World's Hottest Chiles Huge Hydroponic System

This will be brief. I just got done installing racks above my chile plants to support them today August 27. Growth is at a fast pace now. Now I pray for tons of flowers that will turn into lots of chiles. Getting to this point has not been easy. First the weather has been extremely hot this summer which slowed down the transplant process. Also it took too long to build this system so majority of my planting was in late May through mid-June. Normally I have plants ready and in the system by end of April. So I was constantly replacing plants that were dying because they were too young to take the heat. In mid July I solved the heat problem by putting in a fogger misting system above garden on a timer. It worked!!! My water and air temps dropped and now my baby plants were thriving. But the cool wet environment brought an aphid infestation. I sprayed with organic neem spray but every day the residue washed off the leaves so the aphids were still doing too much damage.

So I ordered thousands of predatory insects like Trichrogramma wasps, Lacewings and Lady Bugs.
This was the first week of August. Now the Aphids are under control but I will release more predatory insects just to make sure. We had a drop in temperature for about two weeks. This also made my plants happy. So I turned off the misting system. The pic you see was taken August 20th 2009. I thank all my friends for praying for this project. I also thank the following people for coming out to help me a few times. Whenever a person expands his business 3 x the size you have to expect issues. But the Blessings of God and friends got me to this point. Without them it never would be where it is right now. Regardless of how many bad days I had my friends and family were always there!

Larry Bridgeforth and Family (their whole family dug holes, moved stuff and wife Robin got our Greenhouse put together...She would make a great foreman)

Marty Switzer and family (Marty's Blood watered the soil while installing greenhouse framing, metal edges are sharp, Marty said no bad words and if he did Jesus forgives him)

Don Denniston and family (Don moved a ton of dirt...His wife makes good lemon bars too!)

Tom and Linda Schaeffer for letting me grow on their land

Mark and Margie Short (Margie is a lucky wife because Mark prayed a lot for us and for her too!)

John and Terry Daniels (He came out one time to pray with Mark and Don and we appreciate that)

Chuck Hicks and family (my partner in our produce greenhouse but also he and his wife Kim keep an eye on my chiles. I thank his little girls for all the time they gave up during this adventure.

My son Danty for all his support and help he is so special to me

Also the prayers of those that live far away. My friends Jim Wright and Jonathan Payne for their web work and prayers. Jonathan builds my site and Jim does the SEO work.

John from Aspen Vinyl Fence El Cajon, CA. He gave us a great deal on all our Hydroponic tubes you see. And drilled all the precision holes in them!

Now not everyone's whole family physically helped. But each and every wife and child in that family gave up time with their husband or father because that man took the time to come out and lend a hand. So I thank the entire family for this. Now I do not have a harvest yet. But I should have lots of chiles by end of September. Here is the pic I promised


TRINIDAD 7 POT
Probably one of the first of these ever grown in California


So heres what is in the System from left to right
Rows 1& 2 Trinidad 7 Pot, Yellow 7 Pot, Jamaican Red Mushroom, Bhut Jolokia (India) and Naga Morich (Bangladesh)

Rows 3, 4 and 5
White Habanero (Yucatan & Peru), Chocolate Bhut Jolokia, Mustard habanero, Big Yellow Sun Habanero (Africa), Naga Morich, Safi Red (West Africa)

Rows 6 and 7 Trinidad 7 Pot, Chocolate Bhut Jolokia, Bhut Jolokia

Rows 8, 9 and 10 Trinidad Scorpion, Gambia Habanero (Africa), Red Savina Habanero, Peach Habanero and Antillais Red Caribbean Habanero

Rows 11 and 12 Jamaican Chocolate Habanero, Fatalii (Africa), Neon Yellow Habanero

Well as chiles grow and turn color I will post them to my blog. God Bless!

Cloning Update Naga Morich and Trinidad Scorpion Aug. 12,2009

As of August 6th most of my cloning attempts of plant cutiings has been successful. I started out with a little over 80 cuttings of Naga Morich, Trinidad Scorpion and a few Red Dominica Habanero plants. About 60 of them developed roots and now have been transplanted into small nursery pots using a pro soil potting mix. To further stimulate root growth each plant soil mix was given a dose of mycorrhizae root fungi. Mycorrhizae helps root development and also increases drought tolerance. It is very cost effective and since I buy in quantity I always have extra to sell at an extremely low price. All of these plant cuttings were cloned in an aeroponic propagator machine that I purchased from GreenHouse Sensation U.K. The roots you see now took about 6 weeks. I could have transplanted earlier, but wanted more root development so I gave it more time.

Trinidad Scorpion Plant Clones




Naga Morich Plant Clones





My next blogs will show you updated pics of my over 300 plant NFT Hydroponic System and what it took for me to get it this far. Also updated photos of my seed production plants in pots and more pics of chile flowers.

My Potted plants for seed 7 Pot, Scorpion etc July 25

I am still trying to get caught up with my blog. Here are some pictures of plants I am growing in pots for seed production. Also some
I am just growing for fun!

CHOCOLATE BHUT JOLOKIA
TRINIDAD 7 POT

TRINIDAD SCORPION

SURINAM YELLOW or MADAME JEANETTE


ORANGE BHUT JOLOKIA


TRINIDAD YELLOW 7 POT


HERMOSILLO CHILITEPIN


HERMOSILLO CHILTEPIN FLOWERS


RED ROCOTO (Peru)


RED ROCOTO FLOWER

Next posting on my blog will be an update on the plants I am cloning (Trinidad Scorpion, Naga Morich & Red Dominica)

The World's Hottest Chiles are Growing (Bhut Jolokia, Naga Morich and Trinidad Scorpion)

Back in early July I was starting to lose chile plants in my Outdoor Hydroponic system. The leaves were curling downward and getting a plastic like look to them and then yellowed. My plants were also not growing. I frantically started replacing them. I had grown many plants to sell so this helped me. Then I figured out the problem. My water temps in late afternoon were getting a little over 90 degrees. So fist I put up 50% grade shadecloth inside the greenhouse to block more of the sun's rays and heat. It helped a little. Then I blocked the sun from hitting my water pipes in the back of my greenhouse and put a 70% shadecloth on the sidewall to keep sun from directly heating tubes that faced the northwest. This also helped very little. I also put foam insulation around every pipe that came up out of the ground and every feed line. All of these measures were not enough but they did keep my supply water below 90 degrees for a longer period of time. As we started to face days of 100 degree temperatures I finally put in drip irrigation line above my system with fogger mister heads. Finally I had sucess! By running the foggers for 2 hours a day my air temps dropped almost 15 degrees and my water temps were now below 80 degrees on days of 100 degrees outside. The following pictures show my plants responding and getting green again.

OUTDOOR HYDROPONIC SETUP JULY 25. 2009

In this setup are Fatalii, Jamaican Chocolate habanero, Gambia Habanero, Red Savina Habanero, Peach Habanero, Neon Yellow Habanero, Trinidad 7 Pot, Trinidad Yellow 7 Pot, Bhut Jolokia, Naga Morich, Chocolate Bhut Jolokia, Big Sun Habanero, Mustard Habanero, Yucatan White Habanero, Antillais Caribbean Habanero and Trinidad Scorpion.

FATALII


NAGA MORICH

CHOCOLATE BHUT JOLOKIA


BHUT JOLOKIA


YELLOW SUN HABANERO


TRINIDAD 7 POT


TRINIDAD SCORPION


YUCATAN WHITE HABANERO


Later next week I will post pics of some of my potted plants that I am growing to produce for my chile seed business!

Cloning Results July 25th Trinidad Scorpion, Naga Morich and Bhut Jolokia

I took so many pics on July 25th, 2009. So it will have to be divided into a few posts. Thought I would show you the partial results of my cloning of chile cuttings. I started out on July 18th cloning the cuttings of Naga Morich, Trinidad Scorpion, Red Dominica Habanero and Bhut Jolokia. This was on July 18, 2009. What you are seeing is the results on July 25 after the cuttings were in my Aeroponic system I bought from Greenhouse Sensation U.K. The pics are both Trinidad Scorpion clones.



Now here is a pic of the Naga Morich clone. You see more root growth on the Scorpion cuttings but if you look closely you see the small root starting to form at the base of the stem. So I am starting to have some success with this now. As the roots continue to develope I will take more pics before I transplant into pots.