Growing Chillis, Peppers and Aubergines: Day #35 - Side shoots, deficiencies & 37,000 lux

Five weeks since the seeds were sown and the first side shoots are growing. This Cayenne plant has two sets of true leaves and is creating it's 3rd set of true leaves at the same time as side-shooting in all leaf nodes. I do want to create a double-stemmed adult plant for cropping but it's time to start managing the side shoots. This week I'll have to finish writing-up my side-shooting strategy and then come back with some scissors....

5 week old Cayenne plant side-shooting

Overall the 30 plants are doing very well under 30W of 6,500k led light at room temperature (22c). Plants at the edge of the tray are noticeably tilting towards the light so I'm occasionally rotating plants from the middle to the edges. When I have time I'll rearrange the lights for more even coverage.

Pepper & Aubergine seedlings under 30W LED light

Some of the younger seedlings are still in a propagator. Mainly because I ran out of plastic cups for potting up (so much for all my planning!), but they'll be potted up in the next few days. The edges of the leaves show some very clear damage and I think this was a micro-nutrient deficiency. The coir pellets have no nutrients and after just a week in coir the leaves showed dark discolouration. After water with a liquid fertiliser the new growth looks very healthy but the areas that previously discoloured have died. Hopefully not a problem for these plants, they are growing strong now, but a lesson for next year.

Cayenne seedlings in coir showing nutrient deficiency leaf damage

The propagator light is quite different to the main LED's I'm using. The propagator is from Ikea, no idea the specification, but the strip lights below it at 10W each 6,500k. More important than the power is how much light the plants received.... (continued below)

Comparing light intensity of Ikea propagator and  30W's of LE

I'm using an app called Lux Meter to check light intensity. The results are quite surprising with the lux level dropping off quickly with distance from the lights. Both both of these readings were taken directly under the 10W LED. The 5.7k lux reading is taken at the leaf height of the smallest seedlings and the 36.8k lux reading is taken at the height of the tallest. So as the plants grow taller they are starting to receive much more light and this has been noticeable. Each day over the last 3-4 days I've noticed significant growth in the largest plants, much more than previously and more than the smaller plants. 

What about the Habanado's? Still no signs of germination. But I'll keep waiting....