FL Born 2015 - 1st Glog

PaulG · Mar 24, 2015

to the growlogosphere; your wild
varieties should make for an interesting grow.

+1 on the utility tubs for planters; the cheapest option
I've found other than free hand-me-downs. I have a
dozen in my own yard. They don't do too well in the sun,
however, especially the newer ones. the ones i bought
5-6 years ago are still holding up well, but some I bought
more recently have already started to break down from
the UV exposure. They will last a couple of more seasons.

Diggin' the glass starter chamber - should make for a real
hothouse environment. I wonder if you will need to put a
little exhaust fan in it?

Sawyer · Mar 24, 2015

Looking good, Bill.

grantmichaels · Mar 24, 2015

PaulG said:
to the growlogosphere; your wild
varieties should make for an interesting grow.

+1 on the utility tubs for planters; the cheapest option
I've found other than free hand-me-downs. I have a
dozen in my own yard. They don't do too well in the sun,
however, especially the newer ones. the ones i bought
5-6 years ago are still holding up well, but some I bought
more recently have already started to break down from
the UV exposure. They will last a couple of more seasons.

Diggin' the glass starter chamber - should make for a real
hothouse environment. I wonder if you will need to put a
little exhaust fan in it?

+1 fan ...

Student of Spice · Mar 24, 2015

It is looking pretty good, I love the look of those buckets. The rope handles seem like they will make moving them easy. I wonder how they will hold up to the weight?

Do you think if you lined the aquarium with tin foil it would help to reflect more light on the plants and make it warmer?

grantmichaels · Mar 24, 2015

Student of Spice said:
It is looking pretty good, I love the look of those buckets. The rope handles seem like they will make moving them easy. I wonder how they will hold up to the weight?

Do you think if you lined the aquarium with tin foil it would help to reflect more light on the plants and make it warmer?

better off w/ white ... like mylar ... i believe foil makes hot spots ...

Elvis Has Left The Forum · Mar 24, 2015

socalgardengal said:
Good Luck with your wild peppers. Will be interesting following their progress. I too am using the same Ace buckets.

Thanks! Like Paul said, the older tubs seem to hold up much better to the UV. I was thinking of painting the outside of them with Rustoleum plastic paint to help protect them, but then they wouldn't be as cheap to use... Now I'm Torn... LOL

PaulG said:
to the growlogosphere; your wild
varieties should make for an interesting grow.

+1 on the utility tubs for planters; the cheapest option
I've found other than free hand-me-downs. I have a
dozen in my own yard. They don't do too well in the sun,
however, especially the newer ones. the ones i bought
5-6 years ago are still holding up well, but some I bought
more recently have already started to break down from
the UV exposure. They will last a couple of more seasons.

Diggin' the glass starter chamber - should make for a real
hothouse environment. I wonder if you will need to put a
little exhaust fan in it?

Thanks for the welcome!!!
I love your Glog!!! Those are awesome plants you have and a nice greenhouse...
And your right, the fan was good advice...

Sawyer said:
Looking good, Bill.

Thanks John... I'm still working on your package and haven't forgotten ya... I will be including a little surprise in it, but it may take a few more days for me to get them together... :cheers:

grantmichaels said:
+1 fan ...

Thanks Grant! Y'all are correct, it started getting too hot without a fan... Now I have to start monitoring the RH... That will start tomorrow... I hope....... :lol:

Student of Spice said:
It is looking pretty good, I love the look of those buckets. The rope handles seem like they will make moving them easy. I wonder how they will hold up to the weight?

Do you think if you lined the aquarium with tin foil it would help to reflect more light on the plants and make it warmer?

Hey Ron!!! Looking forward to meeting up tomorrow...
I also was thinking of wrapping the tank with white coreplast (sp) or even adding window film to the sides of the tank, but with 6 - 48" bulbs the temperature started rising over 82* pretty fast....
So I dropped back to 4 bulbs and added a slow speed fan on top and the temp dropped to 80* to 81*...
I don't now what it will go to over night while the light is off yet...

So here is the summary of the latest updates to the Tank...

As I alluded to above, I started with 6 - 48" blubs, but the temperature started raising above 82*, so I took two of the bulbs off. The temperature stabilized or at least slowed way down. So to be safe, i added a slow speed box fan on top to help circulate the air and the temperature dropped to around 80* and seems to have stabilized there...
I am still thinking about adding pea gravel in the bottom to help hold the heat over night and possibly turning on the heat strips on the outside bottom of the tank when the lights are off. This may take a day or two, as there is a lot of sand/mud in the pea gravel that needs to be washed out.
Tomorrow I will also be installing a hygrometer to monitor the RH in the tank...

The following are recent photos of the Tank:

I placed a couple of grove pepper seedlings in the tank that came from my Dad's friend. They were in pretty bad shape and badly wilted.

A few hours later, the seedlings started looking much better.

The temperature continued to rise. So I added a slow speed fan on top.

Thanks to everyone for all of your help!!!
More updates... Tomorrow....

PaulG · Mar 24, 2015

Awright! The experiment begins!

I can see the improvement in the starts you put in there.

Roguejim · Mar 25, 2015

Those grove pepper seedlings need to get out of those tiny cells they're in, haste pronto. Looking forward to the grow chamber.

Sawyer · Mar 25, 2015

FL Born said:
Thanks! Like Paul said, the older tubs seem to hold up much better to the UV. I was thinking of painting the outside of them with Rustoleum plastic paint to help protect them, but then they wouldn't be as cheap to use... Now I'm Torn... LOL

It wouldn't look all that great, but maybe you could put them in small white plastic trash bags and replace the bags as the UV gets to them.

Thanks John... I'm still working on your package and haven't forgotten ya... I will be including a little surprise in it, but it may take a few more days for me to get them together...

No worries!

Elvis Has Left The Forum · Mar 25, 2015

Roguejim said:
Those grove pepper seedlings need to get out of those tiny cells they're in, haste pronto. Looking forward to the grow chamber.

For sure... These are the only pots that my Dad's friend had when he dug them up... They were in such bad shape when I got them home, I was a little afraid that transplanting them might shock them worse. So I tried to give them some TLC to bring them back to life... Now that they are looking better, I am going to move them to much larger pots ... They will make the transition back to outside plants this weekend...

I am working on mounting one of the dual bulb 48" lights on each side of the tank... This will move them closer to the plants and also free up some room on the top of the tank to add another fan...

Also, I have been pondering and reading up on adding some IR radiation to the Tank... Mostly to regulate the temperature when the lights are off at night. I am currently running the lights 18 hrs on & 6 hrs off... I am still studying up on plant growth requirements...

Thanks for all the help and encouragement!!!

grantmichaels · Mar 25, 2015

FL Born said:
For sure... These are the only pots that my Dad's friend had when he dug them up... They were in such bad shape when I got them home, I was a little afraid that transplanting them might shock them worse. So I tried to give them some TLC to bring them back to life... Now that they are looking better, I am going to move them to much larger pots ... They will make the transition back to outside plants this weekend...

I am working on mounting one of the dual bulb 48" lights on each side of the tank... This will move them closer to the plants and also free up some room on the top of the tank to add another fan...

Also, I have been pondering and reading up on adding some IR radiation to the Tank... Mostly to regulate the temperature when the lights are off at night. I am currently running the lights 18 hrs on & 6 hrs off... I am still studying up on plant growth requirements...

Thanks for all the help and encouragement!!!

I'm confused only by the application ...

Are you just trying to get a feel for manipulating an environment, for the sake of it? ... I do that kind of thing, all the time, so please don't take offense ...

Do you need a humid environment for something that isn't peppers? ...

In my experience, humidity is going to be your enemy here in Florida, but a glass tank only serves to create more of it ...

I was thinking that in my case, since I live in Florida too, that I would never grow anything very large inside - not when I could just grow it outside and leverage all those life-giving lumens - and so I would probably turn the tank on it's side, and have front-loading access and more plantable area and less headroom (which is really kind of working against you, that is, unless you plan to grow something tall in there) ...

Please excuse my terribly rambling sentence and horrendous grammar, but I'm confused as to what I'm watching you make! =)

Elvis Has Left The Forum · Mar 25, 2015

grantmichaels said:
I'm confused only by the application ...

Are you just trying to get a feel for manipulating an environment, for the sake of it? ... I do that kind of thing, all the time, so please don't take offense ...

Do you need a humid environment for something that isn't peppers? ...

In my experience, humidity is going to be your enemy here in Florida, but a glass tank only serves to create more of it ...

I was thinking that in my case, since I live in Florida too, that I would never grow anything very large inside - not when I could just grow it outside and leverage all those life-giving lumens - and so I would probably turn the tank on it's side, and have front-loading access and more plantable area and less headroom (which is really kind of working against you, that is, unless you plan to grow something tall in there) ...

Please excuse my terribly rambling sentence and horrendous grammar, but I'm confused as to what I'm watching you make! =)

Hey Grant, It is probably quite obvious that I have no back ground in botany or formal agriculture training, just playing around with different parameters to see their effects... It is probably the engineer in me that tries to build a better mouse trap... LOL
And no offense taken... I know that I have a tendency to get distracted... It is like the Hexcopter that I have sitting on my dinning room table... I got interested in a friend's and thought it would be fun to build one... I ended up building my own copter and then designing a fairly sophisticated diversity receiver for telemetry and video... I thought about marketing the receiver, but at that time, the government regulations on copters didn't allow for commercial use and acquiring the necessary funds was more work than I wanted to undertake... So, it sits... for now...
Sorry, back to peppers...
While I am getting some seeds together and getting some of those seeds to germinate, I thought I would do some experimenting to see if I can create a small greenhouse for starting stronger plants...
Many years ago I did an experiment in Jr. High where I took two of the same plants and put them in two aquariums... Then one aquarium had dry ice added to it to see the difference that CO2 concentration would make in growth rate... That old experiment got me thinking about this project...
If all parameters were optimized, would it make a difference in the quality of the plant... I had even thought at one time about setting up an Arduino to control the whole project... I'm going to guess at this point that that's not gona happen... I have enough projects and my wife has enough for me to do that I am lucky to get to play with this... LOL
As far as humidity goes, I will admit that I don't know how much humidity peppers like... However, during the germination stage I thought more humidity was a good thing. Hence, the wet paper towel in a ziplock bag... But from the time they sprout until they are transplanted, I have no idea... However, if I can experiment with controlling the humidity using fans then I could lower the humidity once they sprout if needed...

I guess also that since I don't have a greenhouse yet and probably won't be able to afford a large one for a while, I had hoped to try to simulate a small one for the time being... This tank is large enough that i can get two 72 cell trays in it for starting seedlings... Unfortunately, I am learning that its small volume is also more difficult to control and stabilize...

The reason I started this Glog is to get advice, positive or negative... Two (or more) heads are always better than one and I can always learn from others experience or point of view... I have so many questions, but most have probably already been answered and are somewhere here... Things like optimal root temperature, How hot is too hot or how cold is too cold for germination, It appears most others that are using lights during germination are just using them for heat, Should I keep the germination temperature constant (Day / Night) or do seeds like a varied temperature to promote germination, Do sprouts like constant or varied temperature (Day / Night)... There is just so much to learn...

Btw, I am also sprouting other veggies...

I am sure that all of this has been tried before, but if noting else it keeps an old retired man busy... LOL
And I ramble also, probably worst than you ever thought about... :rofl:

grantmichaels · Mar 26, 2015

I, too, started into the multi-rotor space, and hit pause due to the uncertainty of what an independent operator will be able to do commercially ...

Also, the parts are always going on back-order, and then there's the rate of obsolescence ... a hobby for down the line, maybe, but I don't have the time ...

I've come to see humidity as my enemy, really ...

Bottom-feeding is really, really your friend here ... don't add humidity to the canopy if you can help it ...

In the summer, when the humidity stays high overnight, there's all sorts of bad things that come w/ it ...

The leaves on the inside will at times stick together, and then get soggy and rot ...

Maybe you are more experienced w/ fighting pests and virii and bacterial wars than I, but it's been tough to mitigate in the past when I've grown peppers ...

I would flip that aquarium over and take it outside and setup a nice AACT brewing system ... but that's just me!

That'll give you some good site-search hits

Sawyer · Mar 26, 2015

FL Born said:
Many years ago I did an experiment in Jr. High where I took two of the same plants and put them in two aquariums... Then one aquarium had dry ice added to it to see the difference that CO2 concentration would make in growth rate... That old experiment got me thinking about this project...

Well don't keep us in suspense, man. How did it turn out? I once rigged up a system to drip vinegar into an open container of baking soda to boost CO2 levels. Seemed like it had a positive effect, but I didn't do any control, so it's hard to tell.

Elvis Has Left The Forum · Mar 26, 2015

Sawyer said:
Well don't keep us in suspense, man. How did it turn out? I once rigged up a system to drip vinegar into an open container of baking soda to boost CO2 levels. Seemed like it had a positive effect, but I didn't do any control, so it's hard to tell.

^^^^ LMAO ^^^^

Well you have to remember that for me, that was like 40 something years ago...
But I do remember that there was an improvement in the CO2 fed plant compared to the control plant...
However, at my age, I can't remember if they were 'mater plants or geraniums....... :mope:

Actually, they were tomato plants...
Is the improvement worth the extra cost and work??? I don't know...
Maybe one day someone will give it another test...
Hmmmm... I do have several tanks of CO2 left from my son's days of playing paintball...

Elvis Has Left The Forum · Mar 26, 2015

I have finally completed my pepper seed list for this year.
I'm not exactly sure of each variety's proper name, so i just copied what was on each package...
I want to thank all of you for your help and especially those that were kind enough to share seeds!!!

Reaper
MOA Scotch Bonnet
Trinidad Scorpion Moruga - Chocolate
Trinidad Scorpion Yellow
Yellow Monster
Sulu Adana
Tekne Dolmasi
Arkansas Peach
Syrian 3-Sided
Aji Mango
Kurtovska Kapija
Habanero Chocolate
Bhut Jokokia - Red
Ghost Pepper - Peach
Habanero - Big Sun
Sweet Banana
Anaheim
Ancho
Cayenne - Long Slim Red
Jalapeno
Hungarian Yellow Wax
Devil's Tongue - Yellow
7 Pot - Chocolate
Scotch Bonnet - Chocolate
Bell Pepper - Yellow
Gypsy Pepper

And of course - Grove Peppers...

Hopefully, this weekend I will be able to go to my friend's pasture and collect another wild pepper that grows there. He had given me some dried pods, but their seeds have not germinated. He calls them "Buckshot" peppers due to their size and shape...

We will see what all germinates...

I'm gonna need a lot of tubs!!!! LOL

More photos to come soon...

Elvis Has Left The Forum · Mar 26, 2015

First thing today, I transplanted the larger grove pepper sprouts that my dad's friend gave me and that I revived in the starting chamber.

I now have several grove pepper plants growing on my deck, along with a Yellow Bell, a Gypsy Pepper. Also I have the Jalapeno in the tub that is in my yard.

Also, I planted 12 different varieties from the above grow list in this starter tray.

After watering them, I placed them in the starting chamber (tank)

Now I will plant the other starter tray with the next 12 varieties tomorrow and add them to the starting chamber.

Student of Spice · Mar 26, 2015

Man you move quick! I see you have been very busy.

I really appreciate the shade cloth, the plan, and it was an honor to meet you. I still am totally impressed with your aquaponics system!! I am now trying to talk to mrs into allowing me to pick it up and try to raise tilapia with a garden on top.

Hey, fun fact to THP community besides being a good guy, this man hunts things with a spear that I would only prefer to hunt from an apache. Total bad ass.

Rairdog · Mar 26, 2015

Looks like you are trying some DE. Hopefully it works well for you. The condensation on the dome is about max of what I like to see. Anymore and I take it off in daylight to let them breath. I don't want it dripping from the lid onto the plants. I keep about a 1/4 in of water in the bottom of the tray when exposed to sun with the lid off so it doesn't dry out when I'm away.

Now I'm curious....to see some speared pigs and a couple shots of that air-boat. I have relatives on Okee and haven't been down there for several years.

Elvis Has Left The Forum · Mar 26, 2015

Student of Spice said:
Man you move quick! I see you have been very busy.

I really appreciate the shade cloth, the plan, and it was an honor to meet you. I still am totally impressed with your aquaponics system!! I am now trying to talk to mrs into allowing me to pick it up and try to raise tilapia with a garden on top.

Hey, fun fact to THP community besides being a good guy, this man hunts things with a spear that I would only prefer to hunt from an apache. Total bad ass.

I really enjoyed your visit! If she lets you add an aquaponics system, just let me know and I will be more than happy to help set it up and get you running. If you have any questions or need help with anything, you have my email and phone number! Call or email me anytime!
Maybe we can do some hunting sometime...

Rairdog said:
Looks like you are trying some DE. Hopefully it works well for you. The condensation on the dome is about max of what I like to see. Anymore and I take it off in daylight to let them breath. I don't want it dripping from the lid onto the plants. I keep about a 1/4 in of water in the bottom of the tray when exposed to sun with the lid off so it doesn't dry out when I'm away.

Now I'm curious....to see some speared pigs and a couple shots of that air-boat. I have relatives on Okee and haven't been down there for several years.

Yes, you are very observant! I had to try the DE route. It should work out fine whether I plant the sprouts in dirt or the aquaponics media. :-)
Thanks for the watering tip, I will keep an eye on them and if they look like they need air I'll pop the top...
If you're down this direction, give me a shout! Airboats are a lot of fun and yeah, I love to hunt and fish... LOL