Deolater 2019

Howdy all, new guy to the forum here. This will be my second year growing hot peppers. Last year I got into the hobby when a friend gave me some of his extra plants. It was a ton of fun and I had some good results, but this year I'm going all in.

Grow list:

I kind of covered myself in glue and rolled through the catalog on fataliiseeds

Fatalii Gourmet Jigsaw
Carolina Reaper x 7pot Douglah
Carolina Reaper x Clavo Red
7pot Primo x Purple Bhut
7pot Bubblegum Yellow
Purple Bhut Jolokia
White Fatalii
Numex twilight
Pink Habanero
Ramiro
Lemon drop
? (Saved seeds from last year, forgot to label)
?? (Saved seeds from last year, unlabeled)
Chocolate Bhut
Golden habanero
Montufar
Pequin
Cayenne fiesta mix
Jalapeno
Anaheim

I started out in those Jiffy trays, and started 5 cells of each variety, for 100 total.

This is way more than I can grow, but I've got scars from last year when I only had one plant of each variety. I'll probably be begging people to take some of these off my hands are some point.


The first tray of ~50 are now in Solo cups under a grow light in a tent in my basement, and the second tray is mostly sprouted.

I live in a wooded suburban neighborhood, so while I have plenty of space outside, I don't have a lot of space that also gets light. I'm hoping I'll be able to keep about 25 total plants, with some in ground and some in containers.

 

[deolater]

Also several of my plants have started sending roots down into the second cup, so I started bottom feeding those. If my faith in Khang Starr isn't misplaced, I should be getting some really good growth soon.

 

[Walchit]

The leaf curl is probably from keeping the soil a little too moist. It causes a calcium uptake issue I think.

Those bumps are new roots forming, probably also an indicator for wet soil.

 

[deolater]

The leaf curl is probably from keeping the soil a little too moist. It causes a calcium uptake issue I think.

Those bumps are new roots forming, probably also an indicator for wet soil.

Well, that would explain why giving them a bit more water didn't help. D'oh

I hope they recover

 

[Walchit]

They will. Let them dry pretty good between watering. Some people even let their plants wilt before they water, I can't really let mine go that long lol.

 

[deolater]

More adventures in overwatering, or is this light burn?

 

[PaulG]

Looks like purpling from light intensity, not a  horrible thing.
You could give it a little more head-room and see what happens.
 
Watering indoors in soil is not always easy. I have had my
best results when I top water enough to wet the saucer
tray around the drain holes, or maybe drain a couple of
ounces, which they usually suck back up pretty quickly.
Weight determines when I water each plant.
 
I think when I bottom water, the bottom of the pot is wet
for a longer time, and is the culprit of my edema issues
on a few plants. I've gone back to all top watering to see
if that corrects the problem. If not, plant-out when it rolls
around, will 
 
Good luck with your grow going forward!

 

[deolater]

I think I'm overwatering because time is going so slow. I only started this Glog like a week ago.

Anyway, here's an overall view of my plants.

I've moved all water away from the tent to remind me not to water.

Here we are without the color filter

I need to get those plants out of that tray, but I don't know where to put them!

I had really great results from my lemon drop seeds (I just pulled a pod off the OW plant in my garage and planted the seeds), and one of my ?? saved seeds varieties is showing broad leaves, so I'm guessing Bhut or Reaper. The other ?? hasn't sprouted.

 

[PaulG]

Some nice looking starts there. I'm looking
forward to seeing how your purple BJ  compares
to my BJ hybrid this season.
 
Good luck finding homes for all those!

 

[CDNmatt]

Space becomes an enemy to most in here I would think...Unless you can find more eventually some choices will have to be made sadly. I have been going on for weeks aboot the cuts I need to make and still have not yet done so.

 

[deolater]

Quick update

I think I've figured out why my fast growing annuums are suffering (like Ramiro in the earlier post). I think they got too big in the jiffy tray and lost a lot of roots in the transplant. Actually, all the plants that got big in the tray are now struggling, as are plants that struggled in the tray. Middle-of-the-road plants are looking great.

Next year, no trays.

Over the weekend I gave like 15 plants to friends and family, finally making some room for the plants in the tray. I hope to get the rest out of them out this weekend. I made the hard choice to just kill all the duplicate plants in the tray (more than one per cell). I tried separating a bunch from the first tray, but a lot of root loss resulted.

I think the "??" plants are probably ghost or reaper (ghost, reaper, or lemon drop were the likely candidates) based on the leaf shape.

You can definitely tell in this picture which plants have gotten roots into the lower cup. They're lush, thick, and beautiful. The rest still struggle.

I think I'm going to throw out all the seedlings that only have cotyledons after a month or more of growth.

 

[CDNmatt]

Quick update

I think I've figured out why my fast growing annuums are suffering (like Ramiro in the earlier post). I think they got too big in the jiffy tray and lost a lot of roots in the transplant. Actually, all the plants that got big in the tray are now struggling, as are plants that struggled in the tray. Middle-of-the-road plants are looking great.

Next year, no trays.

IMG_20190313_062444.jpg

Over the weekend I gave like 15 plants to friends and family, finally making some room for the plants in the tray. I hope to get the rest out of them out this weekend. I made the hard choice to just kill all the duplicate plants in the tray (more than one per cell). I tried separating a bunch from the first tray, but a lot of root loss resulted.

I think the "??" plants are probably ghost or reaper (ghost, reaper, or lemon drop were the likely candidates) based on the leaf shape.

You can definitely tell in this picture which plants have gotten roots into the lower cup. They're lush, thick, and beautiful. The rest still struggle.

I think I'm going to throw out all the seedlings that only have cotyledons after a month or more of growth.

 
R.I.P Duplicates - Thou shall not be forgotten......
 
You Monster!!! I kid of course
 
You did what I was unable to bring myself to do and made the hard choices that needed to be made, for that I salute you!!
 
 
Everything seems to look pretty good though man, and should really take off with all the extra roomage you have given them eh.
 

 

[deolater]

Just a quick picture of my current favorite plant

 

[PaulG]

A beautiful specimen, for sure, Deo!

 

[deolater]

A beautiful specimen, for sure, Deo!

Thanks! Even better, more and more of them are finally starting to look like that.

Three possible causes:

1. I rewatched Khang's video about feeding seedlings and noticed he does top feed with fertilizer pellets too. So I started doing that.
2. A bunch more have gotten roots down into the second cup, and hydroponic nutrients really do work miracles
3. The tent has been a couple degrees warmer the last few days.

Whatever it is, I welcome it!

This morning I got the last plants out of that Jiffy tray. The trays are reusable, but I'm probably going to throw them out because I don't want to use them again. Next year I'll start seeds in cups.

Trashed all the plants that only have cotyledons. It was time, but it still hurt.

About another month until the almanac says it's safe to plant. Now I need to decide when to top.

 

[PaulG]

Looks good, lot of work there.
Khang has some great videos,
all right.
 
What is your purpose for topping
the plants?

 

[deolater]

Looks good, lot of work there.
Khang has some great videos,
all right.
 
What is your purpose for topping
the plants?

I underestimated how much work and was a bit late to my real job today because I thought "how long can putting a few seedlings into cups take"? The answer: about an hour!

My understanding of topping is it encourages more branching which produces bushier growth and higher yield. Last year my plants grew rather tall and didn't produce fruit until pretty late. My friends topped plants were bushier, larger (except height), and produced earlier. Up the thread I have a picture of the tree my reaper grew into, I wonder if it would have yielded better if it had been a busy like in various people's topped pepper videos

Like this one https://youtube.com/watch?v=z8PMd-VNCYc

 

[PaulG]

Thanks, Deo, just curious if it was a space issue,
or for the reasons you stated above.
 
Your plants should start to fork at 'about' 7 weeks
from hooks, if they are like mine. Most of mine fork
at the seventh node. I'd go with Khang's advice and
just do each plant as it forks.

 

[deolater]

Yeah, that's what I'll do. The only uncertainty is because last year my reaper didn't fork until July when it was over two feet tall.

 

[PaulG]

Yeah, that's what I'll do. The only uncertainty is because last year my reaper didn't fork until July when it was over two feet tall.

Some pepper plants just seem to have a mind of their own!

 

[deolater]

And the first pepper to earn a haircut is Numex Twilight!

I took a "before" picture but forgot to do an "after". Oops.

This little guy already has tons of branches and had two buds that were removed in the topping.

I think one of my Ramiros has a date with the barber soon too.