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):
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):
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
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
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
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.
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
It seems I have good luck with them, as I have probably 10 pods scattered across two plants at this point. Wait 'til the second year my ass...
