My first time growing anything

Devv · Apr 29, 2014

Can't give any advise on those, they popped and got there in a hurry.

Good luck this season!

HopsNBarley · Apr 29, 2014

Looks like you're well on your way.
Good luck!

MeatHead1313 · Apr 29, 2014

Looking great so far! Good luck!

cone9 · Apr 29, 2014

They look good Cy. Addiction comes easily here.

Dreamweaver · Apr 29, 2014

Nice...they should like your location from the other Floridian posts I've seen.

CYLONSAMONGUS · May 5, 2014

Things are movin' along. These guys are getting 6 hours of sun with a screen that blocks a good amount of the intensity from 9a-3p. Then they go under the lights from 3p-12a, then off till morning. So far none of them are flipping out so Ill just keep ramping up. I wish Id sowed my seeds a lot earlier but live and learn.

CYLONSAMONGUS · May 18, 2014

Guarding the flock!

Helvete · May 18, 2014

Looking good so far! I like the frog!

PaulG · May 18, 2014

Starts look great. Nice selection of varieties.

Roguejim · May 18, 2014

That frog is damn hot! Did you plant him there? As for advice, know that you will get every form of advice, often times, contradictory. Look at the Glogs, and go from there as to whom you want to listen to.

My advice, is to keep things simple. You do not need 12 hydro ferts to raise in-ground peppers. You do not need every organic soil amendment to grow peppers, either. Some are beneficial; few are essential. Many are spendy. Believe it or not, some use no ferts, and have stunning plants (check out windchicken's Glog...also, Pepper-Guru's). Again, study the Glogs, and form your opinion from there. It's not as scary as some would have you believe. Good luck, man!

geeme · May 18, 2014

AAAaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwww - look at the frog!

(And the plants look great, btw!)

I miss that part of living in Houston - all the little frogs in the springtime. Not much is cuter than that!

D3monic · May 18, 2014

Love the Cuban tree frog. Looking good so far, I too wish I would have started mine earlier. Especially with the short season we have here.

geeme · May 18, 2014

Roguejim said:
That frog is damn hot! Did you plant him there? As for advice, know that you will get every form of advice, often times, contradictory. Look at the Glogs, and go from there as to whom you want to listen to.

My advice, is to keep things simple. You do not need 12 hydro ferts to raise in-ground peppers. You do not need every organic soil amendment to grow peppers, either. Some are beneficial; few are essential. Many are spendy. Believe it or not, some use no ferts, and have stunning plants (check out windchicken's Glog...also, Pepper-Guru's). Again, study the Glogs, and form your opinion from there. It's not as scary as some would have you believe. Good luck, man!

While I basically agree with you, I have to point out one thing - the sole reason to use fertilizers, other than depletion due to repeat planting, is because the soil is not naturally ideal for the desired plant to be grown. SOME people are fortunate enough to have the perfect soil for chiles but many do not. Most of the people who use little fertilizer live in areas where chiles are native. Otherwise, often pH is too high or low, soil is too sandy or full of clay/rocks, not enough or too much nitrogen/calcium/iron, etc, etc. And keep in mind that composting is simply one form of fertilizing, as is adding worm castings, etc. Those of us who grow in pots can find how many potting soils that are perfect for peppers and tomatoes and need no amendment? You really cannot point to your own or even anyone else's experience and guarantee the same experience for everyone else. Ideally, when looking at the input of other members, it's good to find some who are familiar with your grow conditions (or at least similar conditions) and demonstrate practiced experience, especially when backed by research.

CYLONSAMONGUS · May 18, 2014

I just moved to a new part of Florida and these crazy tree frogs are everywhere it seems like. You can hear them chirping and beeping all night and I can see them hanging out in the corners of the porch roofing. I was pulling my plants in for the night and boom there one was just hangin out. @roguejim - yea I definitely want it to be simple as possible. I have a tendency to go balls out on things so I need to check myself a lot these days. I spend a large amount of time reading the glogs and trolling the net, mainly now for preparing for my final plant out. Above are 40 that are a month and change old and I ended up sewing 40 more from Judy's seeds which will probably see fruit October/November so hopefully I will have learned a little more about what I could do better based on round 1. I'm doing 10 gallon containers for 30 plants and 10 in a raised bed so I can compare how the 2 types will grow. For the containers I was thinking promix bx/worm castings/potting soil/mushroom compost/extra non-fert perlite which is what tmudder uses and he lives nearby and looking at his 2013 season he did really well. Not so sure about the raised bed yet but I have some time. Thanks guys!

Oh if any of you guys could gimmie your opinion on my container soil mix plans lemme know as I've pieced it together from what someone else used. I feel sorta out of place which isn't new really. About 10 years ago I took up keeping difficult corals which req's a good knowledge base of ph/alkalinity/ca/mg/nitrates/phosphtes/traces etc etc and this feels the same way only Im starting new again. More over I hope over time I develop that gut feeling of what I need to do with my garden based on whats going on, much like in reef keeping....

This is my other hobby, It's my smallish 93 cube which is only 3 years old...

Roguejim · May 18, 2014

geeme said:
While I basically agree with you, I have to point out one thing - the sole reason to use fertilizers, other than depletion due to repeat planting, is because the soil is not naturally ideal for the desired plant to be grown. SOME people are fortunate enough to have the perfect soil for chiles but many do not. Most of the people who use little fertilizer live in areas where chiles are native. Otherwise, often pH is too high or low, soil is too sandy or full of clay/rocks, not enough or too much nitrogen/calcium/iron, etc, etc. And keep in mind that composting is simply one form of fertilizing, as is adding worm castings, etc. Those of us who grow in pots can find how many potting soils that are perfect for peppers and tomatoes and need no amendment? You really cannot point to your own or even anyone else's experience and guarantee the same experience for everyone else. Ideally, when looking at the input of other members, it's good to find some who are familiar with your grow conditions (or at least similar conditions) and demonstrate practiced experience, especially when backed by research.

I'm not going to clutter up this guy's post beyond this response. I know you understand. Thanks for the reply, though. Not enough points of view in this pepper endeavor.

I was trying to make a simple point because I've seen some of the hydro fert lists posted by good members which easily went beyond 10 ferts, and these were for in-ground plants., These lists alone could scare off the pepper growing newbie. I would have never gotten into this game if I thought I needed 10+ ferts to grow pepper plants. Nowhere did I say, nor imply, that ferts were not necessary. My own Glog dispels this. I referenced windchicken, and Pepper-Guru because they have reduced this pepper growing experience, after some time, to the simple. They didn't get to this point, true, without building up their soil beforehand, even using ferts, in some cases. I am simply trying to put the newbie at ease, because I truly believe this should be easy, in the end. Thanks for the point of view.

D3monic · May 18, 2014

Nice reef tank, I used to have a 28 gal jbj hqi and 75gal macro algae / pipefish seahorse tank.

The 75gal was a bit of a mess as I started it out as a seagrass tank and used a planted aquaria base which of course fed cyano all the time.

CYLONSAMONGUS · May 18, 2014

Nice! That purple monte looks awesome! I recently bought a new setup and am still getting parts and will be my last tank I went with a 220g (couldnt afford rimless though) and a custom 75g refugium/sump with a frag chamber. Downside is bigger tank, bigger parts, more money. I need to get one more Ecotech Radion, another vortech mp40, and a solid return pump. I went with a Bubble Magnus recirc skimmer and reef octopus ca reactor, brs and reef octopus gfo/carbon reactors. I think with this reef I'll do mainly sps on one side and lps/softies on the other to limit warfare. Either way, it'll be awhile before I have all the gear I need. I'm gonna try and go used equipment where I can except for the return pump. Nice tanks!

CYLONSAMONGUS · May 25, 2014

1 month & 3 weeks out:

Looks like I have one diseased reaper from overwatering. Maybe it'll sort itself out. Using calmag and chilifocus on alternating dosing. Looking to pot out to finals bags in a few weeks I think.

and my very first pod from a reaper, yay!

CYLONSAMONGUS · May 31, 2014

I posted this in the tech thread but thought some of you guys would like this. This is my indoor growth setup. 2 led Radions that pump out an equivalent of 400w metal halide power each and are fully programmable from 0-20000 cycles. 100% intensity 30 inches in each direction wide and 100% intensity at 36" deep. They used to provide power for one of my sps coral tanks I just broke down. Right now I just snapped a photo at 100% 20k which is why theyre so blue. No heat which is a nice feature. Its summer here in Florida so they wont get a lot of use other than to beef up seedlings b4 I send them outside.