Hi Everybody!!! Here's a record of my first grow ever. I just started having an interest in horticulture when my girlfriend couldn't get donne sali (a hot pepper from the Marianas Islands) here stateside. So I've decided to grow them for her as well as some others.
THE PEPPER LIST: Giant Bhut Jolokias, Peter Peppers, Mulato Isleno, Hot Cow Horn Peppers, and Donne Sali. (All from PepperJoe except for the Donne Sali)
THE INDOOR GROW ROOM: 4.5 ft. x 3.5 ft. x 9 ft. (LxWxH dimensions). Covered floor and walls with 5.5 mil Black & White Poly up to 6 ft. high. No venitlation set up as of today, I just have a tower fan to circulate the hot air and I open a door to an outside room to bring in fresh air. Humidity is around 40%, I'm not sure if thats too low for these plants, but I've seen my grow room drop to 25% humidity. I believe thats too low for them to be comfortable. The temperature with the HID light is around 78 degrees F to 82 degrees F.
THE LIGHTS: 400 watt switchable MH/HPS HID lighting system w/ an electronic dimmable ballast. A cool tube houses the bulb and helps with relieving the hot air. I also have a large south facing window and put the little guys on a chair to get some natural sunlight. Hope this extends the life of my HID bulbs and relieves some pressure off the electric bill while producing great chilies.
WATER & NUTES: I'm trying out the Earth Juice line: Grow, Bloom, Catalyst, Micro, Meta-K, Hi-Brix Molasses, and Myccorhizae, these nutes when mixed with a gallon of water has a pH of 4.9. I use Filtered Tap Water which has a pH of 7.5. I let the tap water sit in a 2 gallon water jug uncovered and I shake it up every once in awhile to aerate and get rid of the chlorine. I have no way to test for this but it brings me peace of mind lol. Maybe I can boil the water, filter it, then let it sit out for a day to really purify it. Or maybe I can just buy purified water from Wal-Mart and call it a day.
SOIL: Earth Juice Amazon Bloom - Perlite mix 10:2 ratio. Don't like giving bad reviews but I'm not to crazy about the Amazon Bloom soil. I got it because I wanted to try all Earth Juice products (organic products) but I'm not too impressed with them so far. I found pieces of plastic when I sifted the soil, may have only been that first bag, but first impressions are everything when trying something new.
I plan on going as fully organic as I can go in container gardening and mixing up my own soil/fertilizer mix in the future. Im thinking of doing a coco coir/perlite/vermiculite base and adding different meals, guanos, and compost to enrich it with. I'm also reading about beneficial microbes so I hope to create a great living environment for the tiny bacteria, fungi, and protozoa in a large container bin.
I would post up pics of how my plants are doing so far, but, I've been having trouble uploading them. I keep getting that ripped paper icon when I try to upload pictures. I must be missing something
. Anyways, I started germinating on the 9th of Jan. and I didn't see sprouts until the 17th, 18th, and 19th. They are looking pretty good so far, I just transplanted into 1 gal. smart pots and I feed 200 mL of a mild solution every three days.
Problems: The Peter Peppers looked stretchy at first, but have filled out with larger leaves. They also have some brown discoloration on some of their leaves, they may have been too close to the HID light. I now have the light at 12 inches away from the top of the tallest plant at 50% power. Hope they recover soon.
THE PEPPER LIST: Giant Bhut Jolokias, Peter Peppers, Mulato Isleno, Hot Cow Horn Peppers, and Donne Sali. (All from PepperJoe except for the Donne Sali)
THE INDOOR GROW ROOM: 4.5 ft. x 3.5 ft. x 9 ft. (LxWxH dimensions). Covered floor and walls with 5.5 mil Black & White Poly up to 6 ft. high. No venitlation set up as of today, I just have a tower fan to circulate the hot air and I open a door to an outside room to bring in fresh air. Humidity is around 40%, I'm not sure if thats too low for these plants, but I've seen my grow room drop to 25% humidity. I believe thats too low for them to be comfortable. The temperature with the HID light is around 78 degrees F to 82 degrees F.
THE LIGHTS: 400 watt switchable MH/HPS HID lighting system w/ an electronic dimmable ballast. A cool tube houses the bulb and helps with relieving the hot air. I also have a large south facing window and put the little guys on a chair to get some natural sunlight. Hope this extends the life of my HID bulbs and relieves some pressure off the electric bill while producing great chilies.
WATER & NUTES: I'm trying out the Earth Juice line: Grow, Bloom, Catalyst, Micro, Meta-K, Hi-Brix Molasses, and Myccorhizae, these nutes when mixed with a gallon of water has a pH of 4.9. I use Filtered Tap Water which has a pH of 7.5. I let the tap water sit in a 2 gallon water jug uncovered and I shake it up every once in awhile to aerate and get rid of the chlorine. I have no way to test for this but it brings me peace of mind lol. Maybe I can boil the water, filter it, then let it sit out for a day to really purify it. Or maybe I can just buy purified water from Wal-Mart and call it a day.
SOIL: Earth Juice Amazon Bloom - Perlite mix 10:2 ratio. Don't like giving bad reviews but I'm not to crazy about the Amazon Bloom soil. I got it because I wanted to try all Earth Juice products (organic products) but I'm not too impressed with them so far. I found pieces of plastic when I sifted the soil, may have only been that first bag, but first impressions are everything when trying something new.
I plan on going as fully organic as I can go in container gardening and mixing up my own soil/fertilizer mix in the future. Im thinking of doing a coco coir/perlite/vermiculite base and adding different meals, guanos, and compost to enrich it with. I'm also reading about beneficial microbes so I hope to create a great living environment for the tiny bacteria, fungi, and protozoa in a large container bin.
I would post up pics of how my plants are doing so far, but, I've been having trouble uploading them. I keep getting that ripped paper icon when I try to upload pictures. I must be missing something
. Anyways, I started germinating on the 9th of Jan. and I didn't see sprouts until the 17th, 18th, and 19th. They are looking pretty good so far, I just transplanted into 1 gal. smart pots and I feed 200 mL of a mild solution every three days.Problems: The Peter Peppers looked stretchy at first, but have filled out with larger leaves. They also have some brown discoloration on some of their leaves, they may have been too close to the HID light. I now have the light at 12 inches away from the top of the tallest plant at 50% power. Hope they recover soon.
The Ghost Pepper seems stunned or dwarfed. It is the smallest plant of the bunch, but its still producing new leaves. Dunno what I can do to help it catch up to the rest. I'm germinating 2 more ghost pepper seeds to see if its just the seed or me doing something wrong. The other seedlings are way bigger than the little guy though.
The Mulato Peppers are a little curled, but I did drop a cloning tray on top of my seedlings last week 
. Some of their leaves have perked up, but, others are still curled.
. Some of their leaves have perked up, but, others are still curled.All these problems are embarassing, but, it's a learning process. I would appreciate if anyone reads this to share his or her knowledge. Please leave comments, tips, or questions. THANKS!
That was probably our spring! Now we're in a rainy cycle. I hope you enjoyed Seattle - one of my favorite cities to visit - coffee and micro brews rule in Pac NW 
. Seattle and Portland really don't get much snow - you probably saw most of it when you were here! We usually get a couple of days a couple of times a year, but often, none at all. Up in the Cascades, different story! I don't know if it was in the news there, but we lost another climber on Mt. Hood this week. Very sad.
