Spicy_Ghost 2012 Grow log

First of all, I want to thank everyone from this forum for helping a newbie. After dozens and dozens of hours of intensive research of how to germinate and grow ghost peppers It finally paid off !! My set up is hydrofarm heat mat, hydrofarm temperature control for heat mat, Tray and dome, E.B. Stone seed starter mix, hydrofarm 2ft 2 tube T5 grow light. Process....I sowed the seeds on 12/4/11....................... Before I sowed the seeds I soaked them in warm distilled water for 24 hrs. Then I filled my tray with E.B stone seed starter mix and sowed the seeds 1/4' deep. I lightly watered them and set temperature control to 85* F and covered the tray with clear dome. I watered every two or three days depending on the surface of the mix. After obssesivly monotiring the status of my babies... BANNNNGGGGG!!! 7 days later most of them sprouted. I was shocked and amazed on how fast they germinated. I was aiming more like 2 to 3 weeks. I was very happy and pleased that my little setup was a sucess ...... So, here I am almost a month later with a grow log and pics... here's the lil one's and my little set-up ... oh I have a timer for the light for 18 hours and also a timer for a low powered fan to prevent mold, and a workout for the seedlings so they can get strong. Fan goes on in diffrent times of the day a total of 5 hrs a day.


This Pic was taken on 12/15

These pics were taken today...9 days later

My little set-up

 

[meinchoh]

[sub]Sweet!![/sub]

 

[SocalChilehead]

great set up and they look happy are they all bhut jolokia red or different varieties of ghost peppers.

 

[spicy_ghost_805]

They are Red Bhut Jolokias...and a couple Peter pepper's.... forgot to mention...

 

[megahot]

First of all, I want to thank everyone from this forum for helping a newbie. After dozens and dozens of hours of intensive research of how to germinate and grow ghost peppers It finally paid off !! My set up is hydrofarm heat mat, hydrofarm temperature control for heat mat, Tray and dome, E.B. Stone seed starter mix, hydrofarm 2ft 2 tube T5 grow light. Process....I sowed the seeds on 12/4/11....................... Before I sowed the seeds I soaked them in warm distilled water for 24 hrs. Then I filled my tray with E.B stone seed starter mix and sowed the seeds 1/4' deep. I lightly watered them and set temperature control to 85* F and covered the tray with clear dome. I watered every two or three days depending on the surface of the mix. After obssesivly monotiring the status of my babies... BANNNNGGGGG!!! 7 days later most of them sprouted. I was shocked and amazed on how fast they germinated. I was aiming more like 2 to 3 weeks. I was very happy and pleased that my little setup was a sucess ...... So, here I am almost a month later with a grow log and pics... here's the lil one's and my little set-up ... oh I have a timer for the light for 18 hours and also a timer for a low powered fan to prevent mold, and a workout for the seedlings so they can get strong. Fan goes on in diffrent times of the day a total of 5 hrs a day.


This Pic was taken on 12/15

These pics were taken today...9 days later

My little set-up

Looks great my friend! You might want to put the seed tray in a box with some mylar to maximize the light! Also make sure you have a fan for airflow.I also suggest a temp humidity thermometer so you can keep an eye on the temp. The T5 is a great choice but it emits alot of heat! I keep my grow box temp at just under 80 degrees. Also be carefull not to over or under water which is the most common mistake! I under watered a bit, which is slightly better then to over water, but I noticed the leaves were looking a bit droopy, and one plant even fell over. I gave them some water and they perked up right away! Good luck with your grow!

 

[spicy_ghost_805]

Update. I finally transplanted my seedlings into 6" pots. I used pro-mix BX to fill the pots and I will be transplanting them into 5 gal pots a couple weeks before I start hardening them off for outdoors.
I have a total of 15 peppers. 3 peter pepper and the rest red ghost pepper. I'm experimenting with 4 types of fertilizers, E.B stone Sure start, E.B stone vegetable, PHC(plant health care) ssedlings, and pro-grow which was recommended by superhot. Half the peppers will be on the E.B stone organic fertilizers and the rest on PHC and pro-grow. 'Note' E.B stone and Pro-grow will only be used when the peppers are outside on 5 gal pots. And E.B stone sure start, and PHC seedlings will be used indoors until their final transplant into 5 gal's. I'm being really careful on not over fertilizing and only applying half the recommended strength. I will slowly increase the strength as time goes by. I currently have a 2ft 2 tube HO T5 which is now too small to cover all 15 peppers inside the grow tent. So, I placed an order on my local hydro shop for a 2ft 8 tube HO T5. I'm going to piggy-back my current light with the new one for a total of 10 6500k tubes. What do you guys think ? should I buy a couple of warm tubes ? oh btw I have the light and fan on a timer for 18hrs a day. Should the fan be on all 18 hrs?

Last picture of seedlings on tray ( All picture were taken today 01-08-12)

Healthy root system

Their new home

Looks great my friend! You might want to put the seed tray in a box with some mylar to maximize the light! Also make sure you have a fan for airflow.I also suggest a temp humidity thermometer so you can keep an eye on the temp. The T5 is a great choice but it emits alot of heat! I keep my grow box temp at just under 80 degrees. Also be carefull not to over or under water which is the most common mistake! I under watered a bit, which is slightly better then to over water, but I noticed the leaves were looking a bit droopy, and one plant even fell over. I gave them some water and they perked up right away! Good luck with your grow!

Took your advice a little too serious They now have lot's of mylar and a oscillating fan, all I need is a humidity thermometer. I'm going to shop for one sometime this week. I hope it doesn't get to hot where a blower and ducting will be required. The peppers will remain in the grow tent till mid-march.

 

[Siliman]

Wow, looking great! I like your ideas about running experiments with different ferts. Let us know how it goes down the road.

Personally, I'd leave the fan on same time as the lights. Would move the heat around in there and you will have massive stem growth. Not sure about needing a few different spectrum bulbs. If only staying in till March, probably wouldn't be needed, from what little I know about lighting!

Nicely done with the overall setup....

 

[S.S.Tupperware]

Looks nice... I did a bunch of GP when I first got seed for it...I dried a lot, but still had too many, this year 2 plants. I have too many other new ones to try.

 

[PIC 1]

Very Journalistic with the scripts and photos..........great work

Good luck with your season.

Greg

 

[spicy_ghost_805]

Looks nice... I did a bunch of GP when I first got seed for it...I dried a lot, but still had too many, this year 2 plants. I have too many other new ones to try.

Next year I'm going to grow different types like butch T's, trinidad 7's, scotch bonnet, etc..... what got me into this whole growing hobby was the ghost pepper. I have read tons of info in forums and i'm finally in the right track. My previous years were not very good. My Ghost peppers only grew about 16 inches high... Now, I know the do's and dont's.

Very Journalistic with the scripts and photos..........great work

Good luck with your season.

Greg

Thank You Greg... cant wait for the first ghost pepper...

I finally got my new HO 8 tube T5. I installed it on my new grow tent on 1/10/12... and the results have been fantastic. The inside temperature of the tent is around low 70's to mid. Thankfully I have not yet encounter any heat problems due the HO T5. I keep it about 6 inches away from the peppers. Oh BTW I did the math and calculated the cost of having the T5 on for 18 hours daily for 30 days for $19 a month. A few people were complaining about problems with timers and HO T5. I have not had any problems with my timer and HO T5. The cool thing about this T5 fixture is that it has 2 switches that controls the tubes whether you want 4 tubes OFF and 4 tubes ON.

Look how fast they are growing. This pic was taken on 01/14/2012...

 

[MGOLD86]

Looks great! Super growth on those guys. I have my tent in the garage and when the ambient temps are below 50ish I can keep it at the low 80s while running a 600w MH. But if the temps rise above 50ish I have to run a vent fan and a regular fan to keep it at the same range.

Keep the pics comin!

Matt

 

[HillBilly Jeff]

Looks very nice.

 

[hornilla]

Nice. I wish my plant would look like yours already.

 

[ChilimanDaz]

Lovely Plants! Hope mine look this good in a couple of weeks

 

[patrick]

Very professional looking set up. Looks like you've done some research. Your plants should benefit immensely from it. Good luck!

 

[spicy_ghost_805]

Update..!!! After reading and reading more about peppers and types of growing medium's. I have now changed my growing methods from previous plan. I will not longer use the fertilizers described above. I'm switching to General Organics line from General Hydroponics. Why? I'm currently using pro-mix BX for my medium which is soil-less. Therefore, the above fertilizers I mentioned will take a very long time to brake down in this type of medium. Specially organic (granular) fertilizers. So I decided to fertilize my bhuts with GO(general Organics) in liquid form. It's much easier for a plant to feed off a liquid rather than spending lots of time and energy trying to feed off granular fertilizer in medium. The first feeding of GO to my bhuts was given on 01/29/2012. I'm only going to feed them half the recommended strength 50% every other week. And foliar spray 25% strength in between my soil feed schedule. Example, week 1 soil-feed 50% strength week 2 water only(no fertz in water) and foliar spray 25% strength. week 3 soil feed 50% strength and so on. And if plants are doing very well I might skip soil feeding for up to 2 weeks. Not to exaggerate or anything but I did notice this past two days how healthy my plants got when I soil-feed them with GO. Again, this is my really first year growing and experimenting my previous years don't count because I didn't have a clue what I was doing. I'm hoping that my new method will be a success. Thank you !!! I'm open for any opinions, suggestions.

My 12 red bhuts and 3 peter pepper's. Pics taken on 01/31/2012

The biggest ghost peppers ( This do not look like anything I grew 2 years ago) I didn't know anything about growing mediums and plant care. I'm gonna try and find a picture from my really first attempt of growing a ghost pepper and post it. it's gonna be fun

Peter Pepper's

My new Fertz

 

[PIC 1]

Wow!

Excellent progress..............lucky you...................look at those plants!..................

Outside of your "Bio" products.....If there was a photo needed for the slogan "Doing It in the Dirt!".......your pic of those plants would represent that!

Nice work,.......keep the updates coming

Greg

 

[spicy_ghost_805]

Wow!

Excellent progress..............lucky you...................look at those plants!..................

Outside of your "Bio" products.....If there was a photo needed for the slogan "Doing It in the Dirt!".......your pic of those plants would represent that!

Nice work,.......keep the updates coming

Greg

Thank You Greg... that's a catchy slogan " doing it on the dirt " I like it..
Perfect name for a fert...
Btw I forgot to mention that I started another grow. I realized that I wanted more variety of super hots. So, I placed an order thru the hippy seed company for Fatalii, T.S butch T, Tepin, 7 pod yellow, 7 pod douglah, chocolate habanero. I sowed the seeds on 1/29/2012 and can't wait for the first hooks

 

[Beehunter]

That is some really impressive growth! When will your plants go outside? They could be huge by then. they look so healthy.

 

[Pr0digal_son]

Those plants look fantastic... Keep up the good work.