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YYY vs. Plants, Round Two

This year I did a few overwinters and broke open my precious seed stash(seed trains are the coolest thing ever), a few weeks ago. I had some initial trouble with the overwinters; my parents told me it was doomed from the start, that they've never had any luck. Well, 10 of 14 survived and bonus, now I have some geo pots ready to go to make new little monsters I haven't tried.

I planted too many seeds to make sure some plants make it and have been limited in my pepper garden space because it was deemed excessive... go figure :crazy: . I plan on growing around 39 varieties so that limits me to around 1-2 of each

Here are a few pictures to start this year's fight, for the rights to make it to the garden

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Looking good, those overwinters will bush up and give you some pods right quick. Your starts look a little leggy, I'd get them as close to the light as you can.
 
They're a little lettucey, beany, watermelony... I guess I put up the before but not after pic of the tray. There are only 3 pepper cells up, they're mostly superhots and it's been about a week, all but 3 or so cells have now sprouted; I'll put up a new pic tomorrow along with the grow sheets. Also just waiting to start a sunflower garden for cut flowers around the house and to eat. Probably a few more pepper plants too but I'm running out of varieties; if anyone has suggestions for sweet peppers it would be appreciated.
 
Thanks, it was a first try; we always thought of them as annuals and I wanted to see how big the difference is with overwintering, especially with mycorrhiza and that azos nitrogen fixing microbe. So far it's pretty impressive. I have a feeling each initial new growth site is going to be the size of a first year plant(that I would grow anyway :P ).
I just picked up a few more seed trays and ordered a new 4bulb X 4' T5 starter light today, $114 shipped, with bulbs... can't beat that! I'll get around to posting new pics tonight, I have to get some coffee in me first though.
 
Annnnnd a little over a month later, here we go!
I burned them all pretty badly from lack of ventilation and switching to this new 4 bulb t5... didn't realize how intense the radiant heat was. Then I went on vacation for a week and overwatered everything so it's off to a pretty mediocre start. I raised up the light, have proper full time ventilation now, and just gave them a nice little bat guano and seaweed feeding yesterday so everything is greening up and growing... if worst comes to worst I'll just try stretching them out so i can plant them deep so they can sprout nice roots in my garden. The close plants are the peppers, the far ones tomatoes.
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The overwinters, i'm pretty proud of... that bell pepper tripped out everyone who came over for Easter. I've been overwatering these guys and under ventilating them as well so I don't think it's too shabby looking. I've since corrected the issues. They also have a more than massive aphid infestation and the stuff I've been using has been drying out the leaves a lot. It has an ebb and flow to their hatching but once they get outside my little ladies will happily take care of them; the ladybugs are already looking all around the garden for food and I'll be more than happy to oblige in around 2 weeks as the tiller has been having carb issues and I haven't had time to look at it yet.

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Some better pictures... i noticed that my mystery brainstrain cross was growing really compact at the edge of the light coverage so I decided to move the light away about 6 more inches. 1-2 more nodes have started to pop out out on most things after i applied some ferts after the last pictures.
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This little guy amazes me... sunburned him really badly to where no true leaves came out for over a month
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14 year old tabasco seeds were the first to sprout out of everything, hoping they fuse and make a hulk of a plant.
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Brainstrain cross looks the strongest so far
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Honey crisp hybrid i started braiding together
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Chocolate Habanero's springing to life
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I know i've got some growing issues and am trying to correct them; everything's overwatered, the cups dont have proper drainage but i've been lazy this year and haven't wanted to be spending my spring watching them like a hawk, and have gone on little vacations. Finally figured out that once they're light to the touch that they take about an 1/8th cup of water to satisfy for a few more days they have a fan on a timer that kicks on in half hour intervals to save on power. been worrying most about the tomatoes because they're how i'm going to pay for my pepper electricity, ferts, and new light. two more weeks of growing before they're up for sale. they're gaining about an inch a day so i'm pretty pleased. The mold doesn't seem to be spreading and the peppers seem to be picking up speed now that i've got the light and fan dialed in. Will keep updating the fusions as they progress :)
Have a great day everyone!
 
Everyone's been getting some afternoon sun and I've switched their waterings to once a week, full strength compost tea... ten days later:
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The other tomatoes got so big it started shading the peppers so they got moved downstairs under the HPS.
 
plant out was may 15th, we had some wacky weather and a broken tiller.
prime soil and sun went to the more interesting and larger plants. the overwinters got 3ft of space between them in the main garden, and will get their pictures taken tomorrow and a two week update for this plot which is a little more like square foot gardening; should be an interesting grow, there's about 6' between the posts for reference.
 
 
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little later than a day, but here's the update... all is well, lots of damage from slugs, beetles, and caterpillars but only one of the plants is struggling from it, the rest are battling through like champs.
the one that's struggling didn't follow the buddy system like the rest(the rest are attempts at fusions) the ones that have already fused are definitely outgrowing the rest. the overwinters are blowing my mind with how much they've recovered from my mistreatment and i'll be doing them every year now.
Behold!
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the ones in front are peppers, they're starting to take off and have all been topped today as they were showing growth at the nodes
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Overwintered hot lemon, probably a week or two away from the first ripe pods
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overwintered, fused chocolate bell pepper. the right side's finally taking off after i killed it back a few times accidentally.
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overwintered Naga Morich
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first year Douglah, got the seeds from justaguy... very excited
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Another overwintered naga morich, this one tasted like smoked salmon so it got saved
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overwintered fatalii or yellow bhut, can't remember; i believe it's a fusion too so it may be both.
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can't remember what this one was but I THINK the little stem at the bottom is a jamaican hot chocolate, the large one is either a yellow bhut or a fatalii... we shall see though. this one struggled pretty badly from lots of first time overwinter mistakes but I think it's now in the clear. the growth has doubled in size in the last 3 days
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They started looking a little pale and I hadn't noticed much growth in the last few days so i sprayed with epsom salts yesterday... watching the plants green up and the Mg travel through the nutrient pathways was almost magical. I've never seen anything like it.
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I should have taken before and after photos but didn't realize how dramatic it was going to be. This next one is my Hot Lemon and almost all the light green has faded from the leaves... still a few traces
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it's beetle damage, i've found little baby slugs making them too. we have these awful brown beetles that come out in droves at night time.
 
Yumyumyellow said:
it's beetle damage, i've found little baby slugs making them too. we have these awful brown beetles that come out in droves at night time.
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Do they hop lol, was thinking flea beetles for mine. About 4 years ago I must have had thousands of them but they only bothered the wild flowers. 
 
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