2019 Chilli Growing thread
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Caporegime
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As soon as it was transported from just being in a coir plug to a pot.
I have just been topping nutrients up weekly so far.
Soldato
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I'm still a bit confused about fert vs food and not read up on it much. Other than the stuff that's already in compost, I'm just using tomorite and chilli focus atm. Reason using both is that I only have 300ml of chili focus and growing tomatoes too - tomorite is suitable for both and have a much larger bottle of that.
The reepers are odd looking. Do they grow differently? Wondering if my mate gave me seeds from a plant that's now a bit of a cross breed. The one on the right looks like I'd expect, the left one must be over an inch long. It's still a gnarly looking thing tho.
Not sure what this plant is but much milder I think. ALready it has quite a few small pods. This plant is only in an 8" pot. Think there's 6 in this picture and quite a few more higher up the plant too. Some of the leaves turn upside down, oddly.
The reepers are odd looking. Do they grow differently? Wondering if my mate gave me seeds from a plant that's now a bit of a cross breed. The one on the right looks like I'd expect, the left one must be over an inch long. It's still a gnarly looking thing tho.
Not sure what this plant is but much milder I think. ALready it has quite a few small pods. This plant is only in an 8" pot. Think there's 6 in this picture and quite a few more higher up the plant too. Some of the leaves turn upside down, oddly.
Caporegime
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I use compost with feed already in it for the first month. It's the compost the people on chilli grow website recommend.
After that I use a combination of the stuff that came with my chilligrows which looks like Epsom salts and tomato feed.
I alternate that with chilli focus so I use one then the other the following weekend.
Only feed once a week but they have started producing chilli's now so going to up it to 2 times per week.
Too late should have started after the last frost. So late February for me in Scotland or early March. In England you can probably start 2-3 weeks earlier.
Got a link? Can't find anything googling 'chilli grow' or 'chilligrow'.
Cheers
Caporegime
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john innes no 3 - any compost which has that written on the bag
https://www.greenhousesensation.co.uk/chilligrow.html/
that is a chilligrow they are quite expensive for what they are but they are worth it if you are serious. you could make your own for a few quid. this has already been discussed in the thread so go back over the past 50 or so posts.
your probably better of trying to find a shop selling small ones that are already a few months old.
I germinated some at the start of april and they are still small only 2 sets of true leaves...
Did some tomato plants at the same time that arent much bigger.
there's not been much sun so I thought what the heck, headed to wilkos picked up the highest lumen daylight led light bulb they had.
got my plants under a regular desk lamp pumps out like 1600 lumens, daylight colour kelvin, they seem to love it, the leaves started doubling in size each day for the last few days.
hopefully they catch up a bit before I put them back in a south facing window once they get to big to be under a lamp.
tempted to just get some t5 2ft long grow lights though and grow indoors all year round.
probably would get away with like 48watts total for a few plants
Caporegime
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I used to top water but it's far too easy to over water. I ended up buying 2 chilligrow's which is a bottom self feeding system using matting and a tray. They are growing twice as fast I'd say.
So I'd say bottom feed from a tray and I'd dilute the feed into the water. Straight fertiliser will damage or kill roots. Dilute it first.
Caporegime
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I've got 3 grow bulbs from ikea in 3 different lamps pointed at mine. I use them as don't get a lot of sun in Scotland and this way I can leave the plants in a corner they are too big for windowsills in a chilligrow.
Im going to try and clear out space under the stairs and then run an extension lead in there and a small heat mat for overwintering. Ideally I'd want them to survive. Dying every year then restarting from scratch seems like a massive waste. I just don't know if 3 bulbs and a heat mat would be enough especially with the door left ajar for the lead.
I doubt they would survive though its far too cold I'd need a proper insulated box to store them in. Much easier to do in England or hotter climates.
My kitchen will drop below 10c often throughout the winter and sometimes even as low as 5c during a bad winter.
what lights do ikea sell?
BTW if you grow in a small space you need to set up some kind of airflow even if it's just a pc fan connected to a old mobile phone charger
to ensure air circulates around the plants and they don't get disease or some kind of mould/mildew, leaving a small gap in the door is probably good enough in that circumstance to keep enough fresh air coming in since there is wind from the fan making sure air is actually moving
I'm not convinced a small heat mat would be powerful enough to heat up 10-20lites of compost so the roots would still be cold
if you really wanted to heat the plants roots you would have to do hydroponics and use a fish tank heater (if you do this research it first! and don't be a plonker, those things will start a fire if they don't have enough water to keep them cool and don't buy some crap generic one off ebay or amazin, they aren't expensive anyway if you go that route
Ive got a ballast in the cupboard think it goes from 100-250w but these bulbs get hot as hell and they aren't reallty fo
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Have I dun goofed? I've been picking out the little growths between the stem and the main leaves as I thought you should do that to encourage further growth upwards. Each time I do it the area blacks off a little but I thought that wasn't an issue. Overnight one of my cayennes toppled over, and I can see in one place the blackness is spreading up the stem and has joined up between leaf joints. Have I killed it? Was it wrong to be picking out those little bits of growth?
Chopstick inserted to prop it up for now.
Chopstick inserted to prop it up for now.
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Caporegime
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I linked to them in this thread they are led grow bulbs cheap and from a reputable company so better than a no brand product off eBay or amazon.
They are proper ones and called led cultivation bulbs or something
This is only 6 inches tall so I thought pinching out the side shoots helped it grow tall faster?
Caporegime
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I never touch mine you will end up doing more damage than good.
I let them grow naturally.
However topping them off usually makes a bushier plant which may give more yield.
