indoor Comparing indoor plants to outdoor ones

Doelman · Jul 9, 2018

This year I grew indoor plants for the first time. I had originally bought 4 T5s just for seedlings but I had a few leftover plants so I thought, why not keep them inside and see how they do. The indoor plants have gotten too big so I moved them outside last week, the pics were taken yesterday.

Indoor plants: 4 T5s 16 hours a day, miracle grow potting soil, 3 gallon containers, at least 2 hours with a fan on them every day. Temps ranged from 70 at night to 80 degrees during the day.

Outdoor plants: 7 hours of direct sunlight a day, soil consists of vermiculite, peat moss, mushroom compost, cow compost, kitchen waste compost. It's been a pretty average summer, temps have been in the high 80s to mid 90s virtually every day since the first of June with lows in the low 70s.

All plants were started indoors on March 1st, the outdoor ones went out at the end of April, all plants were almost the same size at that time.

Doelman · Jul 9, 2018

Serrano peppers. The indoor one was much larger than the outdoor one. Something of note, the indoor one was topped while the outdoor one was not. The indoor one had far more flowers but the outdoor one actually had more peppers. This is probably because the indoor flowers had virtually no pollen, I tried hand pollinating the indoor one with outdoor flower pollen and only had one pepper take. It looks like the indoor one is beginning to put on a lot more fruit now that it's outside.

Doelman · Jul 9, 2018

California wonder

The indoor plant was much larger, much darker, had more blooms and more fruit. This was the only indoor plant that had blooms that produced a lot of pollen.

dragonsfire · Jul 9, 2018

I found temperature is a big player, we had a 42c day a couple days ago and the peppers burst in growth a couple inches.

Doelman · Jul 9, 2018

Bhut Jolokia

Again, indoor pepper was much larger than the outdoor one. The indoor pepper had an absolute tons of blooms, 8+ per node. Much like the Serrano, the flowers had no pollen. I was able to hand pollinate a few flowers and had a few fruit take. Strange enough, the outdoor plant had NO flowers at all until this week, this was my only plant that doesn't have fruit yet.

Just something of an interesting note, the new nodes that have appeared since the indoor plant was placed outside have the usual 3-4 blooms I'm used to.

Doelman · Jul 9, 2018

Some kind of Thai chili

I topped the indoor plant back in May and it never really recovered. Thus the outdoor plant has had better growth, blooms, and fruit. I don't know if this is a one off or not, but I'll probably be hesitant to top Thai chilis in the future.

solid7 · Jul 9, 2018

So long as the basic requirements are met, indoor plants generally outperform outdoor plants - for growth, definitely - since the growing environment tends to be much more stable. Environmental conditions play a huge role. More so than just about anything else. Where environmental conditions are less favorable, growing becomes much more of a task. (and requires significantly more knowledge)

MulchyDreams · Jul 10, 2018

I have found peppers to be sensitive to the sun and require a lot of extra care outside in order to deal with the intense workout the sun gives them. Weekly compost teas and foliar feeds keep the leaves dark green and strong against the sun's Rays. In the end the peppers that form in the sun are stronger and crunchier. It takes me two separate outdoor locations with progressively more sun before I can put peppers on my roof which is absolutely brutal on the plants. Most can't even survive the intense heat. But the ones that do create amazing peppers full of oil and flavor. Ive only tried indoor T5 and haven't tried high intensity lights on peppers yet. But my guess would be that the peppers are better outside.

Doelman · Jul 10, 2018

MulchyDreams said:
I have found peppers to be sensitive to the sun and require a lot of extra care outside in order to deal with the intense workout the sun gives them. Weekly compost teas and foliar feeds keep the leaves dark green and strong against the sun's Rays. In the end the peppers that form in the sun are stronger and crunchier. It takes me two separate outdoor locations with progressively more sun before I can put peppers on my roof which is absolutely brutal on the plants. Most can't even survive the intense heat. But the ones that do create amazing peppers full of oil and flavor. Ive only tried indoor T5 and haven't tried high intensity lights on peppers yet. But my guess would be that the peppers are better outside.

On the roof?? Mine is well over 100 degrees every single day in the summer unless it's raining, I don't think there is any way I could keep plants alive up there lol

MulchyDreams · Jul 10, 2018

We hit over 110 last Friday and I was worrying. A few plants dumped out but for the most part so far so good. Growers may think I'm crazy but the pepper quality speaks for itself. Seeds I've kept from plants that thrived in the roof grow have been some of the most hardy and resistant plants I've come across. Here's some pictures after the heat wave.

indoor Comparing indoor plants to outdoor ones

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