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miguelovic 2014 - A Greenhorns Trip into Organics

Hello all from the West Coast of Canada!
 
Usually a wordless forum lurker, but this place has de-shelled me a bit. I know a few of you so far and am looking forward to meeting, learning and growing along with everyone else. There is a hell of a lot of experience in one place and your strain lists are mind boggling :) Hehe already reminds me of the Mag
 
By way of an introduction, a rambling monologue.
 
I've always had a bit of a taste for firey foods, but what really sparked it off was a trip down island one year to a Goat Roofed farmers market. After an hour in front of the largest collection of hot sauces I had ever seen, I finally made a choice and headed to the register.
 
Somewhat confident in my choice, I double checked with the clerk to ensure I had grabbed the hottest one available, only to be told there were two brands they were required to keep behind the counter. Enter Cajohns Mongoose, exit tomato sauce.
 
I still miss that tiny little bottle, so many spicey roasted meats. So many machismos rolling around on the ground, dumb struck that a teaspoon of anything could overpower them.
 
Since then I have burned both holes in so many ways, so many places. Pure capsaicin is highly unrecommended, it has no flavour or redeeming quality other than mind blowing pain :D
 
And so after getting into growing as a career and hobby, it was only a matter of time before I went organic and ordered some seeds.
 
From PepperJoe.
 
Lesson learned, research things more :D
 
I learned to grow in coir commercially, with the obligatory collection of salty Kool-aid style plant food, so this is all Greek to me, but will surely be a stunning success. Aim high and settle for anything above total failure.
 
The starter soil, seeds and clones.
 
1 Part Peat/Coco 80/20
1 Part EWC/Compost 50/50
1 Part Perlite/Vermiculite 50/50
 
Trace alfalfa and kelp.
Limed and rock dusted.
 
Thoughts so far. Switching out peat for composted bark/fines, dropping the compost and never buying perlite/verm again. Subject to hypocrasy, availability on some products here is touch and go, and so far I refuse to pay for shipping.
 
General potting soil.
 
1 Part Peat/Coco 80/20
1 Part EWC/Compost 50/50
1 Part Perlite/Vermiculite 50/50
 
Amended with 2-3 cups per cubic foot of
 
1 part neem/alfalfa/cottonseed
1 part bone meal
1/2 part kelp meal
1/2 part greensand
Eye balled in some ground comfrey/stinging nettle.
 
Kept moist with left over tea and anything else of that ilk.
 
And is nitrogen heavy as funk. The soil was never intended for peppers as well. The plan so far is to mix in relatively fresh bark/wood mulch to tie up some nitrogen until the first crop is over, but that smacks of other thinking and I'll probably just bite the bullet, buy something, and butter it out a bit. Results will be awesome or painfully hilarious.
 
I started late, especially after the fiasco of feeding my first few seeds to the fungus gnat gods (pepperjoe comes in handy!)
 
Here are the survivors, circa late March, after sterilizing the soil with SM90 and the seeds with a mild peroxide soak.
 
Three popped! 10% Germ! The fogginess is the impenetrable shield wall I constructed to protect against FG
 
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And so I ordered a few more seeds, and am batting 7/7 now with a 24hour presoak, sown direct in soil. Below a group shot
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Black Zebra Cherry (Upon actual investigation, a terrible choice. Flavour described as "bland" or "average" :D) The undersides are almost completely purple.
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Bhut Jolokai (tomatogrowers.com) light purpling, raised the bulbs today
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Morouga Scorpions and 7Pod (in the front) Here I also discovered and quickly lost the shiney clean shooting filter on the camera
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Deadly chemicals and homemade toxic garbage
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Inspiring
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Lit by a slew of T8's, amended at the end of the outdoor season with stronger lighting. I would like to get LED, but the canopy will be thick and I've got a hard on for a Philips 400w CMH. Though like reality that will soften with time and age. I change my mind frequently and erratically as well, so we shall see.
 
The plants will be trained/pruned with some back of the head thinking that they are coming inside to finish and winter, some will be topped to observe results. Scraggly undergrowth is frowned upon.
 
I prefer DIY to prefab, and will be thieving everything I can from Mother Nature (like candy from a baby says I), everything from leaf mould to nettles.
 
And so, with limited plant count, the usual line up of newbie strains and foul ups and a firey love for growing my own poisons, we'll see where this heads!
 
The usual 3C's
 
Any criticisms, cwuestions and comments welcome :)
 
Pictures from the long ago - I'm getting pretty lazy in this regard XD
 
Bubbly and burnt Morouga
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Much Happier Looking Brother
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Wee little flowers
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Hugelkultur? Or lazily rotting a post out of the ground. A terrible idea, I blame :high:
Wood preservatives make good 'maters...
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Proud Marine Dad said:
Looking good Michael. Perlite is a PITA isn't it? I love the red lava rock in it's place but it sure is heavy.
 
Thanks, and Jaysus, I hate the stuff even more now. I would've gone with hydrocorn/lava rock, but I was flat broke at the time XD
 
 
sp33d said:
Looking good dude looking real good to me....that moruga looks like a champ...


..mmmmmmmm dr bronners I love the way that feels on my jewels...seriously... ;) my hippie wife introduced that stuff to me years ago...have used it ever since for my body wash..good stuff..ok back on topic... :)
 
:rofl:  Try tea tree oil on the ol' marble purse, similar results XD
 
 
 
Devv said:
I saw a while back a line or two about biochar, now that's some good stuff! I made a bunch and added 3"s to 2/3 of the garden, did a test the first season with corn. Half in the biochar and half out. The corn in the biochar needed less nutes and less water and grew way better. Probably close to 2 feet taller. I used it for it's ability to grab the nutes and stop them from leaching on down.
 
Keep it green!
 
Thanks for dropping by. Those results sound gold, I was thinking of using it for similar reasons, but mostly to cut my reliance on cheap perlite.
 
solid7 said:
Point to note - try "pre-soaking" your biochar, if you didn't already.

Like I was saying earlier, I know more than one orgranic grower that make biochar, and steep it in rabbit manure.  You don't get a much better combo than biochar, rabbit poo, and seaweed.  It's sorta the "trifecta", if you will. (in my humble opinion)
 
That sounds bloody awesome. I haven't tried it yet, but can't wait to test it out. I'll definitely be doing a soak of some kind when I do, it can't be hard to scrounge up some rabbit droppings :dance:
 
miguelovic said:
 
That sounds bloody awesome. I haven't tried it yet, but can't wait to test it out. I'll definitely be doing a soak of some kind when I do, it can't be hard to scrounge up some rabbit droppings :dance:
 
 
If you can't find rabbit poo, you can always start a worm bin.  I prefer the rabbits, but worms work more than good.
 
solid7 said:
 
 
If you can't find rabbit poo, you can always start a worm bin.  I prefer the rabbits, but worms work more than good.
 
I've got to get my ass on composting and/or vermicomposting one of these days. The house doesn't produce much waste, but I'm a pretty good scrounger and can think of a few places to nip inputs. I've got a friend that raises rabbits and chickens, who I'm sure wouldn't mind parting with some good ol' poop.
 
 
Seven Pod/Pot Douglah - many flowers drop, but they're atleast producing pollen now. Maybe one or two set.
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Gnary Morouga - same as above, started out sterile but there are a few buds I have my fingers crossed for.
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Champeen (comparatively speaking XD) Morouga - pod sets below
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One pod, ah ha ha ha ha
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Two pods, ah ha ha ha ha
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Three pods, ah ha ha ha ha
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I never watch that show anymore. Ever. God damnit, why isn't it Monday morning yet.
 
Pod sets are three sided, unpimply little things. I believe first pods don't necessarily look like those to come, but I'm quite sure it isn't a Morouga XD Looks more like a bumpless bhut.
 
Group shot
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Poblanananano pods - chile reinos here we go (next month XD)
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Also ate my first self-grown 'mater. It was... tomato-ey. Next year I'll be doing this in June/July :rofl:
 
Homegrown food is the way to go. The wife and I have been gardening since 1982. Now we garden so we don't have to buy the chemical laden produce the stores sell.
 
Congrats on the poddage and your first matie, I'm sure by now your hooked!
 
miguelovic said:
 
I've got to get my ass on composting and/or vermicomposting one of these days. The house doesn't produce much waste, but I'm a pretty good scrounger and can think of a few places to nip inputs. I've got a friend that raises rabbits and chickens, who I'm sure wouldn't mind parting with some good ol' poop.
 
Well, if you can scrape together some rabbit poo and some red wigglers, then you've really got something.  Pick some fresh seaweed, put it through an old food processor, and then put it in the worm bins with the rabbit poo, then I'd dare say in a month's time, you'll have the finest compost known to man.  The only way you'll be able to top that, is add your biochar in the "soup bucket" under the worm bin.
 
Do you see a theme starting to emerge here? ;)
 
Dude you won't be disappointed if you start vermicomposting....been doing it for awhile now.. Not only is it cool to not have to throw away your food scraps but the fresh EWC is beyond good for your gardening needs....;)
 
Sweet Mother of Beelzebub! Zoroaster hu Akbar! A mah-f**kin' tail!
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Praying to Baccus it's not a genetic fart!
 
 
Das-Boot! (Not a Bhut, it's on the one ambiguously labelled Seven/Sleven Pot/Pod Douglah/Douglas)
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All sorts of pagan and heretical jabberings!
 
Ima go see how fast I can drink a beer making the sign of the devil/some fool Mason hand signal.
 
 
Maybe I was a little harsh on ol' Joe too early.
 
 
 
Nah. Still got my Not-Morouga :P
 
Huevos - might pick the leaf off/discard, or at the stem and bottle it. Interested to see what they are, I'm leaning towards a type of moth.
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Inside the Not-Morouga Probably-Bhut, with droopy leaves prior to drying out. Not good :P Set back by overwatering/rain/dew, and probably have some funk going on down below now as a result.
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Lonely Morouga-whatever-the-deuce-it-is. There's actually about a dozen or so tiny pods set. Getting much more proactive about hiding them from rain and dew, and surprise surprise, more pollen and setting flowers.
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Douglah-7Paddy
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Wow that is freaky looking...luckily I don't have or hopefully no one has Trypophobia because that would certainly freak them out...
miguelovic said:
Huevos - might pick the leaf off/discard, or at the stem and bottle it. Interested to see what they are, I'm leaning towards a type of moth.
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I don't think it is, if we are looking at same one..but there is one that looks similar where it's the same girl and she had the same looking things on her knees and it is a form of torture over in Asia or somewhere over there. They have the person kneel down onto frozen peas and stay knelt down on top of them with their knees and the frozen peas embed themselves into the skin...freaky sheeit I know...
miguelovic said:
The first picture that comes up, I need to know if that is real......
 
The bulbous thing growing out of the nape of the guys neck? Makes me vomity and curious at the same time :D
 
This frozen peas thing sounds intriguing. Wouldn't they just melt? Experimentation is needed. For science.
 
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