Growing Chiles in HEL - 2019

podz · May 25, 2019

deolater said:
Yeah, those cats aren't what I was trying to post.

Did my pods look right? They had a very strange, irregular blossom end that I apparently never took a picture of.

Hard to say, man.

podz · May 25, 2019

CaneDog said:
Hey Podz. I got to your glog late, but enjoyed reading my way through it and catching up to current. Cool to see the many interesting things in and around your grow. It all seems to be shaping up nicely and hopefully the weather will stabilize into summer for you soon.

The AAD is a cool late addition. I'm growing the AAD for the first time this season too, so I'm interested to see how they do - and to compare/contrast them with Tekne Dolmasi. I've gone on a bit of a Turkish pepper tangent since a client brought me these guys last year - http://thehotpepper.com/topic/69199-favorite-new-to-you-variety-you-grew-this-year/?p=1573585

Anyhow, continued good luck and now that I've binged your glog to date I'm looking forward to following in real time.

Thanks, Man. This year I decided to up my game and found that this forum would be a really great way to document things as well as gain feedback.

I was going to buy the Ancho Poblano but then when Jukka said the AAD actually has more taste and kick in his opinion then I took the recommendation. I'm pretty sure that I'll be happy with some big pods :-)

I've been following your grow, too. Along with others. Wow, this site is quite social :-)

PaulG · May 25, 2019

Yes, it is, Mika!

CaneDog · May 25, 2019

PaulG said:
Yes, it is, Mika!

And great to have you on-board!

Must have been cool to get over and see Jukka's setup. The commute discourages me from doing the same

nmlarson · May 25, 2019

podz said:
That's certainly much cooler than my Elho Green Basics Grow House (cloches)! Do you have any idea where to buy it?

No, unfortunately I don't. At least, not here in the US. :mope:

I suspect it's an English antique, most probably Victorian and cast iron. There seem to be quite a few reproductions available in Great Britain, but, unfortunately, nothing quite like it over here. A Google search for "victorian cast iron garden cloche" will show you plenty of examples.

This article has links to companies who sell reproductions. https://www.gardenista.com/posts/the-beauty-of-the-garden-cloche/

podz · May 26, 2019

CaneDog said:
And great to have you on-board!

Must have been cool to get over and see Jukka's setup. The commute discourages me from doing the same

Thanks!

I didn't visit his greenhouses. Sales of his seedlings are done through his wife's pet supply store (oddly enough). Yesterday he was there running the pet supply store for the day, so I just sent him a message that I was going to drive out and pick up a late addition. The store is in a small shopping center in Veikkola and wasn't too hard to find - parked the car and followed the trail of people carrying bags of pepper plants :-) He's a really nice, friendly guy with a vast amount of knowledge.

podz · May 26, 2019

nmlarson said:
No, unfortunately I don't. At least, not here in the US.

I suspect it's an English antique, most probably Victorian and cast iron. There seem to be quite a few reproductions available in Great Britain, but, unfortunately, nothing quite like it over here. A Google search for "victorian cast iron garden cloche" will show you plenty of examples.

This article has links to companies who sell reproductions. https://www.gardenista.com/posts/the-beauty-of-the-garden-cloche/

Wow, those are really expensive but cool looking anyway. Don't know where I would store 20 of those when they weren't in use!

The ones I have are from a Dutch company named Elho (which also makes the matching 30cm pots). I think their Green Basics line of products is pretty much available world-wide. I think I paid 6 eur each for the cloches, and 4 eur each for the matching pots. The drip trays then were probably another 2 eur each. I bought 20 of each. They don't call them "cloches", though - their product name is "grow house".

podz · May 26, 2019

Blah, raining and 10 degrees (50 F) daytime temp. Days are supposed to be warming gradually over the next 10 days but nights are at the same time supposed to be dropping down to 8 and even 7 degrees for extended periods of time. I think I even seen a forecast of 6 degrees for an hour or so on one of those nights.

While a brief bout of 6 C (43 F) is not enough to kill or even severely damage hardened off Annuums, it is enough to cause flower drop as well as pod drop. And several of the plants already have pods starting to form. Probably I will just keep the plants outside, let them drop pods and crank up the nitrogen for the next two weeks or so, hopefully doubling the size of the plants before they start to flower again. I was going to go through and pull all the flowers anyway, but ran out of time while being busy with other things.

Still 2-3 weeks until we are out of the woods here - up until 2nd week of June, it can still possibly go down to just above freezing. Pubes will stay outside in any case, but if we get night temps of 5 C or lower then I will be carrying a whole bunch of large Annuums into my bedroom for the night. Not fun!

podz · May 26, 2019

Going through some of my photos of Mr. Monty.

Tough little guy, got sunburned when I first took him outside a few weeks back and still hasn't dropped the leaf.

And hairy, too!

podz · May 27, 2019

I found an interesting article about growing rocotos and how to manage nutrient strength in an NFT system, which would have also helped me from over-nuting my indoor starts because I basically had their pots standing in trays of liquid. I was measuring nutes according to the instructions, but then I got a salt buildup inside the trays and around the bottom of the pots because the fan was causing the water to evaporate too fast. In hindsight, if pots are going to be standing in trays of liquid with a fan on them then the nute levels should probably be 30-50% of what it states in the instructions otherwise it gets too concentrated during uptake. Especially with lamps on 24-7.

https://www.growell.co.uk/advice/news/forget-godzilla-have-you-seen-the-nft-chilli-monster

podz · May 27, 2019

Spent some of today researching why Canna Boost is SO DAMNED EXPENSIVE. 80 EUR per litre? Get real? Turns out that it contains a chemical called Triacontanol, which is an extreme growth booster and this stuff is the icing on the cake for the 420 crowd. Spent more time trying to determine how to get Triacontanol on the cheap. Turns out that it occurs naturally in alfalfa. Which led me to determine that I can make a large amount of kick-ass alfalfa tea really cheaply... Turns out there is a Swedish company that sells, even in Finland, 20kg (45lb) bags of a snack for horses which contains no other ingredients than alfalfa and molasses. And the price is only 38 EUR. That will be more than enough to last me the entire season - I should be able to easily make between 200-400 litres of something which is very similar to Canna Boost.

Lucerne is just another name for alfalfa.

https://www.puuilo.fi/Hackad-Stra-20kg

podz · May 28, 2019

And I just determined that my above plan will not work because Triacontanol is an alcohol and the alfalfa is "hot-air dried" which means that it have denatured the alcohol and changed the Triacontanol into something else. Otherwise would have been perfect. Now I probably just need to buy a bag of alfalfa seeds and start doing my own FSST.

Don't you just love chemistry? :-)

"KRAFFT LUCERNE Chopped is a hot-air dried forage feed based on chopped lucerne (commonly known as alfalfa)."

https://www.krafft.nu/en/products/products-all/lucerne-chopped/

skullbiker · May 28, 2019

podz said:
And I just determined that my above plan will not work because Triacontanol is an alcohol and the alfalfa is "hot-air dried" which means that it have denatured the alcohol and changed the Triacontanol into something else. Otherwise would have been perfect. Now I probably just need to buy a bag of alfalfa seeds and start doing my own FSST.

Don't you just love chemistry? :-)

"KRAFFT LUCERNE Chopped is a hot-air dried forage feed based on chopped lucerne (commonly known as alfalfa)."

https://www.krafft.nu/en/products/products-all/lucerne-chopped/

Or you could grow some alfalfa microgreens in 1020 flats and then juice them in a good masticating juicer. I do it with wheatgrass and the process would be the same. I dont know if you have looked at my healthy stuff glog but I go through the process on there.

podz · May 28, 2019

skullbiker said:
Or you could grow some alfalfa microgreens in 1020 flats and then juice them in a good masticating juicer. I do it with wheatgrass and the process would be the same. I dont know if you have looked at my healthy stuff glog but I go through the process on there.

We don't have 1020 flats here in FI as far as I can tell, but yes I have reviewed your healthy stuff glog extensively and my wife is coming home with some alfalfa seeds today :-)

Plastic canvas is also not really available in FI, need to order it from somewhere.

Orekoc · May 28, 2019

Well, don't dwell on all the things you don't have. Think of all the things you do have that we don't here in the USA.

Best of luck.

podz · May 28, 2019

Orekoc said:
Well, don't dwell on all the things you don't have. Think of all the things you do have that we don't here in the USA.

Best of luck.

Yes, people here are used to ordering things. Finland is a really modern country and such, much more modern than the USA when it comes to infrastructure. But the consumer stuff is all about mass-market - they sell the same shit everywhere and if you don't like it then you are considered a rich snob who needs to order from abroad :-)

For example, that plastic canvas could only be found inside a complete cross-stitch kit and it probably has holes so large that alfalfa seeds fall right through them. Off to Amazon...

PaulG · May 29, 2019

Sounds like it won't be too awfully long until you can
get your plants outside, Mika!

We had a couple of weeks of rough weather here - rain,
high wind, cold, and hot sun really hammered my peppers
outdoors. Lots of Ugly going on! We seem to have turned
the corner now, so everything goes to ground today!

Good luck with your alfalfa tea. that sounds really great.
When I read about skiullbiker's FSST, I thought it sounded
like the real deal. Will be interested to see how it works for
you!

Good luck going forward, friend!

podz · May 29, 2019

PaulG said:
Sounds like it won't be too awfully long until you can
get your plants outside, Mika!

We had a couple of weeks of rough weather here - rain,
high wind, cold, and hot sun really hammered my peppers
outdoors. Lots of Ugly going on! We seem to have turned
the corner now, so everything goes to ground today!

Good luck with your alfalfa tea. that sounds really great.
When I read about skiullbiker's FSST, I thought it sounded
like the real deal. Will be interested to see how it works for
you!

Good luck going forward, friend!

Hey Paul! My plants have been outside now, pubes for a month and annuums for almost two weeks. I simply don't have the energy to carry them in and out like I did last year unless it drops below 5 degrees :-) It's been 6 degrees for several hours this night but they are already hardened off so I really doubt it will hurt them.

Tried to find some plastic canvas first from FI, then from UK but no cigar - need to order it from the US. Yes, FSST is the real deal no matter which seed you use but alfalfa should be the real deal on steroids since it is the one which contains triacontanol. Skullbiker has still not tried alfalfa yet as far as I know, so I hope to report my findings as a way of contributing and giving back to the community.

Thanks for the best wishes. This year's garden is not going to be optimum since I am building a deck underneath of it and still haven't ordered the wood yet - need to do it today. Can't set up the drip or put the plants into their final places until the deck is done, which means that I might need to just do without the cukes, squash and beans entirely. But no way in hell will I do without my peppers!

Good luck to you too, friend!

skullbiker · May 29, 2019

podz said:
Hey Paul! My plants have been outside now, pubes for a month and annuums for almost two weeks. I simply don't have the energy to carry them in and out like I did last year unless it drops below 5 degrees :-) It's been 6 degrees for several hours this night but they are already hardened off so I really doubt it will hurt them.

Tried to find some plastic canvas first from FI, then from UK but no cigar - need to order it from the US. Yes, FSST is the real deal no matter which seed you use but alfalfa should be the real deal on steroids since it is the one which contains triacontanol. Skullbiker has still not tried alfalfa yet as far as I know, so I hope to report my findings as a way of contributing and giving back to the community.

Thanks for the best wishes. This year's garden is not going to be optimum since I am building a deck underneath of it and still haven't ordered the wood yet - need to do it today. Can't set up the drip or put the plants into their final places until the deck is done, which means that I might need to just do without the cukes, squash and beans entirely. But no way in hell will I do without my peppers!

Good luck to you too, friend!

You do the alfalfa. I wont be able to experiment now until my move is complete. That could be possibly up to 60 days.
Is the triacontanol more prevalent in the newly sprouted seeds or in the young? or mature? green plants. Just curious, as I think procedures would be different dependent on that.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

podz · May 29, 2019

skullbiker said:
Is the triacontanol more prevalent in the newly sprouted seeds or in the young? or mature? green plants. Just curious, as I think procedures would be different dependent on that.

I really don't know. This is just learning and experimentation at this point. Need to study a bit more now.

Might be that I will pick up some alfalfa pellets from the pet supply store and also put them into the FSST made with alfalfa seeds. That should cover the bases, I would assume.