Garden!!!!!!!!!!!!!



LBrandt

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Do any of you other garden guys start your onion plants in house. If so how do you do it. I like to plant onions from plants but it gets so dam expensive when you plant as many as I do. Thanks for any input. LB
 


Lycanthrope

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LBrandt

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Thank you Lycanthrope. Thats what I needed to know. LB
 

CatDaddy

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I'm starting peppers in the next week....indoors obviously. I have grow lights, heat mats, and seed starter cells. Any tips to maximize my attempt? I've never done this on this level...what is most important to consider? I'm growing super hots if that matters....
 


Enslow

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During Ww3 now I might plant two gardens …
 

LBrandt

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If pepper plants get to "leggy" in growth your going to have to protect them real good after transplanting because the wind will really raise hell with them. The stalk will get real brittle is my experience. LB

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All ready adding about a third to the size of my garden=====5000 sq ft. Going to be a busy season. LB
 

Enslow

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With pepper plants I tie wrap them to a stick in the ground. Keep the tie wraps loose so the stem can grow.
 

LBrandt

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I buy my sweet bell pepper plants from Fleet Farm in the spring and start them out two plants together and then put a large Folgers coffee red plastic can around them. I buy a flat of plants = 48 and I will get well over a 1000 peppers to eat, freeze, sell, or throw away. Learned a lesson last fall after I pulled my hot pepper plants and threw them out on the lawn next to the garden. DONT MOW OVER THEM. My eyes burned all day. LB
 

Lycanthrope

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I'm starting peppers in the next week....indoors obviously. I have grow lights, heat mats, and seed starter cells. Any tips to maximize my attempt? I've never done this on this level...what is most important to consider? I'm growing super hots if that matters....

If you want your indoor plants to grow quickly, for some its easier to put them in a grow tent or some kind of controlled environment. Normal room temperatures arent the best for plant growth, and peppers like heat more than many other plants. If you can keep the grow area in the mid 80's while the lights are on they will grow a lot faster than at 70f. What kind of lights are you using? Having proper light intensity indoors is important also. You can get a lux meter from the app store that will give you a general idea of how much light your plants are getting, YOUR EYES WONT TELL YOU THE TRUTH. Another way to know if you are giving enough light is you should be able to feel the light on the back of your hand, when you are far enough away from they light so that you just dont feel the heat generated by the light. I shoot for 10,000 lux or more, most of my plants are under 15k to 20k lux intensity right now. Lux only works with white light btw, if you got the purple ones, return them and get warm white LED instead.
 


Davey Crockett

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The biggest problem I've had in the past is over/under watering , it can be tricky unless you keep a close eye on them so I started planting in 3 gallon grow bags that wick the moisture from the bottom. I'm able to start them by south facing windows so make use of both natural and artificial lighting . I've got planting fever .
 

BDub

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Personally I never start peppers or tomatoes before April 10th. I like stout stalks with lots of roots. Plenty of time if you start in April. Peppers do not like cool weather - May. I have grown hundreds of tomatoes and peppers and never put them in the ground before the end of May. To tell the truth the first week of June most often. Much depends on the climate of your garden. Windy, cool gardens can be planted later. I plant my peppers in raised beds. That protects them from the wind. I start them in those cheap plastic trays. When they look sturdy I transfer them to 8 ounce paper cups. Then start taking them outside for a while. Somewhat sheltered from the wind. Essentially they are growing in the ground but not really.
So if we get that wonderful frost at the end of May they are fine. Covering plants in the fall is one thing. They are not very sturdy in the spring.
 

CatDaddy

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If you want your indoor plants to grow quickly, for some its easier to put them in a grow tent or some kind of controlled environment. Normal room temperatures arent the best for plant growth, and peppers like heat more than many other plants. If you can keep the grow area in the mid 80's while the lights are on they will grow a lot faster than at 70f. What kind of lights are you using? Having proper light intensity indoors is important also. You can get a lux meter from the app store that will give you a general idea of how much light your plants are getting, YOUR EYES WONT TELL YOU THE TRUTH. Another way to know if you are giving enough light is you should be able to feel the light on the back of your hand, when you are far enough away from they light so that you just dont feel the heat generated by the light. I shoot for 10,000 lux or more, most of my plants are under 15k to 20k lux intensity right now. Lux only works with white light btw, if you got the purple ones, return them and get warm white LED instead.

Lycan - Here are the lights I bought:

Amazon.com : Barrina Plant Grow Light, 252W(6 x 42W, 1400W Equivalent), Full Spectrum, LED Grow Light Strips, T8 Integrated Growing Lamp Fixture, Grow Shop Light, with ON/Off Switch, 6-Pack : Patio, Lawn & Garden

My thought was to make them easy to adjust in height by rigging them in a way that can be pulled up and down by a rope. I bought the 6 pack so I could ensure I can get overlapping coverage and have room to grow more indoors next year if it goes well.

These are the heat pads:

Amazon.com: iPower GLHTMTCTRLV2HTMTLX2 2-Pack 40-108 Degrees Fahrenheit Digital Heat Mat Thermostat Controller and 48" x 20" Seeding Warm Hydroponic Pad, Plant Starting Kit Combo : Everything Else

Sounds like I should also plan on building a tarped enclosure to regulate heat. Plan was to do this in my unfinished basement which hovers around 65 degrees. Do you think I'll need an additional heat source or will the lights and pads suffice? Maybe I'll use my Eskimo 949i.....???

Plants I'm growing will include (but not limited to) Reaper, Thor's Hammer, Pepper X, Hurt Berry, Big Black Mama, Chocolate Apocalypse, and other fun varieties of super hots I collected last fall.

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Shield your penis.

Yeah I've made that mistake unfortunately.

I still need to get your parents the plum seeds I dried for them last fall :;:sorry
 
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sl1000794

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Here's a tip on starting tomato plants inside that I saw on a gardening show many years ago. The plants will get tall and leggy inside because they are not exposed to the wind/weather. When you transplant them outside dig a trench and plant the tomato in the trench. Pull off all the leaves except the top 4 and plant the tomato in the trench with the root ball on the south side so it and the buried stalk will get more sun/heat. The stalk that you bury will turn into roots and give your tomato MUCH more energy and will produce a much better tomato plant. Try it, it works!
 

Lycanthrope

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Lycan - Here are the lights I bought:

Amazon.com : Barrina Plant Grow Light, 252W(6 x 42W, 1400W Equivalent), Full Spectrum, LED Grow Light Strips, T8 Integrated Growing Lamp Fixture, Grow Shop Light, with ON/Off Switch, 6-Pack : Patio, Lawn & Garden

My thought was to make them easy to adjust in height by rigging them in a way that can be pulled up and down by a rope. I bought the 6 pack so I could ensure I can get overlapping coverage and have room to grow more indoors next year if it goes well.

These are the heat pads:

Amazon.com: iPower GLHTMTCTRLV2HTMTLX2 2-Pack 40-108 Degrees Fahrenheit Digital Heat Mat Thermostat Controller and 48" x 20" Seeding Warm Hydroponic Pad, Plant Starting Kit Combo : Everything Else

Sounds like I should also plan on building a tarped enclosure to regulate heat. Plan was to do this in my unfinished basement which hovers around 65 degrees. Do you think I'll need an additional heat source or will the lights and pads suffice? Maybe I'll use my Eskimo 949i.....???

Plants I'm growing will include (but not limited to) Reaper, Thor's Hammer, Pepper X, Hurt Berry, Big Black Mama, Chocolate Apocalypse, and other fun varieties of super hots I collected last fall.

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Yeah I've made that mistake unfortunately.

I still need to get your parents the plum seeds I dried for them last fall :;:sorry

Whenever a light says X equivalent it kinda freaks me out cuz thats not really honest statistics. All the lights im currently using I built myself. Its pretty easy to make lights using led strips if you know anything about electricity, hopefully those work out for you but Im wary of a lot of led products sold on amazon, cuz cheap LED are junk usually, those werent super cheap so hopefully they work out for you.

You can probably build an enclosure but it might be easier just to buy a 4x4 grow tent, you can get them from ebay fairly reasonably priced, here is one I found
https://www.ebay.com/itm/124222019899?hash=item1cec35993b:g:4eMAAOSw58Ze5Hq9

I have a gorilla brand 4x4 ive been using for many years, they are really well built, but not cheap initially.
you can find them cheaper if you search probably, this is similar to mine

https://www.gorillagrowtent.com/products/4x4-grow-tent

If you enclose your area well typically the lights will heat it plenty, my grow area has a line level thermostat with an exhaust fan that kicks in when temps get to 86.5f, to bring it back down to 85. I use a timer to try to keep the fan from running as much because that is wasted electricity when it kicks on and vents outside, but its good to get some fresh air in your grow area occasionally also. You can buy cheap 4" inline fans at places like menards to move air out of your tent when it gets too warm, if you want to get that intricate. Peppers can handle heat though so I wouldnt stress too much unless your temps get really high, maybe over 90f for extended periods. That probably wont happen with those lights I think.

If decide to go all in and want tips about building a light I can get you started on that, typically if you build your own you will get 2-3x as much light for a similar price as buying one, at least with the cheap amazon lights.

If you want to do some reading about lights this guy is a fanatic and sells lights also, hes honest and tests many higher quality lights and provides a lot of good information and comparisons between them.

https://migrolight.com/blogs/grow-light-reviews
 


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