Pac_Heat507's 2013 Grow Log

I would bet that the one on the right is the local mix soil, but at the same time I don't see the "white balls" in the local soil package.

Do you know what those "white balls" are ? I got exactly the same thing in the BioBizz All Mix soil nad I don't know what they are ...

PHB said:

I would bet that the one on the right is the local mix soil, but at the same time I don't see the "white balls" in the local soil package.

Do you know what those "white balls" are ? I got exactly the same thing in the BioBizz All Mix soil nad I don't know what they are ...

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Yeah thats some perlite I mixed in, srry I forgot to mention that before!

Okay, the "white balls" in my soil are not perlite, they look like polyester but they aren't.

Your plants look awesome by the way !

Those are nice size pots for the plants. The Fatalii looks like a beast.......nice, that plant will produce well.
Are you growing indoors ? If so which direction are the plants facing...

PIC 1 said:

Those are nice size pots for the plants. The Fatalii looks like a beast.......nice, that plant will produce well.
Are you growing indoors ? If so which direction are the plants facing...

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thanks. I think they are at least 5 gallon pots.

the fatalii, douglah, and scotch bonnets are growing very well here. These plants were never indoors, they were even germinated in trays outdoors, on my balcony. I suspect that this is part of the reason they are growing so robust. the balcony faces west with a corner peeking to the south so I gathered the plants in that spot in the beginning. once I transplanted them there was not enough space in the south peeking spot so I lined them up towards the west/sw. Keep in mind that the UV index here near the equator is "extreme" and the humidity is AT LEAST 60% every day so the plants get a lot of energy.

I will try and post some pics of my grow area as well as some more pics of nice plant.



Thanks for all of your comments guys!

They all look great, thanks for sharing and great luck in 2013 grow. But probably like me you grow year round and beyond so keep dem going ^_^

I think Greg (Pic 1) asked about indoors because of the 5th picture makes it look that way, but when I looked in the upper left corner I noticed the railing, thus your balcony railing wall so to speak is glass. I have seen similar in other Caribbean & central American buildings, very beautiful place you have

Hello folks,

Its been a while since my last glog entry. I was a bit tied up with some issues that required my full time so kind of forgot about the peppers for a while. In that time somethings have changed..... some good some not so good. Some plants are thriving and some are even bearing quite some fruit. I've been picking some green pepperoncini peppers, that is a very good plant. Here are some picks





the fatalii and scoth bonnets are also thriving, flowering as well. I expect to get good harvests from them







some of my plants have been growing weird. The new growth comes out curled and small. Because i have an extended season, I am cutting them back to try to save them while at the same time making them stronger.

Here are a few plants that have this leaf problem that I have been cutting back.





new growth is exploding from this one but I think that the leaves are still not good.





this one on the other hand is doing swell.

Atomic starfish



I've given the plants a regular strength dose of cal mag since i have seen some purple stems that I read somewhere that it might be lack of magnesium but other than that, I am not going to give the plants anything but water since my problem is either over fert or too much heat.

Of course, your comments are always welcome and thanks for looking!

WalkGood said:

They all look great, thanks for sharing and great luck in 2013 grow. But probably like me you grow year round and beyond so keep dem going ^_^

I think Greg (Pic 1) asked about indoors because of the 5th picture makes it look that way, but when I looked in the upper left corner I noticed the railing, thus your balcony railing wall so to speak is glass. I have seen similar in other Caribbean & central American buildings, very beautiful place you have

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Thank you! It is indeed the railing of my balcony, and makes for a nice view.

Saludos!

Beautiful plants bro! Can't wait to see how the atomic starfish pods turn out. Someone needs to breed a coffee brown variety and call it chocolate starfish haha.

Nice grow doing well in the heat!

The weird new growth you have is from Broad mites. Regular spraying every three to five days with soap under the leaves will control them. I use Murphy's oil soap at about 2 tsp in a quart spray bottle with decent results. Spray only in the early am or early evening to avoid stressing the plants.

PHB said:

Okay, the "white balls" in my soil are not perlite, they look like polyester but they aren't.

Your plants look awesome by the way !

Click to expand...

The "white balls" that look like polystyrene are, and are sometimes called Aerolite. It is often used in orchid mixes.

http://www.repotme.c...a/Aerolite.html

Broad mites are alittle more difficult to treat than spider mites. They effect the plant internally. Once you can overcome the situation before it spreads the new growth on the plants will appear normal. Do the spray as mentioned above regularly. Oils work better than soaps with this issue.

thegreenman said:

Nice grow doing well in the heat!

The weird new growth you have is from Broad mites. Regular spraying every three to five days with soap under the leaves will control them. I use Murphy's oil soap at about 2 tsp in a quart spray bottle with decent results. Spray only in the early am or early evening to avoid stressing the plants.



The "white balls" that look like polystyrene are, and are sometimes called Aerolite. It is often used in orchid mixes.

http://www.repotme.c...a/Aerolite.html

Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply! How about neem oil instead of the soap? (as i already have neem oil).

I also have bonide orchard spray but hope it doesnt come to that. I was thinking it was more of a "in the soil" type thing, even though I have mosquito dunks in my cans.

As for the white balls. definetly perlite. I bought a bag of MG perlite to mix in with the local soil in order to aerate it some.

Thanks!

PIC 1 said:

Broad mites are alittle more difficult to treat than spider mites. They effect the plant internally. Once you can overcome the situation before it spreads the new growth on the plants will appear normal. Do the spray as mentioned above regularly. Oils work better than soaps with this issue.

Click to expand...

so, neem or bonide orchard spray? what do you suggest

how about if I hit them with the bonide and a few days after start treating them with the neem? I want to eradicate them before they spread further

thegreenman said:

Nice grow doing well in the heat!

The weird new growth you have is from Broad mites. Regular spraying every three to five days with soap under the leaves will control them. I use Murphy's oil soap at about 2 tsp in a quart spray bottle with decent results. Spray only in the early am or early evening to avoid stressing the plants.



The "white balls" that look like polystyrene are, and are sometimes called Aerolite. It is often used in orchid mixes.

http://www.repotme.c...a/Aerolite.html

Click to expand...

Yep you're right, I got confused.

PIC 1 said:

Broad mites are alittle more difficult to treat than spider mites. They effect the plant internally. Once you can overcome the situation before it spreads the new growth on the plants will appear normal. Do the spray as mentioned above regularly. Oils work better than soaps with this issue.

Click to expand...

I've had the opposite results, I tried Neem oil for a few months with almost no results, but the soaps worked almost immediately. YMMV.

You may try alternating soaps with oils. That may be the best option, but be extra careful applying oils in high heat and sunlight as they will cook your plants...

guys do you think it would be best if I toss the plants that are damaged? I have some very strong and nice plants about to strart producing and dont want to risk them.
Like the ones pictured above with the leaf damage. should I toss the ones in that state.?

I'm tossing them out. Not about to take chances ruining my other healthy plants. Even though I will be left with aprox half the plants I started out with, I'm happy to keep just the strongest ones.

Started some new seed though, (couldn't resist myself)

Turns out I had a thrips problem with my plants. THanks a lot to THP members for your help on that.
 
I decided to toss the ones that got the worst of it and keep the best plants. HEre are some of the ones I kept.
Scotch Bonnet. Starting to set some fruit. Overall I think that the plants dropped a lot of flowers due to the intense heat sometimes.
 

 
Fatalii, I have a few of them and they are by far the biggest pepper plants I have but they have been dropping almost all their flowers. I hope that its because of the heat and nothing else. The plants are huge and I hope to get a good yield out of them.
 

 
Here are some of the nicer plants that I decided to keep. 
 

 
One of the plants has something weird going on in the stem. I hope its nothing major. (I somehow know its something major for some reason)
 

 
Does that look normal? is it just betting bark or something?
 
Same plant here:
 

 
See the purple spots on the stem?
 
 
 
 
Anyhooo.. couldnt resist myself and started a few more
 

 
 
New mex Big JIm
 
Garden Salsa Hybrid
 
Hawaiian Sweet Hot
 
Trinidad Seasoning
 
Trinidad Scorpion CARDI
 
White Bhut Jolokia
 
 
As always, thanks for looking

Recently I had to throw out all my plants. They were not ding well at all. I had a thrip and mite infestation I could not control and to top it off, in my attempt to save the plants from the bugs I burned them with neem, etc... I admit it was my first run at it and I made a lot of mistakes. I also think I took on more plants than I could handle.
 
So I decided to clear out my grow area aka the balcony, sanitize it real good and started fresh with the lessons learned from last time.
 
1- Soil.
I tried a lot of different things. MG, MG moisture control, local soil mixed with perlite, etc. each one had a different problem, be it bugs or compacting. they didnt work for me. 
 
2- Container
I waited too long to pot up from solo cups and not only did they tip over frequently, they were severly root bound. 
 
3- Fertilizer.
I tried everything. MG neptunes, nectar for the gods, superthrive. Needless to say I ended up with stunted plants.
 
4- Insect control.
Used neem and bonideorchard spray with some succes but could not completely eradicate the problem. Peppers were deformed and premature in most cases. Some plants turned yellow and wilted. 
 
 
I sowed my new batch of seeds on July 5, 
 
Yellow Congo
Brown Scotch Bonnet
Trinidad Scorpion Red
7Pod Primo
Bhut Jolokia Indian Carbon
Red Fatalii
 
 
this time around, I used a very light coco potting mix to start the seeds. They were a litlte slower to germinate than with a traditional seed starting mix but once they got going there was no stopping them.
 

 
 
This is on July 14
 

 
 
July 28
 

 
August 10. Nice healthy and beautiful "left over" seedlings. Much better than last time! Gave them to a buddy of mine who has place for them.
 

 
Decided to pot up 2 of each and finally keep the best of each.
 
This is on July 28
 

 
 
And this is today:
 

 
I am giving them a lot of room to grow out to and potting up early this time. results in faster and much more vigorous growth.
 

 

 

 
For the potting mix I kept on using the Coco peat potting mix with 50% Perlite. Great drainage and the roots plow through it. As for nutes I was using neptunes very lightly and recently gave them a little chilli focus but i dont think they liked it. No more nutes for now they look nice and green.