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Habanero Adventure

TheLonelyHab

TheLonelyHab

Hello forum!

I was surprised to find such an activate forum dedicated to hot peppers. I made the decision to begin growing orange habaneros from seed. I bought the seed from Burpee which seemed well dried and clean when inspecting. I do not know good places to buy seed but these were $1 for a good amount of seed so I decided to couldn't hurt to try.

I would say this is my first attempt at seriously trying to father a hot pepper plant. Anyway I chose a very unconventional approach since I am an engineer and always like to make things complicated... yes even gardening :).

So right now I am on vacation in South Florida for a week and found these hab seeds in a local store. I researched the peppers and noticed the somewhat lengthy germination times so I decided to plant them right away. But I am traveling to Tallahassee in a few days so I needed a convenient container that would allow me to transport all my plants in an easy spill free device.

I created a gravity drained container from used water bottles cutting off the top of one to collect the drainage from the soil holder. This should ensure a well drained neutral soil along with a humid hot top to allow for optimum germination conditions. Here is a picture of the design.

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This was a easy to implement system with zero cost. South Florida weather is nice at inside house temperature of 79 F so the sunlit soil should be around 85 F - 90 F in the sun. This is day 4 with no sprouts yet. I got bored and also made some sandwich bags some with soil and some with just wet paper towel so I know when to expect sprouts. Hopefully I can just throw a cap on these bad boys and put them in my car for the long drive up.

I will then put them on my balcony to grow these hot peppers in the hot spring/summer weather and hope they will get pretty hot. I make a nice wing recipe I am dieing to try out with these. Total plant count is about 28, 6 seeds in each water bottle and about ten in baggies. Now all I have to do is wait....
 
Thanks for the quick replies. Also when researching on growing habs I found some interesting information that I would like to bounce off you guys.

#1: Avoid heavy peat moss soils with hot peppers. Recommended pete moss in soil should be around 55%.
#2: Peppers can develop robust roots systems by planting pepper plants deep in the soil, similar to a tomato route system, by slowly increasing soil depth as the plant grows. The stem should develop routes when planted beneath the soil just like a tomato plant.
#3: Cutting back the pepper plant after the first main branch forms, will enable the pepper to establish a less leggy and more bushy stem system to help strengthen the plant and eliminate the need for plant support.
#4: Soaking seeds in a 2 g/L solution of potassium nitrate and water can reduce germination times considerably (haven't tried on this batch :()

For plant food I am planning on using a compost material to make compost tea instead of using bonemeal/bloodmeal/epson salts because reports have shown double plant growth with compost supporting materials over the commercialized products.

If anyone has any critiques or any good information for growing habs I would appreciate any feed back.
 
My only advice as a new pepper grower myself is, be ready to wait. I planted two types of peppers about a week apart. The larger plant is a Thai pepper plant and the two other photos are of a cluster of 3 habs and a single hab plant. One of the triplets is just now budding where as the Thai already is producing peppers. I'm about 4 months in. I didn't think the habs were ever going to bud.


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Beautiful plants! Ace I hope my habs look just as good as yours!

However I was doing some investigating on my plants container temperature. It seems that the green house affect is working TOO good. Let me explain. I took a baby thermometer and put it inside the container to measure the temperature and the thing is sitting at 94.7 F. I couldnt measure the soil directly so I can only assume it is the same because it has been sitting on that window all day! Did I just fry these baby habs? They say they like tropical climates but is florida too harsh a place to sprout? Also should I shade them if the temperature is too hot.

Here is a picture of the reading.

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If I did kill the seeds then I have to wait a whole 4 more days to catch up!
 
:welcome:

I like the bottles. Make sure to let us know how they work.

1. Some people here hate peat and others use it with good results. I've had pretty good luck with peat pellets for starting seedlings, but thats about all I would use it for.
2. Yes, I always bury plants up to the bottom leaves when I pot up to a bigger container.
3. Sounds plausible to me, but haven't tried that yet.
4. I've heard of people using potassium nitrate, but I usually just soak seeds in plain water overnight to help soften the casing.

I use compost and manure mostly, but mix bone meal into the soil too. Epson salt is great as a foliar feed.

The search option is pretty handy for specific topics too.

Good luck with your grow!
 
Oh, 95 is a bit warm. 80-87 is good. I wouldn't throw them yet though. Maybe just poke some holes in the bottle to vent. Then you could get a soil reading too.
 
maybe you could wrap them with a glycol filled heat exchanger?

or just as mojo alluded fix them up with a couple holes

if you make too many or too big of holes you could put some 300 mph adhesive barrier tape on there
(duct tape); you could even make reservoir retaining attachments with that tape
if it needs to be extra heavy duty you could safety wire them on there too
 
nitwit said:
maybe you could wrap them with a glycol filled heat exchanger?

or just as mojo alluded fix them up with a couple holes

if you make too many or too big of holes you could put some 300 mph adhesive barrier tape on there
(duct tape); you could even make reservoir retaining attachments with that tape
if it needs to be extra heavy duty you could safety wire them on there too
Click to expand...

Well if I was really lazy I could run a tube from the bottom reservoir and then simply by blowing into the top part of the bottle I could water the plants using the recycled water. I dont want to put holes in it because it is just a temporary home so I wont spill soil all over my car!
 
thanks for playing along with me

welcome to the forum, and good luck with that capillary tubing
do you think a fifty hp pump would suffice? :dance:
50.7 hp metric for all you that use the french system

:eek:
 
I put two seeds in a paper towel and baggy a day after my travel containers were made and they already broke through the casing of the seed and have just started sending out roots. The 95 F window ledge really sped up germination times! I should be expecting them to pop in the next day or two! That would be a record of 4 day sprouts!

Woohoo!
 
So I made a home for my plants no sprouts yet... Although I did have a tomato plant sprout this morning, but we dont talk about him we lock him up in the basement all alone. Anyway I got a 300W rated light fixture at the store for about $6 and put a 200W rated incandescent light bulb in it. The bin is a 68 L tub and I laid some cardboard on the bottom for a stand to put the plants down in. I also planted some jalapeno seeds yesterday( in the white cups) :)

See Photo

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Anyway I am worried of a fire hazard and wanted to ask some professionals how they go about securing their lights when they are not at home. I covered the tub and temperatures got to about 108 F at 70% humidity so that is kind of hot. The bulb puts out 3980 lumens life 750 hours or 31 days.

Maybe I should put a 100W CFB in there? The light fixture is rated for 300W so I am not worried about that but as everyone knows even the best things can fail (and this is from Walmart!) so I am worried about leaving the light on when I am not at home. I have a north facing balcony so it never receivers any direct light. No other windows are available.

Any opinions?
 
I have a light fixture like that with a 65 watt CFL bulb I picked up at Lowes for under $20. It puts out lots of light with out much heat. You can put it just a few inches from the plants.
After the plants come up, some airflow is good for them. I'd probably not cover the tub and aim a small fan at it.
Check out some of the grow logs for ideas on germinating and growing seedlings. There are lots of really cool set ups.
 
Tonly said:
I have a light fixture like that with a 65 watt CFL bulb I picked up at Lowes for under $20. It puts out lots of light with out much heat. You can put it just a few inches from the plants.
After the plants come up, some airflow is good for them. I'd probably not cover the tub and aim a small fan at it.
Check out some of the grow logs for ideas on germinating and growing seedlings. There are lots of really cool set ups.
Click to expand...

I went to Lowes and home depot and the best I could find was a 42W CFL that was at a spectrum of 2700K which isn't ideal for growing (~3000K). :( I want a 65W CFL booo!
 
http://twitpic.com/42kvcf

23W, 1600 lumens, 6500k and 2700k at Lowes are $10 for a 4 pack. 2 "Ys" and 2 sockets on each side.....2 16ga extension cords wired together into a timer.....a 1x2 and a 3ft shelf laying in the garage and a hot glue gun :dance:

All in all, about $40 for 12800 lumens of plant growin power :onfire:
 
Yes I am researching on what kind of light bulb I need and I need a blue source light since Incandescent is around 2850K. I have a flourescent tube light above my fridge I starting using maybe I should use 4 hours of incandescent and 8 hours of that?

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hello hab dude i am using the 27 watt cfl lights and am modularly expanding
clamp light ___________6.47 silver mechanics lamp with spring clip (looks like the one you already have)
double socket__________2.64 y shaped srew two bulbs into one hole
socket outlet__________2.48 extends wye from lampshade
2pak 27 watt daylight__5.97 color 5000k 1750 some lumens each= ±3,500 lumens?
:woohoo:
screwed bulbs into wye, wye into extender, extender into lampclamp light

this is my second $20 some odd for indoor grow seedlings before going to outdoor
maybe should get 4 more bulbs and two wyes (now am running 4@1750 lumens= ±7,000)
i could get 14000 with ±216 some watts
edited for typos etcetera
 
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