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Patchwork's First Pepper Glog

Hello all, at this point I am still new to the forum but would like to contribute to this grow log. I might look at doing the other grow log for all of the other things I grow or maybe I will just keep it to the tomatoes. While I think that over here's what the haps with the first peppers of the year.
 
Set #1
Jan 12, 2018
Put 10 each of the following in a sand-bed to germinate. This is the first time using this method for sprouting pepper seeds.
Chocolate Habanero 
Orange Scotch Bonnet
Lemon Drop
 
These were started on this date based on the projected harvest date, I use this method of determining start date with my tomatoes and some other things I grow. Since I sell to restaurants I have to plan based on the projected harvest dates. In this case I used June 1 as the first harvest date, in reality the chefs wont see product until about 15 days after that. 
 
Jan 23, 2018
First sprouts appeared and were Lemon Drop and by Jan 25 Nine of Ten had sprouted. 11-14 days germination time
 
Jan 24, 2018
Second sprouts appeared and were Orange Scotch Bonnet and by Jan 29 Ten of Ten had sprouted. 12-17 days germination time
 
Jan 29, 2018
The last of the first set of peppers sprouted being the Chocolate Habanero and only Two of Ten had sprouted. 17-? days germination time (will come back and fill in the final total days)
 
Things to note:
Sand-bed temp was kept at 68-70 F. (For peppers I would normally keep a higher temp but there were also other seeds in the sand-bed that don't like warmer temps)
Only used tap water to keep moist until Jan 30, and a very weak hydro feed was given when watered. (Again remember there were other seeds germinating in there as well.)
 
 
Set #2
Jan 27, 2018
This set only had one type of pepper and since the slow germination on the other pepper seeds in the cooler temps I decided to not start these in the sand-bed and go with the old paper towel method. I chose this method because I could use the hot water heater as the heat source without having to create a special place for them. 10 seed start and in a zip-lock baggie they went.
Grande Jalapeno
 
Things to note:
When using paper towels to start seeds do not put seeds to close together because when they do sprout and you are ready to transplant them you don't want to take a chance on messing up any of the fine hair roots if they were to grow together. SPACE SPACE SPACE its better to have it than to loose babies because you don't.
 
Will update as things progress.....
 
Feb 2, 2018
Set #1
Scotch Bonnet and Lemon Drop sprouts are doing well and will be transplanted into a starter mix.
Chocolate Habanero now has 5 seeds sprouted but I will leave them for another few days to see if I get more to germinate before transplanting.
 
Set #2
I can see that some of the seeds have tails on them but I wont open the bag until tomorrow and will put them in the starter mix as well.
 
Items to note:
Take pictures.
 
Set #1
Lemon Drop peppers were transplanted from the sandbed to cups with a starting mix.
Scotch Bonnet peppers have all germinated but were in the same sandbed as the Chocolate Habanero that were not all germinated and didn't all germinate until Feb 5.
 
Set #2
Jalapeno had 8 of 10 sprouted and they were also transplanted.
 
Not everything pictured is peppers.....
 
Scotch Bonnet and Chocolate Habanero
20180204_102429.jpg

 
 
After removing the Lemon Drop and other non pepper seedlings
20180204_102441.jpg

 
 
Jalapeno in the paper towel germinating
20180204_111117.jpg

 
 
Two cup method of growing out, bottom cup with water
20180204_102709.jpg

 
 
Two cup method of growing out, top cup with the plant, two small holes in the bottom of the top cup.
20180204_102729.jpg

 
 
Small group of the transplants
20180204_104230.jpg

 
 
 
Notes:
Keep taking pics, and get more room for trays indoors. Seal the greenhouse and quit coming up with excuses to put it off.
 
Update on the first two sets and the addition of the third.
 
From the 1st round of seeds started all types listed below have been transplanted and are doing well.
Chocolate Habanero - 10 of 10
Orange Scotch Bonnet - 10 of 10 (two of these have limp baby leaves but a single true leaf that is not limp) Keeping an eye on these
Lemon Drop - 9 of 10
 
From the 2nd round of seeds started, there was only one pepper type in this round, all the sprouted seeds have been transplanted and doing well.
Grande Jalapenos - 8 of 10
 
All transplants were moved out into the greenhouse.
 
 
Set #3
As a fore note you will notice that there are seeds other than peppers planted in the cell trays. However I will only focus on the two types of peppers and the process I use for planting these.
Lemon Drop - 12 seeds
Thai Orange - 6 seeds (compliments of D3monic, I will try to put up an additional glog just for the Thai's that D3monic sent me)
 
The process is fairly standard for cell trays, fill will mix press down back fill holes that were missed or that didn't get enough mix, press down, water thoroughly, poke holes, drop seeds, cover.
 
I use 6x12 - 10x20 72 cell plug trays
 
Here with Pics (Sorry for the sideways pics, I don't know how to get them to turn 90 deg to the right and keep it, they still uploaded sideways)
Loose Packed Tray
72 cell loose packed tray 20180210_172514.jpg

 
Compression Tray to pack each cell down
72 cell compression tray 20180210_172525.jpg

 
Microgreens flat board, used to apply even pressure for compression
72 cell pressure applied 20180210_172534.jpg

 
After the first compression, you can see some of the cells are not completely full. Added more mix and repeated the process
72 cell tight packed tray 20180210_172602.jpg

 
Here are two 72 cell plug flats and a microgreens tray ready to be planted.
2-72 cell trays and a microgreens tray ready to go 20180210_173747.jpg

 
I will only show you the cell tray where the peppers are since the microgreens tray and the second 72 cell tray have nothing to do with peppers.
tray 2 planted 20180210_211129.jpg

 
 
Note: Lesson learned with paper towel method, if seeds sprout in the paper towel all curled up, plant them laying down flat and don't try to put them root down leaf up. You could damage the seedling all together and get nothing, if you lay it flat and not as deep as you would a straight sprout it will figure out which way is up and which way is down, and in the process not tie itself in a knot.
 
Feb 18
Pics of the first round of peppers. They have been in the greenhouse for a week now and the lowest temp in there has been 42 one night, otherwise 65 plus.
 
Lemon Drop
Lemon Drop Transplant 0006 - 20180218_110036.jpg

 
Chocolate Habanero
Chocolate Habanero 0001 - 20180218_110044.jpg

 
Orange Scotch Bonnet
Orange Scotch Bonnet 0001 - 20180218_110057.jpg

 
Giant Jalapeno
Giant Jalapeno 0003 - 20180218_110112.jpg

 
The 10 day forecast has temps in the mid to upper 70's, with lo's in the low to mid 50's. Can't wait to get these little ones up some size and transplanted into their final home.
 
Notes: patient
 
Feb 24,
So with the start of Spring brings happiness to most farmers/gardeners as well as the bugs. I found out that I am not the only one around here that has a thing for hot peppers.
Lemon Drop Slug Damage 001 - 20180224_074639.jpg

you can see in this picture what the culprit was, they always leave the slim trail to tell you who/what was there.
Lemon Drop Slug Damage 002 - 20180224_074656.jpg

 
Fortunately there is a easy fix for these little critters as long as everything is on the table.
The cup that was affected is in this pic, of the two cups in the middle top, it is the one without a plant standing up in it. Lemon Drop.
Slug Fix 002 - 20180224_075208.jpg

 
Then here you can see the wonderful spice called salt, the one thing that slugs hate worse than a shoe stepping on them. At least the shoe is a quick death, squirming as they dehydrate is less favorable I am sure. 
Slug Fix 003 - 20180224_075217.jpg

 
Notes: About another 21 days and it will be transplant time, to a larger container, and most likely the last one before going into the final transplant location.
 
Mar 6,
Well the winter temps returned and even with greenhouse temps in the upper 70's during the day was not warm enough to keep my babies alive when the temp decided to drop lower than 32 for over 4 hours.
Fortunately of all the peppers only a few of them got hit bad enough to kill them. Cant say that for 140+ tomato plants.  
All in all
197 total plants, 54 of them being peppers, only 30 pepper plants should be able to recover and survive.
 
Notes:
Don't trust weather peeps, and don't expect the warm temps during the day to keep things from freezing at night.
 
Time to start over, only 1.5 months set back.
 
You will get there.  We're chucking things back in the frost box this evening, and everything else in the garage.  Granted were in N. Florida, they are calling fot the "30's", again for lows (whatever that means), which is too close for comfort after getting this far.  They were calling for "40's" last night, so I left everything out, and it was 35 when I got up this morning. :tear:
 
Yeah, the low here was supposed to be 35, ended up 29 when I got up, and the recorder says it was 28 at about 4 am.
I feel like I committed a crime killing all those little plants. Funny I don't feel that way when I kill weeds. LOL
 
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