I've had a few pepper volunteers come up in my seed starts. They're happy little accidents, at least for the time being. Hopefully they wind up producing. Past results have been mixed, but I have the space so I separated them into their own containers.
I have no idea why, but my pepper leaves always turn black under my grow lights. They flip to green once they're outdoors.
Bruh give those puppies some nitrogen
Is that the reason for the dark leaves? They're planted in the same dirt they'll be in outdoors plus about 20% worm castings/fairly finished compost.
What grow light do you use? And what’s your night time temps? It could be too much of one wavelength, or it could be cold night time temps bringing anthocyanins out.
And I think they were commenting on the lime green leaves, they should be a dark green unless I’m off base on peppers.
The lights are a collection of three different LED panels. Ones just a bit black heatsync with "these are totally Samsung LM301Bs", another is a mars hydro, and the third is a VIPARSPECTRA. If anything, it seems like having some lighting diversity would result in more spectrum coverage?
The seedlings are on a heat mat that's set to 75 degrees. The mat is currently on 24/7, but it seems like the soil temp doesn't hit 75 until the lights turn on the morning. They get 16 hours of light a day in one long shot.
Edit: camera white balance is all jacked up in these photos. My pixel 3a does not like warm light temperatures.
You’re not wrong, but a quick cursory google says too much light on them could be an issue and push anthocyanins that way. I’m doing some peppers myself and my previous peppers (indoor and out) have both done it, so I’ll dig into some papers later.
I don’t think soil temperature matters too much? It’s surface “air” (leaf) temp, and when it happens to my cannabis plants, it’s usually the more light exposed ones, im trying to learn more about it.
Not gonna argue on N or anything on that, everyone has their system.
Oh, I am not saying it's not a nitrogen issues - it just tends to go away when they move outdoors. I'll have to pull one of the seedlings outdoors so they're under more neutral lighting to see what they look like.
I'll also adjust the light timer down a little and see what happens.
Regarding temperature, they're probably hanging out between 65 degrees (ambient) and not more than 75 degrees. I do have a space blanket draped to act as a reflector, but it does not go to the ground and is wide open on the top.
Can always just turn the lights off and take a picture with the room lighting or flash. But your picture in your comment looks fine, when I did soil I did salt nutrients, so not my place to recommend anything there.
Idk, I think it’s intensity, but could be related to DLI, some strains are more prone (I’ve got a purple pepper strain) to anthocyanins too. I would worry about not giving them too much light and stretching instead, I don’t know how detrimental the purpling itself is, if it’s growing, eh?
Heres my unsolicited advice though, I don think the space blanket is doing anything appreciable, but maybe potentially making a hot spot. Most of the light from the lights are pretty directional, and using inverse square law you can give yourself a rough idea of the potential benefit. You can also download an app called Photone, and it can give you a rough idea of the light power you are given them, and/or benefit from the space blanket.
Flash and turning off the grow lights is a good idea. Our house has 2.7k lighting installed everywhere, so my phone is generally unhappy at night or in the basement.
In past seasons, everything has done fine once it's transplanted so I'm not worrying too much. The first year I had dark purple/black pepper leaves I was pretty worried though.
When I installed the space blanket it seemed to help a lot but I don't have any data to back that up. I'll have to try some measurements with and without. I dabble in flashlights and know that running a LED without a reflector results in a pretty smooth beam of light. A reflector doesn't add more light, but it does help focus it. The grow lights were providing a lot of basement illumination before the space blankets went up. The plants themselves are all 6-8" away from the blanket. I will measure tomorrow and let the results guide what I do. If they're interesting I'll even make another post for others.
Hey it could be enough to retain some heat and that’s the benefit you’re aiming for instead, or as you said, even containing the light is a valid reason, but it could also maybe be causing some issues if it’s causing hot spots. But you know your conditions better than me haha.
I would love to see random almost useless data like that. I dabbled in building my own light, I didn’t hate the results, but it was just a pain to deal with.
https://imgur.com/a/M2XRoqW
Lights
My light testing results.
I like to experiment and have fun, best way to learn is to fuck it up yourself.
Haha, I'll be sure to post a follow up then
Totally agree. "Go and see" and "learn by doing" are two things I take to heart.
The leaves look yellowish in the photo you're showing. That's classic N deficiency.
Thanks for the follow up. You and @[email protected] poked me into taking a photo of one of the volunteers taken outdoors:
The lower leaf is a touch yellow, but the plant seems fairly green. I am starting to mix a little miracle grow into their water so we'll see if that helps while they're under the grow light.
Oh. Ok those look way better. Just lighting I guess. I wouldn't worry about nutrients then.