ikeepfish's 2014 grow log...season's end is nigh

DudeThtsBad · Feb 9, 2014

Looks good so far! It'll be interesting to follow this post as they grow! :woohoo:

beerbreath81 · Feb 13, 2014

Poinsetta=another new one to me, just about every day on her i find a pepper that I have never heard off

Czechoslovakian black=is this similar to the hungarian black??

Good you got the aphids under control. Good luck on your grow. I will be watching this one...aquaponics

Penny · Feb 13, 2014

Sorry to hear about the aphids.....damn things!! Good luck on your growing season.

Helvete · Feb 13, 2014

beerbreath81 said:
Poinsetta=another new one to me, just about every day on her i find a pepper that I have never heard off

Czechoslovakian black=is this similar to the hungarian black??

Good you got the aphids under control. Good luck on your grow. I will be watching this one...aquaponics

From what I've read, the poinsetta is the same or similar to a Japanese variety called "hot claw" and they're supposed to be hotter than Thais,

Czechoslovakian black are similar to the Hungarians but they're smaller and don't have the corking, I got them by trading some Red Savina seeds to a friend.

And on another note, my annuums are germing quickly, and I've got several of the chinenses popping now too. I'm also expecting some more supers I ordered in the mail to come some time very soon. I'll have pics as soon as I start getting a little more action in the grow tent.

...I was pretty excited to see a leaf coming out of a 7 Pot this morning.

FireEater101 · Feb 13, 2014

Looks good!! The Yellow Fatali is awesome. It was probably my most prolific pepper from last season as each plant turned out a lot of pods. Looks like a good list of peppers. I hope 2014 is a great year for you!!

Terravexti · Feb 21, 2014

Nice list

Helvete · Feb 22, 2014

Ok, I have a little more going on right now. I'm at week 3 on most of my peppers, others are still waiting to germ, they're only at a week so far (*)...others...well I don't think they're going to make it.

I'll organize this eventually and add it to the original post or something, I'm sure my germ rates will change since some of my chinenses are only at 1 week.

that being said...SOME PICS! A little blurry; my camera is probably 6 years old...I need a new one to get some better shots of my plants

You can see some hooks and cotyledons in this tray. I was actually surprised at how well the reapers germinated...I was expecting to have trouble with those in particular.

This is a random tray with some poinsettias, fataliis, and jalapenos in it. I really need to get rid of this camera

and my overwinters have been perking up a little bit, I think because we had a nice humidity boost after 16" of snow melted, I've been watering them more regularly. Betty there is always leaving clumps of fur on them, I don't think they mind. Most of those plants are close to a year old or more....even the tiny ones. The giant scythe shaped one is an Alma paprika. I'm betting that'll be a nice contender eventually for that "fattest trunk" thread

So it continues. :mouthonfire:

Repotted a couple of fellas today, I didn't like how their taproots were reaching into neighboring peat pellets.

2-27-2014

Yesterday I spent most of the afternoon and evening potting up some more guys. I'm still waiting for my second batch of chinenses to germinate but my first batch is just about tapped out. I'll have plant totals eventually. Strong germ rates for Reaper, Fatalii, Morugas, and Naga Morich...and most of my annuums...I'm going to have a ton of NuMex Big Jims. We're having a horribly dry winter this year, you can see on my thermometer it's only 26% humidity even with a bucket of water in my grow tent. It's 15ºF (-9ºC) outside tonight...they're saying it's killing off all of those Asian stink bugs, I guess there's a positive to it.

Helvete · Mar 2, 2014

More pics of my pottings, I've got more of my second round of chinenses coming up such as Naga Morich, Brain Strain Yellow, Scotch Bonnet Brown, red Bhut, and white Bhut. I'm still kind of anxious about seeing my 7 pot white and my peach Bhut seeds start hooking.

I finally got some romaine and kale in my aquaponics, less than 10 hours and they were already reaching their roots out of the net pots

A nice lookin' Fatalii

Also, on a related note, I'm applying for a few Saturdays in September for the local farmer's market, I hope all of this is worth it for me because I have to pay $25 for the application. Or I hope they like sunflower seeds and amaranth because that's what we're growing this year. A couple of acres of it.

fern123 · Mar 2, 2014

Dude , what are those cups made of , looks like you will be planting the whole cup.

Helvete · Mar 2, 2014

fern123 said:
Dude , what are those cups made of , looks like you will be planting the whole cup.

Basically a jiffy pot, except I paid a little more for the ones that say "organic" on the label. The ones I have are made out of recycled soy fiber I believe, some companies make them out of coco coir or peat...there's even a company that makes them out of cow pies. You plant the whole cup because it's biodegradable, I usually take off the bottoms also to help the roots a little.

OCD Chilehead · Mar 2, 2014

Looking good. I love the idea of aquaponics.

beerbreath81 · Mar 5, 2014

lettuce is lookin good in the aquaponics. Will you be putting any peppers in there this season?

Helvete · Mar 5, 2014

I'm thinking about putting some of the poinsettias in there since the Thais did so well in there last year and they seem like a similar pepper, I think my main priority if I want to grow peppers is to add more grow beds or add some NFT tubes. The stock tank the fish are in is 100 gallons and I could have a hell of a lot more veggies growing off of it...to help distribute some of the nitrate load a little better at the least. It's too much for the peppers. I think the formula is 1 square foot of grow space for every 1 gallon, I could have a 10X10 grow bed on that thing instead of my little storage bin. Or I could add more bamboo to the fish tank, that stuff seems to love the high nitrogen load, it's grown over a foot in a month. Biggest concern is filtering nitrates, heavy loads are bad for fish and bad for fruiting plants. I'm probably going to rig up something with 3" PVC for NFT and build an LED strip to run parallel to them. I'm still really brainstorming at this point.

maximumcapsicum · Mar 5, 2014

Nice glog ikeepfish! Do you grow fish too?

Fataliis ate fun. Love your list. Got a nice range of 7 pots there.

Happy growin!

Helvete · Mar 5, 2014

maximumcapsicum said:
Nice glog ikeepfish! Do you grow fish too?

Fataliis ate fun. Love your list. Got a nice range of 7 pots there.

Happy growin!

I have a butterfly koi, 5 Sarasas and 5 common goldfish and a pleco in my aquaponics tank and I also have a small regular glass tank with longfin red tetras and cardinal tetras and an albino ancistrus

Eventually I might move to large scale bullhead catfish or perch aquaponic farming but I'm taking it one step at a time

I'll probably have some updates on my peppers soon guys. I'm having a terrible time with low humidity and lost a couple of annuums and a Moruga because of the soil drying out so quickly. I woke up yesterday morning and it was 0ºF outside, which is very unusual for March in Virginia, we're under burn restrictions right now which usually don't even take effect until about August.

Helvete · Mar 8, 2014

Ok, I've got a few pictures of some of my forerunners. I'm having such a terrible time with low humidity here, Thankfully spring is "here" this week with temps not dropping below freezing all week. I got a new phone, I've been putting off getting a smartphone for quite a while and finally broke down and did it. And what do you know? The camera is freakin' awesome on it

Ok, first up is a Czechoslovakian black that is taking its sweet time growing for whatever reason along with my MYSTERY pepper. I don't have the slightest idea what it is but I'm going to grow it out. Taking guesses now

One of my poinsettias...these seem to be quite a hardy strain.

A red ghost that's taking its sweet time growing...and has a nice suntan

My favorite Fatalii, I accidentally knocked some of them over and they're acting a little weird but they look otherwise healthy

Aquaponic Kale is coming along

and on another note, I'm helping my dad restore my grandfather's old 1950 Farmall Cub that he bought brand new after returning from the Pacific, I figure maybe you guys would like to see how it's coming along. Maybe?

and also I thought this was pretty cool, the case I ordered for my phone, it's a jalapeno flower (no, I don't care that I'll have a flower on my phone case

http://i1.cpcache.com/product/1098880094/flower_of_jalapeno_pepper_pl_galaxy_s3_switch_case.jpg?color=Black&height=460&width=460&qv=90

Helvete · Mar 15, 2014

Some pics, I'm getting growth spurts with a lot of my older seedlings, some have 6-8 true leaves now and they're really on a roll! I lost about ten plants last week, they still didn't have any leaves and the dry air knocked them out. I still have plenty left though!

I'm watching this Fatalii with great interest, it's doing the best out of all my chinenses,and even has more leaves than my annuums that were started at the same time. It's really beautiful

Helvete · Mar 22, 2014

y'know
just some progress. I lost a lot due to drying out...but I restarted a lot of them and I'm getting back on track. Might nix a few varieties depending on what makes it out of this last round of seeds.

Jalapenos are so finnicky every year...they always act like they're throwing a tantrum.
the C. annuum tray:

This Fatalii is in a hurry to get somewhere!

I might start a couple more of the Czechoslovakian Blacks, I'm really liking the looks of them and I only have one surviving plant now. Probably going to start a couple of Brain Strain yellows in some rockwool for my dutch buckets, that's the strain I've had the hardest time with germination and damping off this year.

beerbreath81 · Mar 23, 2014

Looking good over htere buddy, how bout another shot of the aquaponics kale? Also whats the deal with the farmall rebuild? have you guys started?