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jswieton's 2017 Glog

This will be my first hot pepper grow in which I'm starting from seed.  I thought it would be fun to document my season in this glog.  Before I get started I want to give a big thanks to many of THP's members that have been helping me along the way.
 
I have been able to put together a rather large collection of over 100 different species of pepper seeds over the course of last year.  With careful thought and limited grow space I have narrowed it down to growing these plants this season.
 
Without further ado here is my list of peppers I have decided to grow this season. I will update my glog with plenty of photos to document my grow during each stage of the process. 
 
Wish me luck; I'm sure I will need it.
 
Brainstrain (red)
Brainstrain  (Yellow)
Bhut Jolokia
BOC
BOC (small)
Brazilian Starfish
Brown Moruga
Carolina Reaper
Chocolate Bhutlah
Chocolate Hab.
Cracked Jalapeno
Jamaican Hot Chocolate
MOA Scotch Bonnet
Moruga Scorpion
Primo
Fatalii (red)
 Fatalii (yellow)
Scotch Brains
Scotch Bonnet
Thai Dragon
 
 
I started my seeds last night after giving them a good 24-hour soak. I used Espoma’s seed starting mix which I amended with some worm castings, glacial rock dust,and a dash or humic acid.
 
IMG_1419_zpsshf1iyhe.jpg
 
:fireball:   Trending toward heat in your grow list, I see  
 
Good luck this season, JS!
 
It has only been 3 days and my first seed to germinate is a Chocolate Bhutlah seed.  I also have Jamaican hot chocolate and a 7 pot Primo that is starting to break the surface.  I did have one question, and it might be a silly one.  Is this abnormally leggy for being a seedling that was nonexistent 24 hours ago? As I mentioned earlier this is the first time I have grown from seed and it  looks a little different than many of the other photos I have viewed on the web, maybe I’m just being a bit paranoid.
 
IMG_1424_zpsccwe1kak.jpg
 
Is that a pepper? Never have seen a red seedling before...If the light is to far away, it's possible to get a very leggy start, but that kind of growth doesn't sound right.
 
I've had a red seedling before. I think they have a defect in their chloroplast generation, and will therefore get leggy. It thinks there is no light, but it just can't absorb any. You can pull it, it'll die soon.
 
I agree with Dan, I think it's a stray seed.  You could let it go for a while
to see what happens, but it sure doesn't look like a capsicum sp.
 
Here is another pic a few days later of that crazy looking sprout.  I'm curious to see what happens with this thing.  I'm still not 100% sure it's even a pepper.
IMG_1431_zpsywzhis9p.jpg


Here is my first healthy looking seed to break the surface.  It's an MOA Scotch Bonnet.  I also have a BOC and a few other plants that should show their head sometime in the next 24 hours.
IMG_1429_zpsauiuffzh.jpg

 
 

 
It’s been a little over a week now and about ¾ of my plants have germinated.  That long crazy looking thing I posted a pic of was definitely not a pepper, so I just pulled it. 
 
I’ve started my plants under the lights and have my T5 sitting about 6 inches above my humidity dome.  I tried to set it a little lower but it was over 95 degrees inside the dome, so I backed the lights off a little and now the soil is at +- 85 degrees pretty constantly. I have also been removing the dome a couple times per day for about 20 minutes just to get some fresh air circulating inside the dome. 
 
I did have a question, at what point should I start to think about completely removing the heat mat?
 
My plants seem to be improving after I have backed off the watering and pushed my lights up an extra 4 inches.  I feel like I probably should have added more Perlite to my mix because the soil seems to get very hard and compacted when they get dried out.  I plan on transplanting them to solo cups and thinning out some of the weaker plants in the next couple of weeks.
 
I repotted everything into red solo cups and everything seems to be doing much better.  I have a feeling that my addition of worm castings to my seed starting mix might have been my problem because I have one plant that I started 2 weeks later that I didn’t add the worm castings to and it is by far doing much better than the rest.  Can you take a guess at which plant it was?
 

 
 
I’m really shocked at how well my plants have been doing over the past couple of weeks.  My plants have seen huge growth over the past 7 days and I feel like I am finally over all of the problems I initially had with my seedlings.  After looking back on everything I think my problems came from just trying to over think things in the beginning, with over watering and then trying to over compensate and not watering them enough.  I feel like I have it dialed in now and should have smooth sailing up until it’s time to take my plants outside.
 
However, my next obstacle seems to be coming faster than I expected, and I’m not really sure what to do when I run out of space under my light.  By the time I pot up everything I would like to have somewhere between 22-25 plants in pots when I transplant outside.
 



 
 
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