• Blog your pepper progress. The first image in your first post will be used to represent your Glog.

2018 Super-hot Grow Log - Ghost & TM Scorpion

Just kicking things off with a small intro, and then logging current progress.
 
I've grown hot peppers before.  Mostly habaneros and jalapenos, but also some datils and some variety of caribbean peppers from a seed blend.  I've also done some hot jelly and hot sauce-making, but nothing too serious.
 
Since moving to Colorado, the drier air and more-intense sun have challenged me the last couple of seasons.  Particularly, since I don't have an in-ground or raised-bed garden, I only have pots to grow in.  I have a feeling that my primary nemesis is the sun, causing the pots and soil to heat up and scorch the roots...  I'll need to come up with a solution for this conundrum, because last year I barely got any fruit before the plants started getting spots and fruit began to blister or wilt.
 
This season, I plan to grow red habaneros, ghost peppers, and Trinidad Moruga Scorpions.  I got my TMS seeds from last season, when I purchased a plant from a local nursery.  The plant only provided a small amount of fruit before it also began to die off.  But I did save some of the seeds for this season.  I hope they're healthy!
 
  • Initial planting for ghost and TMS seeds was 2/5/18.
  • First seedlings sprouted on 2/11/18
  • I just noticed a second set of leaves on some seedlings.  I imagine they're only a day or few old..?  Today is 2/26/18.
Seedlings were sprouted using Jiffy potting soil mix in plastic planting containers.  A heating mat was used beneath the pots and a low, clear cover kept moisture in.  Now, the seedlings are uncovered.
 
As I go along my journey with these plants, any suggestions, advice, and feedback you may have to offer will be greatly appreciated!
 
I don't have a lot of experience with growing anything, let alone in pots.  I know soil is important, as is fertilization.  But I just don't know much about where to begin conditioning soil for pepper growing.  I'll have to do some research.  Any advice here would be awesome!
 
Let's cap things off with a few photos....  ghost seedlings in the left containers, TMS in the right containers.
 
Initial planting (back container/dome is cacti seeds):
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First seedlings:
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Current photo, 2/26/18:
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Click to expand...
I also planted my red habanero seeds on 3/6/18.  I did this because I had read in various places that super-hots grow slower, but that may not be true.  We'll see how they compare.
 
Latest update. Peppers are looking pretty good. Wish I knew more about leaf coloring, understanding what's healthy, etc. But here's where things are currently:

Trinidad Maruga Scorpion on the right, ghost in the middle, red habaneros on the left.

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Peppers have been transplanted into individual cups as of 3/31. Using the double Solo cup method for easy watering/feeding. So far, it's worked well. The plants are all drinking up the water and roots are beginning to show through the slots in the bottoms of the cups.

A couple plants are smaller stragglers. Hopefully they take off eventually.

I'm using General Hydroponics' 3-part feeding system and the all-purpose mixture.

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Thanks! Unfortunately, some plants are starting to get brown and crispy on the leaf edges. I believe my T-5 HO lights were set much too close to the plants (3"-4") and beginning to scorch them. I've raised my lights up to about 9-10" above the plants. Hopefully that fixes the issue and I haven't caused any serious damage.
 
MrSpiffy said:
Thanks! Unfortunately, some plants are starting to get brown and crispy on the leaf edges. I believe my T-5 HO lights were set much too close to the plants (3"-4") and beginning to scorch them. I've raised my lights up to about 9-10" above the plants. Hopefully that fixes the issue and I haven't caused any serious damage.
Click to expand...
I have had T5HO that close before, and never had burnt leaves. What lamps are you using?
 
alkhall said:
I have had T5HO that close before, and never had burnt leaves. What lamps are you using?
Click to expand...
 
To be honest, I don't recall which specific bulbs I have in the fixtures, but they're supposed to be approximately a white daylight color, so probably somewhere in the 4000K-5000K color range.  They're slightly blue-ish, so probably more in the 5000K range.  I've had them sitting around from an aquarium order that I never assembled.  They were shipped to me by mistake, instead of blue or actinic bulbs, and they just sent new ones and never requested I return these.  So, I just use them for grow lamps.
 
EDIT:  I just checked the bulbs, and they're unlabeled.  So, I have no idea which bulbs I received.  But I do have some snap-on reflectors that help direct more light downward.  They're aluminum and mirror-polished.  (Although...  they're not all that mirror-polished anymore.  They have some corrosion spots from the saltwater I hung them over.)
 
Devv said:
Looks like you're doing quite well taking care of the babies. ;)
 
You might try some sunshade cloth to help with the intense sun you mentioned.
Click to expand...
 

Thanks for the suggestion!  I was thinking of trying a two-fold approach this year.  First, I have some cloth pots that I purchased.  I'm thinking the cloth pots will help the roots breathe better, and will also help release heat from the soil.  The second thing was I may build some sort of a frame around the pots to shade the pots from the sun, while still looking nice.  (We live in a townhome with an HOA, so I don't want it to be ugly.  A wooden frame may look pretty nice with the style of our home.)  I still have a little time to figure all of that out, but hopefully that will keep the roots cool this year.
 
Now that I'm seeing how the fertilizer is kick-starting all of these plants, I'm wondering if part of my issue last year was improper feeding.  I was just using simple Miracle Gro tomato food.  But, I think the pots were holding too much moisture, and I wasn't feeding correctly.  Hopefully, this year will go more-smoothly.
 
Update on the peppers.  They're looking pretty good, though a couple of the red habaneros have some leaf curl.  Not sure what that's about, but I lifted the lights a few more inches just to help relieve a little stress.  I also watered top-down to help flush the soil a touch.  Not sure if that did much.
 
In any case, nicely filling out since the last update.  I added a second pair of T5HO lights so I could spread out the plants a bit more and let the leaves have some room.
 
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Previous update on 4/16/2018:
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It has been WAY too long since my last update.  I've been feeding/watering pretty much daily now with the all-purpose blend of General Hydroponics 3-part system.  It's definitely past time to transplant them into pots.  I had anticipated giving some of these plants away, but unfortunately I've been unsuccessful in that department.  So, I have 10 plants  I'll likely just plant two in a pot.  My pots are supposedly 7-gallon pots (they seem smaller to me).  I'll give it a whirl and see how it goes.
 
Here are the peppers now:
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Got them in pots!  I have some cloth pots I'm trying out this year, hopefully to allow the roots to breathe and reduce heat build-up from the sun.  If necessary, I'll even build a little shade box around the pots, but we'll see how it goes.  Since I couldn't find anyone to take some of my plants, I just put two in each pot.  Pots are supposedly 7 gallons.  Based on the amount of soil I used, that's about right.
 
For planting, I found a local nursery that sells Pro-Mix.  They had both the All-Purpose 4 cu ft compressed bales and the Premium potting soil in uncompressed 2 cu ft bags.  I got one of each and mixed some of the Premium into each pot, which worked out fine.  I have some leftovers for planting next year, too.  I also mixed in a bit of vermiculite to help with moisture retention and some perlite for more aeration, even though the mix already has some in it.  Overall, seems like a good-quality soil.  I'm excited to see how the plants do this season.
 
From left-to-right:
Bhut jolokia (Ghost Peppers), red habaneros, Trinidad Moruga Scorpions, red habaneros, and 1 each of Ghost and TMS in the last pot.
 
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