Rabid48's 2012 Grow Log

Hello all! I'm new around these parts, but I've been lurking around the forums ever since I figured out how to eradicate the aphids from my overwintered plants by reading Pepperguru's guide in the main growing section. I've been hooked ever since.

This will be my log for 2012, but I'm playing a little bit of catch up because every time I come here I wind up salivating over someone else's photos rather than posting my own. I started back on February 1st, so hopefully this will get me back on track.

Last year I had a pretty basic season, with just a few small jalapenos, sweet cayennes, Hungarian waxes, California Wonders, and one lonely chocolate habanero that I bought as a plant at a greenie festival up in Rochester. I grew them all out of some 6-8" pots outside my apartment, so they never got very big. I decided to overwinter them in the hopes of getting some better production this year while being able to focus on a few more varieties.

Unfortunately, things didn't go so well; battling aphids, cold, and a few fungus gnats really took their toll on the plants. I started out with around 10 and I am now left with only 4: one jalapeno, one sweet cayenne, and two Hungarian waxes that are intertwined in the same pot.

This is the jalapeno, with its one lonely leaf of new growth:

And these are the sweet cayenne and Hungarian Waxes:

The leaves on those look pretty terrible, but that is just old growth ready to be trimmed. I've since cut them back a little bit and they seem to be doing fine. Hopefully they'll keep on truckin' til plant out, which should be after Memorial day around here.

So, that's what's left of last year's grow. Onward to 2012's grow.

I've gotten a much earlier start this year. I don't think I started until April last year, so hopefully that won't be too much of a hindrance. Just lots of potting up.

Here is a list of what I have planted so far (No superhots unless somebody wants to do some donating):

• Cayenne (amazon via wholesale via toddsseeds.com) x8
• Poinsettia Pepper (Burpee) x11
• Tequila Sunrise (Burpee) x6
• Anaheim (from my mother's friend) x6
• Chocolate Habanero (from the greenie festival's plant) x6
• Caribbean Red (Ferry Morse) x6
• Pablano (Ferry Morse) x4
• California Wonder (Walmart) x7 + some non-thinned ones I might plant

I also planted some Roma tomatoes with those, and wound up with 50 sprouts! (I spilled the seed pouch and decided to spread the love around.

In addition to all of that I just planed a few more varieties on Monday 2/20 (numbers listed by cell, with three seeds per cell):

• Rocoto (CPI) 0/9
• NuMex Jalmundo (CPI) 0/9
• Pasilla (CPI) 0/9
• Pimient de Espelette (CPI) 0/9

That batch was a splurge to get some new variety that I hope will turn out well. I'm especially excited about the rocotos to see how they do in the cooler/hillier climate that we have up here.

As I'm sure you're wondering, no, I won't be planting all of those plants into the ground when the time comes. I plan on giving a few away to family/friends in the area who are also gardeners. I also think I'm going to put some poinsettia peppers in my office. Show everybody at work what I'm all about.

The main reason for not planting all those wonderful plants is because of space (shocker!). I think this year I will be able to plant in the ground around my apartment (east and West facing, unfortunately no south facing). Here is the West facing spot I plan to use:

There are some black-eyed Mary plants in there that I'm hoping I can take out.

So that pretty much sums up my plans/what I've been up to. Now for the seedling pictures. I have a whole bunch but most of them are just at the cotyledon stage. I'll keep it interesting.

The first batch, minus the Pablanos and bells. The Roma tomatoes are in the containers up front. This was before I thinned them out.

I had to pot things up to solo cup size so tat I could reuse my germ chamber for the second batch. I first went for theses cut-offs for more lateral space, but as you'll see I listened to Toby Kieth and just went for the straight up solo cups after my first batch of transplants.

This is post thinning and the first batch of transplants. Things got a little leggy while I was away for a few days. No worries there though.

...and here is the most current set up. Today I added all those cfls on the strip (ala stc3248's grow log). They're bright as hell! I could physically feel the eye strain from them after I was done looking at the set up for a while. I'll have to get some sunglasses.

They're only 5000, but I'll switch 'em over to 6400 like everything else is if they don't work well.I also added a fan to the mix to help beef up the stalks, but most of them haven't crested the tops of the cups, so it isn't doing much.


Thanks for stopping by and having a look! I really love the community here and I hope I didn't take too much of your time from slobbering over those other awesome looking posts.

Nathan


Nathan

 

[OROZCONLECHE]

Nice Log seems like your doing great Those First Plants seem a bit anemic but im sure they will come around

 

[megahot]

Nice looking glog! I dont know what that is in your cell tray! if its just on top and easily removable I'd say it might be mold?

 

[rabid48]

Nice Log seems like your doing great Those First Plants seem a bit anemic but im sure they will come around

Yeah, they were doing pretty rough after battle with aphids, and I think the cold of the room really got to them also. The jalapeno was quite amazing, it sat on the floor away from the window because I thought it was dead, and only when I went to get rid of it did I notice the one leaf. That was about a month after being on the floor. I will call him lucky.

Nice looking glog! I dont know what that is in your cell tray! if its just on top and easily removable I'd say it might be mold?

Yeah I hope it's nothing serious. As soon as I get more confirmation/opinions you better believe I'm gonna be doing some scraping.

Thanks for looking!

 

[romy6]

Looks like mold . Let the soil dry out a bit between watering that should fix it.

Jamie

 

[rabid48]

Looks like mold . Let the soil dry out a bit between watering that should fix it.

Jamie

Thanks Jamie. I'm thinking it is based off of too much moisture, but I never actually did any secondary watering. It's under a dome with a heat mat which probably makes it ideal for these fungii and molds. I'll scrape it off tonight and let it go with the top off (woo!) for a few hours to dry out a little bit. Hopefully that will take care of it.

 

[PaulG]

Hey Rabid - your seedlings are doing great, should give
you some nice transplants! I think the webby looking stuff
is some kind of fungus/mold. I think your plan is a good
one - keep us posted on the results. I use a little Safer
garden fungicide once in a while when a little growth
like that gets started in my pots.

 

[rabid48]

Hey Rabid - your seedlings are doing great, should give
you some nice transplants! I think the webby looking stuff
is some kind of fungus/mold. I think your plan is a good
one - keep us posted on the results. I use a little Safer
garden fungicide once in a while when a little growth
like that gets started in my pots.

Thanks for the tip, PaulG. fungicide is my plan B if the drying/scraping doesn't work.

Nice greenhouse btw. And if I remember correctly (they won't let me looks a photobucket pictures here at work), you have some bonzai going on, too, right? That stuff blows my mind. Gonna be keepin' an eye on your log too. :-)

 

[mjdiamond83]

Hey Rabid, nice to see someone local on here! I live in the Binghamton area. Aphids got to the 2 plants I was going to overwinter this year and completely destroyed them. Like Romy and Paul said, that definitely looks like mold or fungus. A diluted hydrogen peroxide or chamomile tea spray might slow that stuff down as will letting it dry out a little bit more in between waterings. Your seedlings look great, those fluoro lights will keep them nice and compact. Good luck this season, I hope we don't get ridiculous rain like last year.

 

[rabid48]

Hey Rabid, nice to see someone local on here! I live in the Binghamton area. Aphids got to the 2 plants I was going to overwinter this year and completely destroyed them. Like Romy and Paul said, that definitely looks like mold or fungus. A diluted hydrogen peroxide or chamomile tea spray might slow that stuff down as will letting it dry out a little bit more in between waterings. Your seedlings look great, those fluoro lights will keep them nice and compact. Good luck this season, I hope we don't get ridiculous rain like last year.

Dude! I'm in Bingo all the time! I got to a lot of Sens games on the weekends. :-)

Yeah, I scraped that crap off to keep it from spreading. The dome was definitely keeping things a little too moist this time around. It's on the heat pad with the lid off for now.

I did get good news though: under some of the scraping were a few hooks! A Jalmundo and a Pimient de Espelette. Exciting times.

 

[PaulG]

Every cloud has a silver lining
Good luck!

 

[mjdiamond83]

Sens games are about the only good thing about winters in Binghamton! I noticed that you said you wouldn't mind superhot pepper donations. I'm actually running out of room in my grow box (I'm starting to question why I started so many seeds; I have 156 plants now!) and could definitely part with about 10 plants in a few weeks when it's time for me to get tomatoes going if you're interested.

 

[rabid48]

Sens games are about the only good thing about winters in Binghamton! I noticed that you said you wouldn't mind superhot pepper donations. I'm actually running out of room in my grow box (I'm starting to question why I started so many seeds; I have 156 plants now!) and could definitely part with about 10 plants in a few weeks when it's time for me to get tomatoes going if you're interested.

If your peppers wind up orphaned out on the street, I will gladly put a roof over their heads...or at least a florescent light. At least until plant out anyway.

I'd gladly return you something as well, but you have most of my varieties already listed there.

Don't worry about me for now, though. You never know what could happen. I've already killed three or four of my plants with under/over watering and too much heat.

 

[mjdiamond83]

If you see some plants with a swarm of aggressive fungus gnats surrounding them, you'll know mine have been abandoned on the street.
Once you get the hang of watering them at the right times, your plants will take off. They love that fluorescent light.

 

[stc3248]

Nice little Glog you got going! That light setup is the bomb! I noticed a few things other than that I recognized...ie the paper plate labels look familiar too! Awesome that you are getting what you need from the site. Your setup will rock the plants. Be careful with how close you put those CFL's they get pretty hot compared to other floros.

That fungus can be a bad sign. Hope the seeds are not rotting under there. Once they dry a bit and you pick what can off of there. You may try a weak hydrogen peroxide solution to water them with to prevent it from coming back, and maybe stop any rotting that is going on with the seeds. I use 2 tbs per quart...it will also kill beneficial microbes in the soil but its better than letting the seeds go bad.

Thanks for the Credit on the lights I actually got the idea from CCErnst. He used a standard power strip...the larger one is the way to go though! Next year I plan to have 1 shelf with the T8's for the little ones then another shelf with 2 of these power strip setups in it for the more mature starts.

Good luck with the rest of your season!
Shane


I

 

[rabid48]

Nice little Glog you got going! That light setup is the bomb! I noticed a few things other than that I recognized...ie the paper plate labels look familiar too! Awesome that you are getting what you need from the site. Your setup will rock the plants. Be careful with how close you put those CFL's they get pretty hot compared to other floros.

That fungus can be a bad sign. Hope the seeds are not rotting under there. Once they dry a bit and you pick what can off of there. You may try a weak hydrogen peroxide solution to water them with to prevent it from coming back, and maybe stop any rotting that is going on with the seeds. I use 2 tbs per quart...it will also kill beneficial microbes in the soil but its better than letting the seeds go bad.

Thanks for the Credit on the lights I actually got the idea from CCErnst. He used a standard power strip...the larger one is the way to go though! Next year I plan to have 1 shelf with the T8's for the little ones then another shelf with 2 of these power strip setups in it for the more mature starts.

Good luck with the rest of your season!
Shane


I

Thanks Shane! I noticed the heat from the cfls, but after 1 week my plants that are right under the lights don't seem to mind too much. I'm keeping a close watch on the soil so they don't dry out.

The fungus is mostly gone from the scraping, but the is one cell that has had some come back. The seeds are ok underneath. I've noticed in scraping that most are starting to poke out of their shells. Hopefully all goes well!

And credit to CCErnst as well!

 

[PaulG]

All right, good work Rabid! You'll have a flat full of seedlings in no time
Hope the rest of your endeavor goes well!

 

[rabid48]

Time for a weekly update!

First, the good news:

The seedlings have sprouted!

Some cells still don't have anything poking through the dirt yet, but all of them have some form of hook going, and a few have had all three seeds pop!

I ran into some troubles with the seed helmets. I had way more than ever before, probably because I didn't pack the dirt very tightly. Then, when they popped, I got so excited that I tried to take them off. I think you know where that road leads...needless to say, I have some stubby cotyledons. We'll see how the plants do down the road, and there's still a few that haven't fully popped that will probably be ok.

The other plants are still going strong. I've lost a few to transplanting and under watering, but there are plenty more vying for their spot under the lights. The lights are quite strong, and a few of the plants are showing some purple leaves (I left 'em on while I was gone for 48 hours), but they still look perfectly happy. I took a few of the poinsettia peppers out and put them in a western facing window to hopefully help with the problem.

Here is one real stand out that isn't a pepper. This is a Roma tomato that started out with 3 cotyledons and proceeded to produce 3 real branches/leaves. It's also getting pretty big compared to some of it's brothers.

This is the other stand out. It's a cayenne that has cotyledons that are 1.25" long. I can't wait to see how it looks at the end of the season.

Now...for the bad(ish) news.

The overwintered Hungarian Wax isn't doing so well. some of the older leaves are starting to yellow and wilt, and I think I might be seeing signs of whiteflys or mites (some spider-like webs under the leaves). But, I decided to try to do battle by potting it in some new soil in a newer bigger pot. We'll see what happens.

(photo before I cut a few of those yellow ones off)

The next step for tonight is to give 'em some water, probably mixed with some Alaska fish ferts. Keep those comments coming, and I'll try to answer them.

Also, I need to give a shout out to ajijoe, who will be sending me a few mixed hot/superhot seeds soon to let me try my hand at that.

 

[rabid48]

Hello all! Time for another weekly installment of my Grow Log!

Not a whole lot has happened since the last update. I've been holding off on doing some pot ups and transfers after I found out that there is a place right down the road that sells all types of promix. I went yesterday to see if I could get some, but they were sold out, because Cornell had come in and bought it all! If Ivy leagues buying up all of a store's promix doesn't tell you how good it might be, then I don't know what will. They should have more in stock by the end of the week, so I will go pick some up before the next weekly update.

Anyways, on to plant updates. First the overwinters. Things have not been going very smoothly. I think I might be loosing the jalapeno and sweet cayenne plant. I think I just waited too long to put them into new soil. I finally got around to getting them into some MG potting soil with some added Earth Juice Mycorrhizae yesterday, but I haven't seen much improvement yet...

The Hungarian Wax, on the other hand...

...is doing much better. I think I've fought off most of the double spotted spider mites (that's what they were) using a "wipe off the leaves every day" technique, and the plant seems to really like the new MG potting soil/bigger pot. It even has it's first bud starting to form since sometime last October! I'm excited to see if it pulls through, that will validate my little overwintering experiment from last year.

On to the Solo cup garden, where it's business as usual. Plants are chilling in their cups under the lights on a 16/8 cycle.

Top shelf up above, bottom shelf down bellow.

I decided after reading several topics around here that I'm going to switch out my current growing medium (a mix of Burpee, Jiffy, and MG seed starter), and switch them all over to promix when I can get it. I think that my light conditions, water/fert schedule, and temperature conditions are optimal for what I am after, but the plants still aren't growing at the rate that I expected. They're still ahead of the curve at this point due to our late plant out, but I would still like them to be in the best shape possible before that happens.

Anyway, their growth is kind of all over the board. The cayennes and the pablanos seem to really like this particular environment. I am especially suprised by the two pablanos that wound up growing in the same pot together (one came up after I transplanted).

I think I am going to try to separate them when I switch soils, only because I only have 5 total plants of that kind, and I think they will be a popular give-away item to people that I know.

Here are the babies ready to be transplanted into bigger pots. I still have to decided which ones I want to keep and which ones I want to pluck. Not an easy decision.

And finally, to wrap things up, here is a comparison shot of some C. Chinese varieties for Shane and MJD after a brief discussion on his grow log. What we have here are 5 plants that were all planted at the same time/transferred at the same time to the same type of potting soil under the same light/temp/water/fert conditions. The front and back left are Caribbean Reds, while the three on the right are Chocolate Habs. For what ever strange reason, the reds are doing much better than the habs overall, but they have a more light green tint to them, but they also have varying sizes depending on the plant. I don't know why this is, and both types seem perfectly happy. It's just a little strange, these plants seem a bit finicky. We will see what happens after I switch out the soil.

That's pretty much it for now. I hope to have more interesting stuff for next week's entry with the new soil, and maybe my overwinters will turn around. Thanks for stopping by!

 

[stc3248]

Hey Nathan,
They're looking really good brother! Just an FYI I think some of the soil issues that several of us had (me, big cedar and MGold) were due to not understanding the nute content of the soil we were using and then giving the plants some nutes they didn't need ...the MG for example is loaded with nutes and shouldn't need to be fed for several months. Hope that helps with your soil issues. In spite of your soil your plants look fantastic!

Good luck on your soil change...it sucks way worse than potting up having to try to get the old soil off then repot...

Keep it up man!
Shane