3/5King's 2013 ZING!-Peppin' Ain't Easy 2.0 "If The Boat's a Rockin'....."

we're still Alive!.....now let's get back to growing peppers.




So I decided to start Peppin' Ain't Easy 2.0 instead of continuing last year’s Glog. This way everything can stay nice and tidy.

If you want to see my shenanigans from last season, CLICK http://thehotpepper....sy35kings-2012/



I’m excited…the season is upon us! (Well except for those that live on the other side of the hemisphere; you bastards have been growing for months!)(Mezo…lol)

Let’s see, where to start….well, I hope everyone’s year is starting out right. I know everyone’s year can’t be going well, so a prayer will go out to all of you that are having a not so good 2013. Me…I’m alive and still ambitious, so I’ll be alright.

On to the plants; well, I started some plants back in November…here I was being hopeful to the extreme..thinking I would have some nice plants to give away around Christmas or the new year….that was my first mistake circa 2013..

I did something wrong (like usual) listed below will be the list of seeds I started and what my setup consists of....(Like it says above…peppin’ ain’t easy)

Seeds 2013 (started Nov. 17, 2012)

Carolina Reaper
Bubble Gum 7pot
Explosive Ember
FireCracker
Red Missle
Purple Puru
Orange Starbust
Cappezoli
Brazilian Starfish

More coming…


Soil

Pro-Mix Organic with sea based compost

Nutrients

General Organics-Bio Thrive (gave first feeding at around 60 days old)

Grow Box/Light Setup

5- 6500 Kelvin 2750 Lumen 1- 2700 Kelvin 2750 Lumen (CFL’s) (Total: 16,500 Lumens)

5- Square foot growing area

Sides and roof lined with mylar bubble wrap (Like the stuff you line your basements with for insulation)

Plants are 4-10 Inches away from lights (depending on how big they are)

Bottom Watered

Foliar fed with bio thrive (every two to three days)


Side Note: (I did water the plants at about 30 days with the used water from my fish tank. I used this water for about 2 weeks and then went back to regular water for awhile)

Temps- 80-90 Degrees




So there you have it, this is the start to my 2012/13 season. Now to get on to the hiccups along the way…dang I forgot to mention the overwinter…I’ll get to that debacle in a minute.

Problems encountered; The plants started growing fine but as they got older, they just randomly dropping leaves (although it seems that the leaves that drop are the older leaves) Not from the bottom up or the top down, just random. Sometimes they drop when they are green, sometimes they drop after they have yellowed and some…some even just shrivel up and die on the plant..lol. This is a funky situation.

Also a lot of the plants seem to be stuck…like the plants look like they are getting older (stems getting thicker, mature leaves) but they aren’t really growing in size anymore. Now I can say that they A. Should have enough light at 3300 lumens a square foot B. Maybe they are too close or not close enough to the light.


My thoughts about the leaf drop: Possible that they are A. Getting too little of light (which shouldn’t be the case) B. They are getting burnt by hot spots from the bubble mylar or C. I have no idea…



Well, if you have any input or ideas as to why my situation is bucked up, please feel free to inform me.

Now for my overwinter; I brought in one Moruga for the winter. When I brought it in, it was thriving. New growth was popping up left and right. It was growing fast, so I asked Pepperguru what I should do. He told me I could just clip it like a bonsai tree. Well…the plant had shot a lot of branched out of the main trunk, before the split. So I cut most of those branches that had shot out, off and left all of the foliage above the first main split. After I did that, the plant didn’t do so well anymore. There really wasn’t anymore new growth and what was there although did get bigger, started to die and drop leaves. As well, the branches started to die from the top down. So I cut them back….everything started dying back more…so I cut it back more. Then one of my last (new) green branches had a dead leaf on it, so I went to pull it off and with barely any pressure, the whole branch pulled right off the plant! Hahahaha…I laughed so hard and then immediately used some cutting gel and stuck it in some soil. The pics you see below are what’s left…..ah haha, It makes me laugh so hard.

So there you have it. I know this was/is a lot to read but I wanted to be thorough lol. This way everyone’s questions are answered before they are asked and you all get an idea of where I’m at and what it took to get here.

LET THE GAMES BEGIN 2013!! Now for the pics..


SOME LEAVES THAT DROPPED

ORANGE STARBURST

CAROLINA REAPER

EXPLOSIVE EMBER

ORANGE STARBURST

BUBBLEGUM 7

INDOOR GROW

INDOOR GROW

MORUGA OVERWINTER

MORUGA CUTTING

 

[Dot Com]

I like the Ornamental pot w/ the hummingbird :p

 

[3/5King]

Nice to see you and the plants made it out of that battle alive...KUTG! Looks like you guys have been getting some serious rain up there.Waiting on some of it to actually hit us,my grass is turning brown already. You're Birgy has more leaves than everyone elses combined!

I'm happy to see you are still on the insanity. Keep us posted on how the 10k turns out Dave.

Thanks broski, I was noticing that about my Briggy, it definitely decided to do a little bushing. I will def. keep you posted on the 10K

Nice rebound with the plants. Hopefully all the rain we've had will give the plants another extra boost

Thank you. Although I'm ashamed to say that it was with the help of chems, next year will be a dif story. The rain is a nice touch, last years drought was ridiculous. The garden area is in a low land area, so too much of this rain and the roots will be sitting in water. No biggy, our garden is always fighting for it's life...lol

I like the Ornamental pot w/ the hummingbird :p

Thanks DC, I threw it together with some random shit I had laying around in the shed. I figure if they're ornamentals, I should spoof it up a bit. I would have preferred a different color container though.

 

[megahot]

your plants are looking great! Thats a lot of fish in your dirt! Interesting! If they start to get to stinky you can just wipe the dirt of and slap em on the grill!  * Plan B 

 

[3/5King]

Thanks Mega!

Ha, I can have a little compost tea to go with it...

Once it's in the ground, there's no stink whatsoever.

Already snagging some crappy carp for later in the season...lol

Here's a little friend that roams around our yard and the neighbors. He's a loner, I haven't seen any other family hopping around.

Saw this nice Chevy Step Side on the way home from work today.

 

[KiNGDeNNiZ]

man jelly of your fish finds... i wonder if my fish market will let me take the leftovers that they cut up and clean.... awesome update.. my birgit is second to last now... ya'll some awesome growers....

so whats with the dual experiament on the BJ7?

 

[3/5King]

man jelly of your fish finds... i wonder if my fish market will let me take the leftovers that they cut up and clean.... awesome update.. my birgit is second to last now... ya'll some awesome growers....

so whats with the dual experiament on the BJ7?

I asked at a few stores and they actually package and sell it. At the grocery store it was 1.50lb for the bones but at the seafood market, I got it for 1.00 LB. they had it shipped in the next day with their order. Now that were scoring these carp, maybe we won't have to buy it next year. You could get lucky and score some freebies, it never hurts to try.

Yes there are a lot of big Briggys in the growdown. I think a lot of us just have way to much indoor lighting lol. Thank you though.

It's two Bubblegum 7pot plants that Ive been weaving the branches together since I started them. Kind of trying to get them to grow together into one big plant. Curious to see if they work with each other or if one dominates.

 

[stc3248]

Nice Dave...you're rockin now. Eff them damn bugs!!! I'm going on a Vision Quest myself,,,my "Shute" is at the finish of the Chimera!

 

[Dot Com]

I expect your plants will grow like beanstalks w/ all that good natural fertilizer.

 

[DocNrock]

Great update, Dave!  Glad to see pods coming on!  Classic stepside.  Great use for the carp...that's about all they are good for. 

 

[Pulpiteer]

I love that you went for 55 gallons of the tea.  Doing nothing halfway
 
That bubblegum 7 experiment sounds interesting.  I'm curious too if they will work together, hurt each other, or if one will dominate.  Keep us informed...
 
Glad you made it outside.  I expect your grow should go easier than when you have to stay inside and battle bugs.

 

[3/5King]

Nice Dave...you're rockin now. Eff them damn bugs!!! I'm going on a Vision Quest myself,,,my "Shute" is at the finish of the Chimera!

Damn Shane....beast mode! When's that "vision quest" happening?? Yes, eff those bugs and the dragon fly they rode in on...coast is clear so far.

I expect your plants will grow like beanstalks w/ all that good natural fertilizer.

Thanks DC, I hope so. The starts that we grew are pretty haggard but I have high hopes.

Great update, Dave!  Glad to see pods coming on!  Classic stepside.  Great use for the carp...that's about all they are good for. 

The step side is a beaut! Pod porn below and yup, those carp are actually going to do something positive with their lives.

I love that you went for 55 gallons of the tea.  Doing nothing halfway
 
That bubblegum 7 experiment sounds interesting.  I'm curious too if they will work together, hurt each other, or if one will dominate.  Keep us informed...
 
Glad you made it outside.  I expect your grow should go easier than when you have to stay inside and battle bugs.

Halfway? What's that? Everything's overdone at our grow, except the food. So far, the Bubblegum 7's are both bushing out. Looks like equal growth. So far so good!

Yeah, we won't make that mistake again...no more indoor bugs, you can put your last dollar on that one Andy.
Time for some pod porn....now it's not Playboy status but I'm sure you bunch of degenerates won't mind "wink, wink"....

I kid, I kid

FUNGAL DOMINANT AACT...I hope. I have some local straw, chunk of grass roots with mushrooms in it, alfalfa meal, kelp meal, some calcium/mg and molasses

GARDEN BEFORE AND AFTER-laying down newspaper and straw.

BRAINSTRAIN we thought was dead (OW)

CHOCOLATE SCORPION (Over Winter)

HABALOKIA

NOT SURE...lol

JALABANERO

NOT SURE- I think this is a CGN variety IDK. The pods have the same verigated coloring as my CGN21500 from last year but those pods were round and cherry tomato in size. Love it non the less.

 

[stc3248]

Nice head on that tea! Your last purple/yellow pod looks like something Melissa77754 grew last year. I would have to go back and look but it looked very similar for sure. I think she got the seeds from AjiJoe so he may be able to help too. I love a good comeback story and your "dead" Brainstrain is just that! May have to put my Vision Quest on hold...was gonna be a rematch with Chimera in November...but now it looks like I may be deployed then. Still just a "may" but a very real possibility! I know all the Grow Down folks will be heartbroken if I have to leave in September...maybe I can train my son to keep an eye on things??? 

 

[3/5King]

What! Damn man, I hope you get to stick around and do what you've got planned and don't have to leave your fam. and garden.

Yeah, I bought a lot of seeds from Aji Joe, I'll send him a PM and tell him to come straighten out my labeling disaster.

Maybe you have to go fully automatic on the garden...lol

 

[Dot Com]

over-winters are always a gamble eh? looks like those did alright.

 

[3/5King]

I think overwinters are only a gamble if you don't know what your doing...which is the catagory I fall into..lol I'm still learning. I started with 11 and ended up with 5 I believe, but I'll take that. The plants I started with were a little jacked up anyway. I think I would have had better success with healthier plants. I'm sure I'll do better at the end of this year.

 

[Devv]

Good to see you're in the dirt!
 
Those babies are going to kick in real soon, well heck they are, I saw pods.
 
Congrats on the OW, never tried it, gonna have to.

 

[3/5King]

Thanks Devv, I hope so. The Annuums and def. popping off, some of the habanero varieties are doing well too. It's the supers that are being real dogs but they took a beating from aphids so we will see. I'd definitely give overwintering a try; I can't wait to see what these OW's do! I'm hoping to have trees in the garden come August.

 

[Dot Com]

is it difficult to water them or you got a spigot near by?

 

[Devv]

Thanks Devv, I hope so. The Annuums and def. popping off, some of the habanero varieties are doing well too. It's the supers that are being real dogs but they took a beating from aphids so we will see. I'd definitely give overwintering a try; I can't wait to see what these OW's do! I'm hoping to have trees in the garden come August.

 
You're just getting started, the warmer weather is going to kick those babies into high gear! pods will be a plenty soon enough.
 
All of your hard work will pay off in mas dividends!

 

[DocNrock]

Looking great, Dave.  I planted a number of varieties from Ajijoe.  Some of them came out awesome, like my Fatalii.  Then there are quite a few "nots."    Adds a bit of mystery to the grow, hahaha! 
 
Glad to see things plugging along!  Pods look great!