Nebbul's maiden grow

Hi,
 
Decided to start growing from seeds after being gifted a plant two years ago. I loved to see the plant develop and produce pods in my window
 
Discovered these forums after I started growing. Also waited until now to start my very own Grow log with pictures and videos. Hope you'll enjoy!
 
March 16 – day 0
Seed purchase and germination. These seeds was purchased from a German hardware store named OBI. I put seeds in wet napkins which I then placed inside airtight ziplock bags.
 
Purchased these type seeds:
'Apache'
Capsicum annuum
80.000 SHU
 
'Fiesta Cayenne Mix'
Capsicum annuum
15.000-30.000 SHU
red, yellow, purple and green fruits
 
'Habanero Mix'
Capsicum annuum 
500.000 SHU
red, yellow, orange and green fruits
 
'Naga Morich'
Capsicum chinense
1.000.000 SHU
 

 
March 21 – day 5
At this stage I discovered small mould patches on the wet tissues so I decided to plant them. Roughly 90% germination success – great seeds?
I used degradable pots and seed starting soil. I put these in small Greenhouses for an optimal start

 
March 29 – day 13
Had been away on holiday a week and came home to this! Made my day

 
April 9 – day 24
Naga Morich sprouts are in the bottom left container. Starting to notice they be growing a little slower than the others

 
April 13 – day 28
First and second set of true leaves have developed and I decided to transplant them into bigger size containers (~11cm) in proper soil. Leaves was poking the inside of greenhouse plastic walls. Since the sprouting cube things is degradable I just put it all in there and covered them in soil (tomato soil). Some roots had already started to penetrate the planting pots.
I left a few plants to another day since this took longer than expected, even with help! Also left the few that hadn’t sprouted yet

 
April 21 – day 36
I am under attack!! These little bastards started appearing when applying fertilizer. Think I had been overwater them. Decided to not water them at all until top soil was dry. Also planned a purchase for NEEM which I would start to apply as soon as possible
I think these are fungus grant larvae?

 
April 23 – day 38
Potted a few more. Still some slow sprouts in the greenhouses together with two that didn’t sprout at all. My 20 Liter soil bag is starting to feel a bit light.

 
May 3 – day 48
Yellow papers are Fly traps. They haven’t caught anything at this point. There is a double plant in the other picture which made it through the sprouting stage. It’s an experiment
All sprouts has now been potted! Had to throw a tiny Naga sprout away since I ran out of soil

 
May 6 – Day 51
Busy day for the plants. Took them outside and also topped a few of the big ones! I have never topped a plant before, recorded a video for your pleasure. I have no idea what I’m doing. Last picture is topping results

[media]https://youtu.be/1wPXD4_45vE[/media]

 

[kepab]

Good luck on your grow mate, you're lucky to find those awesome seeds at a hardware store. /envy
Plants are looking great and healthy. How did topping them work for you? Did you keep a few un-topped so you can make a comparison?

Trimis de pe al meu SM-G920F folosind Tapatalk

 

[dragonsfire]

Looking good

 

[nebbul]

May 12 - Day 57
Moved the strong guys outside on my balcony a few days ago. I'm regularly checking night temperature forecasts and will move them inside if it is supposed to go below 10 degrees during dark hours. Had a few half-days of hardening off so they wouldn't get chocked from being outside. Hope I can keep them outside, they seem to like it. I can see there will be quite hot here when the sun is out, especially in the coming months during summer. Balcony is facing directly south which means lots of sun hours. Trying to prepare them for this heat. Maybe should get a thermometer I can look up on my phone and move them inside in case their soil is about to boil

 
This is my double plant. They are growing really strong and bushy. Tempted to move them to a bigger pot. Will investigate the roots in a few days when the soil has dried a bit more

 
Here are a closeup of topping results. Lots of new nodes. Quite obvious I have some moss in there. Could that be a problem? My plan is to move them to bigger pots in roughly two weeks. Will mix in new soil then

 
A few slow growers still get to wait inside. Some of these are also in topping batch #2. Trying not to chock them too much

 
This is my tallest plant. Topping does not seem to stop this one! Might be worth topping it again soon? Could be nice with some variety of plant shapes too, so might keep it like this

 
My 'funny' colored Cayenne. Stem is colored differently then all other plants. Seed bag stated the Cayenne mix seeds would include varieties of "red, yellow, purple and green fruits". My guess is this will produce purple pods?

 

[nebbul]

May 23 - Day 68
 
Update shots of the growth progress

 
Good news: spotted a few buds. Most plants are starting to produce these now. Will probably snip them off once they get a bit bigger as I don't want to have pods yet. I want to get them bigger first

 
Bad news: Aphid attack
I noticed them quite early. I used diluted Fairy liquid in a spray bottle and sprayed the bugs I could see. Also manually picked them off with my fingers and crushed the little bastards

 
Preparing to pot the few plants I'm keeping (will give away the rest to friends and co-workers). These are 5 liter pots and should be their final containers. Got regular fruits & vegetable soil
Got myself Aphid repellant. I'm guessing this is just expensive Soap with water. Fairy liquid could be as effective I'm guessing

 
Potted up! Forgot to take a picture of their root systems.. repotting was in order! Also my hands was quite dirty so didn't want to touch my camera

 
Finally the current layout

 
Still battling the Aphids. Was supposed to give away the plants this week but they appeared out of nowhere. Don't want to give away infected plants and I'm doing everything I can to get rid of them. Manual pick off, diluted Fairy liquid, yellow glue stickers.. Biggest problem I think right now against the Aphids is that I have so many plants I have to treat, which I'm doing every day

 

[solid7]

Looks like you killed a friend in the photo. 

 

[nebbul]

Looks like you killed a friend in the photo.

How do you mean?

 

[nebbul]

June 6 - Day 81
 
I have now donated 16 of my 21 plants to colleagues and friends and I'm sure the plants will be happy in their new homes. I'm left with these five plants. Cayenne, Habanero, Naga Morich, 2xApache

 
Closeup of my Habanero. It's just starting to grow for real, it has had quite a slow start

 
My double Apache. I'm curious to see how these two develope as I have another Apache growing solo. Will have to see if I need to move these two into a bigger pot later

 
Cayenne. Has four main branches thanks to topping! These branches are now starting to fork at the ends. Time for another topping? Maybe pruning.. It does need some trimming to grow bushier. Suggestions?

 

[OCD Chilehead]

Beautiful plants. Starting to bush out nicely. Very organized glog.

 

[nebbul]

I have decided to do another round of Topping/Pruning to the big Cayenne. Why throw the branches away I thought? Let's try cloning. Investigated possible places to get Cloning Gel... Nearest shop happened to be a Head shop. I don't regret visiting as they had the most amazing grow tools and equipment! Will post a cloning update soon!

 

[nebbul]

Intermediate Cloning update 1 - Day 0
 
After purchasing Cloning Gel I have now created a few clones. Picked a few branches I thought would be good candidates without setting the parent plant back too much. I took one Cayenne and three Apaches. The Cayenne only had one good branch I could take.
 
As I already had seed starter soil mix (conserves moisture very well) and small grow houses I decided to try Soil Cloning

I'm quite aware it might be a bit late for cloning. These new plants (if they survive) might not be able to carry pods this year.. However, I think its fun to try new things and then maybe next year I can take cloning to the next level

Anyway, this is how I did it:

1. Filled up small pots with seed starter soil, compacted it and watered generously. It's important to be quick
2. Identify good branch to cut
3. Cut branch off at stem
4. Pruned branch from unwanted foliage. Picked off all flower buds
5. Made a diagonal cut along the stem where it can suck up water
6. Dipped stem base at cut in Cloning gel
7. Planted branch into soil pretty deep without hitting the bottom
8. Watered even more, until soil was completely saturated
9. Compacted soil again, to make sure the plant can suck up water through the cut more efficiently
10. Profit?

Almost forgot to label them

 
I will keep them here shaded and cool

 

[karoo]

Great grow/glog.
Good luck!

 

[cubbieblue82]

looking good!

 

[nebbul]

June 26 - Day 101
 
Growth progress so far. I decided to stake them all, this came a bit late, next time I will stake plants when transplanting so roots don't get shredded. Looking at the Apache plants in the back one can see the double plant has two stakes. These two plants are significantly smaller than the single plant who's got its own pot. Double planting require bigger containers if it's to be effective I guess. Will see later when they start producing pods which gets highest yield.

 
Have not yet posted a flowering update, here are some pods instead! Apaches are pumping out flowers like mad. Cayenne has flowers but no pods so far. Habanero will most likely pop out its own flowers in a week or two, same thing with the Naga.

 
Left is a Habanero right is a Naga. They are quite happy and continue to grow well

 
This are comparison between two Cayennes. I gave this plant away early in development. Main differences is the left received a topping and was also fertilized. Right plant was not topped and not fertilized. Thanks to the topping the left one have four main stems that are starting to branch even more. The stake is 60 cm (24") long and its just tall enough for the plant. Quite big difference if you ask me. Conclusion? Topping is great

 

[nebbul]

Intermediate Cloning update 2 - Day 15
 
I pulled out all the clones to see if there was any roots developed. Only the Cayenne had started developing roots. Threw away the failed Apache clones. One Apache even had some mould on it

 
Here is the new roots developing nicely

 
Replanted the Cayenne into a new pot with fresh soil

 
Took two new Apache clones as it could be fun trying a different cloning technique. Plants are submerged in water. Simple yogurt containers and plastic + tape