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Blisters 2017 LED Coco grow

After some contemplation on doing a glog this year I've decided to run at least one more. I've scaled back the variety of peppers again and have limited myself to three:

- P. Dreadie Select bonnet - courtesy of Malarky

- Bhut Orange Copenhagen (BOC) - courtesy of Malarky

- Red Jolokia that I grew last year. This one had a very strong scorpion shape and great heat. It had pools of oil in it as well. Since I still have two 1 gallon ziploc bags of dried Red Jolokia peppers I figured I couple experiment a little.

I'm sticking with Coco coir again since I've been having such good luck with it over the last few years. I've still got a 5kg block and a bit of General Hydroponics CocoTek. It's affordable and provides a great root zone medium with little prep.

Starting seeds

I'm trying something a little different this year. I've soaked the seeds in a weak Chamomile tea solution for 24 hours.

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I've also found some small humidity domes. I've filled some plastic shot glass sized cups with coco and put seeds in them to see how they do in terms of germination.

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Coco coir prep

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Like previous years I will expand the Coco with a mild mixture of CALiMAGic mixed at a ratio of 5ml per 1L of reverse osmosis water.

Once the Coco has had a bit of time to dry, I like to run the coir through a metal mesh strainer so I can separate the fine pith from the coarse chunks.

The strainer is a cheap dollar store version. I put a handful or so of the coco into the strainer and bang it against the palm of my other hand until I'm happy with the amount of pith that's been removed.

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Sifted coir. Fine pith on the top, chunky coir on the bottom.

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I've found that my plants do better when I remove most of the fine pith. The pots dry out quicker which allows me to water more often and replenish the nutrients. When I leave the pith in the coir I've noticed that the pots stay wet too long and I end up with a green mould/slime growing on the surface.

Below is a typical example of the roots produced with Coco. This was a chili plant I grew in 2016.

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Nutrients

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Although I have other nutrients left over from previous years, I keep coming back to General Hydroponics Flora series. I use GreatfulH3AD's formula of:

- 4L Reverse Osmosis water
- 6ml FloraMicro
- 9ml FloraBloom

This basic formula gives me ~700ppm and has proven itself to be more than adequate for the full life cycle of chili plants.

The only changes I've made to the basic formula is to include the addition of Armor Si, CALiMAGic and Superthrive. I'll have to edit this post for the exact mixtures.

Armor Si

I started adding this last year and found a rather happy coincidence. Not only does it add silica to the plant, but it also doubles as a means to adjust the PH of my nutrient solution. It's a two-fer if you will.

CALiMAGic

I've been adding small amounts of this to my nutrient solution, though I'm not convinced that it's entirely necessary. At the same time I haven't found that it hurts given the fact that hot and super hot peppers tend to like more calcium than most plants.

Superthrive

I've just started adding this to my nutrient solution last year. There is a large body of evidence showing the benefits of Superthrive so I figured I'd give it a shot since I found some. I can't say whether it helped or hurt, but I did have my best year last year.

Root Pouch

I also tried fabric pots last year. I picked up some 3 gallon Root Pouch pots after doing a lot of reading on the 420 sites. They didn't disappoint when it came to the growth department. I did noticed that I had to water more. A lot more. Fabric pots dry out fast, especially when there's a wind. The good side is that I get to water more and replenish the nutrients more frequently. I also noticed that I didn't have the thick roots that wrap the plastic pots. There were more of the fine roots.

There seem to be some nice benefits with the fabric pots, but getting the plant out of them is definitely more of a pain in the butt.

Thanks for reading and I hope to update this a bit more regularly than last years grow.

Neil
 
All looking great so far... I'll be following to see how your grow does this year. I started my super seeds in an Aerogarden, but will transplant to a coco-peat mix once they're well established. I'm also thinking I'll have to figure out how to modify your nutes schedule to fit the Aerogarden growing environment rather than paying nearly $20 USD for a mere 4 ounces of the liquid nutes provided by the folks at MiracleGro. Good luck this year!
 
I'm honored to be such a part of your grow this year. I wish you the best of luck with those seeds.
I would like to shout out to Garth from TexasHotPeppers, the BOC came from him. They were delicious.
Also the P.Dreadie SS came from Gary (windchicken) and are fantastic as well. My dreadies all germed at 100% and I kept 3 plants.
 
Aaaand the first to pop out of the gate are.... P. DREADIE SS. I had a few seeds in a coffee filter and some in coco. All 4 in the filter germed so into the coco they go. They're currently getting a bit of light, then they'll go back under the dome for the night.

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Thanks for providing the seed for these Matt! I'm really looking forward to trying them this year.

I've also had a few red Jolokia pop, they still need to shed the shell.

Neil

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An just like that a Red Bhut has shown itself. I've got lots of dried red Bhut on hand and really have my fingers crossed on the Bhut Orange Copenhagen.

Neil
 
stettoman said:
I too am benefitting from Malarky's (Windchicken?) PDreadie kindness, and I've switched my media to coir at the transplant-to-adolescent pot (1 gal.) size. I put nowhere near the work into my soil, but the plants sure look happy in it...!
 
Luck to you!
Thanks Stettoman! I'm really looking forward to the P. Dreadie's this year. I've got another one trying to poke through and am having some fantastic germination rates on the seeds. I'm also glad to see others try coco. Have you grown in it before? It's a bit of a different beast compared to soil.

Neil
 
Not the LED coco thing again.

Just kidding, Neil. I like your techniques. Read a lot from your glogs on coco. I may have to experiment with some coco this year. I did manage to build a cob led light. I'm using the FloraNova. It worked well last year. May have to reasearch those other ones your using.

Enough about me. Can't wait to see what's next.

Good luck with your grow Neil.
 
OCD Chilehead said:
Not the LED coco thing again.

Just kidding, Neil. I like your techniques. Read a lot from your glogs on coco. I may have to experiment with some coco this year. I did manage to build a cob led light. I'm using the FloraNova. It worked well last year. May have to reasearch those other ones your using.

Enough about me. Can't wait to see what's next.

Good luck with your grow Neil.
Yep I'm back for another year of Coco and LED lights! I haven't tried the FloraNova line though I have read about it being VERY thick. In fact one of the hydro stores I frequent gives you a bit that goes into your drill so you can give it a good mix before using it. I've actually stayed away from it because of that. I did pick up a bottle of the Flora Grow this year to see if there is any difference in using it in the complete line over the standard 6ml Micro, 9ml Bloom that I had been using.

So far I've had just about 100% germination rate on the P. Dreadie's, considerably lower on the Red Bhuts, and have yet to have a BOC pop. I've still got my hopes on the BOC for this year. It looks like an interesting variety that I've yet to try.

Neil
 
Sorry to hear the BOC's haven't popped for you yet. Let me know if you need some more. I didn't germ any myself this year.
 
No sooner did I say that I haven't seen a BOC pop I find one has germinated in a coffee filter and one has popped in coco.

Maybe they just needed to hear me say that I really wanted to try them this year.

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Neil

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Malarky said:
Sorry to hear the BOC's haven't popped for you yet. Let me know if you need some more. I didn't germ any myself this year.
Thanks for the offer Malarky! It would appear that I spoke too soon on the BOC's. I've got 2 started and may find more popping as time goes on. Seems like they just needed a bit more time.

Them P. Dreadie on the other hand have been great.

Neil

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Good to see you back in the glogosphere, Neil!
 
Looks like you have your system buttoned down
rather well!  Can't wait to see the wonders of your
grow this season, friend!  Good luck carrying on   :metal:
 
PaulG said:
Good to see you back in the glogosphere, Neil!
 
Looks like you have your system buttoned down
rather well!  Can't wait to see the wonders of your
grow this season, friend!  Good luck carrying on   :metal:
Thanks Paul! Really looking forward to participating in the P. Dreadie glog as well. So far they're all firing. Going to have to select a few to keep and some to give to my brother.
 
Blister said:
Thanks for the offer Malarky! It would appear that I spoke too soon on the BOC's. I've got 2 started and may find more popping as time goes on. Seems like they just needed a bit more time.

Them P. Dreadie on the other hand have been great.

Neil

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Yeah Buddy!
 
Malarky said:
Yeah Buddy!
I just checked it 18 more times. It's still sprouting and is the only one to pop in coco. I think they need me to check on them 46 more times before they sprout...

Oh the excitement of a start to the new grow season.

Neil
 
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