Next to My Chair

Been thinking about it.. pretty sure I'm growing peppers because I'm bored.  Like, deeply, existentially bored.  Plus, a little harmless pain never hurt anybody, right?  Hell, it's probably even good for you.  We'll see if those are good enough reasons, I guess.  I bought me some "Scotch Bonnet Orange" seeds from Amazon before I found you fine folk, lurked around here for a while, then planted them anyway along with other, infinitely less suspect seeds I ordered from far flung places around the globe(!) as recommended by the very venerable Vendor Vault.  I've got them growing here by my chair.  I sit here and read. (The wall to my right as I took this picture is lined with bookshelves I'm slowing filling as I try to forget the world each afternoon.  Mostly scifi the last few years.)  It would be distracting to have a big boxy tent looming over me, so I've just got them sitting there on a cardboard box.  I hope to replace the box with a little table here soon.

 
 
My rig consists of something like a quarter of the full Amazon Indoor Garden of Tomorrow-orrow-orrow-orrow ®.  This LED light I got is something else, man.  It's REALLY bright!  Paper towel germination, used a few Jiffy pellets, stuck some seeds straight in some old Miracle Grow I had, kept them in the Jiffy box there until they sprouted.  I'm glad to be rid of that Jiffy dome now; it was a pain in the ass.  Ahh.. let's see.. I'm mixing CNS17 Grow into RO/DI water, testing and adjusting up with GH pH kit, pouring it over my little darlings there in about 3:1 coco:perlite.  Just culled and potted up today to 3.5 inches.  All seems to be going well except for some slight canoeing of leaves, which I'm ready to blame on the 24% humidity (We wake up half mummified in the winter.  I know - grow tent.) and a few early spills on my rug.  Trying to keep it simple and not drive myself crazier futzing with dozens of parameters here, so I'm not going to sweat it unless things turn worse.  I'm not!  Worry verges on religion with me, so this will either be therapeutic or turn out to have been a bad idea.. 
Any and all comments or criticisms are very welcome and I thank you all most warmly for having me and schooling me and reading my noodlings! 

 

[Uncle Eckley]

 
There's many VA growers here that know better than I do, but just looking at your historical averages I wouldn't let them see any 40-something overnights. I'd wait a bit and then until there was a good warm weather stretch to leave them out.  If you harden them off bringing them in at night for a while seems you could pretty easily keep them above 50F and likely even keep them 5F higher, at least for the first week or so after plant-out/overnights just by timing it right.  Sure, dipping below 50F isn't going to hurt them if they're hardened off, but to keep that growth momentum you have going I'd aim to keep them a bit warmer.
 

 
Got it. 
 
We need a page topper emoji. 

 

[CaneDog]

 
Got it.  I edited my last post so maybe it makes sense now.
 
We need a page topper emoji. 

 
I don't have one, but I can offer you either a or a in recognition.

 

[Uncle Eckley]

It made sense before, just not as pretty. 

 

[Downriver]

Plants are looking awesome U_E. Yeah, watch out for the weather this weekend - calling for 3" of rain in some places. I hope this isn't a preview of coming attractions like last year!

 

[PaulG]

Wow, Unc, your plants are stellar looking!
You are coming into summer in strong fashion!
 
I am looking forward to seeing your garbage
can pepper!

 

[Uncle Eckley]

Thanks, DR! Thanks, Paul!
 

 

[Devv]

 
Ha. That's a natural progression with the season for me.  I start by checking for hooks multiple times a day to now checking the weather multiple times a day. 
 
There's many VA growers here that know better than I do, but just looking at your historical averages I wouldn't let them see any 40-something overnights. I'd wait a bit and then until there was a good warm weather stretch to leave them out.  If you harden them off bringing them in at night for a while seems you could pretty easily keep them above 50F and likely even keep them 5F higher, at least for the first week or so after plant-out/overnights just by timing it right.  Sure, dipping below 50F isn't going to hurt them if they're hardened off, but to keep that growth momentum you have going I'd aim to keep them a bit warmer.
 

        
By contrast, look at this crap - which is why this guy had to build hoop houses.
 

 
EDIT - OK, that first attempt was a formatting fail...

 
I so agree with this. If I plant peppers with the maters they just sit there. Maters don't care about low 40's. The goal is 50° at night or better for peppers. Yes, sometimes stuff happens and we get a freak cold front, and we did this year. But the goal is always 50°
 

 

[Uncle Eckley]

Had this guy out to change his nutrient today.  Only tiny abortive buds so far.  He's growing new branches up from the base.  Starting to think about adding inexpensive fluorescent tubes to stand vertically alongside..

 

[Uncle Eckley]

Is this a fungus gnat, or just some sheltering bug?  He looks like a tiny mosquito. 
 
Edit: I think it's just a midge.  No segmented antennae, too small to even see any Y-shaped veins in the wings. 

 

[CaneDog]

It definitely has a Diptera look to it, but I doesn't really look like a fungus gnat to me.  Hard to be certain though from just a pic and with the variation in how they can look.
 
How's it going E?  Have you been able to keep giving your plants day trips outside?

 

[Uncle Eckley]

Yes, though they're not really trips anymore.  It was trips for a few days; I took in anybody who went wilty.  Now if anybody looks stressed I slide him into shade and that seems to be enough.  The FO bound for the garbage can is doing really well outside. 

 

[CDNmatt]

Is this a fungus gnat, or just some sheltering bug?  He looks like a tiny mosquito. 
 
Edit: I think it's just a midge.  No segmented antennae, too small to even see any Y-shaped veins in the wings. 

 
Whenever I see/hear the word midge it makes me think of this
 
https://vimeo.com/276052050
 
 
The whole episode brought me to tears when I first saw it

 

[Uncle Eckley]

Found the 5-gallon bucket FO flopped over on its side when I went in this morning.    Lost a few of the large lower leaves.  It's pivoting around the little net cup in the hole in the lid.  Gotta glue it down this afternoon.
 

 

[Uncle Eckley]

What's this?  Rot or something? 
 

 

[skullbiker]

What's this?  Rot or something? 
 

Bug bites!

 

[Uncle Eckley]

Bug bites!

 
Yeah?  That's something of a relief.  The white scared me a little. 

 

[Uncle Eckley]

Got the garbage can filled with 28 gallons of water.  Forecast calls for a cool night Sunday.  Plant goes in Monday afternoon. 
 

 

[skullbiker]

Got the garbage can filled with 28 gallons of water.  Forecast calls for a cool night Sunday.  Plant goes in Monday afternoon. 
 

Good looking cage, did you check the ph after all nutrients are in?

 

[skullbiker]

One more thing on the cage. Can you get your hand through those openings to pick the peppers?

 

[Uncle Eckley]

Good looking cage, did you check the ph after all nutrients are in?

 
Thanks!  It's just water in there now.  I'll be sure to adjust the pH before I add the plant.  Strange, this did somehow feel different from filling a jar or bucket; I think I just might have forgotten the pH.  Maybe because I'm doing it outside and not next to my chair..  Plants outside get the hose.  Thanks for the reminder! 
 
I've got a window cut in the cage there somewhere.  I couldn't find any wire fencing with wider spacing.    
I've thought about cutting more windows so larger leaves aren't so pent up, but the wire nubs are sharp and scratchy. (Reckon they'll rust, too.)  Guess I could take a day and file down all the nubs, but then, still, la rouille.