Siv's 2019 first time glog

I have never grown anything intentionally before but I wanted to try. Last year I bought some seeds from a local supplier here and tried to germinate them and failed. Not a single sprout. I kinda gave up. But around May I saw a sorry looking ghost pepper plant (at least that's what it was labeled as) sitting at Lowes so I bought it and put it in a small pot. Despite my neglect (and being away for a month during summer), the thing grew and put out a good set of pods. So this year, I'm highly motivated to give some serious pepper growing a go.
 
Determined to succeed this time, I educated myself and learned about the need for heat mats etc. I also watched a ton of Peter Stanley and Kangstar's videos which were hugely helpful.
 
I started with the leftover seeds from last year and here's the status:

• Kraken - 10 started, 6 sprouted
• Douglah - 10 started, 2 sprouted
• Chocolate Moruga - 10 started, 0 sprouted

Then I placed an order with Sandia seeds on 4th Feb:

• Ring of Fire - 10 started
• Aji Limo - 10 started
• White Ghost - 10 started
• Fatalii - 10 started
• Rocoto - 10 started

Of this lot, most of the seeds have sprouted so I have transplanted around four of each into wicking cups (half in soil and half in hydroton) to see what happens:

 
Then Sandia seeds sent a coupon for 25% off and I'm a sucker for a sale so my second order was placed on 19th Feb:

• Bhut Jolokia Yellow - 10 started
• Bulgarian Carrot - 10 started
• Devil's Tongue - 10 started
• Yellow Jalapeño Lemon Spice - 10 started
• Mulato Isleño Chile - Chocolate Poblano - 10 started
• Bell Purple Beauty Sweet - 20+ started

The yellow jalapeno and bulgarian carrot have already sprung up, as well as lots of the purple bell. The first yellow ghost just popped up this morning:

 

I probably shouldn't have done this but after seeing the love for these varieties, I made a third seed order yesterday:

• Bahamian Goat
• Sugar Rush Peach

So my first lesson learned: Now that I know the importance of heat, humidity and light, I don't need to put so many seeds in. I have way too many seedlings now! I'm only gonna attempt 2 or 3 of the new seeds this time!


 
Now I'm debating how to grow these on. I have plenty of room in my garden so I'm thinking about a whole bunch of 5 gal buckets with one lot as self watering in compost and another as a drip watered hydro. I may do dutch bucket or I may try a venturi style nute injection, not sure.
 
Anyway, I look forward to seeing what happens to all these plants over this year!

 

[Siv]

Micro harvest yesterday, my first yellow Aji Limo (very tasty), a Bih Jolokia from last year's fluke plant (damn hot) and a couple more Ring of Fire, all from the soil plants. The hydros are yet to have ripe pods.

 
Is that the start of some colour I see on the Kraken pod?

 
The Fatalii is doing well:

 
The White Ghost has a ton of pods:

 
As does the Sugar Rush Peach:

 
 
And now some advice needed please. The plants are big and we had some wind which pushed the branches around a bit. I'm struggling to support them adequately and some branches folded over. This is one of the worst on a White Ghost:

The branch seems alive and the leaves are still green and healthy. Should I just leave it or cut it off?
 
 

 

[Uncle Eckley]

 
And now some advice needed please. The plants are big and we had some wind which pushed the branches around a bit. I'm struggling to support them adequately and some branches folded over. This is one of the worst on a White Ghost:
 
The branch seems alive and the leaves are still green and healthy. Should I just leave it or cut it off?

 
I had this happen to my Reaper plant.  I splinted the branch.  It worked well - nice and woody and self-supporting after a few weeks.

 

[Siv]

 
I had this happen to my Reaper plant.  I splinted the branch.  It worked well - nice and woody and self-supporting after a few weeks.

 
Perfect - thanks E.

 

[PaulG]

This is one of the worst on a White Ghost:
 
The branch seems alive and the leaves are still green and healthy. Should I just leave it or cut it off?
 

 
+1 Unc. E. You can splint it and wrap with some
breathable tape and it will heal fine, even with a
nasty tear like that.
 
I have splinted badly broken branches with bamboo
meat skewers and some pretty bad breaks have healed.
 
Good luck with that. Your grow looks great!

 

[PaulG]

This is one of the worst on a White Ghost:
 
The branch seems alive and the leaves are still green and healthy. Should I just leave it or cut it off?
 

 
+1 Unc. E. You can splint it and wrap with some
breathable tape and it will heal fine, even with a
nasty tear like that.
 
I have splinted badly broken branches with bamboo
meat skewers and some pretty bad breaks have healed.
 
Good luck with that. Your grow looks great!

 

[Uncle Eckley]

 
I have splinted badly broken branches with bamboo
meat skewers and some pretty bad breaks have healed.

 
That's exactly what I used.  I took them off when they started to go moldy.

 

[Siv]

I forgot to add my second experiment. I have another Kraken (far right) that has just taken off and a forgotten Douglah (second from left), an unknown and a papaya seedling that I didn't just want to leave in their buckets to die while I'm away. So I tried a cheapo setup with a 27gal tote as a backup to the buckets.
 

 
I moved the tote so that it won't get direct sunlight but it's a little higher than I'd like so it probably only holds 20 gallons. Anyway, we'll see if this works while I'm away.
 
I'm leaving on Monday so this weekend is gonna be all about trussing up the plants, checking for horn worms, and making sure everything is filled to the brim.

 

[Mr.joe]

You have a lot going on over there, hopefully your plants thrive while your away. Scary thing about your setup is that it's all or nothing.

 

[Siv]

So this will be my last proper update for 3 weeks. I'm now sitting in sunny Cork drinking Beamish and hoping my plants will be OK. Just before I left, I checked around and tied up as many as I could I also picked off anything that looked close to ripe.
 
One Aji Limo in the soil had a visit from a hornworm. There was literally nothing left but stems and only half a leaf. I don't have much hope for those guys.
 
My first "Kraken" has turned red. I put Kraken in inverted commas now as it's supposed to be brown! I wonder if it turns brown later or if my seeds are unstable or crossed. Anyway, it looks beastly:

 
The Brazilian Starfish has lots of pods and flowers now, I hope I come back to some ripe ones. It's now taller than me!

 
I've trussed up all the hydro plants with wire mesh to give them some support. The rocotos are looking good with plenty of flowers but not a single pod:

 
Where I could, I tied up the larger ones to the roof and have also tied them to the pillars or tables behind them. Hopefully it'll be enough to stop them from tipping over if there's high winds.

 
The fruits of my labour so far. All stuck in the freezer:

 
And finally, this will be my plant view while I'm away. Nothing I can do but at least I can see how they go:

 

[PaulG]

I think you have done everything you could, Siv. 
 
Enjoy your time away and trust the plants
will be good to go when you return!

 

[Mr.joe]

Plants look great, lots of growth already there. Can't wait to see the return home pictures. I'm currently away from mine, only for a week.

 

[Siv]

My babies.... so far away... They seem to have had a growth spurt in the last week or so - or maybe I'm imagining it.
 

 

 

[PaulG]

Looks like your luck is holding so far, Siv!

 

[Siv]

Two more days until I'm back to my babies. I think the Aji Limos seem to have suffered from something - it's hard to see with the crappy camera but they were green a few days ago and look a lot lighter now (they're slightly to the right of the center of the picture)...
 

 

 

 

 

[Mr.joe]

Still green and standing. I think your in good shape

 

[podz]

Awesome setup you've got going on there. Dealing with that heat, since money doesn't seem to be a limiting factor, there are a few things I would suggest as improvements:
 
1. Move to a constantly circulating setup with a nutrient chiller in the main tank and set the temp to 25c (77f). This would do wonders for the plants during the heat.
 
https://www.growell.co.uk/advice/hints-tips/how-and-why-to-use-nutrient-chillers
 
 
2. Get the buckets off the rock and on top of some thin styrex. Also do wonders for the heat control.
 
3. Get the Rocotos all to one side, either left or right, and set a timer with a sprinkler showering them with COOL / COLD water (10c - 50f)  3-5 minutes each evening. This is the trick to getting them to set fruit in the heat (or a greenhouse).
 
4. Optionally, a powerful fan or two wouldn't hurt either.
 
 
Any way, I would love to have your climate and that amount of space you have on the patio - fantastic!!!!!!

 

[Siv]

Got home late last night to a slight upset. It turns out that 4x 30 gallon trash cans wasn't quite enough to keep all my hydro babies alive while I was on holiday. The reservoirs were empty and there was only about 2" of water left in the plant buckets which was too low for some of the plants and they have suffered significantly. I filled them up last night with water and will dose with nutes today and see what happens. Here's what they look like:
 

 
From left to right:
Rocoto 1 - alive and well
Rocoto 2 - dead

 
Control bucket
Brazilian Starfish - looks green but leaves are all very wilted and no improvement this morning, 1 ripe pod and several green

 
Fish - alive but no pods
Sugar Rush Peach - just about alive and lots of ripe pods

 
Fatalii - almost dead, a couple of ripe pods
Ring of Fire - Alive and lots of ripe pods
White Ghost - Alive but only a couple of pods
Fatalii - Alive ad lots of ripe pods
White Ghost - Suffering badly but a huge number of ripe pods

 
Kraken - Alive but no pods
 
Aji Limo - Dead
Aji Limo - Dead
Ring of Fire - Dead

 
Anaheim - Alive and well with lots of pods
Yellow Jalapeno - Alive and well
Choc Poblano - Alive and well
 
Bahamian Goat - Alive and well with a huge number of pods

 
Devil's Tongue - Alive and well

 

[Siv]

My kids and I spent the little time we had this morning before work harvesting as much as we could from the hydros:
 

 
Now the soil plants - all seem to look pretty much OK if significantly smaller than their hydro brethren.
 

 
The "Kraken" is putting out lots of pods:

 
Lots more white ghost!

 
I'll see if we can harvest tonight - there are plenty of Aji Limo which is good as I'm not going to get any more from the hydros!

 

[podz]

Got home late last night to a slight upset. It turns out that 4x 30 gallon trash cans wasn't quite enough to keep all my hydro babies alive while I was on holiday. The reservoirs were empty and there was only about 2" of water left in the plant buckets which was too low for some of the plants and they have suffered significantly. 

 
 
Maybe time for a float controlled valve connected to a water spigot?

 

[Siv]

Maybe time for a float controlled valve connected to a water spigot?

 
I suspect the nutes ran out about 4 or 5 days ago. Since I'm not going to be away for any serious length of time for the rest of the year, I should be OK.
 
Next year, assuming a similar length holiday, I will have to work out an alternative. I was already thinking about a two stage float valve with one higher than the other - the higher one will fill nutes and the second a back-up connected to the hose. Another option would be a nute injection setup but these seem pricey. The cheapest solution may be just to add another 30gal reservoir or two. I have a lot of time to think about it!