Pavlak's first steps 2009

[Pavlak]

Hi!
It's my first year, and I'm trying to do my best.
Now I've got about 50 little plants here

- 17 Cyklon
- 8 Thai Chili Red Fire
- 8 Jalapeno Purple
- 9  Cayenne Golden
- 5 Habanero Orange
- 3 Hungarian Hot Wax

Now plants have 4-5 weeks, 1 week ago I've repoted them to 5x5x6 pots. And They're in soil.
When really warm sunne weather come in may, I'll repot to 2L( o13cm x 16cm) proper pots and put them on my balcony. I'm considering building a small greenhouse.

Now I've got some problems, I fertilized them 2 days ago, and I don't know when do the next. On the box it's said to fertilize once in 2 weeks, and every week when plants flowering.....but isn't it to seldom? Habaneros and Hot Wax are growing very slow according to the rest
And how about watering? Till now I watered them about 3 times a week, and every morning I've sprinkled leafs. Is that ok? First 1-1,5cm of soil is dry, but I've checked deeper and there's some moisture, but not too much.

A few photos of my VERY amateur tiny garden:
http://picasaweb.google.pl/lh/photo/Gb93fucfWfjTmdNdWrnEnw?authkey=Gv1sRgCO-ErruB18GxCw&feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.pl/lh/photo/yBH6uSfb3ioZzcGS3qUIsw?authkey=Gv1sRgCO-ErruB18GxCw&feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.pl/lh/photo/Y74WiB2KjmgpQ98IgUqo4g?authkey=Gv1sRgCO-ErruB18GxCw&feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.pl/lh/photo/OcSu5Otk0l145iOtCxan0w?authkey=Gv1sRgCO-ErruB18GxCw&feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.pl/lh/photo/zzfszVfcc0TPCqyNZlboMg?authkey=Gv1sRgCO-ErruB18GxCw&feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.pl/lh/photo/bRqxTlHBz1LjT_HNkczcbw?authkey=Gv1sRgCO-ErruB18GxCw&feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.pl/lh/photo/7FD0M-YtLFwcWEz_lAueMw?authkey=Gv1sRgCO-ErruB18GxCw&feat=directlink

I don't know how to make thumbnails in this bloody PicasaWeb, maybe I'll come back to imageshack

[Fatalii]

Looks good!

Nice colourful pots!

About fertilizing, a good rule of thumb is to fertilize less than the fertilizers instructions tell you because chiles are quite sensitive to fertilizing.
Since most of your plants are C. annuums except for Orange habs, you can fertilize them less cautiously, just be a little more subtle with orange habs.

About the watering. Keep in mind that the most common error for beginner is to water too much, so try to water even more rarely, or a little less per each time.. how much you should exactly water your plants its impossible to say because conditions differ. Usually overwatering causes yellow / pale leaves and very slow growth rate.

Just let the plants teach you... if they grow nicely, then everythings okay! Oh and, let us know how it goes!

[Pavlak]

and what do you think about their growth level for 4-5 week plants?
I know Cyklon is very tolerant, maybe that's polish var. but I'm astonished with Purple Jalapenos, their quite big too.
Pity that Habaneros and Hungarians are small, it's strange couse they're germinated 6 days eariler.......but weren't seasoned.

[Fatalii]

Nice growth rate, no worries there!

[lee]

Your plants look good. Cyklon??

[Pavlak]

Cyklon is nice polish variete, check it out:


http://www.chileplants.com/search.asp?ProductCode=CHICYK&SizeID=&ChileForm=&SearchMode=simple&LengthID=&WidthID=&HeightID=&OrientationID=&FoliageID=&FleshID=&UseID=&Color=&Location=&Keyword=cyklon&HeatID=&TypeID=&DeterminancyID=&CategoryID=1&SeasonID=&NewProduct=&Letter=&SearchButton=Pressed

People said ( haha, like Jeremy Clarkson in Top Gear) that's easy to grow in our climate, it's very tolerant.

[lee]

Interesting, peppers from Poland!. Who would have thought of that.. great

[Pavlak]

Yesterday something bad started to happen with few plants. Look here.
At first a few cotyledons started getting more and more dry. I thought it's okay, they have to fall down.
Then I watered plants 2 days ago, it was very sunny and warm weather, but yesterday and today is quite cold (10-14 C) and cloudy.
Then I saw this:

http://picasaweb.google.pl/lh/photo/9lSQebo-npIOOpLXj1DkzA?authkey=Gv1sRgCO-ErruB18GxCw&feat=directlink

I'm almost sure it's just lack of Calcium so I sprinkled leafs directly with water/calcium solution.
But Fatalii, You wrote "Usually overwatering causes yellow / pale leaves and very slow growth rate", and this spots just like this.
What do You think??

I know one thing: I need a lot of SUN here.

[Pavlak]

I cut down a few leafs with those dry spots. Maybe it was lack of Ca or just sunburnt, but I didn't want to risk if it's spider mite.
I haven't found any of those mites, but it looked similar to attacked plant leafs photos.

[Fatalii]

Hmm... it might be overwatering, but your soil doesn't look too soaked? Is it possible that it's overfertilizing? can sometimes cause results like that... "rotting the leaves".

I will answer your question about Biobizz here:
You can use amounts said on the Biobizz bottles, even when you mix them together, for tiny plants, use a bit smaller amounts.

When placing the plants outside, protect them with lace cloth (or frost cloth) and after they start to grow rapidly, add some Biobizz fertilizer to boost the growth even more.

But if you think the symptoms are caused by overfertilizing, then wait for a while to see if the plants will settle!

Does that symptom show on other plants than just on that one?

[Pavlak]

Hmm I saw something on 5 plants: 3 Cyklons, 2 Thai. But only one had 2 leafs with it. The others looked like dried a bit. Is it possible to get rotten --> dry when overwatered?
Overfertilizing? Maybe. I fertilized +watered a bit on April 9th (Thursday) and saw the first spot 2 days later.
Tommorow I'm going out for 2-3 days so I'm going to water them just a little and sprinkle leafs with H20+Ca solution.

Would my garden be alive when I' come back at Friday? 

[Fatalii]

Just remember to fertilize the small seedlings carefully and don't water them so much that they cant handle it.
Just small amounts every once in a while, you'll learn the fast way quickly after seeing when the plants grow the best!

Your garden will be just fine till friday!

[Pavlak]

nice growth competition here




Habanero Orange a Cayenne Golden germinated at one day




Cyklon & Jalapeno Purple





weekly grow of jalapeno purple;
April 9th I fertilized them for the first time too.

09.04 vs. 16.04
     

Tommorow is "changing pots day" 

[Chilicutter]

Looks very nice.

[Pavlak]

Some new pots here so me and my girlfriend shared plants for both. She took 21: Cyklons + 6 Jalapeno Purple, 1 Thai i 1 Cayenne Golden. The rest 29 stay with me.
We repotted them on Saturday. What's interesting till today most of them made a lot and lots new leafs

(Photos from Saturday)






Today, when I came back home after 2 days at girlfriend's place I've became very upset.
I wanted to repot  my plants to bigger "houses" but I noticed them VERY VERY dry. 2 Thai Chiles are almost dead, and the soil in all pots is out of water. But habaneros and cayennes still doing very well. BUT, I watered them nicely with a lot of potion, and we'll see.
I hope the're turn well and pay me with HOT fruits
So I move repotting to the next day.

[Pavlak]

Today my girlfriend has phoned me and said that pale spots are on almost every plant.
After repotting we didn't fertilize, and amount of water was quite small.
The key is keep them DRY now for 2 days or some? Am I right?

[Fatalii]

Hmm.. I guess that's the best way to go now... and check underneath the leaves, in case of small spidermites etc...

[Pavlak]

  fortunately it was nothing, False Alarm, just stains after hard water, uffffff
Today I've come to her place and seen plants - HEALTHY AND VIGOROUS, some small flower buds came out thou. Superb.
I'm putting some photos tommorow.

[Pavlak]

Uploading few new photos.
Today I've seen first flower buds on most of plants For window-balcony conditions grow rate is nice, I think.

Cyklon


Jalapeno Purple slowly bushing


Flower buds on Hot Wax & Cayenne Golden

[Pavlak]

I've been quite busy last days, but today I'm uploading a few photos to outdo. I think my plants grow very nice, maybe not so fast  as some of Yours, but I've got only sun without artificial light. The fastest are Jalapenos Purple and Cyklons. Photos were mostly taken late evening so colours may be a little bit different than in reality.
All platns are 5-6 weeks old:






Habaneros are chasing, but still are the smallest  . They were afraid of big sun, but after 1,5 week hardening off, the love it!!



Cyklon



One of my 2 my chili windows



medium Thai



first row from the left: Cyklon, deformed Cyklon, Thai Chili
rear row:two 30cm Jalapenos Purple (PEZ Spongebob ~11cm)



deformed Cyklon (when cyklons were 2,5-3 weeks 0,5x0,5m kitchen table-top fall of on Cyklons taking balcony sunbath, dont's ask me how )


Thai Red Fire



Flower bud - Cayenne Golden


Huge flower bud - Hot Wax'a



What do You think?
BTW; I've got a question about flower buds. What about them, should I pich off them? or maybe only first ones?
I don't even have a clue and idea what to do. Fatalii in "how to grow" writes about pinching off first flowers, but nothing about buds.
So should I wait to flowers come in and them pick few off?

Cheers!