Chilidude said:
My outdoor growing inside the greenhouse dont have any problems with any strong winds and you want to feed the chilis higher amount of calcium/magnesium to make the stems stronger like i am going right now.
During the summer, the chili stems will grow very thick if i can keep them small during the indoor growing as long as possible. I am trying to keep the center of gravity lower by taking out the lower leaves and burying the stem as time goes by.
Mine are on a 5ml per gallon dose of CalMag each week right now. Even sprouts get weaker cal mag (3ml/gal/week). I found that calmag was a HUGE limiting factor on growth. Once I started feeding the sprouts cal mag things started taking off rapidly. I'm running lights 24/7 trying to "catch up" the chinense that got a late start and they are literally doubling or tripling in size every day now. I'm even feeding trays which do NOT yet have sprouts a tiny bit (1ml/gal) of cal mag just to get some of it up in to the soil. I'm getting massive growth out of sprouts now - true leaves forming in just a day or two, and plants moving on to their first fork and second/ third sets of leaves within a week. At the very first signs of the first leaves the hydro or organic ferts starts flowing; just a little dose of 1-2-2, followed by a dilution of the A+B a week later; or a 20% dilusion of 5-11-2 organic fert (a mix of a few things in a cocktail, I gave the total NPK value as a ref).
That is leading to massively rapid growth in 100% coir substrate. And the "end result" of 20+ soil and hydro experiments this year. (Next year I'll refine it further)
I will probably end up having to "top" quite a few of the plants before May. Especially tall / lanky ones like Aji Cerezas - those things are seriously leggy compared to the low & broad chinense I have going. Topping hurts yield (slightly) but creates a much bushier plant with a much better canopy. Since I'm planting in the open field without shade covers this will help keep pods from getting sunburned. This also causes the stem to thicken, as a nice side effect.
Another side effect of "topping" (which is proven to work on peppers via a couple of studies) is that pods are overall larger, and better quality, than plants which were not topped. While yield is slightly hurt, the quality of the peppers improves significantly. So it's a good trade off if you want "quality over quantity"
Any forks with "triplets" should get the third branch whacked off. Those are nutrient suckers and don't produce jack squat, in comparison to the two stronger branches at a fork. Just be careful not to mess up the main Y of the fork. If you damage it the plant will not produce well.
Late season to "hasten" what is not ripe, cut EVERYTHING off except for the branches you want to finish producing. You can "rush" a branch or three this way, at the expense of others which have immature fruits. The plant will put everything it has in to finishing off what you leave on it. Once those final pods are done, lop off those and bring inside for overwinter (if that's the goal). Or pull it and throw it on the mulch pile.
What you are doing by removing leaves and planting deeper is interesting, I usually plant right up to the cotys when I transplant. With a pure passive hydro grow like you are doing, I wouldn't be concerned, but with my organic stuff, removing leaves and putting them below the soil line is a big "NOPE!" - don't want that bacteria or fungus invading the plant through the open cuts!
