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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.
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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! 
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My seedlings and plants sometimes go through
little spasms, but they usually grow out of it. Sort
of like catching a cold :lol:  I don't worry so much
about it anymore, trying not to kill 'em with kindness.
 
If a leaf looks too bad, I cut it off. Otherwise, I
don't do much if just isolated plants are affected.
 
I'd feel like I was doing it just to do something.  
 
There's got to be something I've done wrong.  I never rinsed the coco, just gave the brick tap water..  Maybe my ro/di filter is shot..  Or the pH could be swinging up to a half a point between jugs of solution because I'm testing with drops..  Or I got a bad quart of fertilizer..  Or I didn't get that first milk jug clean enough and I've got ohmygods growing in my pots..  
 
I prefer oscillating to a steady stream.  If I have to use a steady fan I try not to point it directly on the plants or I keep it at a greater distance.  I like being able to turn up an oscillating fan a bit and let it push fresh air through the plant and strengthen the stems and limbs, without it being constantly on them and having too much of a drying effect.  Not seeing anything wrong with those leaves and the little bit of marginal/interveinal necrosis other than what would be consistent with the similar chlorosis you've already seen and frankly those leaves look pretty healthy to me.
 
While I was feeding/watering my plants I noticed two of my Fatalii have some canoe leaves starting. The silly things also have flower buds. At Thanksgiving they were seeds.
 
Not sure why this is happening but since it's been hot and stinkin' humid all week, I've had to run the dehumidifier more and more which is a fine heater all by itself. Now the temps are constantly running between 80 and 90 and the humidity is still going up to almost 90% in the morning when I turn the dehumidifier on. So maybe with those factors, my light is too strong for them. We'll see. At least it's supposed to cool off again tomorrow.
 
 
 
It is the total opposite for me...Dry dry dry...I started leaving a couple small trays with water in them closer to the side lights to get abit of moisture in the air, though I need to be careful as most of my strips are not waterproof.
 
No leaf curl as of yet but 1 or 2 have what looks like small burns on the corners....been paying more attention to that past few days to see if it gets any worse or not.
 
I think its hard not to worry Eccoli when time and effort has  been put into a hobby where success or failure can almost be determined in the first few months.
 
Uncle_Eccoli said:
I'd feel like I was doing it just to do something.  
 
There's got to be something I've done wrong.  I never rinsed the coco, just gave the brick tap water..  Maybe my ro/di filter is shot..  Or the pH could be swinging up to a half a point between jugs of solution because I'm testing with drops..  Or I got a bad quart of fertilizer..  Or I didn't get that first milk jug clean enough and I've got ohmygods growing in my pots..  
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Sounds like the stuff of nightmares  :shocked:
 
I agree with everybody else, you are in the
ballpark for sure.  Matty's right in that it is
hard not to obsess over your charges. I guess
it's okay to obsess, just don't do anything  :lol:
 
Walchit said:
I don't feel like a light dosing of calmag would hurt, and that would give you a few days to leave them alone and see what happens lol
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Yeah, that or a little Epsom Salts. A lot of
folk swear by it. I've only used it sporadically.
I usually use cal-mag since my bottle has
lasted six seasons!
 
Uncle_Eccoli said:
I've got this little fan oscillating.  The plants get a little jolt every few seconds.  Should I have it blowing straight on them continuously?  
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I use a non-oscillating small desk fan. I run it an
hour every other day. Since I sort of move the
plants around and group them for 'fanning'
they don't always get the air from the same side.
 
Oscillating is probably best, but this seems to do the job.
My plants have stout, lignified stems by the six-week
transplant time.
 
CraftyFox said:
I've been having a bit of that "canoe leaf" as well. It seems like it happens after I water them.. Not sure I'm doing this cup-in-cup thing right.
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Not much can go wrong with the cups. The only thing
I do is leave the sleeve on overnight after watering, then
take it off, dumping any residual water in the cup. I leave
the sleeve off until the next watering.  This air-prunes the
roots at the drain holes, making a nice, bushy root ball,
and helps control fungus gnats in the holes'.
 
Friday shot.
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Moved the Twilights to the window. No change with them. Looking pretty rough, not growing much. Putting out buds, though.

Another Reaper starting to show that same freakiness as the one I posted earlier. The two larger ones are doing okay.

Got one of the cayennes into a jar this afternoon. He looked pretty pent up. I didn't think to get a picture right when the pot came off.

There's one DouglahTX that's just beautiful, sitting there making everybody else look like lepers.

I'm not watering until the medium almost completely dried out and the plant is just beginning to wilt. That's a little later than ideal, I know, but I don't trust my judgment there yet. I'm sure I was watering too much before.

I'm also trying really hard to look at the large green areas on my leaves and not the small brown ones. Many thanks to everyone who posted encouraging messages and suggestions the last few days; I really appreciate it. I'd been driving myself crazy reading about weird plant diseases and horticultural witchcraft all over the intraweebs, had to turn away for a bit. Light. Water. Nutrients. Stop thinking so much.
 
Leaf cupping that isnt from pest or disease or calcium or your mother-in-law's cooking.... is pretty much always to do with transpiration being too high or too low.  "Cocoon" cupping is usually the plant trying to decrease transpiration while "canoe" cupping is the opposite, the plant trying to increase heat and total transpiration.
 
 
My order of operations would be to move the fan back first and check, then try upping humidity then lowering heat/light intensity. If all else failed my last resort would be to prepare them for a move outside, but I'm not sure how great your conditions are in VA right now.
 
I'm sure this advice was offered here once or twice before but i figured id throw my two cents in :D
 
 
Hope all the best for your grow!!
 
 
 
Friday again.  I thanked the box a few days ago.  Now I'm on the floor on a dog crate tray; didn't move the light, so it's effectively much higher.  Gradually getting moved up to jars or larger pots.  It's been slow going only because I'm too lazy to mix up more than a gallon of nutrient solution at a time.  I ought to fill a bucket from milk jugs and mark the water level so I can mix five gallons of the stuff.
 
It's dry, dry, dry in here.  I've got water in those trays trying to get the humidity up.  Reading 36% today.  I'm back to futzing with it as it's the only parameter that makes sense to me to change: 
  • My light is my light; the only thing I can really do with it is raise and lower it.  I've come to believe the plants find it too intense, so it's pretty high now, probably three feet from the little SB seedlings.  They're not stretching, so I figure it's okay like that.  I harbor generalized suspicions about the light.
  • I went with this CNS17 fertilizer because it's supposed to be complete and therefore simple to use.  I've been mixing it a little weaker than what's directed on the bottle.  I recently saw somewhere on the Botanicare website to mix it at half strength for DWC..  Anybody know why?  Should I take it down to half strength for my Kratky jars, too?
  • The daytime high temperature in here varies from mid-70s to low-80s depending on how cold it is outside.  The colder it is outside, the warmer it is in my room.  Not much I can do about the temperature.
  • I'm worried about this fan pushing dry air past my plants, but I'm scared to turn it off, too.  The intumescences I've discovered really make my stomach drop.  The more I read about it the more it seems nobody really knows what the hell causes it.  Frustrating.
  • I'm watering as infrequently as I can, waiting until the plants almost wilt, then pouring on the nutrient solution until it runs out the bottom of the pot. (Is that right?)  I've been really surprised at how tolerant the plants are of dry medium.  I'm sure I was watering too much before.  I love not having to worry about when to water with the jars.
 
Overall, I'm feeling pretty aimless. My plants are growing, but I've got way too many gnarly and deformed leaves to feel good about my little garden.  I have no real plan for the future of this thing.  Right now I think I'd be happy to let everybody just live in the four usable south-facing windows, but I'll lose the sun when the tree and rose bush out front fill in as the weather warms.  The northerly sky platform designs are still percolating.. I could easily have a few trees felled or limbed up to get some sun in the backyard.. I'm even ready to leave 5-gallon buckets just in front of the garage door and make the HOA stop me..  Still scared of bugs, though.  
 
Almost everything is green.  I'm seeing more buds and flowers.  I've had no major disasters.  Shouldn't this be enough for the greenhorn?
 
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