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DocNrock's First Grow Log -- 2013 Grow Has Begun!

Hi all. I've learned so much from reading the Glogs of others that I've decided to put mine out there. Hopefully someone can say, "Hey, you're doing it wrong!" before its too late.

I got seeds from Refining Fire Chiles. The seeds were for Butch T, Bhuts, and Douglah. I soaked them overnight in water that I had boiled then cooled to room temp. All the seeds sank to the bottom, which I've read is a good thing. (?) Anyway, I got one of those 72 cell Jiffy Mini-Greenhouses with heater pad to germinate these. I didn't use the peat pellets. The germinating instructions that came with the seeds said not to use peat pots because of their acidity. I didn't know if this applied to the pellets or not, so I filled the tray with Organic Seed Starter Jiffy Mix. I sterilized it first by running boiling water through it in a sieve. I've since seen a number of posts on here using the peat pellets, so note to self they work.

Moving along, I've been watering (but not too much) with a misting bottle filled with boiled water that has 1/4 cup 3% H2O2 and 1 cup brewed chamomille tea in a total of one quart.

Here is my germination setup:

jifftray.jpg



After four days, Hello little guy! Baby Butch T.

sprout.jpg
 
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Hi Brent
Stopped by to have a look. Nice looking plants in the heat of the summer. They look pretty good considering the temps you guys have been enduring. Not that it's particularly rare around here, but you've got quite a pepper Jones going... :P Rock on Doc!
 
stickman said:
Hi Brent
Stopped by to have a look. Nice looking plants in the heat of the summer. They look pretty good considering the temps you guys have been enduring. Not that it's particularly rare around here, but you've got quite a pepper Jones going... :P Rock on Doc!
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Thanks for taking a look, Stickman. Once you get into it, it's really addicting. But I don't need to tell you or anyone else on the board about that!

Good growin' to ya!

Brent
 
Just before leaving for work today I took a quick look at my plants. Argh...six of my potted sprouts have leaf miners. Fortunately it was no more than one leaf per involved plant, so I just pinched off the involved leaf. No time for photos since I needed to leave for work.

These plants don't have a lot of leaf mass. Most only have their third set of true leaves. If this turns into an outbreak with them, I may have to resort to imidacloprid for them. They are months from producing anything.

On a different note, I think one of my ?Morugas is already starting to branch. Its only a couple of inches tall. Photo when I get some time.
 
Just discovered Acetamiprid in an Ortho product. Foliar instead of root application, but still systemic. Will get to the leaf miners, but overall plant concentrations will be much lower, and unless put directly on flowers, is not supposed to be toxic to bees. Picked that up instead of Imidacloprid.
 
More leaf miners. Six more with evidence that was not there this morning. Pics here of four.

lm1.jpg


Another:

lm2.jpg


Even cotyledons. I didn't notice this when I took the pic but I think I see two adult flies on this cot:

lm3.jpg


And here is the one that I think is trying to branch. I guess only time will tell if this stays one stalk, or not...and another leaf with a leaf miner:

lm4branch.jpg


Also just discovered Ortho is a subsidary of Scott's. Trying not to support Monsanto. Learning as I go along. Already purchased. Since more leaf miner evidence is sprouting up every half day, everything got sprayed. So far, they haven't gotten to my purchased plants....yet.

Wish me luck in the leaf miner battle.
 
I love the sun visor tent, class! Bummer about the leaf miner. I would offer some advice but I don't know shit haha! I wish you luck Doc!

Luke
 
Lavatung said:
I love the sun visor tent, class! Bummer about the leaf miner. I would offer some advice but I don't know shit haha! I wish you luck Doc!

Luke
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Hahaha! Thanks. The visor tent seemed to work...for cheap! Like I said in your glog, its fun figuring out this stuff as you go along. So much information on this board and so many helpful people, like you said at the start of yours. Just checked on my plants. No further evidence of leaf miner activity. I'm guessing the acetamiprid might have worked.

Thanks for stopping in.

Brent
 
Stefan_W said:
I've never had leaf miners before, but just looking at the picture makes me pissed off at them. Good luck nuking the suckers!
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Haha! Nice. You can then imagine my feelings when I first noticed the mined leaves. Today when I got home from work it seems like there was no more activity in my sprouts...then I noticed some on my established plants. Everything got sprayed with acetamiprid. At least I am way more than 7 days from a harvest.
 
Brent to hear about the leaf miners I always get them on my plants they never to much serious damage so I just let them be. I accepted the losing battle and plant extra plants foe just in case any of them do anything serious lucky enough nothing to bad 1 or 2 of the lower leaves. Good luck with them. How are your other plants doing?
 
i second fernando's i was fighting them too.. but let them go and most are gone.. only difference is.. my plants were bigger..l yours are too soft and delicate.....hope they make it...dont know where grand terrace is but come down here i have some platns

denniz

edit...
wow u in the IE.... come down.... we can talk plants...
 
SocalChilehead said:
Brent to hear about the leaf miners I always get them on my plants they never to much serious damage so I just let them be. I accepted the losing battle and plant extra plants foe just in case any of them do anything serious lucky enough nothing to bad 1 or 2 of the lower leaves. Good luck with them. How are your other plants doing?
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Other plants seem to be doing fine. All have a bit of new growth and after pinching off all the flowers they are just growing more, so I'm just going to let them be and do what they want. Yellow bhut came with a pod that still is not ripe, but that's ok. Black hab dropped its first few flowers but there are two that I think are about to sprout a couple of pods. Goronong and Jamaican Yellow are podded up with little guys.

KiNGDeNNiZ said:
i second fernando's i was fighting them too.. but let them go and most are gone.. only difference is.. my plants were bigger..l yours are too soft and delicate.....hope they make it...dont know where grand terrace is but come down here i have some platns

denniz

edit...
wow u in the IE.... come down.... we can talk plants...
Click to expand...

Good to hear from both of you that on established plants the miners don't do too much damage. In the future, I'll just observe them. But you're right Denniz, the little guys don't have a lot of leaf mass, so I knew I had to intervene on their behalf, at least.

Thanks for the invite. Crazy busy here for the next month, at least, but when things settle down I'll PM you. Thanks for stopping in and checking my humble grow.

Brent
 
Battle leaf-miners is over, at least for now. The acetamiprid coupled with removal of the involved leaves seemed to have done the trick. They ultimately did spread to my established plants, but after a couple of days of leaf-plucking I haven't seen any activity in a few days.

So, update time, and kind of a recap/summary. First up are the plants from my initial sprouts. Butch T, Bhut, and Douglah seeds hit the starting mix 7/1/12. Brains and ?Morugas on 7/7/12. Both Douglah seedlings and all four Bhut seedlings have since died. But I have established plants for Douglah, Yellow and Chocolate Bhut, so no worries. My strongest small plants are the Brains and ?Morugas. Seeds came from pods bought from Baker's Peppers.

brainmoruga.jpg


Here are the rest of my initial starts: Butch T, Brain, and ?Moruga. Some are obviously less advanced than others, so we'll see which ones make the cut.

growing.jpg


Next up are my Barrackpores. Seeds hit starter mix on 7/19/12. I plan to let their roots get a bit more established before potting them. I think some of my earlier casualties were from potting up too early.

barrackpore.jpg


Interesting to note that my Primos, Jonahs, and Infinity F-1 never germinated. I wonder if the envelope they came in got irradiated in the postal system. I'll try them again next year.

Here are a few Anaheims I germinated for grins from a store-bought pepper. I think their seeds went in starter mix on 7/19, also.

anaheims.jpg


Earlier in my glog I had mentioned that I sent OROZCONLECHE some Primo seeds. In return he sent me Aji Dulce, Chinese 5-Color, Datil, Marble, and Bird Eye. All sprouted except the Bird Eye. I still have some of the Bird Eye seed, so I'll try that one again next year. I hope he has better luck with the Primo seeds than I did. Back to front: Aji, Chi 5, Datil, Marble. Seeds to starter mix July 26th.

oroz.jpg


Finally, my established/purchased plants. No recovery yet on the Cheyenne. Middle row on the right is a new acquisition, a Home Depot Hot Red Cherry. Thai Dragon (middle, 2nd from left) made a great recovery. Its leaves are green again and its got a lot of buds forming. Morgua (back left) is forming its first bud. In fact, all the plants are budding up except the Aji Panca (back middle), but its got a lot of new growth forming and will hopefully start soon. With the new growth I've pruned off a lot of the older more damaged looking leaves. I think the plants look pretty healthy now. Pods are present on the Yellow Bhut (back, 2nd from the left), White Hab (back, far right), Goronong (middle left), Chenzo (middle, 3rd), Mohawk (middle, 5th) and Jamaican Yellow (front right). The Black Naga (front middle) and Black Hab (front, 4th from left) are dropping every flower that forms. The plants seem healthy enough. Must be the 100+ degree temps we've been having.

bought.jpg


And yes, I have a lot of moving boxes to break down today!

EDIT: My Wife is making breakfast. She just asked me what kind of pepper she should mince up for our hash browns. I gave her a half a Jonah from the freezer that I got in a nice box from pepperlover.com. Just the way to start the day.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend.

Brent
 
Nice plants! I'm happy to hear you dealt with those leaf miners.

I've found that the germination rates on seeds I buy are never as high as for seeds I save. Maybe you're right and the post office procedures has something to do with that. I always assumed that with bigger seed sellers you may end up with seeds that are a year or more old.
 
Plants look great Brent sorry about the few setbacks it happens to everyone. The establish plants are doing great should start budding soon or after the heat wave reduces. I see alot of space potential for peppers.
 
Your grow looks great, Doc, nice healthy looking sedlings!
You have overcome some obstacles already...I guess when
we put nice, succulent plants out in the world, something
will see it as a pantry! It's really cool when a plant forks
at 1 or 2" tall, they make a heck of a bushy specimen!

Good growin', brah!
 
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