Next of KIN - Super Strains

GrowerBaal Day 2 - 3 cm Finally, a seedling has shown up. This wasn't really an experiment, but the hydrogen peroxide definitely doesn't seem to have harmed it. Maybe I should always do it this way. Day 3 - 4.5 cm Today I measured 4.5 cm in height. Since I won't have time tomorrow, I gave it 100 ml of tap water today. I left the plastic dome on for now. Day 5 - 6 cm Today it reached 6 cm in height. I removed the dome today. Day 7 - 6.5 cm The next pair of leaves isn't really forming. Maybe it was too dry without the dome? Anyway, I put the dome back on for now. Additionally, I gave it 150 ml of tap water today.

GrowerBaal Day 9 The second pair of leaves has developed a bit, but it's a little stunted. It seems it was really too dry. I gave it 50 ml of tap water today and removed the plastic dome since the first pair of leaves got too big for it. Day 10 - 6.5 The second pair of leaves has grown a bit. I gave it another 50 ml of tap water today. Day 12 - 7cm The second pair of leaves is slowly developing. We'll see how it goes from here. Day 14 - 7 cm It seems to be slowly turning around. Yesterday (Day 13) I gave it about 50 ml of tap water.

GrowerBaal Tag 17 - 8 cm The third pair of leaves has formed, but it's very uneven. I hope it sorts itself out. Otherwise, I gave her about 100 ml of tap water yesterday (Day 16) and today. I haven't quite decided when I'll repot her. Tag 20 - 9 cm She's slowly picking up speed, but she's still a bit stunted. 😂 The third pair of leaves isn't a pair but just a single leaf. She'll probably get water tomorrow. Tag 21 - 10 cm Today she got 100 ml of lukewarm tap water. I think I'll repot her the day after tomorrow.

GrowerBaal Tag 23 - 11 cm Today she was repotted. She went into a 15L fabric pot with Plagron Light Mix. I decided to try an organic solid fertilizer from Neudorff this time, after it was recommended to me by a friend. According to the instructions, you should use 25 to 50g per pepper plant, so I just tried 60g and mixed it into the soil (so 4g/l), plus I added some extra mycorrhiza. Once she was in her new pot, she needed to be watered. I gave her 2.5L of tap water at 23.4 degrees from the bowl and 2.5L from above onto the soil. Additionally, she got a new home; she’s now in a 150x80x220 Vivosun tent with Vivosun lighting and control. She will stay on 18/6 for a few more days, then she will be switched to flowering. Tag 26 - 15 cm She handled the repotting well and is now 15 cm tall. Today I switched the lighting to 12/12.

GrowerBaal Day 30 - 22 cm Actually, I wanted to continue the diary yesterday, but the site was unusable last night, and later I just lost interest. Yesterday, she received 4.4 liters of tap water, which I lowered the pH to 6.6. She got 2.4 liters from a bowl and 2 liters poured directly onto the soil. Overall, she looks fit and so far proves that you don’t have to throw away photos just because there are problems at the beginning. With autos, it would probably look quite different. She may be a bit behind schedule compared to normal growth, but not significantly. Day 33 - 28 cm The day before yesterday, I found some spots and initially suspected thrips. However, I couldn't find any thrips, but I did find droppings on the underside of the leaves. I distributed blue and yellow sticky traps and ordered predatory mites and lacewing larvae, even though I'm not sure what I'm dealing with. Additionally, the tunnels from leaf miners are starting to appear on her as well. I discovered a few small, metallic yellow flies and managed to squash one or two on a leaf. I'm also not sure if both issues are related, but the flies are on the top side while the droppings were on the underside. Day 35 - 32 cm Now the leaf miner infestation is clearly visible. Almost all the older leaves are showing tunnels from the larvae. I will release the predatory mites and lacewing larvae today that I ordered due to the suspected thrips. Two specific types of parasitic wasps are said to be effective against leaf miners, but I couldn't find those two types and I'm not sure if the type I found really helps against moths and butterflies. I can't just remove the leaves at this stage either, as she is in the beginning of flowering and I'm afraid that she will suffer more damage from that than from the tunnels of the flies. I'm familiar with them outdoors; they weren't pretty, but they still had natural enemies. Indoors, I'm worried about a real infestation. If nothing works, I might have to let the cultivation rest a bit to get rid of the pests. However, I haven't been able to identify the cause of the droppings or the sucking spots so far.

GrowerBaal Tag 38 - 41 cm I gave her 4.5 liters of tap water at 25 degrees Celsius the day before yesterday, on day 46. That day, I also removed some lower leaves that had already been heavily tunneled by the leaf miner larvae and squeezed the tunnels in other leaves together, hoping that would provide some relief. However, today there are just more tunnels. I surrender and will just let the run continue. Either the beneficials will help, or she unfortunately has to fight through it. I suspect that I brought the leaf miners into the house by drying outdoor plants, and I will take a break after the current plants.