Super Hots Canada - Grow 2014-2015 (Starts on Page 12) - I have a greenhouse now! YAY! :D

I suppose rather than starting a new topic each time I update you all on my progress, it's better to stick to one...
 
So to begin with, I just have a small update for today:
 
My largest Cayenne (which I just pruned back in the past couple of weeks) is finally growing it's very first flowers. This is one of six Cayenne's that I originally bought as seedlings. This one has taken off the best. The rest seemed to have struggled to grow.
 

 
One of my young Jalapeño (I believe) plants is also starting to flower. This is one that I started from seed and it's showing a good many more flowers than the Cayenne, shown above, even though it is far smaller and younger.
 

 
Seeing them start to flower, I decided to add some more Tomato mix (5-7-7) to all my plants to hopefully help them along the way.
 
I water my plants with a 20-20-20 plant feed every couple of weeks, occasionally I'll spray them down with an epsom salt mix and if the roots start to show I'll add some 3-in-1 (or 4-in-1) soil blend to top them off.
 
How often ought a person add tomato mix/bone meal/soil to their planters (indoors) to keep them growing and healthy - any suggestions?

 

[PaulG]

Regarding the cats and mice, sounds like a case
where the cure is as bad as the disease!
 
I've read others on the forum who say
cats attack their plants.  Weird.

 

[Super Hots Canada]

Regarding the cats and mice, sounds like a case
where the cure is as bad as the disease!
 
I've read others on the forum who say
cats attack their plants.  Weird.

 
Indoor cats tend to like plants, especially grass, In some cases it, apparently, helps them barf up hairballs. lol .. It's amazing I even have my 3 Habanero plants - back in the summer one of my cats managed to break into the area I was keeping my plants at (at the time) and pretty much mutilated all three of them.
 
Now, those same Habanero plants have -finally- started flowering in the past couple weeks, but so far they don't seem to be putting out any pollen. Hopefully that'll change.

 

[Super Hots Canada]

My basement grow space is starting to come together. The wall frame is built, as well as the door frame & door itself. The tarps are up to act as the walls, and the door works. All that is left to go for the structure is to fill in the door with the remaining tarp, add a hook/lock of some sort, and fill in some gaps along the ceiling of the space (using tarp) to keep the cats out.
 
After that I just to scrub the space down, work on "pre-heating" the space, and then move my HPS down into the space. After that, comes the hardest part - getting the plants moved... My girlfriend is coming down for the weekend (*crosses his fingers*), so maybe I can enlist her to help with -that- part! lol
 

 
 
.. And here's a bit of smaller update on how my Butch T is progressing:
 

 

[PaulG]

Grow space and Butch T both looking very good!

 

[Super Hots Canada]

Don't mind the clothes hanger - it was already on the wall for some reason. lol
 
The door is now finished with a handle and a hook lock, and the ceiling is now patched up with tarp to (hopefully) keep the cats out.
 
Before I can move my HPS & all my plants are under it, I need to attempt to bring the new space up to a safe temperature. So I had to "steal" my mother's small, white spacial heater, and crank it up all the way to get started on warming the area.. Then, a couple plants at a time, I moved all the plants from our old bathroom (top floor, beside my bedroom), which were under T8's, to the new basement space. Before moving them, I took a T8 that wasn't in use and hooked it up at one end of the new space.
 
Once all the plants from that space were moved (well, one tomato plant left to go), I then hefted the spacial heater (my newest one - it's digital, woo!) that was in the old bathroom down to the basement.. and nearly burned my hands because it's always on and set to around 30*C.
 
In the last week or two I pruned almost all the plants that were under my T8's, so now they rather snuggly fit in the new space - only taking up around 10-12% of the space, I'd say.
 
Before I move the HPS & all my other plants from my bedroom grow space I'm going to see how well that new space heats up over night (and hope the plants I just put down there don't freak out and die on me!).. My back is already sore. Moving all of my Naga's, Hab's & Reaper (most of which are now in large planters), is going to leave me sore as hell. lol
 
 

 

[Jeff H]

Room is looking good but if I were you I would spring for a gallon of white paint and paint the walls white to reflect some light before you bring down the other plants. Not much you can do with the blue tarp but at least 1/2 of the walls could be white.
 
As long as there is a fan blowing, I would think humidity would be a plus not a negative. The air in my grow room is so dry in the winter that the chinense have trouble producing pollen and setting pods. Annuums seem to do fine, but I usually have to hand pollinate the chinense with annuum pollen if I want chinense pods in the winter.

 

[Penny]

Nice looking set up, and great tip Jeff about the paint.
 
Keep those pics coming

 

[Super Hots Canada]

Room is looking good but if I were you I would spring for a gallon of white paint and paint the walls white to reflect some light before you bring down the other plants. Not much you can do with the blue tarp but at least 1/2 of the walls could be white.
 
As long as there is a fan blowing, I would think humidity would be a plus not a negative. The air in my grow room is so dry in the winter that the chinense have trouble producing pollen and setting pods. Annuums seem to do fine, but I usually have to hand pollinate the chinense with annuum pollen if I want chinense pods in the winter.

 
Hadn't really thought of the color of the walls.. but rather than paint them, my intent is to cover them using reflective material (aka the emergency blankets from Canadian Tire that I've already been using in my other grow spaces)  - then I don't have to worry about the color.
 
I need to come across some more wood, possibly build the sorta of "stairway" setup like Brain Strain Pepper Head has shown in his glog.. at least keep my plants off the cold concrete floor, somehow.
 
I left our smallest spacial heater, as well as my newest one (both in the photo above), on full blast overnight and the space is STILL only sitting at 16*C.. That has me really worried. I can't just move all my plants & HPS from my bedroom (which is averaging around 26*C) into a space that is 10*C less, can I? .. And even if I do, I'm worried that even with the other spacial heater pumped up -and- my HPS going that the space won't raise in temperature much.. Any ideas??

 

[Penny]

 
Hadn't really thought of the color of the walls.. but rather than paint them, my intent is to cover them using reflective material (aka the emergency blankets from Canadian Tire that I've already been using in my other grow spaces)  - then I don't have to worry about the color.
 
I need to come across some more wood, possibly build the sorta of "stairway" setup like Brain Strain Pepper Head has shown in his glog.. at least keep my plants off the cold concrete floor, somehow.
 
I left our smallest spacial heater, as well as my newest one (both in the photo above), on full blast overnight and the space is STILL only sitting at 16*C.. That has me really worried. I can't just move all my plants & HPS from my bedroom (which is averaging around 26*C) into a space that is 10*C less, can I? .. And even if I do, I'm worried that even with the other spacial heater pumped up -and- my HPS going that the space won't raise in temperature much.. Any ideas??

 
 
For the wood, do you have Kijiji there? If so, check their free ads and you might come across some that way, or place an ad that your looking for some, and just specify what.

 

[Super Hots Canada]

 
 
For the wood, do you have Kijiji there? If so, check their free ads and you might come across some that way, or place an ad that your looking for some, and just specify what.

 
That's an idea .. My mother's Christmas present to me is supposedly $50 to use at Central Supplies, so I think I'll cash in on that, first, if only for the convenience of it. lol .. I don't think I'll need much, and I can still go through the wood I haven't used that's in our basement.
 
I'm kinda wondering if I ought to look at the ventilation in our basement and see if I might be able to use some ventilation piping and direct some of the heat from the furnace into the space. It wouldn't provide much heat, but some is certainly better than none.. Not sure what else I can do.

 

[Penny]

That's good then that you can go to Central Supplies, and like you said, its convenient.
 
Not sure what to suggest on the basement though...I'm sure someone else will be along with a suggestion or two.

 

[Super Hots Canada]

So I picked my girlfriend up from the bus stop yesterday afternoon. After getting groceries, etc, we got back to the house and I dug into finishing off the basement grow space, with her help. While we were out I picked up 4 more safety blankets (all Canadian Tire had.. they don't keep many in stock).
 
We put up the reflective material (the safety blankets) and then began moving all the plants down to the basement from my bedroom grow space. Started with the smaller plants that were on the small book shelves, along with the shelves themselves. Then the smaller/shorter of the plants - couple of habs, my Jalapeno, etc - and then the spacial heater. Most of that went a few plants at a time - her & I each carrying a couple at a time. Once it came time for my larger plants (my Reaper, largest Hab & Naga's) she helped a bit more but then turned slack (and later admitted she got lazy lol). With those ones I had to go one at a time, and because of our low ceiling a few lost or broke a couple leaves .. and they ended up with cobwebs on them, along the way (there's a build-up on both stairways that can be hard to reach).
 
Once I got all the plants finally moved into the new space I did some re-arranging to clear the center. Then I finally took down my HPS from the bedroom grow space. It took some tinkering and some more hammering to finally get it into place (girlfriend was helping some more at this point, thankfully realizing how costly it would be if that light broke lol).
 
Then I re-arranged some more and had to convince her to stick around (she was getting tired - all of this took HOURS) because I wanted her to be there when I turned on the HPS in the new space. lol
 
By the time we had finished moving all the plants and had the second spacial heater up & running (and returned my mother's small spacial heater to her) the room had thankfully risen to around 21*C (~70*F). And along the way I had re-organize the extension cords because having everything plugged into one caused one of the 2 power bars to reset).
 
FINALLY, the photos...
 
.. Before I took any photos, I went looking for a landscape setting on my phone because of the space of the space. Instead, I found panorama setting (been taking photos with this phone for months & never noticed the setting lol). So I tried taking a couple with that - one turned out alright..
 

 

 
 
.. Not all the plants are off the floor yet, but that's something I'm going to work on later.
 
This morning I moved in the second oscillating floor fan, the smaller clamp-on fan (which is pointed at my HPS to help cool it and distribute it's heat), and I covered the door in reflective material. I also put up some more tarp around the door frame to cut back on the cold air coming into the space from the gaps between the door & the frame, and then I covered the door in reflective material.
 
At this point the thermometer is telling me the space is around 26*C (79*F) and just over 40% humidity (is that good for the humidity?).
 
OH and my very first Carolina Reaper flowers are -just- about to open, finally!

 

[Super Hots Canada]

Already, after only two nights in the new space, many of my Naga's appear to be producing new buds, my Reaper appears to be forming new buds (and I think 3 flowers will be open when I water the plants tonight), my Brown Naglah put out it's 2nd set of true leaves, and most of my plants that were under the T8's are pushing out bunches of new leaves (and some are pushing out new buds).

 

[Penny]

Holy cow.....everything looks amazing....well done!!

 

[Super Hots Canada]

Thanks!
 
Last night I tried leaving the space without the HPS on overnight to see what affect it would have on the temperature in the space (left the T8's on). Looked when I got up and the temperature had only dropped around 2-3 degrees Celcius. I'm thinking I'll just leave the T8's on 24/7 unless I can find a way to rig it to have them on a single switch to turn them off (which isn't possible at the moment, and I don't want to be stumbling over my babies as I turn off/on the lights lol).

 

[Penny]

No don't need to lose a plant by stepping or it, or god forbid, falling on it!!

 

[Super Hots Canada]

My Brown Naglah - taken last night; just over 2 weeks old:
 

 

[Super Hots Canada]

My grow space is floating around 40-48% humidity. The Cayenne, Jalapeno & Super Chile all pollinate just fine, but my Habs & Nagas all fail.. I already had a bucket of water out to help with the humidity, but apparently that isn't making enough difference. So after reading through some of the other topics on here, on the issue, I've moved the bucket in front of a fan, soaked a towel and hung it so the fan will be blow on it. I'm hoping that'll help, though I'm not sure it'll be near enough to bring the space up to 60-80%.
 
I haven't the money, yet, for a vaporizer or humidifier.. but does anyone have any idea what I'd need to get those conditions in a space that is approximately 14' long, 7' width, 6 1/2' high?

 

[Penny]

Cute sprout....looks like things are progressing well.

 

[Super Hots Canada]

Okay, so my space is floating around 55% humidity after a couple of days of putting a lobster pot of hot water on top of one spacial heater and a bucket of hot water with a hanging towel by the other. Bit of an improvement over 45%, but still far from optimal to see some progress from my Chinese's
 

 
.. Then, this afternoon, I clued into something that may be making a pretty big difference: With our house being 90-100+ years old, it certainly isn't the most efficient and there are actually visible gaps between the floors in the bathroom where you can see the light coming up from my grow space in the basement:
 

 
.. I can't afford insulation for the basement ceiling, but I will be able to get more plastic tarp. My thinking is to cut it into strips and staple it to the ceiling to fill in the spaces, and then cover that with reflective material since I -know- a lot of my light right now is going to waste on those old ceiling boards.
 
I'm hoping that will help increase my chances of retaining & increasing the humidity level in the space. Thoughts?
 
.. I have a bit of income coming my way this month, so I'm also thinking I'll look around for a humidifier/vaporizer that I might be able to afford.
 
--------------------------------------------------
 
I officially have 3 Jalapeno pods growing now! (it's a small feat, sure, but I'm proud after all my Jalapeno plants have struggled lol)
 

 
 
My Butch T is coming along quite nicely.. I think it's about time I upgrade it to a bigger pot (you can see my Brown Naglah to the right). What do you think?
 

 
 
And here is my Carolina Reaper.. His first 3 flowers fell off today, with no sign of pollen, BUT he looks to be working on growing lots more buds!
 

 
.. He was getting rather lopsided, so I went back downstairs a while after taking this photo and put in a couple sticks to prop him up -and- I moved him more towards the center of the room (directly under my HPS now - switched places with a Naga Jolokia) so he gets more light and isn't being pushed over by the fan so much.