Pepper Blog: Grow Lights and Mylar and Cayenne Peppers Oh My

After having considered purchasing grow lights for years, it finally happened thanks to my buddy Andy. I love gardening and now I can do it all year long. And trust me, the winters are long up here in Alaska and I could use another winter-time hobby to make it through the darkness. I am excitedly looking forward to experimenting with different plants and conditions, having fresh herbs on hand for cooking, and enjoying the process. I also look forward to the, uh, friendly grow competition. Even though Andy had a bit of a head start I have some secret weapons that will help my plants catch up!

Andy did the research and found the best lights available that wouldn't break the bank. Of course, I needed something to hang the light fixture from and to set the plants on. Luckily, I found this awesome industrial shelf (made in the USA) at Lowe's. It was the perfect size to fit the light fixture in.

2/8/13

Andy started some Cayenne Peppers from seed and kindly gave me some. Hot peppers certainly wouldn't have been my first choice, but hey, I'm willing to grow anything (well, almost). Besides, this would allow our friendly competition to begin and enable us to learn from each other as we both explore this new way of growing. The growing environments do differ - Andy has a nice hot garage to grow in. My wine collection is temporarily being stored in my garage (at 55 degrees), so that wouldn't due. Of course, the inside of my house isn't much warmer - generally between 62 and 66 degrees. I decided on my upstairs living room.

By the time I had everything set up to grow, the pepper seedlings had become root-bound. Thus, after transplanting on February 8th it took a while for them to take root and start growing. Here are two of the three pepper plants on February 18th. They are starting to develop multiple sets of leaves. The plants are not growing vertically very much, only standing a little over an inch in these photos.

Day 35. 2/18/13

These grow lights are quite powerful. The first few days I had a permanent light on in my house which could be seen as I drove up. To help capture that light and send it back to the plants I bought some mylar and taped it along the outside of the shelf. In order to provide easy access to the plants I created two flaps in the front which connect to the shelf via velcro. In the photo below you can also see a clip-on fan in the bottom right hand corner. This provides some "wind". Plants don't like stagnant air and evidently will be "tougher" with a little wind. Initially I put the grow light fixture about 2 inches above the plants per Andy's advice. However, we decided there was no need to have it that close with such powerful lights. Also, experience growing outdoors is that plants will grow toward the light and we want these peppers to get taller!

Mylar covered shelf with front flaps open. 2/23/13

Mylar covered shelf. Nobody can see what I'm growing! 2/23/13

Here are some photos I just took about an hour ago. The peppers are really starting to develop tons of leaves, although they are still only about 2 inches high. I also planted two sets of herbs in mini greenhouses. In order to successfully germinate, most of these herbs need soil temperatures around 75 degrees. I bought a heat mat to set beneath the first herb greenhouse. Well, evidently it got a little too hot, because the one basil seed that germinated got fried and nothing else has come up since. :( I've kept the heat mat in place, but have it turned off. The black surface heats up under the lights providing the needed heat. My second batch of Basil has sprouted and I eagerly await the other herbs!