Propagation Station

Kramer

Kramer

Hey all,
 
Just sharing my propagation station I put together today because I'm too excited not to.  What else is one to do with their extra pandemic time but double down on growing tasty peppers?  Feel free to share yours too, big or small, I'd love to see them all. ;-)
 

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Amazon. They're EarlyGrow brand. Kinda pricey, but they're massive and felt very well made putting them together today. Really high hopes they'll let me grow some substantial plants to pot up by the time summer starts and for many years to come!
 
Very nice, so have you kept the white foam up till now?  That's one thing I'm still considering, but still have some time before it'll be useful to have something to go around the outside of it for both the plants and me.  I work next to this thing so having a 1000 watt grow light shining in my face 8 hours a day might get old quick.  Not sure if it'd be better to get something white like foam or some of the reflective foil looking material (or just foil?).
 
Yes, I still have the white foam (at least the part not eaten by mice :-( I think the white foam will reflect just as much light as foil lined boards would. In fact, I have heard people say it is better to use white because foil lined sheets would tend to create hot spots inside the box. Never having used foil in there, I can't vouch for that theory, but it seems reasonable.
 
These are pretty cool. We use a 12 cell seed tray with a top that has a similar venting device. I think something like this would be a little unnecessary for me considering I have such a short winter. My plants generally can go out to the greenhouse by the time they are six to eight inches tall. if I lived in a colder climate and had the need to grow indoors for much longer this would definitely be high on my purchase list. Thanks for sharing.
 
midwestchilehead said:
Yes, I still have the white foam (at least the part not eaten by mice :-( I think the white foam will reflect just as much light as foil lined boards would. In fact, I have heard people say it is better to use white because foil lined sheets would tend to create hot spots inside the box. Never having used foil in there, I can't vouch for that theory, but it seems reasonable.
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Yes, from what I've read even people paint grow rooms (for cannabis and such) a matte white.  My intuition was shinier things reflect light better, but in fact, a more semi gloss to matte white is preferred.
 
peppersproutfarm said:
These are pretty cool. We use a 12 cell seed tray with a top that has a similar venting device. I think something like this would be a little unnecessary for me considering I have such a short winter. My plants generally can go out to the greenhouse by the time they are six to eight inches tall. if I lived in a colder climate and had the need to grow indoors for much longer this would definitely be high on my purchase list. Thanks for sharing.
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Hey thanks and you're welcome.  Yeah, different climate in Pittsburgh than Louisiana.  It's Christmas eve and we're supposed to get 4-6 inches of snow by tomorrow.  Merry Christmas, by the way.  lol.  But, we really don't get to acceptable outdoor temps until late May/early June at the earliest, and the season is pretty much over by late September.  I grew some pretty nice plants from 4" store bought seedlings last year, but learned they just need to get started earlier if you want more than a couple decent harvests.  Hopefully by the time they go out this year they'll already be pretty well along and can grow a little bit more and then do their thing growing pods.
 
Kramer said:
Hey all,
 
Just sharing my propagation station I put together today because I'm too excited not to.  What else is one to do with their extra pandemic time but double down on growing tasty peppers?  Feel free to share yours too, big or small, I'd love to see them all. ;-)
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Look great make :fireball: ! if you ad a styrofan sheet under the heating mats will be even better and help you a bit with running cost
 
London-pepper said:
Look great make :fireball: ! if you ad a styrofan sheet under the heating mats will be even better and help you a bit with running cost
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Believe it or not, I don't know if the heat mats are going to be working that hard.  It dipped down to 12 degrees last night but never got below 78 degrees in the room thanks to pellet stove and hot water heating pipes overhead.  I think I'm going to set them to run at 85 for the first round which will be the slow growers, bhut jolokia, carbonero, bonnet, as well as some reapers and scorpions just since I have the seeds..might as well try them out.
 
Update to the prop station.  Thanks to you guys I decided to sow my chinense now and not wait until the end of the month, and added a few things that will help down the road.
 
- Panda film
- Small fan for air circulation
- Slip cover for the entire rack with a clear window.  Just trying to keep it a bit cleaner, my roommates are smokers, there are mischievous cats that like to get onto things they oughtn't, etc.
 
Got 60 seeds black tea soak overnight and planted, split almost equally:
 
- Carolina Reaper
- "Moruga" (a relative of the true scorpion, but slightly less hot)
- Bhut Jolokia
- Bih Jolokia
- Carbonero
- Safi Scotch Bonnet
 
Hoping I don't regret not growing a real heirloom habanero variety, boy those are tasty but trying some new things here.  Got it running between 85-87 degrees F.  We shall see.  Tried out this stuff called Black Gold seedling mix since I just got most of this off Amazon.  Overpriced I think but it is a really nice and convenient seedling mix, very fine with lots of perlite in between.  For what it's worth..
 
 
 

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Update.  It has been about 6 days, and already I have counted 13 visible germinations.  Most surprising is the Carolina Reapers from Puckerbutt, 6 out of 9 have already sprouted.  Hope they didn't get mixed up since I thought these were supposed to take a while.  Counted some visible sprouts from every other except Bih Jolokia and Moruga.  Looks like the first scotch bonnet in the upper left part of the pic is getting ready to display its first cotyledons.  Exciting!  I'm planning on moving just the sprouted ones to the other chamber tomorrow with the light on directly over them.
 
Seems like most of these pushed the seeds themselves out of the soil and grew a root downwards, even though they were completely covered from the start.  Hopefully that's okay.  I am a noob at this, albeit researching a lot.
 

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fishhead said:
Karp. Why are you using the mylar to block the natural sunlight?
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No  :surprised: It's the final place where my chili babies live  :rolleyes: and sorry for long reply. My computer died and I had to order new parts. Window is on the left side. It's dark outside and days too short so not yet taking away blackout curtain from the window. My lights causing too much pollution to outside...
 
Left is old setup and right is new one and much better lights. 
 
Kramer said:
Seems like most of these pushed the seeds themselves out of the soil and grew a root downwards, even though they were completely covered from the start.  Hopefully that's okay.  I am a noob at this, albeit researching a lot.
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The sprouts that hooked out with the seed casing attached are called "Helmet Head".
 
When the sprouts hook out, they try to use the friction from the soil to pull the seed casing off before they break the surface.  Sometimes they fail.
 
At first glance, you seem like you have an unusually high percentage of "helmet head" sprouts. You might want to sow your seeds a little deeper in the future.
 
Some people are good at doing surgery to remove the seed casing.  For my part, I usually give them time to try to work their way out.
 
DontPanic said:
The sprouts that hooked out with the seed casing attached are called "Helmet Head".
 
When the sprouts hook out, they try to use the friction from the soil to pull the seed casing off before they break the surface.  Sometimes they fail.
 
At first glance, you seem like you have an unusually high percentage of "helmet head" sprouts. You might want to sow your seeds a little deeper in the future.
 
Some people are good at doing surgery to remove the seed casing.  For my part, I usually give them time to try to work their way out.
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Thanks!  That's an interesting term..helmet heads.  lol.  Actually, I went to water a little today, and some just fell off from the really light misting.  I will try to bury them a bit deeper though when I do my annuums here in a week or two.  Maybe if they don't fall off on their own in a few days, I will attempt surgery.  I do have fine point forceps and a trained hand from years of intricate soldering guitar amps and stuff.  Maybe just experiment on a few and see how it goes.
 
I haven't transferred any to the separate growing chamber yet.  They're still all in the same one, with a couple top vents open now, and a 1000 watt light hanging above.  The LED light is actually so warm the heat mat doesn't kick on anymore.  I actually raised it up and moved the fan to start blowing across the top since it was pushing air temps inside up into the 90's.  Now air and soil temps are hanging steady both around 85.  I guess that's about right?  I've read that once germinated, it's better to lower the humidity and temp, but people get by fine just managing one terrarium with seeds and seedlings so that's I'm trying to do.  Do it right, but not overcomplicate.
 
If you look at the picture above from last night, you'll see the Reaper tray on the left with 5 small seedlings curled in the dirt.  Today, after I clicked on the lights and waited only a few hours, they had grown vertically, two of them almost an inch.  I can't believe they responded like that so quickly.  All they wanted was a light source it seems.
 

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Been about a week and I think the seedlings are pretty happy.  Many are now displaying their first true leaves.
 
I did operate on the helmet heads.  The reapers were too far gone, but for all of the others it seems it was a successful procedure - a pair of little green cotyledons just stuck in the shell.  It really wasn't nearly as hard as I had imagined.  Just a pair of tweezers, pinch the edge of the shell, and pull it off.  Seems worth at least trying considering they might make it if you do but will definitely die if you don't.
 
I am noticing that some of the leaves are now blushing purple, which I've read is not completely bad just maybe too much light?  I don't think it's heat burn as the 1000 watt board is hanging over a foot away and is turned down so temp/humidity stays 75-80F/65-75rH.  It does stay on 24/7 though, so I'm thinking I might turn it off tonight and let them rest maybe unless you guys can shed some light on it (cue punny drum noise).
 
Still no sign of the Morugas!  Oh well.  Next up we'll sow the jalapeno, serrano, fresno, cayenne, hot portugal, banana, and pepperoncini.  Maybe this weekend or next at the latest.
 
Edit: In hindsight I think I should've started a separate thread in the Glogs section.
 

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