Growing Chiles in HEL - 2019

PaulG · Apr 21, 2019

Those are really slick lights, Podz!

podz · Apr 21, 2019

DWB said:
Yes, I've been to the UP several times.

Aren't close internodes a good thing?

Generally speaking, yes - close internodes are good as you don't want to grow tall plants that snap in half when the wind blows.

Too close, though, and new growth is actually obstructed. I'm not really an "indoor" gardener. This is the first time I've grown anything with other than 3500K lamps. At 3500K, plants really do stretch to reach the lamps.

These lamps I have now, they are 6400K and they are sold as "pre-growing" lamps. Meaning that they are intended for growing seedlings indoors until the weather is warm enough to plant them out.

Maybe the reason for too close internodes is because I am leaving them on 24-7. I'll give it a while and see how it works out by the weekend.

podz · Apr 21, 2019

PaulG said:
Those are really slick lights, Podz!

Thanks! They weren't actually very cheap, costing a bit more than 100 EUR for each rig. But hey, this is my hobby. I like them because they are lightweight, don't take any space to store, and don't generate any amount of noticeable heat. The electricity consumption is also really low at 45 watts per rig (180W total, since I have 4 rigs).

podz · Apr 23, 2019

Ramped up the FloraMicro and FloraMato to 10ml each per 10 liters of water, bottom watering the trays every other day. Most of them are growing quite fast now, but there are also some real slowpokes (pubes and chinenses and also no-heat California Wonders). Padrons, Medinas, Cayennes and Orange Flames all are growing fat and stocky now with the exception of a few mutants that just need to be tossed out.

Out of 15 pellets with 3 seeds each of Montufars I planted, I only got sprouts from 6 of them and 4 of them were helmet heads beyond repair - pube seeds are super hard and helmet-head surgery is not really easy at all. So, I will likely end up with 2 Montufars and they will definitely need to be finished indoors during the autumn.

I planted 30 pellets with 3 seeds each of Manzano Rojo and none of them have sprouted so far. They can take between 1-3 months to sprout, but with that many seeds I find it quite odd that not even one of them has hooked yet and it has been almost 1 month. Next time I'm gonna use battery acid (36% sulphuric acid) with the Manzano seeds to degrade the seed coatings before planting. Probably also with the Montufars. I might also try propagating them in sandy mud instead of coir pellets, where they actually have some resistance while raising up.

Here is a Padron, seeded on 27th or March:

And here is a Medina, also seeded on 27th of March:

skullbiker · Apr 23, 2019

podz said:
Out of 15 pellets with 3 seeds each of Montufars I planted, I only got sprouts from 6 of them and 4 of them were helmet heads beyond repair - pube seeds are super hard and helmet-head surgery is not really easy at all. So, I will likely end up with 2 Montufars and they will definitely need to be finished indoors during the autumn.
Next time I'm gonna use battery acid (36% sulphuric acid) with the Manzano seeds to degrade the seed coatings before planting. Probably also with the Montufars. I might also try propagating them in sandy mud instead of coir pellets, where they actually have some resistance while raising up.

I also had much less than stellar luck germinating Montufars this season. I began with 7 seeds and ended up with 1 plant, which at this time is doing very well. I hope your survivors turn out well.

podz · Apr 23, 2019

skullbiker said:
I also had much less than stellar luck germinating Montufars this season. I began with 7 seeds and ended up with 1 plant, which at this time is doing very well. I hope your survivors turn out well.

Yes, I have seen your awesome Montufar fruiting already! You ever tried sulphuric acid on hard seeds before? I hear that it is quite common in commercial pepper and rose growing.

skullbiker · Apr 23, 2019

podz said:
Yes, I have seen your awesome Montufar fruiting already! You ever tried sulphuric acid on hard seeds before? I hear that it is quite common in commercial pepper and rose growing.

I have not tried that type of soak, in fact this was the first year I soaked in diluted h2o2 and I didn’t really notice a difference from all the years that I did no soaking. I think there would be a very fine line on timing with the acid.

podz · Apr 23, 2019

skullbiker said:
I have not tried that type of soak, in fact this was the first year I soaked in diluted h2o2 and I didn’t really notice a difference from all the years that I did no soaking. I think there would be a very fine line on timing with the acid.

I will give it a try some time and see if it is any faster and produces any fewer helmet heads.

First things first - need to buy a PH meter before I start messing with acid so that I can know when I have managed to neutralise it after the soak. I plan to get one, along with an EC meter, next week or so since I am growing in coir this year. Trying to up my game a little this year and see if I can learn something in the process.

I have a drip irrigation system in the backyard fed by a 200 litre tank into which I during last summer non-scientifically dumped 1 litre of liquid "garden fertiliser" about once a week. Not really very high-tech, I know. At one point, I think I gave a nitrogen overdose that killed my zucchini and nearly killed my cucumbers, also caused a heavy blossom drop on the cucumbers and peppers (both which eventually recovered after a few lengthy plain-water flushes). The tomato plants loved the nitrogen and went into nuclear mode and tried to take over the backyard! Somehow we managed to still come out with a decent harvest. Still, having a pair of meters would help me to keep the tank contents in a bit more friendly condition.

podz · Apr 23, 2019

According to this page, Helsinki, Finland is in the equivalent gardening climate to USA Zone 6b. Kind of surprising for being so far north.

https://www.plantmaps.com/interactive-finland-plant-hardiness-zone-map-celsius.php

podz · Apr 24, 2019

Peppers are doing really well now, 27 days after planting seeds.

34 of them now moved up to the 11cm pots.

One strange thing, though. Maybe somebody with experience in growing Bishop's Crown can comment. The leaves are cupping up, on all 3 of them. This is not happening on any of my other peppers and they are all getting same light, potting mix, nutes, etc.

podz · Apr 25, 2019

I was gone at work for 8 hours or so today and the growth seemed to explode during that short time while I was away.

Two shots of the same plant, a Medina, looking nice and healthy.

podz · Apr 27, 2019

One month today since the seeds were sown. Much, much faster growth than expected. Still about 6 weeks until plant out - night temps can still drop to 3c (37f) during the first week of June, but the weather usually behaves after that.

Figured out the leaf cupping on the Bishop Crowns - that's just the way they grow. The leaves flatten out as they get bigger.

Tried to take a panorama photo last night with my iPhone but it turned out crappy. Oops, "Error Not enough space. You need an Extreme Membership for unlimited uploads." Hmmm...

podz · Apr 27, 2019

This is just insane. Four days ago, there was space between the plants in their 11cm (4.3 inch) pots. Now they have crowded into each other like a jungle. These were seeded a month ago yesterday and now some already have leaves longer than my fingers. The leaves are a super-rich shade of green with heavy vein details and multiple branches per plant are already appearing. Most likely I am going to have to buy a lamp with more coverage and move some plants to the floor because with the current rate of growth, these will be half a meter tall and probably just as wide five weeks from now when it's time for plant out.

My recipe for 10 liters of nutrient water:

10ml GHE FloraMicro
10ml GHE FloraMato
10ml Canna CalMag Agent (we have really soft tap water in Finland and this raises it up to about EC 0.45)

skullbiker · Apr 27, 2019

podz said:
This is just insane. Four days ago, there was space between the plants in their 11cm (4.3 inch) pots. Now they have crowded into each other like a jungle. These were seeded a month ago yesterday and now some already have leaves longer than my fingers. The leaves are a super-rich shade of green with heavy vein details and multiple branches per plant are already appearing. Most likely I am going to have to buy a lamp with more coverage and move some plants to the floor because with the current rate of growth, these will be half a meter tall and probably just as wide five weeks from now when it's time for plant out.

My recipe for 10 liters of nutrient water:

10ml GHE FloraMicro
10ml GHE FloraMato
10ml Canna CalMag Agent (we have really soft tap water in Finland and this raises it up to about EC 0.45)

IMG_1056.jpeg

IMG_1057.jpeg

Looking good there podz. Nice rate of growth, did you start feeding them shortly after germination?

podz · Apr 27, 2019

skullbiker said:
Looking good there podz. Nice rate of growth, did you start feeding them shortly after germination?

Thanks, skullbiker. I started feeding them only after they had the first set of true leaves with a weaker solution of 5ml FloraMicro and 5ml FloraMato per 10 liters, no CalMag at that point. About a week ago, I doubled the dosage and then recently also added the CalMag.

Are those GHE Flora* products available in the USA, in common usage? I found that combination highly recommended by Jukka Kilpinen aka Fatalii at some forum posts a few years back so decided to roll with them and see how it goes.

skullbiker · Apr 28, 2019

podz said:
Thanks, skullbiker. I started feeding them only after they had the first set of true leaves with a weaker solution of 5ml FloraMicro and 5ml FloraMato per 10 liters, no CalMag at that point. About a week ago, I doubled the dosage and then recently also added the CalMag.

Are those GHE Flora* products available in the USA, in common usage? I found that combination highly recommended by Jukka Kilpinen aka Fatalii at some forum posts a few years back so decided to roll with them and see how it goes.

I take the road that almost no one travels, I start feeding half strength as soon as they are standing straight up after germinating and full strength after first true leaves.
GHE products and so many more it would be hard to count them all available here. I just use some inexpensive dry hydro stuff off of Amazon along with CalMag Plus, and lately have been making up a custom feed using FSST plus a couple of other natural products mixed with my regular mix for the potted plants.

podz · Apr 28, 2019

Wow, I learned something new from you: FSST

https://www.unconventionalfarmsupply.com/sst-sprouted-seed-tea

skullbiker · Apr 28, 2019

podz said:
Wow, I learned something new from you: FSST

https://www.unconventionalfarmsupply.com/sst-sprouted-seed-tea

That article is pretty close but I never get any mold in my sprouting process as I do it slightly different. Also, I use hard red winter wheat and some use barley. You can check my healthy stuff glog to see my sprouting process.
http://thehotpepper.com/topic/70291-skullbikers-2019-healthy-stuff-glog/page-1
You will see my Hard Red Winter Wheat serves another purpose.

deolater · Apr 29, 2019

Wow, those are some big plants! I think I'm going to copy your method next year (without sauna though). Most of my plants aren't that big and they started 1 February.

podz · Apr 29, 2019

deolater said:
Wow, those are some big plants! I think I'm going to copy your method next year (without sauna though). Most of my plants aren't that big and they started 1 February.

All the big ones are Annuums. The Baccatums are mid-sized. The Chinense and Pubescens are downright small.

There is always room for improvement - 5-6 weeks until plant-out. All of the Annuums are branching and forking now. I am expecting flowers in about a week or so. Next year, I will germinate the Chinense and Pubescens on January 1st, Baccatums on March 1st, and Annuums until 1st of May.