Matt's 2012 Grow Log

Ok, here we go again, another year, time for more peppers. I have about 11 plants I stupidly started back in September because I have alot of self control issues when it comes to planting pepper seeds. Anyways, they are doing well but I need to get my grow table in the back room cleaned off, clean the 3 flouro lights and get them back where they can get bigger. I need their space for new recruits.

This year's plan is to build the garden boxes up 6" higher along the back fence, adding some more composted material and plant almost everything in the ground. Seemed the ones in the pots last year didnt like the heat much and they needed watering more frequently, plus they are a pain to mow around.

7 Trinidad Scorpion Butch T's

The Hydro Butch T

3 7Pot Yellow I put 2 of them into cut down Coke 2 litres, just wanted to see how the roots progress, I think its cool to watch.

The new guys, Bhut Jolokia Indian Carbon, Bombay Morich, Naga Morich, 7 Pot Yellow BS (The Forum's Pepper in rockwool) and NuMex Twilight (these 6 will go into pots)

The Rockwool kids, 7 Pot Douglah, 7 Pot Barrackpore, 7 Pot Jonah, 7 Pot Primo, 7 Pot Yellow BS, 7 Pot Bubblegum, Chocolate Scorpion, TS Morouga, Spanish Naga and Naga Viper

I am going to wait (trying hard here) til end of February to start my No Heat Japs, Giant Japs, Banana Peppers, Beaver Dam Peppers and then mid March I am going to start my tomatoes. So for now this is all, will update weekly or atleast try to.

 

[buddy]

very nice. good luck with your 2012 grow.

 

[Kendog]

Wow looks like you got a nice jump start. I said I would start beginning of this year. I too couldn't control myself. I started Dec 26th. Plants look very healthy. Good luck this growing season!

 

[S.S.Tupperware]

Lookin goot, I am starting in a day or two myself...

 

[BigCedar]

Nice list you got there! Hell even though you started early, those plants look healthy as all heck. Not only that but you'll have a nice early pod crop this spring! that's never a bad thing

Good luck to you, I'll be watchin.

Brandon

 

[megahot]

Very nice looking plants! Well done Matt!

 

[Matt50680]

So I am getting into this Hydroponic growing pretty good and have moved 4 of my Numex Twilights from soil into Maxwell House DWC cans...

In the center you can see the other soil plants I have going, they all have their 2nd set of true leaves and seem happy.

 

[Matt50680]

Wow, its been 2 weeks already? Man time flies and I loose track of days when I work every day, but the money is nice and the double time on saturday nights makes it all worth it, just doesnt leave alot of time for updating stuff like this.

Anyways, here is a quick update, I added some new seeds last night before I went to work, got an order from Judy and some new varieties I am excited to grow. Here the new list of seeds germinating...
7 Pot White - 6
Trinidad Scorpion Sweet - 6
Trinidad Cherry - 6
Brazilian Starfish - 3
Orchid Pepper - 3
Scorpion CARDI - 3
7 Pot Primo - 3
7 Pot Jonah - 3
Zavory Habanero - 3
Chocolate Bhut - 3
Brain Strain Red - 3
Bhut Jolokia Red - 6

I also have the previous peppers that were in dirt, the ones I started in rockwool I transfered to dirt as well, I dont have room to grow 20 some peppers hydroponically inside, I just got a little crazy, The Hydroponic Butch T is growing great and starting to get some flower buds on it, but I am going to pick them off. My 2 litre 7 Pot Yellows are flowering, I am going to let them go and see how the peppers develop.

Now for the sad part, "The Forums Pepper" AKA Brain Strain Yellow died, I dont know what happened, it was lookming good in the hydro system then one day it just went limp and turned brown. Fear not though, I have 2 more Brain Strain Yellow in dirt, when one of them is a couple weeks bigger and has a good root system, I am going to transfer it into the hydro system as I did with the Butch T. I think the reason the BS Yellow died is it didnt have much of a root system to start with, dunno, but thats what I am thinking.

Right now I am tired, I am on day 15 of a 26 day work cycle, I get 2 days off next weekend (feb 3rd and feb 4th) so I am gonna go to bed. I am really hating this work work work but the money is nice. LOL I will have plenty of time to sleep when I am dead and my soul is resting in peppers...

 

[S.S.Tupperware]

Lookin good, at least there lettin ya off for my birthday...

 

[Matt50680]

So far of the new seeds I have up already...
3 Primo
3 Jonah
3 CARDI
3 Zavory
1 Trinidad Cherry
1 Red Ghost
2 Orchid Pepper
2 Brazilian Starfish

Looks like more bumps in the soil, should have a couple more by morning or the next day. The plants in the backroom are worrying me. They are getting yellow splotches on their leaves. I know yellow means nitrogen deficiency, but I am not sure what to give them yet. I have been feeding them Miracle Grow water soluable plant food, maybe thats it, the damn MG. LOL I wonder if I switch them over to my AN Jungle Juice hydro solution if they will like it. Cant right now, dont want the soil turing to mud, will have to wait a couple more days. The 2 7 Pot Yellow in the 2litre Coke bottles are doing very well though, they are filling out with opened flowers and have set a couple pods!

 

[SCOVILLAIN]

Nice man, I have those same self control issues with plants.

 

[Pr0digal_son]

Everything looks nice Matt... I should fire up my DWC. Bought it a couple months back and havent messed with it.

 

[Matt50680]

I changed my setup around a bit. I built a new Grow Box. This one is bigger, 70" tall by 67" wide. 2 levels this time and each level has a 4' twin bulb T-12 fixture in it with 6500k Daylight bulbs, 3 flats fit on each level...

The old grow box is now the new home of my Hydro Butch T pepper and 2 Yellow 7 Pot peppers in the Coke Bottle planters. I put 2 3' single bulb fixtures in the top with 6500K lights and then added 2 screw in fixtures with 100watt equivelant CFL's...

 

[PaulG]

So I am getting into this Hydroponic growing pretty good and have moved 4 of my Numex Twilights from soil into Maxwell House DWC cans...

In the center you can see the other soil plants I have going, they all have their 2nd set of true leaves and seem happy.

Would you mind describing how you set up your Maxwell containers for hydro growing? Maybe a little photo tutorial? I'm marginally interested in hydro growing but don't want to spend a lot of cash buying stuff, and basically know nothing about it beyond a general idea of how it works. Thanks.

Your plants are outrageous healthy looking, Matt! It will be fun following your grow out this season!

 

[Matt50680]

Paul, I did a write up of it when I built the systems. here is a link...

http://www.thehotpepper.com/topic/27367-extremely-easy-hydroponic-how-to/

I have since switched air pumps. I am now running 6 Maxwell House "buckets" and 3 dual output pumps ($10 bucks each at Walmart) each bucket has its own air line.

 

[Matt50680]

Ok here is a quick update. I transfered the Coke Bottle 7 Pots to planters so they can get bigger, nice rootball when transplanting. Also you can see here the Butch T Hydro Scorpion, I removed the lower leaves below the split that arent productive and the plant greened up quite a bit. I am getting new growth already on the stem again...

The Hydro Scorpion roots seem to have stopped growing momentarily. I did a full change on the solution yesterday, maybe it will kick back into gear now...

My latest crop of seeds are starting to come up too, these are the tame peppers, Banana, Mariachi, Jalapenos, No Heat Jalapenos, Beaver Dam and Habanero...

All the ones I transplanted into solo cups last weekend seem to be happy, nobody has died...

The Backroom Hydro gang is ok and growing, I split them up from the chain gang of 3 way valves I had because I couldnt get the airflow regulated properly and some just didnt want to bubble as much as others, so I bought 2 more dual output pumps from WalMart ($10 each) and everyone is now happy...

My Numex Twilight experiment pepper in the Maxwell House can is getting some nice roots. It had 10 flower buds but I pinched them off, I want it to get bigger before going into production...

This is the rest of the Butch T's I planted way back in September, I dont know what to do with them, they are getting big and I am atleast 3 months from plant out. There are 8 plants here...

 

[jedisushi06]

very nice work man! U live in iowa? I'm from carroll. Send me a friend request if you want. I grow indoors here in sw colorado.

 

[Matt50680]

Ok so it has been a loooong time since I updated this, lost some plants, mostly the hydro experiments but I started a new hydro a couple weeks ago with an already established Yellow Brain Strain. I also did some work to the hydro chamber, I bought a 150w HPS light from PexPeppers and added a couple computer fans to vent the chamber.
This is the intake side...

This is the exhaust side...

And here is what it looks like inside...

With it closed up the tomato plants dance a little, nothing wrong with that, just proves air is flowing through the grow box well, hopefully it will regulate the temp better. The top of the grow box had temps around 90ish and the floor of the box was around 70ish. I am going to let it run closed up for a couple hours and take some more readings.

Anyways, here are the plants that have been outside for a couple weeks now. Mother nature isnt being nice, we got some really warm temps (low to mid 70's) for a couple weeks then had a week or so of night temps dropping down near frost level. I left them outside, figured if they made it cool, if not, well of course I would be mad but I have so many damn plants anyways. The 8 larger plants are Butch T Scorpions and the 2 taller slender plants I forgot what they are, didnt mark them. LOL

Here are the plants in the back room...

And then there is the 5 foot grow box...

And yet more plants on my dresser...

The two tall plants are Brazilian Starfish, from what I have been able to find out about them, they arent really leggy, thats just the way they grow, kind of vine like...

And finally, one of the Brazilian Starfish has set a pod...

 

[Jamison]

You have some beastly looking plants man. Looks healthy as can be. Good job!

 

[AlphaHydroponics]

Hey Matt,

I Just want to say your Glog reads and looks well. I am impressed with your variety and ingenuity.
I take it you drink swag coffee like me, cause all my first hydro grows were either folgers or max house cans too, and i drink alot of it.

Like to trade on some seeds sometime later this year.
Regards, Chris