Frosty's Glog 2012

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.

 

[frosty]

Aside from the wind I have not had any problems. I checked your temperatures and you shouldn't have any problems. We are in the 100's right now and the hydro is doing better than anything planted at the same time. Sip buckets next. Buckets next. Ground next.

I was just told that the water would get too hot. Because, I am still a newbie. I wouldn't want someone with my weather to copy me until I have at least finished the season.

 

[stc3248]

Paul, there are some instructional videos and how to articles about them...I researched them before plant out, and almost did a couple just to see, but I decided for my first year with so many new varieties I would stick to the basics.

Frosty my man! I love checking in on your grow and tactics! You have peppers on your roof! Lol I have a huge flat roof, just not sure its structurely sound enough to support some plants...got me thinking though! Your plants are looking great! What are your daytime temps running now?

 

[PaulG]

Every time I log on to THP, I see a new trick! Now something else to try. Let's see, grafting, hydro, sip buckets...

 

[jsschrstrcks]

I've mentioned this somewhere before, so forgive me if it was here, or if you've already read it...

But my grandparents tried those buckets, but with soil from the garden. Gram found some leaf miners and pulled leaves like mad until it was nearly dead, then sprayed the plant with antibacterial dish soap mixed with water. The long and short of it is that everything in them died, and thus ended their experiment. Its always been something that I've wanted to try... Seems like such a good idea..

 

[frosty]

Paul, there are some instructional videos and how to articles about them...I researched them before plant out, and almost did a couple just to see, but I decided for my first year with so many new varieties I would stick to the basics.

Frosty my man! I love checking in on your grow and tactics! You have peppers on your roof! Lol I have a huge flat roof, just not sure its structurely sound enough to support some plants...got me thinking though! Your plants are looking great! What are your daytime temps running now?

Yesterday was 106 today is supposed to be 109. We have been in the 100s for at least two weeks now.

 

[jsschrstrcks]

We won't hit 100 until MAYBE august. We will be in the 90s for the next few months though.

 

[frosty]

This is from a sip bucket that wasn't used.

cut a plastic cup and fill with coco coir.

Place in the bucket that has .5 holes and a hole for the pipe. In this case the hole for the cup was cut with a dremel. I have cut holes with a sharp knife.

Look at the height of the rim of the bucket that is how far up on the out bucket you need to go to drill drain holes for the reservior:
between the two Es

Throw in pipe, medium and feeder packs and you are good to go.

Here is my flood and drain. that is a 7 and 10 gallon pot for perspective.

Here are my drips

my DWC is starting to take off. That is a Brain Strain and a Chacoense.

Praeternissium (sp?) flower:

 

[frosty]

buckets needed to be spread out

Here is a three year cherry pepper plant

here is a chaco if you look closely you will see a ripe one. Tasted good but nothing spectacular

 

[stc3248]

You're going to need a hedge trimmer to get along the side of the house soon! Great looking plants!

 

[jsschrstrcks]

Yup definitely

I hear what you are saying about everyone thinking you need a cooler for your water...

In my case, my little plant might actually need it... =/

we'll see

 

[frosty]

Let's see.
One of my three year olds has some sort of disease that causes green splotches on the fruit. It has been like this for at least a month so I cut it down to a stump. We'll see. I know I should kill it but it is hard to say goodbye.

I am now going through 5+ gallons a day in my hydro. I am too lazy to top off with RO water so I am mainly going tap with 400+ ppm TDS. Since the nutes are .5 strength I think I can get away with it. Hydro is still beating everything else even with temperatures ranging from 100-113 and no chiler.

Some pictures:
This is my big aji crystal. Most people prefer them yellow. I think they are bitter and vegatably yellow. Love them red:

Here are cherry peppers. I again prefer them super ripe (red and a little soft) then dried and powdered. I call it dorito powder because of the taste:

I'm drying a lot of peppers. Here are some thin walled peppers. I don't know the name because I collected the seed in China.

My SIP buckets:

My hydro

 

[frosty]

My reservoir ran low and my brain strain has not really recovered. I'll post pictures. I'm going through 7-8 gallons of water a day. And I will be going on a trip in July. I probably will be moving my plants to pots soon.

I am pretty convinced the flood and drain and the drip system can handle very high heat. Not sure about the DWC.

 

[frosty]

Howdy all this is probably my last post. I am moving my hydro to pots. I am going on a trip and the water usage was a hassle. I would have liked to find out which system was using the water. I'll bring back hydro when the weather cools a bit.

here is my hydro orange hab.

Here is a close up of some of the pods

Here is my butch t and thumb

Here is my ebb and flow with a manzano and what I labeled a fatali but wasn't. With adding water constantly the PH got out of wack and the manzano suffered with a little yellowing

The water ran low and the brain strain did not do to well.

I did major surgery on the brain strain and the nub went into a pot

 

[stc3248]

Sad to hear your gonna be out for a while...and that your hydros will be going back to traditional! I was enjoying watching your hydro techniques and progress!