Shanes 2010 Grow Log and Photo's

sadams · Mar 22, 2010

Here are a few photo's.

The germination and before "potting-up" grow table:

Some of the plants in the 72 cell tray:

Shane

sadams · Mar 22, 2010

Continued from above...

Some of the plants in the 12 cell tray:

A close-up of one of the babies, this one is a Serrano

sadams · Mar 22, 2010

A little about my set-up:

The tables are from Home Depot, and are pretty heavy duty. They were not too expensive, and should last me several years. These are primarily for germination, and pre-potting up. I have another, larger flat table that I plan to put the plants on once they are moved to 16 oz. cups.

The lights are standard, cheapo 4ft shop lights, from home Depot, and Lowes. I am using two fixtures per shelf, which seems to cover the Jiffy germination trays pretty good.

The top two fixtures have 2 bulbs each, I set each of them up with a 6500K bulb, and a 3000K bulb. Both of the bulbs in these fixtures are Phillips brand. The 3000K is pretty redish looking, while the 6500K is very blue looking.

The bottom fixtures are set with one 6500K and one 3000K each also.

The temperature seems to run about 90 on the top shelf, and about 85 on the bottom shelf with the lights on, and the emergency blankets over the top of the stand. I have a timer set up to run the lights for 18 hours, then cut them off for 6 hours, and the cycle will continue like that. I am keeping the lights within about an inch of the plants, an effort to make sure they dont get long and leggy. I also plan to apply a small fan within the next week or so to start strengthening the stem.

As for growing medium, I am sure you can tell I am using the peat pellets in the Jiffy Greenhouse. They seem to be working fairly good right now, and I plan to pot-up to 16 oz. cups after the the young plants get a good set of true leaves. I have yet to decide what kind of soil I will be using when I do pot-up, Ill be researching that very soon...

Shane

jjs7741 · Mar 22, 2010

Looking good so far, but I gotta warn you, this starting from seeds thing is quite addictive. I hope you have a great year!

jacob

Matt50680 · Mar 22, 2010

Shane, it looks like you have done your homework well and are good at retaining info!

You are on the right forum for growing peppers, tons of knowledge here and lots of activity as well. May I suggest you stay away from Miracle Grow? Personally I find it a rip off due to all the twigs, sticks and bark they throw in. Yeah it has fertilizer in it, but I can control that myself with better stuff. Try looking at Lowes, Home Depot or Menards (if you have them in your area) for ProMix potting soils or see if you can find Fertilome (my personal favorite, costs a little more but is working great for me).

When you do go to pot up, snip the gauze off the Jiffy pucks, it can restrict root growth, it will peel right off easily. Also, bury the seedlings a little deep, almost or upto the first leaves, they are going to die anyways. Peppers, like tomatoes and some other plants, will grow roots out the stems to improve the root ball.

jjs7741 said:
Looking good so far, but I gotta warn you, this starting from seeds thing is quite addictive. I hope you have a great year!

jacob

Amen to that brother!!! I went from a few plants last year to TONS of plants this year and will have to kill some off due to lack of other local interest in hot peppers. Also I cant till up the whole yard (or so I have been informed by the landlord, my dad), but I would like to. LOL

Great start and keep us updated...

ultravista · Mar 22, 2010

Aren't the 6500K blue while the 3000K are red? I must be color blind ...

Matt50680 · Mar 22, 2010

I am using GE Day-light bulbs, they are 3050 lumens each, not sure on the color rating, but they are working good and you can get them 2 for $6 at Lowes

sadams · Mar 23, 2010

Absolutely correct ultravista, Ill rewrite that at lunch, I already had the 6500K bulbs, and I was thinking they were the reddish ones for some reason, but they are the blue ones (40t12/dx), you are correct.

patrick · Mar 23, 2010

Welcome to the wonderful world of growing chilli's and the absolute best site on the web for doing it sadams. Looks like you've done your homework, things are looking good. I see you're a two seed per peat pod guy, what's the plan for the extra plant?

Best of luck to you and I'm looking forward to watching you work.

sadams · Mar 23, 2010

@Jacob
I got a little taste of it last year when I did a quick test to see if I could....it was very late season when I started a few seeds, but they actually made it to having small peppers.....and it is addictive as can be. I just want to plant some of everything I can find lol.

@Matt
I did a fair amount of research, that is for sure. I really want to make these little peppers be as prosperous as can be. Of course, most, if not all my research has been right here on these forum pages. The search button is extremely handy...

Thanks for the advice on the soil. I will see if I can locate ProMix potting soils and Fertilome. We have Home Depot and Lowes (they are in different towns and about 35 miles apart, but I am right in the middle of the two), but no Menards.

@Patrick
Thanks Patrick, I am hoping to make these little boogers happy til late fall...

. As for the "extra" plant, I was planning to pinch one of the two over the next week. Honestly, I planted two per pellet because the Jiffy Greenhouse directions indicated to plant 2 to 3 per pellet. Is there a way to salvage the extras? I was planning to pinch because I didnt think there would be a way to safely extract one of the two.

Shane

Noshownate · Mar 23, 2010

sadams said:
The germination and before "potting-up" grow table:

Shane

I really like your potting up / germinmation table. is that mylar behind it?
you seem to be doing all the right things shane keep it up

sadams · Mar 23, 2010

Hey Noshownate, what you see behind it is an emergency blanket from Wal-mart, it is very reflective and indeed may be made of mylar...its very thin. I use it to cover the entire table top and sides to help hold the heat in. I have the ends mostly open though for air flow.

Matt50680 · Mar 23, 2010

sadams said:
Is there a way to salvage the extras?

At this point in their lives, yes you should be able to seperate them with a fair amount of ease, just be very careful ton to rip the taproot off. If you cut the gauze on the pucks, the peat inside can be carefully crumbled. Get your pot ups, whatever you use, (the 9 ounce Solo red beer keg cups work great and will allow the plants to get fairly big before potting up again), fill them with your grow mix and use a chopstick to make a hole in the cente. Tease the tap root down into the hole and fill around it carefully, water them and you should have 2 plants from each now.

If you use the Solo cups, make sure you bore/drill a hole in the bottom, about 1/2" diameter is what I did and it works great. You can fit 11 of them on a 9x11 disposable cake pan, Walmart score, 3 for 2 bucks! I would recommend you bottom water them, just pour the water in the cake pan and let the grow mix suck it up. I normally pour about 3/8 an inch of water in the pans. After 10 minutes or so if its not all gone, carefully remove the excess.

Noshownate · Mar 24, 2010

I will have to check out the price of one of those!

sadams · Mar 28, 2010

Update Time:

I did the first pot-up today. All total, I have 216 seeds/plants in pellets.....some have germinated, some have not. Today, I started potting up the plants that have true leaves forming. I decided to go with the 9 oz cups, with a 5/8" hole drilled in the bottom for drainage. I used a Jungle Growth Pro Growers Mix purchased from Lowes, the bag said that it wouldn't burn seedlings or cuttings, and that was the best thing I could find locally, so I went for it. It seems ok so far, we will see how it does after a few times watering the plants. If it doesn't work good, next year I will go with something else...lol. I will say this though, last year we used Jungle Growth Professional Mix on or container plants and they did awesome...better than I had anticipated, so maybe this Growers Mix will do good for my seedlings.

Anyway, I did photograph all of them, but here is one batch that I did photograph. biker Billy on the left, Cubanelle on the right.

Shane

Maligator · Mar 28, 2010

Nice work! I really enjoy following everyones growlogs. I learn alot from them.

sadams · Mar 29, 2010

I agree Maligator, I learn tons as well...good resource for sure.

sadams · Mar 29, 2010

Added a few more varieties to my grow list above...that's it for me, no more seed planting.....

Til next year that is.

sadams · Mar 31, 2010

Another quick update:

Plants growing really nice now...see attached pictures.

Day 10 of life for these Biker Billy plants (also pictured above in pot-up picture):

Day 9 of life for these Quadrato D'Asti Rosso: