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HM's Second Attempt for 2020

OK,
 
Last grow was decimated by broad mites. It's been 3 weeks since I got rid of all the plants, so that should have been long enough to kill any remaining stragglers that might have fallen off the plants in the grow room. Now, since I'm WAY behind in 2020, I'm starting plants that are good producers - nothing fancy, nor too ambitious - I just want a decent harvest to get some redemption.
 
Here's the list:
 
Lemon Drop (superhotchiles.com) - always been interested in this one, never had a chance to grow it.
Jalafuego (tomatogrowers.com) - our favorite Jalapeno. We only tried a sample of pickled jalapenos earlier this year, we want more.
Pepperoncini (tomatogrowers.com) - Another one for pickling
Chichimeca Jalapeno (tomatogrowers.com) - I've had these seeds for a while and never grew them. Wanted to compare these to the Jalafuego.
 
My wife also wanted some tomatoes, so I'm going to be growing a determinate variety in a 5 gal kratky, along with some basil. We'll see how that goes.
 
All seeds were pre-soaked for 24 hours in a 0.15% H2O2 solution.
O9JqDA6.jpg

 
 
They are now in rockwool cubes on the heating mat.
Yx3zdu1.jpg

 
Now the waiting game begins...
 
 
Click to expand...
Tybo said:
Hated to hear about your broad mite disaster but glad to hear you didnt throw in the towel for the whole season.  I'll be following along to see how things go.  Good luck HM.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks Tybo,
 
Yeah, it's hard to just wait on the sideline and see all the great things everybody around here is growing. I want some of that!
 
2021 is still far away, so we can still squeeze a new grow this year.
 
HeatMiser said:
OK,
 
Last grow was decimated by broad mites. It's been 3 weeks since I got rid of all the plants, so that should have been long enough to kill any remaining stragglers that might have fallen off the plants in the grow room. Now, since I'm WAY behind in 2020, I'm starting plants that are good producers - nothing fancy, nor too ambitious - I just want a decent harvest to get some redemption.
 
Here's the list:
 
Lemon Drop (superhotchiles.com) - always been interested in this one, never had a chance to grow it.
Jalafuego (tomatogrowers.com) - our favorite Jalapeno. We only tried a sample of pickled jalapenos earlier this year, we want more.
Pepperoncini (tomatogrowers.com) - Another one for pickling
Chichimeca Jalapeno (tomatogrowers.com) - I've had these seeds for a while and never grew them. Wanted to compare these to the Jalafuego.
 
My wife also wanted some tomatoes, so I'm going to be growing a determinate variety in a 5 gal kratky, along with some basil. We'll see how that goes.
 
All seeds were pre-soaked for 24 hours in a 0.15% H2O2 solution.
O9JqDA6.jpg

 
 
They are now in rockwool cubes on the heating mat.
Yx3zdu1.jpg

 
Now the waiting game begins...
 
Click to expand...
 
If you turn that snapware container over so the lid's on the bottom you could manipulate the seeds/seedlings without having to reach into the container.
 
I used those containers to germinate lots of seeds with no problem until one day they started to lose moisture on me. I'd check them in the morning and find my seeds had dried out.  Now I use canning jars. 
 
HeatMiser said:
OK,
 
Now, since I'm WAY behind in 2020, I'm starting plants that are good producers - nothing fancy, nor too ambitious - I just want a decent harvest to get some redemption.
 
...
 
Now the waiting game begins...
Click to expand...
 
Good luck with the v2 grow, HM.  One thing about the PNW, our indoor season is as long as anyone's!  :)
 
Hope they sprout quickly.
 
DownRiver said:
Sounds like Major League Baseball, lol.
 
Love the attitude HM. Looking forward to your success.
 
Go Mariners!?!
Click to expand...
 
:thumbsup:
 
DownRiver said:
 
Sounds like Major League Baseball, lol.
 
Love the attitude HM. Looking forward to your success.
 
Go Mariners!?!
Click to expand...
 
Haha that's right! Hopefully the leagues figure something out to keep players healthy. 
 
Yup! Go Mariners - too bad we won't going to the stadium this year. I love the atmosphere at the games, even if the team hasn't done much...
 
Uncle_Eccoli said:
Glad to see you up and running again, HeatMiser.  Will be following along.  Good luck! 
Click to expand...
 
 
Uncle_Eccoli said:
 
If you turn that snapware container over so the lid's on the bottom you could manipulate the seeds/seedlings without having to reach into the container.
 
I used those containers to germinate lots of seeds with no problem until one day they started to lose moisture on me. I'd check them in the morning and find my seeds had dried out.  Now I use canning jars. 
Click to expand...
 
Thanks Unc! 
 
I used to have one of those germinating trays with 72 cells made out of thin flimsy plastic. I never went back after trying this snapware that I "borrowed" from the kitchen. Makes a lot more sense for my small grows. It had never occurred to me to turn it over, but that's a neat idea... In order to deal with the moisture issue you mention, I always add a little extra water at the bottom, which also helps keep the rockwool cubes warm.
 
CaneDog said:
 
Good luck with the v2 grow, HM.  One thing about the PNW, our indoor season is as long as anyone's!  :)
 
Hope they sprout quickly.
 
 
:thumbsup:
Click to expand...
 
Thanks CD! I'm curious to see how this 0.15% H2O2 solution will work to help with germination speed. Definitely need these plants to be on top of their game from day 1, otherwise I'm going to be cutting it close with next year's grow!
 
It's been two weeks since the seeds were planted, and I don't have much to report other than the peppers are dragging their feet!
 
Some of them are coming out of the seed, but none of the plants have made it out of the rockwool so far.
03OHMPh.jpg

 
In the meantime, 'maters were ready to go and sprouted 3 days after being planted - same with the basil which I planted only last week. I'm currently trying to improve my method to air pruning. Some tomato roots are already coming out of the sides of the rockwool, which is what we want. I just need more root density before one of them gets moved to a 5 gal bucket
d9hxowG.jpg
 
Well,
 
Finally some peppers decided to come out. They still needed some coaxing though, since the only one to come out of the rockwool as of yesterday morning had a helmet head that was removed with some surgery. Since then, another 2 have sprouted and are now under the lights. So far I have 2 Jalafuegos and 1 Pepperoncini under lights.
 
There are a few others that have germinated but haven't come out of the rockwool yet. 
 
The plants currently under light. 
AsqoQ35.jpg

 
Peppers. Making slow progress
0SwDgxu.jpg

 
Tomato roots. I still want a little more root density. Hopefully I'm able to achieve the same results with the peppers
93wt5tV.jpg
 
Rockwool germination/growing looks like it is
progressing well, HM. I hope your ‘second season’
is a real success!
 
Those tomato roots look great. Wish I could get
my pepper roots to do that in the Rockwool cubes.
 
PaulG said:
Rockwool germination/growing looks like it is
progressing well, HM. I hope your ‘second season’
is a real success!
 
Those tomato roots look great. Wish I could get
my pepper roots to do that in the Rockwool cubes.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks Paul!
 
I hope I get the same results with peppers as well. Tomatoes are easier to root. The goal here was to fine tune my approach to air pruning, and I think I have a framework to apply to peppers based on what I experienced with the tomatoes. If anybody's interested, here's what I did...
 
I use 1.5 inch rockwool cubes for germination. These have worked great for me over the years.
  • Move rockwool cubes under lights as soon as they germinate. I placed them under a smoker rack to have airflow on all sides of the cube. The rack is on a bucket to catch excess water.
  • Water rockwool cubes once a day with plain tap water until they get their first set of true leaves. At this point, roots should start poking through the bottom of the cube. Watering should be at a consistent time (~8 PM for me), and until the cube is fully saturated (water starts dripping from the bottom)
  • Once they grow the first set of true leaves, water with 1/2 strength MasterBlend once a day.
  • Eventually, one watering a day won't be enough - the cube will be bone-dry at the usual watering time. This is when we can switch to full-strength MasterBlend, and start watering twice a day (~3PM and ~8PM for me). At this point, roots should be coming out of the sides of the cube, just keep watering until you're ready to put the plant in its final container.
 
I just moved the tomato with the best developed root system into its 5 gal kratky home
3laIVPk.jpg

 
I didn't take a picture of the root system, but it was slightly more developed than this one. I guess I could've kept watering it, but at some point the law of diminishing returns must kick in. This seems "good enough"
gTBeAY9.jpg

 
Side view:
laGcQdS.jpg
 
It seems like the peppers finally decided to come out. This has been my slowest germination for the mostly annuums I'm growing. Perhaps the heat mat combined with the warmer temperatures we're having had something to do - I usually plant in the dead of winter and seeds start sprouting within a week or so.
 
So far I have 3 Jalafuegos, 1 Pepperoncini and 1 Lemon Drop. No Chichimeca so far, which is a bummer because I wanted to compare them to the Jalafuego. I might keep 2 Jalafuegos instead of 1.
 
Here's all of them. The biggest seedling has roots coming out of the bottom of the rockwool cube already. Can't wait for them to be in their 5 gal containers.
pvOfIOj.jpg
 
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