• Blog your pepper progress. The first image in your first post will be used to represent your Glog.

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:

DSCN0752_zpsb22dc54d.jpg


DSCN0750_zps6e72fdf4.jpg
 
Click to expand...
I always let the visible part of the soil dry out before watering, but am sure there is much more moisture that I can’t see. I have been varying between 2 and 3 days between watering.
I forgot to mention that I already (5 or 6 days ago?) tested the phototropism (bending towards the light). It worked as early as then, showing excellent signs of health. I moved the plant away from the light and it leaned to find the light. I then moved it in the opposite direction to straighten it out, and then put it back under the light.
 
Nice seedling you have there. I got some TS Moruga Blend from Judy as well. Mine were also labeled Moruga Red. I'm assuming/hoping its just a labeling error. I have no interest in growing Moruga yellow or Red but Judy is known to make a typo or two. We should ask her to be sure. Good luck! Hope the other plants sprout too.
 
Thanks,

No other sprouts yet.

I'm reasonably sure that I figured out the labeling and I am in fact growing the TS Moruga Blend.
 
Nice looking seedlings. What works well with the young seedlings is a foliar feed, A highly diluted amount of fish emulsion in a misting bottle, like wise with 1/2 ts of epsom salts in another 1 qt size bottle. Mist at the end of the light cycle or pull the plants out of the light for a couple of hours. Once a week will do the trick. Too much lov'in of the chemicals in the soil can burn the young seedlings.
Get yourself some oversized saucers for the pots and bottom water the plants............you'll be amazed at the results.
Even with just plain old water....less is more.

Greg
 
Greg,

Thanks for the advice. I've over-fertilized young seedlings in the past, but for the last 2 seasons, I have taken it easy. I think I'm doing a good job right now with 1/2 strength Cal-Mag plus. So, at what point does my "seedling" become a "plant?" I only have one, but have been posting pics with different angles. Does it need 2 more sets of true leaves?
 
I was able to sprout two of the Yellow Cardi Trinidad Scorpions using the wet paper towel method. The problem is that I did not check the towel soon enough and the roots had dried out too much. I broke one off by handling it. I was able to salvage the other and tried my best to gently bury the toots and leave a drop of the seed top in the soil. I'm not too confident that this is going to make it:

1-4_zps568389cd.jpg


2-4_zps95b32c4e.jpg
 
Look at that seedling showin off!! That MS is on its way to be a moose! I would bury the yellow cardi scorp about 1/4" to avoid a football helmet
 
With helmet heads I like to mist them to keep em from getting dry so the pepper has a chance to slip it off. A easy germination trick for peppers if your looking for one is planting the seeds in your dirt and covering with a moist paper towel until you get sprouts, this retains the humidity really well if you dont have a dome. I was tought this trick by the head grower of a nursery I worked at, this was what they did to ensure almost 99.9 percent success. When I use this method I tend to not get any seed coats left behind, and it is easy for beginners because sometimes it is hard to know when to water a seed you are trying to germinate in a pot and if you dont get to check it for a couple days it will stay moist and the pepper seed is more than strong enough to push the pamer towel up until you get to it. I always found the paper towel method hard to master. Especially since seed from the same batch can take 5 to 18+ days. Good luck on future attempts and I hope your sprout survives the mini drought.
 
Thanks for the advice Steve954 and Southerncanada. I should get a spray bottle for misting.

It is easy to get sprouts started with the wet paper towel method, but there are 2 issues:

1 - I already ran in to which is the possibility of sprouts drying out if I don't check them often enough. BYW, the 2 Yellow Cardi Trinidad Scorps sprouted after I soaked the paper towel a second time, as it had dried out
before anything sprouted. On Tuesday, I soaked the paper towel containing the Chocolate Bhut seeds a third time - still no sprouts.

2 - It is hard to properly handle the baby roots and seed top and get them situated correctly in the soil. For me, putting a seed directly in the soil is so much easier. Also, with the sprout that I posted a picture of, the roots
were out to each side and it was very hard to handle thm without breaking them off. I should go buy a tweezers to handle future sprouts like this. I'll try and gently grab the seed head and drop the roots in a pre-made
depression.

Now that i am thinking about it, I should have just made a wide hole in the soil and placed the roots in as is, instead of pushing them together to fit in the narrow hole that I made.
 
I just went on a shopping spree!

John Ford at Ford's Fiery Food Products & Plants posted on his facebook page (www.facebook.com/FordsFieryFoodProducts) that he uses these nutes, along with Cal-mag (I already have Cal-Mag) at 1/4 strenght and has had great results.

I just ordered this stuff:

http://www.amazon.com/Monterey-Lawn-Garden-Fish-Poop/dp/B001AWZPH0/


http://www.amazon.com/Pure-Blend-Pro-Grow-Botanicare/dp/B000BSFEF2/


http://www.amazon.com/Botanicare-Liquid-Stimulant-0-1-0-1-0-5-1-Quart/dp/B000X5Y1KM/


http://www.amazon.com/Green-Liquid-Organic-Ferilizer-Quart/dp/B00A52OS4M/

I should have them all by the end of next week.

The Moruga Scorpion is still very little. It is 21 days old now. The growth rate has slowed a lot over the last few days, but I do see the second set of true leaves forming and the first set of true leaves getting a drop bigger. I'm still giving it 1/2 strength Cal-Mag with every watering. I water it every 3 days, giving it 2 small (3 Oz I believe) dixie cups of the Cal-Mag infused water. I should probably alternate with a few waterings of plain H20. In any event, I'm not going to switch to the stronger nutes until at lease I see that the second set of true leaves are full sized. This may be 2 weeks away.
 
The Trinidad Moruga Scorpion is growing, but SLOWLY. Still not progress on the Yellow Cardi Trinidad Scorpion, and nothing else has sprouted:

21_zps9ec8f9f1.jpg


22_zps90e2388c.jpg


23_zps6a8ba5b7.jpg
 
This is weird:

I had earlier reported that I saw the second set of true leaves forming. I only saw one leaf, but thought the other was too small to see. Now, it is clear that there is only one leaf emerging. Is it normal to have one third true leaf, and not a set of two?

In any event, I'm confident that this will make it, but it is small for a 24 day old plant:

24_zps3f613267.jpg


25_zps417f2845.jpg


26_zps833800b0.jpg


27_zps101956ef.jpg
 
No a lot of growth since the last post. I am able to conform that the second leaf from the second set of true leaves is starting to form. If you look closely at the third picture you can see it.

I'm not sure if it is scientifically possible for something to grow slower! I'm dying to start with the heavier nutes, but I am still waiting for one of the fertilizers to arrive, as well as a new set of measuring spoons that has a 1/4 tsp included. It was time to water, so I gave it one last dose of 1/2 strength Cal-Mag. The other stuff should arrive before the next scheduled watering.

28_zpse14a79c8.jpg


29_zpsbf514360.jpg


30_zpsbf51851c.jpg
 
You seedling is looking nice. What kind of ratio does the fertilizer your waiting on have? Be careful with heavy nutrients excess fert can cause your plant to grow slow, if you make everything available too frequently too early the plant can cut down its production of new feeder roots. I would follow a feed then just water when you are doing the heavy fert, especially if you are using organic based nutrients. I like to feed only once a week/ every third water as my nutrients are quite strong and complete, you can check out my grow log to see how my seedlings like it. Also with the plant being in a four inch pot to start with the roots tend to search a little more before you get lots of upward growth. Peppers are an exercise in patience, wait until your waiting for a mouth watering pod to ripen I find that excruciating.
 
Southerncanada,

Thanks for the adivce. I'll check out your grog.

Beginning the next watering, I plan on mixing all 5 of these fertilizers, all at 1/4 strength:

1 - Cal-Mag - 2-0-0
2 - Monterey Fish and Poop - 9-6-2
3 - Pure Blend Pro Grow - 3-2-4
4 - Botanicare Liquid Karma Plant Stimulant - 0.1-0.1-0.5
5 - Kelp Green Liquid Organic Ferilizer -1.27 0.253 0.075

I've been giving a 1/2 dose of Cal-Mag with every (every 3 days) watering, but once I switch to the stronger stuff, I should alternate between fertilizing and plain water. I'm getting better at this every year, but at some point, I usually oveefertilize. I'd like to transplant it to a large bucket so it can get used to its final container, but it is too little and too immature.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top