Caranx's ThailandGrow

karoo · Jul 31, 2018

Looking great!
You should not have problems in warm Phuket.
I am busy organizing my daughter's holiday for December to Phuket at the moment.

Caranx · Aug 1, 2018

About 6 seeds have breached the surface and one has come up fully on the first batch, will give it another day before transplanting.

Also i went to stock up on new cocoir today, the place had some rather sad birds eye plants but they were fruiting so asked if i could get one for a price equal to 2 dollars. Said and done so now i just need to find a way to make it a bit happier.

The main problem is probaly it being overwatered, the medium and that there is not much room for the roots(have quite few sticking out in the bottom of the pot), it's almost pure soil except some chunks of cocoshells.
If it wasnt for it already having alot of pods i would have cleaned the roots and put in a new medium. Seems like the best option right now is rather to give it a bigger pot and add a good mix and start feeding it some new food. There are some black granules on the topsoil so i guess thats what they have been feeding it.

Positive thing is except some holes in some of the leaves is that i havent spotted any bugs or symptoms of mites.

Any tips on how to make it happier would be great!

Caranx · Aug 7, 2018

A small update!

Most of the seeds germinated without problems and seedlings have been transplated to seperate containers. Have about 10 seeds left that should pop up this week.

The sad nursery birds eye is doing ok and have alot of new flowers, transplanted it into a larger container with better medium and gave it a low dose of GHE nutes and a full dose of calmag. Will start feeding it with normal strength nutes in a week or two when im sure most of the stuff from the slowreleasing granules is out of the system.

And here is my Prik ke fa in the middle of the first wave of fruit. A medium heat variety with less heat than a birdseye so a pretty nice snack pepper! IMO they taste best when dark green and just getting ready to turn colour.

karoo · Aug 7, 2018

Those plants are looking good!

Caranx · Aug 10, 2018

Got started with my wormhouses today!

One with the usual household compost and one with cow manure

Caranx · Aug 13, 2018

Not sure if it's the nursery plant or if it was the ants going into my pots some days ago when it was heavy rain but i'm battling a Aphid invasion on several plants now.

Sprayed the plants with a mix of neem oil and woodvinegar today and will do that every third day for a few weeks.

emanphoto · Aug 25, 2018

Soaking a couple cheap cigars or pack of cigarettes in a gallon of water makes a nice nicotine tea that you add a little dish soap to then spray on the plants. Its taken care of aphids quite well for me in the past. Ive been using neem and a little dish soap w little success on spider mites.

Caranx · Aug 26, 2018

A update

Still a some very heavy rain now and then but I try to move them to shelter as much as can if I'm home when it starts raining.

The first batch of seeds that got germinated now have their first leaves and got their first feed last weeks. The ones in pure coco seems to grow faster.

The younger ones are coming along, some seem to struggle but most are ok

A small harvest from the prik che fah

The nursery plant is doing much better after the transplant and weekly feeding, a lot new growth, stripped branches coming back to life, stems getting thicker and the few fruits it has have started to ripen.
However it is still dropping the new flowers so hopefully that will change soon too.

Turned out the Prik che fah had powder mildew but haven't seen them for 4 days so hopefully the treatment is working. Probably had some aphids moving over from the nursery plant as well since it it have had some signs of that on some of the new growth.

Havent spotted any aphids again after screening leaves with microscope almost daily so hopefully they will soon be gone completely soon aswell.

Caranx · Dec 27, 2018

So it's been a while. Been busy now when freediving and spearfishing season is back. Also the plants struggled with the Monsun rain so haven't had much to post.
Gave up and trew som away, kept about half of them and then started a new batch of seeds.

However the weather is becoming better and we have only been having rain once a week the past month so the plants have started to take off.

I managed to get invaded by almost all common pests in just a few months. It's been a insane start of my first pepper grow. First aphids, then mildew, then aphids again with the mildew and finally a full scale broadmites invasion.

I tried all organic treatments I could get my hands on. Nothing worked ofcourse. Swallowed my pride and bought some powerful stuff. Stripped the bigger Thai plants on most leafs and then nuked everything with abamectin once a week and pyrethroid in between. Did that for 25 day period and haven't seen them for months now.Will not be using that heavy stuff anymore because i will now stop picking flowers and let the bigger ones do what they want so I can start getting some fruits again. Right now I'm just doing a weekly spray of Neem.

Also found out that it's best to ditch my potting mix experiments completely. I tried copying the mixes the locals use but compared to coco/perlite mix they just grow slow and I've had some nutrient issues. Had two of test groups and both the ones with slow releasing fertiliser and the ones with fish fertiliser had problems, only 2-3 of them ended up good.

Meanwhile the coco plants have been trouble free that's what I'm gonna stick with.

Transplanted my mos scotch bonnet, tfm bonnet, goat and aji limon to 40liter Thai style bag+laundry basket today so hopefully they will grow to a decent size this summer.

Also have some seedlings and clones that will be translated in a month or so to 20 liter containers.

The rest of the plants are in 10 liter ones and 80% of them will be gifted away once they get healthier.

My current varietys are;
Local prik ke nu
Local prik che fa
MOA Red scotch bonnet
TFM yellow scotch bonnet
Goat
Yellow brainstrain
Habanero st. Martin
Piri piri
Jalapeno M
Paprika
Aji limon
Angelo
Naga
Wild brazil
Datil
Santa rosa blanco
Chinese 5 colour

As you can see my growing space isn't too big, even after I give half away it will still become a jungle this summer

Last of the prik ke nu's i harvested before nuking the plants with abamectin

emanphoto · Dec 27, 2018

Looking good. Spider mites did all my plants in and I will have to start over. I think your chemical approach is the way to go in TH as the insects are really hard to impossible to get rid of via neem.

PaulG · Dec 27, 2018

Good luck with your new plants, Sebastian!

I like the plastic bag/laundry basket containers.
Cheap and easy to move. The best of both worlds.

Sorry to hear about your pest problems. We have
cold winters here, but no near as many bugs to
contend with. I'm not sure there are many ways
to deal with broad mites. I've read that predatory
mites can control them if introduced early enough.

Caranx · Jan 2, 2019

Well I have new intruders it seems!

Noticed that the biggest paprika plant is starting to tip over so went and grabbed some bamboo to stake it.

Found this big bugger chilling on my plant. Not sure what it is. But I have feeling that he or some friends of it have laid some eggs somewhere and that I now have some larvas feeding on my leaf because I found leafs with holes on a neighbouring plant.

At closer inspection I also found something along the main veins on the underside of the leafs, so I took the plant inside to take look with the microscope.

Turned out it was just some dead old relics from the last war lol

PaulG · Jan 2, 2019

I only liked that post 'cuz the bugs are dead! Not that I hate bugs.

I think you are right, that's a beautiful moth, but I'm not sure I'd
want it laying eggs on my plants, either :sick:

emanphoto · Jan 13, 2019

On the Bangkok Container Growing FB page a fellow offered to supply anyone with his new fertilizer test product. He brought over a couple pods for me to try. You'll see his post on the page. https://www.facebook.com/groups/ContainerGardeningBangkok/

The real test will be the insect pests and I think I will just have to get medieval on their a__'es! Neem just didn't cut it.

Caranx · Jan 13, 2019

emanphoto said:
On the Bangkok Container Growing FB page a fellow offered to supply anyone with his new fertilizer test product. He brought over a couple pods for me to try. You'll see his post on the page. https://www.facebook.com/groups/ContainerGardeningBangkok/

The real test will be the insect pests and I think I will just have to get medieval on their a__'es! Neem just didn't cut it.

Will check that out even if I'm not really lacking ferts. My coco plants get fed with hydro nutrients and I have a never ending free flow of chicken and cow manure since my gf's parents produces manures for the local farmers in Satun

Regarding pests, unless you enjoy experimenting then just buy some pyrethroids and abamecitin/avid. Just make sure you stop using the abamectin about 2 months before fruit production and the pyrethroids about a month before. The abamectin will 100 wipe out any bugs and eggs on the plants, then use the pyrethroids as a safe card to control any potential newcomers from outside your garden.

It's dirt cheap to buy in Thailand and super effective, but the abamectin is pretty nasty stuff so wear a mask, gloves and full covering clothes when you spray it

emanphoto · Jan 13, 2019

Thanks for the pesticide tips!
Sounds like you have much better supply of fertilizer than is being offered and I'd stick with that.

Caranx said:
Will check that out even if I'm not really lacking ferts. My coco plants get fed with hydro nutrients and I have a never ending free flow of chicken and cow manure since my gf's parents produces manures for the local farmers in Satun

Regarding pests, unless you enjoy experimenting then just buy some pyrethroids and abamecitin/avid. Just make sure you stop using the abamectin about 2 months before fruit production and the pyrethroids about a month before. The abamectin will 100 wipe out any bugs and eggs on the plants, then use the pyrethroids as a safe card to control any potential newcomers from outside your garden.

It's dirt cheap to buy in Thailand and super effective, but the abamectin is pretty nasty stuff so wear a mask, gloves and full covering clothes when you spray it

Caranx · Jan 18, 2019

Leaving the country for 10 days so thought I would do a update before i head off!

The Chinense that got repotted to 50l bags have grown 20+cm since the last update.
The annums, baccatums and jolokias in 10l pots have also grown a bit and are now producing flowers like crazy but no pods yet. They are around 70cm tall.

The jalepenos and piripiri's that i've been having alot of issues with are producing fruits, however they are only about 30-40cm tall.

Repotted some of the last batch of seedlings to 10 and 15l pots.
They are;
Habanero lemon
Habanero st.martin
Yellow brainstrain
Wild brazil
Angelo
Also repotted a birds eye clone

When I get back home again I will sort out cages for all the bigger plants. The annums and baccatums will def need it once they start podding up.

I hope they will be alright when i get back home! My gf is going to pay them a visit next weekend to give them some water and premixed ferts.