Dragon49's 2013 Grow Log

2013 Chile Pepper Grow Log:

My normal season begins in the middle of March, as I sprout 2 months before planting out in the garden. I’m dying to grow a superhot, but I have had 0% success in growing Capsicum chinense outside. A number of other factors prevent me from growing superhots in the garden.

I’ve decided on a small indoor only grow. A co-worker beekeeper jokingly offered to bring some bees into my apartment to pollinate, but I declined. If this works, I’ll have to expand my gardening skill set and figure out how to hand pollinate. I’ll also have to upgrade my lighting, as I’ve been told that my 54 watt T-3 florescent, while good enough to start seedlings, is not strong enough to get the plants to produce fruit.

Here we go. I’ve decided to sprout a Red Moruga Scorpion:

 

[dragon49]

 

[dragon49]

 I found another pod on the Aji Cereza X Bode Amarella cross!

 

[dragon49]

I just found this guy!  This pic is a little out of focus.  It is VERY HARD to focus on these.


 

 

[dragon49]

A child of one of my Aji Cereza X Bode Amarella pods just sprouted!  I need to either buy another light, or give or throw away the non-producing Trinidad Moruga Scorpion plant.











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[dragon49]

 

[dragon49]

 

[Portuge]

I have the same timer that you have... Running two timers for two T5 4 bulb light fixtures... Anyways back to the plants...

 

[dragon49]

I have the same timer that you have... Running two timers for two T5 4 bulb light fixtures... Anyways back to the plants...

I have two timers.  One is for the lights.  The single bulb T-5 and the 4 Bulb T5s both share one timer.  My fan is on the other timer. 
 
In the last pic I posted, you can see the single bulb on the right.  The base is designed for the light to hang straight down.  I have always used the single bulb to start seedlings, but got more power to make pods.  I couldn't figure out how to set up the single bulb to shine down, to add to the power of the 4 bulb fixture - So I just set it up to shine sideways on the plants by tying it to the top of the fixture by wrapping the adjustable cord around the light while it rests sideways.  It is a kludge, but it works.
 
This is my sixth season growing chiles, but my first try at indoor growing.  I've proved that 25,000 lumens is enough to produce pods.  I'm reasonably sure that without the single bulb T5, the four bulb unit @ 20,000 lumens would have produced pods as well.  I'm curious whether the single T-5 @ 5,000 lumens would have produced enough light to produce pods, (one THP member thought so) but I wasn't about to take the chance.  In any event, I'm a big fan of T-5 Florescent bulbs, as they are inexpensive and don't use a ton of electricity. 
 
The Trinidad Scorpion Mourga has only produced two pods, BUT I hurt it by over-fertilizing and wasn't pollinating correctly when it had tons of flowers.  I have had the oscillating fan running four hours a day for a while, but I was trying to pollinate with a Q-tip, bot dry and wet.  A THP member (In chat I believe) told me that Q-Tips are designed to get stuff to stick TO them, so it was a bad choice to use for pollination.  I'm now pollinating with a small paintbrush.  I was expecting tons of pods on the Aji Cereza X Bode Amarella cross a few months ago when I had tons of flowers, but a combination of bad pollination technique followed by a heat wave (I was away for a week and temps were probably > 100f in my apartment and all of the flowers fell off) caused a setback.  With the cooler weather and the paintbrush technique, I am having much better results.  So far, I have picked three ripe pods from the Aji Cereza X Bode Amarella cross and I now have ten pods on the plant.
 
I'm having so much fun that I sprouted one of the seeds from one of the cross pods.  If I decide to keep the TSMB, (It looks good and has a few developing flowers, so I am going to give it a chance) then I going to have to purchase another four bulb T-5, as I have no more room for another five gallon bucket, under the current setup.
 
One day when I live in a real house, not just a city apartment, I'm going to plan enough space for a much bigger grow operation!

 

[dragon49]

This large pod is starting to lighten around the top edge.  It should be turning color soon.



 

 

[dragon49]

 

 

[dragon49]

Look on the right.  I found another pod on the cross:

 

[dragon49]

The first set of true leaves is starting to form:
 

 

[dragon49]

 

[dragon49]

 

[Portuge]

  At Dragons, Got some fire going on right there... Nice plants

 

[dragon49]

  At Dragons, Got some fire going on right there... Nice plants

Thanks,
 
Some pain on the way!
 
It's hard to get pics of all of the pods but I've now got ten on the Aji Cereza x Bode Amarella cross.  Still no new pods on the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion.  It does have some developing flowers.  I'm going to need to transplant the seedling into a 5 gallon bucket in six weeks or so.  At that time, I'll need to decide to either keep the TSMB and get more lighting, or give or throw away the TSMB - I've got no more room for another bucket under the lights. 

 

[dragon49]

 

[Portuge]

what soil are you using?

 

[dragon49]

what soil are you using?

I am using ordinary potting soil. These are the ingredients on the package:
This product is regionally formulated from organic materials (derived from aged forest products) sphangum peat moss and perlite.


I just found this.  I now have twelve pods on the Aji Cereza X Bode Amarella Cross!

 

[dragon49]