juanitos 2017

My goal this year is to make a system with minimal maintenance while also being easy to setup and process plants.
 
Getting your medium ready can be messy / time consuming with potting mix. So this year i went with coco plugs. I simply had to put them in the trays give em some water and they are ready to go. They will be easy to handle without making a mess in 3 months when i package them.
 
The biggest part of maintenance is watering / nutrients. In the past when i was smaller i just individually watered 1020 trays. While this works it is slow / can be messy. Spraying everything with misters is an option but that makes everything super humid and can affect electronics (like led strips) in the area. I have been using bottom watering for forever why not stick with that... but how?
Instead of watering individual trays.... just get some big ass trays. with a 8x4 ft tray i can bottom water 16 trays at the same time! 
 
Hauling water over there in the winter when the hose is frozen can be annoying... So in comes a reservoir. This will hold enough water for a week or more. 
 
Moving that water up into the trays can be messy / dangerous if i spill on any electronics... So in comes water pumps to pump the nutrient solution from the reservoir to the trays. and might as well put timers on them so i don't have to turn on the pumps manually..
 
Lights are controlled by a timer.
 
The heater is automatically controlled by a thermostat.
 
So there is 0 daily maintenance in this system. Just weekly maintenance of the reservoir, check tds / ph / water level and amend accordingly.
 
The only thing DIY is the supports for the trays and the led wiring. So it's easy to reproduce if i need to scale up $_$
 
= medium =
32mm coco plugs
72 ct plug trays
 
= nutrients =
hort americas hydro
ph down
great white myco
 
= equipment =
patton milkhouse heater
30a 12vdc power supplies
3014 204/m led strips
hurricane 16" fan
botanicare 8x4 lt trays
botanicare flood fittings
70 gallon res
eco water pumps
electric timers
 
= area =
~ 50 sq ft shed in my backyard
 
= vars =
biquinho
aji dulce
 
joes long
lemon drop
pimenta de neyde
sbs purple ornamental
 
thai hot

malaguetinha
cumari do para

paper lantern
MOA
west indes red
 
Scotch Brain
BBM
JPGS
chocolate moruga
trinidad scorpion
SB7J
BOC
 
+ a few other randoms
trying to keep the list smallish
 
January 19th

 
January 27th

 

[juanitos]

started cleaning up the grow from last year lol... kinda lazy
 
it was 82 outside yesterday... in febuary wtf 
 

 

 

[mas_fuego]

started cleaning up the grow from last year lol... kinda lazy
 
it was 82 outside yesterday... in febuary wtf 
 

 

2 questions

Are those pods still on the plants?

Are you reusing the bags?

 

[Scuba_Steve]

Man, your setup impresses the hell out of me every year!
 
Few questions,
How much were those trays, and do they sell them in 2ft widths?  I would like 2'x4' or 2'x6' trays.
How did your 5050 LEDs work out last year?  Obviously well enough that your using them again!
How tall of plants can you go on the LEDS before they start suffering from lack of light?
 
BTW, I imagine it would be fairly easy to go full hydroponic on your current setup.  You would just need a substrate that drains very quickly vs the coco.

 

[OCD Chilehead]

That's some crazy temps for Feb.

Good luck.

 

[juanitos]

Man, your setup impresses the hell out of me every year!
 
Few questions,
How much were those trays, and do they sell them in 2ft widths?  I would like 2'x4' or 2'x6' trays.
How did your 5050 LEDs work out last year?  Obviously well enough that your using them again!
How tall of plants can you go on the LEDS before they start suffering from lack of light?
 
BTW, I imagine it would be fairly easy to go full hydroponic on your current setup.  You would just need a substrate that drains very quickly vs the coco.

yes the 8x4 trays are kinda too big yea. very hard to handle in my confined space. would not be bad if i had a large greenhouse tho.
i used 5630 last year, this year i'm trying 3014
depends on how many you use, but should be similar to flouros. something like 12-18 in.
 
yea the coco plugs do not drain very quickly. i'm trying to get used to them. yes these are the same trays people use with clay / growstone flood / drain.

 

[stettoman]

84° in February in OK, that's equivalent to 44° in northern Minnesnowta. I spent a few years in Tulsa, I remember some really frigid mornings there in February. Not many warm ones.

BTW, we're expecting 40s this week. I think a lot of us are getting a break on the heating bill after the December/January we've had.

 

[The_NorthEast_ChileMan]

Pepper growing level: master. Damn. Going to be following this!

 
+1..... Great job as usual Jon!

 

[juanitos]

2 questions

Are those pods still on the plants?

Are you reusing the bags?

lol yeah i didn't harvest everything got lazy in November. 
 
my mind is telling me no, but my wallet is telling me yes. idk

 

[juanitos]

sbs purple. not too much coloring under the leds, can see a little color if you look at them at the right angle.
they have the small leaves / long stem growth of the annuum. should be getting stronger in the next few weeks
 

 
i've been starting some more seeds lately, some more babies.
i used a dome on this tray and it seems to have better germ rate.
 

 

[OCD Chilehead]

Looking good. I got lazy and didn't use the dome on my first two trays. The third one I did and it saved my about 4 days. Will go back to the dome for sure. Less helmets as well.

Congrats on all the starts!

 

[juanitos]

guess i'll start some more, with domes this time.
also i bought some root riot plugs to test out
 

 
the trinidad scorpions cardi look good

 

[juanitos]

i accidentally over ferted and killed a few plants. most are still going great though
 

 

[mas_fuego]

i accidentally over ferted and killed a few plants. most are still going great though
 

It would seem I am not using nearly enough nutes cause my plants don't look anything like those.

 

[Devv]

Wow that's a ton of plants!
 
Good luck with your grow!

 

[juanitos]

i notice the sbs purple branch very quickly and have weaker stems than other vars.
i guess this is what causes them to stay small as they end up just falling over at around 2ft tall.
 

 

 

[bpiela]

Wouldn't part of it also be the small root ball?

 

[JoynersHotPeppers]

Looking great!

 

[juanitos]

Wouldn't part of it also be the small root ball?

last year they were in bags next to my 6ft+ tall chinense and they never got really big. they just turn into a little bush lol.
 
here's a bad picture
 

 

[U)<now]

i accidentally over ferted and killed a few plants. most are still going great though
 

Man, I can't get past 2 sets of true leaves in cells that small without having problems. Crazy how big you can get them in just seed cells, must be the nutes. I didn't give mine any nutes till about 4 sets of true leaves and after they've been in solo cups for a few weeks. I guess I'm just too afraid to burn them.

I'm always impressed by how well some guys do with plants in smaller pots.

 

[Bhuter]

Man, I can't get past 2 sets of true leaves in cells that small without having problems. Crazy how big you can get them in just seed cells, must be the nutes. I didn't give mine any nutes till about 4 sets of true leaves and after they've been in solo cups for a few weeks. I guess I'm just too afraid to burn them.

I'm always impressed by how well some guys do with plants in smaller pots.

I agree. I start most of my seeds in 3 inch pots. Then I leave them in there until plant out. I'll put duplicates in smaller cells, but they always seem to grow slower. And nutes to a minimum. Looks like I need to change the way I do things.

Juanitos, your plants look absolutely fantastic! Just a blanket of lushness. You do a great job every year!

-Adam