The 2012 Chilli growing thread - the second burn!

robfosters said:
That's not the idea of potting up.

If you put a small plant straight in a massive container, it will concentrate it's growth on it's root system rather than it's foliage. That's why you pot up in incremental sizes.
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As above really.

Got my seedlings in individual 5cm x 5cm pots. These will then go to into 10cm pots, followed by 18cm pots. Then I have a decision to either leave them in the 18cm pots which stops them growing like mad, or I can repot further to grow a larger plant with larger chillies.
 
In inches I go from.

1inch (module) - 3 1/2 inch pot (seedling) - 6 inch pot (grow on) - 10 inches (final pot)

I really would'nt be happy any less. The small pots are quite reasonable. I can get 100 3 1/2 pots for £7.50 and 25 6inch pots for £6. No massive expense.

As I always say, for the final pot just use Morrisons flower buckets at 8 for 99p. Superb for the job. Just need drainage holes drilled.
 
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ash_scotland88 said:
3 1/3inch was the next size up I was going to get anyway.
I'm a bit confused about your Morrisons flower bucket suggestion, as in the ones the sell their flowers in?
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Yes, pretty much. You can normally find them stashed in bundles of 8 under the flower stands. As I said though, they need to have drainage holes drilled. But I find them a perfect size.
 
ash_scotland88 said:
I'm sure last year people advised about 3+ different replants. I would ideally prefer just two.
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There is a lot of smoke and mirrors spouted by people! You may see a tiny improvement if you do multiple repots but just do what you can two will be fine and you will still get a great crop.

The real keys are watering, feeding and polinating get those right and you will be fine. Remember you've got a really long season still to go as Feb is really early to be planting stuff I've planted Chillies in mid April and still got great crops.
 
Glaucus said:
I don't bother with multiple repots. Does the magic fairy change pots sizes in nature?
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I agree that repotting isn't a massive issue but using nature as a reason isn't really valid as what you are trying to do is force cultivation to your requirments which is not necessarily what is best for the plant or best in nature.

Either way will work fine in reality and most home growers probably won't notice the difference, chilli growing has become a bit of a geek fest.
 
My long chocolate habs were doing very well in the aerogarden and I transferred them into soil 10 days ago. As there is not a lot of sunlight at the moment, I made a light hood using bits from B&Q, a home printed bracket, a motherboard cardboard box, some foil and cable ties.

The bulbs are 18 Watt Daylight bulbs from John Lewis ( £ 2.80 each), I`m surprised how well the plants are doing.



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The three plants in the aerogarden are Trinidad scorpions, and I`m using the vacant four pods to germinate more chocolate habs.
 
Some pics of mine:

The ones that haven't grown I only planted on the 13th. I also lost the germination stuff that you soak them in, so don't know the success rate. Little pot is christmas tree seeds, planted same time as the curry seeds (can't remember the date) but there's no sign of them, they are a few years old though!

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There's peppers, Explosive Ember, and the newest ones Summer of Fire.
 
Crickey guys, last time I saw hydroponics like this was certainly not for legal means. Some nice looking chilis though. How long are you keeping them under lights for as even the envirolights start to rack up the leccy bill.
 
fez said:
Crickey guys, last time I saw hydroponics like this was certainly not for legal means. Some nice looking chilis though. How long are you keeping them under lights for as even the envirolights start to rack up the leccy bill.
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Kept them under lights last year Untill end of July.
Less than £20 a month for my lights.
 
Glaucus said:
Kept them under lights last year Untill end of July.
Less than £20 a month for my lights.
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What sort of light / dark schedule do you run them to? Simulating somewhere a little nicer than the UK before putting them out in the height of our summer?
 
7am-10pm ATM.
It's 9x30w 3ft tubes. Can't remember which T-tubes.

I just can't believe how one off them has not only survived in the garden, but. In just what was it 3weeks, went from about 10 leafs o flowering.
 
fez said:
Crickey guys, last time I saw hydroponics like this was certainly not for legal means. Some nice looking chilis though. How long are you keeping them under lights for as even the envirolights start to rack up the leccy bill.
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The Aerogarden is about 60 Watts, and the daylight bulbs are 18 watt each, so total power consumption of 96 Watts.

Call it 100 watts for 12 hours gives 1.2 Kwhr per day at 12 p per unit so 14 p per day, or about £ 4.50 per month. The daylight bulbs are temporary, another four weeks it will be mid march and the chillies can get moved out of the kitchen and into the conservatory.
 
Hey guys

Is it too late for me to get some seeds for scotch bonnets and habaneros into my heated prop now? Should I have started them in Jan instead?
 
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