Compmodder26's 2012 Grow Log - New Video Update

compmodder26 · Apr 13, 2012

Well I've started the hardening process for all of my plants now. And I've gone back on my decision to keep the bhut in the growbox until May. I put the new hardening candidates out for an hour in direct sun today from 10:30 - 11:30. They're now sitting in a nice shady spot for the rest of the day. Sure looks bare in my growbox now. My office is a lot dimmer now without those lights blazing too.

And I'm going to be A LOT more cautious this time around. Don't want to burn the new ones like I did the others.

compmodder26 · Apr 18, 2012

Update time. Overall, I'm happy with progress. The older plants are all in 5 gallon root pouches now and generally seem to be happy. The Butch T and oldest 7 Pot Jonah have dropped quite a few leaves, but the tops look okay. I'm starting to see side shoots out of the 7 Pot Jonah, which it needs badly. I'm noticing some leaves curling under on the bells and bananas. It seemed to occur on a day where it was a bit windy. Haven't noticed any new curling, but I'm seeing some browning on the underside of the leaves. You'll see what I'm talking about in the pics.

The smaller plants that I'm hardening off are doing much better than the guinea pigs before them. But that is because I'm taking it much slower and not leaving them out when it's below 50 (like I've been told numerous times and negelected to follow).

Been fighting a very small battle with aphids. I've noticed them on the plants in very small numbers (like 1 at a time). I've been using cory's recipe for aphid killer found here, and it works great at killing them. Just not preventing them. But as long as I stay on top of them, then I think I'll be fine with this solution.

Anyway, on to the pics, and if you have some explanation for the curling under and browning let me know.

Left to right: 7 Pot Jonah (couple of burned leaves, but overall happy), Fatalii, Naga Morich, Naga Morich

Left to right: Banana, Banana (small pot), Bell, Bell (small pot) and the other one in front is the morning glory (suffered a bad cat attack, through the chicken wire, it's a fighter though and is still growing)

Couple of leaf curl and browning pics:

Bhut Jolokia. Doing much better now.

Yellow 7 Pot. Despite the ragged leaves on the bottom, it still hasn't dropped a single one yet.

Butch T. Top looks really good, bottom leaves are starting to drop:

7 Pot Jonah. The worst of the bunch. I expect this guy to drop a few more leaves before it is all said and done. But side shoots are forming, so hopefully they'll come quick and get it back on track.

PIC 1 · Apr 18, 2012

Leaves look sunburnt. Do you foliar feed the plant with chemicals?

Greg

compmodder26 · Apr 18, 2012

PIC 1 said:
Leaves look sunburnt. Do you foliar feed the plant with chemicals?

Greg

On which plants? The larger ones yes indeed they are sunburned. I did a terrible job of introducing them gradually to the sun. The good news is that no new burning seems to be occurring.

And no, I don't foliar feed at all. I just apply ferts to the roots. And really I haven't been ferting any of them beyond the banana and bell in the 1 pint pouch as they've used up all nutrients from their soils by now. The Happy Frog potting soil I'm using seems to have plenty of nutrients in it already. From what I've read on some of those "other sites", it should have enough nutrients in it to last a plant about a month before needing supplementing. So every time I pot up I wait 4 weeks before supplementing. But like I said, I don't foliar feed.

Edit: And I attribute a lot of the raggedness of the older plants to cold and wind shock too. I disregarded yours and other members advice to not let them stay out when it was below 50, and they really took a hit from that.

PIC 1 · Apr 18, 2012

The new growth looks fine. The reason I brought up the "leaf feed" is that the edges look burnt, also. When a plant gets sprayed the gravity pulls the liquid to the edges of the leaves, and sometimes it pools there. A combination of pooling liquid plus the direct sun can cause burn.........just my thought on it

Greg

compmodder26 · Apr 18, 2012

PIC 1 said:
The new growth looks fine. The reason I brought up the "leaf feed" is that the edges look burnt, also. When a plant gets sprayed the gravity pulls the liquid to the edges of the leaves, and sometimes it pools there. A combination of pooling liquid plus the direct sun can cause burn.........just my thought on it

Greg

I'll definitely keep that in mind. If I wet the leaves, I generally try to do that in the mornings, but I don't do that very often either. Do you have any thoughts on the curled down and browning underside of the leaves on the bells and bananas, beyond wind shock?

stc3248 · Apr 18, 2012

Plants look pretty good so far, whatever your issues are I'm having something very similar here. Some leaves dropping, browning of the tips, and some yellowing/curling of new growth... Hope you figure it out, because I am having a bitch of a time with it. I have a pequin that was doing those things and it won't set pods either. Has had dozens of flowers that look great just drop. My other pequin which is showing none of those symptoms is setting pods on all its blooms??? Thankfully its not on all my plants, just a few so I am still making progress. FYI I have tried neem on them a couple times, and it appears to be helping so far, but still too early to tell.
Good luck brother! Hope you figure it out!
Shane

compmodder26 · Apr 19, 2012

Thanks Shane. Hope you can get your issues worked out as well. Quick question about Neem. It is a systemic right? If so, I might be tempted to try it because it gets tiresome having to check them so often to make sure I stay on top of the aphids. Like I said, cory's recipe is excellent at killing them on the spot, but there's no prevention with it. I can come back a couple hours later after spraying them to find another aphid or two on them.

stc3248 · Apr 19, 2012

Don't think its a systemic exactly, but I could be wrong. It does leave a residue for a while which would act as a deterrent and it acts as a anti fungal as well. Everything I have tried the key has been repeat and thorough applications. If you don't already have a pump sprayer with a wand get one....makes spraying a ton easier especially the underside of them.

romy6 · Apr 19, 2012

Plants are looking good Brian. I wouldn't worry about the bottom leaves dropping. But as for the browning on your leaves I had the same problem a few weeks ago . I took it as bacterial/fungus/ outbreak( not sure which) so I sprayed some fungicide on the plants and it seemed to help. Mine started right after a full day of rain. They are recovering quickley. You can aslo try a 1/2 skim milk 1/2 water solution foiler application. That will kill any bacteria on the leaves. May want to remove any seriously infected leaves.

Jamie

Oh and my aphids love neem oil. They bath in it and do other things that lead to more babies :rofl:

Get some Bonide 218 citrus fruit and orchard spray if you want to stomp them good. The organics are safe but they just don't cut it in my neck of the woods.

compmodder26 · Apr 19, 2012

romy6 said:
Plants are looking good Brian. I wouldn't worry about the bottom leaves dropping. But as for the browning on your leaves I had the same problem a few weeks ago . I took it as bacterial/fungus/ outbreak( not sure which) so I sprayed some fungicide on the plants and it seemed to help. Mine started right after a full day of rain. They are recovering quickley. You can aslo try a 1/2 skim milk 1/2 water solution foiler application. That will kill any bacteria on the leaves. May want to remove any seriously infected leaves.

Jamie

Oh and my aphids love neem oil. They bath in it and do other things that lead to more babies
Get some Bonide 218 citrus fruit and orchard spray if you want to stomp them good. The organics are safe but they just don't cut it in my neck of the woods.

The bonide is a fungicide as well too correct? I thought of getting that, but I didn't know how it would affect the mycorrhizae in my potting mix. Is it safe? I haven't really been able to find much in a google search.

Thinking of it being a fungal issue, I decided I'd try to give it such a treatment. I didn't have any skim milk on hand, so I decided to search for other home fungicidal concoctions I could make. I found one that mixes 5 tsp each of HP and Baking Soda into a gallon of water. So I mixed that up and put it into a small spray bottle. I've now applied it to the leaves of the affected plants. Time will tell if I've helped or hindered my plants. BTW, I finally found some useful info on fungicides and mycorrhizae. I found that if I used a non systemic applied via a foliar spray, the mycorrhizae should not be affected.

stc3248 · Apr 19, 2012

Yes....and I think you can spray it up to day of harvest. Pyrethrin and Sulfur...I haven't used it yet. I will try it this weekend in place of the neem and bug-b-gon I have been using. They have both been helpful at controlling the population, but not getting rid of them. I also have some sort of fungal infection on a few plants that I hope it corrects. We shall see! Thanks for the tip Jamie!

compmodder26 · May 14, 2012

Wow, has it really been nearly a month since I updated this? Sheesh, I've been negligent. Well the plants are doing generally well. Got more leaf curl and brown spotting, but I believe I've figured it out. I believe the homemade aphid spray I've been using has an expiration date on it and I've been stupid enough to think otherwise. If I let it sit for a few days, I think bacteria starts to form and when I spray it on my plants I'm putting bad bacteria on my leaves. So I've stopped using the spray for now and ordered some Bonide since it doesn't have any organic matter in it. I'll try to post some pics in a day or so. Been really slammed with work and haven't had much time to update.

slashroot · May 14, 2012

Many of the plants I have in my greenhouse look pretty much exactly like yours plus a bit of thrips damage. I put them too fast outside under direct sunlight giving them major sunburn. They are refusing to drop some of the badly sunburned leaves even though it's gone weeks.

I think your plants will be fine, just have to be patient. Mine are gradually getting new healthy growth

Update:
Noticed your newest post. Hopefully the aphid spray was doing some of it, then you got the problem partially solved

compmodder26 · May 14, 2012

Yeah, I really think that the rancid aphid spray is causing most of my problems. My plants are also getting lots of new growth as well. So I think they'll be just fine. The only thing that makes me mad is that I keep delaying their growth with each mistake I make. Hopefully no more mistakes will be made and they'll be unhindered by my noobness. Next year though should be a good year with all the "experience" I'm getting this year.

stc3248 · May 14, 2012

You have been negligent! They should issue warning points if you go more than a week! The bonide is pretty good stuff. I always spray late in the evening to avoid overloading the plants with chemicals + harsh sun. Hope to see some pics soon!

compmodder26 · May 25, 2012

Alright, finally getting around to posting pictures. You know, I watch my plants daily and I think that they aren't growing very fast. But then I compare them to the new pics I've taken and they have really come a long way in a little more than a month. I have no doubt that they could be a lot further along if I hadn't made some mistakes along the way, but it's been a great learning experience. Anywho, here's the latest. Oh yeah, crappy camera phone, please accept my apologies.

7 Pot Jonah 1 (oldest):

7 Pot Jonah 2 (youngest):

Yellow 7 Pot (a LOT bigger than it was last time I took a picture of it):

Bhut Jolokia:

Naga Morich 1:

Trinidad Scorpion Butch T:

Yellow Fatalii:

Naga Morich 2:

Continued in next post...

Red Bell Pepper 1:

Sweet Banana Pepper:

Red Bell Pepper 2:

Not a pepper pic, but here's the rest of what I'm growing. First row is carrots, second row bush green beans, third row sugar daddy peas, fourth row zucchini and cucumber (did not realize that zucchini grew so big. It is taking over that back row and encroaching on the peas:

So most of my pepper plants are around a foot tall. From the damage I inflicted upon them in hardening off, most are not growing very tall but are getting quite bushy. All of them have a ton of buds on them. I've grown tired of pinching buds so I'm just letting them go. I may end up with a bunch of small peppers but so be it.

I do actually have a pepper forming on my banana plant. I tried to take a picture but my crappy cameraphone wouldn't focus properly. It has another flower on it too, so we'll see what comes of it.

All but one of my plants are in their final home. The Naga Morich 2 is the lone exception. I ran out of potting soil so I have to wait until I get more to pot it up in its 5 gallon pot.

Quick notes on the other plants I'm growing. Like I said, the zucchini is humongous. Much bigger than I anticipated. They have a bunch of little flower buds forming so hopefully soon we'll have some zucchini. The peas are making a rebound from earlier. They are getting bigger and walking up the trellis quite nicely. They are producing flowers and I even have one pea pod starting to form. The bush beans are only supposed to grow about a foot tall, but most of them are quickly approaching that mark already. I only planted them at the beginning of the month (along with the zucchini and cucumbers). Carrots are looking nice. I took a peak at the root of one of them and it was about a half inch in diameter, so hopefully in another few weeks, some will be ready for harvest.

stc3248 · May 26, 2012

They're gathering some steam! Looking like you are on the brink of a big growth spurt! Nice compact bushy plants! :dance:

romy6 · May 26, 2012

Plants are looking really sweet Brian. You will be swimming in pods in about a month!

compmodder26 · May 28, 2012

stc3248 said:
They're gathering some steam! Looking like you are on the brink of a big growth spurt! Nice compact bushy plants!

Thanks Shane. I think you are correct about the growth spurt. Just two days later and they already look much bigger than the current pics show. Most people say that they don't like really hot weather, but we've had low to mid 90's here for three days straight and they seem to be LOVING it.

romy6 said:
Plants are looking really sweet Brian. You will be swimming in pods in about a month!

Thanks Jamie. Yeah I'm hoping so. Got buds galore on both Naga Morich plants, the Yellow 7 Pot and both 7 Pot Jonahs. Starting to get a fair amount of buds on the bhut jolokia and the Butch T. My sweet banana has two infant pods on it right now with more flowers getting ready to pop. One of my Bells is getting a flower about to open as well. It feels really good to start to see some of the fruits of my labor. Hoping that the next couple of months will be very prosperous for me.