Well I decided to do a glog half way through. At first I didn't think anyone could learn anything. I guess there is value in what not to do.
I start seeds poking holes into styrofoam cups. I stuff promix into the cups and soak the promix then one layer of vermiculite spray with hydrogen peroxide place the seed on the vermiculite add a layer of vermiculite and spray again. I cover the top with ziploc snack bags and place on heating pads. I check periodically and spray with water or peroxide.
I use this method because it is simple and requires very little maintenance. Once they sprout they go under grow lights. I do a mix of LED and CFL.
I over winter most plants. Currently the over winters are in the ground or buckets and are:
Cherry peppers
'Hole Mole' pasilla
Jalepenos
manzanos
aji crystal
Mariachi hybrid
Here are seeds I have not yet planted it out.
These are:
Loofah (non pepper)
goats weed
fatali
manzano clone (in the big pot. I just did that to be silly)
orange habanero
Bhut carbon
Butch T
cap chacoense
cap praeternissium
cayenne
And another picture.
I got back from a trip to china with three different pepper seeds I collected. I didn't think they would start but I tried anyway. Almost got 100% germination. Go figure. I am a big fan of sip buckets (AKA global buckets). I mix peat, perlite, and coco pith in about equal proportions. Then I will add some ocean forest. Finally. I add three X treme gardening feeder packs to each bucket. Pith is absolutely needed. It will consistently wick water. I get buckets from craig's list.
The sip buckets are really low maintenance. I water them very rarely. The problem is they get hot. I think that is true for all buckets though.
This plant was grown indoors with a flood and drain table. It was too crowded and once I took it out it could not support itself so I had to cut it down. It is growing back nicely though
A different Chinese plant. you will see I am already having bug problems
Here is my one and only Manzano pepper. the plant is probably ~10 months old. I had some sort of deficiency and sprayed with calmag and surrounded with compost. Everything looks better now.
Here is my other manzano plant. On the left is the manzano that I took out of a sip bucket. In the center is a loofah and on the right is a chinese pepper. My hope is the loofah will help keep it cool in the morning and the chinese pepper will provide shade in the afternoon.
This is another chinese plant that I grew under lights and have moved to a southern window. Doing alright. Have to water it daily. I might put it in the ground. It is up to the wifey.
I am trying my hand at outdoor hydro. I am trying drip, DWC, and flood and drain using one reservoir. For the drip I took window planters but a drain and filled with a scotch pad. This did not work and had to clean it up. I used a big scotch pad and dumped a bunch of hydroton on top. it seems to be working. The drain I used leaked so I used a butt-load of silicone for aquariums. The plan is to put rockwool and suretogrow cubes on .5 coco and .5 perlite and drip irrigation. This has truly been a test and tweak process. I am tempted to throw it out.
For the rest I have a flood and drain table I will just use felt pots and the over flow will go into the DWC. I made the height of the water adjustable in the dwc (I'll show that later). When the DWC gets too high it flows back into my reservoir. So it is recirculating in a sense.
I think I have all the bugs worked out. I will try to get the plants outdoors this week.
I start seeds poking holes into styrofoam cups. I stuff promix into the cups and soak the promix then one layer of vermiculite spray with hydrogen peroxide place the seed on the vermiculite add a layer of vermiculite and spray again. I cover the top with ziploc snack bags and place on heating pads. I check periodically and spray with water or peroxide.
I use this method because it is simple and requires very little maintenance. Once they sprout they go under grow lights. I do a mix of LED and CFL.
I over winter most plants. Currently the over winters are in the ground or buckets and are:
Cherry peppers
'Hole Mole' pasilla
Jalepenos
manzanos
aji crystal
Mariachi hybrid
Here are seeds I have not yet planted it out.
These are:
Loofah (non pepper)
goats weed
fatali
manzano clone (in the big pot. I just did that to be silly)
orange habanero
Bhut carbon
Butch T
cap chacoense
cap praeternissium
cayenne
And another picture.
I got back from a trip to china with three different pepper seeds I collected. I didn't think they would start but I tried anyway. Almost got 100% germination. Go figure. I am a big fan of sip buckets (AKA global buckets). I mix peat, perlite, and coco pith in about equal proportions. Then I will add some ocean forest. Finally. I add three X treme gardening feeder packs to each bucket. Pith is absolutely needed. It will consistently wick water. I get buckets from craig's list.
The sip buckets are really low maintenance. I water them very rarely. The problem is they get hot. I think that is true for all buckets though.
This plant was grown indoors with a flood and drain table. It was too crowded and once I took it out it could not support itself so I had to cut it down. It is growing back nicely though
A different Chinese plant. you will see I am already having bug problems
Here is my one and only Manzano pepper. the plant is probably ~10 months old. I had some sort of deficiency and sprayed with calmag and surrounded with compost. Everything looks better now.
Here is my other manzano plant. On the left is the manzano that I took out of a sip bucket. In the center is a loofah and on the right is a chinese pepper. My hope is the loofah will help keep it cool in the morning and the chinese pepper will provide shade in the afternoon.
This is another chinese plant that I grew under lights and have moved to a southern window. Doing alright. Have to water it daily. I might put it in the ground. It is up to the wifey.
I am trying my hand at outdoor hydro. I am trying drip, DWC, and flood and drain using one reservoir. For the drip I took window planters but a drain and filled with a scotch pad. This did not work and had to clean it up. I used a big scotch pad and dumped a bunch of hydroton on top. it seems to be working. The drain I used leaked so I used a butt-load of silicone for aquariums. The plan is to put rockwool and suretogrow cubes on .5 coco and .5 perlite and drip irrigation. This has truly been a test and tweak process. I am tempted to throw it out.
For the rest I have a flood and drain table I will just use felt pots and the over flow will go into the DWC. I made the height of the water adjustable in the dwc (I'll show that later). When the DWC gets too high it flows back into my reservoir. So it is recirculating in a sense.
I think I have all the bugs worked out. I will try to get the plants outdoors this week.
