STB's Kiwi Grow 2015/2016

This year I've started a whole bunch of seedlings about mid June, then some more in July and August:

• Reaper
• Choc Brazilian Ghost
• Red Moruga
• 7 Pod Douglah
• Peach 7 Pod
• Devil's Heart
• Devil's Brain
• Peach Hab
• Defcon 7
• 7 Pod Primo
• Dorset Naga
• Aji Pineapple
• Aji Habanero
• Aji Verde
• Hot Beads

Also growing out a couple of hybrids, and have my own F1 hybrid plant that I'm hoping to get some pods off.
 
All up there are about 80 seedlings, have put aside about 30 plants to sell at my daughter's school fundraiser, so the rest will be planted out.
 
Have just brought 700L (185 u.s. gallons) of potting mix (50% potting mix, 40% large pumice sand, 10% chicken manure), also have about 10 more 50L growbags from last year, so plenty of space to plant everything out.
 

 

 

 

 

 

[SentencedToBurn]

Indoor winter grow. I'm loving the speed they're growing at the moment. Decided against topping them since I'll be struggling for space, so I'll let them get as tall as possible first.
 

 

[nzchili]

Ah, didnt realise you had a glog!
Plants are looking good man. That lime sulphur you recommended really saved my season...I think that will be a staple in my arsenal going forward.

 

[SentencedToBurn]

Yeah dude, it stinks and makes your plants look like crap, but it seems to work really well.

 

[SentencedToBurn]

Have done my first harvesting today, have waited until Farmer's Markets day to harvest as much as I could in one hit. A few chillies have overripened but most are ok.
 
All up got just over 1.4kg (3lbs) of Dorset Nagas, and about 1.6kg (3.5lbs) of other pods (mostly superhots).
 
Pretty happy especially after losing about a 1/3rd of my plants to broad mites (although now I've learnt how to deal with them), and had to trim back about half of all remaining plants. So next year even with the same amount of plants I think I should be able to do a lot better. There are still a bunch of green pods on some of the plants, I reckon I should get about a kilo off them in the next month or two still.
 

 

[SentencedToBurn]

The indoor grow for winter is going well. Nearly 9 weeks since those 1 week old seedlings went into DWC, now the tallest (Reaper) is exactly 90cm / 3' tall (not including the bucket), the smallest are at about 50cm / 1.6' tall.
 
I just sprayed them out with some lime sulphur as I noticed some very very early signs of broad mites, after learning what damage they do earlier this season I decided not to muck around.
 

 

[SentencedToBurn]

The new LED growlights are cranking!
 

 

[Bumper]

The new LED growlights are cranking!
 

 
Looks awesome. It would last less than a week here before someone raided it looking for pot.  Hope you have a big dog STB!

 

[SentencedToBurn]

Haha nah not that big, but they let us know if anything happens. And yeah the section is closed off really well, you'd never see it from the street from any angle, so its pretty good.

 

[SentencedToBurn]

Massive progress over the last couple of weeks. The plants are now slowing down as far as the height goes as the buckets fill up with roots. Already have a few pods forming - always seems that Red Morugas are the first for some reason.
 

 

 

 

[SentencedToBurn]

The plants are really cranking now, it seems the that putting them into DWC in the 2nd half of summer was a good idea, this gave them enough proper sunlight hours to reach full size and now they are flowering and podding pretty well.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BU0I3J2PfZQ

 

[SentencedToBurn]

Still going well, half the plants are now touching the roof and are slowing down as far as vegetative growth goes, all now have pods, even Aji Amarillos which only just tied up last week.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[smokenmirraz]

Chillies in Winter... dude, you are living the dream

 

[FiresOfNil]

It's a beautiful thing, chilies for when it's chilly - the way to roll.

 

[SentencedToBurn]

Chillies in Winter... dude, you are living the dream

Haha thanks man. Last year I had a bit of a fail with my winter grow, now I think I finally got it sorted. We'll see how well this setup holds when July/August comes and we drop to 0C, but I think I shoudl be ok.

 

[Bumper]

Mate that is awesome work, I can't wait to see these mature, they are still pretty young plants.  I have a kit 4x4m greenhouse to build, this is certainly motivation.  How low does it drop there?  We get down to -7c a couple of times each winter, not sure that I can do a full winter grow here.  

 

[dragonsfire]

Awesome ! great work

 

[SentencedToBurn]

Mate that is awesome work, I can't wait to see these mature, they are still pretty young plants.  I have a kit 4x4m greenhouse to build, this is certainly motivation.  How low does it drop there?  We get down to -7c a couple of times each winter, not sure that I can do a full winter grow here.  

Hey our winters go down to about -1 or -2 as the lowest point at night in the middle of winter, I found a single 400W panel heater can heat my greenhouse (1.8m x 2.4m) to about 5 degrees above the outside temperature, so my thermostat is set at 15C, if it drops to 10C it'll keep it at 15, otherwise if its say 0C then the indoor temperature will only be 5C. I have polystyrene sitting under the floor to add some insulation, although Im not sure whether that helps or not since heat rises, but still I wanted to try and insulate as much as I could.
 
What I'm doing this year is I've got a bunch of bubble wrap covering the roof (don't have enough for the whole greenhouse yet) and I'm about to add 1 more panel heater so will see how 800W of heating works. For the size of your greenhouse I'd say if you were going electric you'd need at least 1.5kW of heat maybe more if you aren't adding insulation.
 
Otherwise definitely use bubblewrap as I've seen videos of guys bubblewrapping their greenhouses (and some did it in 2 layers), and then they used only small heaters and the temperature stayed at 20C and there was snow outside. Insulation is key.

 

[Bumper]

Hey our winters go down to about -1 or -2 as the lowest point at night in the middle of winter, I found a single 400W panel heater can heat my greenhouse (1.8m x 2.4m) to about 5 degrees above the outside temperature, so my thermostat is set at 15C, if it drops to 10C it'll keep it at 15, otherwise if its say 0C then the indoor temperature will only be 5C. I have polystyrene sitting under the floor to add some insulation, although Im not sure whether that helps or not since heat rises, but still I wanted to try and insulate as much as I could.
 
What I'm doing this year is I've got a bunch of bubble wrap covering the roof (don't have enough for the whole greenhouse yet) and I'm about to add 1 more panel heater so will see how 800W of heating works. For the size of your greenhouse I'd say if you were going electric you'd need at least 1.5kW of heat maybe more if you aren't adding insulation.
 
Otherwise definitely use bubblewrap as I've seen videos of guys bubblewrapping their greenhouses (and some did it in 2 layers), and then they used only small heaters and the temperature stayed at 20C and there was snow outside. Insulation is key.

Insulating makes sense, and I hadn't considered it.  I have some polystyrene panels with foil on one side that I used to insulate the aviary a couple of years ago, I can easily use those and grab a few more to keep the heat in around the sides and then bubble wrap the roof.  Heating is the kicker, but I have a mate who is a sparky so I will probably bite the bullet and run electricity up to it.  
 
Cheers 
 
B

 

[OCD Chilehead]

Nice set up! I'm going to be dabbling hydro this year. I really need to get of my ass and build a greenhouse. Those are some monster plants you grew. Congrats!

 

[SentencedToBurn]

Two separate Moruga plants now have pods that are ripening! Also Beni Highlands and Reapers are pretty loaded with green pods, I reckon another 2-3 weeks and I'll have enough to start making sauces.