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Ohjay's first adventure in chili-land - New pepper tasted

For the first time in my life I've decided to try and grow something, and since I like spicy food and especially chilis, the choice was simple. Chilis for the win!
 
Since my previous experience with growing anything is practically non-existant(I helped mom plant carrot seeds when I was a kid) I started with basic research. What did I need? How does it work? What's the process like? Can it even be done purely inside, only relying on sunlight?
My, very patient, sister got several(read: tons of) questions, and still do. She's a saint ;)
 
All said and done, I ordered seeds, soil, pots, fertilizer, etc... everything I could come up with that I would need for the first two months of my adventure.
 
The seeds I decided to grow were:
3x Elephant Trunk
4x White Habanero
3x Hawai
3x Bulgarian Carrot
4x Hot Palette
3x Hot Lemon
 
Anyway, my adventure started in late february, 27nd of february to be exact.
The seeds went straight into the soil in my miniature greenhouse, added some water and then came the anxious wait.
 
Sorry for the few images, I hadn't planned to share this journey, but I've reconsidered. :D
 
This image is from the 27th of february:
dsD5Q6q.jpg

 
 
6th of march. Who knew that something so tiny could make you so happy?
TpmkLhc.jpg

 
The Elephant trunk and Hawai were the first to sprout, but the others soon decided to show their determination as well.
10th of march, all seeds but 5 had sprouted:
m9diylw.jpg

 
Two weeks later came the next scary moment, repotting. The first plants were a disaster, but towards the end I sort of got the hang of it, but I was so scared that I had harmed my precious little plants.
21st of march:
wwEOPFe.jpg

 
16 out of 20 planted seeds were repotted that day. Two seeds refused to sprout, I accidentally killed a plant when I tried to remove a seed capsule, but I had a glimmer of hope for the final plant, it had germinated but not quite sprouted yet.
 
8th of april. Am I growing sticks or am I growing chilis? I find this image funny for some reason... the sticks probably are overkill but to me it seemed that several plants were leaning too much so I tried to straighten them with the sticks:
1iNSDvw.jpg

 
ZZEUuoI.jpg

 
Fast forward a couple of weeks and we arrive at the 27th of april. My little plants are slowly becoming a little jungle of plants and I'm getting my first buds on a few plants. Since I don't really know what I'm doing I freak out a bit since the buds are at the top of the stem and I start to think the buds could be of the 'terminal' variety. I get friendly and great advice here on THP though and I've since calmed down a bit about it. ;)
EH9dQos.jpg

 
sAchuKG.jpg

 
The observant reader will notice that my little late-sprouter has joined it's siblings now. So out of 20 planted seeds, I¨ve gotten 17 healthy plants. Not bad for a first-timer in my opinion. :)
 
The plant on the right side, closest to the camera, has very droopy, flimsy leaves and I'm thinking about pruning it, but I'm not sure it's necessary(or that it will help the plant).
 
I'll update in the next few days with better images(not taken with a mobile phone like these), and I'm getting close to the next repotting window, which of course will be documented and shared with you all.
 
A fantastic start. I had a couple plants that didn't seem happy until I potted up. I would repot and wait before doing anything drastic.

Thanks for sharing and good luck!
 
Looking good, great start, and a nice selection of first time chilies (I went straight for super hots)
 
Roligt med ytterligare en svensk på forumet också, välkommen!
 
Thank you everybody for the kind words. :)
 
Comptine said:
Looking good, great start, and a nice selection of first time chilies (I went straight for super hots)
 
Roligt med ytterligare en svensk på forumet också, välkommen!
Thanks. I was thinking of going for some super hots but thought they might be hard to grow as a first timer so I chickened out. But next season I'll definitely try my hand at growing one(or ten).
Ja vi är några svenskar här tydligen, riktigt skoj. :)   (We're just talking about there being a few swedes on THP)
 
 
moruga welder said:
looking good ! might want to rotate your tray so the smaller plants get as much light .       :onfire:
Thanks!
I wonder why I didn't think of this...  :think:
The smaller plants are only supposed to get ~15" high, so I figured it was okay that they still were small, but didn't consider that they would get less sun. I took your advice though and rearranged my plants a little so the smaller ones are towards the window and the larger ones towards the back.

As promised, a few better images(at least qualitywise).
 
This is my droopy plant, I do think it's fine, it's just the lower leaves that are droopy.
5uznhd4.jpg

 
Proof that my idea with the sticks was not quite so smart as I was thinking  :lol:
AlOwQvs.jpg

 
The leaves on this species are quite nice and it's fun to see something other than pure green. Not that there's anything wrong with green! ;)
vML4BVK.jpg

 
My little baby... the one that struggled so much with germinating but is now growing in a very healthy manner.
It's funny how you end up building a "relationship" with the plants. Like this one, or my "droopy".... :)
KIwkS8C.jpg

 
The idea was good, the execution not quite as good. Talking about the photo, nothing else.
eOCvQ2p.jpg

 
 
I saw something strange on a few plants today, but I'm not alarmed that it's something bad... yet.
To me this looks like the plant want to produce more roots, am I right?
3GCf7kw.jpg

 
 
I'll start repotting some of the plants this weekend. I'm beginning to see roots at the bottom of the current pots, so it's definitely time do it.
I s'pose that will be my next update. :)
 
 
Btw, are the images too big?
 
Images are fine size wise, I actually prefer larger ones. My cucumbers are doing the roots from the stem bit too right now. From what I read most people here end up burying their plants further down when they transplant, all the way up to the cotelydons.  Maybe do that when they move into larger pots?
 
Comptine said:
Images are fine size wise, I actually prefer larger ones. My cucumbers are doing the roots from the stem bit too right now. From what I read most people here end up burying their plants further down when they transplant, all the way up to the cotelydons.  Maybe do that when they move into larger pots?
 
Yeah that's the plan when I repot them.
 
Alrighty then... Two days ago it was time for another exciting adventure in Chili-land for me. It was time to repot my plants again.
I had decided in advance to go to 3 litre pots(~0.75 gallon) but I'm still unsure about my final pot size, more on that at a later time.
 
Being a first-timer and quite inexperienced in these matters I bought pre-prepped soilmix but it didn't have any perlite or vermiculite in it, so I mixed my own:
xXGBXF8.jpg

It's roughly a 9.5-1-0.5 mix. I was really unsure about adding perlite and vermiculte, but figured it would make the watering easier so I did add some vermiculite(the 0.5).
 
Most of the plants really didn't want to leave their old homes and I was slightly worried that I was repotting the plants too soon because on most plants I couldn't see any roots at the bottom of the pot.
Turns out I probably could've repotted them sooner:
ExeqsTA.jpg

 
About watering... I've top-fed the plants thus far and I thought I was doing a decent enough job. I suppose I did since no plants have died, but I was in for a shock when most of my plants looked like this:
3VUgCtj.jpg

So dry, so very dry. :(
Since I repotted them I've started bottom-feeding them, but I have absolutely no idea how much water is enough, or when to water them? Any tips?
 
Something I've struggled with during both repotting exercises has been to get the plant in the center of the new pot. Many look like this:
f91k4o0.jpg

I got upset with myself about this, and after a few repots this time I decided to make a very conscious effort to get the plant in the middle of the new pot. I think I did a much better job after this. :)
 
Here they are, repotted and seemingly happy:
tEaeXeP.jpg

 
pmyRHPT.jpg

 
My White Habanero has very funky leaves, but I believe they are supposed to look like this(slightly upturned and bumby):
G37Ghkd.jpg

 
YnvoFHc.jpg

 
The Hot Palette seems to like what I'm doing to it:
5vcpsve.jpg

 
I'm getting buds on many of my plants now and I plan to leave them there. If it's still too early for fruit, they will drop off:
gtreOvn.jpg

 
Pretty plant:
teSF9NP.jpg

 
 
 
And for something less pretty...
I have a strange phenomenon going on with one of my Hawai plants. The leaves seem dry and feel dry to the touch, not sure if it is visible in the photo below but I hope so.
But more than that, the underside of the leaves have tiny, tiny white bumps on them. I'm fairly sure it's not gnats or mites, but what is it?
Pretty much all leaves on the affected plant is showing these symptoms. My other Hawai plant seem fine though.
VpLfZEv.jpg

 
ePuiqGU.jpg
 
Pretty nice plants.
 
The phenomenon you're talking about with Hawai plants is Edema, which is caused by too much water in the plant's system ... you need to give them less water and more wind (try a fan or put them outside for the day when is warm enough).
Maybe that is also the issue with White Habanero....  but let's wait for some more opinions...
 
Good work so far!
 
tsurrie said:
Pretty nice plants.
 
The phenomenon you're talking about with Hawai plants is Edema, which is caused by too much water in the plant's system ... you need to give them less water and more wind (try a fan or put them outside for the day when is warm enough).
Maybe that is also the issue with White Habanero....  but let's wait for some more opinions...
 
Good work so far!
 
Too much water eh?
I never would've guessed  :eh:
Thanks for letting me know, I'll be careful while watering the Hawai in the future.
 
Since it's an indoor grow there isn't really much wind  :lol:
I've been thinking about buying a couple of fans and put them on timers to get some wind on my plants. Might end up a good investment...
 
+1 on the wind. I have 2 computer fans spliced to an old router plug circulating air through my greenhouse, happy plants, cost me under 5 bucks! 
 
I'll definitely invest in some fans. I think it'll help with the overall happiness of my plants either way.
As for the plant with the edema... I haven't seen any sign of it on the stem or on new leaves so I think it should be fine.
 
 
The more I'm reading on THP the more I feel like I'm missing out since I haven't got any superhots.
Since it's too late in the season to start from seed I've been looking for a grower that sells superhot plants and managed to find a couple.
Of these strains, which would y'all recommend?
- Naga Morich
- Caribbean Red
- Trinidad 7 pot (Yellow)
- Chocolate Habanero
- Trinidad Douglah
 
I could also get my hands on a 7 pot Brain Strain plant but it would involve also getting 5 other strains that I'm not too interested in(no other superhots)....
 
I hear Caribbean red has awesome taste I'm growing 2 myself
Wouldn't consider it a super hot or the chocolate hab I don't think their supers
 
I feel like growing a Naga is like a rite of passage. Also, since seeing Nigel I really wanted to grow it. 
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9YdkmmJeuU
 
So update time again.
 
Four days ago I was beginning to see my first flower:
SOfkq6q.jpg

 
The same day I also bought some fans after reading more about edema and the benefit of some wind on plants. I've put the fans on timers so they blow for a total of 6 hours(I believe it was) at different times of day:
D20IA2b.jpg

 
First blossomed flower came three days ago and is on one of my Hawai plants. Very pretty flower with the purple outlining:
YdgRimg.jpg

 
9SGMfqv.jpg

 
This one is from two days ago when the flower was fully open. I had a good idea for the photo but the execution is lacking :lol:
43lqkLg.jpg

 
Second blossomed flower is on one of the White Hab plants, this also happened two days ago. Very tiny flower:
QlewKr7.jpg

 
My Bulgarian Carrot felt like joining the party today:
VGVlb0h.jpg

 
The Hot Lemon plants are showing off in a completely different way. They've gotten crazy tall in the last few days and are getting close to 70-80 cm(27"-32"):
HVKThAk.jpg

 
But one of them also has a flower that blossomed today:
nIGFMqW.jpg

 
I think I'm doing something right with my White Hab's, the plants have very dense growth. Tons and tons of leaves and small buds:
LN98obz.jpg

 
HQAwipL.jpg

 
The same can be said for the Hot Palette with the funky colored leaves(but they are supposed to look like this):
plGNRAp.jpg

 
IIqupQr.jpg

 
 
Nothing to worry about I believe but a second opinion is always good...
I have some leaf deformity on several plants. I think it's a combination of slight nute deficiency and sunburn:
 
xAWTbKB.jpg

 
ubo6VGm.jpg

 
Several plants also have slightly see-through spots on the leaves, but I'm not too worried about that either.
 
Oi4L0fH.jpg

 
As for the plant with edema. I've been keeping an eye on it and watering it less. The new growth shows no signs of edema but as soon as the leaves get medium-sized the edema springs up. Really odd behaviour. I'm just gonna let it be but still keep a close eye on the plant. If it gives fruit, great. If it doesn't, oh well, I'll learn something from it for sure.
 
There's some new family members in my chili-family as of today, and a couple more will come next week. But more on that another day...
(All shows have some kind of cliffhanger, right? :lol: )
 
Some of you has probably seen my thread in the Growing section where I asked for help to I.D. some strange stuff affecting one my my plants.
Here's that image again:
qxmqeJE.jpg

 
The common suggestion seemed to be bacteria. I quickly isolated the affected plant and plucked the leaves showing symptoms.
The day after another two plants started showing the exact same thing so I went ahead and plucked the leaves on those two but didn't isolate them. The thing is it's the same strain that is showing this behaviour, the Hot Lemon.
Everything seemed fine after that until today when the symptoms showed up again on the two plants that showed the symptoms later than the first. I went ahead and plucked the leaves again. I'm really not sure what to think of this. It can't be water or soil that's the issue since no other plants are showing any symptoms apart from the Hot Lemon plants. There's been no chemical use near/on the windows. I've been using the same ferts and concentration on all plants(Chili Focus with the recommended dosage on the bottle).
I wonder if it could be bad genetics, but why didn't it show up earlier?
Or if it's some really, really strange sunburn. The symptoms seems to show up after a morning with very bright sunshine.
Anyway, one of the affected plants haven't got many leaves left now :(
FY0rIz4.jpg

 
On to happier things, I'm beginning to get flowers on most plants now, some more than others:
eeq1Rgu.jpg

 
I've tried pollinating them but so far I've had no luck, the petals fall off and there is something similar to a tiny pod forming but then it drops off. Guess it's too early yet for pods. I tried photographing one, but I realize I need to buy that macro lens that I've put off buying for months :lol:
RF0kxzk.jpg

 
Speaking of growth, my white hab's have some crazy side-branches. It's only one on each plant but that branch is nearly as thick as the stem. Funky stuff(the leftmost branch):
Jm6CtDY.jpg

 
As for the cliffhanger in the last post. This is the first of my new arrivals. I have no idea what pepper I will get from this plant. The previous owner had tried to germinate the seeds before but never got it to work until this season. He got them from his aunt whom brought them back from Spain and he suspects that they could be Bishop's Crown:
cRFZG9q.jpg

 
The second newcomer is a Rocoto Canario. I'm not sure what it is about this plant but it smells bad, as in real bad. The smell transfers to your hands when you touch it. Really strange, but the plant seems health at least:
EeU3ih9.jpg

 
'Til next time readers :)
 
Just a quick update...
 
Beginning to get some pods. This I believe is my Hawai:
Cr1hMWQ.jpg

 
The Hot Palette:
MCuvGmR.jpg

 
Bulgarian Carrot:
NXJYfcM.jpg

 
 
On a less happy note, I think I've managed to overwater my first plant. This is the Rocoto Canario I got recently. Might be more things wrong with it too :(
vQWi2Up.jpg

 
 
But to finish on a happier note, next week I'll get 6 new arrivals. Stay tuned for that update :D
 
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