I started my first attempt at indoor growing starting around July or August this year, starting with seeds from Sandia Seed - Tombstone Ghost Chili's, Trinidad Moruga Scorpions, and Carolina Reapers. I started all on a rack using a heated seed starter pad set to 75°F, under two sets of Ecolux T5 bulbs in generic shop light housings in some organic seed starter soil mix.
I'm using a cheap 8x4x8 tent space, with approximately half of it devoted to these peppers, and the other half devoted to super sweet 100 cherry tomato plants. The lights are generic "800W" LED lights, one per side of the tent. I have two stationary fans, one located near a fresh air intake, one located at the top of the tent. I have CO2 feeding for 1200ppm automated for fifteen minutes early in the morning, with an exhaust fan timed to run fours hours after the feed ends until it is time for the next feed, with the feeder located centrally at the top of the tent.
Seeds were transplanted directly to the tent in approximately mid-September. As a newb to indoor growing, and trying to shop locally, I ended up getting Fox Farm's Ocean Forest soil to try to be organic. I also picked up their Big Bloom organic fertilizer just in case.
After transplanting several times into bigger pots, I finally settled on the sizes that I have now, although I'd like to switch all pots up to the largest size I have, which were leftover tree pots from the local shop. Anyways, plants were growing steadily and quite happily with just the lighting and air flow. I started adding fertilizer, less frequently than directed, and figuring out how to time CO2 feeding efficiently. The plants were really picking up and taking off, tons of flowers, branches, etc. I tried topping all plants relatively early, and they all seemed to respond well. I've been pretty abusive thus far, to be honest, and keep all detritus and weak growth removed.
Frost came early, and this is a new home to me. Despite my space being insulated, it was not insulated enough to keep temperatures from staying in the 60's, and eventually into the 50's. The plants were stunted for a month.
I rushed to find a heating solution, attempting heat lamps to start with, but these proved insufficient to raise the temperature by more than 3°F. I gave up mid October and bought an electric, oil based radiator with a set temp range of 65-80 and an energy saving mode. I initially ramped the temperature up to a constant 75°F, and removed all previous flowers (which were in abundance). The plants have taken well to the temperature, and I have recently switched to 80°F during the day, 65°F during the night. Throughout the grow so far, the humidity has remained 50-70% usually, though sometimes dipping down into the 35% range.
Here are the plants as they are today, the 5th of December.
I'm using a cheap 8x4x8 tent space, with approximately half of it devoted to these peppers, and the other half devoted to super sweet 100 cherry tomato plants. The lights are generic "800W" LED lights, one per side of the tent. I have two stationary fans, one located near a fresh air intake, one located at the top of the tent. I have CO2 feeding for 1200ppm automated for fifteen minutes early in the morning, with an exhaust fan timed to run fours hours after the feed ends until it is time for the next feed, with the feeder located centrally at the top of the tent.
Seeds were transplanted directly to the tent in approximately mid-September. As a newb to indoor growing, and trying to shop locally, I ended up getting Fox Farm's Ocean Forest soil to try to be organic. I also picked up their Big Bloom organic fertilizer just in case.
After transplanting several times into bigger pots, I finally settled on the sizes that I have now, although I'd like to switch all pots up to the largest size I have, which were leftover tree pots from the local shop. Anyways, plants were growing steadily and quite happily with just the lighting and air flow. I started adding fertilizer, less frequently than directed, and figuring out how to time CO2 feeding efficiently. The plants were really picking up and taking off, tons of flowers, branches, etc. I tried topping all plants relatively early, and they all seemed to respond well. I've been pretty abusive thus far, to be honest, and keep all detritus and weak growth removed.
Frost came early, and this is a new home to me. Despite my space being insulated, it was not insulated enough to keep temperatures from staying in the 60's, and eventually into the 50's. The plants were stunted for a month.
I rushed to find a heating solution, attempting heat lamps to start with, but these proved insufficient to raise the temperature by more than 3°F. I gave up mid October and bought an electric, oil based radiator with a set temp range of 65-80 and an energy saving mode. I initially ramped the temperature up to a constant 75°F, and removed all previous flowers (which were in abundance). The plants have taken well to the temperature, and I have recently switched to 80°F during the day, 65°F during the night. Throughout the grow so far, the humidity has remained 50-70% usually, though sometimes dipping down into the 35% range.
Here are the plants as they are today, the 5th of December.
