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Patrick's 2011 Grow Log

Here we are again. I can't believe how fast the time goes by anymore. My pops always said the older you get the faster it passes us by.

I am especially excited about this year, I'm going to try and cross a couple of peppers, on purpose! Haven't made the final decisions yet though.

Anyway, here's a few that I overwintered. The one on the left came from a 7 Pod Barrackpore cutting. It struggled for a bit but the roots are starting to grow so I'm hopeful. Center front is a "large" 7 Pod, center rear was a very robust Dorset Naga and the one on the right is a 7 Pod Primo. The latter three I removed from 5-7 gal pots, trimmed the roots and cut them down to just the stem. They sat in my foyer where they got some limited sunlight through a window. I'm very happy with them.

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This is the first tray of seeds I stuck in coco coir last night. I've had success before with this medium as a seed starting mix so see no reason to change. It is nutrient poor so I start using fertilizer at an early stage in the plants life, at a very reduced rate.

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Here is what I've started so far:

7 Pod, Brain Strain PRF…………………………..………........ 5
7 Pod, Brown Judy………………………………..………............ 6
Bhut Jolokia, Yellow…………………………………..………........ 5
Pimenta Tiger, AISPES004...................... 5
Trinidad Scorpion, Butch T Judy…………….………...... 8
Trinidad Scorpion, Chocolate AISPES108…....……. 5
Trinidad Scorpion, Morouga HSC……………….……....... 5
Trinidad Scorpion, Yellow AISPES109..……....... 5
Trinidad Scorpion, Yellow 2 SS………………….………..... 5
Trinidad Scorpion, Yellow Morouga AISPES107...…3

Not all of them are in the photo.

They are on a cookie sheet which is on a heat pad. Current temp in the coco coir varies from 75F - 80F. I would like it warmer and may mess with the heating pad settings. I plan on picking up a couple of heat mats tomorrow for more trays.

I have several other varieties to get started and would like to keep my total at under 90 plants.

Here we go! :woohoo:
 
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This is one of my favorite plants so far. It's a Bhut Jolokia Yellow, seeds from Asia Gardens.

Look at the stalk on this beast:

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And here's the view from top side. It's sitting next to a pint Ball jar:

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More in a bit.
 
Thanks gang.

The key to growing thick stems? Well after several years of hit and miss with fertilizers, different lights, different fan speeds, chemical boosters, organic boosters, water and fertilizer schedules I finally got it all figured out--don't be in a hurry to raise the lights away from the plant. Had nothing to do with all of that other stuff. :rolleyes: Amazing how simple things can be with peppers. Of course me being the idiot that I am I had to learn this the hard way. I did have fun along the way though.
 
Welcome back Patrick! Plants look great. I was wondering the same thing about the node length. My plants look the same as yours and was wondering if you knew what specifically makes the node length shorten. I think I remember reading some where that the Blue 6500K lights promote short node length while the red bulbs promotes longer node length. Plus I would imagine not having enough light would compound the situation making them leggy with a longer node length… so having 40,000 Lumens(40,000/8 SF = 5,000 Lumens per SF) and all blue bulbs in my case helped to keep them short and stocky? Just hearsay for now hopefully you know for certain. I have had a fan on them about 12 hours a day to keep them cool so I think in my case that is really is helping to thicken the stems up but I wonder if they would still have thick stems if the fan was not used so much. Funny thing is my Pimenta Tigers do not to have the short node length. They are growing tall and leggy while all its surrounding neighbors stay low and bushy.

Missed you by seconds... LOL
 
Hey Michael! Thanks for the welcome back, sorry for the disappearing act.

I wish I could help with a better explanation for the thicker stems and short node length other than keeping the lights closer and air movement but I can't. I know in previous years I was always in a hurry to raise the lights, didn't think the plants were doing that well unless they were three feet tall in a couple of months. Up until the past couple of days I've kept the lights within a couple of inches, the plants didn't have to stretch to get the light. Now I've moved the lights to about 10" plus hoping to stimulate the plants into a vertical growth spurt.

Another thing I've done is change up my growing medium. Most of my seedlings are in last years mix; mostly Pro Mix BX, worm castings, perlite, Alaskan humus and peat. I ran out of that so I mixed up a bunch of new stuff. I went with Pro Mix HP, worm castings, Happy Frog soil amendment and some Alaskan humus. It was like turbo charging the plants.

First off a direct comparison. The plant on the right has a two week head start on the one on the left. Two weeks from the time they were moved into the larger cups.

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These are annuums. I know they're supposed to grow faster than chinense but like this?

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These were seeds 38 days ago. Is this normal? I've never grown annuums before.

And finally one more gratuitous picture of a macho stem.

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It's an Orange Bih Jolokia. Yummy!
 
Hey Millman, good to hear from you. More like seven weeks before plant out as our last frost date is May 15th.

Mr Woodpecker, ain't got one of those "wife" things so I have to confess the diet Mug was my buy. Afraid it's the only beer I drink.
 
Looking great Patrick!
Awesome start!

I lived in Nebraska for a bit,
Cant say I miss detassling corn! :lol:


Great job man!

Kevin
 
Thanks for the kind words gang, gives me that warm and fuzzy feeling.

Wayright bro I did my share of pulling corn tassles lemme tell ya. Good way to make a few bucks as a kid.

Alright on with the pepper stuff! I got a request to show some of the AISPES plants I have going and I always honor requests. Most of the time. First off we have the AISPES104 Pimenta Tiger. I had five seeds and happy to say all five germinated. You'll only see four in the picture though as I helped a friend out who was having problems getting their seeds going.

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They started out with deep purple leaves and stem and the new growth starts out green but then changes to purple. First time growing these so I'm not sure what to expect.

Here we have the one I'm really looking forward to; the AISPES107 Trinidad Scorpion Morouga Yellow. The photo that Megamastger posted of these in his photo thread blew me away. I had dreams about this pepper. Germination rate of 100% again as they went five for five. Like the Tigers above I sent one to a friend so down to four.

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These are the AISPES108 Trinidad Scorpion Chocolate peppers. Not so good on the germination rate as I ended up with three out of five. Two of those I dug the seed up after three plus weeks and cracked the shell casing. I did that to the four seeds that didn't germinate and got lucky with two of them growing.

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I wasn't as fortunate with the last of my AISPES species. I had one of five of the AISPES109 Trinidad Scorpion Yellow germinate. No photo, sorry.

Last photo of the post is what the peppers look like in the morning prior to me turning the lights on.

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This puts a smile on my face every morning. It appears like they're starving for light, trying to reach up and turn the lights on themselves. Little do they know the switch is on the floor. Ha!

See you all next time.
 
Looks like you'll have a pack of pepper pods there patrick, nice work. I couldn't wait 7 more weeks.

You taught those arachnids to do peppers yet :D
 
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