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GeorgeJ's 2013 Tokyo-a-grow-grow - finishing off this season

Hey all.

First time growing from seed.
Thought I would start off with the grow box I built.

My apartment is so cold that I've built this box to sit in the closet and using a heat mat To keep things warm throughout. Not enough space or money to do everything separate.

So I built this box from Styrofoam and aluminium insulation sheeting. Managed to get everything from the 100 yen shop (japans version of the dollar store).

Here's it from the outside, in the closet (no gay jokes please) :
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On the inside there's a 50w fluorescent strip light I got for free with my axolotl tank. It's suspended from bamboo canes on wires, so I can adjust the height of the light as well as hopefully flexing in an earthquake.
To the left hand side, a small fan (also from an aquarium) which is pretty gentle to help toughen up the seedlings and prevent damping off.

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It was alot brighter before putting the heat mat in, so I may put some thin aluminum foil over it. Thoughts?

I'm gonna prep the seeds and pots, so that's it for now.
 
Click to expand...
Nice progress, no problem with the dark green leaves on the Bhut. Not only thats a good sign, but I find any of my "Indian" strains have darker green and sometimes wavier leaves then other varieties of super hots.
 
Not been able to do a proper glog cause I started a new job (teaching japanese kids 2-6 years old this week)
But I got hooks coming up like crazy!

Only one not to show yet is the Trinidad 7 pot yellow. Maya red rotted in the seed, but looking good with the others.
 
Hi G
Sorry to hear the Maya Red Habs rotted... Sounds like you need to sterilize and start again. I've been having similar problems getting Orange Manzanos started.
 
The Maya red sprouted, when the seed cap fell off the cotyledons were brown and withered.
Yeah, I'll give them another try. Weird that the yellow hasn't shown. Quite a few orange are up though :)
 
Sounds like you might have some fungus in the seeds... you might try mixing some hydrogen peroxide and water 10:1 and soaking the seeds in that before planting.
 
Gonna plant another lot this weekend. I love seeing hooks!
Will give a few more a try with my rookie hands. Never give up!
 
georgej said:
The Maya red sprouted, when the seed cap fell off the cotyledons were brown and withered.
Yeah, I'll give them another try. Weird that the yellow hasn't shown. Quite a few orange are up though :)
Click to expand...
The leaves shriveled up? Germination took place, did you use any chemicals ? Damping off can also be an issue.
 
Yup. And no chemicals.
Could be. I'm not too bothered, it only happened to one so not worth losing sleep over.
I planted the Maya red as an extra cause I had spare soil anyway, it wasn't in my plans.
 
A yellow 7 pot finally started showing. A 4th white habanero also showed up today. Will do a glog update properly at the weekend
 
The second flight is growing like crazy. Second leaves showing on alot of them.

This 7 pot Burgundy takes the prize. Very fast!
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Overview of all that are doing well
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Some are a bit leggy, but I'm not bothered.

Seeing a good root system through opace cups on the first lot.
 
Its neighbour is odd.. The cots never opened, fused together.
But, I can see new leaves growing under them!
Both burgundy in the same pot.

I planted a few more today - 7 pot brown x 3,Maya red x 3,Red ghost scorpion x 3 7 pot yellow x6..
Just backup. Yellows and browns don't look super yet. My Maya rotted the cots and the red ghost scorpion never germinated. So as I had some of my soil mix left I thought I'd try again.
Went for a ten minute soak this time in peroxide, rather than the usual 4.
 
georgej said:
Its neighbour is odd.. The cots never opened, fused together.
But, I can see new leaves growing under them!
Both burgundy in the same pot.

I planted a few more today - 7 pot brown x 3,Maya red x 3,Red ghost scorpion x 3 7 pot yellow x6..
Just backup. Yellows and browns don't look super yet. My Maya rotted the cots and the red ghost scorpion never germinated. So as I had some of my soil mix left I thought I'd try again.
Went for a ten minute soak this time in peroxide, rather than the usual 4.
Click to expand...
Check your soil mix too... I looked under the domes of the flats where I had the Annuums I sowed the other day and they were all covered with mold mycelium. The only seeds I don't have extras for are the Urfa Biber's, so I think I'd better fish out the seeds and soak them in hydrogen peroxide and transfer to a sterile growing medium before they germ. I'll sterilize the flats and seed trays with bleach and soapy water and restart the rest.
 
I've nuked the soil in the microwave until it got to at least 90 c. Then cooled.

The mix is my own, coir, river sand, vermiculite and bark compost. My japanese isn't good enough to read all the blurb on bags of seed mix, so decided I'd make my own.

No mould so far, I think the Maya got unlucky. The yellow habanero also unlucky.
Yellow 7, I don't know.

I've got plenty growing anyway. Planning to give some away later on, after I find out how big an allotment the in law wants to spare me. Can't hurt to have spares though!

Those orange 7 pot are doing great too!
2 of the brown sprouted, just looking a bit small right now, so I planted more just in case
 
Just a thought... as hard as it was for you to get superhots, maybe you can find like-minded people to sell your extras to and recoup some of your expenses.
 
True, but the people who would want them I already owe a social debt to..

Whether it be they let me stay at their place when I missed my trains, bought me pints when I was poor or I missed their wedding cause I had no money.

Outside of that, I could probably sell a couple of plants. It's impossible to get anything hotter than habanero plants here. Sauce/powder wise - jolokia blends. Never seen a hundred percent bhut jolokia powder!
It's at least worth trading for a few beers ;)
 
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