Local's 1st Glog - Perth, Western Australia

Hey Everyone,
 
Quick intro, I'm from Perth in WA. Just bought a house recently so I now have some room to grow.
 
So I'm relatively new to this, I have only grown from seed once before but mostly just bought seedlings and grown them in pots.
 
Since I bought my new place I thought that it would be a good idea to plant my chillies in the ground instead of pots, well that was a mistake.
 
 
This is about two weeks after the replanting.
 

 
The winter has been a little longer than normal this year but they are bouncing back now with the weather heating up.
 
I now have all the seeds for this years grow;
 
- From Chilli Seed Bank
Scotch Bonnet Red
 
- From Hippy Seed Company
St Martin's Habanero
Butch T Scorpion
7 Pod Yellow
Sannam
Peach Fatali
Antillais Carribean
 

 
Have a budget setup for now to try to get these germinated, My light that I was using to keep them warm died last night so currently they may be a little cool but they are near a window during the day and closer to the middle of the room at night. 
 

 
I'll be looking at trying a DWC setup for a few of these plants once they are ready too.
 
Anyway, I'll keep you all updated as I go.
 
Thanks again,
Damien

 

[LocalFart]

Okay, even though there's not much to update, it's update time anyway. 
 
Seedlings have been coming along okay, a little yellow after I thought I would give them some sun for a day (big mistake).
 
Also I think the seedlings in the jiffy pellets were getting too much water or the pellets were retaining the water so I have transplanted most of them to the soil mix as the chillies seem to love it.
 

 
Planter box is built and waiting for some soil for now hopefully should get some in next weekend.

Here is a pic of the yellowish leaves if anyone wanted a closeup
 

 

[Jase4224]

I germinate mine in direct sunlight (on the bench in the shed lol), then they get a few hours of sunlight from about 6:30am - 11am so I don't even need to harden them.. very convenient!

To colour them up you could spray them with Epsom salt at 1/2 teaspoon to 1L, but I'm sure they will do fine anyway

Looking good, you have heaps there and a great germination rate. How many plants are you looking to grow this year?

 

[LocalFart]

Ahh yeah? I've read a little about Epsom salts, so just a diluted amount in some water and they should perk up?
 
But yeah I'm just planning on growing as many as possible... I have about 20ish scotch bonnet seedlings and I'd say about 20 of others all up (they've been all mixed up now as the markers came off).
So I guess about 40 plants (if they survive) and I'll probs hydro 2 of them to see how it goes.
 
my superhots arent going too well... I had them out in the sun and the dog decided to play fetch with the jiffy pellets they were in, so I might get some seedlings from wildfire if it comes to it.

 

[Jase4224]

Yeah mate dissolved in water and just sprayed on makes them green up. I wouldn't do it more than once a month though.

Awesome 40 odd plants is a good number. My offer for seedlings/small plants still stands as I have quite a few I'm gonna either give away or throw out.

Also I measured the PH of my tap water and its 8.05 so now I put it in a 150 water container and use PH Down to lower it to 6.5 before I water as all my chillies are in pots and I have a feeling high PH may have contributed to shitty pod setting last season. When I started adjusting PH I started getting fruit. Just thought you might like to be aware of that since it probably affects you too.

 

[LocalFart]

Nice, I may try the epsom salt this weekend.
 
I have a PH testing stuff waiting for my hydro experiment, I didn't think it would effect the soil? I guess I was wrong, I'll check that too. being the city of swan, we have pretty good water here but who knows what it actually would be. so 6.5 is the desirable level?
 
What seedlings do you have again? I could be interested in a few as my superhots arent looking good

 

[Jase4224]

This is what I should have available, sorry for the double ups bloody phone..

7pot Congo SR gigantic Red
3. MoA Scotch Bonnet
4. Aji Margariteno
6. 7pot Burgundy
7. Cumari Do Para
8. Bahamian Goat 1. 7pot Congo SR gigantic Red
2. Joe's Long Cayenne
3. MoA Scotch Bonnet
4. Aji Margariteno
6. 7pot Burgundy
7. Cumari Do Para
8. Bahamian Goat
9. 7pot Yellow
13. Red Habanero
27. Hawaiian chilli
29. Nagabrains Red
30. Orange Primo x BOC F2
31. White Bullet Habanero
32. Aji Jobito
P. Dreadie SB SS
Peach Bhut PL SS

PH is important especially in pots

 

[jolokia_jas]

Nice grow mate! Hope all is still going well. I'm in FNQ and have only just started my seeds yesterday  but we can grow all year here so no biggy. Good luck with your season.

 

[LocalFart]

Okay so I got some Epsom salts today after seeing the poor little guys when I got home, hopefully they get better.
 
Here are some of the pics, I've played around with the camera settings to try to capture how yellow they are. Losing some leaves too 

 
Also tested the PH, looks like ill have to get some PH Down too. 

 
But I may take you up on your offer Jase, the goats and some MoA Bonnets look the part in my grow. I can trade beer or some of mine? but would be happy to foster the unwanteds
 
Also thanks Jas, yeah the only advantage of FNQ good luck with your grow too mate 

 

[Jase4224]

FNQ would be awesome for growing stop making me jealous lol.

Local you can have like 10 plants if you like the only catch is you would hafta pick them up from the Ravo pub on a Wed or Thurs night.

How are you watering your seedlings?

 

[LocalFart]

Oooo down near Mandurah? Hmm, I haven't got a trip down that way planned but the Mrs will take any excuse to head south for a day  , So I would say there is a possibility. What would my cut off date be before they are turfed? If I was to pick them up?
 
Also I'm using one of these. on a mist setting and never directly on the plant.

 

[Jase4224]

No real cut off date, they are in solo cups so I guess when it gets too hot and they start to suffer, but they are doing just fine now. I've been looking after them as backups but my main plants are doing great so doubt I'll need any.

As for that sprayer.. last year I used one and lost quite a few plants due to the stem rotting and the soil getting compacted and plants looked similar to yours all yellowish.

This year I only bottom watered by putting 5mm of water in a tray that the seedling pots (same as yours) sit in and soak it up. The soil stays aerated and fluffy and I haven't lost a single plant.. when it looks dry I add water again.

 

[LocalFart]

Ahh okay, I may try that then, the soil seems fluffy but then again I don't know how fluffy it should be..
 
But yeah I will see how much space I have after I fill the planter box and go from there.
 
Anyone know how much space I should be putting between plants when planting in the ground?

 

[LocalFart]

Update.
 
Got a different light on the weekend, don't know what the colour temp for the last one was but I chose the 'daylight' temp 6500k as the other choice was 4000k, fingers crossed that they like it more.

 
The seedlings have started to green up a little more now, I've started to give them a very diluted amount of Seasol in their water now as the guys from green life have told me that there isn't much nutrients in the seedling mix.
(The Mrs has stolen some chilli room for her sunflower seeds shes trying to grow)

 

[Jase4224]

They are looking good. You could just put them out in the sun during the day (water them first lol) then back in at night though since the temps are good now (except for today). All my plants are permanently outside and growing like crazy.

You don't wanna get caught out trying to sun harden them when it's too hot..

 

[LocalFart]

Yeah I thought that before and then they started to yellow... But yeah I think this week should have some good weather to be able to harden them up. 
 
Do they look the age where I should be?

 

[Jase4224]

When did they pop up?

 

[LocalFart]

The scotch bonnets started sprouting on the 19th Oct and the others around the start of Nov.

 

[Jase4224]

They seem to be on track then, as long as they are nice and warm at night they will grow quickly.

 

[Pepperhead1989]

Looking good!

 

[LocalFart]

Thanks guys, I thought that they were growing too slowly or had some stunted growth, but if that's the size they should be after a month then I guess I'm doing the right thing.
 
Anyway,
Another Update:
 
Found some old CPU fans that I thought I would use to get some air circulation going as I think that I'm over watering and not letting them dry out at all. I've also raised how high the light was sitting to rule out burning the leaves.

 
Also bought some Iron Chelate (recommended by the guys at green life) to drop the PH level, looks to be around the 6.5 mark now which is good.

 
I have some close ups of some of the plants, not sure if it's normal so I'll post.
Healthy ones:

 
Not so healthy ones:

 
Here are some pics of the rest, not much has changed, but why not

 
Edit: Typo