Window Silly Chili 18

GrimTakingTheHeat · Mar 27, 2018

tuellarsen said:
Hello fellow growers!

First glog!

I’ve been growing chilies every year for about 15 years. Due to the “charming” danish climate, and lack of garden and greenhouse, I’ve turned into a passionated windowsill-grower. I like to keep things fairly simple. No fancy light, relying only on the light that nature has to offer, some chili fertilizer and a lot of love.
This year, for the first time, I’m trying out coco coir. My small plants currently sit in 100% coco coir, because I wanted to get a better feel for the medium’s behaviour. Currently, because the danish spring offers temperatures around 5 degrees, the coco coir develop a slightly moldy surface, from sitting on the cold windowsill. This hopefully will be bygone when the sun starts to get more power. The windowssill is facing south, and can get really hot during summer. Therefore I will later on, when repotting, add 1/3 pumice, to get even better water retention and aeration.

This it what I am growing this year:

C. anuum

Czechoslovakian Black

C. baccatum

Aji Little Finger Orange

Pimenta Barra do Ribeiro

C. chinense

Cumari

Tobago Seasoning

White Bullet

Peachgum TigerMAMP

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See below. This small plug tells an amazing story. The poor seedling was suffering from helmet head, and in my attempt to remove it, the seedling broke in half. Feeling frustrated from my failed attempt to save the seedling, I left the broken-off half lying on top of the plug.
A week later, I checked the plug, and the broken-off half rooted!!
This is by far the youngest clone I’ve ever made. Amazing! I will update with its progress, to see how/if it might have affected it’s growth.
So if you break a precious seedling, don’t despair - try to clone it!

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Thanks for looking! I will try to update this glog as often as I can.
Happy growing out there

Looks awesome! Happy growing, friend!

Chilidude · Mar 31, 2018

What fertilizer are you going to use with the coco coir?

tuellarsen · Apr 4, 2018

Chilidude said:
What fertilizer are you going to use with the coco coir?

I'm using some standard Chili liquid fertilizer (NPK 2-2-2), that I've been using with good results for many years, in normal soil.
Will see how the plants will do in the coco coir, and wether I'll need to adjust the dosage.

Chilidude · Apr 4, 2018

tuellarsen said:
I'm using some standard Chili liquid fertilizer (NPK 2-2-2), that I've been using with good results for many years, in normal soil.
Will see how the plants will do in the coco coir, and wether I'll need to adjust the dosage.

The standard chili fertilizer may not work that good in coco coir, if it doest have all the nutrients plant need for growing as coco coir dont have any nutrients in it. You may also need to alter the dosage so much that the fertilizer is not going to be cost effective any more.

tuellarsen · Apr 4, 2018

Chilidude said:
The standard chili fertilizer may not work that good in coco coir, if it doest have all the nutrients plant need for growing as coco coir dont have any nutrients in it. You may also need to alter the dosage so much that the fertilizer is not going to be cost effective any more.

Aha, I see. Thanks for sharing your knowledge

This is the one I'm using: http://www.hornum.com/produkter/hornum/flydende-goedninger/hornum-chiligoedning-350-ml

Can you recommend a good coco fertilizer or let me know what I should look for in fertilizers?

Chilidude · Apr 4, 2018

tuellarsen said:
Aha, I see. Thanks for sharing your knowledge

This is the one I'm using: http://www.hornum.com/produkter/hornum/flydende-goedninger/hornum-chiligoedning-350-ml

Can you recommend a good coco fertilizer or let me know what I should look for in fertilizers?

That chili fertilizer could work for coco coir growing much better if you add calmag to it, but your chilis look good for now, but for cost effective standpoint it is better to switch something that is cheaper in the long run.

You can buy pretty cost effective B'cuzz coco a+b stuff that i am currently using for testing purposes, that comes with 1 litre of A part/1 litre of B part and that is all you need for coco coir growing:
https://www.amazon.de/Grow-Fertilizer-Coco-Nutrition-BCuzz/dp/B00FKZU29E/ref

That is actually really cheap in Amazon.de

You can start by using the A part for 10ml/B part for 10ml to 10 litres of water. When the plants get much bigger you can start giving them A part 15ml/B part 15ml to 10 litres of water. That will make the EC range to 1.4-1.5 and it will be enough for the chilis to make good harvest.

tuellarsen · Apr 4, 2018

Chilidude said:
That chili fertilizer could work for coco coir growing much better if you add calmag to it, but your chilis look good for now, but for cost effective standpoint it is better to switch something that is cheaper in the long run.

You can buy pretty cost effective B'cuzz coco a+b stuff that i am currently using for testing purposes, that comes with 1 litre of A part/1 litre of B part and that is all you need for coco coir growing:
https://www.amazon.de/Grow-Fertilizer-Coco-Nutrition-BCuzz/dp/B00FKZU29E/ref

That is actually really cheap in Amazon.de

You can start by using the A part for 10ml/B part for 10ml to 10 litres of water. When the plants get much bigger you can start giving them A part 15ml/B part 15ml to 10 litres of water. That will make the EC range to 1.4-1.5 and it will be enough for the chilis to make good harvest.

Thats a great price! Thanks a lot - I will buy some!
We will see, maybe I won't be able to look out through the windows come end of season tough luck...

Once again, thanks Chilidude, this is all really helpful info.

tuellarsen · Apr 4, 2018

Just a small quick photo update on a nice and sunny day here in Denmark!
Sorry for the photo quality - I'm currently on an old backup-phone.

Chilidude · Apr 4, 2018

They look great and if you have only fed them that chili fertilizer you mentioned, it seems to work for now at least.

chelicerae · Apr 4, 2018

Nice, will be interesting to follow, as quite the opposite of what I do in terms of lighting & substrate (and possibly cat-proofing).

tuellarsen · Apr 6, 2018

Chilidude said:
They look great and if you have only fed them that chili fertilizer you mentioned, it seems to work for now at least.

Yup, so far so good But currently the growth is quite slow. Maybe that new fertilizer (arriving next week!) will make them plants go crazy
Also since it seems that spring finally made it here to DK.

chelicerae said:
Nice, will be interesting to follow, as quite the opposite of what I do in terms of lighting & substrate (and possibly cat-proofing).

Thanks Currently we have no cat, but some years ago, I had one that was really interested in eating the chili leaves and then puking all over.... What I found, through trial and error, was that a sprinkle of cinnamon and cayenne on top of the soil actually helped keep the cat away. Also with the help of "buffer plants" (which I knew he wouldn't eat) surrounding the chili plants. Good luck

Chilidude · Apr 6, 2018

tuellarsen said:
Yup, so far so good But currently the growth is quite slow. Maybe that new fertilizer (arriving next week!) will make them plants go crazy
Also since it seems that spring finally made it here to DK.

It may or may not make them grow any faster, but time will tell.

tuellarsen · Apr 20, 2018

Time for an update! All is going well on the window sill. I've been feeding with the B'cuzz stuff for a week now and I'm pretty sure, combined with some sunny days, that it made quite the difference in growth, but maybe also in overall coloration of the plants.

Since last update some plants were passed on to others, some were repotted - some still need repotting. Will have to do that soon, but currently I'm suffering from pot-deficiency!

On to the photos. I can't seem to upload images without them rotating weirdly. They have the right rotation on my iPhone/Mac - but once I upload them, it gets messed up. Anyone knows of a fix?

Aji Little Finger Orange

Tobago Seasoning

Czechoslovakian Black

Peachgum TigerMAMP V1

I was assuming that the plant would be darker coloured - does anyone know if this looks like a Peachgum TigerMAMP V1?

Cumari

White Bullet

Pimenta Barra do Ribeiro

Thanks for stopping by

Bhuter · Apr 20, 2018

Everything looks great! I'm growing the PeachGum v3 and mine is dark purple. I would assume v1 would be purple as well.

tuellarsen · Apr 20, 2018

I also wanted to give an update on that slightly mouldy buildup on top of my soil that I mentioned earlier.
I've been testing the difference between one pot with 100% coco coir and a pot with 3 parts coco coir and 1 part pumice.
Same size of pot and plant and same watering routine.
As you can see from the photos, the mould is only growing in the 100% coco coir. Pumice to the rescue

tuellarsen · Apr 20, 2018

Bhuter said:
Everything looks great! I'm growing the PeachGum v3 and mine is dark purple. I would assume v1 would be purple as well.

Thank you!
I was also under the impression that it should be more colorful. Guess time will tell what it turns into

Chilidude · Apr 20, 2018

Have grown Aji little finger orange and i find that the pod taste is not the best, but it sure have some pretty nice burn and it last a long time. Perhaps it would best as a powder.

tuellarsen · Apr 21, 2018

Chilidude said:
Have grown Aji little finger orange and i find that the pod taste is not the best, but it sure have some pretty nice burn and it last a long time. Perhaps it would best as a powder.

I agree that it's not the bells and whistle type of chili. I've grown it every year for the past five, and it has yet to let me down. It grows like a weed and produce pods like crazy!
I rate it a little bit below Aji Lemon with regards to both taste and hotness. I usually dry them and find that the taste is just fine that way
That being said, I don't need the chilies to be screamingly hot - I prefer som milder ones where I still feel alive afterwards

Chilidude · Apr 21, 2018

I find the taste of the Aji little finger orange was a bit too bitter tasting for my liking or perhaps i picked them too soon before they where quite ready. Same goes for that Lemon drop, if you pick it up too soon they might not taste too good at all.