After some contemplation on doing a glog this year I've decided to run at least one more. I've scaled back the variety of peppers again and have limited myself to three:
- P. Dreadie Select bonnet - courtesy of Malarky
- Bhut Orange Copenhagen (BOC) - courtesy of Malarky
- Red Jolokia that I grew last year. This one had a very strong scorpion shape and great heat. It had pools of oil in it as well. Since I still have two 1 gallon ziploc bags of dried Red Jolokia peppers I figured I couple experiment a little.
I'm sticking with Coco coir again since I've been having such good luck with it over the last few years. I've still got a 5kg block and a bit of General Hydroponics CocoTek. It's affordable and provides a great root zone medium with little prep.
Starting seeds
I'm trying something a little different this year. I've soaked the seeds in a weak Chamomile tea solution for 24 hours.
I've also found some small humidity domes. I've filled some plastic shot glass sized cups with coco and put seeds in them to see how they do in terms of germination.
Coco coir prep
Like previous years I will expand the Coco with a mild mixture of CALiMAGic mixed at a ratio of 5ml per 1L of reverse osmosis water.
Once the Coco has had a bit of time to dry, I like to run the coir through a metal mesh strainer so I can separate the fine pith from the coarse chunks.
The strainer is a cheap dollar store version. I put a handful or so of the coco into the strainer and bang it against the palm of my other hand until I'm happy with the amount of pith that's been removed.
Sifted coir. Fine pith on the top, chunky coir on the bottom.
I've found that my plants do better when I remove most of the fine pith. The pots dry out quicker which allows me to water more often and replenish the nutrients. When I leave the pith in the coir I've noticed that the pots stay wet too long and I end up with a green mould/slime growing on the surface.
Below is a typical example of the roots produced with Coco. This was a chili plant I grew in 2016.
Nutrients
Although I have other nutrients left over from previous years, I keep coming back to General Hydroponics Flora series. I use GreatfulH3AD's formula of:
- 4L Reverse Osmosis water
- 6ml FloraMicro
- 9ml FloraBloom
This basic formula gives me ~700ppm and has proven itself to be more than adequate for the full life cycle of chili plants.
The only changes I've made to the basic formula is to include the addition of Armor Si, CALiMAGic and Superthrive. I'll have to edit this post for the exact mixtures.
Armor Si
I started adding this last year and found a rather happy coincidence. Not only does it add silica to the plant, but it also doubles as a means to adjust the PH of my nutrient solution. It's a two-fer if you will.
CALiMAGic
I've been adding small amounts of this to my nutrient solution, though I'm not convinced that it's entirely necessary. At the same time I haven't found that it hurts given the fact that hot and super hot peppers tend to like more calcium than most plants.
Superthrive
I've just started adding this to my nutrient solution last year. There is a large body of evidence showing the benefits of Superthrive so I figured I'd give it a shot since I found some. I can't say whether it helped or hurt, but I did have my best year last year.
Root Pouch
I also tried fabric pots last year. I picked up some 3 gallon Root Pouch pots after doing a lot of reading on the 420 sites. They didn't disappoint when it came to the growth department. I did noticed that I had to water more. A lot more. Fabric pots dry out fast, especially when there's a wind. The good side is that I get to water more and replenish the nutrients more frequently. I also noticed that I didn't have the thick roots that wrap the plastic pots. There were more of the fine roots.
There seem to be some nice benefits with the fabric pots, but getting the plant out of them is definitely more of a pain in the butt.
Thanks for reading and I hope to update this a bit more regularly than last years grow.
Neil
- P. Dreadie Select bonnet - courtesy of Malarky
- Bhut Orange Copenhagen (BOC) - courtesy of Malarky
- Red Jolokia that I grew last year. This one had a very strong scorpion shape and great heat. It had pools of oil in it as well. Since I still have two 1 gallon ziploc bags of dried Red Jolokia peppers I figured I couple experiment a little.
I'm sticking with Coco coir again since I've been having such good luck with it over the last few years. I've still got a 5kg block and a bit of General Hydroponics CocoTek. It's affordable and provides a great root zone medium with little prep.
Starting seeds
I'm trying something a little different this year. I've soaked the seeds in a weak Chamomile tea solution for 24 hours.
I've also found some small humidity domes. I've filled some plastic shot glass sized cups with coco and put seeds in them to see how they do in terms of germination.
Coco coir prep
Like previous years I will expand the Coco with a mild mixture of CALiMAGic mixed at a ratio of 5ml per 1L of reverse osmosis water.
Once the Coco has had a bit of time to dry, I like to run the coir through a metal mesh strainer so I can separate the fine pith from the coarse chunks.
The strainer is a cheap dollar store version. I put a handful or so of the coco into the strainer and bang it against the palm of my other hand until I'm happy with the amount of pith that's been removed.
Sifted coir. Fine pith on the top, chunky coir on the bottom.
I've found that my plants do better when I remove most of the fine pith. The pots dry out quicker which allows me to water more often and replenish the nutrients. When I leave the pith in the coir I've noticed that the pots stay wet too long and I end up with a green mould/slime growing on the surface.
Below is a typical example of the roots produced with Coco. This was a chili plant I grew in 2016.
Nutrients
Although I have other nutrients left over from previous years, I keep coming back to General Hydroponics Flora series. I use GreatfulH3AD's formula of:
- 4L Reverse Osmosis water
- 6ml FloraMicro
- 9ml FloraBloom
This basic formula gives me ~700ppm and has proven itself to be more than adequate for the full life cycle of chili plants.
The only changes I've made to the basic formula is to include the addition of Armor Si, CALiMAGic and Superthrive. I'll have to edit this post for the exact mixtures.
Armor Si
I started adding this last year and found a rather happy coincidence. Not only does it add silica to the plant, but it also doubles as a means to adjust the PH of my nutrient solution. It's a two-fer if you will.
CALiMAGic
I've been adding small amounts of this to my nutrient solution, though I'm not convinced that it's entirely necessary. At the same time I haven't found that it hurts given the fact that hot and super hot peppers tend to like more calcium than most plants.
Superthrive
I've just started adding this to my nutrient solution last year. There is a large body of evidence showing the benefits of Superthrive so I figured I'd give it a shot since I found some. I can't say whether it helped or hurt, but I did have my best year last year.
Root Pouch
I also tried fabric pots last year. I picked up some 3 gallon Root Pouch pots after doing a lot of reading on the 420 sites. They didn't disappoint when it came to the growth department. I did noticed that I had to water more. A lot more. Fabric pots dry out fast, especially when there's a wind. The good side is that I get to water more and replenish the nutrients more frequently. I also noticed that I didn't have the thick roots that wrap the plastic pots. There were more of the fine roots.
There seem to be some nice benefits with the fabric pots, but getting the plant out of them is definitely more of a pain in the butt.
Thanks for reading and I hope to update this a bit more regularly than last years grow.
Neil
