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Growing Chiles in HEL - 2019

Today I took 27 pellets off the heat mats and transplanted them into their first small pots. Then I moved them into my temporary grow room (sauna) under the lights where they will spend the next 60 days or so until it's warm enough to move outside for the summer.
 
I've still got another 75 pellets on the heat mats and will move them to the lamps as they pop.
 
On the tray in the photo, there are two separate LED lamp rigs.
 
The lamp specs: 
 
Strip Length: 61 cm
Watts: 15 watts per strip (45 watts per rig)
Kelvin: 6400K
Lumens: 1500 per strip
PPFD (at 100mm distance): 399 µmol/s/m2 per strip
 
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A storm is coming, time to give the Bishop's Crown some more support.
 
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Also time to move the big, bushy plants into a protected corner of the deck.
 
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The smaller Montufar should do fine out in the wind.
 
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Finally, The Owl is guarding the deck during the storm.
 
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Well, the plants made it through the severe thunderstorms with zero damage. In my area, we experienced high winds and heavy rains - my larger plants were pretty well protected from the winds. Some of the other growers in southern Finland didn't fare so well: in some areas, a heavy amount of pea-sized hail came down and basically thrashed leaves to shreds, knocked pods off plants, etc.
 
I'll need to spend this evening spreading the plants out again across the deck and probably add some more of those 2 meter bamboo stakes to the Rojo plants.
 
podz said:
We have stripped the 2 padron plants (which are huge) several times each for green pods and fried them in olive oil and salt.
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One of my favorite peppers, Mika! I had some just
the other evening, and have enough for another
batch for a little gathering tomorrow. I only grew
one plant this year, but next year I will have three.
Have you ever let them get big and ripe? I have
had some that look more like poblanos than padrons. 
 
Grow is looking really good there, my friend!
 
PaulG said:
One of my favorite peppers, Mika! I had some just
the other evening, and have enough for another
batch for a little gathering tomorrow. I only grew
one plant this year, but next year I will have three.
Have you ever let them get big and ripe? I have
had some that look more like poblanos than padrons. 
 
Grow is looking really good there, my friend!
Click to expand...
 
 
Thanks, Paul.
 
No, I never let the Padrons grow out - I like eating them green so much :-)
 
Storm is over, at least this one. Still very windy today and The Pubes are just too damned big to be out in the open without support. I got them mostly staked and clipped this evening but I have a feeling this game is far from over because they are podding up heavy and high while continuing to grow a lot.
 
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One of my friends stopped by this morning to inspect my pubes.
 
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This is what happened after one of his previous visits.
 
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Montufar is happy.
 
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And finally, this is an example of what a magnesium deficiency looks like on a Manzano Rojo. I only got this (so far) on 1 or 2 Rojos out of 6. This is on one of my Manzano Rojos that has been setting up pods particularly heavily during the past few weeks. Time to hit them with some CalMag during tomorrow's weekly feeding. To say that they are heavy feeders is an understatement.
 
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Time to start cutting the tomato cages off the pubes - they restrict the growth and sprawling way too much. I believe that 5 bamboo canes per pot should suffice. The tomato cages work fine for all other species but not for the pubes. Cutting tomato cage wire with a pair of linesmans pliers or even hognose pliers is a bit too strenuous on the hands, thus need to get a pair of mini bolt cutters tomorrow to finish the job. Yay, more tools! The pubes will feel like they have just been freed of their bras and can finally get some airflow and room to spread out for those impending orbs of hot juiciness (god, I am missing the ability yet to tag @stettoman).
 
This is what is in store for my magnesium-deficient, heavily flowering and podding pubes tomorrow:
 
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Nice warm sunny day today, 3-5 bumblebees on each Rojo. This actually was critical mass to attract the attention of the apex predator, the king of all insects, the dude with over a 99% kill rate - Evinrude.
 
The stormy season has officially begun. Spent the better part of yesterday morning doing the final staking and then the winds came. I spread out the branches really well in order to achieve the maximum airflow and balance. After a whole night of storms, they seem to be holding up just fine.
 
Here is one example:
 
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On a 3-day business trip, so I called my wife and asked about the pepper plants :-) She assured me they were doing fine.
 
Went to eat dinner in a Mexican restaurant and they brought 5 types of chili sauce to the table, none of them contained pubes. I told them I could sell them some in mid-October, let's see.
 
No photos today, blah.
 
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