GyO presents: '24 BONNET BONANZA + revenge of the fifth

growyourown · Feb 26, 2024

new batch sown tonight, more on that after these

pics as promised:

jan. 24: first batch in 4" pots and a few still in domes

feb. 15: first group 4" pots again, all the bonnet sprouts in trays

today: first group 4" pots now in greenhouse to make room on table

also today: bonnet group now 2 per 4" pot, new seeds down

note the big cardboard level 3.5 (duct tape bolstered) force field surrounding the table. curious child was asking "why no touch daddy" and deliberately just touching the plastic trays when the table was open. i tried to trust, but one day she did pull out one plant. then the first cardboard barrier i erected was compromised and about 6 plants she could reach got plucked from the dirt. i noticed soon after and replanted, fingers crossed none has died yet but it's only been 2 days since that second incident.

anyways, here's what's down tonight:

the jalapeno seeds could date back as far as 2020 and in my early days i might have not known about only harvesting seeds from fully ripe peppers, hence the shotgun approach with them. never grown any jalapeno from seed before, as the nursery plants are so cheap and available, but they did very poorly last year for me, and i am low on jalapeno after 2 poor years, so i might as well start a bunch and see what comes of it.

this will be all for the year, barring some catastrophe where a dozen bonnets somehow perish. tonight's round of seeds is just icing on the cake and to round out the growing of the all five; as long as some take it's all gravy. i'd really like to keep it to around 50 plants total this year so the outdoor beds aren't as jam-packed because many of the plants last year never took off due, i suspect, to crowding/competition having avg. 10 plants in each of the seven beds. seven per bed would give a lot more room for good growth in every plant, i'm hoping.

my favourite part thus far in the season is having a dozen pubescens coming along nicely, the largest specimen being e.p.f.h. (tall girl in back middle of third pic above) a variety which didn't give me any ripe pods last year. having started all the pubes at new year's, the prospects for a good harvest are more promising this time around, and the new to me this year giant yellow are growing well also.

oh and check the cool growth habit on this lotah bih (F). the second leaves kind of died and it looked stagnant, but after quite some time it grows in two branches apparently:

welp, it's past my bedtime folks. hope you enjoyed

-GyO

growyourown · Mar 9, 2024

hey all you lovely growers, here's what's cooking in GyO land:

BIG UPGRADE: GOT ANOTHER LIGHT

it's an aglex k100 or something. highest light output for lowest price is my only metric, got it at $61 (regular $90-99) for 940 ppfd @ 12". this one is just the panel-and-driver style, where my existing main light i was using has the plastic encasement with built-in fan.

it does get quite hot to the touch, and the light it emits is warm too. i am now using this one over the seed table, and rigged up the fan-cooled light into my cheap collapsible greenhouse in place of the 4 super-cheap light strips shown in the last update (who will move down to be used to light the lower shelf once i need to set that up, where last year i had just used only 2 bars on each shelf).

big issue right away with that, though - the fan exhaust is not being vented out of the greenhouse and as a result the temp got up close to 30c the first night, so i now blow a fan (most powerful but ~$20 one i could find last year) up from the floor to temper the heat and add only gentle agitation because how high up the shelf is from the wind source.

i was worried by the heat of the new unit and the fact that the minimal design meant that the power cord touched the panel when hanging down to the outlet that was obviously located well below the suspended light. a few moments of pondering made me realize the easiest solution was to use the excess loose rope from my lighting height adjustment rig/ratchet thing to hold the power cord up in the air to avoid contact with the panel (not shown in pic). so far, so good with this aglex light, it does look mighty powerful.

SMALL UPGRADE: REFLECTIVE MATERIAL

inspired by @FinInGermany i added a mylar foil "rescue blanket" around the shitty greenhouse as well to do some reflection duty, because why not?

the 7' length was just right to wrap around the entirety (minus the zippered front flap), and the 4.5' height also covers the lower shelf when i need to use it too. and as i had bought a pack of 10 (for $13), i cut a strip off a second blanket just wider than the door flap, so now it is covered as well and there is no impedement to using the zippers to open the door and yet all remains covered. it's really very nice and user-friendly for being a redneck-level setup.

i know the mylar is less effective due to being on the outside of the clear plastic greenhouse covering, but it was super-easy to slap on (and take off later if need be) compared to taking off the whole cover and taping everything to the inside of it. maybe after it's done its job and the plants go outside for the year i could take the time to redo it all nice and proper for maximum effect, but i doubt i'll find it worth it.

THIRD ROUND SEED UPDATE:

3/4 portugal x hab (A)
2/4 AOC (B)
4/4 hawk's claw (A)
2/6 aji cito (B)
2/6 SRP (B)

nothing from jalapeno mass sow, is it because i harvested from green and/or dehydrated seeds >110f? time will tell if these seeds are useless...

more grow pics since last time:

new light difference:

mylar tent with door open, 7 march:

now what's left to do:

doubled-up bonnets et al. need to get separated ths weekend. 1.5 weeks makes a whale of a difference; many once-tiny plants now need more space of their own. need to set up greenhouse lower shelf soon for some of these ones to go to.

i am really proud of what i accomplished so far. got lots of seeds to start growing and put some modest improvements in place to my setup. did i get as many bonnet plants as i'd like for what i sowed? no, but i have many more seeds. are the pubes looking super promising, though? absolutely.

most importantly, with the mylar blanket, the ambient light in this room is way lower than what would be otherwise bordering-on-blinding to my daughter. "rainbow colours, daddy" she said when i had everything open, which i can only equate to meaning damagingly bright.

FinInGermany · Mar 9, 2024

growyourown said:
hey all you lovely growers, here's what's cooking in GyO land:

BIG UPGRADE: GOT ANOTHER LIGHT

it's an aglex k100 or something. highest light output for lowest price is my only metric, got it at $61 (regular $90-99) for 940 ppfd @ 12". this one is just the panel-and-driver style, where my existing main light i was using has the plastic encasement with built-in fan.

it does get quite hot to the touch, and the light it emits is warm too. i am now using this one over the seed table, and rigged up the fan-cooled light into my cheap collapsible greenhouse in place of the 4 super-cheap light strips shown in the last update (who will move down to be used to light the lower shelf once i need to set that up, where last year i had just used only 2 bars on each shelf).

big issue right away with that, though - the fan exhaust is not being vented out of the greenhouse and as a result the temp got up close to 30c the first night, so i now blow a fan (most powerful but ~$20 one i could find last year) up from the floor to temper the heat and add only gentle agitation because how high up the shelf is from the wind source.

i was worried by the heat of the new unit and the fact that the minimal design meant that the power cord touched the panel when hanging down to the outlet that was obviously located well below the suspended light. a few moments of pondering made me realize the easiest solution was to use the excess loose rope from my lighting height adjustment rig/ratchet thing to hold the power cord up in the air to avoid contact with the panel (not shown in pic). so far, so good with this aglex light, it does look mighty powerful.

SMALL UPGRADE: REFLECTIVE MATERIAL

inspired by @FinInGermany i added a mylar foil "rescue blanket" around the shitty greenhouse as well to do some reflection duty, because why not?

the 7' length was just right to wrap around the entirety (minus the zippered front flap), and the 4.5' height also covers the lower shelf when i need to use it too. and as i had bought a pack of 10 (for $13), i cut a strip off a second blanket just wider than the door flap, so now it is covered as well and there is no impedement to using the zippers to open the door and yet all remains covered. it's really very nice and user-friendly for being a redneck-level setup.

i know the mylar is less effective due to being on the outside of the clear plastic greenhouse covering, but it was super-easy to slap on (and take off later if need be) compared to taking off the whole cover and taping everything to the inside of it. maybe after it's done its job and the plants go outside for the year i could take the time to redo it all nice and proper for maximum effect, but i doubt i'll find it worth it.

THIRD ROUND SEED UPDATE:

3/4 portugal x hab (A)
2/4 AOC (B)
4/4 hawk's claw (A)
2/6 aji cito (B)
2/6 SRP (B)

nothing from jalapeno mass sow, is it because i harvested from green and/or dehydrated seeds >110f? time will tell if these seeds are useless...

more grow pics since last time:

new light difference:

mylar tent with door open, 7 march:

now what's left to do:

doubled-up bonnets et al. need to get separated ths weekend. 1.5 weeks makes a whale of a difference; many once-tiny plants now need more space of their own. need to set up greenhouse lower shelf soon for some of these ones to go to.

i am really proud of what i accomplished so far. got lots of seeds to start growing and put some modest improvements in place to my setup. did i get as many bonnet plants as i'd like for what i sowed? no, but i have many more seeds. are the pubes looking super promising, though? absolutely.

most importantly, with the mylar blanket, the ambient light in this room is way lower than what would be otherwise bordering-on-blinding to my daughter. "rainbow colours, daddy" she said when i had everything open, which i can only equate to meaning damagingly bright.

Hey, GYO. Cool looking setup you have there. Just wanted to mention one thing before you go to the effort of coating the inside of your greenhouse with rescue blankets. After realising that silver actually only mirrors the light, whereas white actually reflects all of it (school physics lessons was a long time ago

) I replaced my blanket with a white sheet. Now I have to wear shades when I'm watering my plants

.

growyourown · Apr 3, 2024

BIG UPDATE: HAD A BABY!!
boy, 9.25 lb, healthy no complications & mom is doing well.

...pepper plants are also well. had just enough time after work that day to water the plants, shower myself, and get us to the hospital

--NEW BATCH OF JALAPENO HAS BEEN SOWN, GROWN, AND MOVED ON UP TO TWO PER 4" CUP--

dropped seeds on st. patrick's day; used my 2021 edition seeds as that batch sowing of the older stock gave all of a fat zero sprouts. these ones are labeled "jal (or ?) '21" because of the possibility of stray seeds falling in the dehydrator bottom, but the 18/24 seedlings that came out of this effort are looking pretty uniform. got them doubled up in 4" pots, so 9 pots added to the table.

my plan was to activate the second shelf of the mini-greenhouse-tent and transfer some of the bonnet cohort from table to tent, but that plan was waylaid when i could not immediately find an appropriate size riser to set the plants on, nor a good way to easily lower the light nearer to the shelf. i was able to squeeze all the new up-pots on the table with the ones that were there, but it's tight.

also the earliest batch of plants are now on the lower shelf of the tent with the 4x 10W strip lighting. it's for the best because most of them are growing way too big, or had gotten scorched leaves from the heat/intensity of the tent/light, so this will be easier on them because it's likely 7-8 weeks yet before they can go outside. 4 of these guys (all pubes - epfh, giant yellow, 2x rio hualaga) have been re-up-potted to 6 or 8 inch pots; half a dozen more of them probably ought to be, but i just don't have the right pots or shelf space to do so at the moment.

thinking i should have experimented with topping this year. the biggest ones in the larger pots are getting very rangy and the tent feels crowded. hopefully in the next week or two, the youngest ones get a bit bigger and can all go into the tent, then the biggest plants can come back out to the table, into bigger pots and with the light turned off or raised way up.

PICS:
march 13, table:

now, table:

now, tent:

see you at the next update. when i'm shuffling everything around, i will try to arrange a photo shoot with a pic of each variety grouped together.

join me in wishing for an early start to the outdoor season. we are getting mostly decent weather here (warmest dec-jan-feb ever), but every week or two we are getting a day of cold and snow coming back through.

is everyone getting pumped for the eclipse next week? path of totality here, still not sure how i should go about watching it though.

best,
-rob

CaneDog · Apr 3, 2024

Big congratulations to you, Rob! Pepper starts are looking great, too.

Tinkerbelle · Apr 3, 2024

oh wow Congrats on the new addition to your family Rob, that's lovely news

Plants are looking mighty fine as well

Downriver · Apr 3, 2024

That is a BIG UPDATE! Congratulations to you and your wife, Rob. 9.25lb - now that's a big boy!

Plants? :thumbsup:

Marturo · Apr 3, 2024

Congrats on your new seedling, enjoy him mucho they grow up so fast.
The plants are looking soo good.

MarcV · Apr 3, 2024

Congrats with the baby! :dance: