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miguelovic 2014 - A Greenhorns Trip into Organics

Hello all from the West Coast of Canada!
 
Usually a wordless forum lurker, but this place has de-shelled me a bit. I know a few of you so far and am looking forward to meeting, learning and growing along with everyone else. There is a hell of a lot of experience in one place and your strain lists are mind boggling :) Hehe already reminds me of the Mag
 
By way of an introduction, a rambling monologue.
 
I've always had a bit of a taste for firey foods, but what really sparked it off was a trip down island one year to a Goat Roofed farmers market. After an hour in front of the largest collection of hot sauces I had ever seen, I finally made a choice and headed to the register.
 
Somewhat confident in my choice, I double checked with the clerk to ensure I had grabbed the hottest one available, only to be told there were two brands they were required to keep behind the counter. Enter Cajohns Mongoose, exit tomato sauce.
 
I still miss that tiny little bottle, so many spicey roasted meats. So many machismos rolling around on the ground, dumb struck that a teaspoon of anything could overpower them.
 
Since then I have burned both holes in so many ways, so many places. Pure capsaicin is highly unrecommended, it has no flavour or redeeming quality other than mind blowing pain :D
 
And so after getting into growing as a career and hobby, it was only a matter of time before I went organic and ordered some seeds.
 
From PepperJoe.
 
Lesson learned, research things more :D
 
I learned to grow in coir commercially, with the obligatory collection of salty Kool-aid style plant food, so this is all Greek to me, but will surely be a stunning success. Aim high and settle for anything above total failure.
 
The starter soil, seeds and clones.
 
1 Part Peat/Coco 80/20
1 Part EWC/Compost 50/50
1 Part Perlite/Vermiculite 50/50
 
Trace alfalfa and kelp.
Limed and rock dusted.
 
Thoughts so far. Switching out peat for composted bark/fines, dropping the compost and never buying perlite/verm again. Subject to hypocrasy, availability on some products here is touch and go, and so far I refuse to pay for shipping.
 
General potting soil.
 
1 Part Peat/Coco 80/20
1 Part EWC/Compost 50/50
1 Part Perlite/Vermiculite 50/50
 
Amended with 2-3 cups per cubic foot of
 
1 part neem/alfalfa/cottonseed
1 part bone meal
1/2 part kelp meal
1/2 part greensand
Eye balled in some ground comfrey/stinging nettle.
 
Kept moist with left over tea and anything else of that ilk.
 
And is nitrogen heavy as funk. The soil was never intended for peppers as well. The plan so far is to mix in relatively fresh bark/wood mulch to tie up some nitrogen until the first crop is over, but that smacks of other thinking and I'll probably just bite the bullet, buy something, and butter it out a bit. Results will be awesome or painfully hilarious.
 
I started late, especially after the fiasco of feeding my first few seeds to the fungus gnat gods (pepperjoe comes in handy!)
 
Here are the survivors, circa late March, after sterilizing the soil with SM90 and the seeds with a mild peroxide soak.
 
Three popped! 10% Germ! The fogginess is the impenetrable shield wall I constructed to protect against FG
 
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And so I ordered a few more seeds, and am batting 7/7 now with a 24hour presoak, sown direct in soil. Below a group shot
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Black Zebra Cherry (Upon actual investigation, a terrible choice. Flavour described as "bland" or "average" :D) The undersides are almost completely purple.
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Bhut Jolokai (tomatogrowers.com) light purpling, raised the bulbs today
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Morouga Scorpions and 7Pod (in the front) Here I also discovered and quickly lost the shiney clean shooting filter on the camera
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Deadly chemicals and homemade toxic garbage
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Inspiring
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Lit by a slew of T8's, amended at the end of the outdoor season with stronger lighting. I would like to get LED, but the canopy will be thick and I've got a hard on for a Philips 400w CMH. Though like reality that will soften with time and age. I change my mind frequently and erratically as well, so we shall see.
 
The plants will be trained/pruned with some back of the head thinking that they are coming inside to finish and winter, some will be topped to observe results. Scraggly undergrowth is frowned upon.
 
I prefer DIY to prefab, and will be thieving everything I can from Mother Nature (like candy from a baby says I), everything from leaf mould to nettles.
 
And so, with limited plant count, the usual line up of newbie strains and foul ups and a firey love for growing my own poisons, we'll see where this heads!
 
The usual 3C's
 
Any criticisms, cwuestions and comments welcome :)
 
Welcome to the fine world of pepper growing. Given your background I doubt you'll have any problems adapting. If you hang around here long enough you'll end up with way more varieties than you know what to do with!  You do seem to have a good selection of pepper varieties to start with. The Jolokia's are a personal favorite. Awesome heat AND from what I've experienced so far, a slight smokey flavor. Oh so good on wings.
 
Anywho plants are looking fine and I'm looking forward to your grow! 
 
Neil
 
I learned more about pests and disease than anything :D
 
Thanks for dropping in man, was hoping it wouldn't be a total ghost town hehe. I've enjoyed reading your glog and adventures with coir.
 
Pretty stoked on the Bhuts, they're the only genetics I feel confident of so far and only superhot I have tried, so here's hoping they pull through some overzealous mothering.
 
Whoaa.. You said your plants are looking the same as mine..?!

Those are way bigger and more beautiful and you planted later than i did!! I think my T8s are not enough. Gonna get that LED soon. Sigh.

Awesome job on the plants! Looking forward to your updates!
 
Well then don't look at this up potted TMS :D You haven't posted a pic in a month, a bit hard to compare :)
 
KABOOM! went the second leaf set
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Starting to alternate a bit of aloe and BTi with the water, the living mulch I was fooling around with was a bit of a FG housing development and this water phobia of peat is wildly annoying.
 
Haha! They look the same as they did in the first few pictures i posted!! Definitely no where as huge as yours. I gotta step up my game i think!
 
Update:
 
SUNSHINE!
 
Started transitioning them outside last week and snapped a few pics. They can more or less withstand a full day now, depending on intensity. A lot of overcast days punctuated by full sun has helped a lot.
 
Also dealing with what I assume are broad mites! HURRAY!
 
I can spot moving white flecks with a 30x, not enough to differentiate between broad or cyclamen but enough to start treatment with mineral oils (straight up, garlic and habanero).
 
Very slow growth in general, some fool put them in a terrible soil mixture :D
 
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Bhut Jolokia's, a little sun-tanned and slow going (see: fools soil mix :P). The freak on the left throws curly ass leaves all day long.
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Odd twisting/crinkling on the Morouga, feel free to chime in on the cause  ;) Small holes also develop from a leaf spot, tan/brown-to-white in appearance.
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SPIDERS! Yet to be properly ID'd. (edit: Araneus diadematus. Damn I love bugguide.net)
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I should be sourcing some compost and aged manure soon to slap some KISS soil on the plants. No more over-analyzed over-amended soil mixes for this dope :party:
 
Good luck!  Organic growing isn't rocket surgery, humans have been doing it for thousands of years!  Looking good so far!  I don't think there's actually anything wrong with the crinkly leaves on the Moruga, I've noticed from growing with aquaponics that any healthy plant with a great root system can get some supercharged leaves like that...I could be wrong though.  My most aggressively rooting plants seem to have crinkly leaves...I don't know if there's a correlation or not.
 
Cool spiders!  you could take and set up a terrarium for them until you're ready to release them into the garden when it's warmer!
 
Your starts look very good, Miguelovic; you are off to a good beginning.
 
:welcome:  to glogosphere 2014!
 
Glad to be here, thanks Paul :)
 
 
Spicegeist said:
Wow, cool spiders.  I hope you can get them out into some natural conditions soon...
 
They're loving life out on a rose bush below the patio. I'm hoping they disperse all at once while someone is tanning or relaxing out there :rofl:
 
 
ikeepfish said:
Good luck!  Organic growing isn't rocket surgery, humans have been doing it for thousands of years!  Looking good so far!  I don't think there's actually anything wrong with the crinkly leaves on the Moruga, I've noticed from growing with aquaponics that any healthy plant with a great root system can get some supercharged leaves like that...I could be wrong though.  My most aggressively rooting plants seem to have crinkly leaves...I don't know if there's a correlation or not.
 
Cool spiders!  you could take and set up a terrarium for them until you're ready to release them into the garden when it's warmer!
 
I've heard the same before, but I've also seen the mediocre roots formed in this mix :lol:  The new growth looks healthier.
 
I did think of grabbing some to raise in a terrarium for a better ID, which is wierd, I've always had a childish fear of bugs. They're just so damn interesting I'm forced to get over the heeby jeebies :D
 
Good luck, man.  I'll bet you might have some trouble keeping things simple. :P   Also, I'll bet that Morouga is root bound, or very close.  Not that this would cause the leaf crinkle, though.  I'm moving towards various manures instead of packaged/bottled ferts.
 
A few shots of my "special" (see: short bus) guy, with a face only a mother could love. I originally thought it was genetic defect, then graduated to the idea of broad mites/wacked-out soil. Now I've settled back on defect due to, well just look-it the pics :P
 
 
 
Special Bhut. A+ for effort.
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Pushing out from every possible direction, even the cotys :D
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One normal leaf, ah ha ha ha ha
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Two normal leaves, ah ha ha ha ha
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Aaaaaand that's it.
 
I never had an problem picking him out of a crowd when he was a boy. Feel free to chime in as to a better diagnosis if you've seen something similar, I'm working off of assumption. Grew in the same conditions as the other two, but decided from the get go to do his own thing.
 
I have a Bhut that's "special" but I'm thinking now it's because it was root bound...it has more normal leaves but keeps putting out bifurcated ones.
 
Plants are looking great! I had a plant that was growing all crazy like in my last batch. I ended up culling it when I downsized. Dunno what caused it with my plant. Just guessing that some plants grow like that.

I was down your way last week. The in-law's took us all down to Parksville for a vacation. Got a chance to roam around a bit in Campbell River, Parksville and Nanaimo. I half thought of going to Victoria, just didn't get around to it. The boy sure loved going down to the beach and turning over the rocks to see the crabs scurry away. Really beautiful place.

Neil
 
ikeepfish said:
I have a Bhut that's "special" but I'm thinking now it's because it was root bound...it has more normal leaves but keeps putting out bifurcated ones.
 
Well atleast he's not alone :D That sounds wild. I've seen cannabis respond to stress with leaf/node issues before, it would be a first for me with peppers (one of many hah) but not surprising. Maybe it is just the soil freaking him out.
 
 
Blister said:
Plants are looking great! I had a plant that was growing all crazy like in my last batch. I ended up culling it when I downsized. Dunno what caused it with my plant. Just guessing that some plants grow like that.

I was down your way last week. The in-law's took us all down to Parksville for a vacation. Got a chance to roam around a bit in Campbell River, Parksville and Nanaimo. I half thought of going to Victoria, just didn't get around to it. The boy sure loved going down to the beach and turning over the rocks to see the crabs scurry away. Really beautiful place.

Neil
 
Thanks, and likewise, I love the hempy bucket set up you've got running, it looks great. Definitely on the coir to-do list oneday.
 
I've got outside space to let him spew wierd growth, might get the axe when/if they need to finish inside though.
 
Nice, that sounds wicked. There's a shit ton of stuff to do on the island(s) until you start looking for work. There's a good market outside of Parksville and they have a decent sand sculpture event in the summer. Good call on skipping the Comox Valley, the average age here is well past retirement :D
 
I was told about comox. Something like the highest average age in all of canada. Crazy. It would be nice to live on the island, but I have no idea what we would do for work there. Heck I have a hard time finding work as it is let alone trying to find something there! Anywho, keep up the good work on the peppers!
 
Did you harden off and plant out? Hook it up with an update I'd like to see some supers even further north than myself haha. :D
 
Soil mix looks pretty good to me. I might not use vermiculite in a GP mix, but I have for SIP buckets 
How long did you let the amendments cycle-in?
A few funky leaves, but plants overall look nice.
Good Work.
 
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