Stickman's 2013 Glog - Time To Pull The Plug on 2013

I'm pulling things together to get ready for my next growing season. I bought NuMex variety seeds from Sandia Seed company in New Mexico, Hot Paper Lantern Habaneros and Antohi Romanians from Johnny's Select Seeds in Maine and Korean varieties from Evergreen Seeds in California. Due to the unbelievable generosity of a number of THP members I've also gotten seeds to a wide variety of chiles from around the world. Special thanks to BootsieB, stc3248, romy6, PaulG, SoCalChilehead, joynershotpeppers, highalt, cmpman1974, smokemaster, mygrassisblue, Mister No, chewi, KingDenniz, orrozconleche and most recently and spectacularly, Habanerohead with a great selection of superhots and peppers from Hungary!

There are eleven varieties of Hungarian peppers in here, mostly the early, thick-fleshed, sweet ones that range from white through yellow to purple and red.., plus Aji Lemon Drop, BJ Indian Carbon, Naga Morich, Bishop's Crown and TS CARDI Yellow! Now I just have to go through my seed bank and match the space available to what I want to grow. Thanks Balázs!

 

[sudostahp]

Looking good, Rick! Those Manzanos take a while to sprout. Don't give up on them. Mine just now have radicles and it's been three weeks! I'm not using a heat mat though, which I'm sure would speed things up a bit.

Giving Manzanos a shot this year. Good to know!

 

[PeriPeri]

Wow, that envelope should have come with a wheelbarrow attached - filled with antacid!

 

[stickman]

Looking good, Rick! Those Manzanos take a while to sprout. Don't give up on them. Mine just now have radicles and it's been three weeks! I'm not using a heat mat though, which I'm sure would speed things up a bit.

Thanks for the encouragement Bonnie, I was needing it about now. If I don't see any results by the end of next week I'll start some more seeds to see if I can get some to pop.

Whoa Rick ¯\(º_o)/¯ that Doc is uber generous

He certainly is!

Giving Manzanos a shot this year. Good to know!

Hi sudostahp, Thanks for dropping in.

Wow, that envelope should have come with a wheelbarrow attached - filled with antacid!

Funny thing that... I've read medical studies that said eating chiles actually reduces the amount of gastric juice produced by the stomach. Probably the "sensor" that keeps track of the amount of gastric juice in the stomach reports back that it's already full since it can't tell the difference between that and the burn of the chiles.

Nice group of seed packages!!!

Hi Bodeen, nice to see you out and about!

 

[Stefan_W]

Who knows where those hands have been...

Came home from work for lunch and found this envelope from DocNrock...

Those are some serious seeds Doc! I promise to find/give them a good home.

Very nice selection of seeds! I'm sure you'll have loads of fun growing those

 

[stickman]

Thanks Stefan
When I was checking out your glog, it struck me that I've been having a similar difficulty starting Chinense seeds in solo cups that you are in Rapid Rooters... I got them to break dormancy using the "soaked seeds and moist coffee filters on top of the heat mat" method, but when I moved the seeds to the solo cups they just languished. The exception was the Aji Omnicolor, which has sprouted 2 out of 10 seeds. Not surprising for a variety that's grown in the foothills of the Andes.

To get to the bottom of this, I broke out my handy dandy infra-red thermometer to check the temps. The surface of the heat mat is 98.7 degrees farenheit and the soil at the top of the solo cups is 72.3 degrees. If I take off the plastic cover from the solo cups the temp. drops another degree. I have my thermocouple in the ziplok bag with the Manzano seeds directly on the mat, and the temperature there is 84.2

What it looks like to me, is that the farther you go from the heat mat, the cooler the growing medium gets. That tells me that I need to either transfer the seeds from the solo cups into a standard growing flat to get the seeds closer to the heat source... at least until they have fully sprouted and get cots up into the light, or plant the Manzano seeds into solo cups so they get the same degree of heat as the rest. The last option seems like the least bother, so I'll be doing that this morning.

Made a killer chicken curry with all the trimmin's last night and posted pics on the Cooking with Fire thread.

 

[WalkGood]

… I got them to break dormancy using the "soaked seeds and moist coffee filters on top of the heat mat" method, but when I moved the seeds to the solo cups they just languished. …

Constant temperature over a period of time … I think this is the same problem I’m having now with my eggs not pop’in up higher percentages.

To get to the bottom of this, I broke out my handy-dandy infra red thermometer to check the temps. The surface of the heat mat is 98.7 degrees farenheit and the soil at the top of the solo cups is 72.3 degrees. If I take off the plastic cover from the solo cups the temp. drops another degree. I have my thermocouple in the ziplok bag with the Manzano seeds directly on the mat, and the temperature there is 84.2

This is great info you are providing, thank you Rick! BTW what is the optimal temp I should shoot for? Since I normally do all my starts in summer I get much higher germ rates than I am currently getting. I do not have a heat mat and either I’ll have to do as you’ve done in baggies or wait till summer but this is the first time my grandfathers egg method is producing low germination percentage. That said, I’ve not thrown in the towel yet as my white bhut Jolokia sprung up the other day, but I can not keep the soil temp in the eggs above 80 degrees for any consecutive period of time. Which I believe is hindering the rest of my starts …

What it looks like to me, is that the farther you go from the heat mat, the cooler the growing medium gets. That tells me that I need to either transfer the seeds from the solo cups into a standard growing flat to get the seeds closer to the heat source...

I have to go back to doing all my starts in our summer or eventually may have to break down and get one of these mats, any recommendations?

 

[Stefan_W]

I find that the heat mat is about half the battle. I got mine from Lee Valley, and even though they cost a bit more than other ones I have seen they work like a charm. When I put seeds into the mix I use I just put them in mini-greenhouses, which are just an old jiffy puck setups that I used years ago. The only thing I always have to remember to do is open up the lid once or twice a day, otherwise it gets too hot and humid and moss may start to develop.

 

[WalkGood]

I find that the heat mat is about half the battle. I got mine from Lee Valley, and even though they cost a bit more than other ones I have seen they work like a charm. When I put seeds into the mix I use I just put them in mini-greenhouses, which are just an old jiffy puck setups that I used years ago. The only thing I always have to remember to do is open up the lid once or twice a day, otherwise it gets too hot and humid and moss may start to develop.

Sorry to hijack your "g" thread Rick ...
I do keep the lid closed on the egg case which does act as a "mini-greenhouse" as you say, the only thing I'm missing is the constant temp between 84 to 90 degrees (I assume this is the proper temps from reading here but that's why I asked Rick the idea temp question). l have never had issues with my abuelo's egg method till now, but I never start seeds in our winter months, only summer for warmth. For example; summer here is so fruitful that I can take a coconut toss it in the shade and bam it soon pop's up, where I hear some have issues sprouting them ...

*mods if this is an issue here, please feel free to move my posts to my glog, thanks for all you do ...

 

[stickman]

BTW what is the optimal temp I should shoot for?

Hi Ramon
I understand the window to shoot for is between 80 and 85 degrees to be the most energy efficient for the desired effect. The only way to be able to change the heat settings is to get a thermostat unit to go with the mat. The thermostat will include a thermocouple sensor to tell the thermostat when to turn on and off.

I may have to break down and get one of these mats, any recommendations?

I got several HydroFarm heat mats in varying sizes for different situations... One sized for a windowsill, one for a single flat and one sized for 2 flats side-by-side. One thermostat fits them all. Hope this helps...

 

[DocNrock]

Glad they got there, Rick. Enjoy.

 

[stickman]

Came home after a dance and checked my babies... earlier today I moved the thermocouple attached to the seed heat mat thermostat into the top of one of the Solo cups and kicked up the thermostat to its max. Got the thermocouple reading 80.4
When I checked the cups about midnight, there were hooks in the cups with Aji Criolla Sella, Douglah and Yellow 7-pot.

 

[PeriPeri]

Great news! Those are really nice verieties. Love the Douglah's... love the taste of those babies

 

[Trippa]

Nice one rick !! Glad to see you are getting some movement on the germination .. and 2 great Chinense varieties to boot ...

 

[Stefan_W]

Awesome, looks like they are off and running! Have you grown the 7 pod yellows before?

 

[stickman]

No... the only chinense varieties I've ever grown before this were the Orange Habaneros I planted last year.. They did so well i figured I could grow the others too.

Came home from work tonight and found that all the varieties had hooks showing except for the Manzano Amarillo. I'll give it another week, then I'll try to plant some more seeds.

 

[stc3248]

Care packages...hooks....great stuff going on at the Rickster place!

 

[Sanarda]

Terrific news. Glad they popped for you. Now the hard work of not loving them too much begins

 

[stickman]

Hi All
A quick peek at the Solo cups. We have 3 cups of Kurtovska Kapija, and one each of Aji Omnicolor, Aji Criolla Sella, Douglah, 7-pot Yellow, Jamaican Hot Chocloate, Hot Paper Lantern and Maya Red Habanero...

Not much to see at this point, but at least we're off and running!
I planted 5 seeds in each cup so more could sprout... my plan is to keep the best one in each cup and take the scissors to the rest, and I'll be planting the rest of the Annuums around the end of February. Cheers

 

[JoynersHotPeppers]

Off to a solo cup party, double cups to catch water?

 

[stickman]

Right... I bored holes in the bottom of the inner cup to allow drainage, but put them into other cups to hold the moisture until they sprouted. That done. I can take off the outer cups now.