dash 2, 2014: You're Doing It Wrong!

PrimeTime · Jun 21, 2014

looking good!

What were the peps on the grill?

Helvete · Jun 21, 2014

That Reaper looks like a beast! I lost all of my overwinters, every one of them...they were annuum though and were easy enough to find again. The weather man called for 45º one night I think in April so I left them out in the greenhouse and it got below freezing, none of them made it.

Are you getting any flowering yet? :fire:

Runescape · Jun 22, 2014

dash 2 said:
Stay tuned in case I post another update before frost!

Lol... sounds like you had the same crap as trent, regarding the 2,4-d... he updated his glog through the insane growth, crazy stuff...

Hybrid Mode 01 · Jun 24, 2014

PrimeTime said:
looking good!

What were the peps on the grill?

Thanks! Those are mostly Anaheims and a few corno di toros.

ikeepfish said:
That Reaper looks like a beast! I lost all of my overwinters, every one of them...they were annuum though and were easy enough to find again. The weather man called for 45º one night I think in April so I left them out in the greenhouse and it got below freezing, none of them made it.

Are you getting any flowering yet?

Sorry to hear about your OWs. That's a real kick in the balls to have to throw out all that hard work because of a few measly hours of fluke weather. Considering how hard this last winter and spring were on my plants, I feel pretty fortunate that I was able to keep as many of them alive as I did.
Oh yeah. LOTS of flowering. It's hard to see in that shot of the Reaper just how many buds and flowers are on that plant, but I've never seen a plant more gung-ho about makin' babies! A few of my plants are still only growing vegetatively, but all my big OWs and all of the plants I started last summer are ready to go.

Runescape said:
Lol... sounds like you had the same crap as trent, regarding the 2,4-d... he updated his glog through the insane growth, crazy stuff...

I checked out his glog to see what his plants looked like. Yup, same crap. I think mine were hit harder, though. For about two weeks, all the new growth on every one of my plants consisted of leaves that were no more than 1/2" long and about 1/8" wide. I should've taken some pics, but for a while there it was pretty depressing to even look at my garden let alone document the disaster.

Hybrid Mode 01 · Jun 25, 2014

Right after my last update I noticed that one of my mustard habs was just starting to pod up. I figured I'd throw in a pic of it when it came time for my next update. Lo and behold, I went out today to do my ritual BLS scouting and debridement duties (more on that later…) and seemingly overnight almost all of my chinenses have pods!

Here's the mustard hab I noticed last week. It looked a lot less blurry when I saw it on the plant a minute ago.

These bhut yellows are quickly catching up to the mustard habs in size.

I also found a few remnants of my battle with herbicide drift. I still occasionally find a couple of effed up looking shoots popping up on my OWs. At the time my plants got hit, they had so many more shoots than my starts that is was difficult to make sure I picked off EVERY SINGLE stunted shoot or bud. The ones I missed are usually found hiding deep inside the plant, growing very slowly.
A few of my plants are showing a different kind of damage, though. I noticed a bunch of my tomatoes that were particularly hard hit started to grow weird leaves with several midveins and stems that were shaped weird - rectangular in profile, like a fan belt. Now I'm seeing pepper plants with those weird growth patterns, too.

Here's a leaf on a TS CARDI.

Here's another leaf on the same plant. It's hard to see in this pic, but that petiole is like a stalk of celery!

This is a red bell with a rectangular stem. It almost looks like two stems emerged from a node and just didn't properly differentiate. This would make sense considering the type of herbicide that likely caused the damage. I am a horrible photographer.

Some of my tomatoes' stems look like this ^ except they appear to have many more stems stuck together. They actually look like the ridged side of a fan belt.
While I was out scouting, I found a couple of friends on one of my Numex Suave. It looks like organic gardening practices and companion planting are paying off - every time I look at my plants I find hoverflies, lady bugs/larvae, lacewings, mantises, dragonflies and just enough aphids to keep the predators interested.

Lacewing egg on Suave.

Mantis on Suave.

Earlier today I placed an order for everything I'll need to start brewing AACT. I'd been thinking about doing it since last winter and I've decided that there's no better time than now to get it going. The main firecracker under my foot for making tea is the BLS infection plaguing my plants as of late.
Two weeks ago one plant had it. I quarantined it (container) in one spot and the two containers that were next to it in another. A few days later, they both started showing lesions and now about a third of my plants have it. Right now, I'm keeping up on it by picking off all infected leaves and doing some pruning to increase air flow in the plants. I'm going to do some digging to find out if there's anything I can do for them in the meantime.
As always, thanks for stopping by el jardin del dasho dos!

Hybrid Mode 01 · Jul 1, 2014

Is it done yet? Is it done yet? Is it done yet? Is it done yet?!

My AACT stuff arrived yesterday and I can't WAIT to start juicin' my plants! I started a batch with about 4.5 gallons of water, 300ml EWC, 40ml Mykos, 40ml kelp granules, and 80ml horticultural molasses. Hopefully regular spraying of this stuff will start to turn the tide on my (plants') current BLS infection.

In other news, I only have a handful of plants that aren't podding up right now. I think my Reaper, 7 pot yellow, TS CARDI and bhut brown are about the only varieties still holding out. As always seems to be the case, I turn my back for five minutes and my Caribbean reds go from having only a few flowers to being flush with pods.

Caribbean red podding up fast. It looks like I'm going to have buckets of these guys like last year! :party:

So far the hot paper lantern habanero seems to be a solid addition to my grow list. I decided to give it a shot because I love red habaneros and I like the the larger size of the pods which will make it easier to harvest and roast them. (Caribbean reds are soooo tiny!) I like everything I see of them - fast growing, VERY productive, attractive plant, seems unaffected by BLS… About all that's left to evaluate is flavor, and I should be testing that pretty soon!

Hot paper lantern habanero podding up.

That's all I have for now. I took a bunch more pics; these just happen to be the ones that aren't blurry as hell. Stay tuned, I'm gonna start going a little crazy with the compost tea and documenting the results right here. Take care everybody. Here's to pepper growin' weather! :cheers:

Runescape · Jul 1, 2014

Damn, awesome pods, dude!

Hybrid Mode 01 · Jul 3, 2014

Runescape said:
Damn, awesome pods, dude!

lol That's NOTHING, Runescape! Wait 'till you see the update I'm going to post later today. My Reaper and TS CARDIs are covered in pods now, too. I'll also have some pics of a couple of weird-looking pods (are 7-pots supposed to have tails?).

Runescape · Jul 3, 2014

dash 2 said:
Wait 'till you see the update I'm going to post later today.

Neat lol, cant wait...

Hybrid Mode 01 · Jul 3, 2014

Just a quick update to show plants podding up and just exploding with growth in general.

Here's a hot paper lantern habanero. I love the foliage on these plants

Reaper pods! This is one of about a hundred on this plant. All BB to marble size.

Cayenne plant, doin' its thing.

Bhut brown, just getting going.

TS CARDI

7pot yellow

Same plant as above. Is this normal for a 7 pot?

Another 7 pot yellow. (in a 10gallon container) Look at the branch structure on this maf'k!

Same plant, from above.

Numex Suave, fatalii, bhut yellow. (left to right)

Bump, please?

tsurrie · Jul 3, 2014

Bump!

nice plants

Hybrid Mode 01 · Jul 3, 2014

Bhut yellow, fatalii, suave, bhut brown, lemon drop, 7 pot yellow (left to right)

Okra (crampin' my jalapeños' style…)

My OWs. The big one is the Reaper.

Onions, shallots and superhots.

Bush beans, sweet potatoes, parsley, tomatoes and more onions.

And finally, a couple pics of my cacti. They sure are diggin' their new homes!

The top of this one is about the size of a football. That's a standard business size envelope for scale!

That's all I got for now. Enjoy the weekend everybody. Don't blow off any fingers with fireworks!

JoynersHotPeppers · Jul 3, 2014

The 7 Pot yellows do look off, maybe just early pod syndrome. That is exactly how my early bubblegum's look.

Nice looking plants!

Runescape · Jul 3, 2014

Lol dat branch structure...everything looking neat...How old are those cacti?

Hybrid Mode 01 · Jul 3, 2014

tsurrie said:
nice plants

Thanks!

JoynersHotPeppers said:
The 7 Pot yellows do look off, maybe just early pod syndrome. That is exactly how my early bubblegum's look.

Nice looking plants!

Thanks! I hope that's the case. If I got labels mixed up and that plant is something other than a 7 pot yellow, that means I only have one more.

Runescape said:
Lol dat branch structure...everything looking neat...How old are those cacti?

You may laugh, but I've found good branch structure to be pretty important for overall plant health. Having them spaced properly allows air to flow through the inside of the plant so it can dry out faster after rain or heavy dew. Also, maintaining a stem without branches close to the ground helps keep mud from splashing up on the plant, and it promotes even more airflow.
I think I started those cacti from cuttings in 2007 or 2008. Now that I have a good handle on what exactly these species like for growing conditions, they're really starting to take off. The T. pachanoi (tall dark green ones) grow about a foot and a half a year!

juanitos · Jul 3, 2014

yeah i was going to say 7 pot yellows look more like morugas

yeah i love the hab lanterns, i didn't realize the stems would be a little fuzzy (like a wild) pretty cool. I haven't got any ripes ones yet, my pods look like yours!

Blister · Jul 3, 2014

The plants look great so far. I have a stupid question for you. We don't have cacti here in BC, so other than "carefully" how do you pot up a cactus that big?

Neil

Ragnar · Jul 3, 2014

Peppers look to be thriving, you're in for a good harvest methinks. And those cacti are huge! I happened upon some Trich. seed and they're just starting to develop spines. It'll be a looong wait before they match those monsters.

Hybrid Mode 01 · Jul 4, 2014

OKGrowin said:
yeah i was going to say 7 pot yellows look more like morugas

yeah i love the hab lanterns, i didn't realize the stems would be a little fuzzy (like a wild) pretty cool. I haven't got any ripes ones yet, my pods look like yours!

I got faked out yesterday when I looked at my lanterns just like you did a while ago. Just some suntan at the top of a few of the pods. :rolleyes:

I should've known - judging by the size of yours, it's gonna be a little while before mine start to redden up.
I don't know what to think about that yellow 7. The plant looks way different than the other one I have in a container. (It hasn't podded up yet, so I can't compare that aspect.) Maybe the guy I bought the seeds from mixed them up or didn't isolate properly. That's part of the fun of gardening, though. No matter how much we may think we've got all our ducks in a row, sometimes Ma Nature just wants to watch us squirm...

Blister said:
The plants look great so far. I have a stupid question for you. We don't have cacti here in BC, so other than "carefully" how do you pot up a cactus that big?

Neil

lol "Carefully" is about the best way to describe the process from start to finish! First I stood next to each cactus and kind of "acted out" the physical motions I would be going through to pluck the plant out of its old pot and stick it in the new one. This allowed me to get an idea of where I'd need to put my hands on the cactus to get the best grip on it. Then I used a wire cutter to remove the spines from the spots where I would be grabbing it.
Then I used a long (crappy, old) bread knife to free up the root ball from the pot they were in. Once they were cut free, I picked them up (using thick leather gloves) and set them in their new (empty) pots. I put them in a safe place, leaning them just right so they wouldn't tip over. Easier said than done. While I was setting it down, the big cactus in the last pic (T. macrogonus) started to tip over and the only way to keep it from going was to catch it with my forearm (it was that or my face). All of its weight (~50 lbs) was behind ONE spine that stabbed me in the wrist. I think it hit a blood vessel because it left a bruise that lasted over a month.
Anyhoo. I let the (unpotted) cacti sit for a for a few weeks so the roots had a chance to callus over the spots that got damaged when I cut them out of their old pots. This is important - if freshly damaged roots sit in soil, they will likely rot. Then I mixed up some soil (MetroMix 830, TomatoTone, lime, bone meal and a bunch of perlite), potted them up and let them sit outside in the shade to get them ready for summer. And here we are!

AaronRiot said:
Peppers look to be thriving, you're in for a good harvest methinks. And those cacti are huge! I happened upon some Trich. seed and they're just starting to develop spines. It'll be a looong wait before they match those monsters.

Thanks for the props! Yeah, if you want to grow cacti, cuttings are the way to go. It takes them sooooo long to get to the point where mine are, but once they get to that size, they grow like mad! My T. bridgesii (smaller cacti in wide pot) are setting all kinds of pups this year. I counted seven yesterday. If you want, I could send you a cutting to speed things up. Remind me this fall, and it's yours. I'll walk you through my method for what I've found to be ideal care for them, and you'll have a forest of the little fuckers in no time!

Ragnar · Jul 4, 2014

dash 2 said:
Thanks for the props! Yeah, if you want to grow cacti, cuttings are the way to go. It takes them sooooo long to get to the point where mine are, but once they get to that size, they grow like mad! My T. bridgesii (smaller cacti in wide pot) are setting all kinds of pups this year. I counted seven yesterday. If you want, I could send you a cutting to speed things up. Remind me this fall, and it's yours. I'll walk you through my method for what I've found to be ideal care for them, and you'll have a forest of the little f**kers in no time!

Thanks for the offer bro! Very generous of you. I'll have to pass it up though, I'm up in Canada and I think the shipping would be pretty costly. Unsure on customs, too.

My little guys are Pachanoi and Peruvianus. I kinda like the idea of growing them out from seed. At the end of summer I may get some Bridgesii seeds so start as well as a couple other non-trich species.