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Time to start over

After the cats damaged my plants they decided to finish them off the rest of the way. In about a week or so I should have the panda film and heating gear to make a more secured grow tent and not have to leave the door open for the space heater, so I've got some more seeds terminating by coffee filter method on top of the cable box in my bedroom. I was really hoping to see how well this little grow light was gonna perform a bit sooner but now I'll have room for four pepper plants after eliminating the corn project after two of the stalks got damaged so I'll revisit that expirement after I get more lighting. The only thing left under the grow light is a tree cutting that is rooting in a large ziploc bag so no heed for extra heating so I can keep the door closed for now.

I have some seed collection and saving to do today too. My son in law gave me some store bought naga jalokias that I plan to save seeds from for the next round of growing. The peppers themselves are getting dried for powder.
 

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And we have peppers! Three on one Thai, and one on the other. Have got lots of flowers on the hab's, and it looks like one might be setting fruit now too. The plants aren't quite two months old from the time they sprouted.

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Nice going Scott.
 
You still using the 45 watt? I've been wondering what the minimum size LED unit that would be that could sustain growth through to fruit and you have proven it (assuming it is the 45W). Well done.
 
Yup, still using the Unifun 45 watt (36 actually draw). I wasn't too sure it would be enough, but apparently 255 0.2w LEDs are quite a bit more efficient than 5 or 10w LEDs. I'll probably still upgrade to a 300 watt (~130 actuall) eventually, particularly when they get really big and bushy, either that or get three more of the unifun's. Might just get four more so I can use one for a seedling starter box.
 
Two months and the Thai's are up to 24 inches tall already, while the hab's are about 10, but they're much bigger around. Still only have the three peppers on one Thai, and still getting some flower drop on all the plants. Gonna try going back to 18/6 since I've been running 18/8 for the last month. Temps averaging 75f day and night, and humidity averaging 65%.
 
Added some new toys recently. Added another mini ceramic heater and eliminated the ceramic heat emitter, much faster recovery time now. Today I put in new computer fans that move a little bit more air and are really quiet so it doesn't sound like there's a vacuum running continuously in our basement. Also added a drip irrigation system for ease of watering.

The hard part was caging the Thai plants, they were kinda entwined together and supporting each other, so removing them from the tent nearly made them fall over. Broke a few little branches in the process, but didn't lose any of the 8 peppers. The have still haven't set fruit yet. Gonna be ordering 3 more unifun 45 watt panels soon, which I already have the frame and hanger setup ready.

Might order some cns17 bloom for fertigation when the potting mix fertilizer runs out. Anybody have experience with the botanicare cns17 line?

Pics probably tomorrow.
 
Pictures as promised.

The Thai on the left took a bit more damage installing the cages.
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The hab's have a huge dense canopy, but no peppers yet.
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One of the mini space heaters tucked in a corner. With two of these running there's no problem hitting 80f+ even when the basements around 55f like it is right now with the -22f weather. Temp controllers set to average about 77f.
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And, of course, the water supply for the new drip irrigation system for quick easy weekly watering.
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Great looking plants and nice setup!  That drip irrigation must be great now that you have a jungle on your hands.  Have you tried hand pollinating the habs with cotton swabs?  Two years ago I trimmed my Thai peppers way back after they grew too large.  They recovered and bushed out in a few weeks.  Just my .02 if they get too big.
 
Keep it up!  and happy new year!
 
NeedsWork said:
Great looking plants and nice setup!  That drip irrigation must be great now that you have a jungle on your hands.  Have you tried hand pollinating the habs with cotton swabs?  Two years ago I trimmed my Thai peppers way back after they grew too large.  They recovered and bushed out in a few weeks.  Just my .02 if they get too big.
 
Keep it up!  and happy new year!
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I did try qtip pollinating the habs a few weeks ago, but haven't tried since. I guess its time to try again. I have intentionally trimmed the Thais a couple times to keep them from shading the shorter plants, even had to trim back the habs a bit because they were tangled into the Thais making it hard to water. Hence the drip irrigation necessity.

It's gonna be interesting to see what happens when i quadruple the lighting in a few weeks.
 
Hafners said:
I did try qtip pollinating the habs a few weeks ago, but haven't tried since. I guess its time to try again. I have intentionally trimmed the Thais a couple times to keep them from shading the shorter plants, even had to trim back the habs a bit because they were tangled into the Thais making it hard to water. Hence the drip irrigation necessity.

It's gonna be interesting to see what happens when i quadruple the lighting in a few weeks.
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I use Carolina pollinators

Sent from my Galaxy S8 using Tapatalk
 
Installed 3 more unifun panels a couple days ago, I'm already seeing some new sprouts.
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The habs are taking over the lower regions of the tent
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The drip rings on their zip tie stands.
Would you say that's good canopy penetration with the expanded light setup?
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Interesting. I measured leaf surface temps after the lighting addition. Temps are around 3 degrees higher than before with the same ambient temps. But still low enough to make happy plants. At 6 inches below the lights it's -4, at 31 inches below (habanero canopy) its -7.
 
Sinn said:
Excellent grow can't wait to see some pods ;)
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There are some pods on the Thai's but none on the habs yet. I think the ferts in the potting mix may be getting low, but I'll have some cns17 in about a week or so. Probably start at half strength since there's still some nutrients.
 
Spotted the first habanero pod this morning. Its hard to tell if I'm getting much pollen out of the other flowers, but its probably really fine compared to what I get out of the Thai's. I harvest a couple not quite fully ripe Thai pods yesterday, and boy do they have a bite. I would say at least 10 times hotter than the mucho nacho's. There's at least a dozen new pods started between the two Thai plants. Can't wait to see what happens after I start feeding with the cns17.
 
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