mjdiamond83's 2012 Grow Log

I'm trying to get a head start on the upcoming season. This is my first year growing superhots, so I'm hoping the early start will help me get some pods, despite having a pretty short season. I started one plant each of Trinidad Scorpion Yellow (first pic) and Trinidad Scorpion Red (right side of 2nd pic) at the end of October and aside from a minor (luckily) aphid attack on my TS Yellow, they're doing fairly well. I think I need to hit them with a little calmag soon though.

I planted a bunch of Chinense seeds on 1/10 and 1/11:
7 Pot Jonah (3)
7 Pot Red (4)
Yellow 7 Pot (2)
Yellow Trinidad Scorpion (2)
Trinidad Scorpion Morouga (3)
Madballz (3)
Bhut x Douglah (3)
Goronong (2)
Bhut Jolokia (3)
Chocolate Bhut Jolokia (3)
Dorset Naga (3)
Yellow Bhut (3)
Orange Bih Jolokia (2)
Fatalii (3)
Datil (3)
White Habanero (3)
Scotch Bonnet (3)
Aji Cachucha (3)
Chocolate Habanero (2)
Paper Lantern
Chocolate Cherry Chinense (2)

I also have 10 Bhut Jolokia Indian Carbon, 4 Cajamarca x Chocolate Bhut, 4 SB7J, and 4 Bonda Ma Jacques seeds germinating in paper towels in ziplocks on the pellet stove.

I was originally going to try and grow twice that many Hots/Superhots, but I finally sided with reason, and decided to cut back a bit. I'm starting a restaurant with my brother in May, so I'm going to grow more mild/medium peppers that will be more practical to make a sauce for the average patron.
Right now a lot of my grow box is being taken up by my first attempt at hydroponics and those two pepper plants. In another month or so when I have to start my other peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, tomatillos, etc., the hydro is going to get moved and the Chilly Chile and Scorpion are going to the bay windowsill.

 

[S.S.Tupperware]

Nice... my Chilli Chilli looks the same, ripening... have ya tried one?

 

[LanMan]

Looking nice mj.

 

[mjdiamond83]

Thanks LanMan. I saw on your glog that you're having great germination rates, congrats!

S.S. - I tried one the other day. It wasn't packed with flavor, but it had a little bit of sweetness to it. It had a nice crunch to it and didn't have any waxiness. It's probably not a variety I'd grow again for eating, but it's a nice looking plant and I'm kind of curious to see how big it would get in a 5 gallon pot. I may grow one out fully this season (not in too much of a rush to start another one considering how fast it grew).

 

[mjdiamond83]

I've got almost all my peppers potted up into either 4" square containers or beer pong cups. I haven't had any more plants get any yellowing and spots since I started opening my grow box and putting a fan on it for an hour in the morning and an hour at night and those fly traps pretty much eradicated my fungus gnat problem. There's a few here and there, but nothing like the swarm that I had before. There must be about 400 of them stuck to the fly paper.


Yellow Trinidad Scorpion- This plant is about 3 1/2 months old now. It's starting to really branch out and is getting pretty large.

The SB7J Bros.

Chocolate Bhut x Cajamarca-This was one of the ones affected by yellow leaves and spots, since I've amped up the air circulation, the new growth has come in looking healthy.

Scotch Bonnet and Aji Cachucha- Enjoying one of their last days in 2" cells.

 

[jjdillion]

Sorry for the double posts. Just figured out how to post pictures to the site. Well anyway this is my 2012 plants . I started germination in early december so its been about a month and a half since germination. Most plants took two and a half to three weeks to germinate. The big plants are nagas i planted last year (may) so they havent given fruit yet but i decided to overwinter​

 

[mjdiamond83]

nice plants jjdillion! What's the mixture you've got in those plastic jugs?

 

[rabid48]

I'm definitely following your glog because you're so close by! What's the name of the sub shop in Ithaca gonna be? I make my way through there a few times a year, so I'll have to try it out!

Nice plants BTW!

 

[mjdiamond83]

I'm definitely following your glog because you're so close by! What's the name of the sub shop in Ithaca gonna be? I make my way through there a few times a year, so I'll have to try it out!

Nice plants BTW!

Thanks! Just noticed this post now, you must have posted that comment on a day when I was out and had a lot of notifications when I got home and missed it. My brother and I are still tossing around some names for the shop, but we're going to be signing the lease in the next week or two, so we will be deciding on something soon. You should definitely stop by when we're open (early May). Our spot is on State Street about 5 doors down from the end of the commons.

 

[mjdiamond83]

I guess that last picture is proof of how bad my fungus gnat problem was. There's still a few flying around in there, but it's nowhere near as bad as it was a couple weeks ago. Counting the annuum seeds that just germinated this week, my final count is 156 plants. May needs to hurry up and get here!

 

[stc3248]

Plants are looking great MJ! Keep the photos flowing!

 

[S.S.Tupperware]

Lookin good, thats a lot of plants...

 

[mjdiamond83]

Thanks guys. It probably will be too many plants in a month or so when they're twice that big and need to get potted up again, but I should be able to make some room for them. Some of them will probably have to suffer on windowsills for a few weeks.

I got my package from Supreme Growers today. Ten single use packages (5 each) of Myco Blast and Soil Blast. Myco blast contains endo and ecto micorrhizae fungi that are supposed to attach to the roots, expanding their surface area, allowing more nutrients to be absorbed, while at the same time keeping out harmful fungi. The soil blast is supposed to be a soil fertility booster made from kelp, humic, fulvic, and amino acids, as well as probiotics, bacteria and fungi. The packages are about the size of crystal light 'on the go' packets and are to be mixed with a minimum of 2 gallons of water. I used 1/2 tsp of each in 1/2 gallon gatorade jugs and watered the plants. I left one tray of Aji Cachucha untreated, I can can take some comparison pictures when I re-pot them over the next few days.
The 10 packets only cost $7.50 and came with free shipping. I'm going to give the plants additional doses when I re-pot them and when they get transplanted outside. I imagine 2 packets will be plenty. If it works well, it will come out to being a real well spent $3. .

 

[mjdiamond83]

Time for an update. Quite a few of my plants are having issues with stunted growth and yellow leaves. I should have cut holes in the Solo cups when I potted up, but I was lazy and the plants are now suffering. I spent 2-3 hours cutting holes in the base of them so they would drain better and tried my best to loosen up some soil that was packed too hard. I took 2 of the worse looking plants (Bhut Jolokia and Yellow 7) and put them into a hydro setup to see if that could reinvigorate them. Aside from that, I'm happy with how the majority of them are coming along. It won't be long before the Annuums and Baccatums are as large as the Chinenses that are a month older. Here are some pics.

Bhut Jolokia and Yellow 7 in a DWC setup

Some Annuum and Baccatum Seedlings

Criolla de Cocina producing buds I've got about 11 of these plants. If they all grow this fast and put out that many buds at each node, I'm going to have a bumper crop of these peppers.

Trinidad Scorpion Moruga and Choc. Bhut x Cajamarca

Bhut Jolokia Indian Carbon (my fave superhot pepper), Bhut x Douglah, and SB7J

A Couple More Pics of My Grow Chamber

 

[stc3248]

Your plants are looking great man!!! Is it just me or are the ones in the beer cups doing better than the solo cups...hmmmm??? Lol

Great stuff!
Post more pics!!!
Shane

 

[mjdiamond83]

Thanks Shane! A few of those in the solo cups are Aji Cachucha. Their cotyledons are about half the size of normal peppers and grow real slow. I just potted those up about 7-10 days ago. I'm hoping they speed up a little bit or I'll be getting frost by the time they start producing. Most of the ones that are yellowing are Indian peppers (Red Bhut, Dorset Naga, Bombay Morich). Maybe they're a little more sensitive to damp soil than some of the others.

 

[stc3248]

Yeah...it was my Caribbean Reds that were most sensitive, followed by my Chocolate Habs and Chocolate Bhuts...I think I got them figured out now. Yours look really good across the board!

 

[rabid48]

I think Caribbean Reds are just finicky. I have two or three that are on par with some of my annums, and then I have two or three that are pretty small comparatively.

On the flip side, under the same conditions, my Chocolate habs aren't doing nearly as good. Go figure.

Nice update mjd! Those are some happy lookin' plants.

 

[mjdiamond83]

I think Caribbean Reds are just finicky. I have two or three that are on par with some of my annums, and then I have two or three that are pretty small comparatively.

On the flip side, under the same conditions, my Chocolate habs aren't doing nearly as good. Go figure.

Nice update mjd! Those are some happy lookin' plants.

Thanks! Those Chinenses grow pretty slow, which isn't such a bad thing considering we've still got about 10 more weeks of trying to keep them happy indoors. This weather we're supposed to get tomorrow and over the next week is going to have me wishing May would get here a lot sooner.

 

[Sethsquatch]

Hey Matt. I'm sure those yellow leaves will bounce back in no time now that you have the drainage dialed in.

Ok. So, I am looking at putting a "grow box" in my cold garage this next season since my wife is going to want her closet back. I was looking at some of your pictures and your box looks pretty good. Few questions:

Is it a DIY build?
Can you point me to or walk me through the build up?
What are you using for heat and ventilation?

Thanks!

 

[stc3248]

Thanks! Those Chinenses grow pretty slow, which isn't such a bad thing considering we've still got about 10 more weeks of trying to keep them happy indoors. This weather we're supposed to get tomorrow and over the next week is going to have me wishing May would get here a lot sooner.

I have a few that are growing fine and are among some of my biggest plants...but their color is still looks off. Doesn't seem to be hurting them. The entire plant is a lighter shade of green than my others??? I'm not too worried, as long as they keep growing and start putting out buds along side the others I'll be happy!