BigCedars SuperHot Grow 2012

PIC 1 · Mar 13, 2012

Sorry I missed this update!........Wow, a bit of the "Valley Isle"....via Washington.

Your plants are looking lush, How much for a mixed flat..............ha

Man you're going to have multiple harvests with those girls. Those plants never seemed to struggle, they'll soon be branching out!......then watch-out.

The "GH's" look really cool, I wish I had the room for those. I'm stuck with a couple of homemade coldframes to bridge me through til May.

Once again, an outstanding overview on "What's Happening at Brandon's" ...
After checking this out I'm all hyped on getting back to the plants..........and the sound of perlite on the floor........"Crunch"

Greg

BigCedar · Mar 14, 2012

jsschrstrcks said:
I think I can build one cheaper than people are selling them for.

There is a lot though, nearby that has an old one sitting there on it... no house, no well, no sewer, no crop, just a greenhouse in the middle of a field in the process of overgrowing with weeds and brush...

Thinking about trying to track down the owner and offering them a couple K for the property along with the green house... It looks to be about 12' x 20'.

Most of the greenhouses big enough to walk in, are going for 800-1000$, and I can build one cheaper... Which is another possibility.

I hear ya, I wish I could build a few.. Not until were done renting though. I don't think the owner would appreciate the backyard converted into a greenhouse lol. Good luck getting that property and greenhouse. It's gotta suck seeing a 12X20 GH going to waste!

PaulG said:
Another pretty cool thing I noticed the other day. A baby Serrano Del Sol on one of my OWs.

How cool is that! In Washington, even : )

Other than that I finally got around to doing some spring-yard prep. I put my 2 greenhouses up. Nothing super fancy but they work. I have to cover the grass in the second one for humidity reasons but you can get an idea of the setup so far.

Those look like great little units, Brandon, I can't wait to see them full of chiles! Will you stick some shelves in, or put plants on the ground? Great idea cutting in the vent windows. How do your ghouses do in the Washington Breeze?

They're not getting any use when it comes to plants but my Daughter and my Dog sure enjoy em!

A perfect use for vacant greenhouses! They are breaking them in for you!

-I haven't fertilized my oldest plants in almost 2 weeks and a couple started showing a calcium deficiency (I think) You can see the few in the pics above with curled leaves.. I gave them 1/2 strength calmag a couple days ago and they have looked better each day that passes.

Is curled leaves a normal sign of cal deficiency? I have a few annuums beginning to bud that are yellowing at the bottom leaves and have some curling. You probably would notice it on the early jalapeno I posted today. Some of my chinense varieties have a yellow lower leaf or two as well. I'm leaning toward an app of epsom salts. Or do you think the Calmag is better? I have applied fish fert twice, two weeks apart at low strength. Maybe they are old enough for full strength now?

Keep up the great work, Brandon, give the rest of us something to shoot for! Have a great weekend playing with your greenhouses!

Hey Paul sorry it took awhile to get back at ya. I'm planning on just keeping them on the ground in the GH's, shelf free. The plan is to have them in there till about mid May-June, then I'll be taking them out. I've noticed pest populations stay lower when they're not in the GHs. The biggest reason why I like them is for Fall use. Extend the season, and ripen more pods

As for the WA breeze, I have about 12 foot long stakes holding down the legs of the greenhouse.. We had 45mile gusts a couple days ago, I left the GHs up to test the holding ability and they stood their ground! I'm not too worried about the wind issue now

The curled leaves can be a sign of a deficiency, along with oddly shaped leaves. I personally don't use epsom salts and just stick with calmag.. IMO you just need one or the other.. I prefer calmag because it is water soluble.. I'm not the biggest fan of epsom salts because of the burn factor. I don't wanna wait til the lights go out to spray 300 plants so they don't burn. Calmag is also less time consuming, which I am certainly a fan of with my busy schedule lol. As for your fish ferts, I'd stick with 1/4 or 1/2 strength.. Kind of a rule of thumb for any fertilizers that you give these tempermental bi-polar plants lol. Thanks for the reply Paul!

Spankyscolts said:
Brandon truly looking good ! You got your grow on for sure. I'm learning so much from your Glog and plan on walking in your footsteps. You are right about space, I have a tendency to overdo things lol. Very interesting your observation that there was no difference between the 3.5 x 5.0 and the 3.5 x 3.5 pots. I finally settled on 3.5 x 4.0 kind of in the middle. I like those greenhouse tents how well do they work? I should buy some of those. How early can you put your plants in them there in Washington? What type of soil are you using in the 3.5 inch pots? Also by your estimation how long have you been able to have them in this pots and when did you transplant into them? Just stunning work great job my friend!

Thank you very much my friend! I didn't think I'd be anywhere near this successful.. Infact I was pretty sure I was gonna fail.. Which I still have alot of time to accomplish so with that said *knocking on wood* I hope this all works out lol. You and I have the same problem lol. I don't think overdoing things is such a bad thing though

Besides.. how fun would it be growing 2 plants? Ha!

The GH tents work pretty well, not a 5,000dollar quality GH but for the price (200 each) they work well for what I need them for.. As for when I can put them in there? Well.. That's all weather permitting like most things to do with planting here in this state.. I was hoping beginning of April but it snowed 3 inches yesterday.. melted.. but still. I have a feeling it's gonna be more around the end of April/May. Night time temps are still dipping below 38, We will need quite the weather turn around for my mind to change.

I am using Black Gold Organic Potting Soil. I've yet to hear it mentioned on THP but this stuff is freaking money.. I did not expect to see the results I did. Super fluffy, light, good drainage, and no nutes so you can add what you want/need. I'll be using it for years to come for sure. It's 6 bucks for 18qts at fredmeyer. Cheapest place I found it. If I could get bales of it for my 5gallon plant out I would..

I potted up into the 3.5X5s when the 72ct cells started getting a pretty well established root ball. I think they were showing their 3rd set of leaves if I remember correctly. As for an estimation for how long they can stay in the 3.5X5s? I'll give you an exact answer actually. I'm heading out today to pick up 300 gallon containers.. I really didn't wanna have to do this but these plants are getting out of control.. Their so big now that when I take them out to water/inspect I almost always slightly damage a few since they're literally grown into each other.. Gotta do what ya gotta do right? So with that said, I'll be potting up my oldest shelf in the next few days.. They have been in the 3.5X5s for 3 weeks, and keep in mind were almost dead the first week. Hope that helps, sorry for the dictionary lol..

PIC 1 said:
Sorry I missed this update!........Wow, a bit of the "Valley Isle"....via Washington.

Your plants are looking lush, How much for a mixed flat..............ha

Man you're going to have multiple harvests with those girls. Those plants never seemed to struggle, they'll soon be branching out!......then watch-out.

The "GH's" look really cool, I wish I had the room for those. I'm stuck with a couple of homemade coldframes to bridge me through til May.

Once again, an outstanding overview on "What's Happening at Brandon's" ...
After checking this out I'm all hyped on getting back to the plants..........and the sound of perlite on the floor........"Crunch"

Greg

Hey Greg! No need to apologize dude! Good to hear from ya.
Mixed flats are gonna be pretty spendy.. I'll trade ya one of your grow rooms n setup for a few if you'd like though. :lol:

I hope I have multiple harvests.. It's all gonna boil down to our weather! Quite a few are already branching out. Like I told Robin, it's gotten to the point where I'm heading out today for 300 gallon containers lol.. The coldframes should work good for ya though, I'm basically doing the same thing with the GHs.. Just getting me closer to summer time. I get the most use out of them in the Fall

Well I'm off to the nursery wholesale store!

Hope all is well with you, your fam, and your pepper jungle. Have fun with your kids on their spring break!!
Thanks for the reply my friend.

Brandon

BigCedar · Mar 17, 2012

Weekend Update

Jamie.. I wish you were wrong about me needing to pot-up before plant-out...
My plants were getting too big.. Everytime I took them out of the closet to get watered I was damaging them..So I went to the local nursery store and bought a few gallon containers...

The soil that almost killed all of my 200+ starts is also the soil that all of my over-winters are planted in and doing great.. The same soil I've been using for years now.. With that said, I'm giving it another go. I'm convinced that the problem is drainage. I might be wrong.. Time will certainly tell.

Before.

I purchased a bit of Perlite..

After.

I also added some organic fert.. It's my first time using it. It has calcium, mag, nitro, phosphate, potash, and sulfer.
Along with plenty of non-plant food ingredients to help the soil. Time will tell. I hope it works.

So with the plants being potted up into gallon containers I had to find a way to rotate them under the lights.. (space issue once again) Once everything is potted up I'll have 12 flats in the indirect light GH, 12 in the closet and I'll have to switch them out every 12 hours.. It's a never ending job!

The gallon pot-ups so far

My OW Yellow Bhut Catching Some WA Sunshine.

3/5King · Mar 17, 2012

Things are looking great BC! All of that work will pay off in the end. Awesome job dude.

stc3248 · Mar 17, 2012

Nice work Brandon! I don't envy you having to rotate 24 flats every 12 hours. Great idea though! My indoors are ready for a pot up too, but I've been putting it off because I don't have the room, and I didn't want to reconstruct the little gh outside...not sure I'm ready to play musical flats with them either though. lol

Your overwinter looks just about perfect! I'm pretty sure I see some open flowers on that bad boy....

Keep it up brother!
Shane

Oh, I also like the looks of the soil and plant food. I think its going to work out great for you!

BigCedar · Mar 17, 2012

3/5King said:
Things are looking great BC! All of that work will pay off in the end. Awesome job dude.

Thank you! I sure hope so. I can't wait till they're outside so I have a bit of free time lol. Thanks for the reply

stc3248 said:
Nice work Brandon! I don't envy you having to rotate 24 flats every 12 hours. Great idea though! My indoors are ready for a pot up too, but I've been putting it off because I don't have the room, and I didn't want to reconstruct the little gh outside...not sure I'm ready to play musical flats with them either though. lol

Your overwinter looks just about perfect! I'm pretty sure I see some open flowers on that bad boy....

Keep it up brother!
Shane

Oh, I also like the looks of the soil and plant food. I think its going to work out great for you!

Thanks Shane! Yeah no need to envy me at all with that, It sucks to be perfectly honest lol. I think I'm gonna throw a big ol party for myself once I'm able to bring them outside, when the only thing I have to worry about is when to turn on the drip system.. Ah I can only dream of such a day lol.

Thanks for the compliment on the OW! She's ready to go outside for sure. You're right, she's covered in flowers, has been for months actually. Most of em just fall off but that's alright. I don't want any pods yet!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope the Cali sun is treating your plants well :cool:

So as much as looking at soil and fertilizer pictures is fun n all..kidding.
Heres some plant shots.

TSXMorango

Infinity

TS Moruga Satans Strain

Dorset Naga

7 Brain

TSMB

7Jonah

SB7J

Mystery Superhot W/Tail (The other 3 plants are green :crazy:

)

Mystery Red Douglah

Scovie · Mar 17, 2012

I know I never post here, but, Wow, BC!
You definitely have the green thumb, your plants are beautiful, and your OW is AMAZING!
Nice work.

BigCedar · Mar 17, 2012

Scoville DeVille said:
I know I never post here, but, Wow, BC!
You definitely have the green thumb, your plants are beautiful, and your OW is AMAZING!
Nice work.

SD are you feeling okay??
I had to triple take to make sure I wasn't seeing things! lol.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for the compliments dude!
If all goes according to plan I'll supply the PNWCF with some goodies for everybody to enjoy :hell:

Scovie · Mar 17, 2012

Hahahahahahaha BC!
I usually just look, but damm, you are impressive. Well deserving of a compliment!

I can't wait for the NWCF. I just can't wait.

Keep up the good work (passion). Lol

HH81Betterhalf · Mar 17, 2012

DANG Brandon that is some dedication right there!!!! I am very impressed man.

You have a hearty crop for an indoor Washington grow! Amazing just flat out amazing

Keep it going!!!!!!!

Looking forward to NWCF!!!!

BigCedar · Mar 17, 2012

Scoville DeVille said:
Hahahahahahaha BC!
I usually just look, but damm, you are impressive. Well deserving of a compliment!

I can't wait for the NWCF. I just can't wait.

Keep up the good work (passion). Lol

Well thank you thank you my friend! Very nice to hear

It's my first year with seeds and 250+ plants so I'm just stoked that I haven't killed anything yet lol.

I doubt I'll be able to get the NWCF off of work this year unfortunately..

My nukes will have to fill in for me.

Something tells me they won't be very pleasant to be around though.
:mouthonfire:

HH81Betterhalf said:
DANG Brandon that is some dedication right there!!!! I am very impressed man.

You have a hearty crop for an indoor Washington grow! Amazing just flat out amazing

Keep it going!!!!!!!

Looking forward to NWCF!!!!

First SD and now you Megan?!

Talk about being blind-sided on a Saturday morning! lol.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for the compliments! It has required alot of dedication, I swear I feel like I work 90 hours a week between that and my real job.. Oh wait, I do work 90 hours a week! lol. It's all good though

Keeps me busy.

Speaking of growing peppers.. How are you guys sittin on plants? Aaron and I talked breifly about you guys possibly wanting some? Let me know. I'll be taking inventory soon and giving a few away. I'd like to get them all hardened off and ready for plant out before I give them away. That way I'm not like "hey guys! here's some plants! you gotta bring them out for 30 min intervals for the next 2 weeks in between taking care of your little ones! have fun!" that's just bad form lol. I'll take care of the dumb stuff :cool:

Hope all is well with you guys

stc3248 · Mar 17, 2012

Those babies are gonna love their new shoes! You thought they were getting too big before??? The 12hr light cycle should keep them somewhat tame for you. The purple plants are stunning...but that 3 headed dorset is what really caught my eye!

Keep 'em going!
Shane

megahot · Mar 17, 2012

Excellent job on your plants!!! They are looking great!!!!

HH81Betterhalf · Mar 17, 2012

Hahaha.... somehow (not purposely) I follow SD a lot... he's cool peeps though.

Work never ends does it??? Sad that its preventing you from coming to NWCF. Remember its just passed Enumclaw so not to hard to daytrip it.....

As far as plants I would PM Aaron and see what he wants. We only have 2 out of our five that survived over-winter and 5 days no power. Last week we got 2 from Megahot. So anyway PM Aaron see what his plans are.... thanks by the way!!!!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

MGOLD86 · Mar 17, 2012

Freaking amazing Brandon. That is great that you got the SB7J to germ. I wasn't able to get it to pop yet. I still have it on the germ tray, but damn, yours looks pretty beastly.

Great update.

Spicegeist · Mar 17, 2012

Did you ever get the "Naglah" seed to germinate?

PIC 1 · Mar 17, 2012

Nice update Brandon,

I like the 1 gal containers,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,those plants look happy. We'll have to compare our SB7J pepper photos with everyone else who's growing dat thang...
Do you have any plants in your greenhouse? Our weathers running another 7 days in the 70's........what a tease, blue sky with puffy clouds to boot.
The crummy days are lurking, soon to return...
Great update again,

Greg

BigCedar · Mar 19, 2012

stc3248 said:
Those babies are gonna love their new shoes! You thought they were getting too big before??? The 12hr light cycle should keep them somewhat tame for you. The purple plants are stunning...but that 3 headed dorset is what really caught my eye!

Keep 'em going!
Shane

Thanks Shane! They're loving their new kicks! I'm happy to say I think I fixed the soil problem, nothin but positive results so far and turbo charged growth rate. The purple plants are some of my favorites.. Expecially since they're not supposed to be purple lol. Can't wait to see what pods they decide to throw my way this summer. The triple dorset is pretty neat, I have probably a dozen like that all created by accident when I almost killed my plants a month back lol.. Thanks for stopping by dude, always good to hear from ya!

megahot said:
Excellent job on your plants!!! They are looking great!!!!

Thanks mega! Keeping em lookin nice is a battle I think I'm finally winning

HH81Betterhalf said:
Hahaha.... somehow (not purposely) I follow SD a lot... he's cool peeps though.

Work never ends does it??? Sad that its preventing you from coming to NWCF. Remember its just passed Enumclaw so not to hard to daytrip it.....

As far as plants I would PM Aaron and see what he wants. We only have 2 out of our five that survived over-winter and 5 days no power. Last week we got 2 from Megahot. So anyway PM Aaron see what his plans are.... thanks by the way!!!!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Hey Megan. Yeah it sucks I might not be able to.. I'd like to meet all the new people there this year. I might be able to stop in on Friday for a little while so I'll shoot for that.

Only 4plants?! Oh I can't let that happen.. Not on my watch! I think I'd have a heart attack if I only had that many! :lol:

I'll shoot you guys another PM today.

MGOLD86 said:
Freaking amazing Brandon. That is great that you got the SB7J to germ. I wasn't able to get it to pop yet. I still have it on the germ tray, but damn, yours looks pretty beastly.

Great update.

Thanks Matt! Apparently I got lucky with my SB7J germ rates after hearing about all the trouble everyone else has been having with them. I went 3/4 on the first shot and 2/3 on my late starts so if all goes according to plan I hope to have some to send out to anyone that didn't get any sprouts or wants to try one.. Be patient though! they took forever to sprout for me. If I remember correctly they were all sprouting around the 25 day mark. Thanks for the compliments dude. I appreciate it.

Spicegeist said:
Did you ever get the "Naglah" seed to germinate?

Hey Charlie. Thanks for stopping by man. I went 0/14 with the Naglahs.. I tried to germinate every single seed I bought from that dealer.. That and the 7Bubblegum were the only 2 types that had 0% germ rates (same source).. Don't really know what happened there. Are you trying to grow them as well? Any luck? Nice lookin list of crosses btw. I've been thinking about that BJ Chocolate X Fatalii since you posting those pictures a while back lol.

PIC 1 said:
Nice update Brandon,

I like the 1 gal containers,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,those plants look happy. We'll have to compare our SB7J pepper photos with everyone else who's growing dat thang...
Do you have any plants in your greenhouse? Our weathers running another 7 days in the 70's........what a tease, blue sky with puffy clouds to boot.
The crummy days are lurking, soon to return...
Great update again,

Greg

Thanks Greg! I like em too. I just wish I had more room so I wasn't, as STC put it, playing musical flats in the grow closet every 12 hours lol.. I did the math and I'm gonna end up with more flats than room once they're all potted up. I'm gonna have to come up with something.. I don't have any plants in the greenhouse's yet unfortunately. It's still dipping below 34 every once in awhile so I'm holding off. Also, I think the growth rate will slow down dramatically if I bring them out soon even though I'd really like to.. it's only hittin 55 degrees in the daytime, and that's if were lucky. 7 days in the 70's... Man that sounds nice! That's crazy how different the weather is in your neck of the woods compared to WA.. when were hitting 70 degrees heck even 60, the warm weather is definitely here to stay lol. Thanks for stoppin by my friend. I've looked at your recent update atleast twice now.. Time for a reply! lol.

Thanks for the comments guys.
Hope everybody has a great week!

Brandon

HH81Betterhalf · Mar 19, 2012

BIG CEDAR ROCKS OUT LOUD!!! LOL!!!!!!

BIG CEDAR ROCKS OUT LOUD!!! LOL!!!!!!

Spicegeist · Mar 19, 2012

BigCedar said:
Hey Charlie. Thanks for stopping by man. I went 0/14 with the Naglahs.. I tried to germinate every single seed I bought from that dealer.. That and the 7Bubblegum were the only 2 types that had 0% germ rates (same source).. Don't really know what happened there. Are you trying to grow them as well? Any luck? Nice lookin list of crosses btw. I've been thinking about that BJ Chocolate X Fatalii since you posting those pictures a while back lol.

I'm not growing the Naglahs, but thought they looked interesting in pics I've seen. I've got 12 F2s of the Fatalii x Choco Bhut going as well as 3 more F1 seedlings to produce more F2 seed. Maybe after I get seed from those I can distribute for people who want to grow and help me find the bumpy yellow pod I'm looking for. I'm not sure how recessive these traits are, so I have no idea how many I'll need to grow out. Regardless, after this season I should have enough seed to give it a shot.