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Growing Chiles in HEL - 2020

So this is it folks, I've recovered my password and bought 10 seedlings today from Jukka "Fatalii" Kilpinen. Didn't start any of my own seeds due to laziness, though I still might start some to sell.


Pubescens
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3 x Rocoto Marlene
2 x Big Brown
1 x Mini Rocoto
1 x Costa Rica

Annuum
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1 x Jalapeno Early

Baccatum
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1 x Lemon Drop

Chinense
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1 x Fatalii


Photos coming tomorrow when I clean the junk out of my sauna and establish the grow room again.
 
Click to expand...
Plants are not looking wonderful overall imo.
 
1. They were in tiny soil pots and no food for a week before I transplanted them.
2. They got sunburned by the new LED lamp even before I transplanted them.
3. On top of that, they are suffering shock from removing soil from the roots a few days ago and planting them in hydroton.
4. They got even further sunburned by the LED lamp because I am new to using this lamp and didn't understand that it REALLY is as powerful as an HID lamp.
 
Last night, I raised the LED lamp as high as it can possibly go with the current hanging cables (need to build new, shorter cables). There are tiny, new growth tips coming out all up and down the stems where I had removed old leaves. Also the terminal growth tips are actually doing fantastic now, but it is very probable that almost all current larger leaves will die.
 
Folks, the HLG 260w RSPEC lamp is no joke - 18-24 inches from canopy is basically what you need. Any closer and you will get sunburning / bleaching / leaf curling even though you can't actually feel any heat. This lamp is not some cheap, chinese ebay scam overinflating the watts and PAR, etc - it is the real deal.
 
These plants are gonna recover wonderfully from all of my mistakes in about a week or two. They are not doing bad now, but not doing excellent either.
 
Glad to hear that your plants are
going to do just fine.
 
Of course, there was no doubt
with your mad skills!
 
You've got 10 watts on my HLG100 (119w from the wall) at your lowest setting and I don't let mine within 2 feet of a pube.  A big plus, as you comment, is the PAR penetration will really pull the lateral growth. 
 
I suspect this is good for you in the long run, because bushier is probably better than taller until you can get them outside.  Plus those new laterals that develop under the light will be better prepared to deal with it.
 
ReSPECt
 
Yeah, my current room design isn't working and needs an overhaul this weekend. Fail fast, learn from mistakes and improve just as fast.
 
On the dutch tray, it can't go lower or the reservoir doesn't fit below it. And I can't get the lights high enough over top of it. Moving the reservoir is not an option due to space.
 
The recirculation system is already growing algae on the dutch tray after 5-6 days of use. Also the reservoir level drops over 8 litres per day and the EC jumps from 1.4 up to 1.8 or so.
 
I've got 15 electrical sockets in the room and I can't find a place to plug in a timer for anything, also I need a ladder to unplug anything. As a result, the lamps and recirculation are now going 24-7.
 
My seedling trays are high up in the room and they almost totally dry out in 12 hours due to the fan, heat and exhaust.
 
So, this weekend I am going to:
 
1. repot the peppers into coir-perlite-vermiculite mix and bag the hydroton for a later project
2. dismantle the entire drip system and store the pieces for outside usage this summer
3. remove the sauna shelf boards / store them against the back wall
4. remove all 4 of the low-powered 6500k LED lamps and save them for another project or sell them
5. completely empty the floor and then cover it with upside-down nursery flats (black webbed trays) - plants will be really close to the floor
6. put the plants on top of the nursery flats so they can drain to the floor (the sauna drains out under the door to the shower drain in the adjacent room)
7. reposition the HLG 260w rspec lamp so that it lights the left half of the room
8. probably buy another HLG 260w rspec for the right half of the room (two will give complete room coverage with different height capabilities)
9. get the lamps on timers
10. move to hand watering for now
 
Sounds like a busy weekend ahead!  I like the idea of going back to your roots on the container media with the cocoa/perlite/vermiculite.  It seemed to work wonders for you last season and will be one thing fewer to concern yourself with as you're optimizing the rest of your system.
 
CaneDog said:
Sounds like a busy weekend ahead!  I like the idea of going back to your roots on the container media with the cocoa/perlite/vermiculite.  It seemed to work wonders for you last season and will be one thing fewer to concern yourself with as you're optimizing the rest of your system.
Click to expand...
 
Yeah you get super-explosive root growth in coco, plus you can't take the hydroton pots outside for a nice day.
 
I don't doubt that the hydroton will grow a faster top-end, but in a recirculating system it really needs to be completely sealed from light. Also needs to be on a timer, etc. Continuous drip has it's problems, such as rapid salt and algae buildup.
 
The pubes are already starting a ton of side shoots. It's not all wrong now, but it's not right. I'll get it right soon.
 
 
Rocoto Cosa Rica
 
IMG_2341.jpeg

 
 
Rocoto Costa Rica (same)
 
IMG_2337.jpeg

 
 
Lemon Drop
 
IMG_2336.jpeg

 
 
Fatalii Yellow
 
IMG_2335.jpeg

 
 
And finally, my basil in "nft" ;-)
 
IMG_2324.jpeg
 
Your boundless energy is impressive, my friend.
 
Have fun knocking off the items in that to-do list!
 
PaulG said:
Your boundless energy is impressive, my friend.
 
Have fun knocking off the items in that to-do list!
Click to expand...
 
Thanks, Paul.
 
Now that I am finally able to get my hands on these state of the art lamps, no need to restrict my indoor growing activities to the springtime. My old 6500K LED lamps are great for raising seedlings or growing some kitchen herbs, but you can't really grow pods with them. I think I'm gonna put them in a closet somewhere :-)
 
For me, the HLG 260w RSPEC is a total game changer. A single, powerful lamp that is able to run the entire growth cycle from start to finish. Two of them are basically "on PAR" with a 1000w HID lamp while using half the energy and thus putting out half the heat. These lamps are basically like having a metal halide and a high pressure sodium inside the same bulb. There was no way I would have been able to run HID lamps in the sauna due to the heat and the amperage pull, but these are just fine.
 
Now that I was able to raise the lamp to about 24", the plants have responded rapidly (2 days). There are new growth tips coming out really fast, everywhere. It feels just like growing outside in the summer sun. As said, though, the lamp is at it's max height now so structural changes to the setup are needed.
 
Now I can grow stuff all year long - my favorite outdoor chiles can be moved inside for finishing off at the end of summer, etc.
 
Great news all around, Mika.
Can't wait to see pics!
 
Nice to have such a versatile set-up!
 
CaneDog said:
Good to see your post deliver.  Are for these going to support your herb garden?  What varieties are you planning?
Click to expand...
 
Hah, that wasn't from the Finnish post. Nordpost was the carrier.
 
Initial plan is yes, for the herbs in the bedroom window. 10 bubblers full of herbs and I want our bedroom to smell like warm basil :-)
 
Have to grow some coriander (cilantro for usa people) as my wife eats the stuff like candy. She just eats it straight from the plant. Plan is to start one new batch every week. For her, you can never have enough coriander.
 
Also, parsley, thyme, purple basil, normal basil, oregano, a few types of lettuce, and a few other things.
 
No chives, we already have like 30 chive bunches growing outside because of my habit of planting them in every single chili container. I threw the medium from the pots out on the hill and of course this spring the chives came back in every one of those piles. So I just went last weekend and grabbed them out with my hand and gave them to my wife to transplant into our raised boxes. Chives technically only grow for two years, but in practice they grow forever because they keep dropping seed into the same spot.
 
podz said:
 
Have to grow some coriander (cilantro for usa people) as my wife eats the stuff like candy. She just eats it straight from the plant. Plan is to start one new batch every week. For her, you can never have enough coriander..
Click to expand...
 
Here, we call the plant cilantro, and the
seeds are the spice coriander.
 
PaulG said:
Like the wine glass.
 
Nice touch.
 
How did you get the wine to
stay in the glass?
Click to expand...
 
 
In Finland, we defy gravity due to our proximity to magnetic north.
 
We also grow wine sideways in bubblers.
 
And we frequent websites that don't know how to properly display images as they were taken.
 
CaneDog said:
 
You guys and your metric system
Click to expand...
 
1976, wasn't it, the US federal gov passed a law to convert to metric. In practice, it only (partly) happened in shit they controlled - military. Everyone else revolted because of pre-existing investments in tooling. Chinese weren't stupid - they also invested in tooling and sucked the cash dry.
 
1999 - NASA lost a 10 billion dollar Mars probe because one rocket scientist calculated the firing of the orbital boosters in miles instead of kilometers and nobody performed a peer code review.
 
I think I need more of that sideways wine :-)
 
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