• Blog your pepper progress. The first image in your first post will be used to represent your Glog.

First Pepper Growing Attempt 2014

Hello
 
Decided to publicly post my attempts at growing peppers this year. Would appreciate any advice given.
 
So I am currently growing 
 
2 Aji Limons (one planted on the 27th February, the other on 4th March)
1 Numex Twilight (planted on 4th March)
1 7-Pot ( planted 4th March I think)
1 Bulgarian Carrot (planted 4th March)
1 Pumpkin Pepper (planted 27th February)
1 Habanero (planted 27th February)
1 Jamaican Hot Chocolate (planted 27th February)
1 Bhut Jolokia (planted 27th February)
1 Bird's Eye Pepper (planted 27th February)
1 Chimayo (which germinated but later found to have died due to damping off)
 
Habanero and Pumpkin Pepper were the first to hook which was on the 4th March. Aji Limon on 5th March. JHC and Bird's Eye on the 7th March. Bhut on the 8th March. Bulgarian carrot on the 9th March. Numex on 10th March. 7-pot on 14th March. 
 
Seeds were planted in potting mix.
"Seed & Potting Mix 
Seed & Potting Mix is a soil-less mixture used for raising seeds and striking cuttings. It is free from weed seeds and diseases and contains all the ingredients for fast and uniform germination and assures strong root development. It also contains vermiculite and peat moss to prevent drying out. Suitable for germinating all types of seed."
 
"Horti Soil
Is a natural product of humus which is made on the maturation by intense bacteria action of a mixture of Organic matter, peat moss, medium loam, and supplemented with Inorganic Superphosphate, Muriate of Potash, Limestone, essential trace elements and fungicide. It will improve soil structure, has higher water holding capacityand will supply adequate nutrients, auxins for promoting plant growth resulting in healthy and disease-free plants."
 
And repotted into my own mixture of 2 parts said potting mix, 3parts garden soil (horti soil mentioned above), 1/4 part zeolite and 1/3 part water. (once again, i do not have any experience at all and just winging it. >.< )
 
They were all put under 1 8W 6700k CFL light in a low tech self made grow box measuring 32cm x 22cm x 22cm (i know;its tiny) the moment they hook.
 

 

 
Then quickly repotted to individual cups once they sprouted. All survived the transplants.
 

BHUT (picture taken on the 25th March)
Messed up cots is again due to helmet head removal. I was worried as it looked to be stunted in growth and almost shrivelling. So i removed the helmet head and repotted to new soil. It was previously in a rectangular container with Pumpkin Pepper. Anyways, its doing well now. 
 

Aji Limon (picture taken on the 25th March)
 

7-Pot (picture taken on the 25th March)
This is put under clip-on reading lights which are LED and run on batteries. Did this because I had no more space in my growbox and also for experimental purposes.
 

JHC (picture taken on the 25th March)
Messed up cots are due to attempts at removing helmet head.
 

Pumpkin Pepper (picture taken on the 25th March)
 

Numex Twilight (picture taken on the 25th March)
 

Bulgarian Carrot (picture taken on the 25th March)
 

Habanero (picture taken on the 25th March)
 
I didnt include a picture of Bird's Eye because i ripped off both cots and new true leaf from trying to remove helmet head. So their existence is still currently in question. Seedlings were all placed 4 inches below the light. Some are showing purpling of stems but no purpling on leaves. I have read that they grow out of this. So we shall see.
 
Watering schedule: I am currently bottom watering them and the most recent watering was 2 days ago. I let them dry out (pumpkin pepper even went as far as to fold its leaves over each other) before watering. Also dig under the top layer to check for moisture.
 
As you can see, some are coming to a month from day of germination and while they are doing well i suppose ( apart from Aji with its curled down leaves), I am a little worried as to why they are taking so slow when other people's bhuts look so much bigger than mine at 21days.
 
So.. Are my worries justified? I do know that some of the hotter peppers take longer to grow. Do I need to be fertilising them already? As I have not done so because i figured the soil has enough nutrients already. I only have chicken dung, Seaweed Extract NPK 4-3-2+TE and NPK 21-21-21 foliar fertiliser at the moment. Keep in mind that we don't have access to any Home Depot and things are somewhat limited here. Also my cups are see-through. Do they need to be covered at the sides? Does that affect plant growth as I have read that roots wont grow so well if they are exposed to light or something along that line.
 
I hope I have covered every detail that you might need for your analysis. Thank you guys for your future input!
 
Think i found some aphid related thingy underneath some leaves of my gochu. Plucked them off and threw them away. Checked other leaves but there were none.. yet. Guess its a good thing i spend an hour a day just staring at my plants.

Anyways.. still not getting any tomatoes setting.. might need to move on to drastic measures. Maybe i'll go get that tomato tone on the 28th.

Oh and i repotted my jalapeno baby to a bigger pot. Hopefully it will be a repeat of my gochu and i get another pepper plant giving me peppers. Woohoo.

Brown moruga is still chugging along. Looks so pretty. If i was into naming plants, i'd name it maurice. Haha.

Actually my chocolate stripes is doing well as well. Needs repotting. Will do that soon.

Forced my bestfriend to take in one of my pepper plants that i germinated from dried peppers. Hopefully the plant can calm her down.

Been diligently plucking off suckers. And planting them everywhere. Haha! I am afraid that i wont be able to get anymore black prince seeds to sprout and grow well. Since this one has snapped out out of the stalling stage and growing like mad, i might as well take samples of it and get a head start. Just need the mother plant to set some fruits.

Sigh. Work later. Praying for a night of pleasant passengers and easy PNRs. Amin.
 


After countless flower drops.. i present to you.. my first black prince tomato forming. All i did was rape the flowers and shake the plant. Honestly didn't expect anything to set and was mentally prepared to buy the tomato tone hormone thing from ecocity.. but it looks like we made it.

Hopefully i'm not jinxing anything. I saw 2 more starting to form as well. Maybe my anahu slash mortgage lifter is setting fruits too. Excited about that.

Now on to the bad news.. i think i have a whitefly infestation. I saw some on my gochu and crushed them. I inspected every leaf and plucked and threw them away. Then i found it.. the jackpot colony. Went berserk squirming and plucking all infected leaves.

Gonna need to apply some biological warfare this evening. God help us all.
 

constantly surprised at how many flowers are setting on the black prince. And one of my suckers have rooted. Awesome stuff. Tomatoes are such forgiving plants.

my mortgage lifter or anahu. So far only one has set. Putting out tonnes of flowers though.
 
Updates... cos i cannot believe these are my plants.

brown moruga and jalapeno from pepperlover. Also featuring a black prince sucker that i successfully rooted.

close up of some of the black princes growing everywhere.

my anahu or mortgage lifter

my other plants which i seriously dont have place for.

I feel blessed with this sudden success in gardening. Would like to thank the supportive people who have helped me through those difficult times.. you guys know who you are.

Also thank you Amazon.com for making accessible the awesome product that is biostarter plus and tomato tone.

And SupremeGrowers for your 4step thingy.

It will be a day of celebration when i get to pick my first pepper and tomato. In the mean time i shall work towards continued success. May God bless us all.
 
Runescape said:
What method did you use to root the sucker?
 
Awesome plants, btw...
Thank you.

I just plucked it off the plant and shoved it in a cup with compost. Kept it away from direct sunlight for a few days cos it kept wilting. And it rooted. Haha.

Thanks for stopping by!
 
Massive thunderstorm last night while i was at work. Plants are in disarray. Need to clean them up soon. But night shifts plague my every being. Stay strong my babies..
 
Wonder how you guys manage the insects infestation especially those inground plants. My plants have been overrun with aphids and whiteflies (God i hate them!). Though the aphids suddenly disappeared surprisingly.

One thing i have to say though.. reapers and morugas are such hardy plants.
 
Runescape said:
How big are the plants nowadays?
 
and have you started any new plants this year?
We dont really have a specific amount of time to plant stuff as our climate is basically sunny or rainy. So we kinda have unlimited time to plant.

Anyways.. plants are kinda stunted in growth due to whiteflies and aphids infestation. But they are bouncing back. The black prince seeds i bought on amazon turned out to be fake. They were red. Still managed to get harvests. Also harvested my korean gochus. They are on their second round of production. Bless them. Jalapeno has been putting out flowers but they all seem to dry out and drop. Havent started any new seeds as yet. But plan to as i do have alot stashed.

Thanks for checking in!
 
So i'll just post some of the happier looking plants..



This is my lime. Enjoying life especially since i potted it up to a bigger container.



jals.. actually looking worst for wear but.. you cant see it here. Also potted it up. It has been flowering but never set any fruits. Poor thing fighting for its life due to whiteflies.

Just went through pics from previous posts. My brown moruga and reaper look nothing like that anymore. All crooked leaves and stunted. But i see signs of improvement with growing buds everywhere so there is still hope.

I also have a chocolate stripes growiNg. Some of the leaves have leaf miners. Haha. Sigh
 
Been spraying water onto the leaves of the kids to kill whiteflies. I think they are responding well to it. Shall keep it up. I think mites are the cause of my jalapeno not setting. We shall see.
 
Sooo... I'm back here for abit.. Prpbably should rename the glog but meh. Been reading on the Australian Finger Lime on fb for a while.. Friend brought home some for me and i harvested the seeds. Managed to germinate one. Its still a tiny little thing but powering through. Also have 2 date plants, turmeric, some unknown heirloom tomatoes and recently germinated some red dragonfruit seeds growing. We'll see if i do better this time. So sad to see the plants getting wiped out from whiteflies and aphids. My old lime plant is huge now. Super super hardy plant. But still not flowering. Oh well.
 
Back
Top