Plant Propagation Experiment

[mikeinsc]

I've been given some leeway in an expirement at school this semester. The projects that everyone else will be doing involves propogating plants from cuttings or clippings. However, because I am the only one in the class that is interested in vegetable farming, I can change the project to benefit me. I will be growing peppers from seed.

There is one experiment that I must do that involves clippings and that's fair. The other 2 experiments are up to me as long as I am only testing one variable. The first experiment I will be doing is to test planting depth. I will have three 38 cell seed trays that are 2 1/4 inch x 2 1/4 inch x 5 inch deep One seed tray will have seed sown at 1/2" deep, another at 1/4" deep and the other sown on top. All trays will be grown in a greenhouse. In this experiment I will be looking for seed germination rate, germination percentage, growth rate and root development.

For the other experiment I will be testing the theory of soaking seed prior to being sown. Seed will be soaked for a period of 24 hours, 45 minutes and no soak. Again, I will be looking for seed germination rate, germination percentage, growth rate and root development.

All seed will be sown in either Fafard 4P or Miracle Gro potting mix.


There are two other things I had wanted to test. I wanted to test different seed starting media such as coco coir, store bought starting mix such as Jiffy or Miracle Gro and also a homemade soil mix. The other would be to test fertilizing plants from seed or waiting until plants were older to fertilize.


I hope AjiJoe signs in soon and reads the PM I sent him. I'd like to use some of the seed he has like the Dragon's Claw, White Bullet Hab or Trinidad Scorpion. I'd really love to find some Trinidad Seasoning so if anyone reading this knows where I can get 250 seed for a good price, let me know.

 

[xxzombiepepperxx]

thats awesome bro im really interested in those experments and hope you keep us up to date on the results...pics and all.. i would definitly go with the seed starting mixs that dont contain any ferts or nute they are sterile and will probably produce better seed starting results...

 

[Wildfire Chilli Australia]

Sounds great and will be interesting to see results. If you have to do cuttings you can still do them with chillies. It's not very hard and I get most of mine to work out. I use clonex gel and a CCS clone solution to feed them and pop them into rockwool cubes.
Keep us updated!

 

[Nova]

Subscribed, i can see you #winning with this experiment. How does one win an experiment i have not a clue but you will!

 

[Bleash]

Sounds great and will be interesting to see results. If you have to do cuttings you can still do them with chillies. It's not very hard and I get most of mine to work out. I use clonex gel and a CCS clone solution to feed them and pop them into rockwool cubes.
Keep us updated!

I've tried to do cuttings from my plants several times already and I never had success.
I use some gel to stimulate root growth but the cuttings eventually drop all their leaves and about 3 weeks later they die.

What's your secret? Do you put the cuttings in water until they develop roots or do you put them in the dirt?
It would save me lots of trouble if I could learn how to make it work.

Bleash

 

[Wildfire Chilli Australia]

I've tried to do cuttings from my plants several times already and I never had success.
I use some gel to stimulate root growth but the cuttings eventually drop all their leaves and about 3 weeks later they die.

What's your secret? Do you put the cuttings in water until they develop roots or do you put them in the dirt?
It would save me lots of trouble if I could learn how to make it work.

Bleash

I cut them on a diagonal, scrape off a bit of the top layer of the stem behind the cut and as quickly as possible coat it with lots of clonex gel. Then I place it into dampened rockwool cubes that sit in a tray on top of vermiculite in a heated propogation kit with the vents closed under fluoro lights. I also cut off half of the leaf surface so they don't have to put all their energy into feeding the leaves.
Make sure everything is sterile and that the scalpel is nice and sharp and you do it as quick as possible.
Then once roots start to develop you can open the vents. It might help to also put an airator in the vermiculite where the solution is to keep lots of oxygen going to the roots.
I probably get about 80% success rate.

 

[Tonly]

Sounds like a very useful experiment. If you don't find the seed varieties you want, let me know. I have Lemon Drop, Yellow 7 Pod, and Bhut Jolokia seeds in the quantities you need.

 

[Pepper-Guru]

I cut them on a diagonal, scrape off a bit of the top layer of the stem behind the cut and as quickly as possible coat it with lots of clonex gel. Then I place it into dampened rockwool cubes that sit in a tray on top of vermiculite in a heated propogation kit with the vents closed under fluoro lights. I also cut off half of the leaf surface so they don't have to put all their energy into feeding the leaves.
Make sure everything is sterile and that the scalpel is nice and sharp and you do it as quick as possible.
Then once roots start to develop you can open the vents. It might help to also put an airator in the vermiculite where the solution is to keep lots of oxygen going to the roots.
I probably get about 80% success rate.

+1This ^

 

[mikeinsc]

Sounds great and will be interesting to see results. If you have to do cuttings you can still do them with chillies. It's not very hard and I get most of mine to work out. I use clonex gel and a CCS clone solution to feed them and pop them into rockwool cubes.
Keep us updated!

The only issue that I would have in using chilis is that I need to have 114 cuttings of the same variety. I don't have that many of a single type to pull that off.
So instead, I'll be plucking cuttings off a tea plant that came from the plantation I grew up near. That might play in my favor because my instructor was one of the founders of Carolina Tea Plantation here in South Carolina. It's the only tea plantation in the US. Prior to that he worked for Lipton as their main tea guru for about 30 years or something.

 

[AlabamaJack]

your experiment sounds good...however, IMO, the only thing you are going to learn from planting depth is the shallower you plant the seeds, the less time to hook emergence and the more seed husks remaining on the cotyledons...you have to have friction to pull the seed husk off the cotyledons...

the University of Florida Ag Extension Unit @ Imokolee wrote a paper based on temperature vs days to germination on a few annuum varieties...title of the paper was "High Temperature Inhibits Germination of Jalapeno and Cayenne Pepper"

I have never read any scholastic articles for this experiment on any of the chinense varieties...

if you are interested in their experiment, I have a copy of the document in pdf format that I will gladly send to you...it is not available online any more...

I, for one, would be very very interested in temperature vs days to germination for some of the superhots...

either way, good luck...it should be very enjoyable...

 

[mikeinsc]

AJ,
I sent you a PM with my e-mail address. The seed coat sticking is something I've already figured into it. My thinking is that I will leave the sead coats intact and not cut them off because that will be an added variable in the test. I'm expecting that the result of this test will be that the seed sown on top will mostly die because of the seed coat. Not everything has to survive in these experiments, I only need results.

It would be great if everything lived so then I could have lotsa peppers.

If I can come up with a way to have varying heat inside the greenhouse with 40 other students using the same space, I'll try that test. I'm at the school 4 days a week so I could keep a fairly close eye on everything. My worry though is having someone walk off with any equipmentI might put in there.


Do you have any ideas on controlling the heat?

 

[nitwit]

yo mike dude,

you may want to consider some less expensive
and faster germinating types for your project
i would start with a jalapeño or a chili de arból if you have to have a chili
but you would be wise to consider a broccoli, cauliflower, or lettuce
as the germination rate is very close to 100% and like 7-10 days for emergence
even if you have time you can screw it up and do it over if you use the faster
emerging crap

good growing

 

[LGHT]

yo mike dude,

you may want to consider some less expensive and faster germinating types for your project

I agree TS isn't that slow, but white hab's took 6 weeks for mine to germinate and both are somewhat hard to find especially in the numbers your looking for. I think for this experiment the best thing to do is find Jalapeno seeds at the local store that sell 50 a pack and just buy several and get going. Although it would be nice to get some superhots it will add a lot more possible problems to your project.

 

[mikeinsc]

yo mike dude,

you may want to consider some less expensive
and faster germinating types for your project
i would start with a jalapeño or a chili de arból if you have to have a chili
but you would be wise to consider a broccoli, cauliflower, or lettuce
as the germination rate is very close to 100% and like 7-10 days for emergence
even if you have time you can screw it up and do it over if you use the faster
emerging crap

good growing

I have planty of tam jalapeno, jalapeno m, cubanelle, various heirloom tomato, peas, beans, etc but if I can get something hotter that would be great. I must say that I didn't think of other veg seed because I got excited at the thought of peppers. If I did use broccoli or something like it, that would cut my hot pepper seed down to 114. We'll call it 150 to be safe.


LGHT,
my white habs were up and going in about 2 weeks. I think within 2 months they were flowering. I know that its not always the case

 

[LGHT]

LGHT,
my white habs were up and going in about 2 weeks. I think within 2 months they were flowering. I know that its not always the case

Are they Peruvian White Habaneros? Not sure if it's the same variety, but I have never had one come up that fast and everything I read about them says 4-6 weeks.

 

[mikeinsc]

I've read that the Peruvian White habs and White Bullet Habs are one in the same. What I have this season are the White Bullet Habs that I got from someone here.

 

[Wildfire Chilli Australia]

The only issue that I would have in using chilis is that I need to have 114 cuttings of the same variety. I don't have that many of a single type to pull that off.
So instead, I'll be plucking cuttings off a tea plant that came from the plantation I grew up near. That might play in my favor because my instructor was one of the founders of Carolina Tea Plantation here in South Carolina. It's the only tea plantation in the US. Prior to that he worked for Lipton as their main tea guru for about 30 years or something.

Fair enough, you would need quite a few plants. Well the tea sounds interesting and if your teacher is into it who knows he might be a little more interested in your project What sort of tea plant is it? I would love to grow my own and havee just started growing some mint for mint tea.

your experiment sounds good...however, IMO, the only thing you are going to learn from planting depth is the shallower you plant the seeds, the less time to hook emergence and the more seed husks remaining on the cotyledons...you have to have friction to pull the seed husk off the cotyledons...

the University of Florida Ag Extension Unit @ Imokolee wrote a paper based on temperature vs days to germination on a few annuum varieties...title of the paper was "High Temperature Inhibits Germination of Jalapeno and Cayenne Pepper"

I have never read any scholastic articles for this experiment on any of the chinense varieties...

if you are interested in their experiment, I have a copy of the document in pdf format that I will gladly send to you...it is not available online any more...

I, for one, would be very very interested in temperature vs days to germination for some of the superhots...

either way, good luck...it should be very enjoyable...

I like the idea of this experiment! You could also try soaking the seeds in different solutions to see which ones help germinate quicker?

AJ,
I sent you a PM with my e-mail address. The seed coat sticking is something I've already figured into it. My thinking is that I will leave the sead coats intact and not cut them off because that will be an added variable in the test. I'm expecting that the result of this test will be that the seed sown on top will mostly die because of the seed coat. Not everything has to survive in these experiments, I only need results.

It would be great if everything lived so then I could have lotsa peppers.

If I can come up with a way to have varying heat inside the greenhouse with 40 other students using the same space, I'll try that test. I'm at the school 4 days a week so I could keep a fairly close eye on everything. My worry though is having someone walk off with any equipmentI might put in there.


Do you have any ideas on controlling the heat?

How about a heat mat with thermostat controller? It would depend on however already how hot the greenhouse gets. Or you could place one outside the greenhouse for a cooler temp?

 

[mikeinsc]

I've sent Tonly a PM inquiring about 7 Pod Yellow and Barrack Pore. I've also sent a PM to PepperLover about the White Habs and Trinidad Perfume.

If nothing else, I'll use Cubanelle's and Red Kidney Beans.

 

[mikeinsc]

The class seems to be moving slower than I expected. Yesterday in class I began the seed startng depth experiment. Three 38 cell flats were sown with Yellow 7 Pod seed. Seed were sown on top in one flat, 1/4" deep in another and 1/2" deep in the last. The growing medium is Metro-Mix 360 and the flats are set under a timed mister. The misters come on for 10 seconds every 5 minutes.

Tomorrow I will plant the seed for the last experiment. That will be a test of soaking the seed prior to being sown. The seed will be soaked for 24 hours, 45 minutes and no soak. They will still be sown in Metro-Mix 360 and planted at 1/4" depth.

 

[AlabamaJack]

I'm following you on this experiment...please keep us updated on where you are...thanks

The misters come on for 10 seconds every 5 minutes.

can/will you get a picture of this "misting system"? That is one improvement I am going to make in my process this coming year...install misters in my germinator...I hand mist, water everything now in the germinator and it would be nice not to have to worry about it...