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

Next to My Chair

Been thinking about it.. pretty sure I'm growing peppers because I'm bored.  Like, deeply, existentially bored.  Plus, a little harmless pain never hurt anybody, right?  Hell, it's probably even good for you.  We'll see if those are good enough reasons, I guess.  I bought me some "Scotch Bonnet Orange" seeds from Amazon before I found you fine folk, lurked around here for a while, then planted them anyway along with other, infinitely less suspect seeds I ordered from far flung places around the globe(!) as recommended by the very venerable Vendor Vault.  I've got them growing here by my chair.  I sit here and read. (The wall to my right as I took this picture is lined with bookshelves I'm slowing filling as I try to forget the world each afternoon.  Mostly scifi the last few years.)  It would be distracting to have a big boxy tent looming over me, so I've just got them sitting there on a cardboard box.  I hope to replace the box with a little table here soon.
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My rig consists of something like a quarter of the full Amazon Indoor Garden of Tomorrow-orrow-orrow-orrow ®.  This LED light I got is something else, man.  It's REALLY bright!  Paper towel germination, used a few Jiffy pellets, stuck some seeds straight in some old Miracle Grow I had, kept them in the Jiffy box there until they sprouted.  I'm glad to be rid of that Jiffy dome now; it was a pain in the ass.  Ahh.. let's see.. I'm mixing CNS17 Grow into RO/DI water, testing and adjusting up with GH pH kit, pouring it over my little darlings there in about 3:1 coco:perlite.  Just culled and potted up today to 3.5 inches.  All seems to be going well except for some slight canoeing of leaves, which I'm ready to blame on the 24% humidity (We wake up half mummified in the winter.  I know - grow tent.) and a few early spills on my rug.  Trying to keep it simple and not drive myself crazier futzing with dozens of parameters here, so I'm not going to sweat it unless things turn worse.  I'm not!  Worry verges on religion with me, so this will either be therapeutic or turn out to have been a bad idea.. 
Any and all comments or criticisms are very welcome and I thank you all most warmly for having me and schooling me and reading my noodlings! 
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DWB said:
Point is, I never knew how acidic our well water is until I got one of those Dr. Meter tester gizmos the other day. I haven't calibrated it with the buffers because I don't have de-ionized water but tested it against known standards. It seems quite accurate and now I know our water is waaay below 6.0. It's 4.6.
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AND
 
DWB said:
I'm not concerned about it now. I have an alternative low pH test kit coming from China soon so that will back up the new meter.
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Well, the new reagent kit that will test down to 4.0 and 5.0 confirms my untreated well water is below 5.0. So that confirmation really sucks.
 
Wow.  Sorry to hear that, DWB.  What does one do, if so inclined? 
 
I'm looking into water softeners this weekend.  Wonder if the hard alkaline water here might be doing us more harm or bother than we realize. 
 
Uncle_Eccoli said:
 What does one do, if so inclined?
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Some folks collect rainwater. pH is around 5.6. You could use that to mix with your high pH to get closer to 6.0-6.5. Just a thought.
 
Anyway, I think your plants are lookin good just the way they are!
 
Yeah I hear ya man as that's what I do myself actually, my back garden I think is even farther then that. I have a sub pump I bought for our inflatable swimming pool and use it to do thorough cleanings a couple times a year, so was thinking aboot putting on a long hose and using that
 
Well I still have to back up a bit to catch up, but was eyeballing the PH water specs.
A water softener will add salt to the water so not an option for the plants. Use PH up.
 
My water is from a well @ 8.2-8.4 on the richter scale. It's also hard as a, wait, it's really hard so we use an iron filter and then a softener for the house.
 
So my soil test was crazy high too. I sent it to a lab and it was 8.2. I now have a 1,000 gallon tank to collect the rain water. It's 6.2-6.4 PH.
1.5 inches is like 400-500 gallons in the tank.
I had to add gutters. Did that  myself..yeah I get bored easily and like pain :crazy:  I piped it to the garden which is down hill a little, like 60 yds, yeah mo pain..I used 1.5" pipe and then went to 3/4" . The water they say is around 8lb per gallon, so with a pretty full tank the pressure is there. If we get into a really bad drought I have PH down to add to the tank and then fill some from the well. So far the tank hasn't gotten below 3/4 and I have a good sized garden I water it with. That and rain here where I live is not a reliable thang..
 
CaneDog said:
Yeah, good point Matt.  I didn't think that through all the way.  Birds and cats sure, but if rats or rabbits want in they can chew their way through most things.  I see them chew through the flexible green vinyl garden fencing all the time.  Perhaps a deterrent, but perhaps not enough of one for rodents.  I have the most trouble with rabbits early spring with very small peppers or seedlings of other plants and then at the end of summer the rats (and maybe rabbits too) will come after the adult plants and he rats will strip the "bark" and eat the peppers.  Absolutely hate those rats.  Hope those peppers burn 'em good at both ends!
 
UE, that twilight's looking alright.  Seems to be setting well and is open enough the light's getting down to those low laterals which look ready to bush it out nicely. I like pods as much as the next guy, but I really like the plants themselves when they're grown well.
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OK, I'm almost caught up. RATS! Pack rats ate 40 out of 60 pepper plants in 2017. I didn't know what it was, as I live in the way out boonies. Coons, Opssums, Skunks? I spent way too much, bought dog proof coon traps (4), a live trap, and caught shit I never want to again. Then imagine that, I had a brain storm, I bought 3 rat traps (that's all they had) BOOM! 2 rats first night 2 more the second. I had them bitches on the run. Me and the dogs killed like 12 that season.
 
So with all this talk about screening the garden, here's what I did to 1,600 sf out of 3,200.
 
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I took down a 15 plus year old pool and repurposed the deck lumber to keep most of the vermin out. 'Haint seen a rabbit yet get through it. I also dug down 3-4" and poured dry sacrete around the foundation, then wet it. No digging. Done deal. after 30 years of hell...LOL.
 
So in reading the last 4 pages about plant issues. My thoughts are sometime we need to step back and let them be plants. You're worried how they look? Those perfect plants will look like crap the first week they hit the "real world" then they git thar shit together and move on. I step away from pics during the intro period...LOL
 
Keep it green and good stuff going on!
 
I'm only worried how they look insofar as it indicates their health.  All things being equal I would prefer beautiful plants, of course, but I'm interested in producing hot, tasty pods first and foremost.
;)
 
Man, I would murder for garden space like that. 
 
Edit: Well.. I'd maim for it..
 
Uncle_Eccoli said:
I'm only worried how they look insofar as it indicates their health.  All things being equal I would prefer beautiful plants, of course, but I'm interested in producing hot, tasty pods first and foremost.
;)
 
Man, I would murder for garden space like that. 
 
Edit: Well.. I'd maim for it..
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I hear ya, and they are doing really well!
 
I've just learned after years of growing (1982 first garden) that I shouldn't worry so much. Now if things turn to crap, I'm sweatin' it!
 
 
I'm always pickier about an indoor grow. The plants are right there every day and it's harder not to let the kind of things that simply work themselves out get perhaps a little too much of your attention. Once the plants go out it's easier to just let them do their thing. Uncle E, your grow's been great to follow and I hope you're getting a good plan together for your outdoor logistics. Looking forward to seeing nature pitch in and do some of the heavy lifting for you.  
 
And Devv, your outdoor space is amazing.  Must really help to make spring a great time of year for you.
 
EDIT:  Nothing wrong with murder if you confine it to aphids, pepper-stealing rats and the like ;)
 
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