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My 2010 First Ever Chilli Grow

megamoo

megamoo

I'm about to start planting my first ever Chilli crop, not including three plants which only got to a foot high and were never watered and died alone. :(
All the different types are new to me, but I'm looking to learn from experience how to get them to grow at all, which ones are hard to care for etc.

In the mail today I got some seeds. I ordered from two places online to try them out.

from The Hippy Seed Co I got two variety packs for their colour and flavour. The types included are..
The Purple/Black varieties:
Chilli Costa Rica
Black Prince
Black Pearl
Explosive Ember

and The Chef's Selection
Tabasco
Aji Lemon
Asian Birdseye
Hungarian Black
Yellow Cayenne
plus I didn't see these other two listed on the site but they were in there too!! :cheers:
NuMex Twilight
Hot Cherry


and from the Chilli Seed Bank some hotter ones
Big Jim
Tabasco
Thai Orange
Firecracker Piquin
Mixed Habanero pack (red, orange and choclate)
Bhut Jolokia
scared of the Jolokla beause I've seen some youtube videos :mouthonfire:


I'm going to put some in soil and pots and have space for three or four go in an aeroponics system. I only have a single blue fluoro for the seedlings so once they start to grow they're outside. I was going to make a hotbox/greenhouse so they can get humid and steamy and won't die if we have a cold night.
Does anyone know how much humidity they like? or direct me to a site with the info??
I don't know which types like different conditions. ie. which ones will flourish in pots or the aeroponics or out in the ground. Can anyone with experience tell me which ones are best?
I can't handle too much heat and I'm not sure exactly why I got the hottest chilli in the world :crazy: but growing them will be fun and I'll try every different one.
Planting them in a few days and I'll take pictures as I go.. hopefully get some good harvests.
 
Best of luck to you megamoo. Don't worry if you can't handle the Bhut, just use less in your food. A little can go a long way.
 
Let the good times roll!

You should be forewarned though of the obsession and addiction that comes with growing chillies. It is not an easy habit to break! ;)

Good luck and can't wait to see things unfold!
 
Thanks for the welcome.

I have been trying to find info about how much humidity the growing plants do best at. All that comes up is to keep germinating seeds humid. I have a hygrometer from a mini greenhouse but don't know what percent is best. Anyone know?


:dance: :dance:
this guy is cool
 
I just sowed the seeds. finding myself awake at 4am with nothing to do.

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I only put one seed in each pot cos I can't bear to thin out and kill a perfectly good seedling. So if a few varieties don't come up I'll still have my hands full of plants. I did extra Habaneros, I think the fruits look awesome. They're wrapped in plastic and on the heater so now I just have to wait. :cool:
 
Haha, yeah, thinning out sucks! It always breaks my heart. (seriously!) :crazy:

I have those same little pots too. Handy little things, aren't they?

And looking at your seed raising mix, I'm gonna say Yates?
 
gasificada said:
Haha, yeah, thinning out sucks! It always breaks my heart. (seriously!) :crazy:

I have those same little pots too. Handy little things, aren't they?

And looking at your seed raising mix, I'm gonna say Yates?
Click to expand...


The little pots are really good if you need to remove a seedling without disturbing the rest, but you still have to tip them upside down to transplant it. If you don't do it right it all falls to bits. Apparently chillies hate being transplanted so I'm gonna have to be insanely careful.

The seed mix is Debco. I tried Amgrow black label because it looked good in the Bunnings aisle but it was full of large twigs and wasn't fine at all. Haven't tried Yates before. I went off their vegetable seeds because some of them were coated with fungacide.

Hmmm I think I've bashed enough brand names for one post :flamethrower::fire::whistle:
 
You'll find that with a lot of mixes, especially here in the states, you will find all kinds of crap in mixes. Thats why a lot of us make our own soil. I still uses Sta Green in my "hand-made" soil, but not enough to worry about the debris. Some people have actually found bits of plastic in the MG stuff. And I THINK I head someone say they found a condom in one! lol
As far as humidity goes, there's really no set humidity level you will need. Once they sprout, just make sure they get light, and get watered. The MAIN thing is, once they have sprouted, DO NOT OVER-WATER!! You will certainly destroy your plant. You are going to want to baby your plants, as we all do when we first start out. (Hell, I killed MY first set of seedlings!) During the germination process, the big thing is keeping them at the correct temp. 85 degrees F. Then, once they sprout, make sure they have a good amount of light, keep them on a good rotation (epxperiment with that one...good place to start is just sticking them in a window if you just have a FEW plants), and water them correctly. What I usually do is wait until the plant actually starts to wilt just a TINY bit. What you need to realize is is the soil, although dry at the TOP, isnt dry at the bottom. If you water when the TOP looks dry, you will over water them and damage your plants.
I hope that all made sense. Its first thing in the morning, and I havent had my coffee yet! lol I am NOT a morning person!
And if you think the Bhut is the "hottest in the world," we need to hook you up with a Trinidad Scorpion, or some 7 pods.....lol

Sean
 
megamoo said:
The little pots are really good if you need to remove a seedling without disturbing the rest, but you still have to tip them upside down to transplant it. If you don't do it right it all falls to bits. Apparently chillies hate being transplanted so I'm gonna have to be insanely careful.

The seed mix is Debco. I tried Amgrow black label because it looked good in the Bunnings aisle but it was full of large twigs and wasn't fine at all. Haven't tried Yates before. I went off their vegetable seeds because some of them were coated with fungacide.

Hmmm I think I've bashed enough brand names for one post :flamethrower::fire::whistle:
Click to expand...
True, the little pots can be a wee bit of a PITA when it comes to transplant time but personally I find the benefit of being able to move plants individually outweighs that. Before transplanting I just make sure there is enough roots to hold the mix together, give the mix a good soak to help keep it together and also help with lubrication, put a finger on either side of the stem to help keep the plant in place (and to stop the plant from meeting it's death!), flip the pot, and tap like crazy on the bottom until it slides out. That seems to do the trick. As for chillies not liking transplanting, I think they are tougher than we sometimes give them credit for. I am easily one of the most inept gardeners out there but I have yet to kill one plant through transplanting. :D (others ways, yes, but not through transplanting)

I'm glad I didn't put any money on the mix being Yates. It just looked like it from here. Although I do find the texture of the Yates mix to sometimes be inconsistent from bag to bag. I guess at any given time it could resemble any other mix! :lol:

How are you finding the Debco mix? I haven't tried it yet.
 
I'll decide how good the mix is purely on what percentage of seedlings emerge from it. It looked really nice and fine dry but when it had been watered it went all comacted and I noticed a whole lot of wood fragments. I don't really care as long as they grow :onfire: :dance::woohoo: I once found a rusty nail in a bag of seed raising mix, can't remember the brand it was obscure. Probably added trace elements to the soil :rofl:
 
megamoo said:
I'll decide how good the mix is purely on what percentage of seedlings emerge from it. It looked really nice and fine dry but when it had been watered it went all comacted and I noticed a whole lot of wood fragments. I don't really care as long as they grow :onfire: :dance::woohoo: I once found a rusty nail in a bag of seed raising mix, can't remember the brand it was obscure. Probably added trace elements to the soil :rofl:
Click to expand...
I have found that all the seed raising mixes I have used do that to me (go all compacted when watered). Have you tried bottom watering? It can help a little but you have to be careful not to let too much water suck up or the same thing happens. I am actually quite more fond of using Jiffy pellets to raise but have had a few issues with mold this season which is why I switched back to seed raising mix for a bit to see how things go. Doesn't matter what you use, there is gonna be an issue with something! (at least for me anyway) :lol:

You found a nail? :eek:
 
I planted all the seeds at 4 am 10.10.10. Its now 15.10.10 11:30pm and finally!!!!!

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People say they take seven days but I have been so impatient!!

:banghead:
just pop up!!!
:banghead:

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I'm really eager to try a Habanero and I'm happy that one has started. The Bhut still has me nervous. :scared:

I got a Habanero Mix pack of seeds (red, orange and chocolate) Does anybody know is there a way to tell which one they are going to be before the pods set and mature???
The anticipation is going to drive me insane!!!
 
Awesome stuff! :dance: :woohoo:

megamoo said:
People say they take seven days but I have been so impatient!!

I'm really eager to try a Habanero and I'm happy that one has started. The Bhut still has me nervous. :scared:
Click to expand...
If it hasn't even been a week yet, don't give up hope on the Bhuts just yet! They can take a couple weeks.

megamoo said:
I got a Habanero Mix pack of seeds (red, orange and chocolate) Does anybody know is there a way to tell which one they are going to be before the pods set and mature???
The anticipation is going to drive me insane!!!
Click to expand...
Hahaha, I know the feeling! I just noticed a volunteer has popped up outside in the garden and have absolutely no idea what it could be! The best part is, the only seeds I threw out there were seeds that I thought were buggered and didn't germinate for me this season.... so unless it is from a seed that has been sitting there since last season, I will be growing something I thought I wouldn't be. :D
 
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