Normal growth for a Carolina reaper?

[Eroll26]

Hey! This is my first try growing super hot chilis or any chilis for that matter, so I dont really have any prior experiences with these plants.
I sprouted 6 reaperseeds and this is the only survivor.

It just felt like it grows really slow so Im just looking for some feedback on my plant.

19/6 it looked like this:

And today 6/9 it looks like this:

I topped it about a week ago. I have added some wormcastings as topdressing and repotted it into a 1.8 gallon container.
Right now I have it under about 70w LEDs in a mylar growtent, but I plan on going to a 300w LED.
Based on the pictures and info, would you say the plant is healthy or should I change anything in my setup?
Thanks / Christian

 

[Peter_L]

Hard to say exactly by the picture, but the brown/black specks on the larger leaves are a little concerning at first glance. Can you get a good picture of the underside of those leaves? The newer small leaves don't appear to have the problem so maybe it was something you fixed already. Otherwise, if it's growing well, I don't fix what isn't broken.

 

[moruga welder]

better drainage ( more perlite ) how is this plant ?
 

 

[cooked]

my reaper is also very slow. Only slightly larger then the last pic after 3 months. However im using 300 watts

 

[Eroll26]

Thanks for the replies! I added a 300w LED to the growtent. I also sprayed my plants with epsom salt and watered with worm castings tea and after this it really took of so Im pleased with the current growth rate, and the leaves also look healthier!
Picture today 24/9:

 

[KAOS]

Hi Christian
 
Looking good. Do you do anything special making the tea and what light are you using in there?

 

[Edmick]

Looks great. Worm castings are my best friend. And kelp extract. I started using Epsom salt half way through this years grow. Hard to say if it had any effect.

 

[Eroll26]

Hi Christian
 
Looking good. Do you do anything special making the tea and what light are you using in there?

Hey!
Thank you! Nothing advanced, I bought organic worm castings and filled an old sock with it, then let it sit in a bucket of water over night. I also added it as topdressing and the plants seem to love it.
The light is a viparspectra rig from Amazon. The heat output in my small area is just perfect with a 16/8 lightschedule.

Looks great. Worm castings are my best friend. And kelp extract. I started using Epsom salt half way through this years grow. Hard to say if it had any effect.

Thanks! Yes I started out with a concentrated nutrient called Chilifocus and I think that made the damage on the leaves worse.
As of right now Im only using organic firtilizers and I will look into trying fish and kelpextracts next!
I cant really vouch for epsom salt yet either, but my plants looks healthier then ever right now.

 

[Eroll26]

I just have some followup questions.
The last couple of days since the last post the reaper has really taken off.

I see growth every day and it even started showing quite alot of flower buds:

I was just wondering, how common is it that the first set of buds turn to pods generally?
Also should I keep spraying with epsom salt when there are flowers or can that hurt the flowers in any way?
Thanks!

 

[SwedishGhost]

Nice to see someone else growing in a tent under LED lights. I myself have a running tent with ~500W actual power usage on 16 square foot. We might be able to assist each other this winter!
​
​Regarding the buds: It's not unheard of. I would in this case cut them off as soon as possible to reduce apical dominance and get more foliage. The buds after that however, I would probably keep. But to each and their own. If you cut them of you will get more foliage quicker and if you have space, it might be worth it. But it's a controversial subject since it's not really clear what's better. I prefer it personally.
​
​Regarding epsom salt: No, it shouldn't be a problem. Feel free to spray on. Right at budding for fruit production is probably the most beneficial time. Do not do it too often though. I would limit to a maximum of once every 2 weeks, but probably a mean of at least 1 month overall. Also, try to limit to 0.5 % MgSO4 (w/w %) with a very small amount of dish soap (for wetting agent). You really don't need more since this is also a mega-dose, which is the point. At 2 % you might start seeing burn and it's wise to keep yourself from this level with a marginal. 0.5 % is what I do and I've had any problems. Also, do not EVER try to combine this with insecticidal soap. I've got a thread on here about my stupidity (spoiler alert: it will break both the soap and the epsom salt so neither will work). Also, try to limit the runoff into the soil. Not super important but you don't want to bias the nutrient content of the soil towards ridiculous amounts of Mg (with that said, it will only be a problem at very high levels and you can always wash through the soil if it becomes a problem).
​
​Then I have one final tip. This is completely unsolicited however: Green light. How much do you have? In your picture I can see green but this is from a light source outside of the tent. If you only have the LEDs with NO other light source, does the leaves look almost completely black or not?
 
Complete lack of green light could be a problem. Why? Because there's phytochromes in the cells (not connected to the photosynthesis) which use excess green wavelengths as a signal to grow in height to overcome a green-filtering canopy. So far so good, what's the problem with no green light then? Guess what happens if you remove this spectrum signal? A completely unintended side effect, a bug if you so wish, can occur whereas there's an "anti-green" effect on the height growth. Effectively your plants might think that there's not a canopy above them they must overcome, but not really that there's clear sky either (since sunlight still contains green light). They might "think" that there's an "anti-canopy" above them and basically not grow height at all. A bug in nature since sunlight basically never do not contain any green light, so no selective pressure has prepared them to deal with this.
​
​I got some sources on the green light effect I can give you. I also have Thai Super Chili which reacted on this and produced stacks of leaves all on top of each other. It was ridiculous. No height at all but extremely thick canopy. When moved to green light containing spectrum? They grew height. If you ever think you have this problem you only need to supply a little bit. Say you take them out an hour a day. Or you put in a small white diode or two. You probably do not have this problem but I still wanted to put the information out there. I have a cheap Chinese panel (I do not use in the tent but elsewhere) which has  ​no green light at all.
​
​Good luck growing!

 

[Dobondobondo]

Hey! This is my first try growing super hot chilis or any chilis for that matter, so I dont really have any prior experiences with these plants.
I sprouted 6 reaperseeds and this is the only survivor.

It just felt like it grows really slow so Im just looking for some feedback on my plant.

19/6 it looked like this:


And today 6/9 it looks like this:



I topped it about a week ago. I have added some wormcastings as topdressing and repotted it into a 1.8 gallon container.
Right now I have it under about 70w LEDs in a mylar growtent, but I plan on going to a 300w LED.
Based on the pictures and info, would you say the plant is healthy or should I change anything in my setup?
Thanks / Christian

 
It seems to be doing ok in my opinion, for reference ill include a picture of my reaper plant (seed was planted around 23rd of june and took about a month to break through the soil)
Is the chilifocus fertilizer really that strong? The Chili Focus fertilizer i have is a 3-1-4 NPK and i've basically been adding it to half of my waterings.
 

 
What kind of light spectrum does your LED setup have? My plants seemed to be growing slowly under 40 watts of blue/red only. I added about 55 watts of red/white 6500K and it definitly sped up their growth but i cant really tell if its due to the extra light or extra color spectrum from the white LED's.
How has the 300W LED affected your plants and are they blue/red only?
 

Nice to see someone else growing in a tent under LED lights. I myself have a running tent with ~500W actual power usage on 16 square foot. We might be able to assist each other this winter!
​
​Regarding the buds: It's not unheard of. I would in this case cut them off as soon as possible to reduce apical dominance and get more foliage. The buds after that however, I would probably keep. But to each and their own. If you cut them of you will get more foliage quicker and if you have space, it might be worth it. But it's a controversial subject since it's not really clear what's better. I prefer it personally.
​
​Regarding epsom salt: No, it shouldn't be a problem. Feel free to spray on. Right at budding for fruit production is probably the most beneficial time. Do not do it too often though. I would limit to a maximum of once every 2 weeks, but probably a mean of at least 1 month overall. Also, try to limit to 0.5 % MgSO4 (w/w %) with a very small amount of dish soap (for wetting agent). You really don't need more since this is also a mega-dose, which is the point. At 2 % you might start seeing burn and it's wise to keep yourself from this level with a marginal. 0.5 % is what I do and I've had any problems. Also, do not EVER try to combine this with insecticidal soap. I've got a thread on here about my stupidity (spoiler alert: it will break both the soap and the epsom salt so neither will work). Also, try to limit the runoff into the soil. Not super important but you don't want to bias the nutrient content of the soil towards ridiculous amounts of Mg (with that said, it will only be a problem at very high levels and you can always wash through the soil if it becomes a problem).
​
​Then I have one final tip. This is completely unsolicited however: Green light. How much do you have? In your picture I can see green but this is from a light source outside of the tent. If you only have the LEDs with NO other light source, does the leaves look almost completely black or not?
 
Complete lack of green light could be a problem. Why? Because there's phytochromes in the cells (not connected to the photosynthesis) which use excess green wavelengths as a signal to grow in height to overcome a green-filtering canopy. So far so good, what's the problem with no green light then? Guess what happens if you remove this spectrum signal? A completely unintended side effect, a bug if you so wish, can occur whereas there's an "anti-green" effect on the height growth. Effectively your plants might think that there's not a canopy above them they must overcome, but not really that there's clear sky either (since sunlight still contains green light). They might "think" that there's an "anti-canopy" above them and basically not grow height at all. A bug in nature since sunlight basically never do not contain any green light, so no selective pressure has prepared them to deal with this.
​
​I got some sources on the green light effect I can give you. I also have Thai Super Chili which reacted on this and produced stacks of leaves all on top of each other. It was ridiculous. No height at all but extremely thick canopy. When moved to green light containing spectrum? They grew height. If you ever think you have this problem you only need to supply a little bit. Say you take them out an hour a day. Or you put in a small white diode or two. You probably do not have this problem but I still wanted to put the information out there. I have a cheap Chinese panel (I do not use in the tent but elsewhere) which has  ​no green light at all.
​
​Good luck growing!

 
Im also growing indoor only (not in a tent though) on a 11 sq foot area. Im only using about 80 watts actual power draw though.
I've seen a lot of people here using 300+ watts for growing areas of this size and im really starting to wonder how my 80 watts are keeping up (maybe they arent?)
 
Do you have a picture of your setup or a link to the lamp? Would also like to know how high above your plants the lamp is.

 

[SwedishGhost]

Chili Focus is great. It's what I've been using. I do think they should up the P though, and you might consider adding this during fruiting, but otherwise it's perfect. I do not use the 0.5-1 % dilution they recommend though, but rather 0.25-0.5 % dilution. If you let water run through now and then you're fine with high nutritional load. Only evaporation though? Prepare to get salty soil with a biased nutritional content which can lead to all sorts of issues.
​

What kind of light spectrum does your LED setup have? My plants seemed to be growing slowly under 40 watts of blue/red only. I added about 55 watts of red/white 6500K and it definitly sped up their growth but i cant really tell if its due to the extra light or extra color spectrum from the white LED's.
How has the 300W LED affected your plants and are they blue/red only?
 
 
Im also growing indoor only (not in a tent though) on a 11 sq foot area. Im only using about 80 watts actual power draw though.
I've seen a lot of people here using 300+ watts for growing areas of this size and im really starting to wonder how my 80 watts are keeping up (maybe they arent?)
 
Do you have a picture of your setup or a link to the lamp? Would also like to know how high above your plants the lamp is.

​
​You're without a doubt starving your plants. There's really no question about it. It's fine to do so but keep in mind that fruit sizes will be smaller, growth not nearly as rapid and the plants might not be able to support the rich foliage (i.e. cut them down).
 
You have around a fourth of my W/area and you do not use reflective material for the walls (i.e. a tent) so I would expect you to be about an eight in PAR/area. I have a separate setup available (a mylar covered cupboard) where I do have around of 1/4 W/area of the tent but with no green light at all. It's extremely noticeable how much slower all processes happens and the lack of green light means that I really need to keep an eye on flat and dense foliage. The plants in there can not support much foliage at all before issues arise. It's mostly used for experiments, seedlings and maybe quarantine purposes in the future.
​
​Either I recommend you to get a tent or build a cupboard (mine is an IKEA hack of a stripped out cupboard with mylar on foam core boards, fastened with velcro, and a panel cut-out at the top), or you reduce the plants/focus the light you have. For example, you can utilize neat intra-canopy light setups to get more efficient delivery than from the top. You will cause weird growth though, but that can be fun as well!
​
​You can find pictures of my tent here. Do note that I've adjusted the white balance and processed the RAWs from my phone heavily to make it not look purple, but still not reached a good color representation (the fruits are mostly red, not orange). The spectra is blue-red of course, but with small additions of green/IR/UV. Also keep in mind that this post-processing reduces the exposure quite dramatically. It's a lot more bright from ~0.5kW than the pictures seem to imply!
​

 

[Eroll26]

Nice to see someone else growing in a tent under LED lights. I myself have a running tent with ~500W actual power usage on 16 square foot. We might be able to assist each other this Winter!
 

 
Sounds good! I just started growing chilis and Im sold. Really looking forward to seeing the progress coming months!
 

 
Regarding the buds: It's not unheard of. I would in this case cut them off as soon as possible to reduce apical dominance and get more foliage. The buds after that however, I would probably keep. But to each and their own. If you cut them of you will get more foliage quicker and if you have space, it might be worth it. But it's a controversial subject since it's not really clear what's better. I prefer it personally.

 
I did some reading on this and I still cant decide what Im gonna do with them. A big part of me want to let them flower but I saw what happened to the plant when I topped it and if pinching the buds have the same effect on the plant then its definetly worth doing, I will give it some more thought before I decide.
 

 
Regarding epsom salt: No, it shouldn't be a problem. Feel free to spray on. Right at budding for fruit production is probably the most beneficial time. Do not do it too often though. I would limit to a maximum of once every 2 weeks, but probably a mean of at least 1 month overall. Also, try to limit to 0.5 % MgSO4 (w/w %) with a very small amount of dish soap (for wetting agent). You really don't need more since this is also a mega-dose, which is the point. At 2 % you might start seeing burn and it's wise to keep yourself from this level with a marginal. 0.5 % is what I do and I've had any problems.

 
Thanks for the advice, I will continue to add some epsom salt in the spray about once every month then. I did add some in the soil about two waterings ago but I wont add any more in the soil from now if it can hurt the roots or create imbalances in the soil.
 

 
Then I have one final tip. This is completely unsolicited however: Green light. How much do you have? In your picture I can see green but this is from a light source outside of the tent. If you only have the LEDs with NO other light source, does the leaves look almost completely black or not?

 
To be honest I dont really have all the specs of my light and what colours are included in the panels. The clear spots in the pictures are a flashlight to highlight details, so the leaves look really dark under only the LEDs.  
The green light theory sounds really interesting though so Im open to adding some green LEDs to add some additional growth!
 

 
Chili Focus is great. It's what I've been using. I do think they should up the P though, and you might consider adding this during fruiting, but otherwise it's perfect. I do not use the 0.5-1 % dilution they recommend though, but rather 0.25-0.5 % dilution. If you let water run through now and then you're fine with high nutritional load. Only evaporation though? Prepare to get salty soil with a biased nutritional content which can lead to all sorts of issues.

 
Yeah thats what I heard also and thats the reason why I used it, but I felt like my growth was stunted and the leaves got some weird dark spots when I used it. Maby I dosed too high too early or maby there already was enough nutes left in the soil so I fertilized too early? Hard to say now but since I only added wormcastings tea as fert the plant seems alot happier.

 

[SwedishGhost]

Sounds good! I just started growing chilis and Im sold. Really looking forward to seeing the progress coming months!

Good luck! Just watch out; This hobby is highly addictive and you might start to wonder where your time and money went. Your friends might also get a bit frustrated with all the chili talk...
 

Thanks for the advice, I will continue to add some epsom salt in the spray about once every month then. I did add some in the soil about two waterings ago but I wont add any more in the soil from now if it can hurt the roots or create imbalances in the soil.

A magnesium overdose in the soil seldom causes problem. It's certainly not as likely as e.g. potassium is. However, it could. Like with all things you should try to avoid a build up in the soil and be extra vigilant if you never water to run-off since accumulation under a long time can be more than you expect.

 

To be honest I dont really have all the specs of my light and what colours are included in the panels. The clear spots in the pictures are a flashlight to highlight details, so the leaves look really dark under only the LEDs.  
The green light theory sounds really interesting though so Im open to adding some green LEDs to add some additional growth!

If it looks really dark then yes, you're probably out of green. IR has similar effects to green. This is my favorite article on the subject; It's a very good introduction to those interested in why blue/red is not all you might want. Technically, it's all you need but maybe not the ideal spectrum for your goals. If nothing else, please look at Fig 1 ("Quantum energy distribution of full sunlight and under the shade of leaves") there. It really explains so much of why green/IR is used as signalling!
 
Need for green is highly non-intuitive since blue/red is the only light which gets used as energy (photosynthesis->sugars->starch). Many, especially cheap, LED lights therefore only have blue/red since you get more photosynthesis/W power usage. But you can get short and flat plants. If you have the option to put in green, I recommend you to do so. You don't need much at all since you don't use it for energy, only signalling.
 
Well, if you want to get fully technical red light is all you need for energy. Blue light is always added however since it's still used for photosynthesis and lack of it can cause some really non-intuitive and strange growth in certain species.
 

Yeah thats what I heard also and thats the reason why I used it, but I felt like my growth was stunted and the leaves got some weird dark spots when I used it. Maby I dosed too high too early or maby there already was enough nutes left in the soil so I fertilized too early? Hard to say now but since I only added wormcastings tea as fert the plant seems alot happier.

Might have been. I would still recommend you to use it at some degree also with your worm castings to decrease the risk of getting a specific deficiency (since it has all 14 nutrients), but you don't need much or often. Salt accumulation in the soil is what you should be trying to avoid. Why even add a fertilizer then? Well, who's to say that what went into the vermi compost really had e.g. the boron you need? Compost certainly fulfills your NPK but there might be trace minerals you could end up low on. The worms don't produce elements which weren't there in what went in and what went in could very well be lacking... something.

 

I did some reading on this and I still cant decide what Im gonna do with them. A big part of me want to let them flower but I saw what happened to the plant when I topped it and if pinching the buds have the same effect on the plant then its definetly worth doing, I will give it some more thought before I decide.

It's up to you. There's really no right or wrong here. Apical dominance is the phenomenon which I recommend you to read up on if of interest. It's all about signalling. The plant is trying to reach height instead of breadth and the top node creates a gradient of the plant hormon auxin to inhibit lateral growth. Kill that bud and the inhibition stops. I prefer to promote lateral bushiness over spindlyness but to each their own.

 

[Eroll26]

Good luck! Just watch out; This hobby is highly addictive and you might start to wonder where your time and money went. Your friends might also get a bit frustrated with all the chili talk...
 

 
Its too late Im already hooked.. I have ordered several new strains like red savina habanero and yellow scotch bonnet so Im slowly building a jungle in the apartment, girlfriend is not so happy!
 

If it looks really dark then yes, you're probably out of green. IR has similar effects to green. This is my favorite article on the subject; It's a very good introduction to those interested in why blue/red is not all you might want. Technically, it's all you need but maybe not the ideal spectrum for your goals. If nothing else, please look at Fig 1 ("Quantum energy distribution of full sunlight and under the shade of leaves") there. It really explains so much of why green/IR is used as signalling!
 
Need for green is highly non-intuitive since blue/red is the only light which gets used as energy (photosynthesis->sugars->starch). Many, especially cheap, LED lights therefore only have blue/red since you get more photosynthesis/W power usage. But you can get short and flat plants. If you have the option to put in green, I recommend you to do so. You don't need much at all since you don't use it for energy, only signalling.
 
Well, if you want to get fully technical red light is all you need for energy. Blue light is always added however since it's still used for photosynthesis and lack of it can cause some really non-intuitive and strange growth in certain species.
 

 
Thanks for the info! I found a source for a green LED band that I could wrap around the tent to get some additional light surrounding the plants.
 

Might have been. I would still recommend you to use it at some degree also with your worm castings to decrease the risk of getting a specific deficiency (since it has all 14 nutrients), but you don't need much or often. Salt accumulation in the soil is what you should be trying to avoid. Why even add a fertilizer then? Well, who's to say that what went into the vermi compost really had e.g. the boron you need? Compost certainly fulfills your NPK but there might be trace minerals you could end up low on. The worms don't produce elements which weren't there in what went in and what went in could very well be lacking... something.
 

 
Yeah that sounds good, as I said I have only read good things about chili focus so I might be too quick to judge, I will probobly add low doses about every 5th watering or so and keep a close Watch on how the plants react.
 
 
I just noticed that I have Another issue last night. When I was sitting there just looking at the plants for no reason I noticed a really small white larvaelooking insect. When I lifted some of the leaves I saw several more small larvaes. They were really fast moving and it looked like they tried to hide.
Right away I thought of aphids so I sprayed all the leaves with soapy water on both under and overside. Right before the light went out I had a last look and couldnt see anymore insects so hopefully I got them all.
What could it have been and any ideas on how to avoid this kind of pests in the future? Also if they are still there when I get home from work today, what other remedies can I use for this type of bugs?
 
 

 

[SwedishGhost]

Its too late Im already hooked.. I have ordered several new strains like red savina habanero and yellow scotch bonnet so Im slowly building a jungle in the apartment, girlfriend is not so happy!

That's how it goes! The trick is to inflict intense nerdiness in your partner as well
 

Thanks for the info! I found a source for a green LED band that I could wrap around the tent to get some additional light surrounding the plants.
 

Good idea! Let me know how your plants fair and if you see a reaction.

 

Yeah that sounds good, as I said I have only read good things about chili focus so I might be too quick to judge, I will probobly add low doses about every 5th watering or so and keep a close Watch on how the plants react.
 

Sounds good. Compost (tea) and fertilizers fulfill a bit different purposes in my opinion. Sure, they do get fertilized from compost but the main benefit surely is the microbial addition. Compost is not guaranteed to contain everything in sensible proportions. No intentional effort to standardize, balance or verify it according to the needs of the plants has been done. On the other hand, it's common for people to use way to much liquid fertilizer or to let it accumulate to harmful levels of imbalance in the soil (which is a bit more difficult to do with compost).
 
Water less than you think (dry soil!) and fertilize less than the bottle says. Use compost to provide microbes and be vigilant to problems (especially pests) in your plants and... you should be fine.

I just noticed that I have Another issue last night. When I was sitting there just looking at the plants for no reason I noticed a really small white larvaelooking insect. When I lifted some of the leaves I saw several more small larvaes. They were really fast moving and it looked like they tried to hide.
Right away I thought of aphids so I sprayed all the leaves with soapy water on both under and overside. Right before the light went out I had a last look and couldnt see anymore insects so hopefully I got them all.
What could it have been and any ideas on how to avoid this kind of pests in the future? Also if they are still there when I get home from work today, what other remedies can I use for this type of bugs?
 

Possibly thrips. They have larvae but they are not very quick, but the thrips themselves are quite quick and do kind of look like larvae. Soap works wonderfully. But you need to do it often. And you need to use actual soap, cover everything (underside of inner and lower leaves, stems and inside flowers can easily be missed) and finally, you need to let all the leaves stay wet for quite a while (high humidity drying).
 
I do recommend you to purchase a macro lens (clip-on, for your phone) or microscope and diagnose the pest however. Without further information it's difficult to know what you might have. But remain calm; Soap works against nearly everything as long as it's done often and properly.
 
Ah yes, maybe most important with pests: Stay vigilant and investigate. Do not neglect your plants. You can go from a mild infestation to a pure explosion with catastrophic damage quite quickly if you ignore the problem.

 

[Eroll26]

Thanks for all the replies, esecially from Swedishghost! This is a really helpful community.

As of today, a little over a month since the original post, the reaper is still going strong and reaching out. Flowers are forming but unfortunatly dropping but I have hopes that the first fruit will soon set. I managed to get all the pests of with soapy water only witch felt like a victory!

Again thanks!

 

[SwedishGhost]

Thanks for the shoutout Eroll26! I'm by no means an expert, but do try to help however I can. I also agree on the helpfulness and I'm very happy to hear that I could be of such assistance!
 
The plant looks awesome the way! I'm very glad you managed to soap it away. It's almost surprising how effective soap can be, properly utilized. One do however really have to be vigilant and frequent with the applications. Also slow-drying... It can be a pain, but it works!
 
I would like to give you one more tip: The brown spots you had in the OP are not good. Browning could be from anything really, but one possibility to always keep in mind are pathogenic bacteria/fungi. If you see brown spotting again (especially with no pests in sight or other causal link), watch it carefully and do consider brewing yourself some compost tea for foliar application (with a wetting agent) so you're ready if you need it.
 
I have had a breakout very recently of an unknown bacteria on some less-than-ideal-health plants (Padrón peppers). When I saw it began to spread to nearby plants I went ballistic (BLS is my largest worry, truly the stuff of nightmares). The largest risk factors for me has been frequent badly mixed and too-concentrated oil sprays (yummy nutrient poolings on leaves), bad genetics with slowed transpiration (edema, too water soaked leaves) and bad soil microbiome (lack of compost application). It's stopped early on before but this time it moved fast.
 
Pathogenic bacteria and fungi can take advantage of peppers quite easily indoors, likely because we're missing random natural colonization from the air, soil splatterings (with rain), insects, etc. I'm two applications in now of foliar and soil AACT and the disease progress has been completely halted and the spots even seem to die off. It seems that I've successfully outcompeted it and I couldn't be happier.
 
So be vary of brown spots. Especially if they're tan brown looking with a dark edge, grows in size/merges and starts at the tips of the leaves. Yet another nightmare to look for when fearing those pesky insects, huh?
 
I only wish you the very best of luck for the future with your reapers and co.!

 

[Eroll26]

Hey! Just thought I would post an update on the progress since the last update.
The reaper is finally producing fruits!
I have about 5 small pods forming and about 20 or more flowers with lots of pollen.

Ive seen some posts about indoor plants not producing fruit so maby someone can benefit from this post.

The biggest changes I did to induce flowering was:
-Added more lights, about 140w CFL ontop of my 300w led.
-Lowered my watering frequence to once every 4th day.
-Lowered the lighthours to 15 on 9 off.

Maby it just needed time to mature or maby one of these changes made a difference, all I know is that if the plant keep its pace I will have lots of fruits the coming months!

One of about 5 fruits taking form:

Loads of flowers all over producing pollen or setting fruits:

Plant covering the whole area of the tent:

Thanks for all the help through this thread everyone!

 

[Eroll26]

Hello fellow chiligrowers, here comes another happy update! The plant is producing fruits overtime. I have alteast 20 fruits ranging from the size of grape to golfball. Some have tails others just look mutated, but all look like pure pain.

3 pods the size of golfballs:

The plant looks like this all around:

Overview of the plant and growspace:

The plant is still flowering all over so I dont know how this will end, all I can say is that all my concerns trough this thread are gone, and I feel like my first attemt at growing super hots indoors was sucessful.
The next challenge will be to see how long I can keep this beuty alive and producing.
Cheers!