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.

  • IMALlama@lemmy.worldOP
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    3 months ago

    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.

    • SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      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.

      • IMALlama@lemmy.worldOP
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        3 months ago

        I would love to see random almost useless data like that.

        Haha, I’ll be sure to post a follow up then

        I like to experiment and have fun, best way to learn is to fuck it up yourself.

        Totally agree. “Go and see” and “learn by doing” are two things I take to heart.