PHB's Grow Log 2013: Paris

Looking good. Welcome to the collective.

Week 2 (Day 15 after first germination)

Sprouting Rate :
- 3/10 for the Jolokias
- 9/10 for the Scorpions
- 4/10 for the Brain Strain

I stopped the germination process considering the rest as dead seeds. I think there is definitely something wrong with the Jolokia and 7 pot Brain Strain's seeds I received.

Plants height : 3cm (1.18 inches)

Light : 07:00 - 21:00 (like the real weather here). 20cm (7.8 inches) from the top of the plant.

Temp & Humidity : 24°C (75.2°F) & 54%

Watering & Fertilizers : I didn't water them for a week now. I'm waiting for leaves to go down a little.


Mistakes I've done so far :
- over-watering the first week
- adding fertilizer the first week in a Biobizz All Mix soil (EC = 2,4 & PH = 6,6) which is already fertilized. I don't have any PH meter to check but it must be pretty bad ... I'll not use fertilizers until the 22 or 29 of April

ChangeLog :
- I put the bulb lower, at 20cm (7.8 inches) from the top of the plant. I should put it even lower, but I got some other plants so I can't.
- next watering will be with mineral water (I use mineral water for my Venus flytrap, so I'll do the same for all the other plants)

Roadmap :
- buy/set fan
- buy PH meter
- buy Lux meter


(15 April 2013)


(15 April 2013)

[sub]Very nice! Good luck with your 2013 season.[/sub]

Looking good. Keep an eye on the ungerminated pots/soil. They may surprise you, yet.

Sawyer said:

Looking good. Keep an eye on the ungerminated pots/soil. They may surprise you, yet.

Click to expand...

Yes, I kept the pot in the upper part of the cupboard. I'll maintain the moisture and I'll check everyday if anything happen.

But, something I noticed with plants (most of them) : the first to germinate are usually the "Better, Stronger, Faster".

Week 4 (Day 29 after first germination)

Plants :
- 4/10 for the Bhut Jolokias
- 9/10 for the Trinidad Scorpions Butch T
- 5/10 for the 7 Pod Brain Strain

One 7 Pod Brain Strain & one Bhut Jolokia sprouted very late (2 pots on the right)

Plants height : 4,5cm (1.77 inches).

Light : no changes

Temp & Humidity : no significant changes

Watering & Fertilizers : No fert ! One espresso cup (5 cl/1.66 fl oz) of mineral water during week 3. Two espresso cup of mineral water during week 4 : too much.

Problem & Mistakes this week :
- As you can see on the pics, the newer leaves get more and more bumpy and get deformed. What you can't see on the pic is that the veins of the leaves are getting purple. I think I've a problem of high salinity or calcium deficiency. I spent a lot of time on the web reading scientific reports and a bunch of articles and I still don't know what could be the exact cause. It can be the fert I added which increased the salinity of the soil but I didn't add a lot of it. The fert is also old (3 years old), so maybe it's out of date. Or it can be a calcium deficiency, that's why I changed the water for a 500mg/l Cal hopping it will solve the problem. I know, some people will say they're fine, but imo they're not. First because I've seen a lot of pics of these varieties not having this problem (I've also seen a lot which have this kind of problem) and then because having a deformed leave is not okay for any plant (not more normal than for an animal or a human with his leg or harm imo). Help is more than welcome on this point.
- Jolokia & 7 Pod grow way slower than the Scorpions ...

ChangeLog :
- Switched to another mineral water which contain 549mg/l of Calcium
- No more fert for now
- Set fan from time to time
- Check water fert PH

Roadmap :
- buy Lux meter


(29 April 2013 - the 9 Scorpions are the healthy plants on the left. The rest are the Jolokia and 7 Pod)


(29 April 2013)


(29 April 2013 - Leave suffering : deformed & bumpy. Probably due to salinity of cal deficiency)

Hope you can get your leaf deformation problem ironed out. Your plants still look great though. I like your style of writing. It almost like a scientific journal. Good luck!

Dshlogg said:

Hope you can get your leaf deformation problem ironed out. Your plants still look great though. I like your style of writing. It almost like a scientific journal. Good luck!

Click to expand...

That's a dev habit. It's not very sexy I know, but this way you never forget anything (I've a goldfish memory). The aim of this glog is to improve myself for the next seasons, this way I will probably avoid most of the mistakes I've done in the first place. And it's also made for other of course, if it can be of any help !

Hi all,

This is a special update to my growlog. Usually updates are on Mondays, but I've quite a lot to write, so I do it now and will make a normal post next Monday (you are warned, this is a long post ...)

Two things have changed :
- I repoted my peppers
- I bought a Lux meter

EDIT : THIS POST IS SPLIT IN 2 PARTS. THE SECOND PART FOLLOW THIS ONE

There is nothing special about repot, so I will start with it and then develop the light topic.

1. Repoting

So I thought it was time to repot, because the biggest plants were about the right size. So I repoted everybody in the same sized pots, even the little plants, because here it's like at the Army : everybody eat the same crap.

Pots sizes : L12cm X W12cm X H13cm (12cm = 4.7 inches). They are basic black plastic square shape pots.



I had already 15L of good old fashion heavy Truffaut soil :



so I just bought another bag of Kilomix soil :



and I made a 50/50 mix :


(Truffaut on the left, Kilomix on the right).

Then I mixed both and depoted and repoted all my peppers :










Questions :
- do you think I waited too much or that I repoted too early looking at the roots ?
- looking at the roots, do you think they are healthy ?

- IMO I repoted at the right time, because after reading many articles on AAA (Air Atomized Aeroponic), it's seems that it is a popular belief to wait for the roots to "invade" the whole space. According to some members of Rollitup.org, roots needs a maximum of space and oxygen to grow healthy, so we should never force a congestion.
- IMO the roots look a little too wet according to pics of roots I've seen with aeroponics growers. It seems they are too hairy.

2. Light & Lux

So I bought a Lux meter. It's not just a fancy, it's because I had doubt for a while about my CFL bulb (I was comparing the colour of my hand outside and under the lamp, and it looked identical).

So I checked a few things :

2.1 - The light outside




Today the weather was pretty cloudy, with some sun from time to time. Where I'm located and at the edge of my window I don't have any direct sun. So I had 16 700 lux.



Under my lamp at 1cm from the bulb I had 68 600 lux, but ...



at pot level, right in the middle it's 21 000 lux .................................................... >..<

So I run a lux test for each pots :




Bulb inclined at 19cm & 26cm from top of the pots.



Here are the results (when facing plants).

You clearly see that the spots above 20K are in the middle and the middle-back. If the middle-front only reach 16-17K it's because there is no white wall to reflect the light. So first conclusion : reflection make a huge difference ! (I though it was minor before doing this test).

The worst spots are those on the right, simply because they get the bulb cap as a sea view ... I voluntarily inclined the bulb when I started that season because I knew the bulb cap side would get more light. If you put your bulb horizontally it's a disaster ....

So first I would like to say that I expected more from the bulb, even if I knew it was around 18 000 lumens.

Then, we all know that 20K is the minimum for robust grow (I guess it's generally accepted, otherwise take a look here : http://www.greenmans...s/lighting.html), so here are my option imo :
- set 2 CFL instead of one : I've done it before in that cupboard with a DIY reflector (I throw it away ....). It's a solution. But it will just bring the top of the plant at 20K and won't solve the problem a light penetration and canopy effect.
- buy a 400W/600W HPS/MH : it's seems to me like the best solution. First because I'll get 25K for all the plant at 60cm from top with a 600W, and then because the light penetration is way better. The only drawbacks are that I'll loose 40cm in height, so my maximum height for plants will go from 120cm (47.2") to 100cm (39.3), and that it's not 100% PAR. There is also another major problem which is heat. But it's not a growing tent, my cupboard is not a confined environment and I often let the door half open. I can also reverse my fan to work as an air extractor.



(It's not my graph. Comes from cannaweed.com, the French equivalent of rollitup.org)

It also made me realise that there is no point of growing inside if the weather is a little bit sunny. As you can see, when it's cloudy it easily reach 16K and I hardly reach 20K inside. So when the sun will seriously come (hopefully very soon), I'll put everybody outside and save energy.


What do you think of all this ? What should I do ?

I dunno if it works for you but I have a 400W HPS that was $110 (USD) and keeps a closet your size lit amazingly. I don't have the numbers to confirm your graph, but from my personal experience topping and using that lamp have gotten me really stout, thick stemmed plants. Also don't worry about purple stems, it happens to virtually all chinenses.

SciurusDoomus said:

I dunno if it works for you but I have a 400W HPS that was $110 (USD) and keeps a closet your size lit amazingly. I don't have the numbers to confirm your graph, but from my personal experience topping and using that lamp have gotten me really stout, thick stemmed plants. Also don't worry about purple stems, it happens to virtually all chinenses.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your answer SciurusDoomus ! You're one of the few who took time to give their opinion on my glog and I thank you for that !

What you're saying is what I was thinking about : buying a 400W HPS/MH. But I think I will first go to my local growshop to check if the graph I got from Canaweed is true or not (and also check the heat ... maybe you have any tips on this ?). Because it would seriously piss me off to buy a new bulb and not having the results I expected (basically I want to reach 25K for each pot).

I'm also considering the DIY LED option. There is a very good thread on THP about it : http://thehotpepper.com/topic/26527-diy-led-fixture/

I wouldn't do LED. If you're going to eat electricity, you might as well get your lumens in return. LEDs as I hear don't have as good of a lumen to watt output. But that's just what I've heard. LEDs also don't throw any heat at all so that's nice. I dunno about the heat issue with HPS. If you look back at my thread, I mentioned that my plants are at about 31C all the time. That's much cooler than in India, so I don't think that's a problem for at least Bhut Jolokias. I could be wrong though. I also have a fan blowing for as long as the light is on, that might be accelerating transpiration and making my leaves curl. All in all, you should have no trouble with a 400W HPS as long as you have good air circulation and a stable watering sched.

Also, I suggest HPS over MH because HPS throws heat and peppers like heat. It helps to stress the plants and, from what I hear, it gets you better yields.

Welcome to THP Pierre, and very nice grow! Everything is looking great.

I maintain two gardens also, one at my place of work and and one at my home, about 30 miles apart. I really wish I could have only one garden, but I have much more space at work....

I noticed on another glog that you mentioned your problem with clay soil, something I am very familiar with in both my gardens...In the last few years I've been amending with plenty of chipped hardwood, something I learned from the excellent work of Gilles Lemieux and his team at Laval University. It really changed the way I think about soil in particular, and agriculture in general. A revelation...

The first few minutes of this video show the construction of my tall clay-and-wood-chips beds...Don't feel like I need you to watch the whole thing, but the production on the Bonda Man Jacques plants tell a nice story:

SciurusDoomus said:

I wouldn't do LED. If you're going to eat electricity, you might as well get your lumens in return. LEDs as I hear don't have as good of a lumen to watt output. But that's just what I've heard. LEDs also don't throw any heat at all so that's nice. I dunno about the heat issue with HPS. If you look back at my thread, I mentioned that my plants are at about 31C all the time. That's much cooler than in India, so I don't think that's a problem for at least Bhut Jolokias. I could be wrong though. I also have a fan blowing for as long as the light is on, that might be accelerating transpiration and making my leaves curl. All in all, you should have no trouble with a 400W HPS as long as you have good air circulation and a stable watering sched.

Also, I suggest HPS over MH because HPS throws heat and peppers like heat. It helps to stress the plants and, from what I hear, it gets you better yields.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply. I think I'll go for HPS for next season then

windchicken said:

Welcome to THP Pierre, and very nice grow! Everything is looking great.

I maintain two gardens also, one at my place of work and and one at my home, about 30 miles apart. I really wish I could have only one garden, but I have much more space at work....

I noticed on another glog that you mentioned your problem with clay soil, something I am very familiar with in both my gardens...In the last few years I've been amending with plenty of chipped hardwood, something I learned from the excellent work of Gilles Lemieux and his team at Laval University. It really changed the way I think about soil in particular, and agriculture in general. A revelation...

The first few minutes of this video show the construction of my tall clay-and-wood-chips beds...Don't feel like I need you to watch the whole thing, but the production on the Bonda Man Jacques plants tell a nice story:

Click to expand...

I watched you video : you have some amazing plants growing amazing bunches of pods ! I will make mine watch your video, this way they will have a model to follow.

I downloaded your doc, I'll read it this morning.

continued from Helldozer's thread

First time planting in the ground (2nd year growing) Issues


Pierre, thanks so much for reading that paper....If you're studying Lemieux, it doesn't matter whether or not you look at that particular publication....Every time a gardener reads Lemieux the Earth gets a huge grin on her face...

If the trees on your place (I'm jealous of your 5 acres, by the way!) are hardwoods, I think it would be worthwhile to invest in a wood chipper. If your Dad is a gardener, you two could split the cost...

That coffee machine caught my eye for sure...When my wife and I got married back in '96 the first thing we bought was a good espresso machine...That one last about 4 years, then my brother bought us a nice La Pavoni lever machine. Gorgeous industrial art...Maybe I can find a picture of it not dirty.... Also, for Christmas our daughter gave us those very same stacking cups and saucers with the stand, except in white...

After reading more about BRF, here is what I think I will do in September :
- cut the dead maple trees in the garden (it will make me sweat ...)
- keep all the branches and put them in a wood chipper. I don't know if I will buy one or rent one. Because I guess I will need a thermal engine wood chipper to cut the branches and it's quite expensive (wood chipper which cut branches up to 5cm diameter cost 900&euro; ...)
- make a 3cm mattress of BRF in my father's vegetable garden (or in mine, if can negotiate some space with my father to grow my plants ... he's very greedy about space even if our garden is quite large...)
- wait a couple of years from what I've read.

But I think I won't do it just for those trees ! We always have a bunch of dead branches falling I could use to make BRF !

What's your experience with BRF ? You made it out of your garden trees ? How long did you wait until it "became a proper soil" for cultivation ?

Your La Pavoni lever machine is beautiful ! That's a real espresso machine ! I'm jealous !

Hey bud! Your plants are looking really healthy man. Do you have a fan in the grow?

Everything you mentioned sounds like a good plan...I buy bagged hardwood chips at the local "big box" home and garden store, also at Wal-Mart. More expensive that making it myself, but I like the convenience...As you say, wood chippers are very expensive, so it may be a while longer before I invest in one...

The fallen branches are ideal...That's what the forest uses when it builds soil. I think you will be real happy with the outcome.

You can actually plant vegetables in the wood-chip-amended ground right away, if you add a little fertilizer to counteract the effects of nitrogen tie-up. I use a little Osmocote 14-14-14, which are timed-released pellets...Then I watch the plants closely for signs of either over-fertilizing or nitrogen starvation...

I couldn't believe it when my brother gave me that La Pavoni...He's a generous guy, and he loves good coffee.