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All of my chinense plants are midgets

R

roadhouse

I have quite a few c. chinense plants that I'm growing including Fatalii, Red Caribbean Habanero, Mustard Habanero, White Bullet Habanero, etc. All of them are really short! Most average around 2 inches in height with the tallest being a Red Carribean at about 3.25 inches. Meanwhile, I have an Onza that is about 10.5 inches tall and many others in the 5 to 8 inch range. These are all annuum species. All of these plants were planted around the same time in mid-March and all germinated within a few days of each other.

I realize that chinense species are different and slower to grow, but the difference seems rather abnormal. I have the same soil in all the plants, and the temperature is on the cold side usually between 65-70 in my basement. I have a space heater going just to keep them at that. Is it the cooler temperatures that are keeping them that small? I keep my 40W flurorescent lights about 2-3 inches above all of the plants. Would it help if they are higher up?

This is really confusing me, I want to get these guys a little bigger before transplant! What can I do?

For some pics of the plants, see my grow thread:

http://www.thehotpepper.com/showthread.php?17937-roadhouse-s-2010-first-year-grow-thread&highlight=
 
From what I could see, your chinense are looking fine. The cooler temps are NOT to their liking. I've got the opposite problem, 37 - 39c every day and they don't like that either. As long as they appear healthy don't worry. Annums are a whole different story than chinense. They're fine.
 
mine are 3 months old and smaller than yours, they are under 2 grow lights but very, very slow in growth progress. I am thinking perhaps lighting for chinense requires more than I am providing and have been reading other posts about blue spectrum.
once my weather changes and I start seeing some more sun I hope that I will see more growth (another snow storm yesterday), my annuums are large.
 
Glad to hear I'm not the only one then. I guess I'm worrying too much. I just see other peoples pics of their chinense plants and they're huge compared to mine!
 
roadhouse said:
Glad to hear I'm not the only one then. I guess I'm worrying too much. I just see other peoples pics of their chinense plants and they're huge compared to mine!
Click to expand...

You'll buy a carload of grief by comparing; your plants look healthy, what more could you hope for? My plants are small but look healthy...so...I'm happy. Cheers.
 
I would try bringing the lights up a few inches, make them climb to get to it.

I have had a few do this to me each year too. Everything is exactly the same soil, feed, water, light and I always get a couple that refuse to grow. Yours are almost two months old and I'm thinking should be taller. Maybe the sun will help.

Are you using any type of fertilizer on them?

Good luck.
 
They usually always start off slow. Some may take a few weeks, some months. Mine personally started slow but exploded with growth under my sun systems t5 setup. It uses both spectrum's of light 2 warm + 2 cool. Maybe a different spectrum would help?
 
roadhouse said:
All of these plants were planted around the same time in mid-March and all germinated within a few days of each other.
Click to expand...

From mid March (say 15th) until date of last pic (April 30th) is 46 days. Subtract about 10 days for germination time leaves 36 days. So for chinense plants about 5 weeks old I think they look fine and they just need to be fertilized with a large dose of patience. :)
 
agree with the other posts. in another month you'll be happy because they'll have solid thick stems and they'll be taking off. Some of my annuums are very tall as well and I have to be careful with the wind because some of them can barely support themselves. Your plants are looking good. I'll second what Patrick says as well with moving up the lights.
 
That's all reassuring. I have added fertilizer but I made a noob mistake and added too much and burned them a bit so I am not adding any more for a while to let them all recover. I am also worried about a couple of my annuums getting too tall that they'll get blown over. My Onzas for examples are now almost 11 inches tall but have not started to branch out at all. There are just a few little nubs poking out at the joints with no bushiness. I have them touch the lights but they just keep growing.
 
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