Blorvak's Greenhorn 2014 - End of Season Wrap Up!

blorvak · Jun 2, 2014

Two weeks from plant out, and plants seem to be growing slowly. Which is better than not growing. Mixed up some knock off Cal Mag and hit them for their first foliar feeding.

Everybody is still a bit small, but some of the anuums are putting out some pods. No Chinese pods yet... well, looks like some of the Trinidad Beans have some flowers setting, but they're so small, I hesitate to make the call yet. Hopefully, the sunny week coming will speed the plants up a bit.

The Joe E. Parker pepper has the award for the biggest pod so far:

And the Alma Paprika is doing great:

That's all I got for now. Back to the waiting game!

Runescape · Jun 2, 2014

How's the goats weed doin? Seemed like it was podding up a couple updates ago...

blorvak · Jun 4, 2014

Runescape said:
How's the goats weed doin? Seemed like it was podding up a couple updates ago...

Sorry for the late reply! On a mini vacation. Back and fussing over peppers!

So the Goat's Weed is doing good. Three pods on it, and one is sizable. Hope the recent spent flowers pod up:

Also have my first confirmed Chinese pod... Trinidad Gold Bean. It's tiny, but it exists!:

Not a ton of growth since plant out, but night temps are still in the low 50's. Hoping they'll ramp up fast once we get our warm season.

blorvak · Jun 11, 2014

Been busy busy these days with jobs and vacations and such. Which is just as well, because plants are growing slooooowly. But growing. That's the important part!

My sole happy Chinese is the Trinidad Gold Bean. It's set 4 pods and counting:

The Yellow 7 Pot has it's first blossom:

In the Anuum corner, the Goat's Weed's first pods are getting big, and it's setting more:

The Fish Pepper is putting all it's effort into it's main stem. It's looking like it's getting ready to do... something:

And it looks like the Alma Paprika might be the first to ripen:

That's all the excitement for now! Weather has been exceptionally nice. Which means we have some rain in the forecast! As long as the temp keep inching warmer, I'm happy.

HabaneroHead · Jun 14, 2014

Hello,

Nice plants! What are your plants with the Almapaprika? I have a good pickled Almapaprika recipe, let me know if you need it :-)

Balázs

blorvak · Jun 14, 2014

HabaneroHead said:
Hello,

Nice plants! What are your plants with the Almapaprika? I have a good pickled Almapaprika recipe, let me know if you need it :-)

Balázs

Nice! I would love the recipe! My Grandmother's parents immigrated from Hungary, so my Mom would be interested in the recipe as well!

Having a bit of a cold snap. It's been 70-80, but today it's cloudy and in the 60's. Perfect gardening weather, really. Planted collards, lettuce, yu choi sum, and okra seeds, and a few squash starts I'd been gifted. Feeling productive!

Peppers are finally collectively looking better after their dirt day trauma. I trimmed off the ugly leaves today, and everybody has new growth. It may be slow, and boringly steady growth, but I'll take it.

Success story of the season so far: Yellow Rocoto. This plant was two tiny sets of leaves for months. I had written it off when it started to seriously yellow. But changing out the soil made it rally, and it was the only pepper that suffered from no sunburn, or yellowing of the leaves after transplant. It's even gearing up some flowers:

Here's a collective shot of the in ground plants:

If only they were doing as good as the tomatoes:

Tomatoes are LOVING the weather. Here's a Big Beef, already setting some tiny beefs:

And the tomatillos may be doing better than the tomatoes:

That's all I got for now. Thanks for reading! Hoping I might get a pod soon. Will probably be the Alma Paprika, but Goat's Weed is doing rather well too.

Runescape · Jun 15, 2014

Plants are all lookin neat... nice to hear about the rocoto, hopefully those flowers set... That tomatillo looks awesome lol.

Ragnar · Jun 15, 2014

Things are looking pretty good here! Great work. I agree the tomatillos are looking huge!

blorvak · Jun 17, 2014

Runescape said:
Plants are all lookin neat... nice to hear about the rocoto, hopefully those flowers set... That tomatillo looks awesome lol.

Thanks! It's my first year growing Tomatillos, and I'm getting pretty excited for them. I dream of salsa verde...

AaronRiot said:
Things are looking pretty good here! Great work. I agree the tomatillos are looking huge!

Again, thanks! Of course Mother Nature wants to keep the plants on their toes, so today we get huge thunderstorms. Some serious hail. Pretty rare for this area.

You know you're spending a bit of time on THP when you run out in an absolute downpour to throw a trash bag over the Yellow 7 Pot to save it from hail damage. :crazy:

Most of the plants weathered the storm no worse for wear, but the 7 pot and the Datil were hit hard. Lots of holes. So they're back to looking ugly again. Ah well. As I've said before, you need to be a tough plant to grow in my garden.

stc3248 · Jun 20, 2014

Very nice list of plants you got going...and yes the tomatoes make it look easy, but the tomatillos make it look even easier! Those plants will start to gain some speed now that your temps are getting better.

blorvak · Jun 21, 2014

stc3248 said:
Very nice list of plants you got going...and yes the tomatoes make it look easy, but the tomatillos make it look even easier! Those plants will start to gain some speed now that your temps are getting better.

Thanks! Yep, I'm hoping so. We had a short cool snap (and hail), but weather is looking much warmer. Nights are finally getting to the upper 50's.

Speaking of hail, the datil took it right on the nose:

Tempering my hopes for this guy. It seems to want warmer weather anyway, so maybe it will recover once we get back to the 80's.

The Mako akokosrade took some damage as well, but not nearly as bad. These guys were looking so good before that thunderstorm! :evil:

:

But it's not all bad. The plants with smaller leaves did okay. My purple cayenne is finally putting on some growth and flowers!:

And the Goat's Weed continues to be my best performer out of the gate. It's set several more pods, and is beginning to bush out:

The Aji Limon is bulking up, but doesn't have any blossoms yet:

And my third year hops are looking much better than last year. Keeping an eye on the aphids. Aphids love hops most of all. Very few ladybugs this year, but lots of soldier beetles. And even a cone forming already!:

In other aphid news, my kale was completely overrun by little grey aphids in a week. From none to massive colonies. Fearing a spread to the rest of the garden, I pruned the worst leaves, and have been spraying daily with a Safer pyrethrin spray. Have some ladybugs on order. Only seen a few this year thus far. Hopefully, they'll stick around.

That's all I got. Have a great weekend!

stc3248 · Jun 21, 2014

I have had hail damage like that before, and other than ugly...the plants took it in stride. Goat's Weeds are one of my favorite varieties, first year in a long time I haven't grown any, will be fun watching yours! Where did your seed come from?

Devv · Jun 21, 2014

Very nice grow!

Sorry about the hail damage, but as mentioned before, they took it well. They will shake that off and impress you.

So do you brew your own beer?

blorvak · Jun 22, 2014

stc3248 said:
I have had hail damage like that before, and other than ugly...the plants took it in stride. Goat's Weeds are one of my favorite varieties, first year in a long time I haven't grown any, will be fun watching yours! Where did your seed come from?

That's good to know! Peppers may not grow fast, but they do seem pretty hardy. Purchased the Goat's Weed from Trade Wind Seeds. Did you post some pics of your previous year's Goat's Weed on your blog? Loved those, but with so many blogs, I sometimes forget where I see pics. :halo:

Devv said:
Very nice grow!

Sorry about the hail damage, but as mentioned before, they took it well. They will shake that off and impress you.

So do you brew your own beer?

Thanks! It's quite modest compared to your grow, but I'm hoping I learn a thing or two this year.

It's pretty rare that we get significant hail around here. Lots of rain, yes, but not that many big thunderstorms. Ah well, the mild spring temps have been great on the whole, so I really can't complain!

I do brew my own beer! Doing so right now, actually. Hoping that my hops produce enough for me to brew a fresh hop ale this year.

Runescape · Jun 22, 2014

Pretty neat that your growing hops, how old is your plant? Sucks about the hail, hopefully they bounce back...

stc3248 · Jun 22, 2014

Yes I did...they're very photogenic. Some of the best powdering peppers you can grow too.

blorvak · Jun 23, 2014

Runescape said:
Pretty neat that your growing hops, how old is your plant? Sucks about the hail, hopefully they bounce back...

This is year three for the hops, so I'm hoping they kick into high gear this season. First year I got more than I expected - second I got less. Even if they under-perform, I know enough people growing them that I have no worries about getting some fresh hops in August!

stc3248 said:
Yes I did...they're very photogenic. Some of the best powdering peppers you can grow too.

Awesome! Excited to get some powder!

So, I went out and trimmed off the unhappy leaves again so the plants could put their efforts into new growth. The datil looks much better:

This is my Aji Habanero. Strange plant. It's always been very pale, and reedy. Has a few blossoms. Curious to see if this one gets a third act:

Another oddity is the Tunisian Baklouti. The fastest grower in a solo cup, but very slow in the soil. It seems to be setting some pods, even with the lack of many leaves:

Here's my other Trinidad Bean, the cola variety. Bigger, but no set pods yet. Finally has some flowers:

Have a few jalapenos. Was thinking about picking them, but I'm holding out until they cork a bit:

Waiting to get some color on the Alma Paprika too:

And finally, invited some friends over for an aphid feast!:

Gave the peppers, tomatoes, and eggplant their first fish juice feeding today. High temps are up and down this week, but night temps are increasing significantly. Hoping for some more fruit to set.

stc3248 · Jun 23, 2014

Them lady bugs are a great investment! They'll really work overtime on the nasties for you.

blorvak · Jun 29, 2014

stc3248 said:
Them lady bugs are a great investment! They'll really work overtime on the nasties for you.

I read somewhere online that you shouldn't buy the commercial ladybugs, because they're harvested when swarming and will just fly away without eating anything. Took that advice with a big grain of salt. Glad I did, because the buggers have stuck around and are happily munching away:

We've had rain and a dip in the highs as of late, but the nights are warming up. Beginning to see growth on even the slowest of the bunch.

The Yellow Rocoto has blossoms all over it! Very exciting!

It even has tiny pods! Crossing my fingers that these don't fall off. If I get some rocoto pods this year, I will be a happy camper indeed!:

While we're on the subject of purple, the Purple Cayenne has blossoms all over it as well, and set at least a few this week. Baby Cayennes!:

The Fish Pepper was my only annuum without any flowers... until today:

Not a lot of variegation in the upper leaves, but the lower leaves are looking quite striped.

Another late bloomer is the Pequin. Very first blossom today as well! Pretty plant:

In the comeback corner, the datil with all the hail damage is putting out some new leaves:

And the cracked jalapeno is putting out a second round of flowers, and setting round two of pods:

Tomatillos are setting fruit!:

Hopefully a portend of many more down the line!:

That's 10! On a general note, the warm nights seem to be key to my plants putting out new growth. Or maybe it just coincided with an extensive period of root growth. The Chinense still haven't set any pods, with the exception of the Trinidad Gold Bean, and neither have the Baccatum. We've got a 90 in the forecast this week, so I'm hoping the tropical plants will be a bit happier!

Hope everyone is having a good weekend! The 4th is coming up!

blorvak · Jul 4, 2014

Happy 4th of July everyone! I got the day off, I've got fireworks (legal ones only, of course), and I've got peppers!

So, I'm declaring my first official victory of the year with a Yellow Rocoto pod. First year growing, on a first year plant! :party:

It's still dropping some flowers, but set a few more (I hope!). With the number of flowers it's putting out, seems to be a happy plant:

Ignore the dandelions!

Fish pepper is getting all growed up!

Starting to flower:

The Black Hungarian is doing the same. Got big, started to kick out the flowers:

And it has attractive flowers:

My second Chinense to set pods! Trinidad Cola Bean:

Current title for Best All-around Performance goes to the Goat's Weed:

Pods hiding everywhere:

Going with sheer size, the Aji Lemon is big. No flowers yet. Wasn't expecting it to be the giant of the garden, but I'm fine with it. Still bulking up:

And that's 10! Might have some more with a bump.

In other exciting developments, the Purple Cayenne set it's first pods this week, like 10 at the same time. Hard to get pics of

The Pequin, and Mako Akokosrade looks to have baby pods as well. Everybody's really liking the warmth.