Chillies - growing and overwintering 2017

[Deano's "Diggin It"]

Hi JJ

just sowing some of my "Chillies" Now!

Upstairs shortly to sort the "Grow Light" out, gunna be a little bodged this year by the looks!

And forgive my ignorance, glad to see you back!

[johnjohn]

Cheers Deano, it's good to be back.

Looking forward to following your "grow room" antics!

All the best.

[the big lebowski]

hi all ,I have finally got round to taking some pics for you all

here is my super 7 with seedlings in ,its on the edge of my hydroponics to use the same light

here are the 1st set of seedlings that were started on boxing day and they have been potted on

these are my 3 overwinterd chillis ,the one that's started already is lemon drop

here is my whole set up with the hydroponics on top and potted on plants under that

this is long slim cayenne in the hydro system
more in part 2

[the big lebowski]

part 2


here is the plant in its net pot taken out of the system ,if you look closley on the right hand side about half way down you can see a white root popping out there are 3 coming out the bottom too but I didn't manage to get those on camera


this is what is inside the hydroponics ,the pipes and the blue balls (airstones) send air into the nutrient-rich water via pumps ,the kit comes with only one pump (2 pipes 2 airstones ) but as you can see I have 2 pumps ,1 reason for this is a back up if one pump fails and also oxygen is key to getting good growth so I doubled up and between them they pump 4 liters of air per min,it also has a water heater at the back set to 22 degreas

here is the stuff I use ,l to r the veg and flowering nutrients (top tip don't lie these down to take photos of as they leak out the tops ) ph meter in the middle and a cf meter to measure the strength of your feed in the water ,cheers

[johnjohn]

What a great setup TBL. That Cayenne in the first set looks great but the first pic in part 2 shows the real scale of it- much larger than I thought.

How many of those net pots can you get into the unit? I'm assuming it's a cover cap next to it in the last pic of part 1?

[the big lebowski]

cheers jj ,yes that is a cover you get two covers and 2 netpots so you can have 1 big plant or 2 medium ones , the name of the hydro is on oxypot xl you can get one that holds 4 plants too ,cheers

[Tripmeup]

Philthy

The window to one side is not a problem..
That is exactly the set up I have
I will post some photos in a while

[Ms-T]

My Pasilla Bajio are still not up.

But the Turbo Pube X Alberto's Locoto are up.they took their time last year too'

the tri colour are looking good too.

and i just pinch out a hot wax ..it was getting to big ,to go under the lights

[Tripmeup]

My Pasilla Bajio are still not up.

But the Turbo Pube X Alberto's Locoto are up.they took their time last year too'

the tri colour are looking good too.

and i just pinch out a hot wax ..it was getting to big ,to go under the lights

Its mad isn't it..
My Turbo Pube cross are a no show so far and the Pasilla Bajio are up..
What temps have you in your Propagator Ms T?

[JusPotterinTim]

T5 units are a popular choice on this forum and elsewhere, and I can see why... And as an added bonus if I were to get one the 120cm (4') x 4 tube unit would fit my space literally like a glove!

Exactly the first thing I though when I read your words there Philthy. I've got a 4ft tube T5 setup and the bulbs are hanging off a 1 metre shoe rack with a bit of overlap at the side.

To be honest with LED I don't think that they give much better efficiency than fluorescent. A bit like the LED household bulbs which are only slightly more efficient than CFL ones. Fluorescent tubes are more efficient than CFL bulbs too. Unless you really need one I think fluorescent's will be great for a grow light. LEDs tend to cover only a small square area too unless you spend a lot for a high powered one.

The light from the windows is a bonus, it will help supplement the bulbs (unless you're worried about them growing too quickly before putting outside). You might have to turn the plants every few days though to stop them growing towards the window.

With regards to the height, yes it makes a big difference, a difference of 10cm can lower the light the plants see by about 40%. I started off with books and magazines under my pot, but replaced most of them with some B&Q decking cut into rectangular pieces.

Here's a pic. taken a day or two ago of mine with their pieces of decking to raise them up, looks a bit odd but it's kept the plants growing densely without going straggly:

[Ms-T]

Its mad isn't it..
My Turbo Pube cross are a no show so far and the Pasilla Bajio are up..
What temps have you in your Propagator Ms T?

Hiya Trip
well the things say 39c and 30c, so i say may be 35c ,,,who knows lol

[JusPotterinTim]

Hi Guys,

I hope your seedlings are all coming along nicely.

I showed my four plants on last year's thread, when I had brought them in for winter under the three 54W T5 HO bulbs. I posted a quick snap yesterday but have got a bit more time to tell how they've come along so far. It's been nice having their company in my living room to be honest, at least there's some life to be seen around the place in the middle of winter.

The one's I'm growing are:

1) Cherry Bomb
2) Hungarian Hot Wax
3) Bulgarian Carrot
4) Jalapeno M (I think)

Here's how they were a few days after coming indoors in November, and being pruned back hard. I had leaf spot showing on the Cherry Bomb which spurred me to take all it's leaves off:



Then three weeks later at the start of December, some good growth on all of them:



And now two months later, take a couple of days ago:



Their home has had a facelift with some decking from B&Q to get them up high and close to the lights, instead of lots of books and magazines.

To tell their stories individually...:



On the left is the Cherry Bomb. The picture doesn't show it too well but there's a cluster of about 15 pods in the lower branches. It shows how much the plant has grown since those flowers set. To describe this plant, well I think it has what I call 'Small Pot Syndrome'. Not to be outdone by the others in bigger pots, it is determined to have the final say, and despite being hurt at a young age (the leaves I hacked all off), it has a point to prove, and has seen off all the others in growth. It had leaf spot which is why I pulled the leaves off, no sign of it returning now. I'm looking forward to some baked Cherry Bombs with tuna and cheese in a couple of says, they are delicious.


On the right is the Hungarian Hot Wax. It is said these put out flowers too soon, and mine did. I left them on because I assumed being a mature (but cut down) plant it could cope. Well it didn't like having all those flowers, and threw an almighty tantrum of dropping flowers, and also leaves were yellowing and dropping and even semi mature pods. I think lack of fertiliser partially caused the leaf drop and some of the flower drop and pod drop, so I fed it up a bit and it seems happier now. I've had maybe half a dozen pods from it, with about another 8 or so forming. New flowers are dropping, once I've picked a couple more pods I think it will be ready to grow some more pods. The small size of the plant hasn't hurt the pod size at all, they start off growing long and thin, a bit like a cayenne, then fill out over about 10 days, and another couple of weeks to go fully red. If you like dayglow chillies this plant could be for you, they start off fluorescent yellow-green, then go life jacket orange, before finally going red. Because they're so big they go a long way in a meal.

Next up it's the Bulgarian Carrot:




It was only a young plant when I brought it inside. It now has some Sweet Pepper cousins hanging out alongside. The Carrot didn't seem to like me topping it, since then it's not put on much leaf growth at all, but has tried to produce say 200 flowers, most of which have dropped. It really doesn't want to grow at all. It is well fed, the dark leaves are evidence of this I think. Anyhow, I'm going to let it do what it wants and hope it'll take off over time.

Finally it's the Jalapeno, I'll have to make another post as I think I've hit my picture upload limit...

[JusPotterinTim]

And here's the Jalapeno:



It is a nicely proportioned plant, not too dense, not spreading out too much. I've had about half a dozen pods from it so far. However, all is now well, it is getting leaf spot. I've been pulling off leaves and using fungicide, which has slowed the spread. It's still growing happily enough though, and I think it'll be setting quite a few new flowers in about a week. I think the seed for this plant is how I originally introduced leaf spot to the clan. It's getting it's own special spot by itself in a blowaway next month, when they all go outside, with the Sweet Peppers, to avoid transmitting the leaf spot to the others. I've been careful when handling it to wash my hands afterwards before touching any of the others, to avoid transmitting the fungus.

So in conclusion, I'm fairly happy with their growth this winter. At the moment they're all fairly well saturated with pods for the amount of foliage they've got, so aren't in a rush to develop lots of new pods. I am going to put them into mini greenhouses with heaters next month, and think once the current crop of pods are picked and they're in sunlight they should take off and give a better yield after around 2 months out there.

Tim

[Scoot]

Got 10 of the 14 varieties pricked out of my super 7 propagator and into their own modules. Things are starting to move along Nicely now.

[jacks10]

Looking at all your grow light photos etc they seen to be very close to the top of the plant. How many cm away from them . This may be why mine is growing slower!!!