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

 

[Devv]

I have been putting my Jiffys into Fox Farms filled beverage cups
(After removing netting) as soon as the cotys are green,
and have had no problems with damping off.  I weigh the cups to
see when they need water, and remove the sleeve 24 hours after
watering.  They get 3-4 ounces of water/nutes each watering.
 
A 'dry' filled cup weighs about 240 grams, so I water
when the weight gets down to 250 grams.  Basically the same
nute regimen as Scott.
 

 
It wasn't so much a damping off, but a what I'll call a stem rot with just a few. Which I felt at the time was due to the heavy peat. Maybe I hit them with too much watering?
 

 

[Jase4224]

 
It wasn't so much a damping off, but a what I'll call a stem rot with just a few. Which I felt at the time was due to the heavy peat. Maybe I hit them with too much watering?
 

In my experience stem rot has only occurred when top watering, but when bottom watering plants handle being saturated (the soil) without any implication.. not really sure why though.

 

[LocalFart]

Man that sucks, have you tried just putting them outside under some shade cloth?

At least Bunnings sells heaps of great varieties these days, and I still have some plants of you want them.

 
 Thanks again, I will definitely take you up on the offer, just need to free up some time to go down to see you.
 
But yeah, Talking to the guys at Green Life, they said I should have taken the seedlings out of the seedling mix not much after they sprouted, so fingers crossed the potting mix gives them some life.

 

[LocalFart]

Here's some pics of them now,
 
Hoping that the new setup promotes some growth... haven't taken a pic of the roots but they aren't too bad.

 

[PaulG]

All right - looks like your giving your starts a fighting chance!

 

[LocalFart]

Update time,
 
There's a little more green in the new growth now, so looks like to swap to potting mix instead of seedling mix has been a good one.
 

 

[Jase4224]

Looking way better! They should start to take off now.

 

[LocalFart]

Yeah hopefully,
 
Definitely won't stuff around with Seedling mix next year, I'll just go strait to potting mix.
 
 

 

[Jase4224]

I used seedling mix and was happy with it, I think it was Scotts.

Are you using a heat mat?

 

[Devv]

I'm trying something different this year. Filling 3.5" pots with 2/3 potting soil, and a good 1" of "black gold" seedling mix on top. Soaking the BG in water to get it wet as it likes to repel water when dry. Spooning that in and setting the seeds in it. Then I'm putting the pots, 18 per tray in the trays with 1" of water at the bottom. As the seeds pop I never water except from the bottom, keeping the 1" there to soak into the soils. So far so good, and some babies are 2 weeks old, so they're getting they're water as they need it. And the top dries as one would want it too. Film at 11  

 

[PaulG]

Good call on the potting soil / seedling mix swap.  The seedling mix has
no nutrients, so need fertilizer soon if the plants stay in it.  I view the Jiffy
Pellets as basically the same thing, so the starts go into the dirt as soon 
as the cots turn green.
 
Scott's example above (#70) would certainly be a good one to follow!
 
Merry Christmas!

 

[Jase4224]

Good call on the potting soil / seedling mix swap.  The seedling mix has
no nutrients, so need fertilizer soon if the plants stay in it.  I view the Jiffy
Pellets as basically the same thing, so the starts go into the dirt as soon 
as the cots turn green.
 
Scott's example above (#70) would certainly be a good one to follow!
 
Merry Christmas!

Yeah the Scotts has nutrients added for seedlings, has the perfect 'wicking' for bottom watering and I lost ONE seedlings this year out of close to 100ish. Once they got 4th set of leaves they went into Baileys mix

 

[LocalFart]

I definitely think that the 2/3 potting with 1/3 seedling mix on top is what I'll be doing next season. I would probably have buds by now if I got them out of the seedling mix sooner.
 
But, I received a $100 Bunnings gift card for Christmas, so thought I would build my hydro setup

Just a simple DWC setup with a reservoir. Have just bought some hydro nutes from Bunnings, the closest to 1-1-1 as I could. It doesn't have a scale like that on it with its 2.25%N - 0.5%P - 2.9%K from what I remember, I will do some research and try to find some better stuff and do an little shop online for some in the coming few days.
 
I have one of my Scotch Bonnets in it. so I guess it will be a fun little experiment

 
And here's an update on the seedlings, most of the yellow leaves have fallen off now and the new growth is coming through.

 

 

[LocalFart]

Update time.
 
So I've moved the setup out into the shed, its insulated so it doesn't get too hot in there which is good and the dryer is in there so if I put a load of washing on it keeps them warm on cold nights too..

 
But since I've moved them I've noticed a few of these guys hanging around...
Friend or Foe?

 
Was also able to pop into my local hydro place, picked up some nutes too. Its from a local suplier but the guys were adamant that this will surprise me with how decent it is, I thought I'd give it a shot, can't hurt I guess. 

 
And the first signs of life from the hydro plant

 

[Jase4224]

Interesting to see how those nutrients go! Those little fly things are no problem if you're growing in soil but can (according to the lady in my local hydro store) destroy the roots of hydro plants.

 

[LocalFart]

Okay, so as soon as I've added those nutes the plant has shot up.
 
This is 4 days after I took the last pic and added the nutes. the small new lead is now the biggest on the plant and there is plenty of new growth to come.

 
My other seedlings are looking alot better after taking them out of the seedling mix... They actually have signs of growth now..

 
Also my TDS meter has arrived. not sure how close this will be be it gives me a rough measurement of the PPM in the water

 

[PaulG]

Looks very good there, mate!  Looks like your 
soil swap really paid off!  The little starts look good.
 
I gotta respect folk who dive into the hydro thing.
Seems  kind of intimidating to me, I guess.  At any
rate - good on ya!

 

[LocalFart]

Hydro setup is going so great I am expanding and adding another 4 plants.
 
I'm building it tonight so ill post up some pics tomorrow.
 
For now I thought I would share the piping of the current setup.
 
Bucket that contains plant w/bubbles on

 
Bucket that contains plant w/bubbles off

 
Reservoir tank.

 

[LocalFart]

Okay so after about 4 hours last night, this is the finished product.

 
Also my first one is really pumping along now... 

 

[Jase4224]

Looking great Local! I still have plants for you so let me know when you would like to pick them up. Christmas time was so busy but things have settled a bit now.