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Sm1nts2escape's 2014 First Glog

Welcome to my Glog! This will be my first year growing peppers. Last year was my first for growing tomatoes but I grew from starter plants. So with that being said I will probably be making some mistakes and would appreciate your advice if you notice something. Anyways,  I purchased a Secret Jardin Dark Propagator 90 (DP90) 3x2x3 grow tent and two 300w led fixtures off of ebay to get this season started. Everything has broke the surface minus the Brown Bhut (dried pods), Jalabanero (frozen Pods) and  Red Congo (Frozen Pods). I am hoping they will do something soon. One thing that has me puzzled is the Blue/purple tint that has developed on say 65% of my pepper seedlings. I don't know if I should be concerned but they are still kicking so I am just going to go with it.  Also I noticed the peppers that were transferred to Jiffy seed starting soil seem to be growing much faster than the sprouts that are a week older in the Miracle grow soil.
 
My grow list
 
Sweet Peppers:
 
Corno Di Toro x3
Giant Aconcagua x2
Sweet Apple
Carmen
 
Hot:
 
Red Brainstrain x3
Yellow Brainstrain
Red Primo x2
Yellow Primo
Carolina Reaper x2
Giant Bhut Joloikia x2
Brown Bhut Jolokia
Yellow Bhut Jolokia
Monster Naga
Yellow Fatali
Bahamian Goat x2
7 Pot Burgundy
White 7 Pot x3
Chocolate Congo
Red Congo
Aji Pineapple
Naga x Tabasco
Donni Sali x2
Tabasco
Giant Mexican Rocoto
Jalapa Jalapeno x2
 
Tomatoes:
 
Sungold Cherry x3
Nectar Cherry x2
Sweet Chelsea Cherry x2
Sunchocola Cherry x2
Sweet Baby Girl x2 (start 4 neighbors)
Kellogg's Breakfast x2
Black Krim x2
San Marzano
 

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Thanks! I'm hoping for a nice little garden this year :) I plan on giving each plant about 3 square foot of space once I transplant them.
 
I just wanted to update this and say that there is a such thing as too much light. The plants were having a very hard time and had/has purple spotting on the leaves as well as stunted growth etc. This was not caused from heat... I checked temps daily with a laser temp. Ground temp was avg 80* with air temp at 85*. Apparently too much light will cause the plants produce a purple pigment called anthocyanin to protect them from intense light.  I had to remove one of my 300w led fixtures today and raise the other up about 8 inches. I purchased a 24" 6 bulb t5 fixture today that you can flick a switch and run 4 bulbs or 6. I will use the t5 in this tent for better coverage/less intensity and use the leds in a larger/taller tent when the plants get bigger/hardier.
 

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Plants are starting to grow again but I am now fighting a little mold. The white mold is growing on the top of the dirt and not on the plants so far. I found out that spraying the seedlings with a watered down peroxide mixture is very hard on the cotyledons and baby leaves. Also the strong h202 mixture only slowed the mold down for 24 hours...I wish my little 6" clip on fan would get here already. Dang weather is messing with my delivery's! lol. On a possitive note I planted some fresh brown bhut and red congo seeds and they are starting to break the surface now. 
 

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Time for a little update :) Swapped my led fixture out for a 6 bulb t5 fixture today. The difference in the way the plants look is crazy. I wanted/needed to swap the light because the plants just couldn't take the intensity. My primos and reapers were showing the signs of too much light the most. Everything else looked nice but still a sign here and there. I have started feeding my plants a diluted tea mixture once a week and they are loving that. Mold seems to have stopped for the most part and I believe that is from allowing the dirt to dry out almost 100%. The plants didn't like it but they popped back within a couple days. The clip on fan I got today is big and bulky so you can only mount it in a couple spots that aren't exactly user friendly however I am going to use it. I am loving how quite this tent is now! The fans on the led fixtures are noisy and the t5 makes no noise at all. I had to open the door to the tent a few times at first just to make sure it was working lol. I am guessing with the rate the plants are growing now I will have to pot up in a month or so. Hopefully my reapers and primos will perk up in a few days after putting them under the t5. The Bhuts and 7 pots are doing the best.
 
Led Burnt Primo #1
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Led Burnt Primo #2
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Led Burnt Reaper #1
IMG_20140218_163614_795.jpg

Led Burnt Reaper #2
IMG_20140218_163622_101.jpg

The Fix? New 2' 6 Bulb T5 fixure hanging from Ratchet straps <3
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Left
IMG_20140219_162709_220.jpg

Middle
IMG_20140219_162603_203.jpg

Right
IMG_20140219_162729_104.jpg

 
IMG_20140219_163717_269.jpg
 
Sm1nts2escape said:
Welcome to my Glog! This will be my first year growing peppers. Last year was my first for growing tomatoes but I grew from starter plants. So with that being said I will probably be making some mistakes and would appreciate your advice if you notice something. Anyways,  I purchased a Secret Jardin Dark Propagator 90 (DP90) 3x2x3 grow tent and two 300w led fixtures off of ebay to get this season started. Everything has broke the surface minus the Brown Bhut (dried pods), Jalabanero (frozen Pods) and  Red Congo (Frozen Pods). I am hoping they will do something soon. One thing that has me puzzled is the Blue/purple tint that has developed on say 65% of my pepper seedlings. I don't know if I should be concerned but they are still kicking so I am just going to go with it.  Also I noticed the peppers that were transferred to Jiffy seed starting soil seem to be growing much faster than the sprouts that are a week older in the Miracle grow soil.
 
My grow list
 
Sweet Peppers:
 
Corno Di Toro x3
Giant Aconcagua x2
Sweet Apple
Carmen
 
Hot:
 
Red Brainstrain x3
Yellow Brainstrain
Red Primo x2
Yellow Primo
Carolina Reaper x2
Giant Bhut Joloikia x2
Brown Bhut Jolokia
Yellow Bhut Jolokia
Monster Naga
Yellow Fatali
Bahamian Goat x2
7 Pot Burgundy
White 7 Pot x3
Chocolate Congo
Red Congo
Aji Pineapple
Naga x Tabasco
Donni Sali x2
Tabasco
Giant Mexican Rocoto
Jalapa Jalapeno x2
 
Tomatoes:
 
Sungold Cherry x3
Nectar Cherry x2
Sweet Chelsea Cherry x2
Sunchocola Cherry x2
Sweet Baby Girl x2 (start 4 neighbors)
Kellogg's Breakfast x2
Black Krim x2
San Marzano
Nice list! Is the miracle gro soil you're having trouble with the seed starting mix? I tried that with some of my starts, and the plants I have in that are lagging far behind the one's I have in fox farm light warrior, even though they're older. I transferred a few from the mg into the lw, and those one's have started growing well again. 
 
MeatHead1313 said:
Nice list! Is the miracle gro soil you're having trouble with the seed starting mix? I tried that with some of my starts, and the plants I have in that are lagging far behind the one's I have in fox farm light warrior, even though they're older. I transferred a few from the mg into the lw, and those one's have started growing well again. 
 
 
Thanks! The miracle grow soil was stunting the growth of my peppers in the middle. I transferred them to jiffy seed starting soil a week or two ago and they started growing again. The plants in the middle tray actually sprouted about a week and half earlier than the ones on the right. That's how much the mg soil held them back....
 
Sm1nts2escape said:
 
 
Thanks! The miracle grow soil was stunting the growth of my peppers in the middle. I transferred them to jiffy seed starting soil a week or two ago and they started growing again. The plants in the middle tray actually sprouted about a week and half earlier than the ones on the right. That's how much the mg soil held them back....
Same problem I'm having with it. Now I know it's just not me having the problems with it I'll be avoiding it in the future. 
 
Sm1nts2escape said:
I wanted/needed to swap the light because the plants just couldn't take the intensity.
 
     It looks like your plants appreciate your vigilance. I wonder if your sun-tanned seedlings used all that LED light as an opportunity to build a beefy root system, even though growth slowed down above ground. Either way, looks like you got it sorted out and your plants are starting to take off. Live and learn!
 
dash 2 said:
 
     It looks like your plants appreciate your vigilance. I wonder if your sun-tanned seedlings used all that LED light as an opportunity to build a beefy root system, even though growth slowed down above ground. Either way, looks like you got it sorted out and your plants are starting to take off. Live and learn!
 
Like I said in the beginning this is my first year growing peppers and tomatoes from seed. I am learning a lot. The hard way... LOL.
 
Any idea to what might be causing this? This is the worst one and there are only a couple like this. Would like to learn/fix it before it might become a real problem. Thanks
 
IMG_20140225_201204_604.jpg
 
After flushing with straight water for a couple weeks some of my plants started getting some yellow leaves down low so I gave the plants a good dose of fertilizer and foliar feed twice a day for three days straight. Then I mixed up 1 tbsp of epsom salts and 1 tablespoon of molasses and drenched them in that then a day later I heavily watered with straight water. The plants loved it and took off again. So as of now almost all of my plants are doing pretty good. I did remove a unhealthy looking Donni Sali a Tabasco a rocoto and something else I can't remember off of the top of my head. 1 corno di toro is growing some funky leaves and looks kind of sickly so I might end up ripping it up. I think they died/didn't do well from over watering in the beginning or maybe it was soaking in too long/strong h202 solution? who knows... So anyways I started another Brown bhut a couple weeks ago and it is growing like crazy. Also I felt I didn't have enough sweet peppers and wanted to replace some of the peppers that didn't make it so I now have in the window model incubation chamber (jiffy) 1 red bhut for friend, 7 pot jonah, Big Donni Sali, Donni Sali, Jimmy Nardello, Corno di toro (just in case 1 doesn't make it), Red cheese pepper, Topepo Rosso, Red  Marconi, Black from Tula Tomato and Kumato tomato I saved seeds from the grocery store fruit. Also I went to the local Hydroponics store (Panhandle Hydroculture, Martinsburg WV) to get a couple things and they had a huge Ghost pepper plant in there starting to throw some pods out. The owner was nice enough to give me one and seemed very nice and knowledgeable. My little grow tent is getting crowded now so I ordered a larger grow tent 5x3x6 and will be potting up to one gallon pots next weekend and switching back to my leds again.
 
Huge Ghost pepper plant at Panhandle Hydroculture
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Pod off the plant
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Giant Bhut Jolokia is doing great :)
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My Giant Bhut seeds were pulled them from these pods :)
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Primo's and Reapers coming back to life
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Brown Bhut I started a couple weeks ago is growing like a weed
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Transplanted all my peppers last night into the new grow tent and back under the leds. Put them in trimmed 1 gallon pots and fox farms soil. Hopefully now they can handle the intensity of the leds but I raised them up pretty high to be on the safe side. You really need to wear sunglasses when looking in this thing lol. I cut my light schedule back a couple hours the last three days cause the plants were drying out in their little 3.5" pots while I was at work. Some of the peppers started throwing flowers out so I am going to cut them off and top some of the taller plants. I also spaced my tomato plants out in the smaller tent and heavily trimmed them. Making sure to top them and leave only a few leaves per plant to try and slow them down some. They don't mind the heavy trimming at all and bounce back with tons on new growth. I am probably going to move this tent into the cold room of the house to try and slow them down some more once my peppers seedlings are transplanted into the 3.5" pots. It was a long night but the peppers seem to love the new soil. Come on weather hurry up!
 
Plants are happy. I feel like I have a friggin garden in my house.
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In the new tent and under 600w of led.
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Tabasco plant is looking good.
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Jalapeno throwing out some flowers. Going to cut them off tomorrow.
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Peaking through the window on the small tent looking at some of the trimmed and spaced out tomatoes.
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Old tent was nice and unobtrusive.
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New tent is freaking rediculous. This is a 3x6x6.5 monster. I might sell this setup once they are in the dirt.
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Holy crap! That new tent looks like a tardis! Nice grow so far and those Giant Jolokias are crazy.

Judging from the algea and what looks like a mildew of some sort it would be a good idea to cut the watering schedule a bit and get some air circulation in there. Too much humidity in the grow tent will cause problems. I had the same problems early on in my previous soil grows. I'd always water, water, water. Soil needs to dry a bit before you water again. It doesn't do well when you keep it moist at all times.

Neil
 
I had the algae problem early on. I was watering too much. Corrected that and haven't had a problem since. I can't wait to try out one of those Giant bhuts!
 
Blister said:
Holy crap! That new tent looks like a tardis! Nice grow so far and those Giant Jolokias are crazy.

Judging from the algea and what looks like a mildew of some sort it would be a good idea to cut the watering schedule a bit and get some air circulation in there. Too much humidity in the grow tent will cause problems. I had the same problems early on in my previous soil grows. I'd always water, water, water. Soil needs to dry a bit before you water again. It doesn't do well when you keep it moist at all times.

Neil
 
Great to hear. It looks like you're getting it all dialled in. If those giant bhuts are as hot as the regular bhuts you should have a fantastic amount of heat and flavor coming your way.

Neil
 
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