Shlogg's Glog 2013... Long overdue update.

Hey THP. Well 2013 is upon us, time to start growing!

I picked 27 varieties to take up the bulk of my garden space. Mostly supers but also a couple cool varieties that aren't so hot. Anyway, I soaked my seeds in a weak herbal tea blend for 24 hours, rinsed them and they are now resting comfortably in my germination tank. I'm trying cotton make-up removal pads to keep them moist instead of paper towels. They seem to work great!

My tank consists of a plastic storage bin filled with water and a fish tank heater. The heater can take a little playing with to get the temps just right but once I find the sweet spot its perfectly constant. I then float my seeds in condiment cups on the warm water. It's really works.

I did have a few hiccups in the process though. I was a bit hasty and put my seeds in the germ tank before getting the temp just right. It reached 86 degrees for a couple hours before I caught it but they should be fine. I've got them at 82 degrees now which I think is perfect. Now I'm just excitedly waiting for tap roots so I can get them all into my seedlings trays.

Here what I have going:
20 TS Moruga Blend
20 7 Pot Brainstrain
20 TS Butch T
20 Bhut Jolokia
10 TS Moruga Blend Yellow
10 7 Pot Brainstrain Yellow
10 7 Pot Primo
10 Bhut Jolokia Chocolate
10 Bhut Jolokia Peach
10 TS Chocolate
10 Douglah
10 Bhut Jolokia Yellow
8 7 Pot Jonah
8 7 Pot Congo SR
8 Billy Boy Douglah Red
4 7 Pot Burgundy
4 TS Orange
4 Devil's Tongue
4 7 Pot Chaguanas
4 Bahamian Goat
4 7 Pot Barrackpore
4 7 Pot Savannah
4 Douglah Yellow
4 Billy Boy Douglah
4 Douglah X Butch T
4 Naga Jolokia
4 Jalabanero

I believe that's it for now. I'll be adding more varieties when I have room in the grow box.

Here's a low quality shot of the boys in their bath:

Thanks for looking!

 

[STEVE954]

Helluva list you got there Shlogg! Wish you many pods this summer!

 

[Dshlogg]

Helluva list you got there Shlogg! Wish you many pods this summer!

Thanks Steve. I wish the same to you. Take care of those MoAs. I would love to trade for some later. Thanks again for the TFMs!

 

[Dshlogg]

As promised here are a few more pics!

Glad this BJ Peach has three true leaves in its first set just as it had three cots. I hope it keep this growth pattern going.

My conjoined BJ Peach has dropped a cotty but it's still doing good. You can see that the right side is clearly dominant so far.

BJ Yellow enjoying its foliar feed.

TS Chocolate. The pods on the these are awesome.

Devil's Tongue with fused cots.

7 Pot Burgundy with a bit of puckering in the leaves.

I can't remember how many pics I can post in row so thats it for now. If I get a bump I'll post more tomorrow.

 

[millworkman]

Here's a bump, but also you are allowed ten(10).

 

[georgej]

Now I can see the pictures, I'm dead impressed!

 

[Dshlogg]

Is it weird to think about, talk about or work with peppers most of the day?
I guess what I'm asking is, am I normal? Haaa, I loved school in the 80s.

A wind swept Naga Jolokia.

Brainstrain chugging some water.

Very green and shiny Butch T

TS Moruga Yellow with a little leaf curl. Might be because its the end of a long day.

Brainstrain Yellow

Two-toned Douglah

Love this little guy. I almost replanted this cell when the tiniest little hook emerged and unfolded equally tiny cotyledons. I love an underdog, so I decided to see what he can do. Here he is going strong but barely bigger than the head of a pen. Its a TS Moruga Blend.

Rescued this from my germ tank after it spent a couple weeks trying to escape. Its root was pretty embedded in the cotton pad and I definitely damage its hair roots removing it. I had a headless Bhut that needed replacing so I'll see what this can do. It already picked its head up out of the dirt this morning. I'm optimistic it will pull through. We'll see.

On the non-pepper related front, I took my 2 year old son on a hike up our county's only mountain "Sugarloaf". He did great and walked most of the way up and down by himself. Along the way we found many acorns that had naturally stratified and already had tap roots. I brought one home and dropped it in a pot to see what happens. Hopefully I'll post the progress on that as the season continues. Future Bonsai Maybe?

Here we are on the way down.

Thanks for looking!

 

[Pepperhead]

Love the pic of you and the kid. Mine both like to get out ion the woods when we can.
I have forgotten to check seeds in a few days, or thought I had a day before I could take it out of the incubator tank. Next thing I know there a big hairy root in there. They just sneak up on ya!

 

[stc3248]

Looking good! Your birgits got the jump on mine...long season though! Keep up the great grow brother!

 

[WalkGood]

Daniel great update, love the pictures!!!

 

[meatfreak]

Lovely picture, I like that cap he has on very cool.

 

[Chaosbites]

Nice grow you got going there. How big have they gotten?

I grew up in Laurel and used to hike Sugarloaf all the time. The last time I was there we went hiking with my (then) four kids and saw a big rattlesnake. My mom was with us and she said it was the wrong color for one. I went around and looked at it from a different angle and you could see it was a rattlesnake - I got the picture someplace. If I get back to MD this summer I will have to take the youngest two up Sugarloaf. Being born in Colorado they are a little jaded when it comes to mountains. haha

Michelle

 

[Dshlogg]

I'm long overdue for an update, sorry about that.

A few weeks ago I caught a severe cold/flu that had me out of commission for a couple weeks. My plants were badly in need of a pot up at the time but I couldn't summon up the energy to do it. By the time I took care of them they had pretty bad yellowing, had stopped growing and started dropping leaves.

Its been 2 weeks since I potted up. Things are much better now but I'm still having issues with yellowing. I think its mostly due to high soil temps causing some nutrient lockout. I took some temperature readings on the shelf that was having the most problems. The top shelf of my grow box was a whopping 124 degrees. I had soil temps up to 110. I'm actually surprised that I didn't lose any plants in those conditions. With a lot of insulation and an all day fan running my soil only gets up to 91 now. Still too high but liveable atleast.

Hopefully all my plants will start greening up now that the temps are better. I hope to plant out in a month and need to get some size on these guys by then.

Here a couple shots I just took while doing a foliar feed.

Sorry this one is a little blurry.
TS Chocolate

BJ Yellow

BJ Chocolate

Douglah with sunburn.

TS Moruga Yellow

Here's the tray with severe yellowing. I meant for this to be a horizontal shot, unfortunately my phone had other ideas.

That's it for now. It has been a somewhat frustrating grow for me this year. I do well with germinating and once the go in the ground but seedlings are always a struggle for me. Funny that this is my favorite part of the grow though.

Love the pic of you and the kid. Mine both like to get out ion the woods when we can.
I have forgotten to check seeds in a few days, or thought I had a day before I could take it out of the incubator tank. Next thing I know there a big hairy root in there. They just sneak up on ya!

Thanks. My fondest memories of childhood are of fishing and hiking with my Dad and brothers. I hope to pass that on to my son. He's already quite the fisherman and he's seems to enjoy hiking too.

I'm glad the germinating tank worked well for you. Simple, cheap and effective what more could we ask for?

Looking good! Your birgits got the jump on mine...long season though! Keep up the great grow brother!

Thanks Shane. My Birgit DID have the jump. That didn't last long huh? Mine stalled a little until I potted up then got some feet burn after. They're doing ok right now but the 15 minutes is over for sure.

Daniel great update, love the pictures!!!

Thanks. I'll keep them coming.

Lovely picture, I like that cap he has on very cool.

My wife buys him so many funny hats but his favorite is a ratty Nationals ball cap. He calls it his "Harper hat". The kid has good taste.

Nice grow you got going there. How big have they gotten?

I grew up in Laurel and used to hike Sugarloaf all the time. The last time I was there we went hiking with my (then) four kids and saw a big rattlesnake. My mom was with us and she said it was the wrong color for one. I went around and looked at it from a different angle and you could see it was a rattlesnake - I got the picture someplace. If I get back to MD this summer I will have to take the youngest two up Sugarloaf. Being born in Colorado they are a little jaded when it comes to mountains. haha

Michelle

Thanks for reviving my glog. They've actually been growing rapidly but only these last two weeks since I potted up. The should be bigger.

I loved Sugarloaf as a child and teen. I know there are a few rattlesnakes there but it is pretty rare to see one. I've only seen them in the Appalachians.

If someone from Colorado knew we considered Sugarloaf a mountain they'd think we were crazy.

 

[Pepperhead]

I'm having similar leaf yellow issues. I'll look at my grow cabinet temps, it does get hot in there. I think I have a nitrogen deficiency as well.

 

[Sanarda]

I love the seedling stage also and have had yellow /dropping leaves. The plants seem to fix themselves if the new growth is green. The yellow you will probably lose but the new growth will make up for it. I have one plant the has a really strong stem but the leaves on it yellowed and fell off. Seems to be my yellow bhuts. Anywho. They will make it.

 

[stc3248]

I'm sure you'll get them figured out Dsh...Ma-Nature isn't too far off from helping you with light and temp issues. This winter seems to have lasted forever for some growers. It's going to be a long season on the Birgits, the jump some folks have in the growroom is nothing without some luck on the mother nature side. I feel you on the sick...got a terrible cold right now. Fever had me up at 3am and head is pounding. My Mom is in town and I am suffering through the best I can, but she wants to spend all day out planting in the garden, and I had to call a few timeouts yesterday to come in and sit a while. Take care of your self and your plants brother...
Shane

 

[Dshlogg]

I have been working hard on the yellowing issue and I'm seeing some good results. Here's three days of progress after lowering the soil temps, watering with guano/fish fert tea and foliaring with cal mag/worm tea.

With the exception of the stubborn little guy, they look dramatically better. Hope the yellow will be gone for good soon.

This tray of chinense is 8 weeks old today. I feel like they are smaller than they should be by now but not by much. Mental note:
Don't get sick and put off potting up for 2 weeks next year.

 

[Sawyer]

Good improvement. I've been slow on potting up, too. No good excuses, though.

 

[Dshlogg]

Thanks Sawyer.

I was just going through pics on my phone to check out my growth rates. This first pic was taken March 24th.

Here's March 28th.

April 1st to finish up the week.

Not bad eh! At first I thought the date was wrong on the first pic but nope. Thats 8 day's growth. Maybe they'll reach a good size by plant out after all.

 

[PIC 1]

Plants and flats all look good. Nice shot of the "trail walk".........reminds me of the past when my kids were young.

 

[Dshlogg]

Plants and flats all look good. Nice shot of the "trail walk".........reminds me of the past when my kids were young.

Thanks. I am liking these trays. Living in a condo leaves me with very little space for my seedlings. My grow space consists of a 2' wide shelf with four levels. I have around 270 plants. I'm using 2.5" and 5" deep 50 cell flats. While not ideal, the 2.5" hold over 3 times more medium than a 72 cell flat. The 5" hold 7 times more. Given more room I would use pots but my trays should get me to plant out.