Hello all from the West Coast of Canada!
Usually a wordless forum lurker, but this place has de-shelled me a bit. I know a few of you so far and am looking forward to meeting, learning and growing along with everyone else. There is a hell of a lot of experience in one place and your strain lists are mind boggling Hehe already reminds me of the Mag
By way of an introduction, a rambling monologue.
I've always had a bit of a taste for firey foods, but what really sparked it off was a trip down island one year to a Goat Roofed farmers market. After an hour in front of the largest collection of hot sauces I had ever seen, I finally made a choice and headed to the register.
Somewhat confident in my choice, I double checked with the clerk to ensure I had grabbed the hottest one available, only to be told there were two brands they were required to keep behind the counter. Enter Cajohns Mongoose, exit tomato sauce.
I still miss that tiny little bottle, so many spicey roasted meats. So many machismos rolling around on the ground, dumb struck that a teaspoon of anything could overpower them.
Since then I have burned both holes in so many ways, so many places. Pure capsaicin is highly unrecommended, it has no flavour or redeeming quality other than mind blowing pain
And so after getting into growing as a career and hobby, it was only a matter of time before I went organic and ordered some seeds.
From PepperJoe.
Lesson learned, research things more
I learned to grow in coir commercially, with the obligatory collection of salty Kool-aid style plant food, so this is all Greek to me, but will surely be a stunning success. Aim high and settle for anything above total failure.
The starter soil, seeds and clones.
1 Part Peat/Coco 80/20
1 Part EWC/Compost 50/50
1 Part Perlite/Vermiculite 50/50
Trace alfalfa and kelp.
Limed and rock dusted.
Thoughts so far. Switching out peat for composted bark/fines, dropping the compost and never buying perlite/verm again. Subject to hypocrasy, availability on some products here is touch and go, and so far I refuse to pay for shipping.
General potting soil.
1 Part Peat/Coco 80/20
1 Part EWC/Compost 50/50
1 Part Perlite/Vermiculite 50/50
Amended with 2-3 cups per cubic foot of
1 part neem/alfalfa/cottonseed
1 part bone meal
1/2 part kelp meal
1/2 part greensand
Eye balled in some ground comfrey/stinging nettle.
Kept moist with left over tea and anything else of that ilk.
And is nitrogen heavy as funk. The soil was never intended for peppers as well. The plan so far is to mix in relatively fresh bark/wood mulch to tie up some nitrogen until the first crop is over, but that smacks of other thinking and I'll probably just bite the bullet, buy something, and butter it out a bit. Results will be awesome or painfully hilarious.
I started late, especially after the fiasco of feeding my first few seeds to the fungus gnat gods (pepperjoe comes in handy!)
Here are the survivors, circa late March, after sterilizing the soil with SM90 and the seeds with a mild peroxide soak.
Three popped! 10% Germ! The fogginess is the impenetrable shield wall I constructed to protect against FG
And so I ordered a few more seeds, and am batting 7/7 now with a 24hour presoak, sown direct in soil. Below a group shot
Black Zebra Cherry (Upon actual investigation, a terrible choice. Flavour described as "bland" or "average" ) The undersides are almost completely purple.
Bhut Jolokai (tomatogrowers.com) light purpling, raised the bulbs today
Morouga Scorpions and 7Pod (in the front) Here I also discovered and quickly lost the shiney clean shooting filter on the camera
Deadly chemicals and homemade toxic garbage
Inspiring
Lit by a slew of T8's, amended at the end of the outdoor season with stronger lighting. I would like to get LED, but the canopy will be thick and I've got a hard on for a Philips 400w CMH. Though like reality that will soften with time and age. I change my mind frequently and erratically as well, so we shall see.
The plants will be trained/pruned with some back of the head thinking that they are coming inside to finish and winter, some will be topped to observe results. Scraggly undergrowth is frowned upon.
I prefer DIY to prefab, and will be thieving everything I can from Mother Nature (like candy from a baby says I), everything from leaf mould to nettles.
And so, with limited plant count, the usual line up of newbie strains and foul ups and a firey love for growing my own poisons, we'll see where this heads!
The usual 3C's
Any criticisms, cwuestions and comments welcome
Usually a wordless forum lurker, but this place has de-shelled me a bit. I know a few of you so far and am looking forward to meeting, learning and growing along with everyone else. There is a hell of a lot of experience in one place and your strain lists are mind boggling Hehe already reminds me of the Mag
By way of an introduction, a rambling monologue.
I've always had a bit of a taste for firey foods, but what really sparked it off was a trip down island one year to a Goat Roofed farmers market. After an hour in front of the largest collection of hot sauces I had ever seen, I finally made a choice and headed to the register.
Somewhat confident in my choice, I double checked with the clerk to ensure I had grabbed the hottest one available, only to be told there were two brands they were required to keep behind the counter. Enter Cajohns Mongoose, exit tomato sauce.
I still miss that tiny little bottle, so many spicey roasted meats. So many machismos rolling around on the ground, dumb struck that a teaspoon of anything could overpower them.
Since then I have burned both holes in so many ways, so many places. Pure capsaicin is highly unrecommended, it has no flavour or redeeming quality other than mind blowing pain
And so after getting into growing as a career and hobby, it was only a matter of time before I went organic and ordered some seeds.
From PepperJoe.
Lesson learned, research things more
I learned to grow in coir commercially, with the obligatory collection of salty Kool-aid style plant food, so this is all Greek to me, but will surely be a stunning success. Aim high and settle for anything above total failure.
The starter soil, seeds and clones.
1 Part Peat/Coco 80/20
1 Part EWC/Compost 50/50
1 Part Perlite/Vermiculite 50/50
Trace alfalfa and kelp.
Limed and rock dusted.
Thoughts so far. Switching out peat for composted bark/fines, dropping the compost and never buying perlite/verm again. Subject to hypocrasy, availability on some products here is touch and go, and so far I refuse to pay for shipping.
General potting soil.
1 Part Peat/Coco 80/20
1 Part EWC/Compost 50/50
1 Part Perlite/Vermiculite 50/50
Amended with 2-3 cups per cubic foot of
1 part neem/alfalfa/cottonseed
1 part bone meal
1/2 part kelp meal
1/2 part greensand
Eye balled in some ground comfrey/stinging nettle.
Kept moist with left over tea and anything else of that ilk.
And is nitrogen heavy as funk. The soil was never intended for peppers as well. The plan so far is to mix in relatively fresh bark/wood mulch to tie up some nitrogen until the first crop is over, but that smacks of other thinking and I'll probably just bite the bullet, buy something, and butter it out a bit. Results will be awesome or painfully hilarious.
I started late, especially after the fiasco of feeding my first few seeds to the fungus gnat gods (pepperjoe comes in handy!)
Here are the survivors, circa late March, after sterilizing the soil with SM90 and the seeds with a mild peroxide soak.
Three popped! 10% Germ! The fogginess is the impenetrable shield wall I constructed to protect against FG
And so I ordered a few more seeds, and am batting 7/7 now with a 24hour presoak, sown direct in soil. Below a group shot
Black Zebra Cherry (Upon actual investigation, a terrible choice. Flavour described as "bland" or "average" ) The undersides are almost completely purple.
Bhut Jolokai (tomatogrowers.com) light purpling, raised the bulbs today
Morouga Scorpions and 7Pod (in the front) Here I also discovered and quickly lost the shiney clean shooting filter on the camera
Deadly chemicals and homemade toxic garbage
Inspiring
Lit by a slew of T8's, amended at the end of the outdoor season with stronger lighting. I would like to get LED, but the canopy will be thick and I've got a hard on for a Philips 400w CMH. Though like reality that will soften with time and age. I change my mind frequently and erratically as well, so we shall see.
The plants will be trained/pruned with some back of the head thinking that they are coming inside to finish and winter, some will be topped to observe results. Scraggly undergrowth is frowned upon.
I prefer DIY to prefab, and will be thieving everything I can from Mother Nature (like candy from a baby says I), everything from leaf mould to nettles.
And so, with limited plant count, the usual line up of newbie strains and foul ups and a firey love for growing my own poisons, we'll see where this heads!
The usual 3C's
Any criticisms, cwuestions and comments welcome