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Matt Berry's 2011 Growlog

Matt Berry

Matt Berry

I figure it was getting about time to start my growlog for this year. This year has gotten off to a good start as I got to try some new things. First was the use of heat mats to start propagation, this has helped greatly. The second I decided to use the 2.5" x 3.5" deep pots to start my seeds in. So far they are working great. My first seeds went into the ground Jan 14-15, second set was planted Feb 6. Here is a list of what I have so far.

Hot peppers

Jalapeno Grande Hybrid 11
Jalapeno M 3
Chile De Arbol 7
Hot Finger 6
Bounty Hybrid 5
Aji Angelo 4
Aji Limon 3
Serrano Del Sol Hybrid 3
Serrano 1
Fresno 3
7 Pod Chocolate 2
7 Pod Barrackpore 1
Paper Lantern 2
Purple Piquin 2
Bhut Jolokia 1
Habanero Red 1

Sweet Peppers

Blushing Beauty Hybrid 11
Camelot Hybrid 8
Corno Di Toro 8
Jimmy Nardello 8
Socrates X3R Hybrid 3

I decided to grow more Jalapenos and serranos this year because I plan on making pepper jam and pickling jalapeno slices. It will be my first try at it so hopefully it will go well.


I think I may have killed 2 of my Jalapeno Grande from being a little stingy with the water, it's hard to see them with the other plants towering over them, but they are in the 3rd row from the bottom.

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Next tray. The interesting one is the Aji Angelo in the upper right hand side. For some reason it has some leaf curl to it, not sure why. I don't see any pests, the one below it doesn't have this problem.

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Here are the babys, they just popped up, these were planted on Feb 6th.

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Plants are lookin' fine.

I'm using that same pot but transplanted from flats to them. They work well and make a nice space/size trade off IMO.
 
Nice start on the season. I bought a 6 pack of Blushing Beauty from a nursery last year and grew them out. They were the best and most prolific bells I have ever grown. Huge sturdy plants. I have some started right now as well.
 
yea, I really liked the depth of the pots. I also figured since 32 fit in a flat, 2 flats per heat mat, I could start up to 128 seeds at a time. I don't know why, I just prefer to start my plants in pots where they can get more established before transplant, and I have more flexibility in moving plants around in case some are bigger / smaller then others. With the seed trays they just don't offer that, and these pots definitely filled that void. I got pretty close to 100% germination rates with everything so far, and that is good since I've been doing the one seed per pot for the last few years (Well except when I have a runt seed then I throw it in the hole, or if I'm only using one pot for a variety, then I'll plant 2).

This is my first year growing the Blushing beauty, I chose it because of the colors, I'm glad that it produced so well for you. I wasn't sure how well it would produce so I also bought the camelots which are suppose to produce very well, but they are not as colorful. Last year I had 8 different sweet peppers and still didn't have enough, this year I also decided it was time to start all my sweets from seed instead of buying the puny ones from the store.
 
Time for another update, here are the seedlings that are right around 2 weeks old

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Trays of peppers at 1 month old

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And finally a few that were ready to be potted up to the 6" pots, I still have a bunch more to repot.

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Also on the plus side the 2 Jalapenos that I accidentally overlooked and missed watering are still alive. After I propped them up and removed a few leaves they came back to life, they are just a bit behind the other plants.
 
Matt, nicely done so far!

Let me pester you about some noobie specifics, as I have bothered many here who seem to be on the right track.

Very interested in your starting in the 2.5 x 3.5 containers. Where to get those? What soil/medium do you use for the start and do you use the same stuff when you go up to 6-inch? What kind of nutes and when to nute them?

Where you going to put all those beauties until May-ish, or are you utilizing a greenhouse?

Thanks for the advice.... :cool:
 
Thank you everyone.

The pots are black form pots from greenhouse megastore - http://www.greenhousemegastore.com/

They are relatively cheap, and they also sell trays that hold them (hobby packs have 10 trays). I really like starting seeds in pots, I don't bother covering them with plastic or domes. I only have a few seedlings each year that have trouble shedding their seed caps. My soil is just a potting mix from a local nursery, it is pretty light, and I use the same mix from start to finish. As for nutes I use botanicare pure blend pro, maxicrop seaweed, and general hydroponics calmag+. The pure blend pro I use 1-3ml per gallon each watering. The maxicrop I use 1-2ml per gallon maybe once a week. The calmag+ I only put a couple of drops per gallon maybe every 2 weeks or so. These numbers all go up as the seedlings get bigger, and depending on how the plants look. Last year I accidentally OD a few younger plants with the Calmag+, (1.5 - 2 month old plants I used like 5ml per gallon, burned leaves) so this year I'm being more careful with it.

My grow setup is in my basement, I have a few 400w MH lights, right now I'm only running one, and I just started to turn it off at night (had been 24/7). Really my grow area is pretty low tech compared to some peoples here, I don't have any mylar, no shelves, just the lights, and this year the propagation mats. The peppers will chill out in the basement floor until we start getting some warm days in May, then they will start venturing outside. I've had pretty good luck growing them under the metal halides, you still have to harden them off though, but they are typically almost full size plants heading outside.
 
Wow, thank you SOOO much. That pulls a lot of info together for this noob. I've experimented with 3.5 x 3.5 pots but like your 2.5 x 3.5 idea. From the roots I've dissected, the width doesn't seem as important as the depth, at least in the beginning. Like Silver Spur suggested, it's an efficient use of space with your 2.5s.

Thanks also for the nute and light details. Now, off to the greenhousemegastore.... :cool:
 
Matt Berry said:
Thank you everyone.

The pots are black form pots from greenhouse megastore - http://www.greenhousemegastore.com/

They are relatively cheap, and they also sell trays that hold them (hobby packs have 10 trays).
Click to expand...

I'm using those same pots and trays, I love them. Very convenient, make good use of space, and sturdy enough to reuse several times at least. Great for bottom watering, just place a tray in the water and let them soak it up. I even cut a few trays to fill out my grow area and the ones I cut are still pretty sturdy. Those trays will be really convenient for hardening off plants too.

It was ~$40 shipped for 10 trays and about 150 pots IIRC, not bad at all for something I can use several years.
 
Nice looking bunch of plants Matt. Good luck this year. I have about 75 potted up and counting so far. I have some in the square pots but lately I’ve just been using 5oz. plastic “Dixie” cups that are $1.69 per 80 at Wally’s. I’ll move them to 16oz. later if necessary. I started using Bordines’s potting mix (yours?), really like the consistency and the fact that it works for starter as well as repot. At $10 per large bag in February, it’s priced right.

What’s your source of supply for your nutes that you mentioned above ^? I have been checking around on the internets and these products seem to be on the pricy side. Are you using the liquid maxicrop as opposed to the powder?

I’ll send along a jar of jalapeno jelly with Marc for you to sample. I’ve been making different types of pepper jellies for several years now; so if you have questions down the road, let me know.
 
I'll gladly "sample" some of your jalapeno jelly, I love that stuff, I've been putting it on everything. People think I'm crazy but I've even been making peanut butter and Jalapeno jelly sandwiches, yummy.

Bordines mix is it, I have to stop by there tonight and pick up a couple more bags while it is still on sale. I've been using the liquid maxicrop, as for where to buy look up some of the hydro shops, they are everywhere and I'm sure there is one by you. The pure blend pro is a little pricey, but does work well for container growing, also if you just use it for the time before plant out in the garden it's not too bad for the results you get. For your garden it would be better to mix compost, bone meal and other things into the soil.
 
Time for another update, especially since it's been almost a month since my last update. I have most of them potted up into 6" pots, and some of them are getting ready to be potted up again.

First shot is a front shot of my plants

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Close up of the Purple Piquin from Peppermania, these are it's first flowers

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One of many Jalapeno Grande Hybrids I'm growing this year

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The tall one one the right is a Aji Angelo, to the left Hot finger, dark green ones below are Corno Di Toro and blushing beauty. There is also a small Chili De Arbol tucked in the middle.

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I'm noticing that this year a lot of my plants are taller then usual. My biggest changes this year were I left them on the heat mats longer this year, I took longer to spread them out, and I used the maxicrop seaweed blend on them. Last year I didn't use the seaweed until they were bigger. That's it for now
 
HOw are yougetting them to grow so fast?! Thats crazy :eek: , I'm 3-4 weeks into it and mine are barely sprouting about 1-2" tall if ANY.. PM me please! I need to pick your brain! haha
 
Some of it depends on the type of plant you are growing, annuum's grow faster then chinense varietys do. If you don't have heat mats (80-85f) then your germination times will be increased, peppers also grow slower when their soil is colder. Having a good quality potting soil helps, the lighter / more airy the better. From there you just have to provide the right combination of light, fertilizer, heat, and timing of potting up to maximize the growth of the plants. A lot of that just comes by feel, I look at the plants and determine how much / combo of fertilizer they need with each watering. Right now that is about 5-7ml of the pureblend pro. I also use maxicrop seaweed fertilizer and calmag+ (these 2 are only added on occasion)

Just remember the plants in the front area are about 2 months old from the time they were seed in the ground, are mostly Annums and baccatums, so they are going to be bigger.

There are a lot of talented growers here on this forum, you can learn a lot if you sit back and follow each persons growlog.

The thing is all my grows are pretty basic, I don't have a fancy propagation area, I only use propagation mats for heat (they help to speed up germination), I don't cover my seedlings with any plastic, I don't bottom water, and all my plants are sitting on the basement floor.
 
It's amazing how fast these things grow, I'm quickly running out of room. I have a few of them potted up to the 2.5 gallon nursery pots.

Right side of the crowded grow area

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Left side

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Serrano Del Sol

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Already has a few pods setting

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