
Seedlings went under 2 x 30W CFLs in a small foil lined box (box ~400mm x 280mm - the size of a normal propagator base), old plants and hopefully these current seedling survivors (to make way for the new important seedlings from my THSC), are going under a 600W MH lamp.
So my set up is seedlings in 50-60mm pots under the two CFLs until they have 4 true sets of leaves, then repotted into a 100mm square pot and moved under the MH lamp, so the pot and the space can be used for a newer seedling.
 
Kruzin80-
Can I ask how much the Naga plant was? Was it burnt when you bought it?

Pablo-
I don't know the technical lighting names but are those CFL's bulbs? I use fluorescent tubes, one blue and one red. I have never had my seedlings burn from them.
 
I've been watering a fair bit because the light and the heat from the light dries my seedlings out. They really are bone dry nearly every day.
What growing medium are you using? They shouldn't really be bone dry EVERY day, unless you've got the house/room heater and a fan running full blast every day.
 
Kruzin80-
Can I ask how much the Naga plant was? Was it burnt when you bought it?

Pablo-
I don't know the technical lighting names but are those CFL's bulbs? I use fluorescent tubes, one blue and one red. I have never had my seedlings burn from them.
Yeah CFls are the regular bulbs, don't have room for tubes, and the CFLs put out a bit of heat, which I need anyway.

What growing medium are you using? They shouldn't really be bone dry EVERY day, unless you've got the house/room heater and a fan running full blast every day.
Just seed raising mix in small pots.
I guess it's too much heat from the lights. They are enclosed in a small foil lined box with two 24W fluoro bulbs. There is ventilation but maybe not enough.
Maybe I need to just put one CFL in there, build another box and put the other light in a new box and run two light boxes, or get a bigger box for two lights.
I need more room anyway.
http://www.thehotpepper.com/topic/21897-winter-in-oz-comparison/page__view__findpost__p__482387
 
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