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Ausmith's Indoor Glog - First Harvest. Jamaican Red Hot, Dutch Yellow, Jalapeno, Cayenne

Howdy all,

First post. Day one!! Germination commenced on July 27, 2012 at 19:00 UTC +1.

The goal with this project is to grow peppers year round indoors. Probably do some herbs, onions, and tomatoes as well, if I have some beginners luck. I want to be eating fresh pico de gallo in January.

So here's to the weekend and day 1. Cheers.

I'll post some pictures over the weekend. Right now my better half is nagging that we should go for a swim.


** Oh I've got Cayenne, Jalapeno, Caribbean Red, Dutch Yellow, Habanero, Apache, Basil, Cilantro going.
 
Let me be the first to :welcome: you to the glogosphere!
Good growing to you, Ausmith!
 
Quick update. Today is day 2, not much has happened on the plant front. Germination in progress.

Spent half of Saturday framing out the growing tent. I started with a $15 China made rack greenhouse. I just wanted the rack, the plastic is in the recycle bin. Add some furring strips and elbow grease, plus a single emergency blanket with staples.... and there you have it. Will finish it up this week with a black plastic drop-cloth cover, door, and the electronics.

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Plan to run 3 CFL plus an LED array for light, and 2 incandescent for temperature control. Total system will be about 225 watt. Exhaust fan on the top with a loose bottom for a little airflow.

Want to get an update or two in this coming week if time permits.

Hope you all had a nice weekend.

Cheers

**Edit - pictures working!
 
Awesome. IMG codes work for pix!

Hey Kenosha! I lived in Milwaukee off and on for 20 years. Raced many Tuesday nights at the Washington Park bowl.

So, I tagged my images but I guess it didn't like the host. Do the images have to be uploaded here on the gallery, or will typical image hosts work? At a loss here, and I have pix to post :(
 
Images are working now for me, w00t!

Here's the germ box. I've added a few things since. Here's the list thus far:
Caribbean Red
Jalapeno
Cayenne
Apache
Basil
Koriander (cilantro)

Finishing off the grow tent/box today I hope. Vacation starts on Friday, hoping to have some spout action by mid-August.

Cheers
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Hi Ausmith
I think I used the same frame for my grow tent this spring. I kept the plastic though, and used aluminized bubble wrap insulation duct taped to the frame and pulled the plastic over all.
 
OKAY!!! Time for an update. Been a busy week with work and such...

Day 5 I guess. We've got some sprouts :) Jalapeno and Cayenne have pushed through the surface! Pics and an update on germination and such tomorrow or Friday.

I have the tent about 80% finished. Pics below. Still need to clean up some electrical and button up a few odds and ends. I'm testing it out right now, letting the thing run for a bit before I consider it a success. Seems like there won't be much of a need for incandesent to add heat. Although it is a warm day here we easily ran up to 85 F using just 3 CFL and the LED array. It's in my workshop in the basement.

Until the next update...
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Howdy all,

First post. Day one!! Germination commenced on July 27, 2012 at 19:00 UTC +1.

The goal with this project is to grow peppers year round indoors. Probably do some herbs, onions, and tomatoes as well, if I have some beginners luck. I want to be eating fresh pico de gallo in January.

So here's to the weekend and day 1. Cheers.

I'll post some pictures over the weekend. Right now my better half is nagging that we should go for a swim.


** Oh I've got Cayenne, Jalapeno, and Caribbean Red going.

Better to start today than tomorrow... is it hard to find those plants for sale where you are?
 
@Spicegeist - Most Germans can't handle hot food, so there isn't much demand for pepper plants, pepper seeds, or even fully grown peppers. This is one of the main reasons I am growing my own. I made my wife (native German) just lick a mild Dutch Yellow pepper and she freaked out and was drinking milk for half an hour. That was funny...
 
Okay, finally an update I've been waiting to make.... Today I got up at 4:00am, worked until 10:00, cleaned the house, packed up, and headed out for a 2 week vacation at 1:00pm. Our summer vacation this year is a two week stint at the family weekend house in the Odenwald. The plan is just to chill out, cook a lot every day, and enjoy the peace and quiet of this beautiful area. A few pictures of the set-up... and yes that hut looking thing is the grill !!!!


I brought my seedlings with me so I could give them some love.
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Now, update on the peppers!!! I started the following:
6x Caribbean Red
6x Jalapeno
6x Cayenne
3x Basil
3x Cilantro
3x Apache

Here's the germination as of today
Caribbean Red = 6/6
Jalapeno = 6/6
Cayenne = 3/6
Basil = 3/3
Apache = 3/3
Cilantro = 2/3 (but looks like it will push through)

**Also working some wheat grass (easy)

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AND!!! This isn't the only thing we are growing on this vacation. Today we picked up Chester Adonis von Zweibrücken, we will call him Chester. This is my 4th Boston Terrier. We lost Jackson, our last Boston, in a tragic accident May this year. Today was a very special day for us. Tonight is one night past a full moon, so we're going to do some star gazing as well. I'm sure I'll have time for some updates the next couple of weeks.

Wishing everybody a great weekend!

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Nice looking summer "cabin" Ausmith. I'm officially jealous of your grill hut. It looks like you could roast a whole pig in there. Enjoy
 
Vacation is so nice!!! Spent a bunch of time in the kitchen yesterday, more on that at the end of this update.

So the final germination is what I listed above. Everything is doing well except for the Cayenne. Only had 50% germination and only 2 of the 3 seedlings look good. Here are some pictures.

First up is the Cayenne. You can see the really small one, doubt he's going to make it.
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Moving on to the Caribbean Red. These started pretty slow and I wasn't sure, but looks like they are getting a good foothold. One still has the seed stuck on the top.
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Here are the Apache. I started these a few days after the others, so they have a little catching up to do.
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Jalapeno are doing the best. I transplanted 2 of them because I was bored and they were looking leggy. Since I'm on vacation I don't have my grow tent, so I've been keeping a good eye on everything with a mix of direct and indirect sun.
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Here's my wheat grass crop. Use it for making breakfast juice.
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And finally some tasty stuff. I canned up some "fire pickles", pepperoncini, and made some hot sauce. I had a bit extra hot sauce, so we're going to use it for chicken wings on the grill today for lunch.
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Okay... so we are at day 13. I'm on vacation and brought the seedlings with me thinking I could care for them as well as my grow tent could. Well the weather was pretty crappy the first couple of days, cold and wet. Not great for seedlings.

I was bored anyway so I made a trip to the home improvement store to pick up some supplies. I ended up making a small CFL powered grow box for about 50 Euro. The lights aren't that great (13w, 4000k) but they were: a) cheap b) didn't require any extra electrical work c) were the right size for my box d) I can use them in my tent when I am done here. I also needed a plastic tote, so I can put that to good use and use it as a portable grow box when needed. I used an old cardboard box, emergency blanket, and spray glue to make the reflectors - they turned out sweet for the effort and $$ put in. The plants were looking better right away

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So 13 days in we've got our second leaves sprouting out. The jalapeno are doing the best, the Cayenne the worst. Caribbean Red doing well, and so are the Apache I sowed a few days after the first batch. I also started 12 more inlcuding Habs, more Jalapeno, some Organic Red thing, and Dutch Yellow. The first Hab poked it's head through today only 2.5 days after been dropped in the peat pellet.
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Questions for you pros.... I was bored a few days ago and transplanted two of the Jalapeno seedlings into plastic cups with some run-of-the-mill potting mix. After these few days they are clearly bigger (leaves and height) than the others still in the peat pot starters. Can the bigger potting area make that much of a difference this early on?

Thanks much for any replies.

Couple additional pics - have been using a blanket to cover/uncover the handle holes. This does a great job of regulating the temps.

Outside is about 72 and cloudy.

In the box we've got a nice 85 and very sunny (no clouds, I'm sure of it)

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Questions for you pros.... I was bored a few days ago and transplanted two of the Jalapeno seedlings into plastic cups with some run-of-the-mill potting mix. After these few days they are clearly bigger (leaves and height) than the others still in the peat pot starters. Can the bigger potting area make that much of a difference this early on?

Thanks much for any replies.
Hi Clayton
Nice job on the grow box. If you're not going to grow hydroponically and use a nutrient-rich solution to feed your plants, I think the more room you give them to grow roots the better. That's a tough one if you're going to grow inside full-time. I'd be interested to see what your answer to that one is. That could be a factor to the increased growth you noted. It could also be that the potting soil is having an effect too. All-peat mixes tend to be somewhat acidic and inhibit growth to some extent. The potting soil mix is probably somewhat less acidic and might have some fertilizer added too. It might be interesting to check the ph in the two growing mediums .
 
Thanks Rick.

Not sure if it is the soil or the extra room to grow. The PH on the potting mix is 6.1 per the bag. I filled the peat pots with a different starter mix, don't have the bag handy.

Tomorrow I am going to do a little experimenting. I'll transplant a few of the smaller ones into cups and see what happens after a few days. I'd also like to try a really diluted tomato fert solution on a couple and see what happens.

I'm looking into a an HPS system for my tent... They are pretty easy to come by here and not that expensive (150 Euro). Figure we'll pot up in a 5 gallon and see how it goes. I can always build a specific size tent this fall, would give me a good fall/winter project to focus on.

For sure I'll be moving a few of these outdoors next year, but I would like to keep a few permanently in the tent.

I'm busy now cooking some mean green sauce, and we're going to fire the grill up in an hour or so.

Cheers!
 
Great topic man.
I have a frame just like that from a temp greenhouse i bought last year. Now i think im going to do the same for the over wintering of some of my plants.

Thanks again for some good info.

edit: and very cool summer place.
 
Been busy on vacation here.... I transplanted all of my seedlings into cups yesterday. Pretty interesting to find that most seedlings were pushing roots out the bottom of the peat pots or pellets.
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After the transplant everyone was looking pretty happy. Today I noticed that the first, and biggest of my seedlings and the first I transplanted, really wasn't showing any progress. I have been somewhat stingy with the water because all of the "over watering root rot nasty" that I read about here, but I had a hunch that this guy was thirsty. I poured 100ml down the cup. It drained well through the soil. A few hours after being in the light box, he was noticeably looking much better.

So, I decided to pull everyone out and do some watering and experimentation. I took 4 various plants, those ones that don't look the best from each variety, and gave them a drink of 50ml 50% diluted 3-1-5 tomato fert. If I loose 'em it won't be a bad thing, make some more room for the other seedlings germinating right now.

Curious to see how they look in the morning.

On a side note, I am now germinating 3 habs from peppers I got at the organic market, 3 red ??? chili's from the same place, and 3 more Jalapeno from seed stock. The habs broke through in record time and have already been transplanted into cups... they are little madmen for sure!!!
 
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