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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:

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Click to expand...
My Bulbs (set of 4) are T-5 5,000 lumens x4 = 20,000 lumens 6400k. Is this defined as daylight?






The Trinidad Moruga Scorpion is back to growing SLOWLY. I wasn't planning on watering it today, but some of the large bottom leaves were drooping and looked like they would fall off if I touched them, which they did. They were "rubbery" to the touch. I upped the nutes, giving it the full dosage of 1 teaspoon of everything per gallon.










I just filled another gallon jug with a 1/2 strength (1/2 teaspoon) of Cal-Mag Plus. Everything that has at least 2 sets of true leaves will be watered with this.
 
I just took a friend's advice and plucked off all of the burnt leaves off the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion, as he told me they were wasting energy. While I was grooming I found and picked off 5 or 6 buds. I'm hoping this will help explode the plant growth, as now the light is free to reach the smaller middle leaves.
 
I'm dying to grow a Chocolate Bhut, but none of mine have sprouted so far. I just tried another sprouting medium. I took out my pack of Chocolate Bhuts that I purchased from John Ford and stuck around 8-10 seeds into two water expanded seed starter soil pellets. I'll have a dilemma if more than one sprouts, as I only want to grow one, but would hate to deliberately kill any sprouts.
 
I emptied the remaining seeds from John's Chocolate Bhut pack and put them into another expanded seed starter. I'm confident that I'll have at least one potted up by early May.
 
The Trinidad Moruga Scorpion has grown 1.5 inches in the last ten days. It is now 10.5 inches tall. I'll shortly be moving it farther away from the light to avoid burning the top leaves again. This thing is dying to make flowers. I just pulled off another 7 buds. I need to set a threshold for when I'll allow it to bud—Probably somewhere between 2 and 3 feet.
 
The Trinidad Moruga Scorpion continues to do well. Overall, it has not gotten taller, as the tallest leaf is not more than 10.5 inches away from the stem base, but the middle section, where I pulled off the burnt leaves, is filling in nicely. It appears to me that as the roots get bigger, the plant soaks up water faster. I gave it a good soaking 5 days ago, but earlier I noticed some bottom leaves drooping and the bucket was getting light, so I just watered again:









This is one of the Superchiles:



 
Oh wow is that a floppy is see in the background... Boy does time fly, those were the days right there where you had to write everything on them and had to have multiples for large files... Anyways back to the peppers, looking good...
 
Thanks - They are pretty to look at.

That is a floppy in the background. I am a pack rat. I hate throwing things out. That is an old Windows 95 Boot Disk, loaded with a few usefull DOS utlities for troubleshooting.
 
I was almost embarrassed to post it, but the lighting in the bathroom makes for a good pic :) Yeah, I had just watered. I could use the bucket cover as a bottom tray to catch water, but I don't feel like dealing with the mess if it flows over. The bucket bottom fits perfectly on the toilet seat. That is how I water. I give it 30 minutes - the dripping has always stopped by then. The plant then goes back under the floruscents.
 
Yesterday, I purchased an 18 inch oscillating fan for my plants. I was worried, as it did not come fully assembled, however, the box read, "easy to assemble." I unpack the box - There are no instructions, and I can't figure out how to assemble it. :) It is going back to the store.
 
I keep on setting new records: This Open Pollinated Aji Cereza took 40 days to sprout! I'm worried that it wont be big enough to transplant in the garden on Memorial Day weekend, when all my peppers go in the ground.


 
Today was 68 F and sunny in NYC. It would have been a great day to start hardening off my plants, but I'm waiting until I get a fan to strengthen the stems. Every year, I have to stake most of my plants after the outside wind topples them. I'm getting sick of having to do that. Hopefully, I'll figure out a good strengthening program with an fan.
 
It looks like pulling buds off the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion is going to be one of my daily responsibilities. It is now 11 1/2 inches from the base to the highest leaf. I just moved the light 1 1/2 inches farther away from the top of the plant.






 
The Trinidad Moruga Scorpion continues to do well. I may have to change the watering schedule to every 4 days. I just watered today—5 days after the last watering, but it was too late for 2 of the bottom leaves that fell off from dehydration:

All of the other plants with at least 2 sets of true leaves got some increased nutes, 1/4 strength of all of my fertilizers.





I took this pic to show off one of the thick branches:




I'm wondering if this Open Pollinated Aji Cereza will turn out to be a cross, as the leaves don't look like the Cereza's that I grew last year, and it looks different than the Cereza in the next picture:





One of the Open Pollinated F4 (With F1 Characteristics) Superchiles:

 
I started hardening off today. Everything (except the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion that will be remaining inside) got direct sun and ten minutes of 69 f outside air. I'm pleasantly surprised that I don't need to stake anything, but it wasn't windy—just a light breeze. I dropped one of the plants, knocking everything out of the pot. The root system was impressive and I'm confident that the new transplant will take.
 
The Trinidad Moruga Scorpion hasn't gotten any taller. It is still only 11 3/4 inches tall, but the top leaves aren't reacting well to the light, so I moved the light 1 1/2 inches farther away.

This Cereza is looking good:






This Superchile is doing well:



 
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