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Dragon49's 2019 Grow Log

I started to sow a month ago and finally have something to show for it.  Here is the story before I get to the pictures:
 
Back in 2014, I got to enjoy the exquisite flavor and perfect heat of a Pimenta de Neyde x Bhut Jolokia - F6 Open Pollinated. I saved some seeds and grew it out the following year.  I only grew one plant, but it grew true and produced 220 pods in a 5 gallon bucket.  I had some pods tested and they came in at 158,400 SHU.   Excellent heat, but far from deadly and a perfect compliment to the sweetness.  I saved those seeds, but took a four-year break from growing from seeds.  The cool thing about that plant is that it grew literally right next to a Yellow 7 Pot and I'm welcoming a cross.  I labeled seeds from different pods with different batch numbers, so I can keep track of what grows true and what crosses.  
 
I neither have a lot of room to grow, nor resources to isolate, so I'm only growing one plant this year.  Worried about the viability of my four-old seeds (stored well, except for climate control) I initially tried to sprout 14 - 9 in soil and 5 with the wet paper towel method.  After nearly three weeks - almost nothing!  Some tails popped up, but I planted them prematurely and the baby roots shriveled up and died.  I took some forum advice and soaked these and some other seeds in a (1/9) hydrogen peroxide to water solution for twenty-four hours, before returning them to a wet paper towel.  I checked nine days later and only one had sprouted, but it was a big, healthy root:
 
R4QACgN.jpg

 
After the initial transplant:
 
DH4Dor1.jpg

 
I got excited this morning when I saw evidence of phototropism and knew the transplant took:
 
wGvveKv.jpg

 
 
The plant now:
 
SVWlyQ2.jpg

 
 
When I came home from work, I found this had finally popped out after sitting in soil for along time:
 
k9zDZTK.jpg

 
 
I'm giving this one away, but will post pics while it remains in my possession.
 
 
 
 
I have a question regarding the plant from the first picture in my last post:
 
Are my CFLs burning the tips of the cotyledon leaves because they are too close, or are the edge discolorations normal?
 
It's burning, but not a big deal.  They're getting a lot of light; possibly more than they need or can use.  The extreme darkness of the one seedling is a response to the light and it would be greener or at least less glossy-dark with less light.  They might actually be getting a bit much heat too, which can contribute to the burnt tips.  I don't think they're really suffering, but it might help to lessen the light/heat some.  Those seedlings should be able to get all the light they need or want from just one of those CFLs positioned right over top of them, at least until they have at least a couple sets of true leaves.  The light effectiveness of those bulbs drops off very fast with distance, so one bulb very close (but not so close the heat burns the plant) is better than several farther away.  The CFL bulb I run in a similar fixture is fairly cool and I'll run it about 3 inches away from seedlings.
 
EDIT - I went back and looked at the last pic again and if that is burning on the true leaves of the first seedling not just on the cotyledons then definitely back off on the light and heat. Cotyledons often do funky stuff in response to heat/light/humidity with the first true leaves being perfectly fine, but if the true leaves are acting funky it's worth responding. 
 
CaneDog said:
It's burning, but not a big deal.  They're getting a lot of light; possibly more than they need or can use.  The extreme darkness of the one seedling is a response to the light and it would be greener or at least less glossy-dark with less light.  They might actually be getting a bit much heat too, which can contribute to the burnt tips.  I don't think they're really suffering, but it might help to lessen the light/heat some.  Those seedlings should be able to get all the light they need or want from just one of those CFLs positioned right over top of them, at least until they have at least a couple sets of true leaves.  The light effectiveness of those bulbs drops off very fast with distance, so one bulb very close (but not so close the heat burns the plant) is better than several farther away.  The CFL bulb I run in a similar fixture is fairly cool and I'll run it about 3 inches away from seedlings.
 
EDIT - I went back and looked at the last pic again and if that is burning on the true leaves of the first seedling not just on the cotyledons then definitely back off on the light and heat. Cotyledons often do funky stuff in response to heat/light/humidity with the first true leaves being perfectly fine, but if the true leaves are acting funky it's worth responding. 
 
 
I just enlarged the picture and spotted a drop of burning on the true leaves, so I backed off all of (3 CFLs on each plant) the lights. This will also lesson the heat considerably.  Tomorrow, I'll probably re-position some of the lights as well.  I went a little crazy with the lumens and closeness of the lights this season for a number of reasons:
 
1 - Late start - One or more of these is going outside in nineteen days and need to grow it as much as I can first.
 
2 - In the past, plants that I've started inside were leggy and had really crappy internodal spacing because the lights were too far away.
 
I'm glad you noticed the slight burns on the true leaves - I wouldn't have noticed for a little while.
 
CaneDog said:
It's burning, but not a big deal.  They're getting a lot of light; possibly more than they need or can use.  The extreme darkness of the one seedling is a response to the light and it would be greener or at least less glossy-dark with less light.  They might actually be getting a bit much heat too, which can contribute to the burnt tips.  I don't think they're really suffering, but it might help to lessen the light/heat some.  Those seedlings should be able to get all the light they need or want from just one of those CFLs positioned right over top of them, at least until they have at least a couple sets of true leaves.  The light effectiveness of those bulbs drops off very fast with distance, so one bulb very close (but not so close the heat burns the plant) is better than several farther away.  The CFL bulb I run in a similar fixture is fairly cool and I'll run it about 3 inches away from seedlings.
 
EDIT - I went back and looked at the last pic again and if that is burning on the true leaves of the first seedling not just on the cotyledons then definitely back off on the light and heat. Cotyledons often do funky stuff in response to heat/light/humidity with the first true leaves being perfectly fine, but if the true leaves are acting funky it's worth responding. 
 
 
I just enlarged the picture and spotted a drop of burning on the tips of the true leaves, so I backed off all of (3 CFLs on each plant) the lights. This will also lesson the heat considerably.  Tomorrow, I'll probably re-position some of the lights as well.  I went a little crazy with the lumens and closeness of the lights this season for a number of reasons:
 
1 - Late start - One or more of these is going outside in nineteen days and need to grow it as much as I can first.
 
2 - In the past, plants that I've started inside were leggy and had really crappy internodal spacing because the lights were too far away.
 
I'm glad you noticed the slight burns on the true leaves - I wouldn't have noticed for a little while.
 
I started hardening off today.  The plants got fifteen minutes outside.  The weather was a little too mild though - 68 F and cloudy with a 0 MPH wind.  Hoping to get slightly harsher conditions to toughen them up.
 
This one is a slow grower, but the true leaves are finally starting to come in:
 
nkZexAY.jpg

 
J66oNOU.jpg

 
 
 
 
 
Still don't know what will become of the second plant, but the first one is getting a permanent outdoor bucket home in sixteen days.  The true leaves are too big from over-watering.  I was watering the right amount for when the lights were right on top of it, but I happened to back off to prevent burning right after a heavy watering.  Not woried at all about edema.  I've produced lots of fruit from plants that I've watered too much at some point.
 
MVva0ZD.jpg

 
tR63J60.jpg
 
CaneDog said:
the true leaves are growing in quickly and look good to me!
Ty,
 
What do you think about at least 50% composted manure (the rest potting soil) for the bucket grow?
 
I've grown tons of cucumbers and tomatoes in 100% composted manure - not sure if horse or cow - bought it at a nursery - not a lot of NPK, but nature made a good mix. :)  See:
 
http://thehotpepper.com/topic/69231-excellent-grow-in-100-composted-manure/
 
The tomatoes had no problems at all.   The cucumbers developed powdery mildew, (presumably from a magnesium deficiency) but some Epsom salt spray cleared most of it up. 
 
I don't use manure in containers, at least haven't anytime recently, so little experience there.  My concern would be the containers would get compacted and retain water and it wouldn't lead to the best root development.  Even if the potting mix were heavy in peat and had perlite too, I would feel more comfortable replacing some of the composted manure with perlite and possibly even further replacing some of the manure with the potting mix.  If the mix weren't high in peat I'd be thinking to bring some in and still knocking back the manure.  Then I'd be giving them periodic nutes, I mostly use fish fertilizer with kelp and periodic CalMag+, not fully relying on the nutrients in the mix. 
 
There's plenty of different ways to be successful and for all I know that could work great under your circumstances - seems like you've done similar things before - but I've always focused on keeping the soil light and flowy in containers. 
 
Happy to see that your season is picking up steam!
 
Ty,
 
I just remembered that at some point in my 2015 bucket grow (I think after pod development) I began to supplement the soil with worm castings before watering.  The plant LOVED it.  I'm going to pick some up.
 
Not a lot of recent growth here. If I were keeping the plant indoors longer, I'd fertilize a little, but it's going outside in ten days. I'll give it nutrients then:
 
PCPlNHn.jpg

 
I still don't know WTF I'm going to do with this one:
 
VjppugK.jpg

 
 
I hate to see you not grow both of those
out, Mark. I really like the purple tint on
the leaves and cotyledons. Would like to
see what kind of leaves the darker one
grows out!
 
PaulG said:
I hate to see you not grow both of those
out, Mark. I really like the purple tint on
the leaves and cotyledons. Would like to
see what kind of leaves the darker one
grows out!
 
Paul,
 
If you want the smaller plant, it is yours free of change.  I'd just want some pods if it ends up being a cross (hopefully, you'd be able to isolate it), and would also appreciate pictures here (your Glog maybe) as it develops.
 
If you are interested, PM me with your address,
 
dragon49 said:
 
Paul,
 
If you want the smaller plant, it is yours free of change.  I'd just want some pods if it ends up being a cross (hopefully, you'd be able to isolate it), and would also appreciate pictures here (your Glog maybe) as it develops.
 
If you are interested, PM me with your address,
PM sent. Thanks, Mark!
 
PaulG said:
PM sent. Thanks, Mark!
Paul,
 
Got the PM.
 
Let me know if you are going to be home to get a package on Friday.
 
I'm hoping I have enough time in my crappy growing zone to get a decent pod count from this one.  The parent was prolific, producing 220 pods!  I put it outside on May 29th and the first ripe pods appeared on August 5th, BUT, the plant was huge and already residing in a five-gallon bucket when I put it outside.  I had also pruned a lot to promote side growth and more room for pods.
 
 
2kEhiEC.jpg

 
 
I'll be saying goodbye to this one shortly:
 
DhpzItI.jpg
 
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