Chilidude season 2018

Last year was pretty much a disaster, the summer turned out to be a very cold and sunless thing, so i didnt get much of anything to eat and all my efforts did go to waste.
 
But i am willing to try again growing those chilis, so i am not giving up so easy.
 
I got two last year fully grown Hot paper lanterns, so they should produce some even if the summer is not so perfect, also will grow these from seeds:
 
 
Naga morich.
Bonda ma jacques.
Petenero.
Aji golden.
Aji erotica.(baccatum erotica)
Lemon drop.
Aji crystal.
Aji pineapple.
Queen laurie.
Locato.
 
This time around pretty safe chilis to survive cooler climates in my opinion, inside my greenhouse.

 

[Dinsdale]

Curious to see how it goes up north! I'll follow along!

 

[Chilidude]

Curious to see how it goes up north! I'll follow along!

 
If the summer is decent and not like the last year worst Finnish summer i have ever seen in my lifetime, i think i will manage to get some pods from my chilis in the end of august.
 
Got quite the many seedlings now and some of them are still rising from the rockwool:

Once all of them rises from the rockwool in a week or two, it is time for them to go to the coco medium.

 

[Chilidude]

Today i decided to transplant the seedlings to the coco coir and here they are:

 
To minimize the transplant shock, i used the same fertilizer values in the coco coir as i was using with the rockwool cubes, so it is floramicro 5ml/floramato 5ml per 10 litres of water. After the chilis starts to grow, i will add more strength to the fertilizer to make them get used to it as they grow bigger.
 
 

 

[Ohjay]

Seedlings are looking happy. Always a good sign!
 
Considering your climate, you haven't considered keeping a couple of plants indoors for the entire season?
Might give slightly more peppers and you won't be quite as dependent on the weather to at least get a somewhat decent crop.
 
Best of luck on the grow!

 

[Chilidude]

Seedlings are looking happy. Always a good sign!
 
Considering your climate, you haven't considered keeping a couple of plants indoors for the entire season?
Might give slightly more peppers and you won't be quite as dependent on the weather to at least get a somewhat decent crop.
 
Best of luck on the grow!

 
I have thinked about everything by now, but if i keep few inside.. The spider mites will get them in the winter like my last overwintered hot paper lanterns and can risk it. If i start early and the summer is somewhat good, i will get plenty of chilis to last me a few years. I got this greenhouse behind the apartment, i just keep it warmer in the spring time before summer comes and my chili growing should be a success.

 

[Chilidude]

Last picture was taken yesterday evening after transplanting the seedlings with the chopped up rockwool cubes to the coco medium and this picture is taken in the morning before my 120w led light turns on:

Those fools are so perky, that they didnt even notice the difference after transplanting, because i was too sneaky and used the super gentle switch and bait technique.
 
 Rockwool and coco are pretty the similar in many ways, so if i didnt change much of anything in their point of view and even used the same fertilizer, the seedlings should not notice any major change at all and they now start to grow new roots to the coco medium in a rapid fashion to seek more of that grow inducing fertilizer.

 

[karoo]

Looking good .
​Good luck.
 

 

[Chilidude]

Looking good .
​Good luck.
 

 

Luck is all i need for now, the rest i can manage myself.

 

[Chilidude]

Done playing with the whole rockwool thing, just put 3 still germinating hot paper lanters seeds with the rockwool piece inside the coco coir pots. Didnt have much success with the Locato chili, only one seed germinated and 3 seeds are taking their sweet time, so put the remaining 3 seeds inside one of coco coir pot and hope for the best. If the remaining Locato seeds dont germinate, then it is fine too as i have plenty of small seedlings either way.

 

[Chilidude]

Looking at my last year greenhouse picture, maybe i could fit 12 chilis in there. I can always remove any chili plants inside the greenhouse very easy, but to make sure i get something in the end of the season i might need to grow more than 9 plants, so the plan is to pick 12 chilis for the greenhouse in the spring.
 
12 chilis for the season is something like this:
 
2x Naga morich
2x Hot paper lantern
1x Aji pineapple
1x Aji lemon drop
1x Aji golden
1x Aji crystal
1x Queen laurie
1x Bonda ma jacques
1x Locato
1x Petenero
 
 
There all better and for the rest of the plants i will try to find good homes in the spring. I got lot of variety to use in the cooking and also a lot of heat for powder and sauces, in the end of the season i will have to get something out of these chilis even if it kills me.

 

[tsurrie]

Cool little seedlings. Shine a light on them.

 

[Chilidude]

Cool little seedlings. Shine a light on them.

 
For better pictures obviously.
 
This season's new technique i like to try is to put the smaller pot in the bottom of the 10 litre airpots and thus bury a lot of the stem inside the pot. This way the stems should start rapidly create new roots inside the airpots and the uptake of the nutrients should speed up. I have tried this technique before by burying some of the stem inside the airpot, but not in this extend. I will start the project by pruning the lower leaves little at a time as they grow bigger.

 

[tsurrie]

 
For better pictures obviously.
 
This season's new technique i like to try is to put the smaller pot in the bottom of the 10 litre airpots and thus bury a lot of the stem inside the pot. This way the stems should start rapidly create new roots inside the airpots and the uptake of the nutrients should speed up. I have tried this technique before by burying some of the stem inside the airpot, but not in this extend.

 
For making the canopy grow more. Have any led's ?
Interesting plan for growing them, will follow to see the results.

 

[Chilidude]

 
For making the canopy grow more. Have any led's ?
Interesting plan for growing them, will follow to see the results.

 
Have any leds to grow:
 
Plenty of airpots.
Nutrients to last me few seasons.
A big growing room/tent.
1x100w growing light.
2x120w growing lights.
Plenty of watering containers.
And other various items, like Bluelab truncheon to measure the fertilizer.
 
When i think about this idea, i may have done it before many times by burying the stem inside a new bigger pot and them putting that pot inside the 10 litre airpot..Works great either way depending on the summer.

 

[Chilidude]

As a reminder of good season of 2014, when i started to play with the airpots and venti pots/coco coir and ghe floramicro/floramato:

Moruga scorpion:

Some kind of cross between Fatalii and some other red chili, made huge amount of pretty bad tasting pods:

Petenero:

Aji fantasy:

The same Moruga scorpion in a later date:

Another Bonda ma jacques:

Big Bonda ma jacques bush:

Aji fantasy and few lemon drop bushes next to it:

Chili jungle:

 
Just look at the pictures, i had an chili jungle in my hands that year, but those kind very hot summers are a bit rare and also the plastic greenhouse was very basic. Now if you look at these pictures and think i dont know anything about chili growing, you are so mistaken.
 
Part of the rapid grow of the chilis can be found with the airpot removable bottom piece and the bucket/tray below the airpots, in the course of the season i found out, that the chilis have grown massive root mass to the nutrition solution below the airpots in the quest to seek more of that grow inducing stuff they desire.
 
When the weather got very hot, you should have seen how fast those plants sucked up the nutrition solution from those buckets/trays below the airpots. That is why there is no reason to use that strong of a fertilizer mixes to water the chilis, because each time i add some fertilizer mix to the coco, the nutrition solution below got stronger...So every so often i removed most of the washed up nutrition solution and made a new mix out of it using the Bluelab truncheon ec meter and some water to dilute it to something like EC 1,6-1,8.

 

[chelicerae]

Like a jungle for sure : )
 
Here's hoping for a good summer in our part of the world (and a miteless one..)
 
Interesting to read about FloraMato and FloraMicro, seems like a very good combo.
 

 

[Chilidude]

Like a jungle for sure : )
 
Here's hoping for a good summer in our part of the world (and a miteless one..)
 
Interesting to read about FloraMato and FloraMicro, seems like a very good combo.
 

 
Never had much trouble with mites in our summer, as it was quite moist inside the plastic greenhouse and mites dont like it at all. Had little problem with aphids, but they all died with the use of the oil stuff before the numerous pods started to appear.
 
If you want to try your hand at coco growing, try similar fertilizer with half the price, works fine with the same rations too:
https://www.atami.com/en_gb/b-cuzz-coco-nutrition-b.html
 
Coco a+b fertilizer, need only that stuff to make chili growing a success as chili growing is quite simple really with the right rations.

 

[Chilidude]

Chili growing test in 2016 with the Coco a+b part:

I think mixing the part a for 20ml/part b for 30ml per 10 litres of water will give about similar results in growing, than the more expensive Floramicro 20ml/floramato 30 ml per 10 litres of water in the growing season.
 
My conclusion in my fertilizer test is that most big fertilizer company's hydroponic two part stuff is pretty similar in growing power and making lot of pods, so there is no huge difference between them. Most fertilizer company's are funny, trying to make you buy additives with the basic stuff, when the basic stuff is all you need for great harvest.
 
Used rainwater collected from the roof to do these fertilizer tests, so the water is the same stuff.
 
I could also return to the professional Finnish Nutriforte tomato&strawberry and Nitrogen&calcium two part dry stuff, that i mixed in the water with various rations. Works great too in coco growing and is way cheaper than the stuff i use today, but the only negative stuff of the dry thing, is that it is a bit hard to measure compared to the liquid stuff. The huge bonus for the dry stuff, is that the two part stuff only cost about 15e euros and it last more than a season while creating the same result in the end of the season.

 

[Chilidude]

 
For making the canopy grow more. Have any led's ?
Interesting plan for growing them, will follow to see the results.

 
Above are some of the results of that stem burying inside the airpots in the season of 2014, so it works pretty great huh. I wonder what kind of results would you get if the season would be much longer in some other warmer country, somebody with a longer season..Test it out pretty please.

 

[Chilidude]

For testing purposes i will start using the coco a+b two part fertilizer with the same rations, that i use the floramicro/floramato to my seedlings in the next watering sessions from now on and i can always switch to the GHE stuff later on in the season, but i want to use the opened up 1 litre bottles of coco a+b fertilizer.
 
Small plants are the perfect testing ground for such an test to see difference between grow speed,overall heath and leaf color....hahahahaha, um i mean:

I have used the GHE stuff for many years from seedlings to adult plants, let see what the coco a+b two part fertilizer can do in comparison. Let the test begin..