Trent's 2014 Grow Log - COLD COLD COLD

Penny · Apr 22, 2014

Holy cow.....what a difference!!!

Devv · Apr 22, 2014

Well you're certainly hitting it right this year Trent!

Love the weapons pics!

HillBilly Jeff · Apr 22, 2014

If I had to wager on it, since it looks like most of the yellowing seemed to be on the new growth, I am going to guess nutes.

Your grow is looking great though. It is almost dig in the dirt time!!!

TrentL · Apr 23, 2014

Hilbilly Jeff - I agree. I've been reading up on this more. I think I hit SOME of them with full strength 6-12-12 on transplant on accident a few weeks ago (didn't dilute it down to 50%). now that they're growing fast, I *think* that the excess potassium is blocking iron uptake.

The problem with the leaf fade has now progressed to certain other varieties - 7-pot long, bhut jolokia, etc. So it's definitely no longer "isolated" to the yellows & whites, although they are apparently more sensitive to it for some reason.

I hit the plants with 50% diluted 12-8-8 weekly since transplant - but need to cut back. I'm getting classic "cupped leaves" syndrome; the leaf margin isn't growing as fast as the leaf material, so it's causing the leaves to cup - like an upside down bowl - downward. That's also a classic nute issue. Leaves on other plants are also getting too dark green. That is also a nute issue.
On the flip side the root masses are looking awesome which is what really matters at this point.. just gotta back off a bit and let the foilage recover..

So I'm going to go a couple weeks WITHOUT any nutes to see where they go from here.

Also - might be a contributing factor - I *did* increase the growth rate by suddenly jumping to 16/8 hour light cycle... up from 12/12. That's a 30% increase in available light and growth, overnight.

I should have stepped that up an hour a day until I got to the point that I wanted to ease them in to it.

EDIT:

Oh hell I DEFINITELY have nute burn.

No pics tonight but will take some tomorrow. I went down tonight and found a Naga Morich (which was previously perfectly healthy) with two leaves that'd fallen off - purplish - and two new leaves that'd formed today, all twisted and mangled.

I de-potted, pulled apart the root cluster of another, and it's got very little root development for it's size. I repotted it in fresh soil.

They're definitely growing more foilage than they have roots for...!!! Not exactly sure how to fix that.

There was no sign of root *decay*.. just .. like not that much root mass for a plant that's 6" across.

If I slow down the growth by turning the lights back to 12/12 do you guys think that'll help the roots "catch up"?

(And... think I overdid it with the nitrogen lol)

Jeff H · Apr 23, 2014

TrentL said:
and two new leaves that'd formed today, all twisted and mangled.

Just a thought. Excess nitrogen can block calcium uptake. I have a couple of plants like this too. Easy to do when the potting soil has nutes and you also put ferts in the water.

TrentL · Apr 23, 2014

The one I transplanted last night doesn't show any signs of transplant shock this morning. I beat the living heck out of it's roots (flicking soil off with my finger) before putting it in fresh soil.

I half expected to find it wilted this morning but it's perfectly "chipper."

The others are no worse off this morning. Hoping they can shake through this and continue growing.

What's really odd is I used the same amount of water & same ratio of liquid fertilizer on everything and some took off like crazy bastards and some tops went yellow. It's very "variety specific" too.

I think the "white" and "yellow" varieties, and the brain strain hybrids, are really susceptible and picky about nutes.

Meanwhile others chinese, and ALL the annums and baccatums, and the one pubescens I'm growing, all took off like a bat out of hell!

From what I'm gathering here, the nutrient requirements of the different species is sufficiently different that I might need to pay closer attention to it next year and not just throw a "one ratio fits all" at them.

Jeff H · Apr 23, 2014

FWIW, a couple of my white bhuts are significantly lighter green/yellow than the red bhuts. They all look healthy though.

TrentL · Apr 23, 2014

Well hopefully what doesn't kill 'em makes 'em stronger.

(Trying to stay positive.)

I have 180 1-gallon pots on the way, should be here in a couple days. Too many are outgrowing the dang paper cups. Pots were cheap. Potting soil is going to bankrupt my ass. Plus shelving and more lights.

I have 1 month before plant out and they're not going to be happy much longer in these paper cups.

Going to fill out the nursery form I've had sitting here, and invite the state over for an inspection - maybe be able to sell a few excess supers to local garden shops and recoup some of that cost.

Overdue for this anyway, need to get inspected to sell produce, which I also plan on doing. No way I can eat all of the pods coming off of these.

Wasn't really PLANNING on going small-scale commercial with any of this, but I enjoy growing and have to do SOMETHING with all the excess. For me the joy is in nurturing the little buggers along, and, of course, watching people suffer when they eat the results.

Worst case is I meet some new people and make friends, I guess. Could be worse.

OCD Chilehead · Apr 23, 2014

Plants are looking good. Sounds like your going to be busy. This year I planted twice as many as last year. I'm afraid next year is going to multiply as well. Good luck. You have another follower.

TrentL · Apr 23, 2014

Brain strain red - nute burn I think.

Tobago scotch - yellow - also burned.. I think.

Trinidad Moruga.... same story. This is the one which dropped two leaves yesterday - they looked PURPLE.

Same plant under less strong light

Naga Morich. Today the new growth turned green again but it's misshapen. Yesterday those leaves where WHITE (or so pale yellow they might as well have been white).

Monster Naga. Notice the leaf fades to light color - that's on the edge closest to the light. (I'm starting to see a pattern with that - the ones which were turning yellow were either directly under the lights, or had edges facing the lights which were faded... moving them away from the most direct light they're greening back up. It's not HEAT burn.. I think that with the nute problem they're just not able to cope with that much light/growth - remember I upped from 12/12 to 16/8 abruptly...)

A fatali yellow that is recovering a little since I moved it away from direct light. 200w equivalent CFL's 1" over the plants might be a bit much...

Some non-peppers I bought today.

And of course no day is complete without diaster.

My kitchen sink drain pipe popped off today when my wife was doing dishes. I came home to a flooded gun/reloading room in the basement....

It rained on my reloading bench...

Had to clear it all out ... she must have dumped 15-20 gallons of water on my stuff.

OCD Chilehead · Apr 23, 2014

Your going to have a nice looking garden. Peppers look great considering the small pots. I think as soon as they get new pair of shoes they'll take off. I need to repot this week as well. Mine are miniature hydro units at this point.

TrentL · Apr 24, 2014

Man .. the new leaves are growing in so fast they're twisting in to a spiral pattern with NO spacing between nodes. I don't think I have so much a "nutrient burn" issue as I do "they suddenly got more light than they know what to do with" problem.

I backed the lights off from a few inches over the plants, to about 12-16" off the plants. Should cut the lumens they are receiving significantly.

Slow them down a little. They need to gain some *height* because there's zero clearance between leaves. I've never seen plants this tightly packed with foilage....

I increased my lights about 4x over last year since last year they got all lanky. I've also been running them 16 hours a day at near contact distance for the last two weeks.... so this year I'm having the OPPOSITE problem.

Will see if the situation improves a little over the next week.

My brain wants to micro-manage them at this point but my gut is telling me to let them work out of this on their own. Make a change.. observe.. make a change.. observe. Don't do too much at once!

(Sorry trying to give myself a pep talk.)

OCD Chilehead · Apr 24, 2014

Sorry to her about the flood that sucks. I think your method will work. I too am guilty of giving them to much attention. I'm going back to the keep it simple method. As soon as they pot up they will stretch a little. Good luck.

Jeff H · Apr 24, 2014

Hope no primers got wet. Everything else should dry out fine. Nice Lyman press.

TrentL · Apr 24, 2014

Jeff H said:
Hope no primers got wet. Everything else should dry out fine. Nice Lyman press.

Primers reactivate when they dry. Only part I really worry about is the powder; it can't dry out if moisture gets in; but from a casual dousing no biggie. As long as they don't soak in it for a long period of time.

What the room is SUPPOSED to look like...

Benches (Lyman press and Dillon 650XL);

The ammo that got rained on...

romy6 · Apr 24, 2014

Trent your plants look super healthy and love your ammo room. When looking at the yellowing on top I was thinking possibly a deficiency as well. Could be that you plants are sucking up all the moisture and the constant watering is flushing the nutrients out? Try foliar feeding them with some epsom salt and I bet they will bounce back quickly .

Jeff H · Apr 24, 2014

Thank goodness you have a PKM. I couldn't imagine shooting all of that 7.62x54R out of a Mosin in several lifetimes. 20 rounds and I put mine back away and reattach my shoulder.

Nice room though, well thought out and organized. My area is much smaller. I don't have a current pic, but here is a THR link from when I was building the room. In the last couple of years, I have managed to clutter the room up nicely.

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=678549

muskymojo · Apr 24, 2014

Great glog so far. I just realized I recognize your "pulp fiction" pics from THR. I'm a member, but do a lot more reading than posting.

Welcome to THP! I look forward to your garden pics when it's in full swing. It looks like you're going to have an epic season!

Jeff H · Apr 24, 2014

muskymojo said:
I'm a member, but do a lot more reading than posting.

I must admit, I do more yacking over here than there too.

TrentL · Apr 24, 2014

Haha I always have a THR tab open. I didn't realize there were others on here from that board.

I'm just "Trent" over there. Didn't need to add an L at the end.

romy6 said:
Trent your plants look super healthy and love your ammo room. When looking at the yellowing on top I was thinking possibly a deficiency as well. Could be that you plants are sucking up all the moisture and the constant watering is flushing the nutrients out? Try foliar feeding them with some epsom salt and I bet they will bounce back quickly .

I've got a couple experiments going to try to nail it down. I transplanted one which was showing extensive mottling to a #1 pot and washed ALL soil off of it's roots. It's currently sitting in fresh Shults. No transplant shock. Probably take a week or so for it to sort out.

Another experiment is reducing overall light levels by raising the lights up about 12-15" from the plants; previously they were 2-3" over the plants. They're getting very "clumped" on top with leaves growing right over leaves.. no spacing between nodes. So I need to let them stretch out a little and get a little more lanky.

And a last experiment is I have a few heavily mottled plants only receiving indirect diffused light; no direct light. They've started actually showing pale green again where yesterday was just bright yellow; so I think they weren't able to keep up with the amount of light I was shoving down their throats.

I'm using bagged commercial potting soil and it's got slow release fertilizer, I think I burned 'em by adding 1/2 teaspoon per gallon of 12-8-8 to the watering cycle (which is around 50% of a normal dose.)

I'm letting the plants go full-dry-to-wilt right now, and adding back in just a little water once they do. Tedious since I have to check them every few hours (fan is running).