Ignite's 2015 Superhot Grow

Introduction:
 
Now that things have finally slowed down for a few weeks it's time for me to get my 2015 grow log going.  We had a great year in 2014 and spent a lot of time over the winter upgrading our indoor space and searching out some of the rarest superhots being grown today.  We're growing almost 90 varieties this year but I'm only planning on posting about the superhots and other rare strains here.  I'll probably post random shots of the others here and there, but the main focus of this GLOG is the supers.
 
We grow select types inside in our indoor "lab".  We usually reserve the best of the best for that area and a few months ago I started a GLOG that focused on those plants.  I didn't have time to keep things updated but I'm going to kill that old thread and focus both indoor and outdoor plants in this thread.
 
Enough with the long talking, here's what everyone wants to see...the list.
 
Grow List:
 
-  Borg 9
-  Chocolate Borg 9
-  Bleeding Borg 9
-  Red Lava
-  Yellow Lava
-  Bubblegum 7
-  Chocolate Bubblegum 7
-  Carolina Reaper
-  Yellow Brainstrain
-  Red Brainstrain
-  7 Pot Katie
-  7 Pot Lucy
-  7 Pot Wes
-  7 Pot Primo
-  7 Pot Primo Yellow
-  7 Pot 007
-  7 Pot 007 Orange
-  Bad Brains
-  Chocolate Brazillian Ghost
-  Red Brazillian Ghost
-  Caramel Bhut Jolokia
-  Chocolate Bhut Jolokia
-  Big Bang Naga Chocolate
-  Morugalah
-  Moruga UV
-  CP115
-  Jay's Peach Scorpion
-  Jay's Red Scorpion
-  MA Wartryx
 
Here are the interesting non-supers that I'll be adding into the GLOG as well:
 
-  Ice Scream Scorpion
-  Bubblegum 7 x Yellow Jalapeno
 
Progress:
 
Our indoor hydro plants were started the last weekend in October and have really started to their stride.  We have bleeding Borg 9s, Chocolate BBG7, Red Lava, and Yellow Lava plants currently producing fruit with some that will to start to ripen in the coming weeks.
 
Group Shot

 
Chocolate BBG7

 
Bleeding Borg 9

 
 
We started seeds the second week of January and started seeing hooks within a few days.  We ended up with really good germination rates and had around 200 seedlings before we knew it.  A few weeks later we're up to almost 500 superhot plants that are simply thriving under our CMH lights.  
 
We use grow tents early in the year to help contain heat and to provide a nice micro-climate for the young plants to survive in.  Each tent holds about 200 plants in P86D 3.5" pots.  
 

 

 

 
Since it seems to be one of the hottest types out there right now, here's a shot of a young chocolate Borg 9.  These came from true pheno seeds and are not like the non-true bleeding type.  Those are standard red Borg 9 plants surrounding it.
 

 
Here is one of the most unique crosses that we're growing this year.  The Bubblegum 7 x Yellow Jalapeno.  These plants are growing twice as fast anything else that we have and this one is special because it's taking on more traits from the Bubblegum 7.  The other 9 plants we have like this are showing typical Jalapeno traits.  We're going to keep a really close eye on this one.
 

 
I'll snap some more pictures tonight and I'll keep this thing flowing with updates.  We have a few surprises up our sleeves as well, so stay tuned.
 
If anyone wants to just see the pics or quick updates and currently use Instagram, check us out on Instagram @thepeppergeek.  We're on Twitter @thepeppergeek.  We're on Facebook as well, just search for ThePepperGeek.  I'm not going to post direct links and if anyone has a problem with me mentioning our social network handles just let me know.
 
Thanks!

 

[Noah Yates]

Niiiiiiiiiiiiiice!!!!

 

[Van]

Very-very impressive !!!

 

[moruga welder]

impressive my friend !  

what do feed those beasts ( borg9) , cbbg7 ?

 

[Pepper Ridge Farm]

Great looking plants, cool CMH lighting and a awesome variety of superhot peppers what an operation you have @thepeppergeek.  It was really nice to meeting you yesterday and glad to team up with such an ambitious grower with lots of acres to grow on.  Sent a few Chocolate BS back with Stephan to grow out for research on his farm, I have asked him not to sell any pods of this variety this year only.  The pods he grows will be used for research and used to stabilize this variety before release so please don't hound him for pods just yet..  He will eventually be a distributor of the pods when the time is right.  Talking with Stephan yesterday he is very focused on expanding his business and happy to have him on our team.  Good to have another serious grower so close to home, will be following here and when I come to visit.  Way to grow Stephan keep up the good work for the hot pepper community.

 

[Ignite]

impressive my friend !  

what do feed those beasts ( borg9) , cbbg7 ?

Thanks! Our hydro systems are fed with Canna Aqua nutrients. The only additives we use are Boost and PK 13/14 at certain stages. We use RO water so Cal/Mag is also added.

We used GH Floranova and its additives for quite a while and we had great results. The Canna line just has a better base that doesn't need as many additives to produce a great product.

I have more pics I'll upload at some point today.

 

[Rairdog]

Very cool!  Thanks for sharing. 

 

[juanitos]

p86d working good for you? not top heavy?
 
how are you labeling the plants i don't see anything?
 
really loving them cmh lights, though don't seem super space efficient for starts vs shelves?

 

[oldsalty]

Very Groovy Baby!!!!

 

[Ignite]

p86d working good for you? not top heavy?
 
how are you labeling the plants i don't see anything?
 
really loving them cmh lights, though don't seem super space efficient for starts vs shelves?

 
We're loving the P86 pots.  We have the P86D trays as well that have 18 pockets to hold the plants in place, but I'm not using them yet because they're not necessary.  Once they get a little bigger we'll start securing them in the pocket trays.  We have labels on the side of each pot because I hate having sticks or other items poking into the soil.  
 
CMH or any HID lighting is not a good choice if you're looking to use shelves or low ceiling areas.  These lights produce such an intense light that they need to hang about 30" over the tops, so you'll need plenty of headroom to run them.  I've never liked shelves and have preferred flat or square areas.  Each 4x4 area has a CMH light and before potting up in P86D pots I can fit an enormous amount of small plants under each light without having to worry about edges not being properly covered.  We have a 20x20 indoor growing area that gives us plenty of space for starting and maintaining plants.

 

[Noah Yates]

Bleeding Borg 9

 
 

 
 
Lovely crown

 

[Scorched]

Damn that's one awesome list. That bleeding Borg looks f'ing beautiful

 

[Ignite]

Damn that's one awesome list. That bleeding Borg looks f'ing beautiful

 
Thanks!  We really focused hard on bringing some of the rare breeds to the masses this year.  We're going to offer limited amounts of some types like the Borg 9 and others that are hard to come by at some point in the season, we just haven't determined how much or when we'll release some of them.  
 
We moved most of the older plants around tonight and gave everybody a little more space.  They'll start to take off now that we're keeping the grow room at a nice and warm 80F with no more than 60% RH.  I'll start moving some of the plants into the sun over the next few days as well.  
 
We've been working on the weekends to get the field ready to plant and it's almost there.  The alfalfa has come up nicely so I'll break everything up one last time to get it mixed in good and we'll be ready to plant in a few weeks.  One of these days I'll snap some pictures. 
 
Here's a group shot of a few of the ladies taken tonight before the lights went out:

 
MA Wartryx

 
Ice Scream Scorpion (Lights Off).  This plant has been a PITA lately.  The Ice Screams seem to be sensitive to nutrients so we're having to feed them at different rates and schedules.
 

 
One of the larger BBG7 x Yellow Jalapeno (Lights off)
 

Great looking plants, cool CMH lighting and a awesome variety of superhot peppers what an operation you have @thepeppergeek.  It was really nice to meeting you yesterday and glad to team up with such an ambitious grower with lots of acres to grow on.  Sent a few Chocolate BS back with Stephan to grow out for research on his farm, I have asked him not to sell any pods of this variety this year only.  The pods he grows will be used for research and used to stabilize this variety before release so please don't hound him for pods just yet..  He will eventually be a distributor of the pods when the time is right.  Talking with Stephan yesterday he is very focused on expanding his business and happy to have him on our team.  Good to have another serious grower so close to home, will be following here and when I come to visit.  Way to grow Stephan keep up the good work for the hot pepper community.

 
I somehow missed this when I was looking over the thread this morning.  It was awesome meeting you yesterday and we're very excited to be growing the chocolate brainstrain along with you this year.  We'll have some in hydroponics as well as traditional soil so we cannot wait to see how they turn out.  
 
Thanks for the kind words Cappy!  The chocolate brainstrains are the tray with the blue solo cups that you see in some of the pictures.  We're getting them adjusted to the lights and will snap a few pictures of them very soon.

 

[D3monic]

Very nice looking grow brotha!

 

[Ignite]

Here's a quick update for you guys that are interested.  
 
The hydro plants have grown quite alot in the last few days.  We started using our CO2 injection system again and that along with higher temperatures in the room have made things really move.  We have Aleppos starting to ripen and superhots that are growing much faster now.  I can't wait to send the Borg 9 and Lava off to review...I have a feeling they are going to ballbusters.
 
Hydro Bleeding Borg 9:

 
Hydro Yellow Lava:

 
It's a not a very good shot but this shows how thick the growth has gotten with the hydro plants this week.  This growth shows very well just how far these CMH lights can penetrate through the canopy.  This is all done with a single 315w CMH setup in a Blockbuster 6 hood.

 
Lastly, here's a 7 Pot Primo from the starting area.  This plant is roughly 4 weeks old and is growing at a very healthy rate.  I'm not sure if I'm going to top my plants this year but I'm definitely going to prune them if the rate of growth stays this strong for another month.
 

 
Thanks!

 

[PaulG]

Very impressive set-up.

 

[Ignite]

Very impressive set-up.

 
Thanks!  I appreciate you stopping in to say that and I hope you stay around for future updates. 

 

[PaulG]

 
Thanks!  I appreciate you stopping in to say that and I hope you stay around for future updates. 

I def will!  Your grow is well worth learning from!
 
Nothing like a professional approach - can't wait to 
see how it all develops over the season!  Those are
some of the healthiest plants I've seen.

 

[Pinhigh]

Plants look amazing!
 

Here's a quick update for you guys that are interested.  
 
The hydro plants have grown quite alot in the last few days.  We started using our CO2 injection system again

 
 Could you elaborate on this CO2 system? I assume its not a CO2 additive for the water like in an aquarium?

 

[Ignite]

Plants look amazing!
 
 
 Could you elaborate on this CO2 system? I assume its not a CO2 additive for the water like in an aquarium?

We use CO2 injection systems designed for greenhouses and grow rooms. Our system uses 20lb tanks that have Titan Controls solenoids on them and are controlled to bring the CO2 level up to 1000PPM to 1500PPM depending on the size and maturity of the plants

It's only running while the lights are on and we only run it during certain times of the year. CO2 is great to use but it's only useful if you've dialed in the rest of your setup and have proper lighting, cooling, and feeding techniques. I wouldn't run it for starts or if you are using fluorescent setups.

Thanks