FireEater101 2013 Glog

Hello friends and fellow chiliheads! My name is Mike and 2013 is my third year to grow a garden. I am a chili pepper fanatic and last year my interest in gardening blossomed immensely. I have been on this board now for one full year reading and learning from all the experience and knowledge that many of you hold. I decided as much as I love gardening and peppers that there is no way I will get locally as plants any superhots or peppers that I really wanna grow. This year will be my first year to grow superhots. I decided for 2013 to adopt the motto of "Go big or go home" so for this year having received a grow light (T5) setup for Christmas I am going to start my entire garden from seeds. Yes I do grow other veggies but this glog will be about the chilis that I grow this year. I am not an expert gardener just a microbiologist who has become passionate about gardening due to my love of chilis over many many years. I decided since I am starting from seed and just beginning here this weekend for the season to start a glog to share pics, obtain advice if needed and share my progress for the year. I hope to make this a success and for you all to enjoy seeing what I have going on here.

My growlist this year for Chilis was obtained from two vendors of Pepperlover.com and Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. Here are the peppers I have just planted.

1. Red Bhut Jolokia
2. Trinidad Scorpion Original strain
3. Large Red 7 Pod
4. Fatali
5. Early Jalapeno
6. Scotch Bonnet
7. Caribbean Red Habanero
8. Tabasco
9. Cayenne
10. Serrano Tampequino
11. Blue Mystery (extra from pepperlover)
12. Dedo de Moca (extra from pepperlover)
13. Cap Chacoense (extra from pepperlover)

I started a 24 hour soak on all of my seeds yesterday 1/26/13 in some tap water

This morning was planting day 1/27/13

The endpoint for the day my Germination Station is completely full, heatpad turned on, little water on the bottom of the tray and there she will reside. I plan to leave the shades cracked so some light gets in and hopefully I will at least get 50% germination rate as I wanna plant 5-6 plants of each pepper and 4 of the extras I got too. Hopefully I will have an update soon and thanks for following along this year chiliheads!!

Mike

 

[stc3248]

Lookin good bro, good luck on your season! Good looking list loaded with heat and flavor!

 

[JoynersHotPeppers]

Good luck in 2013

 

[patrick]

Hi Mike and welcome to the world of growing your own superhots. One word of warning it is very addictive but it appears you already know that. I wish you the best of luck and admire your confidence.

 

[STEVE954]

Very nice selection this year!

 

[PjPEPPERS]

Nice list! We will be tuning in for the Tscorp, Fatali and Serrano Tampequino.

Good Luck with your 2013 grow

 

[annie57]

Tar Heel, Mikey;-) (again, so hard to resist, lol)--good luck on this grow--really like your list! If everything goes well, we could like meet in middle, take over a restaurant (with their welcome consent, of course) and make sauce this fall . Peace, Annie.

 

[FireEater101]

Well Well Well...my patience has been rewarded!! 5 days of waiting and what do I get 5 peppers that have decided to rear their little heads!! I have played the heat pad on heat pad off game this week as it was over 70 degrees two days this week. I have been patient and figured maybe if I see something by next weekend that will be great but hey what a way to start the weekend!! My 6yo daughter helped me plant these seeds on Sunday and when I checked today after coming home from work I said look 4 peppers she looks in excitement and says no daddy there are 5 the back one was hiding under the peat. Yeah!! This is my first time trying to grow peppers from seeds. Oh and the winner is?????

The Cap Annum
SERRANO TAMPEQUINO!!!! I can't wait to see what emerges next!!

Cells (LtoR) 1 then 2 then 1 and 1

Last but not least!!

 

[PjPEPPERS]

And thier offf! Go Go Serrano! I think the tabasco will be next. Great stuff

 

[Dshlogg]

Nice list and start. Hope you have a great year!

 

[FireEater101]

And thier offf! Go Go Serrano! I think the tabasco will be next. Great stuff

I might have to hold you to that one PJ!!

Nice list and start. Hope you have a great year!

Thank you for stopping in!! I hope 2013 treats you well too!!

 

[Sanarda]

Off to the races. Now the real fun begins. Best of luck and I will be following

 

[FireEater101]

Well today marks exactly 7 days since I started all these pepper seeds and I must say even as a novice first year seed grower I am pretty excited at all the seeds that have germinated so far. I am amazed to see that my first Super hot has germinated...the winner Trinidad Scorpion Red actually saw it come up last night so 6 days from planting. I know these pics of only of the seedlings but it has been exciting to see them all pop up fast in my book. In addition to that seeing all the other glogs of other much more experienced growers with all these awesome pods and peppers growing it fires me up for what may lie ahead for myself too. Here is the germination rates for the first week and a few more sprout pics. Appreciate you checking in and thanks for bearing with my novice grower excitement even over just these sprouts. Off to build my first of 3 raised beds..gonna need more planting space that's for sure. Mike

Ghost Pepper 0/12 seeds
Trini Scorp Red 1/12 seeds
7 Pod Red 0/12 seeds
Fatali 2/12 seeds
Early Jalapeno 5/12 seeds
Scotch Bonny 0/12 seeds
Car Red Hab 0/12 seeds
Cayenne 1/12 seeds
Tabasco 5/12 seeds
Serrano 9/12 seeds
Blue Mystery 1/8 seeds
Cap Chacoense 0/8 seeds
Dedo de Moca 5/8 seeds

Trinidad Scorpion Red

Fatali

Serrano going crazy already and a couple Tabasco seedlings

Dedo de Moca in front and back Blue Mystery

 

[PjPEPPERS]

Good stuff! Loads of sprouts now. Got some good germ rates going on there now bud. Looks like your going to have lots of serrano's this year then

 

[annie57]

Great job, Mike! Due to operator error, ahem--new huge heat mat--and too much "help"--I cooked my batch, so started over yesterday. And too, planted the annuums. If my serranos (Tampequino here too), come up as have yours, they live? we renaming NC to Tampequinoville. Nice job!

 

[FireEater101]

I figure it is time for an update and well I have a question or would love feedback as to if I still seem to be doing this correctly. So today is Day 12 since I planted all 144 seeds in my germination station. I feel like I have gotten some great germination rates at this point since I am going for 5-6 plants for each pepper type once I plant out. Below is how my germ rates look so far as of today. I figure more are bound to appear though too for some of those slow Cap Chinense. So I decided today that it appears my seedlings are getting a bit leggy. I can see that the Serrano and the Early Jalapeno are starting to develop nodes where I figure the true leaves will begin to develop. On the others I am not seeing that just yet. So due to the seedlings becoming leggy I thought I would remove the germination station cover, turn off the bottom heat pad and set up the grow light that I have about 3-4 inches above the seedling tops. So my question is this: Does it make sense to remove the germination cover and place the light above as the pics below show? I figure this will help stop the legginess and help encourage the seedlings to develop those true leaves then at that point i can pot up and keep them under the lights. Any feedback good or bad or suggestions please feel free to comment I appreciate it all. Oh and one last question? When does this become an addiction?? Starting from seeds is flipping awesome!! Even being in a mild climate who would not wanna extend their gardening season by a few months? Thankfully my wife still loves me too!!

[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Ghost Pepper 11/12 seeds[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Trini Scorp Red 1/12 seeds[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]7 Pod Red 4/12 seeds[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Fatali 10/12 seeds[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Early Jalapeno 8/12 seeds[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Scotch Bonny 3/12 seeds[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Car Red Hab 6/12 seeds[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Cayenne 8/12 seeds[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Tabasco 10/12 seeds[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Serrano 11/12 seeds[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Blue Mystery 2/8 seeds[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Cap Chacoense 0/8 seeds[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Dedo de Moca 7/8 seeds[/background]

Here is how the seedlings overall in the tray

A couple pics of the seedlings showing the nodes that I believe will be the first true leaves

Another of the nodes forming

Here are a couple pics of how i set things up now with my grow light

Thanks for stopping in again!!
Mike

 

[stc3248]

Good call on both...and your light target height sounds on point too. Give them a fan to strengthen them up a bit too. Also, when you do pot up you can bury them almost all the way up to their Cotys.

 

[FireEater101]

Thanks Shane!! A fan will be put to good use then for sure! I gotta keep these babies growing strong. Thanks for the help.

 

[FireEater101]

It looks like the babies are getting those first leaves now. Tabasco, Serrano and Cayenne seem to be developing the fastest and to my surprise my Fatalis are getting the first leaves pretty quickly too. I am surprised but for today being the 19th day I only have 2 Trinidad Scorpion sprouts of the 12 seeds I planted. I think I will plant more this weekend and see if I can still get some to pop up. Planning to run out tomorrow and get some potting soil so I can pot up to some Solo cups for these seedlings getting those first true leaves. Having a ton of fun growing from seed I must say. More pics to follow after pot up but here are a few of the first leaves. Thanks for stopping in to see!!

Mike

Serrano Pepper

Cayenne, Tabasco and Serrano

Cayenne, Tabasco and Serrano

Fatali

Fatali

 

[stc3248]

Stems look a little thicker...you running the fan now? If so good on ya! Hey remember when you transplant to bury them almost all the way up to the Coty's. I would leave maybe 1/2-3/4" of stem and bury the rest. Roots will form over that entire portion of the stem below the Coty's. Post some pot up pics when done! What soil you gonna get?