griff87's grow log '12.

sicman · Apr 21, 2012

looks good ,looking real good. keep it up!

griff87 · Apr 22, 2012

Took a little time today to take some more pics of the plants that I'm doing the LST on. I know it's not much to look at now but there will be later.

This bishops crown I had let go on its own and grew one strait branch. I probably shouldn't have done that but it did prove to me what this technique can do. So now I decided to continue with it now. I think it will actually turn out pretty cool now though kinda making the plant have upper and lower canopy levels. Earlier this week on the top, I pulled the Y apart to force that to grow out then up. You can kind of see how that has already started. Today I pulled down both lower shoots that were also just trying to grow strait up. In about a week i should see new growth from the nodes on those.

This one I had started training earlier on and it made such a difference.

I also decided to take some other candidates to train. Two of the aji lemons that decided they wanted to be above all the others and a choc hab.
Before

After.
Choc hab

Aji lemons

I will probably try some more drastic training when I will be able to bring them outside and pot up but right now I don't have the room. This might not be anytime soon as they are calling for 3-5" of snow tomorrow! :shocked:

griff87 · Apr 29, 2012

New arrivals from Bakers Peppers! I had gotten one of his freebie coupons for christmas.
Also got a bonus bag of fresh peppers :party:

millworkman · Apr 29, 2012

Awesome plants Griff, and man those hops are freaking awesome!! Where did you get yours at? I have been looking around for a while, I need to get some for my homebrews.

stc3248 · May 5, 2012

Glad I stumbled onto your glog Griff!!! About 80% of my grow is from seeds you gave me buddy, will never be forgotten. Hey...the Bishop's Crown seeds you sent me made a couple nice bushy plants! I'll have to shoot you a pic or two. Part of it was due to some hail damage on one of them...but the other just grew that way??? Keep up posted on the LST, I was thinking about dabbling in that this year, but all my graft, bonchi and other experiments are on the back burner until season end I think...you've created a monster out here! I have somewhere in the neighborhood of 130ish plants going...without ornamentals I only have about a measly 100... :rofl:

You got a follow from me brother! Hey question for you...have you grown out those Piquin Chiapas? Mine is a bit odd...fairly large (by pequin standards) pendant pods. Not huge...but thinking there must be a little crossing going on???

Keep up the great grow and thanks again for kicking my season in the backside for me!

griff87 · May 6, 2012

millworkman said:
Awesome plants Griff, and man those hops are freaking awesome!! Where did you get yours at? I have been looking around for a while, I need to get some for my homebrews.

I got mine from my local homebrew shop. They were a few bucks a piece. I actually have some cuttings left from when trimmed the crowns this year. If you would like some rhizomes, I could send you some. Let me know if you are interested.

stc3248 said:
Glad I stumbled onto your glog Griff!!! About 80% of my grow is from seeds you gave me buddy, will never be forgotten. Hey...the Bishop's Crown seeds you sent me made a couple nice bushy plants! I'll have to shoot you a pic or two. Part of it was due to some hail damage on one of them...but the other just grew that way??? Keep up posted on the LST, I was thinking about dabbling in that this year, but all my graft, bonchi and other experiments are on the back burner until season end I think...you've created a monster out here! I have somewhere in the neighborhood of 130ish plants going...without ornamentals I only have about a measly 100...

You got a follow from me brother! Hey question for you...have you grown out those Piquin Chiapas? Mine is a bit odd...fairly large (by pequin standards) pendant pods. Not huge...but thinking there must be a little crossing going on???

Keep up the great grow and thanks again for kicking my season in the backside for me!

Yeah, you have a ton a plants. I think I got between 40-50 plants myself. Some will go to a few friends who I have gotten into growing. Seems to be trend

. As for those piquins, no I haven't grown them out but maybe I should. Those seeds were thrown in as extras with the supers I had gotten from cmpman. You could always ask him more about them.

I will have an update later on today with pics.

griff87 · May 6, 2012

The weather has gotten better up here so I decided to bring the plants outside to start hardening them up. Made a little project for myself to help with this. A hardening hut/ greenhouse.

Some pvc pipe, 6 mil poly, and zip ties goes a long way to make a collapsable house. It's not the prettiest thing but it should do the job. I also made to fit over my raised bed. I probably should have taken a pic showing that. I wasn't worried about cutting the poly all nice, I just want it to be functional. I also left a little opening at the top to allow some airflow. I went with the thicker plastic for the durability and should help reduce the strength of the sun like a shade cloth would.

All of the overwinters enjoying the nice sunny day.

All of the new guys. A few of these could have use a little less sun and got some sun scalding waiting for the hut to be built.

I don't know why the pic came in sideways. A bit closer pic showing the scalding. I think they should pull through though

Heres also a look at the plants I started to train. Not a big difference yet but they now have taken their shape a starting some new growth at the nodes.

MGOLD86 · May 6, 2012

Lookin good! How are the temps in that GH? Is it tough keepin it warm at night and cool during the day? I am thinking about gettin me one eventually and kinda "feeling" out the options out there.

The plants look great! I am excited to see the LST plants start producin for ya. That is definitely interesting.

Matt

griff87 · May 6, 2012

Matt, I'm not sure on those temperature extremes yet. I had thought of it getting to hot in it so thats why I left an opening. I may have to cut some more of the poly and just tape it over that to allow me to open and close it when needed. I just built it today so its still basically an experiment still.

stc3248 · May 6, 2012

Had basically the same setup...the temps at night will be not far from the actual temps unless you plug it up and heat it somehow. Even when you close it all off you will probably only get a couple degrees difference at night. Daytime temps in there will be HOT!!! That opening will help, but you will probably have to open it even further or add a fan to force air in. It does help shade wise. I think its about 60% transmission through the plastic...don't remember exactly. but my plants did notice a difference. Once you get it all tweaked right they work real well, they just require a little attention to be safe.

That last LST plant is already putting out some great shoots for you! Will be really cool looking plants once you get them going a bit. Keep it up Griff! How far are you from final plant out? 2-3 weeks???

griff87 · May 7, 2012

stc3248 said:
Had basically the same setup...the temps at night will be not far from the actual temps unless you plug it up and heat it somehow. Even when you close it all off you will probably only get a couple degrees difference at night. Daytime temps in there will be HOT!!! That opening will help, but you will probably have to open it even further or add a fan to force air in. It does help shade wise. I think its about 60% transmission through the plastic...don't remember exactly. but my plants did notice a difference. Once you get it all tweaked right they work real well, they just require a little attention to be safe.

That last LST plant is already putting out some great shoots for you! Will be really cool looking plants once you get them going a bit. Keep it up Griff! How far are you from final plant out? 2-3 weeks???

Thanks for the advice shane. I will keep it in mind. My final plant out will be about that, 2-3 weeks, depending if these temperatures at least hold or get better. Then it will mostly be getting used to the sun and elements. This week we have a forcast of rain for most of the week with highs averaging mid 60's and and the lows about 50. Only my overwinters will be going in the raised bed and the rest in containers.

Yeah the training seems to be going well. There is all new growth at the nodes, just small at the moment. I will probably be more noticable in about another week and I'm sure not potting them up is holding them back a bit but I figured I would wait until putting them in their final containers.

griff87 · May 21, 2012

Well, plant out has begun. I was only able to get get about half of these guys into pots. I ran out of soil to mix up so i will have to get some more. I had gotten some 5 gal smart pots this year to give them a try and see how they do. I basically decided to put at least one of each variety into one. The rest will go into 5 gal buckets.

Here is a pic I what I got done so far.

I also of course got all the overwinters into the bed.

I decided to stagger the plants a bit this year and keep it only to 6 in the bed. That way they are farther than 18" OC than they were last year with 8 plants. Otherwise this is what happens!

These got to about 2 feet tall last year but obviously quite bushy. Gave me tons of pods. I hope they act just like last year but bigger!
Heres a shot from last year of a cluster of bhuts.

Ok, I got a little of of this years grow. Well back to that. When I was transplanting, I found this little guy on one of the scorps. I deciding to let it ripen a bit then have a taste.

Last but not least an update on the hops. Man it never ceases to amaze me how fast these guys grow!

I tried to mark the pieces of blue tape where I had marked dates but some were hard to find in the pic. Yellow shows 5/6/12 and the red is yesterday, 5/20/12. In two weeks, most of the shoots had grown on average 4 feet. Only one is lagging behind. Man I wish the peppers would grow this fast!

stc3248 · May 21, 2012

Great update my man! Way ahead of the game up ther is see! Hoping to have a couple dozen overwinters next year...should be pretty epic if I can pull it off! Can't wait to see your overwinter forest in a few short months!

griff87 · May 21, 2012

stc3248 said:
Great update my man! Way ahead of the game up ther is see! Hoping to have a couple dozen overwinters next year...should be pretty epic if I can pull it off! Can't wait to see your overwinter forest in a few short months!

Yeah, I can thank the higher than average temps for our area and no sign of slowing. 10 day forcast shows no high any lower than 70 degrees and nighttime lows no less than 50. I to can't wait to see what type of forest I will Have this year.

MGOLD86 · May 21, 2012

Looking good! That Bhut cluster bomb is sick, I can't wait to snap a few pics like that of my own. The whole growing hops thing is pretty interesting. I won't argue with the speedy growth.

PaulG · May 22, 2012

Hey Griff, nice grow log, buddy! Your plants look great.
Can't wait to see the OW's in action!

griff87 · May 24, 2012

Look what decided to ripen

It's about the size of a dime. Don't let the size fool you. This thing was still quite hot!

PaulG · May 24, 2012

What kind is that?

griff87 · May 25, 2012

It was a scorpion from one of my overwinters.