Kant's 2012 grow log

Yeah I know, real original title.

So here's what i'm growing this year. It's a short list because I lack the space...also I couldn't justify spending $14 to cover the minimum purchase requirement for just one strain from nmsu. I started germing 4 of each of these a little over a week ago (friday 2/10)

bhut jolokia
black pearl
caribbean red hab
chili de arbol
chocolate hab
tabasco
thai hot

Since a couple of them popped yesterday and some today. I decided it was time to plant them and start logging the progress. I didn't start a grow log until today because I didn't want to count my chickens before they hatched. So far the popped list is as follows: all of the black pearls, all the caribbean reds, 2 tabascos, 3 thai, and 2 arbols. The jolokias and chocolate habs are being the stubborn ones.

I'm growing them (begrudgingly) in MG cactus, palm & citrus mix. I say begrudgingly because I wanted to use pro-mix but the 3 menards that, according to their website, said they had it in store...didn't have it in store. And as usual the employees were useless. They just kind of looked blankly at me when I asked them if they had any. After that I just got frustrated and picked up the MG and I figured a mix designed for cacti should have good drainage. It might be that it's just too early in the season for most other gardening. They still had a lot of stockpiled road salt in the garden section. So the plan is to just use the MG until I can find some pro-mix then switch over to that when I can.

That's all I got for the moment.

 

[Kant]

Threads are always more interesting with pictures so here we are.

the one just out of shot is another arbol that just popped. As you can se I've got a lot of sprouts...very exciting. I've also noticed a lot of them struggle to shed the seed shell. The Thai, black pearl and both the tabascos are having that problem right now.

no bhuts or chocolate habs have popped yet. I know peppers take forever to germ but i'm getting impaitent and will probably start germing another couple seeds.

I didn't mention this last time but right now the light is coming from 2 23w cfls (5000k and about 1500 lumens). I figure that's adiquette for the moment.

Anyway my feeble grow continues!

 

[patrick]

You need patience when you're growing the superhots. Good luck with your season.

 

[Kant]

I know but the other peppers have spoiled me. They popped in a little over a week. The expectation has already been set

 

[Kant]

So. A lot has happened but in the slowest manner possible.

first and updated pic of my tiny growing season.

Next, it's time to play amateur hour horror show.

It turns out the desk I put the plants on is on a slight incline and because I decided to bottom water them the ones on the bottom of the incline got the most water. unfortunately it was enough that the top third row was dry enough to kill of some of the plants (sigh). The causualty report (or part anyway) is as follows. 2 of the black pearls never sprouted; one of the tabascos never sprouted; the other tabasco did sprout then promptly withered and died. One of the hot thai's never managed to shed it's seed shell, then withered and died. A couple of the other plants had a similar issue and I used tweezers to pull off the shell. One of the de arbol peppers had the same problem as the hot thai so I (having had some success) tried to pull off the seed shell...and promptly decapitated it (sigh)

whew that was a lot of death and mayham. Now it's time to give the good news. one of my bhuts finally popped and sprouted (woot!) all four of the chocolate habs popped and were planted last night. The last de arbol also popped and was planted last night. Right now I have one more thai, 3 more bhuts, and 2 more tabascos. All the other plants look healthy. The black pearls are turning purple, which is really cool.

I'm still contemplating adding serranos (I buy them all the time so I figure I might as well grow them) and shelling out the $14 for the numex halloween seeds. All though i'm not sure where i'm going to put them all once they get big (I live in a tiny apartment). There's only so much space on my balcony. Also it's getting kind of late in the season to start new seeds.

Anyway that's all for now.