erikjlee's Grow Log 2012

Hi all! I've really enjoyed reading peoples' grow logs, so I'll participate!

This is really my second year attempting "superhots." Last year my plants hardly produced anything, but through reading this forum I think it was mainly because my soil compacted - it was 1/2 garden soil, 1/2 compost in 7gal pots. They were like bricks when I pulled them out. They all started out great, then the bottom leaves just started dying. I got very few pods from my 20 potted plants. This year will be different!

I got my seeds from Tadewinds Fruit except the Bhuts which I got at a local nursery. They are under a 4 tube 2' T5 fixture about 5" above the seedlings in a little mini greenhouse from Lowe's and planted in ProMix BX. I planted these about 10 days ago, putting 2-3 seeds per cell. From left to right, they are Fatallii (3/4), Bhut jolokia (4/4 - the last one is barely coming up), Trinidad Perfume (4/4), White Hab (4/4), Paper Lantern (4/4), and Scotch Bonnet Red (4/4):

Sometime in April I plan to put them in my 6'x20' greenhouse that I also use to put everything else I like to grow from seed (this is from last year):

I will probably sow some more this weekend because this just doesn't seem to be enough.

Here's my plan, please let me know if this all looks OK to you guys! I've only watered them twice with one foliar misting of seaweed/kelp extract in a 50% stength solution. I plan to mist them once a week or so with this.

Once the second set of true leaves form, I plan to repot in the 5/1/1 gritty mix in 4" pots, and do a weekly fert with 25% strengh fish emulsion.

Once the 4" pots are filled with roots, I will transplant into 1 gal pots (again 5/1/1) and up the fish emulsion to 50% strength.

Finally into a 7 gal pot of the 5/1/1 mix once the 1 gal pots are rootbound.

I keep reading about people using epsom salts so I will do some research and incorporate this into the plan as well.

I appreciate all suggestions!

 

[megahot]

Looking good as well as sounds good referring to your future plans. They do look a bit leggy. Hit the pepper plants hard and heavy with your lights for the first week!

 

[Siliman]

Sweet set-up! Dude you are dialing up 'maters and broccoli big time. You got a heater in there to keep the peppers cozy?

I love ProMix BX for pot up. I think Spokane is the closest vendor to me, darn. For the bigger pot ups, refresh my memory on ingredients of the "5/1/1 gritty mix."

Go team NorthWest.....

 

[erikjlee]

Looking good as well as sounds good referring to your future plans. They do look a bit leggy. Hit the pepper plants hard and heavy with your lights for the first week!

I was wondering if they were a bit leggy... I'll drop the lights down a bit. Thanks megahot!

Sweet set-up! Dude you are dialing up 'maters and broccoli big time. You got a heater in there to keep the peppers cozy?

I love ProMix BX for pot up. I think Spokane is the closest vendor to me, darn. For the bigger pot ups, refresh my memory on ingredients of the "5/1/1 gritty mix."

Go team NorthWest.....

Thanks Siliman. I give a lot of plants to friends and family. It's just fun to raise them, and listen to friends/family tell me how tasty their crops are. I do have an electric radiant heater in there, and have kept it at or above 50 at night. The greenhouse paneling is twinwall polycarbonate so its fairly well insulated... I could probably try keeping it at 60 this year without pissing off the wife when the electricity bill arrives.

The 5/1/1 is 5 parts pine or fir bark fines, 1 part perlite, and 1 part peat. The superhot pepper growers over at gardenweb use it with good success.

http://forums2.garde...2444023053.html

I got my ProMix at Northwest Seed & Pet in case you are in Spokane (the E Sprague location has it, not sure about northside). http://www.nwseed.com/

 

[Siliman]

Hey, thanks erikjlee! I called NW Seed & Pet just for grins. ProMix for $37/bale. (Nice lady said they only had 845 bales in stock!) My local hydro guy ships it in--$60--ouch.

Also thanks for the link on your mix. Last year I mixed up some compost / Promix / perlite. The compost was mostly pine bark as near as I could tell. So I probably ended up with a 3/1/1. Just my first year trying containers. I had added about a cup of some pelletized chicken manure to the 5-gallon IIRC and added some other stuff from time to time. The rootballs totally maxxed their containers in my limited trials.

What's your plan for nutes to add to your 5/1/1 ?

Good luck on your grow! I'm a mixed veggie grower also and was blown away how much better my own starts turned out. It does make a lot of friends....

 

[erikjlee]

Hey, thanks erikjlee! I called NW Seed & Pet just for grins. ProMix for $37/bale. (Nice lady said they only had 845 bales in stock!) My local hydro guy ships it in--$60--ouch.

Also thanks for the link on your mix. Last year I mixed up some compost / Promix / perlite. The compost was mostly pine bark as near as I could tell. So I probably ended up with a 3/1/1. Just my first year trying containers. I had added about a cup of some pelletized chicken manure to the 5-gallon IIRC and added some other stuff from time to time. The rootballs totally maxxed their containers in my limited trials.

What's your plan for nutes to add to your 5/1/1 ?

Good luck on your grow! I'm a mixed veggie grower also and was blown away how much better my own starts turned out. It does make a lot of friends....

Yep, $37/bale was what I paid. I tried putting it in a 32 gal trash can, but only about 80% of it would fit. Definatley compressed!

Did you plants produce even though they were rootballs?

Osmocote was used in that 5/1/1 mix IIRC, but from reading posts in this and the gardenweb hot pepper forum, Foliage Pro 9-3-6 seems to be a good choice along with fish emulsion. I've had the same jug of fish emulsion for 3 years now, so I wonder if it's still viable or not... I'm sure it's been frozen just sitting in my garage. Anyway, my thoughts are a little osmocote mized in for a steady supply of nutrients, weekly fish emulsion and maybe throw in some foliage pro 9-3-6... but I am sure that will change as I keep reading I also use Neem oil in a spray bottle to keep the critters off; it worked well for my broccoli and lettuce last year.

Having huge tomato starts was the difference for me last year in actually getting enough tomatos to make my batch of salsa... most people I know lost their plants to frost before many of the tomatos ripened.

 

[Siliman]

Yea, one bale goes a long way. I potted up several dozen plants that eventually went in the ground, and still had some ProMix left over for a few container 'test' plants. And yes, the plants produced pods nicely during the whole summer. But by late September, the leaves yellowed a bit and plant slowed down. When I dumped them in October, the rootball structure had completely filled the pot. Okay, a lot of container growers are going to laugh, but its the first time I'd seen it. The root systems in the ground weren't nearly as good.

You mentioned Osmocote, I know one grower here who used straight ProMix and Osmocote as the fert--had great results. Like you, I have an old jug of fish emulsion--been frozen, too--I think it must still work. Either that, or the peppers just don't care. I did rig my tests by throwing in some Botanicare Pro Grow and Cal Mag.

We're on the same page with the 'maters. Crazy super cold Spring last year. No good to plant normal time frames. A big transplant would have an advantage. Same for peppers. It convinced me container grown peppers have a big edge during a "cold" year, for a variety of reasons, also.

Thanks again...

 

[S.S.Tupperware]

Nice setup... I have some Bonnets going for the first time this year...

 

[erikjlee]

Ok some of my seedlings' first set of leaves are out in full force, and I noticed a bit of yellowing on some of the leaves, and one plant has a stunted leaf which is even more yellow. I've only watered 3 times, ensuring the medium was about bone dry in between. I water from the bottom, filling up the tray about 1", waiting for the water to wich up and start to turn the tops wet, then I dump the water out. I did a 1/2 strength foliar feeding of seaweed extract before bed about the time when the first true laves started popping, but thats it for ferts. They are under a T5 foxture, about 2" above the tallest plant. About half the plants have a tinge of yellow. Should I give them some fish emulsion?

It convinced me container grown peppers have a big edge during a "cold" year, for a variety of reasons, also.

Thanks again...

That's why I like containers... I can move them into my greenhouse if an abnormal frost or just super cold weather is on its way.

 

[PaulG]

Neat greenhouse, Erik! Did you get to try the epsom salts? How'd it go?
Can't wait to see pics of your plants in the greenhouse this season.
Good luck with your crop! We had a cruddy spring here for tomatoes last year, too, but
by keeping them in the greenhouse 'til later in the Spring, they rallied to produce pretty well.

 

[erikjlee]

Neat greenhouse, Erik! Did you get to try the epsom salts? How'd it go?
Can't wait to see pics of your plants in the greenhouse this season.
Good luck with your crop! We had a cruddy spring here for tomatoes last year, too, but
by keeping them in the greenhouse 'til later in the Spring, they rallied to produce pretty well.

I tried epsom salts but since I am also doing the 1/4 strength fish poo + calmag and seaweed extract, I'm not sure which is working the magic! When I get the annums going I am thinking of putting some through different regimens to see what differences they produce.

Ok well it's been over a month and I just transplanted the first batch into 4" pots filled with Al's 5/1/1 gritty mix that seems to be so popular over at the Gardenweb hot pepper forums.

In this tray we have the 4x Bhut Jolokia, 4x Fatali, and 4x White Hab.

This try has Scotch Bonnet (red), Paper Lantern hab, and Trinidad Perfume.

The Scotch Bonnets seem a little stressed, and the Trinidad Perfume all have rather wrinkled leaves. I did spray them with some weak epsom salt the other day, so i guess we will see if that helps them at all. Closeup of the Trinidad Perfume (all 4 are oddly like this, where the other varities are not):

The bottom Fatali has little brown spots and looks sickly. You can kind of see it in this picture (it's actually looks worse than this, but at least its alive). The others look good to me though.

Advice always welcome! After seeing PIC1's thread, my peppers look like they could use a stronger dose of fish poo perhaps, as they could be more green. I don't want to "over-love" and kill them though.

 

[PaulG]

Looking good, erikj! You should get some great plants out of those!
+1 on the fert; better to under than over. Maybe the growing conditions
just aren't the trini perfumes cup of tea right now, but when you set
them out they will take off. My baccatums as a group are symptomatic,
whereas the others are less so. Go figure. I will just try to baby them
along until conditions suit them better!