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.

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.

 

[georgej]

Most of the first flight Have about the same amount of leaves. Some of the bottom yellowed and fell off. Natural pruning is doing them good though!

Some of the second flight are also mighty. Particularly the white habanero and orange 7 pot!

Potted up a few more into 520ml plastic cups. Gonna buy more cups tomorrow and get more done!

 

[stickman]

Hi G... How they hangin'? Any chance of pics?

 

[georgej]

Bit of sun and decent temps has really complimented the plants.
Visibly growing by the day now!

 

[stickman]

Most excellent there G! Continued success bro'!

 

[georgej]

Got some new lower leafs beginning to grow as well. Nice to be more bushy

 

[georgej]

Especially proud of this butch T right now. Beautiful looking, flat leafs.

Seeing a lot of new growth on the lower stem like this too (Bhut in the pic)

Basically still stoked to get home from work and see the plants loving nutes, fresh soil and sunlight. I literally are seeing them flush and grow by the day!

 

[Sawyer]

The plants look like they like what you're doing.

 

[georgej]

Hopefully onwards and upwards!
I've learned a lot this year

 

[georgej]

Went and checked out my mother in laws allotment earlier.

The space I'm getting is kinda small, but I can get 4 plants in the ground there so I'm stoked! Awesome!

Nice sandy, dark soil. Ph 6.8

The place has a strict policy on constipated cartoon dogs as well..

 

[stickman]

Went and checked out my mother in laws allotment earlier. The space I'm getting is kinda small, but I can get 4 plants in the ground there so I'm stoked! Awesome! Nice sandy, dark soil. Ph 6.8

The place has a strict policy on constipated cartoon dogs as well..

NIce pic!

Good looking plot your MIL has... Good luck with growing the chiles there. My recommendation is to plant any Annuums there so they have more room to spread out. The Chinense varieties don't grow as much in the first year.

 

[georgej]

Only have one annum plant (thai) the rest are chinense yet to decide what goes over there.. Probably white and hot chocolate habanero.

 

[georgej]

Soaking up the sun today

 

[georgej]

here's some recent pics

Peach ghost scorpions

i topped this ghost scorpion a few weeks ago, and its just exploding with leafs!

Scotch bonnets

Dorset Naga

Trinidad scorpion butch t

And a video glog!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5Q3CNyzky0&feature=youtu.be

 

[stickman]

Nice job G! How soon can you plant out in your MIL's outdoor plot? Is it still the rainy season out your way?

 

[georgej]

rainy season is beginning of june. not sure how long it lasts. then it's gonna be hella humid and the temp never drops below 30 c even at night!
Great for the plants, terrible for my balls

 

[georgej]

Here's a couple of tomato plants I've stuck onto the balcony by the stairs. That's the shadier side of the house.
That is Just to illustrate what my plans for space are.
I heated up a screwdriver and melted 4 holes in the top side of the planter and used steel wire to fix it in place.

 

[georgej]

well, good bit of hindsight not putting the peppers outside yet.
Had some really sharp winds the other day which ripped those tomato plants to shreds. i can go out and buy more tomato plants for quite cheap, but not the peppers i raised from seed.
Gotta wait until the weather is more stable!

Peppers are enjoying their sunny windowsill, humidifier running in the room and the fact my apartment is getting up to about 30 degrees c during the daytime.

 

[georgej]

My babies are looking good!
I topped them a few weeks ago so they are getting super bushy and branching out a bit.

So much so that they are kinda top heavy so I need to be careful leaving the window open.

I live next to the tamagawa river, which has Tokyo bay at one end and mountains at the other, so winds whip up fast and travel up the river.

Plants need toughening up a bit though.

Very happy with how they look. Hope I can get some pods this year

Also got coriander, dill and basil growing on the windowsill. My Habanero overwinters are also looking great and attempting to flower already.

 

[stickman]

Great job G! Has the rainy season passed yet so you can plant outside?

 

[georgej]

Rainy season is gonna hit beginning of June. Can't wait for that to be over, I'm running out of space for them already!