Hey everyone,
This is the first time Im really making an attempt at growing peppers outdoors. I have grown some super hots and some others indoors under HID's with decent results but I want to start doing it annually outdoors and overwintering them inside. Ive had an indoor garden for years now..... and recycled my soil for quite some time.. usually it consists of 1/3 ewc's from my worm bin, 1/3 perilite, and 1/3 recycled promix ammended with tomato tone. Its worked fantastically for my indoor garden.. but now Im really getting caught by the pepper bug and want to focus on these guys.
Currently I have 3 trinidad scorpion moruga blend, 1 douglah, a volcano pepper (a hungarian wax type), and another plant that is either another TSMB, a yellow 7 pot, or possibly a Douglah I lost my labeling. I started these guys back in January sometime and neglected them quite a bit as I had a lot of other plants to attend to at the time. I have since transplanted them into 5 gallon buckets and have been hardening them off for over a week now.
I live in Flagstaff, AZ. It is arizona so our sun is intense, however we are at 7,000' elevation up in the mountains so during the peak of summer our highs are in the 80's occasionally getting into the low 90's at peak of summer. During winter our average temps seem to be around 10-30 degrees and very sunny with random heavy snowfalls...what I mean by that is that it could be cold, sunny and dry for three weeks straight... then we'll get 18" of snow... which is gone in three days due to the sun. Sometimes though in the coldest months we have snow on the ground for a month or so fairly steady. Occasionally it will get down into the -10/-15 for a week or two during the coldest time of year.
Our growing season is very short... rated at 100-110 days. For this reason I want to grow in containers. Plus I have a large amount of lighting equipment at my disposal. Currently I have 2 - 600w HID's sitting in a closet not being used, along with 3 - T5 units (2-4'x4 bulb, 1-4'x6 bulb) and 4 or 5 different grow tents of various sizes (4'x2', 3'x3', 4'x8'). So I have plenty of equipment to overwinter and start plants early, etc, etc..... I just need guidance to show me how!
Im hoping by sharing in this grow log you guys can help me with what Im doing wrong, while I have a great grasp on growing indoors in a controlled environment ... so far my outdoor run doesnt seem to be doing to well.
Thats a little background... and without further ado here are the plants I have currently. They have been out for about 10 days and have gotten a rough start. I overwatered the buckets upon transplanting, then theres been days where they got some sunburn because I thought they could take 7 hours of direct sun. I have left them out a few nights overnight and they seemed to handle it well. Our temps have been in the mid 70's with lows at night around 40-45. However, yesterday we ended up having 22 mph winds and that blew them a little silly so they are looking pretty rough.
Here they are...temps tonight are supposed to drop to 32 degrees so I brought them in under a 400w HID, I figured they could use the break from the wind:
So ........ my question is... how should I proceed from here? They are taking a beating it seems and they are putting out new small leaves but not all that fast. I do have a spot on my back patio that gets only morning sun from sun up around 6:30 (right now) to around 11 -12 am or so and would shade them just as the sun got directly overhead. Should I put them there and leave them for a few weeks until they start throwing new foilage? Or do they need more sun then that?
I can set them out further in the yard to give them more sun. If I put them out about 4' into the yard from the patio that will extend their sun out until around 2:30 or so which would get them a full 8 hours with 2-3 hours of the sun directly overhead... but maybe thats to much at this point??
Advice is needed here please!
Also, I started quite a few more seeds, I figure with all the lighting I have available I can overwinter them if need be since Im starting them in so late, either that or prune and root prune and bring them inside under lights in the fall when it cools down.
I planted one each of chocolate bhut jolokia, 7 pot brain strain red, yellow fatalli, caribbean red, jalapeno, yellow 7 pot, and then a couple sweet types golden treasure and neoploan pepper.
Then I put about 12 seeds in a single pot of Aji lemon because they are so old I didnt think they will sprout. Guess what ... looks like all of them sprouted lol. So I have about 12 aji lemon seedlings as well. The 7 pot red brain strain, the caribbean red, and the jalapeno have all sprouted as of now but its only been about 6 days since I sowed them so I expect some of the others to pop up in the next week or two.
Heres the caribbean red and the jalapeno
.... then the 7 pot red brain strain
...... and last but not least my army of aji lemons lol
This is the first time Im really making an attempt at growing peppers outdoors. I have grown some super hots and some others indoors under HID's with decent results but I want to start doing it annually outdoors and overwintering them inside. Ive had an indoor garden for years now..... and recycled my soil for quite some time.. usually it consists of 1/3 ewc's from my worm bin, 1/3 perilite, and 1/3 recycled promix ammended with tomato tone. Its worked fantastically for my indoor garden.. but now Im really getting caught by the pepper bug and want to focus on these guys.
Currently I have 3 trinidad scorpion moruga blend, 1 douglah, a volcano pepper (a hungarian wax type), and another plant that is either another TSMB, a yellow 7 pot, or possibly a Douglah I lost my labeling. I started these guys back in January sometime and neglected them quite a bit as I had a lot of other plants to attend to at the time. I have since transplanted them into 5 gallon buckets and have been hardening them off for over a week now.
I live in Flagstaff, AZ. It is arizona so our sun is intense, however we are at 7,000' elevation up in the mountains so during the peak of summer our highs are in the 80's occasionally getting into the low 90's at peak of summer. During winter our average temps seem to be around 10-30 degrees and very sunny with random heavy snowfalls...what I mean by that is that it could be cold, sunny and dry for three weeks straight... then we'll get 18" of snow... which is gone in three days due to the sun. Sometimes though in the coldest months we have snow on the ground for a month or so fairly steady. Occasionally it will get down into the -10/-15 for a week or two during the coldest time of year.
Our growing season is very short... rated at 100-110 days. For this reason I want to grow in containers. Plus I have a large amount of lighting equipment at my disposal. Currently I have 2 - 600w HID's sitting in a closet not being used, along with 3 - T5 units (2-4'x4 bulb, 1-4'x6 bulb) and 4 or 5 different grow tents of various sizes (4'x2', 3'x3', 4'x8'). So I have plenty of equipment to overwinter and start plants early, etc, etc..... I just need guidance to show me how!
Im hoping by sharing in this grow log you guys can help me with what Im doing wrong, while I have a great grasp on growing indoors in a controlled environment ... so far my outdoor run doesnt seem to be doing to well.
Thats a little background... and without further ado here are the plants I have currently. They have been out for about 10 days and have gotten a rough start. I overwatered the buckets upon transplanting, then theres been days where they got some sunburn because I thought they could take 7 hours of direct sun. I have left them out a few nights overnight and they seemed to handle it well. Our temps have been in the mid 70's with lows at night around 40-45. However, yesterday we ended up having 22 mph winds and that blew them a little silly so they are looking pretty rough.
Here they are...temps tonight are supposed to drop to 32 degrees so I brought them in under a 400w HID, I figured they could use the break from the wind:
So ........ my question is... how should I proceed from here? They are taking a beating it seems and they are putting out new small leaves but not all that fast. I do have a spot on my back patio that gets only morning sun from sun up around 6:30 (right now) to around 11 -12 am or so and would shade them just as the sun got directly overhead. Should I put them there and leave them for a few weeks until they start throwing new foilage? Or do they need more sun then that?
I can set them out further in the yard to give them more sun. If I put them out about 4' into the yard from the patio that will extend their sun out until around 2:30 or so which would get them a full 8 hours with 2-3 hours of the sun directly overhead... but maybe thats to much at this point??
Advice is needed here please!
Also, I started quite a few more seeds, I figure with all the lighting I have available I can overwinter them if need be since Im starting them in so late, either that or prune and root prune and bring them inside under lights in the fall when it cools down.
I planted one each of chocolate bhut jolokia, 7 pot brain strain red, yellow fatalli, caribbean red, jalapeno, yellow 7 pot, and then a couple sweet types golden treasure and neoploan pepper.
Then I put about 12 seeds in a single pot of Aji lemon because they are so old I didnt think they will sprout. Guess what ... looks like all of them sprouted lol. So I have about 12 aji lemon seedlings as well. The 7 pot red brain strain, the caribbean red, and the jalapeno have all sprouted as of now but its only been about 6 days since I sowed them so I expect some of the others to pop up in the next week or two.
Heres the caribbean red and the jalapeno
.... then the 7 pot red brain strain
...... and last but not least my army of aji lemons lol
