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NorTexChiliJ's 2011 Growlog

AlabamaJack said:
good luck for this season....I am a little ahead of you...I already have almost 500 in 3" containers...to keep up with my schedule, I will have to transplant about 100 a day until the end of February...
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Well I may only be behind by a week or so with this round of transplanting. I'm sure I'm a bit more than a week behind on the other rounds. I won't transplant my next round until probably the last week in February. But then the tide will hit and I will need to do a similar 100 plants a day until the middle of March. :eek: :eek:

And I am sure these current transplants are more than a week behind your transplants!!! You set the "Grand Master Standard" around here in chililand!!! I am always impressed with how your setup is growing, and a bit jealous!! :shh:

Yep, its a bit of work!!!

Good luck to your season as well AJ! Nice job on the hoophouse too!

:cheers:
 
Okay.....I have about 475 transplanted....I still have another 100 or so peppers, all the herbs and tomatoes. This is work!!
Here is what the trays looked like before transplant...
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This is the setup.....
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And this is the soil I'm using at a mix of 50/50.... This is about $20 for 4 cubic feet. Each bag is 2 cubic feet. First time to use it this year.
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Here is the Organic fertilizer I use. I mix in one tablespoon per container with the soil mix.
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Continued.......
 
And now my new shelves are full and I still have 4 trays to transplant.. :banghead: Where do they go now???
I wonder if AJs hoophouse could jump his back fence and load itself into my short bed truck.........You know he is sooo smart, I bet he put motorized legs in the design to make it easy to move!!! Just pokin fun, AJ :twisted:

The new shelves.....
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The remaining transplants waiting for installation to a new home.....
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Wow, so it took me about 8 hours to transplant almost 480 plants.... :censored:

Well all in a days work, right? Now I have to water these babies. I really wish a flood and drain table was a little cheaper. I could fit all 480 transplants into a 4x8 grow table, but they are like $275. Sure would make it easy to have a giant saucer to collect all the runnoff. I guess I will be hauling them outside to the patio for feedings... I need a better idea!


I think my next project will be converting my south facing patio into a greenhouse. I have an area about 25x10 that the sun hits during the day. That should give me room for about 1500 - 2000 plants in 3" pots and hopefully I can harden off the little plants out there too! My garage is getting full fast. I don't have a shed to put all the garden tools yet. Ya, ya, another project.

Happy growing!!
 
I won't have near tha many babies but I plan on using a few tote pans. The big shallow ones for storing stuff under a bed or in the bottom of a closet. Get a few of those and bottom water with them. Get two or three, by the time you load up the last one the plants in the first will be well watered.
If they fit on your table you can keep the plants there perminant. Buy a couple of the two gallon spring water jugs, the ones with a spout on them. Cut a hole in the bottom corner of the totes and hot glue the spout in. Now you can drain the extra water out tada!

I'll be doing this this weekend myself =)
 
Check out craigslist for a used table, around here they go pretty cheap. That's a great setup you have going there and everything looks really good. I'm not looking forward to transplanting time and I've only got about 200 right now. I'm almost hoping for low germination on the rest. Can't wait to see more!
 
ZanderSpice said:
Check out craigslist for a used table, around here they go pretty cheap. That's a great setup you have going there and everything looks really good. I'm not looking forward to transplanting time and I've only got about 200 right now. I'm almost hoping for low germination on the rest. Can't wait to see more!
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Thanks for the idea ZanderSpice......Check out what I found......on Craigslist for 75 bux each. They were covered in old algae and some sort of "weed-type" material.....figures. But after an hour with the pressure washer and some scrubbing with soap, they looked almost new!!!!
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I was actually amazed at how clean they got. White ABS Plastic(I think) rocks!!! I am using them as a huge saucer/table. They are sitting on 5gal nursery containers. I am top feeding because the valleys under the plants are really deep. It seems like I would lose a few gallons on food if I bottom feed. I may try using a 55gal barrel as a nutrient tank with a pump to bottom feed about an inch above the valleys. Not sure I need to spend the money though because I hope to be plant-out in about a month or so..... And I could use a couple more after another week of transplanting. I am running out of room fast. I was hoping to hold off on building a greenhouse. I simply don't have the time to build one and I just won't pay someone to do something I can do.
 
continued.......

I have been running behind on transplanting.... I have another 12 or so trays to move....
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The trays on the bottom are tomatoes and need to be transplanted. I feel like my second round of peppers is slower than my first round... but I have been super busy and havn't given them the attention I gave the first round. I need to look at my calendar and see about that. Maybe I am just too anxiuos...

Here is a shot of my germbox and the second stage grow shelves..
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I have been building a classroom/greenhouse for a friend who teaches Organic Gardening. It is taking alot longer than I anticipated and I think My operation may be slightly suffering... My first round of seeds went VERY well.. Then on the second round I backed off using a spray bottle to keep the soil surface moist on my seed trays because I had a couple trays growing algae. The temperature outside has been rising and the grow area is staying warmer. I have not been using a heat source in my germinator and the temps are less stable and stay about 4 degrees cooler. With the heat source, each level is heating unevenly. I need to incorporate an air-circulation system so I can use the heat source and have stable temps in all three levels.

And I have some Gnats ferociously attacking my Douglahs...
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I think I also either hae a couple plants "damping off" or I have a soil surface bug eating a couple stalks....only one pepper and one mater....
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It never ends.....I am waiting on a LATE delivery of my transplant soil... I will be even more busy very soon...Anybody own a human clone machine??????? :banghead:
 
keep an eye out for cut worms...damage is similar to your last pic...
 
AlabamaJack said:
keep an eye out for cut worms...damage is similar to your last pic...
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I had a small run-in with those buggers last year. I lost almost a dozen plants in a raised bed outside. I am hoping they are not inside??? If so, I won't be buying the same soil next year. Seems that would have been the ONLY way to have cutworms. I keep a pretty clean grow area!

I am keeping a close eye out. It's probably just overwatering. Before I purchased the tables, I didn't really have a handle on watering. I was giving them a shot glass almost every day. I had my containers on a plywood shelf and didn't want to have any runnoff out the bottom of the pots. Hopefully I won't have any more troubles. I keep an oscilating fan on all day to help keep the soil surface less moist.
 
Yup, Life is BUSY!!!

I have been a bit overwhelmed with my pepper project this year.... :rofl:
Not sure I figured how much space it took to manage 2500 plants. If I did, I was wrong.....It's sorta alot!!! :rofl:

Here are my late bloomers and my recently started anuumms. Anuumms were started the 6th of March.....
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Here is my patio with a makeshift greenhouse wrap....
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I got some maters and sweet peppers too!!!.....
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I have learned a few things this year so far.... I have battled algae, gnats, losing seedlings. See a patern here!!! OVERWATERING!!! :banghead:

I wanted to make a greenhouse this year but I didn't know enough about them yet. I decided to wrap the patio instead. It is a very poor addition done to my house probably 20 years ago..way before I bought it. The roof is horrible so I will be tearing it all down soon. I think I will buy three or four translucent panels for the roof and help these guys harden off a bit faster. Its hard moving these babies to full sun and back EVERY DAWG'ON DAY....

I need to transplant about 500 plants to 1 gallon pots soon. These will be my personal plants. The rest are probably bound to be good green compost material!~!~ :violin:

Battling gnats and algae has been difficult. It seems you really need to have a TON of circulation to prevent these. Problem with that is the humidity levels become out of control... I had to buy a 80 pint dehumidifier to battle humidity. Now that the outside temps are rising into the high 70s, the heat it produces will make it unusable soon.. but it works well for heat at night!!! The blue barrels are full of water to help stabilize temps. Having alot of smaller containers covering the floor under the plants would be better...

I built a germbox like AJs and it works like a champ!!!! I have had a little trouble keeping the temps stable now that the outside temps are rising.. But if you are watching your plants like you should, this should be easily remedied with the simple prop of a door!! I built it from a few different materials because it is what I had. I wanted to make something CHEAP!!! I see some green algae or mold forming on the ceiling of the top level.... The top level feels like a sauna compared to the other levels. I will have to make a circulation plenum next year with some rigid ductwork and an inline fan. I will probably also remove the outside panels and swap them for something plastic so I can clean it easier...

I need to take some close up shots of each variety I am growing so I can have something to compare them to. I fell like they are growing VERY VERY well. They need some light at the moment...the wrap around the patio is not enough. It needs more light from above. They aren't too leggy, but the leaves are not as tough as they were under the fluoros and metal halide.

Even though the big white trays were used and cheap, they aren't for me... Nope, they hold a little water in the valleys and if you don't have good circulation the gnats will build a colony like no ones business... And the walls are tall with a lip that is always in my way. If it was about 3 inches tall thay would be good. But then they might be a bit flimsy. The lip on the top edge really helps with the rigidity...

Organics is easy!! And pretty damn cheap. I use a food by Rabbit Hill Farms. It is made in Texas and uses Rabbit manure and poultry litter with a blend of other minerals and what-evers... I have only used about $30 dollars worth of that and about $2 worth of epsom salts. The epsom salts spray sounds nice, I think I will try that instead of topdressing. They are not in the sun much yet so this should be easily done at any time of day.

Happy Growing!!!
Josh
 
Also I am using an Organic liquid mix called "SeaMist Plus". I use about 3 tablespoons per gallon for a foliar and I use the same amount for accelerated root and microbial growth. It is like "Garrett Juice" with a couple extras.....
 
Ha, I had an oops going the other way! I am parinoid of overwatering so I hold out until I think it's dry D R Y. It was one morning, but I thought "shoot, I'll do it tonite so I know it's not wet down below." got home and they were all bent over and shrivelled up! A good watering and a spray of Epsom fixed 'em up and they look great again....whew....

Keep up the good work :dance:
 
Wow. Impressive array of plants you have. What will you do with them all? I have a hard time just keeping track of my 150 or so. You guys amaze me.
 
midwestchilehead said:
Wow. Impressive array of plants you have. What will you do with them all? I have a hard time just keeping track of my 150 or so. You guys amaze me.
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Well, at first, I was just going to keep the biggest and best for myself...about 400-500. Then two family members caught wind that their school didtrict jobs will be vacated at the end of the school year. They have to re-apply and may not get re-hired. So I decided to sell some locally. I havn't gone to any markets to sell plants yet because my day job is carrying over into the weekend. Local free advertising isn't getting enough response. If I cannot make it to farmers markets to sell them, they will be compost..... :cry:
 
Patience NTCJ...it's early here yet for people to buy seedlings...most won't buy until the first or middle of April and customers will buy continually through the first of June...
 
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