Ignite's 2014 Grow

It's time to start my 2014 Grow Log!  This is the first glog I have ever done so please bear with me as I make mistakes and stumble through this process.  I'm a complete newbie at most of this stuff so hopefully it goes right and I have some great peppers at the end of the year.
 
First off...I would like to thank everyone that has sent me seeds over the last few months.  THP members have been more than gracious and unbelievable in helping me gather my seeds for this year's grow.  These guys include SmileyGuy697, RebelGrower, Romy6, Hendrix1326, Coheed196, JediSushi, Jamison, AjiJoe, and a lot more that I'm sure I'm forgetting.  I can't thank you guys enough for the generosity.
 
2014 Grow List:
 
Bishop's Crown
Pumpkin Habanero
Chocolate Habanero
Yellow Bullet Habanero
Jamaican Habanero
Trinidad Perfume
Aji Brazillian Starfish
Bahamian Goat
Butch T Ice Scream Scorpion
White Devil's Tongue
Sepia Serpent
MA Daisy Cutter Yellow
MOA Scotch Bonnet
TFM Scotch Bonnet
SBJ7
Yellow Brain Strain
Red Brain Strain
Bubblegum 7 Pot
Defcon 7
7 Pot 007
7 Pot White
7 Pot MadBallz
7 Pot Savannah Long
7 Pot Orange X
Yellow Jonah
Carolina Reaper
Yellow Primo
Twisted Moruga
 
Since this is my first year growing superhots, I'm hoping to get between one to three plants depending on the variety...so I planted 3 to 5 seeds of each variety listed above.  If I fail to get a variety to germinate I will plant it again and again until I succeed or run out of those seeds.
 
Starting Day - January 11, 2014
 
All of my seeds were soaked in room temperature water for 24 hours in small dixie cups prior to being planted...that was fun.  I was so worried that I was going to spill or knock them over.  
 
Here's everything all laid out and being put into the cups:
 

 
Unfortunately I did not get pictures of the process, but thanks to Coheed and his advice I'm using Oasis Horticubes for the seed germination.  I soaked them in water for about an hour and then starting popping one seed in each horticube until all of the seeds were gone.  
 
I ended up ordering mine from Amazon after a really bad expierence with Hydro Galaxy.  I've had horrible luck with online hydro shops so I'll probably just stick with Amazon from now on.
 
Oasis Horticubes
 
** I would recommend that anyone using the horticubes check the depth of each hole.  My first 108 sheet had some holes at 3/4" and some were less than 1/4."  It's easy to fix or fill with a toothpick or tweezers...so check them!  **
 
1020 Tray with horticubes:
 

 
Humidity dome on and thermostat set at 83F:
 

 
January 14, 2014 - Hooks Starting to Show??
 
The hardest part about being a new grower is the waiting process.  The first day I think I checked my seeds every hour hoping for a miracle...of course that just made it worse.  It's been 72 hours and I think I'm starting to have "hooks" form, but I'm really not sure.  I upped the thermostat to 85F and the extra heat really seemed to cause a good reaction.
 
TFM Scotch Bonnet:
 

 
If that is a hook, then I have quite a few of them.  My SBJ7, Bubblegum 7 Pot, 7 Pot 007, and quite a few others all have these same hooks starting to form.  If these aren't hooks then I hope it isn't anything bad.  
 
Quick shot of the girls:
 

 
Here's a quick little shot of my custom built "GrowBot" that controls my lights, pumps for my ebb and flow system, and a host of other things.  It doesn't look like much but it's jam packed with computing and logic power!
 

 
Stay tuned...I'm going to have a lot of questions for everyone so stick around and help me stumble through this.
 
Thanks

 

[blorvak]

Oooh, GrowBot! I like the sounds of that!

 

[Jamison]

Nice start with some really good peppers on that list! And thats a start to your hooks! Everything looks normal to me. That taproot or technically a radicle will go up and then right back down, thus causing your "hook". Looks like you have it under control!

 

[jedisushi06]

looking good so far

 

[Ignite]

Oooh, GrowBot! I like the sounds of that!

 
Thanks.  It's something that I threw together while waiting on pepper season to get here.  It's built using a RaspberryPi, an Arduino UNO, and some custom designed shield boards that control all of the necessary functions.  It has 4 independent timer controls for 120v devices, sensor inputs for temperature and humidity as well as moisture content...and it can be controlled via a nifty web dashboard and updates to both twitter and SMS if needed.
 
 

Nice start with some really good peppers on that list! And thats a start to your hooks! Everything looks normal to me. That taproot or technically a radicle will go up and then right back down, thus causing your "hook". Looks like you have it under control!

 
Everything on the list was supplied by guys like you...so thanks for making it a great grow.  I have so many varieties that I wanted to grow but simply don't have the space until my wife and I finish our house on the farm.  It was very hard picking 20-30 varieties from the almost 100 that I've acquired over the last few months.
 
It's amazing how fast these little guys are changing.  I woke up this morning and found that all but a few were showing signs of an emerging radicle and a few were looking as if they were going to "standing" up soon.  I hope they scrape enough coming up and out of the horticube to keep from having helmet heads...but we'll see.  I have 100 rapid rooters in the grow room ready for seeds if I need to replant anything.  It's been an absolute nightmare trying to track down supplies like the Rapid Rooters and horticubes.
 
I'll be planting these guys in red solo cups until they're ready to go outside, which should be around mid March to the first of April.  At that point they're going into raised beds with a select few going into containers for isolation.  
 
Stay Tuned... 

 

[jedisushi06]

Love those rapid rooter plugs. I'm using root shoots now which work better I think. Never tried those horticubes yet.

 

[Ignite]

Root shoots? Are those the ones made by Advanced Nutrients?  I haven't decided yet if I'm completely sold on the horticubes.  I planned on primarily using Rapid Rooters while trying a few in Horticubes to see how they compared, but after getting screwed by Alpha Hydroponics I didn't get my supply of Rapid Rooters in time to use them so it was 100% horticubes.  I still haven't received my order so after my dispute with the bank gets settled I may try the root shooters out to see how they compare.  I could always make room for a few more plants
 
Are these the plugs you are using?
 
Root Shooters 

 

[blorvak]

 
Thanks.  It's something that I threw together while waiting on pepper season to get here.  It's built using a RaspberryPi, an Arduino UNO, and some custom designed shield boards that control all of the necessary functions.  It has 4 independent timer controls for 120v devices, sensor inputs for temperature and humidity as well as moisture content...and it can be controlled via a nifty web dashboard and updates to both twitter and SMS if needed.

 
Very nice. I've been itching to find a reason to play around with an Arduino and wanted to do something like this, but I think it will have to wait until I have more time. Going to stick with low tech for this season, but I'll be watching... and scheming.

 

[Ignite]

Sorry for the crappy pic...but it seems I have my first hooks starting to show.  
 

 
That's a Jamaican Habanero.  Almost all of my habaneros and scotch bonnets are showing hooks, the only ones not showing much right now are the 7 Pot varieties.  I planted on Saturday night so I'm not panicking about the 7 pots at this point, they'll come out when they're ready
 
If any of you guys are using the Hydrofarm digital thermostat like I am...be sure to check it out from time to time.  Mine has been set at 85F for three days now but never seems to get over 82F.  It seems that the hydrofarm's circuity cannot run mats at 100%, so my root radiance mat would never get above 82F.  I finally plugged the mat directly into the wall last night and let the temps rise to about 86F.  The seeds have really responded to the warmer soil temps so I'm going to leave it that way until I finish up my own thermostat.

 

[smileyguy697]

Looking good! Thats a nice setup you have there.
Looking good! Thats a nice setup you have there.

 

[Ignite]

Update (No pics yet)
 
I have sprouts!  All but my sepia serpents have at least one sprout and some where 100% successful in germinating and sprouting.  I transplanted about half of them last night into Roots Organic soil and red solo cups last night...should have time to do the other half tonight.  I'll get pictures up tonight but I wanted to throw a quick update out there for anyone who was interested.
 
Help Time
 
A few of my sprouts' cotyledon leaves are turning upwards.  They aren't "curling", simply turning up.  The stems look healthy and the leaves are completely free of spots...just turning up.  Could over-watering or too much light be causing this?  I gave them a dose of floralicious plus last night in their water to see if that helps.  The sprouts are fed 18 hours of light from a 4 tube T5 setup (only 2 bulbs on).  Overwatering or too much light is the only thing I can think of that would cause this but I've never seen it happen before.
 
Thanks

 

[PIC 1]

Nice start...82 deg is right in the ballpark for germinating temps,...if the "collies"  are pointing up and reaching for light, then that's very normal until the 1st set of true leaves appear. At that point they will level off.
Too much light will not hurt the sprouts or seedlings. I haven't started mine yet, but when I do the lights will be on 24/7 until the 3rd leaf sets appear then I will cycle down to 16/8 with overlapping light cycles. I explain about that in the 1st page of my glog last season.
Have fun with the rest of the seed starts.

 

[Ignite]

Sweet...thanks for the quick reply.  It just kind of freaked me out because some of them have nice big cotyledon's that are spreading out and a select few have them simply pointing up like they're doing a yoga workout.  They look healthy and they're growing so I didn't want to change anything until I consulted with the experts.
 
Thanks again

 

[Ignite]

It's past time for an update...but life has been very crazy and busy lately.  
 
The plants are coming along nice!  Out of 100 seeds, I have 74 plants that made it into 16 oz red solo cups.  My germination rates were great but I lost of few seedlings due to helmet heads and what I think was too moist conditions.  I'm planning on starting a few more seeds next week so hopefully I end up with a few Chocolate Brain Strain plants.
 
All of the seedlings were dropped into red solo cups filled with Roots Organic soil.  I gave them all a dosing of Azos and Mycos from Xtreme Gardening so that they would develop a good root structure at an early stage.  I started giving them a very slight dose of Fluorolicious Plus this week and all of the plants responded very well.
 
On to the pics:
 
Here's a shot of tray 1 with Red Brain Strains, Ice Scream Scorpions, SBJ7s, 007 7 Pots, and a few other varieties.
 

 
Here's Tray 2 with TFM and MOA Scotch Bonnets, BBG7s, Yellow Brain Strains, and a few milder plants
 

 
Here's the last three trays.  There's a host of Defcon 7s, Sepia Serpents, and a host of other awesome varieties.  These plants are about 2 weeks younger than the previous trays.
 

 
Closeup of a SBJ7
 

 
Ice Scream Scorpion
 

 
MOA Scotch Bonnet
 

 
BBG7
 

 
 
Help Time
 
Here is a picture of my lone White Devil's Tongue
 

 
What's causing the leaf curl?  The plant doesn't show any signs of light or fert burn and has been on the same water schedule as the others.  I've moved it around in case it found a hot spot under the lights and it hasn't gotten better...but it also hasn't gotten any worse.
 
Thanks for looking.  I'll post more regular updates now that my schedule has calmed down.

 

[LS929]

The plants are looking beautiful for being so young here. Have they produced already?