Hello all, my first post here... Anyway, I am a bit new to growing Chili Peppers, and I have about 12 plants/pots currently, two of them are Orange Habaneros the rest are Caribbean Red Habaneros.
I Germinated them in a homemade incubator which was at about 95'F for 14 hours a day between moist napkins, needless to say after a few weeks they exploded with growth in the incubator. Which I then put into small white yogurt containers (easy to get them out of), and when they were about 3 - 4 inches tall I put them in larger blue transparent plastic cups (again easy to get them out)...
I would put in larger containers when the roots would fill the cups/container and form a solid mass.
They seemed to do quite well in the yogurt containers inside a home-made light box consisting of 4 - 26 Watt CFLs (100 Watt Eq.) on a 14 and 1/2 hour timer. (Early on I would only have two of the CFLs on at a time).
The only problem I had was some of the leaves would curl up around the edges. I started spraying them with distiled water mist to keep the humidity up, since it's still pretty dry up here in Upstate New York as of May - April.
Why do they curl up like this? Also sometimes later in the day the leaves would droop down, as if avoiding the light? (Not soft like when they need water, nice and crisp but bending downward) they would come right back up the next moring maybe even better looking than before... Why do they do this?
Now I have recently transplanted them into larger plastic pots, filled with general purpos potting soil (dark, has sand in it and other organic matter). I am growing these guys indoors in pots, under an array of 26 Watt (100 Watt Eq.) CFLs on a 14 and 1/2 hour timer hung above them (about 6 inches above them) with reflectors. I also have a window fan in this particular room to give them some ventilation (this is connected to the timer as well).
And an Interesting thing is happening, as of today they are all about 9 to 11 inches high and despite the fact that they are all the same species, all my plants seem to be very different from one another.
While some have greenish stems with light green leaves, others have dark purple stems with dark green leaves.
Some of my Reds have very light greenish leaves (almost transparent) like below with light green stems. Otherwise healthy looking plants.
While these Oranges have darker green or yellow green and or oval leaves with very dark purple stems like below. Also healthy looking.
I Germinated them in a homemade incubator which was at about 95'F for 14 hours a day between moist napkins, needless to say after a few weeks they exploded with growth in the incubator. Which I then put into small white yogurt containers (easy to get them out of), and when they were about 3 - 4 inches tall I put them in larger blue transparent plastic cups (again easy to get them out)...
I would put in larger containers when the roots would fill the cups/container and form a solid mass.
They seemed to do quite well in the yogurt containers inside a home-made light box consisting of 4 - 26 Watt CFLs (100 Watt Eq.) on a 14 and 1/2 hour timer. (Early on I would only have two of the CFLs on at a time).
The only problem I had was some of the leaves would curl up around the edges. I started spraying them with distiled water mist to keep the humidity up, since it's still pretty dry up here in Upstate New York as of May - April.
Why do they curl up like this? Also sometimes later in the day the leaves would droop down, as if avoiding the light? (Not soft like when they need water, nice and crisp but bending downward) they would come right back up the next moring maybe even better looking than before... Why do they do this?
Now I have recently transplanted them into larger plastic pots, filled with general purpos potting soil (dark, has sand in it and other organic matter). I am growing these guys indoors in pots, under an array of 26 Watt (100 Watt Eq.) CFLs on a 14 and 1/2 hour timer hung above them (about 6 inches above them) with reflectors. I also have a window fan in this particular room to give them some ventilation (this is connected to the timer as well).
And an Interesting thing is happening, as of today they are all about 9 to 11 inches high and despite the fact that they are all the same species, all my plants seem to be very different from one another.
While some have greenish stems with light green leaves, others have dark purple stems with dark green leaves.
Some of my Reds have very light greenish leaves (almost transparent) like below with light green stems. Otherwise healthy looking plants.
While these Oranges have darker green or yellow green and or oval leaves with very dark purple stems like below. Also healthy looking.