JukkaPekka
Well-Known Member
I have not tried Neko Luonnonkali myself but the fertilizer should have enough K. Tomato fertilizer is also good for chilies.
Pasi's Grow Log 2026
- Thread starter Pasiasiainen
- Start date
Pasiasiainen
Active Member
Ok, I think I’ll add some birch ash to my patch to push the K levels up a bit.
Pasiasiainen
Active Member
Started clipping the leaves already. My seedlings aren't even 4 weeks old and they are growing faster than I'd like... I still have at least 4 weeks till last frost date. If they continue growing at this pace, I have to repot - something I tried to avoid with large-cell trays. Sigh. I raised the grow lights, hoping the plants would start to grow upwards. Last year they were leggy ones that tried to reach the sky, this time they grow like moss. Didn't expect this, ha!
Just continue to clip the leaves more aggressively. You'll end up with stumpy, sturdy transplants with robust roots.
Bob
WillQuantrill
Well-Known Member
Very nice, and uniform.
Pasiasiainen
Active Member
Pasiasiainen
Active Member
My plan: a full day in the garden
Mother Nature’s plan: back to winter – snow and high winds all day
Better luck next weekend.
Mother Nature’s plan: back to winter – snow and high winds all day
Better luck next weekend.
I feel your pain. It's like that in the mountains of Montana every year. Over the years I've seen snow in every month of the year. Best of luck to you!
Pasiasiainen
Active Member
Just a quick update. Haven’t had time to do any work in the garden. Next weekend looks promising so hopefully I’ll get everything prepared before transplanting.
About 3 weeks to last frost date if things go same way as last year, so I’ll start hardening next week.
Now that I have been growing under grow lights, and clipping the leaves, my plants are so sturdy that they feel like small trees. And this time they really look like tobacco plants, not reeds like last year.
I have been clipping the leaves about every other day. Samsun Maden is growing much taller than the others, but the rest are still quite short and that is good. Cells are getting bit crowded but I think they'll manage until I transplant.
Everything looking better than I had wished for.
About 3 weeks to last frost date if things go same way as last year, so I’ll start hardening next week.
Now that I have been growing under grow lights, and clipping the leaves, my plants are so sturdy that they feel like small trees. And this time they really look like tobacco plants, not reeds like last year.
I have been clipping the leaves about every other day. Samsun Maden is growing much taller than the others, but the rest are still quite short and that is good. Cells are getting bit crowded but I think they'll manage until I transplant.
Everything looking better than I had wished for.
Pasiasiainen
Active Member
A week off from work and finally I have time to plan the next steps and work in the garden.
Made some adjustments to my garden plans. To fit all my varieties into my tiny backyard, I decided to grow just four Little Dutch plants and get a small extra raised bed for my Samsun Maden. I am planning to plant Samsun with 20 cm spacing between plants, 40 cm between "rows".
Next, I have to build the shade structure for the CT Shade. I have bought 40% shade netting, and I was thinking of building a lightweight wooden frame from some leftover pressure-treated 2x2 lumber. Last year, my Virginia Gold and Burley 21 grew to about 180 cm tall. CT Shade is said to grow up to 9 feet / 2,7 m tall, but in my Nordic conditions, I doubt it will reach that height. So I’ll build my frame about 2,1 m above the soil level. I’m thinking of something along these lines:
The bed is 40 cm in height, and I want to leave the right side of the frame without any crossing support structures for easy access. I still need to come up with a way to raise the net — maybe a curtain-style system where pulling a rope lifts it up?
I have been checking weather forecasts and things are looking good. There are no night frost warnings from Finnish Weather Service for upcoming week and longer forecasts from Norwegian Yr.no are quite promising. I know night frosts are hard to forecast, since they can be very local. I live on a hill, so that gives me some protection from the worst frosts. I’m considering taking a small risk and transplanting already at the end of next week and covering the plants with frost cloth. That would give me one extra week compared to last year, and with Corojo and CT Shade, that extra week could come in handy.
Made some adjustments to my garden plans. To fit all my varieties into my tiny backyard, I decided to grow just four Little Dutch plants and get a small extra raised bed for my Samsun Maden. I am planning to plant Samsun with 20 cm spacing between plants, 40 cm between "rows".
Next, I have to build the shade structure for the CT Shade. I have bought 40% shade netting, and I was thinking of building a lightweight wooden frame from some leftover pressure-treated 2x2 lumber. Last year, my Virginia Gold and Burley 21 grew to about 180 cm tall. CT Shade is said to grow up to 9 feet / 2,7 m tall, but in my Nordic conditions, I doubt it will reach that height. So I’ll build my frame about 2,1 m above the soil level. I’m thinking of something along these lines:
The bed is 40 cm in height, and I want to leave the right side of the frame without any crossing support structures for easy access. I still need to come up with a way to raise the net — maybe a curtain-style system where pulling a rope lifts it up?
I have been checking weather forecasts and things are looking good. There are no night frost warnings from Finnish Weather Service for upcoming week and longer forecasts from Norwegian Yr.no are quite promising. I know night frosts are hard to forecast, since they can be very local. I live on a hill, so that gives me some protection from the worst frosts. I’m considering taking a small risk and transplanting already at the end of next week and covering the plants with frost cloth. That would give me one extra week compared to last year, and with Corojo and CT Shade, that extra week could come in handy.
The Haroo ln
Haroon
You look like you have quite good temps for Finland! If you have temps like that for the next 2 months you might want to take the precautionary measure of scaling up your shade structure. Just in case your shade plants to grow to 9 -9.5 ft...
OrlandoJoe
Member
I'm growing my first seeds as well, and my goal this first time around is to recapture seed. Lucky enough to grow year round, (at least in pots) in cd weather. Mixing in native soil early in the first round
OrlandoJoe
Member
Looks awesome! Living in Central Florida, the thing I immediately worry about is wind lifting the structure
Pasiasiainen
Active Member
These kind of temps in May are not that common here, but good point - if the upcoming summer is hotter than usual, I might get better growth. Last summer was not that bad, but my plants did not grow very tall. Also I am not going to get a full day of sun for this spot, maybe 10 h per day. (Max in Finland would be 17 hours in midsummer) Maybe I'll go with this structure height for now and figure out an easy way to raise it 0,5 m later on in the summer if needed. Small extensions to corner posts could do the trick. I do have enough shade net to raise it.
Pasiasiainen
Active Member
Good point! To be honest I have no idea what kind of wind load the the shade netting will put on the structure. We don't have constant strong winds but short summer storms are typical. I am going to attach the structure to the wooden raised bed with angle brackets, we'll see how those will hold...
Pasiasiainen
Active Member
Oh man. I changed my plans and decided not to build my shade stucture from wood after all. I found out that I did not have enough lumber to build it and should have bought some more. My trailer is full of stuff and would have needed the trailer to get the lumber. I figured out that maybe I can make my structure out of two rose arches and strenghten it with few aluminum tubes.
Bought two arches, 15€ each (cheapo versions) and some tubes. Assembled one of the arches and it feels so flimsy that I'm now worried that I can't make the stucture sturdy enough. Sigh. Will continue tomorrow and try to figure out if I can make it work. Also noticed that the shade will be is so damn tall, that if I would put it to the spot where I orginally planned, it would shade my other plants next to it.
While scratching my head over the arch, and evening getting colder (8 C) I noticed that my plants that I had brought outside a couple of hours before for hardening off, had gone droopy. Realized that I hadn't watered them before and the soil was dry. I rushed them back inside under the grow lights and watered. Hope they did not get too shocked.
After many good days, first not-so-good one.
Bought two arches, 15€ each (cheapo versions) and some tubes. Assembled one of the arches and it feels so flimsy that I'm now worried that I can't make the stucture sturdy enough. Sigh. Will continue tomorrow and try to figure out if I can make it work. Also noticed that the shade will be is so damn tall, that if I would put it to the spot where I orginally planned, it would shade my other plants next to it.
While scratching my head over the arch, and evening getting colder (8 C) I noticed that my plants that I had brought outside a couple of hours before for hardening off, had gone droopy. Realized that I hadn't watered them before and the soil was dry. I rushed them back inside under the grow lights and watered. Hope they did not get too shocked.
After many good days, first not-so-good one.