My pepper seeds - Bhut Jolokia, Serrano, Habanero

[mhornfeck72205]

I use the basic AG tablets. I have like 50 more of them but I really should upgrade to liquid nutes. Is the curling a lack of nutrients? I dont know much about nutrients but I do know alot about peppers, lol.

[mhornfeck72205]

Did some more changes. I transplanted the second healthiest bhut to a pot and I'm going to let the big one grow for a while longer. I'm going to move the smaller bhut out when it gets a bit healthier, and I'm going to take out the habanero on the far left and put that in a pot to let the 3 different species get a go at AG growing. I really should plant some more chocolate habaneros too. Maybe an excuse for a new aerogarden! could do 3 different types then.

[mhornfeck72205]

Long time, no update. Heres some new pics!

3 plants remain in the AG. Serrano, Hab, and a Bhut.

I really should remove the Serrano to a bucket now as it is sprouting flowers and its so tall that the light is away from the bhut and the habanero. I would suppose thats why they are still rather short.

Does anyone know any easily accessible nutrients I can buy without having to order things online. Some that will promote vegetative growth.

[bab43]

Thanks for the update - your plants are looking healthy!  Is the Serrano sturdy enough to stand without support?  I don't see it supported anywhere...

About accessible nutrients - I don't know where you're located but the best place would be a hydroponics store.  I can get the GH Flora series locally but it's a three part system and I can actually get it cheaper online.  "http://www.genhydro.com/genhydro_US/floraseries.html".  There's a calculator where you input your reservoir size - for vegetative growth you would use the growth phase "http://www.genhydro.com/calculator/index.html".  For peppers you would follow the number of weeks in each phase at the bottom of the chart.

I'm assuming you're asking for the AG.  If it's for soil plants, I just go to the garden center...

[mhornfeck72205]

Yep they stand by themselves. I've never needed to support a pepper plant. They're very sturdy growers and get rather thick pretty quickly. My bucket habanero has a 3/4" base stem and the two larger plants in the AG have 3/8" stems right now.

I need to get this room a bit hotter to get these pepper flowers to set.

Do you think that the light being this far is stunting the growth of the hab and bhut?

Thanks for the link to the nutrient. I'll take a look at them soon. I need nutes and new grow bulbs soon. These are past 6 months and I've heard they really diminish brightness past then.

[bab43]

Yep they stand by themselves. I've never needed to support a pepper plant. They're very sturdy growers and get rather thick pretty quickly. My bucket habanero has a 3/4" base stem and the two larger plants in the AG have 3/8" stems right now.

Impressive!

I find with all my gardens that they grow best when the lights are closer to the plants, so I would think they would do better if the light were closer.  I notice the light difference with my six month old bulbs as well but the tomatoes and herbs are still growing fine so I think I'll wait to change them.

There are other liquid nutrients members are using as well as the GH ones, they're just more available I find.  A search on the forum for nutrients would give you a number of topics - search from the home index page so the search hits all the sections on the forum.

[GhostPepperMan]

Alright!!!  You guys got me motivated..  ghot my ghost peppers growing in my aerogarden.. getting pretty big... and now im dying to see if yours are flowering now!!!??  I'm on a mission!
 

[mhornfeck72205]

Post pics! Make a new thread on your progress. I'll have pics of my peppers up probably tomorrow. Theyre just about to bloom but I doubt i'll get it to set fruit until next summer so until then the AG is going to just grow it until its a monster plant. the habenero is blooming all over the place. no set fruit either.

I also have a new resident in my garden, a jumping spider who keeps bugs off of my plant. Its pretty cool to watch it because it jumps and tackles bugs that land on my plant. Doesnt really make a web. Its been there for about 5 days now.

[ocarolina]

eeeeewwwww - creepy!

[Jason in Plano]

That spider is cute.. as cute as a creepy spider can get...

[mhornfeck72205]

Here's current pictures! Only 2 remain. Sadly, transplanting didnt work out so well. I removed the serrano and placed it in a bucket of dirt and I suppose I didnt spread the roots as much as I did with the hab because it soon withered and died in about a week. I believe next time I do this I will separate the roots into 5 points and point them downward into the soil at a 45 degree angle outward from center. This would give a much better spread for absorption. On the other hand, the serrano in the dirt already is growing a pepper which is currently about 1.5" long and growing. First pepper out of all of the plants. I really just want some bhuts though! Habanero honestly, is just about ready to come out of the garden. Its growing immense and very rapidly.

Using my canon 40D+24-70L this time around.. better pics than a silly camera phone. :-)

[mhornfeck72205]

Seems that my habanero in my bucket wants to go for round two because it has about 15 new peppers growing and its shooting up new growth all over the place. It's about 5" taller than it was a month ago...

Bhut jolokia in my AG finally has a flower. Hopefully it sets.. Not hopeful..

[bab43]

Nice pictures!  All the flowers on the one plant are really impressive - it looks really healthy.  Hope the bhut jolokia does well too!

[mhornfeck72205]

Habanero had to be moved out. Was beginning to crowd my most important plant, the Bhut Jolokia. It now has the 7 pod AG to its self. lol. Lets see how big I can get it to grow before next summer. Planning on giving it a good bit of nitrogen fertilizer to help it grow. Will probably buy some liquid nutes soon.

• First I took the plant out of the AG
• Dig a hole about 5" wide and 8" deep
• Spread the roots out as wide as you can get them without damaging them.
• Place the roots in the hole and spread them as much as possible so you cover the most surface area of the dirt as you possibly can.
• At this point, if you would like to, add a support post so that you can guide it past the roots.
• As you fill dirt in, liberally apply water to each handful of dirt you toss on. You wont want any gaps or parts where roots are folded ontop of roots. The plant will soon take up this water so don't worry.
• If you also would like to add a sort of fertilizer/nutrient, this is a perfect time to mix it with the water/soil.

Heres some shots of the habanero being transplanted. Check out those roots!

[bab43]

Very interesting!  The roots remind me of the petunias I planted in soil after at least 20 weeks in the AG.

A couple of questions:

• Are you using the Master Gardener peat holders that open up or cutting the standard AG holders?  Is removal difficult with all those roots?  (With the petunias I just left it on because they were just meant to last until the snow starts.)
• How wet do you keep the soil in the beginning?  I guess I'm wondering about the duration of the transition period from hydroponics to soil.  (I kept the soil for the petunias fairly soaked for at least a month but have no idea if it was really necessary.)

[mhornfeck72205]

I use the 2 piece holders and just separate them prior to putting them into the dirt.

The last pepper that I transplanted I had also kept fairly moist. In comparison to watering my pepper plants in soil every 3 days, I watered it every day for about a month. You dont want them to be too wet because I've heard that root rot sets in quick with peppers.

[bab43]

Thanks - that's helpful! 

[GhostPepperMan]

Greetings peeps.     I'm sorry I have not posted pics or replied back since I wrote in.  I just took a bunch of pics with the iphone and will post them shortly.   Any luck on more blossoms for that bhut?!  That's awesome you got one!   

I think I'm going to have to start pruning soon.  The top of my plants are burning from the bulb!

[GhostPepperMan]

Here's some pics of how the bhuts are coming along on my end.   They need to be pruned bad, which I'll do after this post.   I have a bunch of baby ones just sitting around in pots, and 2 big ones in the aerogarden.  There's also a pic of one pumpkin seed, and newly transported habanero pepper.

I"m a bit nervous with the habanero.. it's been two days and I'm beginning to notice light spotting on the leaves..   does this mean I'm in trouble?

I've transported a bhut to dirt (in a nice container with little drainage offered) and it's growing.. i didn't think I'd have any issues with the habanero!  Any thoughts on that guys?

p.s. sorry for the poor quality pics.. had bad lighting and was using the iphone

[mhornfeck72205]

All of them look fine to me! I'm guessing the habanero is the small one in the square pot?

My ag bhut has about 6 flowers now and has dropped the first two. I'm beginning to just not expect peppers until I transplant it and put it outside next summer. The flowers don't even ready up any pollen, they just fall off. My normal dirt grown bhut's should have peppers soon though. They're in my cabinet at 75f with a bunch of bulbs. Have to feed them pretty soon.