HeatMiser's Keeping it Simple With Old Seeds 2020 Grow

Well here it is - after a two year hiatus, I decided to get myself a new grow light (HLG 100), grow peppers again and join this community.

I decided to it simple this year and grow fewer varieties from seeds I already have. These were packaged in 2014 or earlier so it will serve as a viability test as well.

After talking with my wife, we decided on the following 4 varieties

1 Super Hot:
Trinidad Moruga Scorpion. Seeds from the Chile Pepper Institute packaged in 2013.

1 Ornamental:
Numex Twilight. Seeds from the Chile Pepper Institute packaged in 2012.

2 Varieties for Cooking:
Jalafuego. Seeds from tomatogrowers.com. Packaged before 2014
Chiltepin. Seeds I collected after a trip to Texas in 2014.

I have the following goals for this season

1. Get a decent batch of "hot" Jalapenos. You have to be lucky to find a hot Jalapeno at the store. We plan to pickle them to be used in NACHOS
   
2. Incorporate Chiltepin peppers in our cooking (salsas, tacos, etc)
   
3. Make some powder with the Trinidad Scorpion Peppers. I've made Ghost Pepper Powder before and it's amazing in stuff like Pho.
   
4. Experiment with DWC and Kratky for peppers. My experience is with Dutch Buckets.
   
5. Experiment with outdoor hydroponics. Success here means I'll be able to plant more peppers in future years
   
6. Try crossing peppers. Always been curious, never really tried it. This year, it's happening.
   
7. Growing a Trinidad Scorpion in my office at work. Dare my boss to try one…

The plan is as follows:

• 1 Trinidad Scorpion and 1 Jalafuego in 5 gal DWC indoors.
• Grow 1 Chiltepin and 1 Numex Twilight indoors in smaller Kratky containers.
• Grow 1 Trinidad Scorpion in a 5 gal DWC at work

As the weather improves, I'll set up 1 Trinidad Scorpion and 1 Jalafuego in 5 gal Kratky bucket outdoors. I'll also clone as many plants as I can get away with and put them in soil containers outside.

That's it for plans…

Here's the actual progress so far

12/20/2019 -
• Started soaking Chiltepin seeds in a weak solution of chamomille tea
• Planted Trinidad Moruga Scorpion, Jalafuego and Numex Twilight seeds in rockwool cubes. 2 seeds of each per cube. Placed on a heat mat inside an airtight container with some water on the bottom for moisture

12/21/2019
• Planted Chiltepin seeds
• 3 rockwool cubes with seeds soaked in weak chamomille tea solution for about 25 hours
• 3 rockwool cubes with seeds soaked in 9 parts water, 1 part bleach solution for 5 minutes

12/23/2019
• Noticed a hook in one of the Jalafuego cubes

12/26/2019
• Hooks on all 3 Jalafuego cubes
• One Twilight cube has a hook

12/27/2019
• Hooks on all 3 Twilight cubes. One of them is a bit leggy
• Noticed one Chiltepin seed starting to sprout, from the cube that was soaked in bleach
• Transferred Jalafuego and Twilights to the light and gave them some food, General Hydroponics mild vegetative solution

12/28/2019
• One Jalafuego cube has 2 seedlings, new hook came out.

12/29/2019
• One Chiltepin hook coming out of the cube. Moved the cube to the light
• All 6 Jalafuego seeds have sprouted. 3 seedlings are now upright and 3 hooks are coming out. Germination rate is 6/6

12/30/2019
• Hook from Trinidad Moruga Scorpion came out. Moved to light

1/1/2020
• Hook from Chiltepin seed in bleach solution. Moved to light
• Hook from Chiltepin seed in chamomile tea came out. Moved to light

1/2/2020
• Last Twilight sprouted. Germination rate is 6/6
• Two more Trinidad Moruga Hooks

1/3/2020
• Moved two Trinidad Moruga cubes to light

1/5/2020
• Another Trinidad Moruga sprouted. Germination rate is 4/6

1/7/2020
• Roots from Jalafuego, Twilight and Chiltepin started poking through the bottom of the rockwool cubes. Moved the best plants to their own individual kratky container. Using Mild Vegetative solution from Flora 3 Part solution
• One T5 bulb died. Changed the light to the HLG 100.

1/9/2020
• New Trinidad Moruga Sprouted. Germination Rate: 5/6
• Added an air stone to the Jalafuego Kratky container turning it into a DWC.

1/10/2020

• Moved another Jalafuego to its own Kratky container

Thanks for reading all of this... I'll be posting some pictures soon!

 

[Devv]

Wow! What a trip!
I'm impressed with your stick to it attitude

 

[HeatMiser]

I've found weekly or at the most, 10day preventive maintenance works for me. Not fun, but works.
 
I've tried in past years to just spray a couple times during/after an infestation. Then after all pests were dead/gone wouldn't spray any more. Within 2-3 weeks I'd have another infestation of the same pest or a new pest or both.
 
All it takes is a very light infestation of broad mites to deform/stunt/damage all pods foliage on your plants, so I try to avoid that at all cost. It take a while to see the continuing damage after they're gone. Mites can turn a banana pepper plant that has produced 5-6" long nice smooth straight pods into a plant that produces bent, short, twisted pods for ever more even after mites are gone for months. Even new pods from new flowers are deformed damaged from the get go. The pods will taste good, plants will produce well, and be healthy. But never produce like they did before the broad mite infestation. At least thats been my experience here in sFL.
 
  Got a peter pepper plant that use to produce the text book looking peter peppers, no more. They are now twisted, pointy, bent, shriveled pods after 1 short, light, broad mite/aphid/white fly infestation. And no mites/pests for at least 3-4 months, not even one mite I can find anywhere on that plant and its isolated... Telling you, mite toxin they inject into leafs is evil, pure evil. If plants could talk they'd be crying in pain from a broad mite infestation and probably for a long long time afterwards.
 
For routine PM sprays, I do a not quite as drenching spray, use less harsh daytime clarified HD neem oil. Mixed at only 2 tbs per gal is good to avoid infestations and keep plants healthy, looking shiny, and producing mega pods...
 
If you've done 2 cold pressed neem drenching sprays at least 3-4 days apart, my bet is no soft body sucking pests/eggs/larvae/nymphs are anywhere to be found on your plants. Not so sure about the surrounding area though..? Thats why a light PM spray every week on all your plants is used by many successful gardeners that have been thru pest problems...
 
This year, here in sFL, pests are out of control on my lake. They are bigger, more persistent, and in numbers like I've never seen. Not sure if its the same in the rest of our country..? Thank God for the neem tree...
 
jmo

 
Thanks again acs..
 
We'll see about the pods these plants produce - I don't have high expectations for even a modest harvest, but I'll take whatever the plants give me.
 
Hope you are right about no bugs being present on them, I sampled leaves again today and found no trace of eggs or mites, so that's 3 straight days with no signs of them on the plants. I will keep searching but perhaps I will now switch to a weekly spraying schedule. 
 
Good luck controlling the pests down in FL!

 

[HeatMiser]

Wow! What a trip!
I'm impressed with your stick to it attitude

 
Thanks Devv,
 
It's been an interesting quarantine project, and even if the plants don't fully recover, I've learned a lot more these past couple of months than all my previous grows combined. It's been great having all the help and opinions of people in here to reach a solution to this issue... hopefully the road ahead is much smoother!

 

[acs1]

Your welcome, my pleasure. Its the least I can do to share what I've learned here about these pests.
 
This Dr Earth essential oils works good on broad mites, and also kills caterpillars, beetles, spiders, all soft bodied sucking pests, and probably a lot of the good bugs.
But this time of year here, all the aphid lions, lady bugs, parasitic wasps, etc, that are all over my garden don't make a dent on the swarms of pests that swoop in...
 
Been using this every 3rd or 4th spray switching up with the neem. Read somewhere its safe for inside use... It comes in many different bottles, some 24oz hand sprayers, and if you can find it, comes in a concentrate 32oz bottle, but all same stuff as below pic just in different %.
 
  Haven't used the hose spray end, and as per phone call with Dr Earth, use their recommended mix ratio at 2oz per gallon water. This stuff seems to have more of a repellent type action than the neem, but still not long lasting.
 
Good luck....
 

 

[HeatMiser]

It's been a week since I last saw a mite or an egg. Hopefully that was it. I'll now be spraying them on a weekly basis for a few weeks and then ease off a little more. 
 
Big TS: New growth coming all over. Leaves seem healthy, and by now the plant should be used to the HLG100. It doesn't seem like this plant was affected as much as the others from the mites, so hopefully it is able to bounce back to its former shape.

 
DWC Jalafuego: This plant is making a more successful comeback this time. It put on some new growth while I was still trying to figure out what I was dealing with, and those leaves were small and thick, and were eventually dropped.

 
Kratky Jalafuego and TS: The Jalafuego is putting on a bunch of new growth at the top. There are some flower buds forming already, so hopefully they stick around. The TS seems to be hanging in there. I've pruned off some branches and new leaves are coming in, although they turn crinkly after a while even when there's no evidence of mites or their eggs. This plant might be a goner too, but I'll let it stick around for science...

 

[PaulG]

Sort of a mixed bag, HM. I hope the plants
straighten themselves out for you. I didn't
even know we had broad mites here!

 

[HeatMiser]

Thanks Paul - at least I'm getting some growth now that seems to be healthy, so this tells me things are going in the right direction for the time being.
 
And I agree about not knowing broad mites were present in the PNW... they seemed to be more of a warmer climate pest when I started reading about them. But oh well..

 

[PaulG]

.And I agree about not knowing broad mites were present in the PNW... they seemed to be more of a warmer climate pest when I started reading about them. But oh well..

Guess that is climate change for ya! 

 

[HeatMiser]

Well, not everything has been doom and gloom here...
 
I did manage a small harvest of Jalafuegos before submitting the plants to treatment. It does not compare to some of the harvests I've seen around here by any stretch, but they were enough to make a small jar of pickled peppers

 

We've been eating these like candy. We're almost out already, but the heat and flavor are much better than anything we can find at the store... 

 

[CaneDog]

...the heat and flavor are much better than anything we can find at the store... 

 
That's the truth right there, HM. 
 
It's still early season and there's plenty of time.  My plants have really stepped up their game in response to the last week's weather.  I expect you'll have a strong run ahead.

 

[Uncle Eckley]

I have noticed in my limited experience that plants recovered from hardship grow quite vigorously.

 

[PaulG]

Great to see some pods coming your way, HM!
 

I have noticed in my limited experience that plants recovered from hardship grow quite vigorously.

Having a well-established root system gives them a real boost. 

 

[Devv]

Well done, wishing you some smooth sailing ahead

 

[HeatMiser]

The plants continue to put on some healthy looking growth.
 
Last week I found a couple mite eggs in one of the Jalafuegos, so all the plants took another drenching shower in Neem oil. I was also growing some basil in a different area than the peppers. I checked under a leaf and it had plenty of mites, so I got rid of those plants. I haven't seen any more since then.
 
Big TS: It's coming back. It has considerably slowed its nutrient uptake since the leaves were removed. Should start drinking more as it puts on more growth.

 
DWC Jalafuego: It has a canopy now. 

 
 
Kratky Jalafuego and TS: The Jalafuego is showing nice progress. It even has some flower buds at this point. The TS is hanging in there, growing back slowly, but growing nonetheless

 
Close-up of the Jalafuego flower buds. Hopefully these turn into healthy pods

 

[HeatMiser]

I have noticed in my limited experience that plants recovered from hardship grow quite vigorously.

 
 

Great to see some pods coming your way, HM!
 
Having a well-established root system gives them a real boost. 

 
Thanks Unc and Paul - yes, so far the plants have recovered well. Even when things were at their worst, the plants were still growing their root systems. I think that is partly responsible for how they are coming back now. 
 
 

Well done, wishing you some smooth sailing ahead

 
Thanks Devv - things have become a little more hands-off now, but I think I will have to keep applying neem on a regular basis until the end of the grow. These bastards are so small it's practically impossible to eradicate them all. 
 

 
That's the truth right there, HM. 
 
It's still early season and there's plenty of time.  My plants have really stepped up their game in response to the last week's weather.  I expect you'll have a strong run ahead.

 
Thanks CD, I think the warm weather has helped fuel some of the growth on the plants this past week. I actually took a Jalafuego and the only surviving chiltepin I had in 1 gal kratkys outdoors a few weeks ago. They started perking up quite a bit this week - perhaps I can still get a few pods from that chiltepin plant...

 

[Inoks]

Have you thought about planting some Marigold or likes to keep pests away?

 

[Siv]

I think a weekly spray with neem is a good idea. It doesn't do any harm but will keep them at bay.

 

[HeatMiser]

Have you thought about planting some Marigold or likes to keep pests away?

 
Thanks Inoks....Well, to be honest that never crossed my mind when I started this grow. With this being an indoor grow, space is limited... Now, do you know if the pest-deterrent qualities of these plants will work the same in a hydroponic setup? I didn't find any information regarding broad mite deterrent plants when I was researching about them, but perhaps somebody here knows of any?

 

[Inoks]

Thanks Inoks....Well, to be honest that never crossed my mind when I started this grow. With this being an indoor grow, space is limited... Now, do you know if the pest-deterrent qualities of these plants will work the same in a hydroponic setup? I didn't find any information regarding broad mite deterrent plants when I was researching about them, but perhaps somebody here knows of any?

I dont know, havent ever had pest problems myself, just heard a lot about those plants acting as pest repellent

 

[HeatMiser]

I think a weekly spray with neem is a good idea. It doesn't do any harm but will keep them at bay.

 
Thanks Siv, it seems to be working so far. However, as the plants grow, the effectiveness of each spraying is going to diminish. Just a matter of having more surface area/foliage for the bugs to hide under... 
 
I wonder how people here spray effectively, and at what point they decide the plants have been treated enough. I also wonder how safe Neem really is to use - if there's any precaution to take and stuff like that. People swear by it and I haven't found anything negative online, but some part of me is just skeptical of using the stuff - even when store-bought produce has been sprayed with worse things. 
 
I've been checking for mites on a daily basis by picking a few leaves at random from several plants. At this point I'm only finding 1 mite or egg a week, so I know there are still some around.