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Node madness

Skyjerk

Skyjerk

I had moved my Caribbeans Reds and Naga's into my growroom about 6 weeks back.

After about 10 days they were in really sad shape because the lighting just wasn't adequate.

I fixed that, and they all recovered and started pushing lush
green new leaves.
They are almost completely re-foliated 4 weeks after loosing most of their leaves.

The weird thing is that all the nice green new growth is getting ready to start flowering, and on the Naga Morich plants, they are pushing out as many as 10 flowers per node as opposed to the usual 4 or 5 that chinenses are known for and that these very plants were making all year long.

I haven't seen this before. Anyone know what this might be all about.

Node1.jpg
 
Skyjerk ,

Wish I could be of some real help here. But it does seem after less than perfect conditions they've bounced back big time. They look like they LOVE the conditions and you now !!

Where you've got more flowers , was that topped ? If so that might be the deal , but ????

Are going to try and get fruit off these ? If so and you don't get peppers starting and just flowers falling off , you might try hand pollinating them. I know one of the major Pepper Gurus here, POTAWIE , says you don't need to. But when I tried growing peppers indoors I got tons of flowers and no fruit. Then I was told to hand pollinate and it worked great.

Good luck,
P. Dreadie
 
I have seen this too...especially on the Nagas...if you look close you will see that what looks like one node is actually 2 or 3...usually happens when there are multiple branches from a single stem...
 
Since the plant is over 1 year old and feeling good...
The typical number does not apply here.
I think the higher age of this plant is the main reason.
Older = more hormonal.
Skyjerk said:
I haven't seen this before. Anyone know what this might be all about?
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Yes
It's all about lots of flowers in one spot.:cool:
That's gonna look so cool.
 
P. Dreadie said:
Are going to try and get fruit off these ?
Click to expand...

My main purpose is to keep them growing through the winter. If they produce fruit, then that's a bonus.

From the looks of things, (tons of flower buds) they will all be fruiting. I have a fan blowing on them all the time hard enough to keep all the branches moving
pretty good, and I turn it on high at least once a day and get them moving a LOT. This should be sufficient to pollinate them.
If its not, I'm not gonna bother trying to do it by hand. There isnt a lot of room to move around these plants.

All I really want is to start out next season with a few plants that are already large and mature so I can get a lot more peppers.

These plants probably produced 70 - 80 full sized ripe pods each
this year, and this was starting from seedlings in Jan, repotting them far too late, getting them outside too late, and having not-so-wonderful weather all year.

I'm hoping to quadruple the yield next season :hell:
 
Seen nagas/Morich go ape shit 2nd/3rd year and iam not surprised one bit the change in light obviously helped considerably to the process to,prepare for 100`s next season and a bigger freezer :)
 
Skyjerk said:
this year, and this was starting from seedlings in Jan, repotting them far too late, getting them outside too late, and having not-so-wonderful weather all year.

I'm hoping to quadruple the yield next season :hell:
Click to expand...
Hauw yaah!
That's what I'm tawking bout.
 
Skyjerk said:
I had moved my Caribbeans Reds and Naga's into my growroom about 6 weeks back.

After about 10 days they were in really sad shape because the lighting just wasn't adequate.

I fixed that, and they all recovered and started pushing lush
green new leaves.
They are almost completely re-foliated 4 weeks after loosing most of their leaves.
Click to expand...
What lights did you have first that resulted in the plants wilting and loosing leaves? What did you add to that to get to what you have total now? How far up do you have the 400 watt HPS above the plants now?

The reason I'm asking is I just switched my 250 watt Flourescent to a 430 watt HPS and the plants (after one full day) look like they stressed some. They didn't wilt, but the leaves seemed to drop a little. I moved the light up from 18inches to about 24 inches. Is this similar to the height you use?
 
NatGreenMeds said:
What lights did you have first that resulted in the plants wilting and loosing leaves? What did you add to that to get to what you have total now? How far up do you have the 400 watt HPS above the plants now?

The reason I'm asking is I just switched my 250 watt Flourescent to a 430 watt HPS and the plants (after one full day) look like they stressed some. They didn't wilt, but the leaves seemed to drop a little. I moved the light up from 18inches to about 24 inches. Is this similar to the height you use?
Click to expand...

I started out not using the HPS lamp because I was trying to save electricity. I also had the plants way too far away from the lamp sitting on the floor.

I would say that the tops of the foliage is now 12 - 14" on average from the HPS and fluorescent lamps, and the CFL's are hanging right at the
level of the plants, which I raised up a few feet.
Last thing I added was large "mirrors" that I made out of large sheets of corrugated cardboard wrapped with aluminum foil. These are on the walls all around and save a lot of what previously was wasted light by reflecting it all back at the plants. The walls were painted white, but that still wasn't reflective enough.

As before, I have a humidifier in there and humidity during the day hangs around 65 - 70%
and the temp around 84 F.

Of course I keep a fan blowing over the tops of the plants constantly because I dont want the heat from the lamp building up and cooking the leaves.

Check out the growroom pix

There are 2 Naga's closer to the camera, and 2 Caribbens behind. The Naga's are still holding on to some of the leaves that were damanged from the lack of light. These are the ones that appeay pale green/yellow.
Almost all the rest is all new leaves that have grown since I made these changes.
They made quite a recovery...
 
Thanks for your reply, Skyjerk. I had my 430 watt HPS at 18 inches and the plants were stressing. The temp was at 87 with no fan. It's normally around 80 in my house during the day, so under the light, 87 is expected. I'm going to move a fan over there today. That will help with the heat and also make the stems stronger.

If I could offer you some advice, pitch the foil and paint your walls bright, flat white. That will create way more reflection. Foil is one of the worst reflectors there is.

I use BEHR Premium Plus, Interior Flat, Ultra Pure White, NO.1050

The plants actually grow taller near the painted walls than they do directly under the light.

I've moved my 430 watt HPS light to 24 inches now and today, the plants seem to be liking life a lot more.

Thanks again for your information.
 
NatGreenMeds said:
If I could offer you some advice, pitch the foil and paint your walls bright, flat white. That will create way more reflection. Foil is one of the worst reflectors there is.
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Actually, and with all due respect, I have to disagree with you almost completely on this point. ;)

I did have the walls painted bright, flat white previously.

This is easily established by the fact that light reflected off the foil casts a sharp, distinct shadow now, where it did not previously cast any discernible shadow at all.

This clearly shows that far more light was being absorbed by the white paint, that is now being reflected back.

Additionally, if I look at the reflection of the lights in the foil, it blinds me and hurts my eyes almost as much as looking directly at the light, where previously you could stare at it all day.

The white paint certainly reflects better than darker colors, but it absorbs far more photons than the glossy side of the foil, and diffuses a lot of what it does reflect.

While foil is certainly not the best reflector around, it is definitely far better than white paint.
 
Skyjerk said:
Actually, and with all due respect, I have to disagree with you almost completely on this point. ;)

I did have the walls painted bright, flat white previously.

This is easily established by the fact that light reflected off the foil casts a sharp, distinct shadow now, where it did not previously cast any discernible shadow at all.

This clearly shows that far more light was being absorbed by the white paint, that is now being reflected back.

Additionally, if I look at the reflection of the lights in the foil, it blinds me and hurts my eyes almost as much as looking directly at the light, where previously you could stare at it all day.

The white paint certainly reflects better than darker colors, but it absorbs far more photons than the glossy side of the foil, and diffuses a lot of what it does reflect.

While foil is certainly not the best reflector around, it is definitely far better than white paint.
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If you're talking about regular tin foil like you buy at the grocery store, you're totally wrong.

If you're talking about mylar "foil" then yes, mylar has slightly better reflectivity than flat white paint.

If you like, I can show you the charts that prove this.

It's really pointless to argue about it since as I said, it's already proven beyond any doubt what-so-ever.

I'll find the chart and post it. You'll see that tin foil is WAY down on the list.
 
Nice nodes dude:lol:
Foil can reflect better than white paint but it needs to be perfectly flat or it will creates hot spots. Its probably worth the investment to buy some mylar, you'll notice the difference right away.
 
This chart was taken from one of the commercial lighting sites I've been on. I've found the same stats on several pages.

I'll keep looking for it again, but here's the copy I kept. In the chart, you'll see that mylar is the best. Just under it is Flat White Paint.

Please, contact any lighting company and ask. If this information has changed in the last year, I'd sure like to know it. When I say lighting company, I don't mean the table lamp store down the street. I mean "Sylvania" or one of the big ones.

 
Mylar makes a good mulch too?
graphi1526.jpg
It should keep the top of the soil from drying out as fast and keep the algae under control. As long as it doesn't cause too much mold to build up in the soil it's going to keep the moisture layer levels in the soil balanced.
This isn't really mylar, but it'll work.
 
Mylar is the cats meow...I use it in my 4'X 4' X 6' grow box...and it is not that expensive either...one thing...if you (or anyone else) decides to use mylar, use the thicker one...the hydroponics store where I bought mine carries two different thicknesses...flatly I don't remember if it was 1 and 2 mil or 2 and 5 mil...the thin stuff tears easily...
 
NatGreenMeds said:
This chart was taken from one of the commercial lighting sites I've been on. I've found the same stats on several pages.
Click to expand...

You make a very convincing argument, however my eyes tell me exactly the opposite of what you are saying.

I have flat white paint in there. Light reflecting from this was not intense enough to cast a shadow and I could look at it all day.

Light reflecting off the foil not only casts a shadow, but a very sharply contrasted and easy to see shadow and I cant look at it for long without hurting my eyes.

Of course visible light isnt the entire story so at the
very least, you have convinced me to do some more research.
Regarding your chart, I wouldn't mind knowing the source of that data.

In the meantime, at least my plants are kicking ass now so even if foil int doing me any good, the plants are not suffering
from the difference.
 
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