Hi folks,
Well, here goes. I tried my hand, for the first time last year at growing chillies as me and the missus had just bought a new house in London, and it had a beautiful South-facing garden. I naturally tried to grow way too many things (not necessarily chillies) and inevitably, due to a hectic lifestyle, couldn’t look after everything, so tomatoes, broccoli, and various other plants were “ok” but never really looked after or yielded enough.
So this year, it’s chillies and chillies alone, in pots, with the addition of French marigolds to ward off greenfly… more on that in a moment.
I had my Carolina Reapers, Pink Tigers, Trinidad Scorpions, Caynnes and Tabascos all germinated by January and was REALLY thinking myself pretty cool for getting ahead of the game and putting together a little GHETTO Chinese LED strip light grow box
Well, that seemed to work, the plants were coming along slowly and then I had a little issue with greenfly. I thought little of it at first (they only seemed attracted to the reapers) and as the plants got a little bigger I moved them to the window to get some proper light. At this point they got a little white around the base of the stems (which seemed unusually thin, possibly because I wasn’t using a fan to toughen them up in the LED growbox?) and a little mouldy on the soil (probably because they were all in such close proximity in adolescence) and then everything started to go downhill. Despite hardening them off quite carefully (I thought) I’ve lost everything bar a scorpion and 8 reapers. And the reapers are NOT looking well...
I think they have a virus from the greenfly (I unfortunately had to resort to a pesticide spray as there were so many of them) but if someone could give me a better idea what the brown and white spots and lower plants dying off (and now slightly abnormal growth) is, I’d be keen to hear. (advice from this forum thus far has been damp/mould which is entirely plausible).
So, although probably too late in the year to get a bunch of great fruiting, I’ve got a whole bunch of chillies (for me) germinating at present. Especially considering I lost 90% of my first, very early in the year attempt.
5 Moruglah
7 Katie Chillies (my fiance’s name)
5 Yorkshire Drop Naga
5 Butch T Trinidad Scorpions
5 Carolina Reapers
6 Cayenne
5 (of what I think are Naga’s, but the label has gone AWOL, so they’re simply unknown (There’s 2 Bulgarian carrots that are still clinging on too).
Ive got them in the pots they’re going to stay in until they need to be transplanted for size. They’re in either heated or unheated propagators, not cells (the pots are no bigger than a solo cup) with a mix of plain potting soil, a sprinkle of fish, blood and bone, and perlite (about 1 part perlite to 3 parts soil) and I’m just interested on any advice that people could give me about the LED growing box (I’m thinking of adding a small fan (somehow) to strengthen young stems and any advice about hardening off effectively (as the stems of my “early crop” were worryingly thin) and general nutes, care etc. as I go along is much appreciated.
I’m a real newbie to this, but am very interested in learning more about growing and also seeing if it’s possible to get some really hot chillies grown in London (where the weather can be more than a little erratic!)
Well, here goes. I tried my hand, for the first time last year at growing chillies as me and the missus had just bought a new house in London, and it had a beautiful South-facing garden. I naturally tried to grow way too many things (not necessarily chillies) and inevitably, due to a hectic lifestyle, couldn’t look after everything, so tomatoes, broccoli, and various other plants were “ok” but never really looked after or yielded enough.
So this year, it’s chillies and chillies alone, in pots, with the addition of French marigolds to ward off greenfly… more on that in a moment.
I had my Carolina Reapers, Pink Tigers, Trinidad Scorpions, Caynnes and Tabascos all germinated by January and was REALLY thinking myself pretty cool for getting ahead of the game and putting together a little GHETTO Chinese LED strip light grow box
Well, that seemed to work, the plants were coming along slowly and then I had a little issue with greenfly. I thought little of it at first (they only seemed attracted to the reapers) and as the plants got a little bigger I moved them to the window to get some proper light. At this point they got a little white around the base of the stems (which seemed unusually thin, possibly because I wasn’t using a fan to toughen them up in the LED growbox?) and a little mouldy on the soil (probably because they were all in such close proximity in adolescence) and then everything started to go downhill. Despite hardening them off quite carefully (I thought) I’ve lost everything bar a scorpion and 8 reapers. And the reapers are NOT looking well...
I think they have a virus from the greenfly (I unfortunately had to resort to a pesticide spray as there were so many of them) but if someone could give me a better idea what the brown and white spots and lower plants dying off (and now slightly abnormal growth) is, I’d be keen to hear. (advice from this forum thus far has been damp/mould which is entirely plausible).
So, although probably too late in the year to get a bunch of great fruiting, I’ve got a whole bunch of chillies (for me) germinating at present. Especially considering I lost 90% of my first, very early in the year attempt.
5 Moruglah
7 Katie Chillies (my fiance’s name)
5 Yorkshire Drop Naga
5 Butch T Trinidad Scorpions
5 Carolina Reapers
6 Cayenne
5 (of what I think are Naga’s, but the label has gone AWOL, so they’re simply unknown (There’s 2 Bulgarian carrots that are still clinging on too).
Ive got them in the pots they’re going to stay in until they need to be transplanted for size. They’re in either heated or unheated propagators, not cells (the pots are no bigger than a solo cup) with a mix of plain potting soil, a sprinkle of fish, blood and bone, and perlite (about 1 part perlite to 3 parts soil) and I’m just interested on any advice that people could give me about the LED growing box (I’m thinking of adding a small fan (somehow) to strengthen young stems and any advice about hardening off effectively (as the stems of my “early crop” were worryingly thin) and general nutes, care etc. as I go along is much appreciated.
I’m a real newbie to this, but am very interested in learning more about growing and also seeing if it’s possible to get some really hot chillies grown in London (where the weather can be more than a little erratic!)
