Bhut Jolokia, Trinidad Scorpion, Trinidad 7 Pot and Yellow 7 Pot ready to move.

The following 5 pictures are my 2nd to last batch of plants ready to move outside into greenhouse and outdoor NFT Hydroponic system. You are seeing in these pics plants with nice green growth inside a Greenhouse Sensation Vitapod system. This system is a large temperature controlled tabletop greenhouse. It is made of durable plastic and the heating element is enclosed and controlled by a state of the art thermostat. I use this system to germinate chile seeds but now also to get my starter plants ready for outdoors.
Since I grew a lot of plants this year I also lost a lot of plants. But I learned from my mistakes. I learned not to take an indoor Aeroponics plant and put it outdoors right away in the Southern California sun. Maybe indirect sun, but not half-day or full day sun. So I put the plants back in small soil pots into the Vitapod. Then I moved later on to outdoors. Did it work?? Well less plants died but most died. So then my next step was move them under 50% grade shade cloth before going out into more sun intensity. Well more lived and less died.

Still not satisfied with results I tried an experiment. My lighting above the Vitapod Greenhouse is a flourescent 2 bulb fixture. It does not have the intensity of a sodium or Halide 1,000 watt plant light. So what if I gave the plants more light exposure??? I decided to leave my low wattage light on 24 hours a day. Well my plants got healthier and stronger. Leaves got a darker green. Then came the ultimate test. After 1-2 weeks under 50% shade cloth they had a 100% survival rate in partial sun with air temps averaging high 90's farenheight. A week after that they were moved into more sun with minimal shock. I am now happy with the results. In future blogs you will see some of these outdoors. Right now enjoy my starter plants. In the 5 pics in this post I am growing the following:

Trinidad Yellow 7 Pod

Trinidad 7 Pot Jonah

Bhut Jolokia

Trinidad Scorpion

Orange Bhut Jolokia

Malaysian Goronong

Safi Red Scotch

Maya Pimento

Naga Morich

Chocolate Bhut Jolokia




Next post will be updatedphotos of these plants in pots and my NFT Hydroponic Greenhouse System.

Cloning Naga Morich and Trinidad Scorpion

It is July 18 and I have just finished doing some maintenance in my backyard 120 Plant NFT Hydroponic system. I was pruning the lower branches off of some plants. I do this because the lower branches do not produce many chiles and this also encourages the plant to grow taller and larger. So what do I do with all these branches I cut off?? Well last year I just threw them away. Now I clone them into new plants! Here is one of the Naga Morich cuttings I start with.


Cloning is a way to make more plants out of a few plants. And it's fun too! Now that I have an Aeroponic Hydro Propagator from Greenhouse Sensation U.K. I can really clone. But don't let not having this equipment stop you. Because you can always clone in soil or even in Rockwool. So lets start at the beginning. This next pic is a group of Naga Morich cuttings. Notice ends of stems have diagonal cuts. Use a sharp knife or razor blade knife to do this first step. Notice also that some leaves on plant cutting have sections cut out of them. This allows more energy to go to root development instead of sustaining lots of leaves.

The next step is to dip the end of the cutting into a rooting powder or cloning root stimulant gel like "Clonex". Gels stay on better so thats what I use. Pic below shows cutting with cloning gel on it.

Now I gently place cutting in foam holder which holds it in place so Aeroponic spray can mist it to encourage root growth. This foam holder will go into plastic net pot which will then be placed into system. Now if you clone in soil or rockwool make small hole in center or dirt or rockwool. Then try and place end of cutting into that hole without removing root gel. Once cutting is in place press soil or rockwool gently around cutting and keep it moist.


This next pic is a group of Trinidad Scorpion cuttings ready to go into system.


And finally we place prepared cutting into Aeroponic Propagator. This evening we set up 12 Naga Morich plants, 16 Trinindad Scorpion plants, 1o Red Dominica Habanero plants and 4 Bhut Jolokia plants. Will post pics to a later blog so you can see the cuttings develop their new roots!

Catching up Early July Trinidad Yellow 7 Pot Pepper

Well here we go finally catching up with my blog. Here are some early July pics of some of my chiles. What you see below are the Trinidad Yellow 7 Pot and Orange Bhut Jolokia in pots. These are at a location miles from my home. Once they start to flower they will be separated from each other to avoid cross pollination. My seed stock plants are in non gardening neighborhoods at my friends homes. Some are housed in small greenhouses to make sure no other peppers will cross-pollinate with them

I have my seed stock plants in 15 gallon pots in a pro mix soil. The two mixes I use are Sunshine Growers Mix #1 and Premier Horticulture PGX mix. Both are the best on the market and both come from different companies. The difference is PGX mix is ideal if you raise a seedling in soil and decide later to move into Hydroponics. Because it washes off the roots real nice. Both mixes drain well but are balanced so they retain moisture. A well draining mix allows oxygen to get to roots. Roots love oxygen! It helps them to absorb nutrients. Here's how it works. When you water the water drains through the soil quickly. As it goes down it pulls air along with it that contains oxygen. Sort of a vaccumn effect. But also a pro-mix soil has enough moisture retaining properties so it holds onto the water but does not get soggy.

TRINIDAD YELLOW 7 POT
ORANGE BHUT JOLOKIA
Finally I leave you with a few pics of my final group of Jamaican Chocolate Habanero's
just before I removed them from my Greenhouse Sensation Aeroponic Hydro Propagator. Look at how nice the leaves look! If you live in the UK or Europe I highly suggest their products. There is a link to them on my website.

JAMAICAN CHOCOLATE HABANEROS



Well time to go to bed now. Next post will show you all step by step process of cloning Naga Morich cuttings.

Big Hydroponic Garden Late Update (Trinidad7Pot and Scorpion)

This post should have been written awhile ago. But when you undertake a large greenhouse Hydroponic project expect problems and lots of work. My greenhouse has all chiles but the other one that I own 50% in has tomatoes, French Strawberries and lettuce. In this first picture you will see the veggies greenhouse around June 21, 2009.

In the middle you see Heirloom tomatoes. We have Red Brandywine, Green Zebra, Black Krim, Pineapple, Yellow Grape and Red Grape. These are thriving in the heat out here. But the Strawberries to the right are not. Apparently they are not a summer berry so this was our first mistake. We will plant again in February. Next pic you will see the awesome root growth of an Heirloom tomato plant.
Notice how white and clean the roots are. This is because of the high level of oxygen the roots are receiving in the Hydroponic system. The next pic is my greenhouse of just chile plants. Not all the plants are in yet. Some were not ready and I was so tied up with building this project and getting plants sold I lagged on getting other things done.

Right now you see on the right side tubes Jamaican Chocolate Habaneros and Fatalii (central Africa). On the inside right side tubes we are growing Antillais Caribbean Habanero (Dutch Antillais Islands), Gambia Habanero (Gambia Africa) and Trinidad Scorpion. In the center tubes we are growing Bhut Jolokia, Trinidad 7 Pot and Chocolate Bhut Jolokia. In the inside left side tubes we are growing Mustard Habanero, Safi Red Scotch (West Africa), Yellow Sun (Africa), Naga Morich, Yucatan White Habanero and Chocolate Bhut Jolokia. No chiles yet in far left tubes. On top of the far left tubes are baby chile pepper plants. Some I bought from a wholesaler and some I grew myself. The following pic of these chiles in plastic tubs has the following plants:
Jamaican Chocolate Habanero, Bhut Jolokia, West Indies Caribbean Red, Mustard Habanero, Trinidad Scorpion, Trinidad 7 Pot, Naga Morich, Yucatan White habanero, Fatalii, Cleo's Dragon Habanero, Neon Yellow Habanero, Red Savina and Peach Habanero.

I still have lots of plants for sale but if they dont move soon I will plant them! Next 2 pics are my Peruvian Rocotos growing in pots. They can live outdoors all year long even with temps in low 40's. I have them in partial sun because they do not like too much heat. They grow in the Andes Mountains and summers there do not get as hot as Southern California. In these pots I am growing the Yellow and Red Rocoto. They are a hot chile that looks like a small apple and has a thick flesh. Nice flavor but hard to germinate and grow.



The next pics you will see here are seedlings just transplanted from my Aeroponic Propogator. These species are some of the first ever grown in the United States. In other words I am one of the first people to grow these here. I am sure I am not the first but one of the few anyways. Observe 6 each Trinidad Yellow 7 Pot plants. I only had 7 seeds but got 6 plants! Next pic after this one is the Orange Bhut Jolokia. Now I planted 20 seeds but only got 7 good seedlings. More than 7 came up but not all were strong enough for transplant.

TRINIDAD YELLOW 7 POT
ORANGE BHUT JOLOKIA
Well it's bedtime now. Upcoming posts will show you these seedlings transplanted outdoors and their growth progress. I will be isolating both species to avoid cross-pollination so I can produce genetically pure seed for my clients and customers. Other future posts will show cloning of Naga Morich cuttings and updates on chile plants and Hydroponic garden.