Window Silly Chili 18

Hello fellow growers! 
 
First glog!  
 
I’ve been growing chilies every year for about 15 years. Due to the “charming” danish climate, and lack of garden and greenhouse, I’ve turned into a passionated windowsill-grower. I like to keep things fairly simple. No fancy light, relying only on the light that nature has to offer, some chili fertilizer and a lot of love.
This year, for the first time, I’m trying out coco coir. My small plants currently sit in 100% coco coir, because I wanted to get a better feel for the medium’s behaviour. Currently, because the danish spring offers temperatures around 5 degrees, the coco coir develop a slightly moldy surface, from sitting on the cold windowsill. This hopefully will be bygone when the sun starts to get more power. The windowssill is facing south, and can get really hot during summer. Therefore I will later on, when repotting, add 1/3 pumice, to get even better water retention and aeration. 
 
This it what I am growing this year:
 
C. anuum

• Czechoslovakian Black

 
C. baccatum 

• Aji Little Finger Orange
• Pimenta Barra do Ribeiro

 
C. chinense 

• Cumari
• Tobago Seasoning
• White Bullet
• Peachgum TigerMAMP 

 
 
See below. This small plug tells an amazing story. The poor seedling was suffering from helmet head, and in my attempt to remove it, the seedling broke in half. Feeling frustrated from my failed attempt to save the seedling, I left the broken-off half lying on top of the plug. 
A week later, I checked the plug, and the broken-off half rooted!!
This is by far the youngest clone I’ve ever made. Amazing! I will update with its progress, to see how/if it might have affected it’s growth.
So if you break a precious seedling, don’t despair - try to clone it!
 

 
Thanks for looking! I will try to update this glog as often as I can.
Happy growing out there  
 

 

[Chilidude]

Looking at the humidity it is actually (outside) around 30-40%. Ive never really paid much attention to it during summer, to be honest. Would a morning spray of the plants help?

 
Maybe misting is not the best idea for chilis, perhaps try to place some small containers of water below the pots that would rise the humidity.

 

[chelicerae]

I'll follow your ajis progress since I'm thinking of starting two aji plants in my tent at the end of summer; while heat is relatively doable during an indoor northern hemisphere winter humidity can be trickier. If yours start producing if you put them in trays of water or next to the shower curtain I'll have to have a think since I doubt it is very dry in your house now.
 
Your plants are looking good anyway = )
 
 

 

[tuellarsen]

Maybe misting is not the best idea for chilis, perhaps try to place some small containers of water below the pots that would rise the humidity.

  

I will try that
Upon further inspection Ive noticed that, especially Bullet and Cumari, are dropping flowers in all stages, from full blossom to small not even developed flower buds. Could something else be an issue?

I'll follow your ajis progress since I'm thinking of starting two aji plants in my tent at the end of summer; while heat is relatively doable during an indoor northern hemisphere winter humidity can be trickier. If yours start producing if you put them in trays of water or next to the shower curtain I'll have to have a think since I doubt it is very dry in your house now.
 
Your plants are looking good anyway = )

Thanks
Nope, not dry at all, normally. And the past several years Ive had good luck with Ajis indoor. Even during colder summers.
I normally think of it as the bulletproof choice!
Good luck

 

[Chilidude]

  I will try that
Upon further inspection Ive noticed that, especially Bullet and Cumari, are dropping flowers in all stages, from full blossom to small not even developed flower buds. Could something else be an issue?
 

 
Maybe the huge temperature swings between day and nightime is the problem right now. Besides july onwards is the best pod production month, so maybe the chilis know it and they are just messing with you. One thing you could do is install a small fan near them that moves some air.

 

[Chilidude]

Because indoor and outdoor growing in the summer is a bit different, you can always try reducing the nitrogen portion of the B'cuzz A+B fertilizer by using less of the A part that contains most of the nitrogen. Perhaps try putting part A 10ml/part B 15ml to 10 litres of water to see if it reduces the flower drop in the end and you start seeing more of those long awaited pods.

 

[Chilidude]

Dont mind my ramblings above about those A+B rations, just keep feeding those plants with the equal rations of 15ml+15ml etc. like you have done before as per instructions found in the bottle. But how are they doing now, did they stop some of the flower drop by now?

 

[tuellarsen]

Just ramble away, Chilidude no worries. 
 
I followed a hunch that it might be a fertiliser issue. The extremely hot days ment watering almost every day - resulting in over-fertilising, I think. I chose to omit the ferts completely and (maybe combined with cooler weather and higher humidity) pods are now starting to consistently show up! So far only on the Aji, CZ and the Peachgum, though. 
 
I will from today ease the fertiliser back, by using 0,5+0,5 ml/liter.

 

[Chilidude]

I think the high heat and lack of air moisture is the number one reason for the lack of pods and even if you need to water the plants often with the fertilizer water, make sure that you will have some run off from the bottom of the pot for the build up salts to wash off. You can also cover the pots somehow from heating up too much as roots dont like that too much.

 

[tuellarsen]

Aji Little Finger Orange
 

 
Czechoslovakian Black
 

 
Peachgum TigerMAMP
 

 

[tuellarsen]

I think the high heat and lack of air moisture is the number one reason for the lack of pods and even if you need to water the plants often with the fertilizer water, make sure that you will have some run off from the bottom of the pot for the build up salts to wash off.

 
Thanks. I will keep that in mind. During the hot period, instead of watering thoroughly, I've just been topping up. Might also be the reason, with regards to salt buildup. 

 

[Chilidude]

 
Thanks. I will keep that in mind. During the hot period, instead of watering thoroughly, I've just been topping up. Might also be the reason, with regards to salt buildup. 

 
Best to start using kind of drain to waste method with coco coir to prevent the salt build up.

 

[Chilidude]

Perhaps in the next year you could try growing chilis in the coco coir using 7-9 litre air-pots or similar chinese copy, i think you would be very happy with the results because the bottom section of the air-pot is upper than the actual side of the pot, so it will do that run off for you to the bottom of the trays without you doing anything special.

 

[Chilidude]

Today i visited the local grow shop and noticed that the new bottles of B'cuzz coco a+b npk have changed a lot from my old bottles, as it was something like 6-10-11 in the new bottles and the phosphorus number seems to be really high now.
 
Is you coco a+b combined npk 7-5-13, like in my old bottles?

 

[tuellarsen]

Perhaps in the next year you could try growing chilis in the coco coir using 7-9 litre air-pots or similar chinese copy, i think you would be very happy with the results because the bottom section of the air-pot is upper than the actual side of the pot, so it will do that run off for you to the bottom of the trays without you doing anything special.

 
I've actually been looking into air-pots. Unfortunately they don't meet the acceptable-looks requirement, so until further notice, I will have to stick with decent looking plastik pots  
 
 

Today i visited the local grow shop and noticed that the new bottles of B'cuzz coco a+b npk have changed a lot from my old bottles, as it was something like 6-10-11 in the new bottles and the phosphorus number seems to be really high now.
 
Is you coco a+b combined npk 7-5-13, like in my old bottles?

 
These are my bottles:
 

 

[tuellarsen]

A current struck of bad health took me out of the game for some time, but chilies are doing fine! 
 
My Aji is shooting out pods like there is no tomorrow! As the observant one might notice, those pods look nothing like little fingers - time will tell if they even turn orange  
 

 
I've also gotten some colouring going on on my TigerMAMP - not much of a tiger look (yet), but beautiful nonetheless. I find the colour bleeding really interesting.
 

 

[Chilidude]

So the NPK is different in your bottles then:
 
5-4-11
 
The new NPK value actually seems to be a bit better than in my old bottles.
 
There are also a bit different looking pots too that offer the air-pruning:
 

 
This is called super venti-pot.
 
 
If your chili plants are now making lot of pods, what did change in your growing technique?

 

[Chilidude]

A current struck of bad health took me out of the game for some time, but chilies are doing fine! 
 
My Aji is shooting out pods like there is no tomorrow! As the observant one might notice, those pods look nothing like little fingers - time will tell if they even turn orange  
 

fullsizeoutput_117c.jpeg
 

 
Did you use your own seeds to make the pods look like that?

 

[tuellarsen]

So the NPK is different in your bottles then:
 
5-4-11
 
The new NPK value actually seems to be a bit better than in my old bottles.
 
There are also a bit different looking pots too that offer the air-pruning:
 
-IMAGE REMOVED-
 
This is called super venti-pot.
 
 
If your chili plants are now making lot of pods, what did change in your growing technique?

 
That might be an option! Deffo, something to investigate for next season 
 
Well the only changes I did, was reducing the amount of ferts, to the levels mentioned before. My health issues also meant that watering returned to topping up when needed, and not so much watering the pots through. So I'm still leaning towards the flower drop issues being related to over-fertilizing.
 
 
 

 
Did you use your own seeds to make the pods look like that?

 
I used the last of some seeds that I bought in 2015. The same seeds that's been producing nice little fingers every year.

 

[Chilidude]

 
That might be an option! Deffo, something to investigate for next season 
 
Well the only changes I did, was reducing the amount of ferts, to the levels mentioned before. My health issues also meant that watering returned to topping up when needed, and not so much watering the pots through. So I'm still leaning towards the flower drop issues being related to over-fertilizing.
 
 
 
 
I used the last of some seeds that I bought in 2015. The same seeds that's been producing nice little fingers every year.

 
If your watering is different and the pot size too, then the over-fertilization is a high possibility so keep on using the dosage that works for you.
 
Your Aji little fingers are now called Aji bloated fingers, but whatever if they taste ok.

 

[Chilidude]

What is your progress right now, as i am very interested to see how is the B'cuzz coco a+b working for you.