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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!
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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!
 
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JoynersHotPeppers said:
Another solo cup guy, nice. I think that is what I shall do this year as well. Costco had a great deal on cups and picked some up. They do offer more space that my 2.5 x 2.5 traditional nursery square pots, them downside is not perfect fitted tray. Everything is looking good, best of luck and looking forward to seeing how the onions do as well.
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Thanks Chris... I'm looking forward to seeing how your Thai-heavy grow comes out this year too. Later in the week I'm going to be making New Orleans style red beans and rice, and your smoked black jalapeno powder is going to figure prominently...

Last year was the first time I started onions from seed, and I found they were remarkably easy to grow. I've tried growing them from sets before, but never got any bulbs of decent size. I think that growing the onions partway and then forcing them to go dormant costs the plant energy it could be spending on growth.

SocalChilehead said:
Those seedling look amazing they can not wait to move outside I also used the computer fans last year worked great when I had them indoors. Good luck through the season and hopefully everything continues to go well for you.
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Thanks Fernando
How are your babies doing? School going well too?

The muffin fans came without cords, so I got some cheap extension cords at Home Depot and spliced them in. They're quiet, work great on a small grow shelf and don't draw much power.

patrick said:
Looking very nice man. You using the cup in a cup method?
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Hi Patrick
I did double up on the cups initially to hold moisture while the seeds were sprouting. The cups with the growing medium have three eights inch holes bored in the bottoms for drainage so I put them inside another cup and covered the cups with plastic wrap since the dome cover didn't fit over the tray with Solo cups inside. Once the seeds popped I took off the outer cups and modified them for the extra seedlings.
 
Thanks Jamison, you're not doing too shabby yourself. Good luck with the SB babies and the rest. How's the hardwater fishing up your way?

MisterNo said:
Nice progress Rick!

I'm glad to see you're doing great work as usual :)
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Robert! Nice to see you guy! You should see your Kapija babies... They're twice the size of the rest and growing fast. If they get too tall for the grow shelf upstairs I'm going to have to move them down cellar to slow them down a bit.
 
In fact... Some of the Kapija peppers had such a growth spurt today that I decided to put together the grow space down cellar and move them down there. I got some three quarter inch styrene foam board faced with foil on one side and duct taped together a grow box with the existing flourescent lights inside...
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I put my min/max thermometer inside the grow box to monitor the temperature in there,
 
Like the tinkering you've been doing with your setup my brotha! I can never leave mine alone for too long either??? Got my fingers crossed for those Manzanos!
 
Thanks guys! This downstairs system is a bit more closed in than last years... I didn't enclose the top then, so heat from the lights escaped into the room and I made up the difference by running an old electric milking parlor heater. Boy, was that a mistake! It raised my electric bill over a hundred dollars a month! I'm trying to get the same effect this year much more cheaply by not throwing away "waste heat".
 
Thanks for the kind words Jamie, I hope it works out that way.

I just went down to the cellar to check the min/max thermometer to see what the temperature range is inside the grow box... It dropped down to 50 degrees last night, and it's up to 80 degrees now. The only heat source down there is the 3 four foot flourescent tubes in the grow box..
 
stickman said:
Thanks guys! This downstairs system is a bit more closed in than last years... I didn't enclose the top then, so heat from the lights escaped into the room and I made up the difference by running an old electric milking parlor heater. Boy, was that a mistake! It raised my electric bill over a hundred dollars a month! I'm trying to get the same effect this year much more cheaply by not throwing away "waste heat".
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I have to say, I enjoyed building my own too last winter. It's fun seeing how low energy one can go and get heating in there too :)
 
stickman said:
Thanks for the kind words Jamie, I hope it works out that way.

I just went down to the cellar to check the min/max thermometer to see what the temperature range is inside the grow box... It dropped down to 50 degrees last night, and it's up to 80 degrees now. The only heat source down there is the 3 four foot flourescent tubes in the grow box..
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How long are you running the lights? When I only had one shelf going I kept it on at night so the temps stayed warmer when the gargage was coolest. Now they are on alternating cycles, so there are always lights on. Greg runs alternating patterns on his lights that are over the same table, I am sure you read about his setup and schedule. His theory is the plants benifit from both direct and indirect light. If you're already running them 24 hrs and only have one fixture then I don't suppose it matters...
 
stc3248 said:
How long are you running the lights? When I only had one shelf going I kept it on at night so the temps stayed warmer when the gargage was coolest. Now they are on alternating cycles, so there are always lights on. Greg runs alternating patterns on his lights that are over the same table, I am sure you read about his setup and schedule. His theory is the plants benifit from both direct and indirect light. If you're already running them 24 hrs and only have one fixture then I don't suppose it matters...
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Hi Shane
No, I haven't checked out Greg's (Pic1 ?) settings. I'll have to take another look. I've been running them 18 hours on/ 6 hours off. The temp drops back down to 50 degrees when the lights go off. My theory is that since I'm going to plant them outside fairly early, it's good to get them used to a bit of cold before then. They don't grow up as quickly, but that's not a problem because the plants will be hugging the ground for warmth at night until things really warm up in May. That's how I did it last year anyway...
 
No arguing with your last year's results brother rick! Greg's setup is interesting, and resembles what I have going, but I am only running 12 hrs and he's running 16. For durations all his lights are on and other times just some...like every third. Cool concept and his are some of the perdiest plants on here, so I pay close attention to what he's got going on! His grow table is 16'! I'm gonna talk to some local nurseries and see if I can contract to start some exotics for them next year...will give me a reason to EXPAND and maybe pay the light bill to boot!
 
Yup, I checked out Greg's glog and pepper jungle, and it definitely works for him. He's growing in pots exclusively though, so his goals are a little different than mine. Still, there's lots to learn there. Thanks for the heads-up Shane!

As for underwriting the cost of starting your plants... have you thought about selling your extras to someone who has a table at a Farmer's Market? If they're up for it, maybe you can get them to take the plants on consignment. That way you don't have to pay for a table and they don't have to come up with the money up front. Just a thought... I'm sure you'll figure it out.
 
Most of the babies are getting their second set of true leaves, and some are showing signs of axial growth (side branching). I don't have much experience growing C. Chinense, but they seem to be growing faster than the Orange Hab did down cellar last year. I suppose it's a combination of giving them some natural sunlight and the RapidStart nutes.

Douglah
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Jamaican Hot Chocolate
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Large Yellow 7-pot
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Aji Omnicolor
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Maya Red Habanero
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Aji Criolla Sella
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Kirtovska Kapija
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Moving right along! How long till you start setup of your grow site? I know you're a long way from plant out, but was wondering when you start trying to warm your site's soil?
 
I'll prep the planting bed in about 6-8 weeks, depending on the weather. I tilled it last year to break up the sod since I was breaking in new ground, but from now on I'll be spading in the amendments when prepping the bed. I won't lay down the black plastic thermal mulch and set up the hoophouse until a week before I plant out.

I learned my lesson last year about staking up the larger/more loaded chiles. I recently got a table saw, and I'll be using it to rip 1x1 stakes from scrap lumber in time for tying them up.
 
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