Glog of Swedish peppers

Elvis Has Left The Forum · Apr 2, 2015

Nice! Good job... Looks like you are well on your way...

PaulS · Apr 2, 2015

Welcome

You're not too late, you should have enough time and it looks like you are off to a good start.
Are you growing under lights?

Comptine · Apr 2, 2015

PaulS said:
Are you growing under lights?

Sadly no lights, I just can't afford the whole set up this year, the money will go towards soil and fertilisers later in the season.
I have instead developed a crude way to maximise light. I really don't understand why everybody doesn't use it.

PaulS · Apr 2, 2015

Comptine said:
Sadly no lights, I just can't afford the whole set up this year, the money will go towards soil and fertilisers later in the season.
I have instead developed a crude way to maximise light. I really don't understand why everybody doesn't use it.

[/quote
Looks good to me

Comptine · Apr 3, 2015

Another day and the chili's are happily baking in the morning sun. I might go and buy them a slightly bigger pot today, I had a look at the roots of one of them, and the roots are definitely growing faster than the leaves are. How often do you guys water these baby plants? I have so far taken a spray bottle and given it a few squirts when the top looks dry (1-2 times a day).

I think the Prik Leung (some bonus seeds I received when ordering might be popping out of their shells)

Trident chilli · Apr 3, 2015

Seedlings look good ... healthy little things ... the tin foil will hopefully stop leaning towards the light ... once next set of leaves appear repot right up to the bottom of the first set ... don't forget if it gets cold move them away from the windowsill at night ( they don't appreciate draughts) .... good luck

Comptine · Apr 3, 2015

Trident chilli said:
Seedlings look good ... healthy little things ... the tin foil will hopefully stop leaning towards the light ... once next set of leaves appear repot right up to the bottom of the first set ... don't forget if it gets cold move them away from the windowsill at night ( they don't appreciate draughts) .... good luck

I have actually been rotating them to even them out.

The windows in Sweden are actually pretty well insulated, as we get really cold temps in winter.

Thanks for the advice, I appreciate any help I can get.

Comptine · Apr 3, 2015

Transplant complete! These are some lonely looking chili's. Had to make a second highly advanced sun reflector. I ran out of planting soil too. When would you start giving the chili's fertiliser?

Comptine · Apr 4, 2015

None of my seeds have shown any sign of a root, and having only planted 3 of each I got a bit worried that they might not be as successful as I initially thought. So rather than wait another week to see how these do, I decided to plant the remaining seeds. I got 6 of each, so three planted on the first, and three planted today. Had I started earlier in the season I would probably have waited a little longer.

The new seeds I actually kept in the little zip lock bags, that way I don't even have to label them, getting them out on the other hand will be fun.

PaulS · Apr 5, 2015

You can start feeding your plants now.
Sun and warmth is the most important.
Everything looks bra

Comptine · Apr 6, 2015

I had two Brown Fatali's, one Peach Bhut Jolokia and a yellow Devil's tongue pop out some roots so I've put them into some soil now, expecting a hook in a few days from them. Hopefully the other seeds take the hint and start doing the same. I've started feeding the plants with very diluted fertiliser so that I don't shock them.

The true leaves are starting to look good, this is probably the biggest and prettiest one. It's been really cloudy in the last two days where I am in Sweden so the light has been a little lacking.

Comptine · Apr 7, 2015

A very nice man from France sent me some seeds. I found him on thechiliman.com 's seed exchange. I shot him an email and asked if he had any Aji Lemon's around and he also sent me some extras.

I may also have *cough* bought some new seeds too. Three types of annuums; Cayenne Long slim, Hungarian Yellow Wax and Kitchenpepper Peach. The Hungarian and Cayenne are both supposed to be small, and the peach really high yielding. I decided that I wanted a few smaller plants that my entire family might actually want to try, as opposed to the superhots I've got growing right now. How did my grow list get so long?

Steady progress on my seedlings, it's slow but they are growing. All but the Naga have had at least one seed germinated. The ones with tiny cute roots are in the soil but no hooks have appeared just yet.

Comptine · Apr 10, 2015

So, things are progressing fairly nice. The first set of peppers are starting to grow their second pair of true leaves. One is lagging behind just a tiny bit and another seems a little yellowish to me, so far I still have the space to keep them all, but that will only last a few more days.

I've had 3 come up with cotelydons, two are Brown Fatali and a Yellow Devil's tongue, which has some crazy mutated three leaf cotelydon.

They look tiny next to the others.

All of the 1/4 seeds have sprouted a root and most of the 4/4 ones, so they have gone into little pots. Still waiting for the most recent 7/4 and 8/4 to show a little root.

Comptine · Apr 14, 2015

To update my progress - lots of the plants have got cotes, a few more have hooks. I realised that I had used the wrong type of soil when putting the germinated seeds into pots. It was really heavy and had large bits in it, and it was really high on nutes. I ended up buying seedling soil and perlite, and painfully moving the seeds into the new soil mix. This isn't the easiest thing to do after you've already potted them, I might have lost three seeds, but overall they have been doing so much better in the new soil. Lots ended up popping up a day or two after the move.

My very first chilis are growing second and third pair of true leaves simultaneously, but I still haven't had the heart to kill any of them, so I moved them to a different window that doesn't get as much light, so now they have a fighting chance. Although one of them dropped a tiny leaf, I have no idea why (it's possible that I broke it but I don't recall doing so).

The newest seeds are actually taking a long time germinating, I haven't had a single one form roots yet on most, and it's been about a week. The ones planted 1/4 were much faster, with some showing roots after a day or two.

Sun hasn't been ideal here, it's been partly cloudy a lot of days, and some days quite cloudy. It's around these times I wish I had a growing light.

Don't think I've mentioned this before, but on the side I'm also growing 5 varieties of cucumbers and 5 of tomatoes, as well as basil and rosemary at the moment. Have a few more things planned for later too.

The cotes are so tiny they are hardly visible. I call this the top real estate because of the raised position they sit in.

Serious crowding issue here.

And this is my supercool Devil's Tongue, I like to imagine that it's getting a head start on growing because it has more leaves to soak the sun in with.

Coldgrowth · Apr 14, 2015

Looking good!
Don't stress too much about the little details. My experience is that these things are really durably, and my first year of growing was a great succes, despite me using nothing but potting soil, sunlight and cheap fertilizer. Even though I almost killed quite a few plants, every single one bounced back.

Do you intend to plant these in a greenhouse once it gets warmer, or? And how far north in sweden do you live?

I'm danish, northern jutland, so our climate is probably comparable.

Comptine · Apr 14, 2015

Coldgrowth said:
Looking good!
Don't stress too much about the little details. My experience is that these things are really durably, and my first year of growing was a great succes, despite me using nothing but potting soil, sunlight and cheap fertilizer. Even though I almost killed quite a few plants, every single one bounced back.

Do you intend to plant these in a greenhouse once it gets warmer, or? And how far north in sweden do you live?

I'm danish, northern jutland, so our climate is probably comparable.

Thanks!
Another reason for the transplant was also that there was some sort of fungus forming on the first type of soil.

We are getting a greenhouse this year, and that inspired me to seriously grow some stuff. I'm from Örebro, so it's not as northern as it could have been.

Comptine · Apr 23, 2015

It's been about a week since the last update, so this will be a small photo bomb I guess.

It just hit me that pots (large ones) cost a fortune! Now I'm regretting keeping all my plants! Some will be given away, in smaller pots than I initially wanted, hopefully the recipients will take good care of my babies.

The official count so far is
5 Fatalii Brown
5 Peach Bhut Jolokia
5 Devil's Tongue Yellow
5 Dorset Naga (orange?)
7 Prik Leung
2 Red Thai
2 Scotch Bonnet
5 Chocolate Trinidad Scorpion
2 Kitchenpepper
7 Jalastar

A few more set root but have not come out of the ground. I'm also a bit sad because three varieties have had a 0% germ rate. I honestly don't know why because they went through the same process as all the others. I stuck them in the ground anyway to see if anything happens. It's only been 2 weeks, but most of the others took root within one.

This one hit some chili cocaine mine in the dirt and has been shooting up really fast, well ahead of all the other Jalastar's.

The seedlings are doing great, some even setting in second true leaves.

Some setting in some odd leaves

Even more exciting is what I noticed on my beast, it seems to be growing out of the nodes (?)

I guess the others not popping yet could be a blessing, just a shame I don't have more varieties. I'm already planning next season's grow, I've got a few varieties I'd like to try.

Coldgrowth · Apr 23, 2015

Looking good!

Regarding the price of large pots, you can save quite a lot by going for cheap buckets - they work fine, just drill some holes in the bottom. Biltema, which also have shops in sweden, sell them quite cheap (17kr for a 12l bucket or 30kr for a 20l, http://www.biltema.dk/da/Fritid/Hestesport/Stald/Murerspand-2000019608/ )

Otherwise you can try some fabric shoppingbags, like fabric cloth bags. I found mine in "Søstrene Grene" for 5 kr per piece. I have not tried growing in them yet, but I suspect they will do fine for a single season.

The growth from nodes that you are observing is very common. How much a plant will form new growth from these nodes varies a lot from variety to variety. People, myself included, like to promote this side-shoot growth, to provide bushier plants. Look at the thread regarding topping for more details.

Comptine · Apr 23, 2015

Coldgrowth said:
Regarding the price of large pots, you can save quite a lot by going for cheap buckets - they work fine, just drill some holes in the bottom. Biltema, which also have shops in sweden, sell them quite cheap (17kr for a 12l bucket or 30kr for a 20l, http://www.biltema.dk/da/Fritid/Hestesport/Stald/Murerspand-2000019608/ )

I was actually doing some research on buckets yesterday, they all work out to be about the same price as some pots that newril suggested. http://www.professionalgrow.se/sv/fyrkantiga-krukor-och-underlagg
They work out to be a similar price and are actually quite handy. My problem is the sheer amount of plants I have. Going at 30-40SEK times 55. I'll buy a few there and then I'll just search the house for various canvas bags I've gotten for free over the years. Some of my babies might even grow in Stockholm Uni bags, just to keep them classy.

The growth from nodes that you are observing is very common. How much a plant will form new growth from these nodes varies a lot from variety to variety. People, myself included, like to promote this side-shoot growth, to provide bushier plants. Look at the thread regarding topping for more details.

This is an annuum, which apparently grow sideways on their own, but I have been following the topping/pruning thread, getting ready to have a go at my own plants.