Coach's 2015 Overwhelming Grow

Runescape · Dec 9, 2014

coachspencerxc said:
I haven't washed my car or had it washed since 1991.

Awesome and thorough way to start a glog...but...i gotta see this car!

coachspencerxc · Dec 9, 2014

Runescape said:
Awesome and thorough way to start a glog...but...i gotta see this car!

Haha! Well, it's not the same car. I've had the car I have now since 2004, but I never washed the other two cars before then.

bucdout57 · Dec 9, 2014

Good job coach very informative. I'll be checking back in to see the progress..now that's a good set up. Mine is like ghetto fab. Storage buckets and Home Depot lights.i got the same thing happen to my seedling. Brown spots then lead to leaves with holes. Thought it was a pest infestation. So I left my cover off for a day. I read you that you have your lights on 18 hours a day. Is it best to keep your lights on that amount of time? If so I need to cut back Mine are on 24/7. Literally for about a month.Wife is complaining saying the electricity bill is going up. Look like I now know what to ask Santa for. Pm me some more pictures of your set up if you can.really looking yo invest into a better system. I thought I had a good system. Guess I was wrong good job once again.

A

Geonerd · Dec 9, 2014

About the yellowing... Are some of the plants still struggling? At the risk of being utterly crucified, may I suggest you try a weak dose of general purpose ferts on a few of the pale fellows. Give 'em a little N and see if it helps. It seems you don't have much to lose if they're fading anyway.

coachspencerxc · Dec 9, 2014

bucdout57 said:
really looking yo invest into a better system. I thought I had a good system. Guess I was wrong good job once again.

A

Thanks. We'll see how effective the lights are but what I'm using is a shelving system that looks kind of industrial. Very sturdy. T8s are from Lowe's. Added the silver bubble insulation today. Also from Lowe's. This system wasn't cheap but is certainly more affordable than others I see here. Again, we'll see how effective it is. Thanks for stopping by. I'll PM a response to your PM soon. 2am on the east coast. Zzzz...

Geonerd said:
About the yellowing... Are some of the plants still struggling? At the risk of being utterly crucified, may I suggest you try a weak dose of general purpose ferts on a few of the pale fellows. Give 'em a little N and see if it helps. It seems you don't have much to lose if they're fading anyway.

I giggled a bit at your "pale fellow" comment.
Certainly something to consider. I think it may just be that the lights were too far away. Now I worry about that spotting & some purpling on quite a few may be due to the lights being too close. I think the ones that are going to croak already have or are on their last legs. The rest look healthy enough to survive but sure are pale. I think I'll give it a couple of days & see how it develops. My instinct, as you say, is to fertilize with some dilute organic fertilizer but I've fought that urge. I think they're stable enough now to bounce back. They dying ones looked a little rougher. Your experiment may be in order at the end of the week.

Thanks!

organic pepper · Dec 9, 2014

I would check your soil mix out. It just may be a bit to strong for your young seedlings and could be the source of your bug problem. Just a thought.

winland · Dec 9, 2014

organic pepper said:
It just may be a bit to strong for your young seedlings

Can you be a bit more specific as to what you mean by "strong"?
Too much.......?

organic pepper · Dec 9, 2014

winland said:
Can you be a bit more specific as to what you mean by "strong"?
Too much.......?

Certain soil mixes come premixed with time released fertilizers. Mixing 3 different ones together can compound the problem. Depends on brand, type and so, Seedling mixes are pretty neutral and allows for the early root development without burning them.

coachspencerxc · Dec 9, 2014

organic pepper said:
Certain soil mixes come premixed with time released fertilizers. Mixing 3 different ones together can compound the problem. Depends on brand, type and so, Seedling mixes are pretty neutral and allows for the early root development without burning them.

No added fertilizers in these. One mix high in peat, one high in compost (mostly woodchips, it seems) & one pretty ideal mix. I added vermiculite. Could be that the carbon-rich compost is blocking nitrogen? I have a more suitable mixture now. The bugs were strange. Everything was fine for 2 weeks & they came out all the sudden. No changes.

juanitos · Dec 9, 2014

lololol, never grown from seed, so i started 50 different varieties.......... :dance:

yeah you should have more growth to like 2nd set true of leaves by now.

Hows your watering schedule? how long do the pots stay damp?

organic pepper · Dec 9, 2014

coachspencerxc said:
No added fertilizers in these. One mix high in peat, one high in compost (mostly woodchips, it seems) & one pretty ideal mix. I added vermiculite. Could be that the carbon-rich compost is blocking nitrogen? I have a more suitable mixture now. The bugs were strange. Everything was fine for 2 weeks & they came out all the sudden. No changes.

It could be the wood chip are creating to much density in the mixture for the seedlings fine root hairs to breath. Compost at this stage could be an issue as well. Many persons including myself have gotten mixes that had larva within the mix that has caused bug problems from the get go. I have used fly paper in the past to combat the gnats. Depending on the type of bugs that you have present may require other methods ie use of predator bugs, garlic and or pepper spray, or plain soapy water spray. There is a mass of info reguarding them on the net as well as this forum. Hope that helped. Cheers

coachspencerxc · Dec 9, 2014

juanitos said:
lololol, never grown from seed, so i started 50 different varieties..........

yeah you should have more growth to like 2nd set true of leaves by now.

Hows your watering schedule? how long do the pots stay damp?

Yeah, well like I said, it's hard for me to do things half way.

Because I've worried so much that the yellowing was caused by overwatering, I've held way back on the water. I've waited until I see wilt and then watering ever so slightly. Considered coaxing some of the seedlings into new containers of better soil. Might be to fragile?

juanitos · Dec 9, 2014

hmmm, well new baby roots like to have water.
I don't really do the whole wilting thing till they are a bit bigger.
Do you have an oscillating fan? that will keep most fungus/algae stuff from growin.
Here's how i water: fill up 1020 tray with 1 inch of water. Wait for it to dry out + 1 more day(usually like 4 days). repeat.
so they are damp, then they dry out, the problem with overwating is when you have pots that don't drain and stay damp forever.

you can transplant around then. just careful you don't break the main root lol.
sorry threadjack >.>

coachspencerxc · Dec 9, 2014

juanitos said:
hmmm, well new baby roots like to have water.
I don't really do the whole wilting thing till they are a bit bigger.
Do you have an oscillating fan? that will keep most fungus/algae stuff from growin.
Here's how i water: fill up 1020 tray with 1 inch of water. Wait for it to dry out + 1 more day(usually like 4 days). repeat.
so they are damp, then they dry out, the problem with overwating is when you have pots that don't drain and stay damp forever.

you can transplant around then. just careful you don't break the main root lol.
sorry threadjack >.>

Not a threadjack at all! That's EXACTLY the kind of advice I was looking for. The yellowing had me nervous. But I will try what you said. It's certainly the more intuitive way to water.
THANKS!

Ragnar · Dec 9, 2014

When you transplant young ones, hold them by the leaf rather than the stem -- a damaged leaf, no biggy; damaged stem, uh oh..

A lot of people use a seed-starting mix (most brands have one) that has very little to no nutes in it in order to prevent overwhelming the little ones and then pot up into their main mix after a set of leaves or three. There is plenty of energy in the cotyledons to get them off to a good start.

Nice set up and good luck with your season! I went a little overboard last year and it was a great way to figure out what flavour profiles I prefer compared to others.

:cheers:

coachspencerxc · Dec 12, 2014

Geonerd said:
At the risk of being utterly crucified, may I suggest you try a weak dose of general purpose ferts on a few of the pale fellows. Give 'em a little N and see if it helps. It seems you don't have much to lose if they're fading anyway.

Not much change.

I know I need to give it more time to see results but 2 nights ago, I transplanted into better soil enriched with a little Black Kow. Hopefully, we'll see them darken up a bit.

I'm rethinking my lighting situation. I have 2x 2 bulb T8 fixtures that are maybe 6" from the seedlings. I have silver insulation on the short sides of the 2'x4' shelves & 2 x 12" pieces on the back to make a corner but also lets some sunlight in (realizing how little help that may be). Front is open. Was thinking of building a CFL strip with Y splitters. Maybe 8 bulbs over 4'. While thinking of this, I came across Pulpiteer's glog with a vanity light fixture and CFLs on it. Seems like a better system. Wondering if it could handle the Y splitters & 8 bulbs or if the 4 T8 bulbs I have is enough already. Ideas? I was planning on using just 1 x 2 bulb T8 fixture per shelf but bumped it up when my seedlings started struggling. Thinking a bigger bump may be helpful, but then again, not sure what my problem is- light, heat (drops to 68-70 for 6 hours when lights are off), crappy soil, water... Not sure.

Pulpiteer · Dec 12, 2014

First off, love the start to the glog. I also love that you are jumping in with both feet on this pepper growing business. :surprised:

With all the seedlings it looks like you'll grow, you will need a lot of light. I find that the T8's do ok for just the very beginning and then I need more light. Also, with those you can put them right next to the seedlings and you'll want to or they will start out very leggy. My two cents on the yellowing is over watering. I've done it myself. Too much water strips away the nutrients and thus the fading color. It sounds like you are on the right track with your soil adjustments as far as experimenting and adding perlite. Just continue to keep track of what consistency works best for you and what allows the roots to breathe.

Juanitos - are you using rice hulls in your soil? I looked at those as another way to do aeration and was interested. If you are using them, how do you like them?

Anyway, I hope that helps some. I'm curious how everything will work out for you!

coachspencerxc · Dec 12, 2014

Pulpiteer said:
First off, love the start to the glog. I also love that you are jumping in with both feet on this pepper growing business.

With all the seedlings it looks like you'll grow, you will need a lot of light. I find that the T8's do ok for just the very beginning and then I need more light. Also, with those you can put them right next to the seedlings and you'll want to or they will start out very leggy

Thanks! I'd almost welcone a little legginess. Instead, I've got seedlings that lok the same way they did a month ago. I'll work on more lights tomorrow... similar to your system. Dumb question- when a fixture says the max output is 100w let's say, does that mean: A) 23w CFL that is the equivalent to 100w incandescent or B) 100w CFL too (thinking of the Y splitter)? I think B is correct but don't want to burn my house down.

Thanks again.

Pulpiteer · Dec 12, 2014

It's the actual wattage, not the equivalent. So you could put (2) 23w bulbs in and have a total of 46 watts and they would be the equivalent of 200 watts of incandescents. So yeah, B.

Also, before you get into your next stage of planting, look for some soil mix recipes on this site. They'll be mostly Sphagnum peat based. Or you can buy something like Happy Frog potting soil that will be mixed for you. With soil stuff you tend to get what you pay for. It's the foundation of your growing so be picky. Again, just my 2 cents though. A different soil mix may help your problems.