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maxcaps 2014 grow: avoiding the freeze!

Hello All,
 
New here, but feeling right at home. I figured I'd go ahead and get my glog started, though I may wait a few weeks yet before starting anything.
 
I'm pretty new, not totally new. I had a small grow last year, mostly in containers, bringing up plants that I hoped would make cool overwinter bonsai's (bonchi's). I ordered a handful of different varieties from http://fataliiseeds.net, all  95% of which sprouted nicely, though something must have gone wrong because many never grew true leaves. I think my house was too cold... I've moved now and now have an excellent heating system. I also kept the seeds by a window that I think got too drafty. 
 
I did have a handful of chinenses survive, including a wonderful Red Habanero from fataliiseeds, and some chiero roxa plants that produced a handful of tasty purple pods. I purchased some local Scotch Bonnett starts from a small scale nursery, and grew jalapeños and serrano starts from a local nursery. It's safe to say I am now addicted, as all these fire worked its way into my family's weekly diet. I have a 12'X8' plot begging for plants, and I may do some extra in containers...
 
Enough background. Here's the plan. As jalapeños (salsa, roasted, and canned) are not a staple, I want to grow a handful of varieties. The chinenses have amazing flavors, so I'm going to branch out with two or three new varieties (though sadly I did not save any scotch bonnet seeds from the last season... what is wrong with me?). Last year I tried some super hot varieties... none lived. I am going to try again! I actually ordered most of these seeds before stumbling upon this wonderful community. In any event, here is the lineup:
 
Chinenses:
 
Red Habanero (seeds kept and OW bonchi (thanks fatalii)
Chiero Roxa (seeds kept, may use OW bonchi, haven't decided)
Scotch Bonnett (forgot to keep seeds, but I can replant OW bonchi)
White Habanero (seeds from Pepper Joe, should arrive soon...)
Chocolate Habanero (seeds from Pepper Joe, should also arrive soon)
Fatali (from pepperlover.com)
Big Sun Habernero (from pepperlover)
 
Superhot Chinenses:
 
Carolina Reaper (seeds from PuckerButt)
Naga Morich (seeds from PuckerButt)
Bhut Jolokia (seeds from PuckerButt)
Dorset Naga (seeds from PuckerButt)
7 pod (from pepperlover.com)
 
Other Superhot:
 
Tiepin (seeds from PuckerButt)
 
Annuums:
 
Poblanos (from Pepper Joe... growing to Acho's to use as powder base)
Giant Jalapeño (from Pepper Joe)
Early Jalapeño (from Pepper Joe)
Black Jalapeño (from Pepper Joe)
Purple Jalapeño (from Pepper Joe)
Fresno Pepper (from Pepper Joe)
 
Wish I had found you guys sooner, I'd have added some douglah's to the list. I am also on the fence about adding a couple more chinense varieties. 
 
Also growing some companions. Planning on putting in a couple tomato plants, garlic, cilantro, and carrots (had a lot of luck with tasty fat purple carrots... atomic purple I think they were called)
 
Will post some picks of my OW bonchi's tomorrow, and start going into techniques. On the fence about coffee-filter germination versus sowing in a tray.
 
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Adam,
 
I wouldn't worry too much, some are just slower to germ...I have a batch in a room that pretty much stays at 75-80° and some are still popping after two weeks.
 
Yeah I was actually worried it was getting too hot, because the grow mat says it can raise the temp of the soil up to 20° and the thermometer in the chamber was hitting 85 or so (I had no idea the insulation on that shelf would work so well). But yeah, after sticking the little reptile thermometer down there the highest temp it was hitting was 89°, so I'm pretty sure everything is okay. Nice and toasty in the little grow box.
 
maximumcapsicum said:
No more hooks tonight, but my wife made some wonderful pulled pork!
 

 
She made the sauce herself. It was fantastic. Need to grow some peppers so she has more powders to work with!
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Nice sammie. slather some good hot sauce on that until you get more powders. :onfire:
 
Great start thus far! Well thought out and organized. How are them Bonchis doing after their bath? I had to give mine a bath yesterday for the same reason. I am lucky and don't have to keep my OW plants in with the babies. Learned that lesson the hard way a few years back. Only constructive comment would be your germ temps may be a bit high??? I keep my starts between 80-85. You got 'em poppin though...can't wait to see those shelves packed with plants!!!
 
Strangely there are no new hooks this morning. I was kind of surprised. I turned over the very top chunk of soil on one of the peat pellets and the seed hadn't changed at all from after the soak... no radicles or nothing. Only checked one... didn't want to fuss too much. I am worried the temps are too high... the liquid crystal thermometer is kind of unclear, but it never reads over 90°. And that is right on the plastic above the heat mat.
 
I am going to give it another week as is, see how things go. Probably if there is no activity I will plant another round of chinense seeds and keep them off the mat, or put a bunch of towels beneath them. I hate to pull the mat if the temps are fine, I am just not getting a clear reading. I should probably have abstained from using it all together given the air temp on the shelf has never gone below 75°.
 
Then again, sometimes the chinenses just take awhile. I didn't keep good notes last year, may have taken two weeks for most of those seeds to pop.
 
stc3248 said:
Great start thus far! Well thought out and organized. How are them Bonchis doing after their bath? I had to give mine a bath yesterday for the same reason. I am lucky and don't have to keep my OW plants in with the babies. Learned that lesson the hard way a few years back. Only constructive comment would be your germ temps may be a bit high??? I keep my starts between 80-85. You got 'em poppin though...can't wait to see those shelves packed with plants!!!
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I'll do a round of bonchi pics tonight! For some reason the back row is doing better than the front, I think it may be because of the white wall behind them reflecting the light back at the plants.
 
The insecticidal soap was very much too strong, all of the plants lost a couple of leaves and got these depressed brown burns on them the next day. After getting them rinsed the leaf drop has slowed considerably, and the roxa bonchis have bounce back and are looking pretty good. Need to do a little bit more pruning this week and probably wire some new branches on the smaller roxa. They're looking good though.
 
I just need to be patient on the germination right? Something 2 of 32 pellets after 10 days isn't a complete disaster?
 
Will update soon!
 
Yeah...patience and watch the temps. You are on track, but too high it will slow them down and way too high will kill them (been there done both) the sweet spot is 82.5 degrees at seed depth but anywhere from 78 through 85 is where I keep my germ trays. Too low and they can rot before they pop. 
 
The back row of plants my be doing better for a couple reasons. More light and better temps. The warmth of the grow room is important for their health too. First look at your Bonchis I was thinking they may be in a cool spot causing the leaves to yellow a bit on the edges. Hard to tell without looking in person you know. Second guess was too wet...I saw the thermometer in the Mid 80's in there which is about perfect though. Is that only when the lights are on? 
 
Sorry for the 20 questions, but that's what I get for wading into the deep end on page 9...I skimmed through quickly because I am finding so many great glogs to get caught up on!!! Keep 'em green brotha and above all else don't sweat the small stuff too much. 10 days is good, and overwinters still alive is all you really need...the ugly will go away when you get them into some real sun later on.
 
stc3248 said:
Yeah...patience and watch the temps. You are on track, but too high it will slow them down and way too high will kill them (been there done both) the sweet spot is 82.5 degrees at seed depth but anywhere from 78 through 85 is where I keep my germ trays. Too low and they can rot before they pop. 
 
The back row of plants my be doing better for a couple reasons. More light and better temps. The warmth of the grow room is important for their health too. First look at your Bonchis I was thinking they may be in a cool spot causing the leaves to yellow a bit on the edges. Hard to tell without looking in person you know. Second guess was too wet...I saw the thermometer in the Mid 80's in there which is about perfect though. Is that only when the lights are on? 
 
Sorry for the 20 questions, but that's what I get for wading into the deep end on page 9...I skimmed through quickly because I am finding so many great glogs to get caught up on!!! Keep 'em green brotha and above all else don't sweat the small stuff too much. 10 days is good, and overwinters still alive is all you really need...the ugly will go away when you get them into some real sun later on.
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Thanks STC!
 
I think temps are fine. Our apartment never goes below 72°, not even at night. We keep it there for the baby. Not sure why the bonchi's yellowed a bit on the leaves, thought it was general stress. Being chopped up and stuck beneath something that clearly is not the sun isn't good for any plant. They may be too wet... the pots are taking a very long time to dry out in general... I only water about every two weeks, but it took me a little time to get the hang of that.
 
Yeah, the air temp in the grow chamber is normally around 85°. At night it drops to 80° (checked at 4 AM once). The pellets are on a heat mat within the grow chamber, so its possible they're getting way too hot, but every attempt to measure it has pointed toward ~88°. So yeah, not sure if I should change anything yet, but I've been surprised at how long its taking hooks to show up.
 
Yikes. Finally got a clear temp reading from the base of the tray and it was 106°. Bummer. 
 
Turning off the heat mat. If I don't see any life from the pellets in the next week I'll start a new tray of seeds.
 
Kind of ironic, last year my seedlings never grew because it was too cold. This year I think I overdid it on the heat. 
 
So long as the seeds weren't actually killed by the temps, I think they'll sprout now that the temps are less intense. Right? Right?
 
You can always add a few more seeds to the existing pellets, but as said 10 days isn't bad. I had two hook today after 3 weeks and another tray that was in it's 5th week, and I have given up on that tray.
 
But as Shane said keep things perfect and they will do better. Most of my chinense popped when it was warmer and using the AC which is set at 78°, they slowed down when we had to use the heat and it's set to 68°
 
That's what I figure. I know it's not dropping below 80° in there, thanks to the air thermometer... why risk cooking them in the dirt? Just know that normally soil heat works better is all, but yeah, according to the tray thermometer it's holding around 90°. Going to check it after the lights go off and see if its very different.
 
Devv said:
Adam,
 
A little hi-jack here regarding spacing, this is my grow last year in early Sept,
 
3' spacing between rows and plants:
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Having to crawl through to pick and finding 2 rattle snakes in there...I'm going with 5' between rows and 4' between the Chinense this season. The Annuums can be spaced closer as they're more open and smaller...
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Nice set up except the rattlers!
 
Adam, my shelves stay 78 to 80°F just from the lights. No need for a heat mat. After a day or two the soil/pellets reaches that temp and all is good for me.
Don't give up hope yet. Two weeks is normal for chinense for me with the early poppers a bonus.
 
Alright some progress.
 
I turned off the heat mat during the day, which brought the temperature into the mid 80°'s. I turned it back on at night, which seems to hold the temperature in the mid 80°s. It was definitely getting over 100° during the day.
 
I seem to have been rewarded, though the hooks were probably going to come up anyway:
 

 

 
Interesting again that an unsoaked seed came up! Top notch seeds Charles!
 
But Jason is not to be outdone. TFM Bonnet is the next soaked seed to come up, clocking in at 11 days. Don't know how the heat affected everything, may have slowed the whole process down. One looks like its going to have a helmet head.
 
Moved the Brown Eggs (All three are up!) into the dome-less tray. Noticed that they and the other seedlings are thickening and purpling in the stem a little. From reading around the boards that's pretty much normal right?
 

 
Here's the evening pic of the bonnets! Big day for the little guys. Will moved them out from under the dome tomorrow... hoping the one will shed his helmet.
 

 
And now the bonchis. Everyone is recovering well after the soap dousing, and aphids are gone. A couple little tiny bugs are still in the ficus bonsai soil, but they have been there awhile and don't appear to be causing any trouble.
 
Red bonnet appears to be dormant now. Hasn't put on new leaves for awhile, but appears to be staying healthy. Yellowing leaves has stopped:
 

 
Red hab continues to be a beast. He may go back into the garden this year... will depend on how many starts I get. Would love to thicken up that stem a bit:
 

 
Stretch has taken to its wiring. Will remove those this week. His growth has slowed down a great deal since moving him to the front of the light:
 

 
Shorty is going nuts after moving to the back light position. Not only has to shot out two new, substantial branches on top (the ones reaching straight up, both need to be straightened), but the bend on the first branch has barked over. It's starting to look very neat. Going to need to wire those new branches shortly. I'm fairly sure he was dormant before moving to the rear lighting position.
 

 
I may rig up and extra light for the bonchis. I bet that could let me do some interesting things with stretch. Red hab and bonnet I'm not too worried about... don't mind keeping them dormant and maybe planting them out this Spring. Plans are always developing.
 
Need to do some nicer pics of the bonchis, and move any perma-bonchis into actual bonsai pots. Hoping they stock affordable ones at the garden center soon (hate paying more than 10 bucks for one).
 
Will probably start re-starting any chinenses that didn't pop toward the end of the week. One round on Friday, another round at the start of February.
 
Thanks for reading, and happy growing!
 
I think I had some over overheating issues that once correct brought on some pops, but I also re-sowed the ones that didn't pop after a few days.
Interesting work with the bonchis.
 
My last year's germ in an outbuilding with minimal heat except the mat and lights was easier than this year's in a heated basement.
 
Look's like you got it the right groove  :party:
 
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