Skydiver's 2011 Grow Log

Skydiver · Jan 21, 2011

First signs of life! Both are Douglahs.

wayright · Jan 21, 2011

Good looking start Sky, A chocolaty sauce sounds yummy! Thats a hot list you got there!
Kevin

Skydiver · Jan 22, 2011

Three more popped up today:

This one is a Barrackpore 7 Pot. Upper left is the third Douglah to pop.

Trinidad Scorpion. Wasn't planning on growing these but Judy slipped a packet in with my order, and what the heck, I can groove on this guy again.

AlabamaJack · Jan 22, 2011

Isn't it great to get your first hooks of the year?...makes me giggle like a little school girl...congrats Daddy...

enjoy the pain...

logchief · Jan 22, 2011

Way to go SD, I can't wait for my first ones to pop up

Skydiver · Feb 13, 2011

Well, after suffering some horrendous (what I think was) gall bladder pain for a good two weeks, my poor seedlings took a bit of a beating from being neglected. Couldn't eat, could barely drink, barely able to get out of bed, so yeah, plants weren't happy.

Back on my feet, now, and back in the game. Had to cull a few that didn't survive, potted a few up, started more seeds to replace what was lost.

The transplanted ones. Looking bad but much better than a few days ago.

The rest. Still a lot of work to do to get the survivors healthy again. some weak ferts and a nice bottom watering have them looking much better, as well. Going to have to fix a few of them that got some green icky. Prolly going to try and transplant them as well into clean media. When I was able to water, I did it with too heavy a hand, figured I'd rather deal with the ick than just have them die. I may have been wrong and should've just culled the lot of them, time will tell I guess.

wayright · Feb 13, 2011

Wow SD, to be neglected, you sure have some nice starts going there!
Mine get pampered and dont look that good!

Kevin

Silver_Surfer · Feb 13, 2011

They look fine SD. A little time and they'll be right as rain.

Skydiver · Feb 20, 2011

Well, the basement just wasn't cutting it this year. I rearranged a bunch of stuff in my closet and moved my things there.

I now have:
Light
Heat
and maybe more importantly, proper airflow.

Going to an e-reader and packing all my books up created a nice bit of room on one of the shelves. Enough for a small fan, the minigreenhouse, and all the plants I've transplanted into larger containers.

I don't have a lot of stuff going, so it was perfect.

I still need better lighting in there, and I'll be picking something up probably on Tuesday, but for now I think my plants are a lot happier.

I'll post some pics tomorrow.

Skydiver · Feb 21, 2011

In their new comfy cozy home.
There's another shelf right above where the pic cuts out, I'm going to see about attaching a few grow lights there.
Not a lot of plants, but then again I don't have a lot of garden space. I am jealous as hell of people with tons of room and would love to grow hundreds of plants, but the reality is what it is, and I'm ok with working within it. Perhaps in the future I'll have more room, but for now, you gotta work with what you have.
Going to give it a few days and then do another round of transplanting to bigger containers. I want that entire shelf looking green.
Fourteen varieties. Didn't really want that many, but ordering seeds was fun and Judy was generous and why not, peppers are fun.

The list of what varieties I'm growing:
Chocolate Hab
Chocolate Bhut
Chocolate Scotch Bonnet
Douglah

Bhut Jolokia
Bhut Jolokia Indian Carbon
Bih Jolokia
Dorset Naga
Red Savina
Red Habanero
Orange Habanero (so excited to be growing these again, I missed the hell out them last year)
7 Pot Barrackpore
7 Pod Brain Strain
Trinidad Scorpion

They look better. I think both the plants and myself have put my two week gallbladder ordeal behind us. Now it's a matter of trying to figure out, within the space I have available to me in my garden and in a few 5 gallon buckets, how many of each I want to grow. Some I want lots of (chocolate habs, chocolate bhuts), some I'd be ok with one plant in the ground and one in a bucket to isolate. Some, I have no idea. I've planted the chocolate scotch bonnet a few times, but always late for some reason so they've never grown and I have no clue what they're like. Been watching Neil's vids quite a bit lately to try and gauge my numbers from his descriptions of what they taste like. Neil rocks.

I still want to make a heavy chocolate sauce, so lots of choccy habs and bhuts and douglahs for sure.
Figure this will be a good year. Good varieties and I'm going to document yields for each variety and what each brings to the table flavor and aroma wise this season. I want to narrow things down maybe just a bit more, maybe eliminate something like the bhut if the bhut Indian carbon has the taste and flavor and number of pods I want.

Cheers.

Skydiver · Feb 25, 2011

Little update.

Added a few flouro lights, one labelled for plants/aquariums, one natural sunshine. It's brighter than it seems in the pics.
I know, lights are too far above the plants. I can't really go crazy in there, it's my closet and I don't want to muck with it too much. I'll probably end up just putting something under the plants to lift them closer to the lights.

Leaves are a bit pale, I dosed them with some epsom salts, I'm gonna hit them with some weak MG in a few days. Fish emulsion is out of the question. I don't want to go to sleep with the wonderful aroma of pond water in my bedroom.

As long as everything in there does well, and the current round of seeds I have going also do well, I think I'm done starting stuff.
There will be more plants, to be sure. I have two orange habs in there somewhere, I'll probably buy a few more. At least one jalapeno plant. Depending on what the dude at Mosside has for sale, I'll probably get maybe a half dozen more plants, should pretty well fill up the available garden space I have.

I did break my promise on one thing, though. I told myself that I wouldn't be growing yellow peppers again, but there was a packet of Yellow 7 Pot seeds and my willpower broke. I may give them away. Not enamored of the flavor of yellow varieties for some reason.

The fan is helping a ton, too. I can feel it, the stems are strong.

All in all, I'm satisfied. It's not the ideal setup, but it works with my budget, my plants are doing ok, and I should have enough tasty peppers to fill my garden and hopefully keep me well supplied with hot sauce and salsa and powders.
That's all I can really ask for.

wayright · Feb 25, 2011

I think they are coming along nicely Sky!
The epsom you added should help with the yellowing.
Nice work!

Kevin

patrick · Feb 25, 2011

All you can ask for. Life is good eh 'diver? Congrats man, looking forward to watching your thread bro, best of luck to you.

Silver_Surfer · Feb 25, 2011

They are coming along fine SD.

If you don't like the smell of fish in your closet try mixing a little water soluble kelp powder for a plant treat.

Skydiver · Feb 28, 2011

Two baby bhuts and a Barrackpore.
Gave them a one time big dose of epsom salts, 4tbsp in a half gallon of water, nice foliar spray for everything.
Much greener, less leaf curl, I'm about a month or so behind where I was last year at this time, but it's all good.

Also picking off damaged leaves so the plants don't have to try and heal them, I think that's why a lot of them look leggy. There were more leaves, but they got removed.

All in all, I'm feeling much more confident.

Silver_Surfer · Feb 28, 2011

WOW!! I didn't know ya could buy nice super hot plants from Burpee now.

OrganicChiles · Feb 28, 2011

Skydiver said:
Two baby bhuts and a Barrackpore.
Gave them a one time big dose of epsom salts, 4tbsp in a half gallon of water, nice foliar spray for everything.
Much greener, less leaf curl, I'm about a month or so behind where I was last year at this time, but it's all good.

Also picking off damaged leaves so the plants don't have to try and heal them, I think that's why a lot of them look leggy. There were more leaves, but they got removed.

All in all, I'm feeling much more confident.

You're plants seem to be struggling a bit, bu in the end peppers always bounce back! Kepp your spirits high!