Hey all, I find myself with a couple of free hours and thought I would finally contribute something to the forums that I've been lurking around for the last 12 months.
My motivation for posting a grow log this season is simple - I need to restore some pride. To be blunt, last summer was my first time growing and I sucked pretty hard. I did somehow manage to pull a few pods amidst the carnage of being double teamed by my own stupidity and mother nature, but I'm determined to be more successful this season.
Given that I am still very much a rookie, please don't hesitate to offer any advice or criticism you have if you see me doing anything dumb on here.
Living in Brisbane (AUS), I wanted to get things off to an early start this season. I purchased my seed stock from a couple of local vendors (JungleRain and the delightfully half-mad folk at The Hippy Seed Company) in early June, together with a couple of small heated propagators. I decided on a 100% jiffy pellet based propagation this year, simply because sitting on my couch with a steaming kettle and a bowl seemed like a cosier option than sitting on the floor up to my wrists in dirt filling up seed cells.
On 28 June 2013 I planted the following seeds (4 per jiffy):
Biker Billy Jalapeno
Mucho Nacho Jalapeno
Bulgarian Carrot
Aji Lemon
Tabasco
Hot Fish
Super Chilli
Kanthari
Goatsweed
Orange Manzano
Scarlet Lantern
Choc Habanero
White Devils Tongue
Fatalii
Bahamian Goat Pepper
Bih Jolokia
Bhut Jolokia x Mayan Red
THSC Naga 7
Trinidad Scorpion Moruga
Trinidad Scorpion Butch T
THSC Trinidad Scorpion Chocolate
7-Pod Primo x Choc Habanero f3
7-Pod Jonah
7-Pod Brainstrain
The jiffys were kept in a heated propagator with all the air vents closed in the dank spare bedroom. I resisted my usual OCD urge to look at them every 5 minutes and only checked on them twice a day to try and keep the temp constant. The $2 thermometer told me it stayed between 28-30 degrees in there.
Turns out the heated propagator was a good investment as I didn't have to wait nearly as long for some hooks as I did last season (when they just lived in a container under the sink). The next shot was taken 7 days after planting:
It was 10 days after planting, and 4 days after the first hooks came through that I learnt my next lesson - I probably should have taken those jiffys that had sprouted straight out into some light. But I didn't, and they got reeeeaaaally leggy, real fast haha:
10 days after sowing the seeds, and 4 days after the first hooks popped through, I decided to sow some more. There were a few different species I still hadn't planted, plus I was worried about the longevity of a few of the really leggy, pale seedlings. So on 8 July 2013 I planted the following (again 4 seeds per jiffy):
Biker Billy Jalapeno
Mucho Nacho Jalapeno
Aji Lemon
Orange Cobra
De arbol Blood
Blondie
Naga Morich x Tabasco
Bhut Jolokia
Pimenta de Neyde
7-Pod Jonah x Trinidad Yellow Scotch Bonnet (called a 'Nebru' by THSC)
I had pretty good germination rates for most of this second batch, with most species popping up between 7 and 10 days. However, by 23 July 2013 I decided what the heck and gave a few more of the slower varieties seeds a 24 hour chamomile tea soak before burying them. Interestingly, the only varieties that the soak reduced the germination time of by more then a day were the Moruga (from 9 to 6 days) and the Jonah (from 13 to 7 days). Don't know how typical this is?
Here's a shot of the seedlings warming up in a sunny window taken about 30 July 2013. They are mostly looking pretty good and their will to live seems to have overcome my early negligence in letting them get so leggy. There's already some nice variegation in the first true leaves on the Hot Fish, although I'm sure that's more to do with the quality of JungleRain's seed stock than anything I've done:
It was about the time of this pic that I had to start thinking about giving them some more room to grow. It's still mid-winter so there's no way they were going outside and I didn't have anywhere I could keep their feet warm yet. I started researching grow lights on the forums and was just totally overwhelmed by the amount of tech-jargon and seemingly contradictory information on there. I kinda gave up and just decided that any light would be better then none so I went to the local electrical wholesaler and picked up a couple of 38w fluoro's for only $20 a pop. I thought they were a steal compared to some of the prices I had seen. 1 trip to Bunnings and 2 hours of internet electrical wiring research later I had a very simple, rustic, but (hopefully) workable solution. They sit in the window of my north facing balcony so they get plenty of natural light already, and will hopefully appreciate just a little heat boost from the fluoro's until September when I'll move them outside.
All things considered, my seedlings all seem fairly happy and I THINK I'm off to an ok start for my second season. I should note that I still have 0% germination on the following varieties, which is bit of a downer:
Bhut Jolokia x Mayan Red
Brainstrain
Bih Jolokia
Bulgarian Carrot
Any recommendations on how long I should keep them in the propagator until I give up on them?
Well that's about it, apologies for this first Glog entry being retrospective, but I'll be keeping it current now that I've got it up and running.
Thanks for checking out my Glog and please feel free to comment/criticise/enquire...
My motivation for posting a grow log this season is simple - I need to restore some pride. To be blunt, last summer was my first time growing and I sucked pretty hard. I did somehow manage to pull a few pods amidst the carnage of being double teamed by my own stupidity and mother nature, but I'm determined to be more successful this season.
Given that I am still very much a rookie, please don't hesitate to offer any advice or criticism you have if you see me doing anything dumb on here.
Living in Brisbane (AUS), I wanted to get things off to an early start this season. I purchased my seed stock from a couple of local vendors (JungleRain and the delightfully half-mad folk at The Hippy Seed Company) in early June, together with a couple of small heated propagators. I decided on a 100% jiffy pellet based propagation this year, simply because sitting on my couch with a steaming kettle and a bowl seemed like a cosier option than sitting on the floor up to my wrists in dirt filling up seed cells.
On 28 June 2013 I planted the following seeds (4 per jiffy):
Biker Billy Jalapeno
Mucho Nacho Jalapeno
Bulgarian Carrot
Aji Lemon
Tabasco
Hot Fish
Super Chilli
Kanthari
Goatsweed
Orange Manzano
Scarlet Lantern
Choc Habanero
White Devils Tongue
Fatalii
Bahamian Goat Pepper
Bih Jolokia
Bhut Jolokia x Mayan Red
THSC Naga 7
Trinidad Scorpion Moruga
Trinidad Scorpion Butch T
THSC Trinidad Scorpion Chocolate
7-Pod Primo x Choc Habanero f3
7-Pod Jonah
7-Pod Brainstrain
The jiffys were kept in a heated propagator with all the air vents closed in the dank spare bedroom. I resisted my usual OCD urge to look at them every 5 minutes and only checked on them twice a day to try and keep the temp constant. The $2 thermometer told me it stayed between 28-30 degrees in there.
Turns out the heated propagator was a good investment as I didn't have to wait nearly as long for some hooks as I did last season (when they just lived in a container under the sink). The next shot was taken 7 days after planting:
It was 10 days after planting, and 4 days after the first hooks came through that I learnt my next lesson - I probably should have taken those jiffys that had sprouted straight out into some light. But I didn't, and they got reeeeaaaally leggy, real fast haha:
10 days after sowing the seeds, and 4 days after the first hooks popped through, I decided to sow some more. There were a few different species I still hadn't planted, plus I was worried about the longevity of a few of the really leggy, pale seedlings. So on 8 July 2013 I planted the following (again 4 seeds per jiffy):
Biker Billy Jalapeno
Mucho Nacho Jalapeno
Aji Lemon
Orange Cobra
De arbol Blood
Blondie
Naga Morich x Tabasco
Bhut Jolokia
Pimenta de Neyde
7-Pod Jonah x Trinidad Yellow Scotch Bonnet (called a 'Nebru' by THSC)
I had pretty good germination rates for most of this second batch, with most species popping up between 7 and 10 days. However, by 23 July 2013 I decided what the heck and gave a few more of the slower varieties seeds a 24 hour chamomile tea soak before burying them. Interestingly, the only varieties that the soak reduced the germination time of by more then a day were the Moruga (from 9 to 6 days) and the Jonah (from 13 to 7 days). Don't know how typical this is?
Here's a shot of the seedlings warming up in a sunny window taken about 30 July 2013. They are mostly looking pretty good and their will to live seems to have overcome my early negligence in letting them get so leggy. There's already some nice variegation in the first true leaves on the Hot Fish, although I'm sure that's more to do with the quality of JungleRain's seed stock than anything I've done:
It was about the time of this pic that I had to start thinking about giving them some more room to grow. It's still mid-winter so there's no way they were going outside and I didn't have anywhere I could keep their feet warm yet. I started researching grow lights on the forums and was just totally overwhelmed by the amount of tech-jargon and seemingly contradictory information on there. I kinda gave up and just decided that any light would be better then none so I went to the local electrical wholesaler and picked up a couple of 38w fluoro's for only $20 a pop. I thought they were a steal compared to some of the prices I had seen. 1 trip to Bunnings and 2 hours of internet electrical wiring research later I had a very simple, rustic, but (hopefully) workable solution. They sit in the window of my north facing balcony so they get plenty of natural light already, and will hopefully appreciate just a little heat boost from the fluoro's until September when I'll move them outside.
All things considered, my seedlings all seem fairly happy and I THINK I'm off to an ok start for my second season. I should note that I still have 0% germination on the following varieties, which is bit of a downer:
Bhut Jolokia x Mayan Red
Brainstrain
Bih Jolokia
Bulgarian Carrot
Any recommendations on how long I should keep them in the propagator until I give up on them?
Well that's about it, apologies for this first Glog entry being retrospective, but I'll be keeping it current now that I've got it up and running.
Thanks for checking out my Glog and please feel free to comment/criticise/enquire...
It certainly took my mind off those mites for a few days.
I still went chasing them and got a few on soft plastics each day during the last 2 hours of the run-out. But I was really just doing it to test some new gear and techniques...same goes for all the cod I got. The beach in front of the beach-house plateaus onto a rock/coral ledge at low tide so I would stand literally on the edge of that in 0-2 inches of water and throw soft plastics sideways along the drop-off. It only goes down a couple of metres but it's real good fun trying to extract angry cod from their hidey-holes on light gear, especially when they are underneath you and in some cases actually behind you (in their little caves).
