Megamoo's 2012/2013 Glog

Volrathy · Jun 4, 2012

photos of the garden beds and the garage

gasificada · Jun 4, 2012

Daaamn, moo... you be going all out this season! :onfire:

(And yeah, we want pics, ya bum!

)

Trippa · Jun 4, 2012

Mooving along nicely already

Mezo · Jun 4, 2012

Just a small list then? :rolleyes:

Yep pics is what the audience wants Moo.

Mezo.

mygrassisblue · Jun 4, 2012

Hi Bro' Look forward to watching the grow ! Danny

megamoo · Jun 5, 2012

Ok here are some pictures of the potential chilli growing areas around my house.
This is a large rasied garden bed.

I ripped out this overgrown thing, not an easy task and found there was an old pond underneath.

Had to pull out all the stones and the pond itself. Used the large stones in another smaller raised garden bed to stop the soil pushing against the neighbours fence.

In the smaller beds I put some beetroot and carrot and broad bean seedlings. Of course only until my youngest decided to give them a rake. Put up the shadecloth fence as an anti child device.

Grabbed some mulch from a pile that was just sitting by the side of the road on parkland waiting to be taken and spread it on the bed. Not just as mulch but as a growing medium. Read an article on RWC that says its great for plants so thought I'd give it a go.

Around the house there is a winding path that will have enough sun in summer for chilli plants in pots to thrive.

I have more photos to post but because this forum merges consecutive posts and has a ten photo limit per post going to have wait until someone replies. Unless anyone can tell me a way around this? I could register another imaginary person just to reply but that seems like a lot of work. Sure there is another way ??? admins?

People must have a legitimate need to post more than ten photos (of pods for example) at a time.

Sanarda · Jun 5, 2012

That bed looks great

USMC8411 · Jun 5, 2012

Great pics mega

megamoo · Jun 5, 2012

I can see this pathway lined wih chilli pots.

Next to the large bed is a long narrow wall where I can stick a line of plants. They will get full sun all day here so need to keep them well watered.

There are quite a few ledges that the plants can sit on.

Lots of room along this path for pots.

There is also a large covered area by the back gate.

This window gets afternoon sun and I could even build a temporary enclosure to make it a greenhouse!

Greenhouse isn't really necessary because we have a mild winter here. I will probably stick a shelf under the window, and my winter plants will like it.

There is another separate rose garden out the front with plenty of room for some chilli plants in pots too. So my long seed list has enough room to grow.

gasificada · Jun 5, 2012

Go, moo moo! Heaps of growing room for ya there!

Can't wait to see this progress, brother......

(I want beds around my perimeter.... :snooty:

)

megamoo · Jun 5, 2012

These are my light stations. This one is smaller but puts out a lot of light.

I managed to hook up the wrong adapter to the fans and burnt them out

I'm not using this one yet, its for growing the seedlings on and slowing them down a bit. I have another array with five bulbs closer together that I'm going to swap out with one of these.

I went a bit hard with the ferts on these first seedlings, they are going to need a flush and a repot soon and ill ease up.

Trippa · Jun 5, 2012

plenty of room there bro . Best of luck with the rest of the preparation works and the subsequent germination of all your seeds

megamoo · Jun 28, 2012

Thanks for everyone's comments.

I've been changing things up since the last post. The weather here has recently turned real cold and the temps in the garage dropped. The whole reason behind starting seeds indoors during winter is to escape the unfavourable growing conditions. There's no point doing it in a cold indoor room.

So I moved the first light station into the laundry and turned it into a hydro seed factory

Yes that is a wall made out of nappy boxes. I should mention that the cost of this hydro setup is virtually zero as I already had most of the equipment. I only bought a plastic garbage bin as a reservoir and also the flood and drain fittings. I could have made do with what I have and used a crap load of silicone but this was easier.

The reservoir isn't there yet but the seeds have only just started to sprout after a week.

In a 288 cell tray there are 144 jalapeno seeds and 144 bhut jolokia seeds that I saved from pods. I put them in coco coir and I'm not sure about how this will go with the flood and drain, I'm worried it will clog the pump so I might install a fine screen. Obviously I don't want 288 mature plants of only 2 varieties. This is a test run to dial in the nutes and lighting and fan cycles. It's all a big experiment but isn't that what gardening is about anyway.

When these plants are ready to be potted up, (if I haven't killed them all!) I'll stick some in the garden bed and some in soil pots in the covered outside area. The best ones will go into the trial run for the next stage flood and drain in the garage. I'm hoping it will be warmer than 2 degrees by then

Once the seed station is emptied and all the bugs ironed out, the next round of seeds will be many varieties from the list in post #1.

This experiment has the potential to turn out freakin awesome!!! :onfire:

or a total disaster :cry:

Either way there is plenty of season left to find out.

My other soil starts have been languishing in the cold garage and growing slowly. I managed to get hold of some worm juice and it has helped them recover from the early nute overload. If I get time this weekend they will be potted up to plastic cups.

megamoo · Jun 30, 2012

I did the pot up tonight. After photo....

I went to the trouble of separating the roots of the strongest seedlings in each pot and giving them their own plastic cup. I also rinsed the roots and put them into a 50/50 mix of coco and perlite. It's nice and airy but doesn't contain any nutrients at all, so I'm going to have be right on top of the feeding regime.

megamoo · Jul 3, 2012

A progress picture. Half of the tray containing the jalapenos sprouted first as you would expect and the bhuts are just coming up now.

Still haven't set the flood and drain timer but have finally gotten all the water levels and leaks sorted out. So its all ready to go.

I planted 27 different varieties of seeds on first of July

Bih Jolokia
Habanero Red
Dorset Naga
Trinidad 7Pot Jonah
Wasp
Pimenta Di Bicco
Magnum Habanero
Trinidad Perfume
Beni Highlands
Congo Trinidad
Trinidad Scorpion
Limo Blanco
Datil
Peruvian White Habanero
Habanero Peach
Fatalii
Bhut Jolokia x Habanero White Giant
Datil x Lemon
Bhut Jolokia x Pimenta De Neyde
Yellow 7Pot
Aribibi Gusano
Trinidad Scorpion Butch T
Habanero Big Sun
Pimenta De Neyde
Aji Panca
Mystery Pepper
Scotch Bonnet TFM

With the possible exception of Mystery Pepper

all of them are chinenses which apparently take longer to grow so I started them first.

megamoo · Jul 7, 2012

Finally got the right drain level and reservoir plumbing set up, and everything is now running on timers. My old ppm truncheon died on me and I'm waiting on a new one in the mail, as well as a reliable pH meter. At this stage they are only getting really dilute nutes so it shouldn't be a problem.

Not many Bhut Jolokias have sprouted compared to the Jalapenos at the back half of the tray, but I saved the seeds myself and they didn't look the best to start with.
Not sure what this is about but the seed leaves are stretching upwards?? I'm going to have to figure it out because this is a test before my good seeds go in.

Trippa · Jul 7, 2012

Going all out there Mega!! What nutes are you planning to use in your hydro??

megamoo · Jul 8, 2012

I'm using the hy-gen growth formula right now. The NPK is 26:11:36 it's just for veg because they will be going outside for flowering. These testers will probably all be going into soil and not given too much special attention after that..... but if I get a good looking bhut jolokia I might put it into an aeroponic system outside and try to grow some chunky pods. For flowering I can use the chilli focus.

I'm currently brewing a plan in my brain about setting up a line of plants in a gravity fed run to waste system. I'm trying to figure out how to set it so I don't have to tend to it every single day.

megamoo · Jul 15, 2012

From the seeds planted of first of July I have some sprouts. This is extra long for me to get even chinenses to sprout but I haven't been using a heat mat. I've just had them on a shelf over the computer and other electrical things and it tends to go warm in the day and cold after I've gone to bed and turned it all off. Over half have popped up and the heat mat is now free so I'll use it for the rest.
These are now under lights.

Megamoo's 2012/2013 Glog

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