April 21st Hydroponic Propagator Results (Trinidad Scorpion, Trinidad 7 Pot and Naga Morich)

It is April 21, 2009. Time to take a peek at my plants in my Hydroponic Propagator that I purchased from Greenhouse Sensation U.K. Before I put up the pics let me tell you I put some real pathetic seedlings in this system I put some good ones in but also some bad ones. A few of the bad ones died and that is to be expected. But majority of these plants got bigger, healthier and stronger.
Now let me give you some background on this machine. I shopped online for a unit that could do lots of plants and clone lots of cuttings. The pricing on units here in the U.S. was crazy. Hundreds of dollars for small units that had about 30 plant sites! But I saw on the chileman's website a journal called Julian's Journal. In this chile growing journal was equipment from the U.K. company Greenhouse Sensation. So I went to their site and found a Hydro Propogator that had 105 plant sites for under $200 U.S. dollars plus shipping. The total cost was about $300. Now I did not use their pump because of Europe power conversion. So instead used a 1,200 GPH Maxi Jet pump to replace it that runs on U.S. power. So when I order another unit it will be less because I will just get a pump here in the U.S.. Same thing with the water heater. I picked up an aquarium submersible heater here for a few dollars.

I will be getting two more units soon. Even with the high cost of overseas shipping it still was a better bargain than buying one here. So I can talk and talk about how great this works in getting your seedlings started but pics will show you it all. I germinated my seedlings in Fox Farm Warrior soil mix in my Vitapod Germinating unit. It can be seen in earlier posts. Then when seedlings had a few leaves I rinsed off the soil and gently dipped bare roots in Clonex root stimulating gel. Then I put plants in foam inserts in net pots. After that I placed in Hydro Propagator. See earlier posts to show these steps. Here are the pics!!! Go to www.greenhousesensation.com to see more info on the products.

Pic above is view of Trinidad 7 Pot, Trinidad Scorpion, Naga Morich and Chocolate Bhut Jolokia plants in Hydro Propagator. Next pic shows you the top and bottom at same time. Look at those roots!


If you look closely you can see the water spraying the roots giving them loads of oxygen and nutrients!


This next pic gives you a closer view of the roots growing through the net pots. This plant is a Trinidad Scorpion.

And here is another pic of an individual plant. This one is Trinidad 7 Pot.

Now things do not always go good. This final pic are the plants in my homemade Hydroponic Cutting board system. They do not look as good as my other plants in the Hydro Propagator for two reasons. First the Hydro Propagator is a better unit. Second reason is we had 3 days of 100 degree heat. And I turned of the heater in the Hydro Propagator but not in the cutting board system. So this caused me to lose some plants and damage the others. Oh well I learned from that!

From Dirt to Hydroponics (It can be done!) April 16, 2009

Here is a post showing all of you how I take plants grown in dirt and transfer them into a Hydroponic system. I will always buy some plants as backup. And even if I germinate plenty I can always sell the extra plants for a profit. Better to have a backup plan than no plan at all. This way I can make sure my customers get their chiles! Here is a pic of a Naga Morich chile plant in small dirt pot. It is about 8 weeks old.


This is a pic of the dirt washed off the roots by using my garden hose water.


Now I place plant in net or mesh pot. I gently pull roots through bottom openings in net pot and then place small rockwool cubes around roots to stabilize. Rookwool is spun from volcanic rock and holds water. I do not pack it too tight around roots or it will slow down root growth and aeration around roots.




Now I place them in some water that has some B1 anti-shock formula. This helps prevent transplant shock. After I get 10 plants ready i move them into system. But before I move them I fill remainder of pots with Hydroton clay pellets. These keep algae from growing on moist rockwool. I use these for now but later will switch to pumice stone. It cost 1/5 the price and can be found in white or red colors at most gravel and decorative stone suppliers.


Now we move the Naga Morich chile pepper plants into my empty N.F.T. system. NFT stands for Nutrient Film Technigue. A thin stream of water carries nutrient through tubes continuously cycling 24 hours a day. This brings water, nutrients and oxygen to each plant that sits in the tubes causing vigorous growth. I purchased this system from IGS Hydroponics, Pacific Beach, California. It was not designed for chiles but I made it work with some minor modifications.
Here is the Naga Morich plant being placed into the NFT Tube.

Here are two views of the inside of the N.F.T. tube. See the water coming in and then see how a thin stream flows past the roots.



And finally you see 2o Naga Morich chile plants in the Hydroponic N.F.T. System. After this I transplanted 20 Bhut Jolokia and 25 Trinidad Scorpion Chilli plants. Later on I will move the Trinidad 7 Pot plants into the system that I grew from seed. I love growing Hot Chile Pepper plants Hydroponically. The World's Hottest Chiles taste even better this way!

Planting more Hot Chile Seeds April 6, 2009 Trinidad Scorpion, Bhut Jolokia, Trinidad 7 Pot and Naga Morich

Well so much to do so I could not get this in my last post. After all my trials, failures and triumphs it's time to plant more seeds. I almost have enough plants to fill both my old and new Hydroponic systems. And soon some of my small plants will be ready to sell in Mid may. But I want more plants to sell and it also does not hurt to have more plants as backup in case some fail in the Hydroponic systems. So here is a pic of my 512 cell seed tray. Now when I first used this I added Foxfarm Light warrior planting mix. I got great germination rate but my only complaint is this mix has huge chunks of perlite that I had to sift out. So On Gurney's Nursery site they have a seedling compost that I switched to for this planting. Now I also took a larger 1 and 1/2 inch seed cell tray and mixed some Fox Farm Light warrior with some super soil and planted 50 seeds in that. And finally took my 120 cell Park Bio-Dome and planted 120 seeds in that. Some of you may not have read earlier posts. The Bio-Dome is a Min Greenhouse from Park Seed Company. It has bio-degradable foam plus that are a pain in the butt to re-use. I had to do it this time but ordered more new plugs. Because removing fragile seedlings from plugs sometimes kills the seedlings.

So here is what I planted:
512 Seed Cell with Gurney's Seed compost mix
Row#1 32 Jamaican Red Mushroom Chile Seeds

Row#2 32 Assam Bhut Jolokia Chile seeds

Row#3 32 Fatalii Seeds

Row#4 and #5 64 Jamaican Chocolate Habanero seeds

Row#6 32 African Gambia Habanero Seeds

Row #7 32 Red Dominican Habanero Seeds

Row#8 32 Naga Morich Chile seeds

Row#9 21 Malaysian Goronong Habanero Chilli Seeds, 11 Assam Bhut Jolokia Chile Seeds

Row#10 Chocolate Bhut Jolokia

Row#11 and #12 (no planting because stubborn Chocolate Bhut Jolokia are finally coming up!)
See pic below

Row#13 32 Red Savina Habanero Chilli Seeds

Row#14 5 Red Savina, 7 Yellow Trinidad 7 Pot Chilli Seeds and 20 Orange Bhut Jolokia Seeds

Row#15 2 Orange Bhut Jolokia seeds and 30 Trinidad 7 Pot (Jonah Strain) chilli seeds

Row #16 32 Trinidad Scorpion Chile Seeds

Here is what I planted in Park Seed Bio-Dome

Row #1 and #2 20 Bhut Jolokia Seeds

Row#3 and #4 20 Trinidad Scorpion seeds

Row #5 and #6 20 Trinidad 7 Pot (Jonah Strain) chilli seeds

Row #7 and #8 20 Naga Morich chile seeds

Row #9 10 Jamaican Chocolate Habanero seeds

Row #10 10 Central African Fatalii chilli seeds

Row #11 and #12 20 Yucatan White Habanero Chile Seeds

Finally the 1 and 1/2 inch cell seed tray filled with Foxfarm Light warrior mix (50 cells)

Row #1 and #2 20 Jamaican Scotch Bonnet Chile seeds

Row #3 10 Red Rocoto Chilli seeds

Row #4 10 Naga Morich chile seeds

Row# 5 10 Bhut Jolokia seeds

Here is a pic of the 512 seed tray. Notice the two rows of seedlings poking through. I almost dumped all of the dirt out of the cells before putting fresh soil in. But noticed a few days earlier some seeds were coming up. It just goes to prove that any Bhut Jolokia can take 4 or more weeks to germinate so do not give up!

Okay lets look at these pics here and let me explain whats happening. In previous post I show you my transplanting and germination sucesses and failures. I also mention that the rockwool in my Cutting board system is keeping the roots too wet and they do not get enough oxygen. So in the first 3 pics below this text you see 3 steps.

Step#1 Wash dirt off seedling roots.



Step#2 Dip seedling in Clonex root stim solution gel. and place in soft foam rubber plug. (plug has cut through it into midddle, spread open cut and slide stem into center of plug. Then let plug hold seedling stem. Adjust stem so roots can get to water source but are also mostly exposed to air to get plenty of oxygen)





Step #3 Place foam plug with seedling into net or mesh pot.





I took all my seedlings out of rockwool and did them over this way and then placed them back into cutting board system. Some already had died from getting too soggy. And some may not make it. Then I took most of My Trinidad 7 Pot, Chocolate Bhut Jolokia and Trinidad Scorpion and did them this way also. But I put them into my new Aeroponic Hydro Propagator system from Greenhouse Sensation U.K. So let me explain the other pics.

Transplants here in my cutting Board system using foam plugs


Here are the Transplants in My Hydro Propagator



Here is the inside of My Hydro Propagator. Not everything is labeled. But I have a system!




And finally a nice shot of a Trinidad 7 Pot or as others say a Trinidad 7 Pod plant in my Hydro Propagator from Greenhouse Sensation U.K. (below this text) Now I am the first in the United States to buy from them. I had to get a 200 watt Power converter to operate my Vitapod Mini-Greenhouse. But with the Hydro-Propogator I bought a Maxi-Jet 1200 GPH pump and a 50 Watt Aquarium heater to avoid doing power conversion. Even with shipping this 105 plant site cloner/propogator was cheaper than U.S. Models. I suggested some improvements for this unit and have already gotten some feedback. Their customer service is great! Well here are some conclusions or my opinions. The Park Seed Bio-Dome is nice when you use a heatpad. But.....If you add too much water your seeds will get too soggy. I like it to germinate but when attempting to gently remove my seedlings from the Bio-Sponges I killed some plants. So it is better to transplant the whole sponge. But then you have to buy more to germinate again. And they are always on backorder. Now rapid rooter plugs are good but you have to have the bottoms of them (at least 3/8 inch) in water or they will dry out. Again just like the Bio-Sponges you have to buy more. Trying to remove the fragile seedling will most likely kill it. So I like my seed tray with soil the Best. Whether I use multiple trays in my Vitapod or use a cheap min-greenhouse on a heatpad I can always transplant with minmal shock into soil or Hydroponics. Vitapod is nice because i can keep the plants in it longer than I can a mini plastic greenhouse. Plus it is thermostatically controlled and will last years. I leave you all with a close photo of Trinidad 7 Pot Below in Hydro Propagator! In the back row there are some recently transplanted Trinidad Scorpions also.

Let the Transplanting Begin!

Okay the last time I blogged you saw my first transplants in a rockwool substrate in my cutting board Hydroponic system. These transplants were from rapid rooter plugs germinated in my Vitapod mini-Greenhouse that was manufactured by a company called Greenhouse Sensation in the U.K. Also I transplanted some other plants from the Park Seed Bio-Dome mini-greenhouse. Now I lost more seedlings again. Well I packed the rockwool around my seedlings of Trinidad 7 Pot, Scorpion, Bhut Jolokia, Naga Morich, Safi Red and few Chocolate Bhut. The root systems stayed too wet so I lost some seedlings. But I saved many and will elaborate on that in my next post. The above pics show you my 7 Pot and Bhut Jolokia seedlings in my Bio-Dome. And my 512 seed tray filled with seed compost that I germinated in my Vitapod. I moved majority of seedlings into 2 and 1/2 inch plant pots with potting soil. Then I placed them into my 5 foot tall small outdoor greenhouse in trays of 32 and 50 each. The pic you see is a group of Bhut Jolokia transplants. Out of the Park Bio-Dome I transplanted about 20 Trinidad 7 Pot, 50 Bhut Jolokia and 12 Chocolate Bhut Jolokia. Now I will list what I transplanted from my 512 cell seed tray that I germinated in my Vitapod Greenhouse. I will also give you what was planted and what germinated. Keep in mind even if something germinated it still did not mean it was good enough for me to keep for transplanting. If the seedling looked feeble I tossed it. After all I want to sell quality Chile plants for my customers!

512 cell Seed Tray stats In Vitapod

Row#1 32 Naga Morich seeds 30 Germinated

Row#2 32 Bhut Jolokia seeds 30 Germinated

Row#3 and #4 64 Red Rocoto seeds only 12 Germinated

Row#5 and #6 64 Yellow Rocoto seeds only 10 germinated

Row #7 32 Maya Pimento seeds (Israel habanero) 24 Germinated

Row #8 32 Safi Red Scotch seeds (West Africa) 26 Germinated

Row #9 and #10 64 Fatalii seeds (Central Africa) 36 Germinated (old seed)

Row #11 and #12 64 Chocolate Bhut Jolokia seed 20 Germinated

Row #13 32 Trinidad 7 Pot seed 28 Germinated

Row #14 16 Trinidad 7 Pot seed 13 Germinated also 16 Trinidad Scorpion seed 12 Germinated

Row #15 20 Gambia Habanero seed 18 Germinated Also 12 Bhut Jolokia 10 Germinated

Row #16 32 Bhut Jolokia seed 24 Germinated

Now after transplanting most of course I blew it again. I put the tray of transplanted seedlings of Gambia, Fatalii and a few Bhut on the top shelf of my outdoor Greenhouse. Then we had a real sunny day and they fried. So I have plenty of Bhut Jolokia but will plant more Gambia and Fatalii later. Some of my transplants went into soil. A few into the cutting board system and finally I moved some into my new Aeroponic Hydroponic Propagator. I got this from Greenhouse Sensations U.K. (www.greenhousesensation.com) also. Will show pics of it and how I fixed my cutting board issue and also my step by step transplant into the Hydro Propagator. This and updated pics in my next post!