BigCedar's 2011/2012 GrowLog.

Siliman · Oct 7, 2011

Excellent pods, photos and plans for the future! Your overwinter setup is awesome. You planning on keeping plants growing with pod production in there or just looking to keep some of your prize winners going?

Great way to beat the winter doldrums, dude. I think you could pull up a chair and get a tan in your grow room..... :cool:

I'm also about to embark on the pepper dehydrator train for the first time. Let us know how yours turn out.

BigCedar · Oct 24, 2011

I finally have time to update you all :cool:

So I made a few big decisions in the last month, 1st off, I'm bailing on my overwinter garage house.. But! I'm not bailing on overwintering..

Tested the temperatures.. To keep everything at a manageable heat I would be have to be running 1 or maybe even 2 pretty heavy duty space heaters 24/7. Our garage isn't insulated well at all.. Along with 3 4bulb HOT5 fixtures, fans, timers, my seed room indoors, etc. My utility bill would be soaring over 500 if not more, that's just not in Bigcedar's deck of budget cards.

Another reason why I decided to bail:
I've put a lot of time, effort, and money into acquiring every seed I desire to grow next year and thanks to friends here on THP and elsewhere I have achieved that goal and am very happy with my list for next year. I was doing "trial n error" starts under cheap walmart lights (poor form I know) anyway as you all can guess they looked like shit for being 2 months old. So I figured.. Why not use my HOT5's? If everything is going to work out the way I want it to for 150-200 plant starts I need to put just as much effort into growing the seeds as I did acquiring them.

So the seed room is now new n improved with HOT5's with experimental starts germinating as I speak :cool:

Alright enough for the boring talk

First off, A while back Guru and I talked about me giving some of his endless fataliis a home.. So I'm thinking SWEET 10-15 fataliis! THAT wasn't what showed up at my door recently. 50+ Fataliis, Bhuts, and TS's later :shocked:

I was like a kid at a candy store. Thanks again dude

So after some serious trimming..

My Guru-Style Overwintering plants have found they're winter home in 1 of my 2 full sun windows

I also am going to experiment with the "trim if its necessary" approach. Reason being these plants are still loaded with green pods. I swear I've looked at the same green bhuts for 3 months now :crazy:

gotta love fall in Washington. Our warm house is ripening them all up real quick

These are all in front of my other full sun window..

Pods Pods and more pods.

All set for next season.

BigCedar · Oct 24, 2011

They aren't F'n around when they say High Output either. I shut the door completely to test the temperature.. 30min later.. YEA... 105! :eek:

So, I had to improvise a way to get cooler air in there with out my daughter being able to get in.. dog leash, clip on screw, fan by the door.. WALA! lol.. 82 degrees n sunny folks :cool:

Hope you guys enjoyed
Brandon

JungleRain · Oct 24, 2011

Good luck Brandon,

looks like your off to a great start

PIC 1 · Oct 24, 2011

It's good to have the fans pointed at the plants, I use a couple high outputs, and it does help bring the air temp down...

You may want to move it away from the wall though..........better air circulation...

Pepper-Guru · Oct 25, 2011

Looking good dude. Wow, I remember some of the years I brought full grown plants into the sun room. I had two special tables built just for my plants in a huge south facing window. One year, I was tracking some guitar at a friends studio and he had some lady bugs in there. I gathered them up in a coke bottle, brought them home and let them go on my plants. Within a few weeks I had a lady bug super city. They had all mated and the event that took place was awesome. Watching those larva hunt down hordes of aphids was a sight to behold. Happy overwintering man :beer:

BigCedar · Oct 25, 2011

JungleRain said:
Good luck Brandon,

looks like your off to a great start

Thanks Grant :cool:

I'll keep you posted dude. I think I have few seeds from you.. :lol:

PIC 1 said:
It's good to have the fans pointed at the plants, I use a couple high outputs, and it does help bring the air temp down...

You may want to move it away from the wall though..........better air circulation...

Thanks for the tip! That's a splendid idea. I'm buyin a good 6 medium fans pointed at them, 3 on each shelf. I did the math/measurements and that room will hold 144 plants, I have another T5 on my kitchen counter that will light up 72.. my odds are looking good I hope

Pepper-Guru said:
Looking good dude. Wow, I remember some of the years I brought full grown plants into the sun room. I had two special tables built just for my plants in a huge south facing window. One year, I was tracking some guitar at a friends studio and he had some lady bugs in there. I gathered them up in a coke bottle, brought them home and let them go on my plants. Within a few weeks I had a lady bug super city. They had all mated and the event that took place was awesome. Watching those larva hunt down hordes of aphids was a sight to behold. Happy overwintering man

Thanks Guru

That's a good compliment to hear coming from the master

. Speaking of wow, That's a great story, True dedication right there! Luckily I didn't see a single aphid or egg on any plant when I was bringing them. Haha It's a good thing I'm married n such. Otherwise I'd be doing some serious square footage shrinking with no one to tell me to calm down :lol:

I'd have overwintered plants in every south facing window, I'd build a sunroom on my roof, I'd have t5s hovering over every surface in the house for starts. Instead of being the crazy cat lady. I'd be the crazy pepper guy :lol:

man!

salsalady · Oct 25, 2011

crazy-dude Brandon,
it's a good obsession to have and...(I could be wrong, OFTEN I am..) But I don't think I've ever heard of a pepper growing obsession causing a divorce! unlike collecting cats :crazy:

You're fortunate to be able to bring your plants in and keep them going. THanks for sharing, I'll be watching.

Pepper-Guru · Oct 25, 2011

BigCedar said:
Luckily I didn't see a single aphid or egg on any plant when I was bringing them.

They will be in the soil, waiting to come up the stalk, if they are present at all. Just keep a watchful eye, and Hit me up if you do see any throughout the winter. They are easy to knock out.

BigCedar · Oct 25, 2011

salsalady said:
crazy-dude Brandon,
it's a good obsession to have and...(I could be wrong, OFTEN I am..) But I don't think I've ever heard of a pepper growing obsession causing a divorce! unlike collecting cats

You're fortunate to be able to bring your plants in and keep them going. THanks for sharing, I'll be watching.

Thanks Ann, lol I don't think your wrong about that one! Its an awesome hobby to have, hell seeing what other guys my age are doing these days.. even alot older.. I'm glad I enjoy just coming home after work and hanging out with the fam, watchin some TV together, and checkin out the ol pepper garden!

Hows your garden doing btw?? We woke up to the first heavy frost this morning.. (wasn't in the forecast) as usual :crazy:

Hope all is well with you n the family

Brandon

Pepper-Guru said:
They will be in the soil, waiting to come up the stalk, if they are present at all. Just keep a watchful eye, and Hit me up if you do see any throughout the winter. They are easy to knock out.

Ah Shit.. Here I was thinking I was in the clear lol. Thanks for the heads up man! And yes indeed.. If I see those bastards I'll be hittin you up asap. I haven't seen those damn things since the end of June. For some reason I got pretty lucky this year. Thanks dude

BigCedar · Oct 28, 2011

So the first 8 plants that I guru-style chopped were doing so well and producing so much new growth I decided to do the same to my other 10 full grown no-trim plants that were dropping leaves, flowers, and buds all over the place. I figured they were wasting energy trying to keep the pods/buds/flowers going while already getting only 10 hrs of light by the window. The back row of the full grown plants were also not getting near as much light as the row right up against the window. With them all trimmed up like the first 8 they would all be getting the maximum light possible on the window sill.

The first 8 have new growth coming in like crazy for only being in for 10 days.

Chocolate Bhut

Orange Hab

Very top of the Black Habanero (bottom part of the plants are going nuts)

Top of the TS moruga

The other 10. Freshly trimmed up as of last night.

I pulled quite a bit of green pods in the process. They are currently in a big brown bag with a banana. It's gotta weigh near 20lbs

Fatalii flakes, and a mix of ring of fire, cayennes, red habs, and TS flakes

Funny story, Since I work at a nursery/produce store we end up throwing a lot of plants away as seasons change. Always with the plastic containers they're in.. We've had like 30 7gallon mums and kale planters that have been going south and I've been religiously annoying my boss every day for a month now not to forget to save the plastic pots for me when he throws them away.. I went to work the other day and walked into a big stack of pots with this note attached :lol:

TS

PIC 1 · Oct 28, 2011

Very nice Brandon,
Have you thought about taking some cuttings for clones?

Siliman · Oct 28, 2011

Nice. I like the adjustments you've made, looks like a good grow window space.

You're boss is awesome. The note gave me the best laugh of the 'extended' holiday season.... :cool:

meatfreak · Oct 28, 2011

That's alot of "green", funny story about your boss!

salsalady · Oct 28, 2011

Merry F%^#&%* Christmas! :rofl:

That's FUNNY! Thanks for the laugh and good on you to get the pots!

for my garden-
I brought in about 10 pots, some 2 years old, all overwintered last year. They seem happy in the basement with heat and flouros. I hope to keep them producing all winter. Eventually I'll post with pics. Been really busy with real-life work lately.

Any ideas what you'll do with all those nice green pods?

SL

cmpman1974 · Oct 28, 2011

Looking great. I wish I worked for a nursery!!! I'd be BEGGING for greenhouse space though. They'd probably fire me after getting sick of me asking. lol.

Chris

Pepper-Guru · Nov 2, 2011

Ok, so I got your PM. Grab some of that magic juice, knock em out, and hit me back the next day

This will be your introduction to a new life without them bastards.... :cool:

Pepper-Guru · Nov 8, 2011

Update?