Chocolate Bhut Jolokia - Hempy Bucket Stylee!

[Steptoe]

Right folks, here's an over due update.

Firstly what I thought was a White Habanero wasn't, it was infact a Lemon Habanero (don't know how I got them confused) that produced some really hot tasty pods about the size of walnuts, and after harvesting them it had a secondary explosion of flowering and is currently producing it's next lot of lovely yellow pods.
I think it's getting ready to kick the bucket though, as it's shedding it's leaves like mad for some reason, touch it a they fall off, I've had to remove from the grow tent too due to excessive yellowing/browning, not sure if it's a mag def but I gave it a foliar spray with an Epsom Salts solutions a few days ago to see if that helped, and whilst it hasn't got any worse that I can see, it also hasn't got any better that I can see either. Now that it's back on the window sill though no doubt it will start to green back up shortly I would reckon.

I also gave the other Chilli's a spray at the same time too, just to help give them a bit of a mag boost just incase, the biggest Jalapeņo has greened back up since it's been back on the window sill and is trying to break into flower (just because I don't want it to) despite being in a cold window, it seems to be growing Ok though and is getting quite tall now,it's got loads of side branching coming through and the leaves don't seem to be getting anymore holes in them now, although there are a couple of leaves that seem to be staying yellow but not getting any worse.

Purple Jalapeņo 1

The smaller Jalapeņo is showing signs of holes and brown patches on the leaves now, so I think it may be time for that one to go on the window sill aswell, having said that though it isn't yellowing that much compared to the others, if at all really! It's still a lot smaller than the bigger one but that's down to the fact it was kept in a small pot for quite a bit longer which may have stunted it somewhat, but in all fairness it is growing on now that it's in a bigger 5L pot.

Purple Jalapeņo 2

My Red Bhut Jolokia on the other hand is the most healthy looking of all my Chilli plants and doesn't seem to be suffering any ill effects at all really from being under the H.P.S. lighting. As you can see from the photo's it's coming on well since it's been put into the 5L pot it's now in, as it's one of the slower Chilli strains to grow, I think that must be what's helping it to stay so lush and green. I've also switched the feed that it gets too from Doff Tomato Feed to Bio-Bizz Grow to see if this helps to prevent the yellowing, the smaller Jalapeņo is also getting the Bio-Bizz Grow too.

Red Bhut Jolokia

And not forgetting of course the Chocolate Bhut Jolokia in the Hempy Bucket is very slowly getting there, I'm feeding every other day with the GH Flora 3 part Series, the solution mix ranges between 2.4ec & 2.6ec and pH'd to 6.5 (tap water pH is 8.0) so to bring it down to 6.5pH I'm adding approx 1 tablespoon of clear malt vinegar to roughly 3L of tap water. It doesn't seem to be suffering that much from the acidity of the vinegar, but I have noticed that the newest growth seems to be going a bit yellow though, and as it's still so small I'm not sure if it's getting enough feed at 2.4ec/2.6ec (tap water ec is 0.55 before Nutrients added), or perhaps the roots are still trying to reach the reservoir at the bottom of the bucket, or if it's down to the light, so I'll just have to keep an eye on it for now and hopefully it'll be alright.

Chocolate Bhut Jolokia

And to finish off with the baby Chocolate Habanero seedling!

That's about it for now folks, so thanks for dropping by.

Any feedback welcome!

[Hillbilly]

Red Bhut Jolokia are looking great from the looks of the plant I sure can see from the leafs the TS is related in some way.

[Steptoe]

Yeah mate, I'm quite pleased with the way the Red Ghost is coming on actually, I'm thinking of getting a much bigger 10 or 15 liter pot to put it in because trying to grow them in 5L pots isn't good as they seem to have too many problems, if memory serves I think the Chocolate Ghost in the hempy bucket is in a 10 liter pot which is only topped up to 8L currently, but will eventually be filled up when it gets bigger.

Sadly though, I noticed that my little Choccy Habanero isn't looking too good today it's started to curl up and looks as though it's whithering, I gave it a good drink of plain water to see if that has any effect but it's not looking so at the moment, mind you, I can't say that I'm surprised, none of the seeds from the packet have survived or produced any healthy seedlings yet. Out of the 5 seeds I've done so far, only 2 have actually germinated but only one has managed to live longer than a week, the other one had the seed shell stuck on it and just died straightaway.

Thanks for dropping by Hillbilly.

[Steptoe]

Just a quick little Hempy update.

I think the roots must be very close to reaching the reservoir now if they aren't already! There's been an explosion of rapid growth in the last couple of days and it's now looking a lot bigger and greener now.

[Hillbilly]

The Bhut Jolokia seeds I bought are starting to come up, and the TS is starting to grow flowers, the TS sure don't like getting cool at all, I'm sure glad I put them back under lights! The Bhut Jolokia seeds my friend gave me nothing yet as to them growing so am very happy I bought the new ones.

[Steptoe]

Bhut Jolokia's can take up to 4 or 5 weeks to germinate if you get some stubborn ones, but I tend to find that if they do take a long time to germ then they're usually really old or poor quality seeds. My soil Jolokia is trying to flower as well at the moment, it's got about 4 flowers on it, the hempy chocloate Ghost is doing well now too still only growing slowly but it's getting there.
My smallest Jalapeno has flowered and has about 5 or 6 flowers on it, 2 of which I pollinated a few days ago and they have now set fruit/pods. I also did a couple more yesterday so they'll set in the next day or so. My Choc Hab still ain't doing much, it hasn't died off yet, but it isn't getting any bigger either, I'm wondering if it's because it's in a poundland "peat pot", all of the seeds I've put in them so far, haven't made it to plant stage so it's possible I reckon.
Anyway, I don't want to give too much away just now as I'm going to do an update this evening!

[Steptoe]

Right then, time for an overdue update.

So, my 2 Jalapeņo's are happily flowering away now since their move to the windowsill, I've been hand pollinating the smallest one over the last few days as the flowers have been appearing and so far they've all taken and are now setting pods quite nicely. However most of the leaves on it are not looking too healthy at the moment though as they are covered in brown/yellow patches (poss Mag def), and they're starting to drop off too but it doesn't seem to be affecting it's ability to produce flowers or set fruit though, so I'm not really sure what's going on with it to be honest. I'm fed it with BioBizz Grow to an Ec of 1.63 and a Ph of 7.3 which equates to 2.5ml per liter of water.

The largest Jalapeņo was in the wars the other day, totally my fault though, where it's been on the window sill I've had the window open for a few days with the nice weather we've had recently and didn't see that I had infact inadvertently trapped one of the branches in the said window when I 'd closed it. Needless to say when I picked it up to move it I snapped the trapped branch clean off, luckily it wasn't flowering or setting any pods on the snapped branch!
I trimmed it up, and stuck it straight into some Gel2Root Gel to see if it would re-root and give me a decent clone, luckily it was a perfect Y shape with 2 decent little buds just sprouting from the base of the V section of the Y (if that makes any sense!).
Although there are plenty of flower buds currently on it, there's only two flowers actually fully open at the moment and only one of is ripe enough to pollinate which I did today (Sunday), and unlike it's smaller relative is looking the picture of health being lovely and green, despite loosing a limb (so-to-speak).

My little Chocolate Habanero seedling that I thought was going to die hasn't and is hanging in there so I've replanted it into a 1L pot in some Coco Coir as I ran out of compost, so hopefully now it should come on a bit better, unfortunately though I think it'll definitely be stunted as it was only in a tiny 8cm pot for so long. I'm fed it today with BioBizz Grow to an Ec of 1.63 and a Ph of 7.3 which equates roughly to 2.5ml per liter of water, so it will be interesting to see how it reacts to it's new surroundings over the next few days!

The Red Bhut Jolokia is still looking green and healthy, but doesn't seem to be getting any bushier though, so it may be time for it to come out of the tent for awhile I reckon. It has a few little flower buds forming at the top, but it also seems to be growing a little weirdly at the growing tips though which I think might be heat stress related possibly, you'll see what I mean from the photo's. Other than this it seems fine and there are no real problems to report with it really, very straight forward and basically the easiest plant I've got growing at the moment I'd say.

The Hempy is doing well now, so I think it may be time to up the feeding programe it's getting, as I'm basically feeding it every other day with GH Flora Series Nutes @ 2.6 - 2.8Ec with the Ph set at 6.4 - 6.6. It takes approx 1.5L to hit the reservoir's drainage hole so I'm giving it 3L every time I feed it so that it basically flushes out all of the older feed solution. When I check the run off the Ph is stable at 6.6 and the Ec is usually between 2.6 - 2.8 which I think is a good thing if memory serves me right, as it means the balance must just right as it isn't using more Nutes than Water or vice versa

I'll post some pics up a bit later on today.