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health Willing to provide chilli love, but doing it the wrong way. (No, it's not spam)

B

biatche

I have a lot of free time on my hands and I'm trying to grow a dozen of chinense species. I have seen pictures and I truly envy that some manage to get their Chinense plants to around 6ft with beautiful only (generally) green leaves. While I'm not expecting 6 ft plants, I can't even get my plants to grow properly (that's what I'll mainly talk about in the next paragraph).

I am from Malaysia and as funny as it may sound, despite the all year hot and sunny weather, I decided to grow them indoors. Call that absurdly stupid if you like, but I thought, okay, no pests, and I can take care of the plants in here and mosquitoes can't have me as their fodder. Due to architectural design, defect or ignorance, the plants can get as much as 2-3 hours of direct sunlight.

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POTTED INDOORS: I have plants potted indoors using loose soil, firm soil. I have seedlings in mini cups indoors, all firm soil. All soils are mixed with vermaculite and perlite. Growth is mightly slow and after 4-5 months, 2 have reached about 15". Zero branches. Main stem is all green. Others on loose soil appear to have gradual growth, up to 8 leaves at most, but I don't think it's an Asian height problem. Definitely stunted growth.

POTTED OUTDOORS: Outdoors, I have 3 potted Chinense plants, and one started flowering after just 2 months of growth, and this would be the Butch T. It achieved only 15" in height and branched out little. It has half day of direct sunlight.

GROUND OUTDOORS: 6 months and I have a strain of Chinense species.. one of those Naga's... and it has grown to around 20" tall, pretty branched out. I'll get some photos soon to compliment this post.

Sorry about the boring details.. but I'll need someone's advice here.. so here's the part that got me all confused. Each time I bring the plant indoors (no airconditioning, open windows).. the leaves turn white slowly and within 2-3 days the plant bites the dust. This is the case for plants with 2 seeding leaves, 4 leaves, 8 leaves, and does seem to be the case for one of the 15" that I just brought out.

I can't get these plants to even an admirable level. I should even mention, most of the fruits borne are either infested by fruit larvae or just rotten (once they begin turning red, parts will also begin turning soggy brown, well, soggy and brown).

Pictures to follow soon. Needed?

I have some Giberrellic acid here, ready for great germination... so before I make a greater beginning, I gotta figure out what I've been doing wrong.
 
the white leaf sounds like sunburn. Your need to harden them slowly to full sunlight with no window blocking/reflecting UV rays.
 
So let me understand this, since they were grown indoors they grew to adapt to indoor environment and so lack certain 'properties'?

How do I get them to adapt to the outdoors "slowly"? An hour of direct light each day and slowly increase that?

So these plants can take an entire day of full light but must be adapted to it?

I'll probably try to germinate via paper towel, after that what next? Straight to a large pot outdoors before even the seedling appears?
 
Well, I am not that savvy with this but I will give you my 2 cents worth. Germinate your seeds any way you want. IF you use the paper towel method you need, you need to plant seed directly into soil with sprout down in dirt wtih shell up so the baby leaves can shed the shell. I would personnally not put the "baby" seedling out in the sun until it gets its second set of leaves (total of 4). Then I would transplant into larger pots for further growth until the roots get stronger. Put plant in sun for hour or less for a week straight. Keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn. It will show on leaves if starting to burn. Leaves will lighten in color or slightly wilt. After a week start increasing your time outside. With 2 weeks of "harding" you should be able to plant out doors or pot them and leave them out all day. And yes, when you start your plants indoors and care for them inside they don't get what they need fully and have to adapt to outdoor enviroment. I hope all of this helps you. Good luck with your plants.
 
I guess I missed out on the hardening part... so lesson learned I'll try and work it out.

Anyway, how does one get their plant to 6ft with nice bushy leaves? What are the requirements?
 
That really depends on the type of pepper plant being grown. You have to stake the branches or use a cage for support. Some grow straight up some are short and bushy depending on type. Also, is it potted or in ground or.....? I have noticed from last years crops that the potted peppers, using fairly big pots too, that the peppers where not as big nor was the plant because it got root bound. I should have used a 5 gallon bucket for each pepper or just planted them in ground (that is what i am doing this year) and you should get a "full" plant. The roots need a fair amount to grow. Someone correct me if i am wrong but only going on past experience.
 
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