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Samcanadian's Great White North Glog, 2014

I figured I'd put as much information I can find in this thread, not only to make it easier for others to help me...but to maybe help other growers who are at the noob stage like I'm at.  (Maybe I'll ask some of the dumb questions so they don't have to!)
 
This year I'm growing Serranos, Habaneros and Jalapenos...having started them all indoors under fluorescent lights on February 28th.  Rather than bore everyone with pictures they've seen a million times of the seeding process, I decided to opt against posting them and just instead mention that I got WAY more seeds sprouting than I had allowed for and was dealing with multiple plants in each little Peat Pot we'd planted them in.
 
At about two months we transplanted the sprouts into Red Solo cups, and next year we will likely skip this step and plant them directly in the solo cups to begin with.  It was just too much trouble to split up all the little peat pot sprouts and replant them individually without harming them, and if I could do it again I'd get a seedling tray and transplant into Red Solo cups from there.
 
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Now, it's past last frost for my area (Winnipeg, Canada) so the wife and I were busy in the garden this weekend...planting our crops for the upcoming year and filling pots with potting soil and peppers.  The Wife bought a generic brand of organic potting soil from Costco for $10/85l bag and we figured it was a good price for our area.  We also bought 16 cheap pots from the Dollar Store and figured our first try at this would be in an ultra-cost effective manner...just to see how much it really costs to produce peppers.
 
Here's a few pictures taken on May 25th of my babies!  The temperature is steady around 23-25 during the day for the next week so I can expect them to get some decent growing weather without being too hot.  
 
 
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Here are a few of my concerns with this growing season
 
1. That the pots aren't big enough:  I hadn't really thought about the size of pot necessary and when I saw these at the Dollar Store I assumed they'd be plenty.  Since the varieties I'm growing don't get too much bigger than 24" (Except the Habs which are estimated to get to 30") I didn't think they'd be too bad...but I'm still a little nervous when I see all these suggestions saying 5 gallon pot MINIMUM.  I'll measure one tonight and see how big it is and update this post with accurate dimensions.
 
2. The the season won't be long enough:  I just have this nagging worry that I'll have a bunch of unripe green pods on my plants when the weather starts to turn cold.  While I'm sure I'm worrying for nothing, I'd still really hate for this to happen.
 
3.  I won't know what to do with all these peppers:  Self explanatory!
 
 
 
Anyway, I'm looking forward to keeping this updated with perhaps a once a week update with pictures, etc.  If you've stumbled onto this page, thanks for reading and any advice you have to give!
 
Hey hey, welcome to the Glogs :) (Just got here myself hehe)
 
Haven't got much advice, but there is a load of information all over the place. Ferments and powders seem like a great way to deal with overages.
 
Got to love our weather, though it's a bit of a different beast out there. What with the constant overcast and rain in full swing here I was thinking of un-hardening them under lights :D
 
Here's a good comparison of the pots I'm using.
 
I found one in the lunchroom that someone was using for a plant.  I put it next to one of our 5 gallon jugs of water.
 
I'm guessing it's around 2.5-3 gallons
 
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In my first "serious" season, due to space constraints, i used 5L and 6.5L containers (1.32 gal-1.72 gal) and harvested enough pods to keep me busy all the winter :)
 

 
As long as you give enough water and ferts (when needed), you'll be fine. Small pots are also pretty easy to move inside in case of cold snaps.
Obviously bigger pots will give you bigger yields and long season varieties (like almost all the superhots) love some extra space for sure.
 
Good luck, you have a nice patio there!
 
Datil
 
Datil said:
In my first "serious" season, due to space constraints, i used 5L and 6.5L containers (1.32 gal-1.72 gal) and harvested enough pods to keep me busy all the winter :)
 
 
As long as you give enough water and ferts (when needed), you'll be fine. Small pots are also pretty easy to move inside in case of cold snaps.
Obviously bigger pots will give you bigger yields and long season varieties (like almost all the superhots) love some extra space for sure.
 
Good luck, you have a nice patio there!
 
Datil
This is great news to hear.  Those plants look nice and healthy, as does the cat!  What variety are those, if I may ask?
 
Hi Sam, and welcome from another "Norteno" in Massachusetts. I grew Douglahs and Chocolate Habaneros in 3 gallon pots last year, so your pot size looks OK to me for the first year.
   I'm partial to powders, purees and sauces for preserving my pepper harvest... I like them to be shelf-stable without refrigeration.
 
It's true that you may not be able to grow some pepper varieties due to your short season, but that shouldn't prevent you from growing any Annuums or most Chinense peppers. Baccatums are mostly ideal for northern growers, with the exception of Aji Panca... I tried to grow them last year, and the season ran out before I got ripe pods.
 
Good luck with your grow this year!
 
So, hoping to get your guys attention for these few questions
 
1. When to water?  I plan on watering only when these guys start to look a little bit limp...but should I wait till the sun goes down, and how much water should I put into these pots?  Is there a rough guideline I can use?
2. How long should I pinch flowers off for?  I read that I should be pinching any flowers that appear, as they'll discourage root/plant growth while energy gets used growing flowers.  How long should I continue to pinch these if they keep showing up?
3. Topping, yes or no?: Based on my pictures, does it look like these plants would benefit from topping in order to get the most from a short season?
 
1.   when you do water soak heavy. you cant overwater when you are watering if that makes sense? it dont matter what time you water just make sure the water is cold.
 
 
2. as far as pinching,you wil get lots of diffrent opinions. i dont ever pinch i feel i bump into the plants enough and heavy winds drops lots of flowers. so if they fall i feel they needed to. no need for me to rip them off?
 
3. no.
 
 
all of this is just my opinion.
 
 
 
 
 
everthing is looking great good luck with the grow.
 
So what's the word on generic potting soil for them to grow in?  Everyone's got fancy mixes with everything and I just got some bagged stuff at Costco.  Am I severely hurting my chances at success, or what?
 
you throw some time release fert in there and it really dont matter what the medium is.   not that starting with a good medium isnt important. but with the right ferts you should be fine with what you are using.
 
 
 
 
all my opinion.
 
samcanadian said:
This is great news to hear.  Those plants look nice and healthy, as does the cat!  What variety are those, if I may ask?
 
Thanks, my cat Jack thanks you as well (is little overweight lately :D).
There was a lot of mixed stuff in there, the foreground plants were Naga Morich (pretty reliable and probably fast enough for short seasons) and "Bad" Datil (no self promotion intended LOL).
 
Cya
 
Datil
 
Ok couple questions about my plants.
 
First off, I'm giving them about 4-5 hours of sun a day (12-5) by method of a large foldout plywood setup I've made (use it as a BBQ windscreen usually) in order to not bake them too much in the early season sun/weather we've had lately.  
 
Now...does this look like sun scalding to you, or something else?  I'm talking specifically about some of the brown around the edges of a few leaves.
 
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If the plants look a little thin up top, it's because they're "spares" and I wanted to try topping them to see the results and get a little more familiar with how plants respond to that kind of thing.  

second question
 
I've got a really tall serrano that is bare everywhere except for the stems and leaves.  Shouldn't I start seeing more nodes poking out, or even eventual flowers or pods coming out of this thing yet?  It's strong and tall, but somewhat spindly.  There IS new growth continuing from the top as you can see, but that's the only spot. 
 
(iPad for size reference.  I didn't have anything else nearby  :P )
 
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You could top that serrano if you want and then growth will explode from the other nodes lower down, You can see a reference on my GLOG where i topped a few and growth exploded from lower regions. But maybe someone else can chime in!
 
kgetpeppers said:
You could top that serrano if you want and then growth will explode from the other nodes lower down, You can see a reference on my GLOG where i topped a few and growth exploded from lower regions. But maybe someone else can chime in!
I was actually considering that, but I'm not sure if I should wait until the roots establish themselves a little better, as I've JUST transplanted (this past Sunday).  I'll check out your glog though.
 
So I pulled the stakes out of my peppers....figured I'd let them do it on their own and if they need it later I'll add some support.

Also, first time in a while I've watered (gave em a good soaking) and then there's finally going to be some rain tonight. Unbelievable lol. At least I know they've got ENOUGH water now.
 
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