Sili Grow 2012

The stakes are higher (hotter) for me this year. My main grow starts in a couple of weeks, but I thought I'd test fire some of these C. Chinense varieties in baggies / coffee filters just to get a feel for germination rates. Baccatums and Annuums start later. My main grow will involve Hoffman's Seed Starter medium in 72-cell flats.

This is a pretty big 'test,' and I'll grow 'em forward if they sprout, then compare with the dirt-born later.

Thanks to those enablers who sent seeds and advice. I hope to let you know how they turn out. I thusly unleash heavenly hellish heat upon thyself.

An unholy out-of-the-ground beginning:

A high tech germination center:

 

[PaulG]

Looks great, Sil! You will have a real pepper farm there before long!
Your greenhouses seem to be doing their job quite nicely!

 

[Siliman]

Great glog Sil - All your plants look great, nice looking tunnel too. Good Luck - Hope the weather holds!

Thanks, Dog. The weather bounced around like crazy since last post: sucker Spring! I'm good to go now--as much as ever in Idaho

Love the hoophouse you don't have to crawl inside of on your hands and knees... Maybe I'll upgrade next year. Nice shot of the mountains in the background too.

Yea, it worked out pretty well. The next shot will be better mountains: NO SNOW!! According to local smartypants, that means okay to plant in-ground in these parts, so "they" say!

Looks great, Sil! You will have a real pepper farm there before long!
Your greenhouses seem to be doing their job quite nicely!

I really have stretched my season with these contraptions. I keep scratching my head about upgrading to a more permanent fixture like yours. If I do, I'm getting some valuable insight using these removable ones.

Okay, the latest hoophouse now one flap up to suck in setting sun! Had ALL flaps up day before to allow rare rain storm to soak everything. (We only get about 15-inches per year, we got .7-inch with the storm.) Notice I've added a "little brother" row cover on a single row, also partially open.

Mostly used the structure as storage, these are 5-gal containers in the path and some 1-gals on the bed. Next year, I'll probably plant more stuff in the ground, but it did work well to keep plants warm. On marginal days of 50 or 60F, I could pull 85F in the hoophouse if the sun was out.

I did put in some 'maters in the ground to compare and they liked it! Also featuring a plant in 1-gal (seeds from Cmpman) called Labuya:

I've been messing around with various potting mixes, including a bulk mix from a local nursery. It was really chunky with some lava rock in it with good drainage, but maybe too coarse. This Chocolate Hab (seeds from Kentishman) powered right through it, while other plants were pretty slow to get going

:


This 7-pot Brain Strain (seeds from Patrick) starting to look evil:

A nice friendly Fresno (seeds Peppermania)

Miscellaneous plants enjoying their sun time. Couple of Trini Scorp Reds on the left side (PepperLover seeds):

This Congo Trinidad (seeds from WindChicken), not as yellow as it appears catching setting sunrays:

Bonus non-pepper pic: German Porcelain garlic (cloves from Whistling Duck) with some lettuce (seeds from Johnnys) poking around in there:

Now....plant out time....

 

[stc3248]

Good luck on plant out and great job nursing them through the winter! I don't envy you guys with the cold weather grows...the creative ways you all cheat mother nature out of a few extra months amaze me.

The Christmas lights would have been a nice addition by the way!

 

[MGOLD86]

Finally find your way back to THP??? I was just wondering, WHERE THE HELL IS SIL? Everything looks great, I can't wait to see them take off. Those hoop houses were a great addition to your setup and although I may not envy your weather, I envy your 15 inches of rain a year....I think I have been getting that EACH FREAKIN WEEK!

Happy Growing!
Matt

 

[PaulG]

Looking really good, Ken; I love the scenic shot with your hoop
house and row cover and the garden. All the plants look great.
Looks like the Choc Hab has forked down low!

Good growing, bro!

 

[KiNGDeNNiZ]

pare...hanep naman glog mo.. wish mine would take off like the rest of you guys on here

 

[Pinoy83]

Awesome hoophouse and nice looking plants.

 

[PepperJam]

Wow, wonderful scenery to go along with that awesome setup. You will be pumping pods anytime now!

 

[Siliman]

Well, I've missed almost every post and and Glog for the entire summer. I work in dispatch and western Fire Season for me = "strap on the ass-kicking machine." This year it left me little time to surf here and a lot of gardening by flashlight. But enough about my woes and 'the dog ate me home work' excuses. I got some pods. Of the attempted 57 varieties, I must have about 30 ripe on the plants keeping fingers crossed September stays warm, will get several more. Some photos:

I thinned by beds this year giving peppers more room, but still crowded them up more than most folks. 12-in spacing for annuums. Normally pristine air around these parts; background shows smoke smog seriously from some big league forest fires near by. Hopefully any peppers are pre-smoked.

Falcon (I think) came by to poop on the fence and complain about smoky conditions.

Above, a beer chillin in the shade of some Feher Ozon paprika. Most beautiful pod award.




Below, a container of Fatalii.

Some nice looking Chimayo, but I'm missing the uber-aroma that last year's crop gave. These are container grown--I hope that smoky fragrance kicks in as they dry. Last year was like smelling a fine cigar, if you like cigars. Everybody is diggin the Chimayo.

The Inca Red Drop is a crowd pleaser! Tasty snack, versatile for salads, stir fry or salsa and will likely air dry well and beautiful plant. Thanks Wayright!

 

[stickman]

Hi Ken
Glad to see you're still with us! Life is always one d@#% thing after another... but hopefully not everything at once! The pod porn you showed looks great, so after a hot summer, you'll be able to put some of it away for the winter in your chiles.
I grew Chimayos this year too, and I find they develop their aroma more when you dry them, and sun-dried or low temperature dehydrator are the best ways to go... you lose fewer volatile oils than with oven-drying. If it's been a bad year for forest fires in your area you may not be smelling the smoky aroma in the chiles because your smell receptors are maxed out for the smell of smoke. It's a theory anyway... Cheers

 

[Siliman]

Hey, thanks Stick! Hopefully the Chimayo aroma kicks into gear as it air dries, and my nose-buds clear up. Man, it's been about a month straight of smoke around here. Everybody in town is kind of punch drunk and wacked out, more than usual.

The chilis roll on, though. Every time I come across a pod, it has a name place or story from a forum member here. What a great network and I do appreciate it.

So a few more shots! I have some days off coming up so plan to smoke, dehydrate, powder up everything I have so far.

Red Savina (seeds from Patrick) has been a stellar producer in a 5-gal container:

I put the Chinense varieties and some others under a partial shade area. Man, I'm liking container growing, but I haven't added any nutes since the original mix of Pro-Mix BX, some extra perlite, and 10% worm casting or this and that, plus 1/2 cup Dr. Earth fert. If I had time, I would have worked in some additional liquid nutes, liking the Botanicare regimen. But interesting to compare just letting them coast on what they have vs a companion plant in the ground,

Pictured above left counter clockwise: Bailey Pequin, Fatalii, Feher Ozon, Choc Habanero, Congo Trinidad, Scotch Bonnet, de Arbol. (you seed donors know who you are...)

Some Trinidad Scorp Mouragas (from Pepperlover) making me proud:

I have a really sunny garden, so play some spacing games. I did crowd them in a clump in some beds and it worked out pretty well, especially given the uber-hot dry summer. Love micro climates. Hard to see, but some good Anaheim and misc production in there.

Below, Gary (the Windchicken) Congo Trinidads doing very well. Have a container vs in-ground contest going, with the container mostly ripe and but the in-ground coming on strong. Will post a comparo at the end, which means the rains will come and then the snow. IIRC.

Above, Fresnos are one and done in the container. I was only able to sample one and it was not as hot as jalapeno, so not sure if luxury life in the container tamed them down. Will have to run the experiment again next year and try to be around more. The wife unit did pickle some, which is a better taste test for me anyway. Purty pods.

Below, Piment d Espelette (I think) with very good production in-ground. I plan to ristra air dry them with the Chimayo, Paprika, some Aji Picante and a few other thinner walled peppers.

Below, These Chilhaucle Rojo are Orange (container grown ) but the ones in-ground are slimmer and red. I gave a friend one plant in container, and it is orange like this also. Hmmm. Will post comparo later.

Thanks for Lookin and thanks again for all the advice, seeds and good will along the way. I hope to be a better contributor this Fall / Winter, and do plan to read the GLog Novelettes many of you have published here...

 

[KiNGDeNNiZ]

Pare beautiful pods. And nice shot of the "falcon" and the San mig. Hope all is well for you. Wish my red savinas would bud up. All veg since may

 

[Siliman]

Thanks, KingD. I'm not a bird guy, but I googled it and it kinda looks Peregrine. There were three of them around for a week or so, loud, somewhat aggressive, would fly in close overhead. and my 'hunter cat' learned to beware. San migs best in class, IMO.

I would think SoCal would be pepper growin heaven, maybe your Savina is just getting ready for a big push or maybe next year?? You gonna over-winter it in ground or container?

As for excess veg, FWIW, I gave a Chihaucle Rojo in a container to a pal at start of season. Last week he says he only got 2 pods but big growth, WTF. Same container, same 'dirt', same seed, only difference was location across town. So I pried it out, he added some SuperThrive and must have boosted his nitrogen at the wrong time. I kind of starved my plants after their initial pot up to 5 gal container--added nothing but water for the same period, and they had good production but not much veg overall.

 

[stc3248]

Glad to hear from you brother! Our fire season is right around the corner...all depends on the Santa Annas this fall. Great looking plants and pods! Hope you get some good pulls before the cccccCOLD sets in!

 

[windchicken]

Ken, it's good to see you back. And thanks for your service to the Great American West, dude! That must be a really tough job...

I like what you said about the aroma of dried Chimayo being like a fine cigar. I've never grown Chimayo, but I totally get what you're talking about--Certain annuums, when dried, seem to gain what I call a "noble" aroma that just can't be beat. I keep several large containers of dried Thai and Thai Bird in my pantry that I love to get a big nose hit off of every now and then. I am growing 11 plants of Chilhuacle Rojo, and I'm hoping they do the same thing when dried. By the way, one of mine is producing the orange pods as well...

Man, your Congo plants are doing great! Congrats! Mine are still in containers, having fought off at least 2 serious bouts of BLS, but now they are bushing out nicely and setting an abundance of pods...

Good luck with your grow! Are the fires still burning?

Gary

Almost forgot, I've got 6 of your Siling Labuyo in the ground. They are recovering from nitrogen deprivation and root binding, but are setting lots of pods nonetheless. When the leaves green up I'll post some photos.

 

[Siliman]

@ STC, fires suck and I don't envy being around the Santa Annas. Our fire variety this year is a monster fire in heavy timber pumping a LOT of smoke locally and really no stopping where and when it goes. Then when the winds shift away from that fire, we get smoke from some massive fires in NorCal. Maybe Ma Nature will let you guys down south off the hook being she's already ripped us hard.

@ Windchicken, man the aroma is half the fun. I bring in a paper bag of pods and let them waft around. Some of the annuums do put off the best pepper aphrodesiac.
Good to know there could be some color variations on the Chilhaucle rojo. I've had a few pepper surprises and thought maybe I messed up the !abels during the grow.
I've got some lil Siling Labuyo ripening, one of my big goals this year. and I really think your Congo plant in the ground will be awesome if I can get another full month of frost free weather. Good chance of it, the way this season is going!
Yes, fires still burning and will be troublesome till the snow flies. But I plan to add to this wildfire smoke by attempting my first smoked peppers to powders this weekend....

 

[stc3248]

I feel ya. I was down here during the firestorm in 07 and spent weeks choking on that crap. Stay safe my friend and enjoy the time with your plants.

 

[Siliman]

@ STC, thanks! The plants are my therapy...the smokey air I could do without--no end in sight.

But I caught a couple days off and roamed around the garden with Mr. Ming.

Above, L to R: Bhut Indian Carbon, Nancy D (Hatch mystery), Ming, Aji Rojo (overwintered), Inca Red Drop, Twisty 3x Jalapeno M (overwintered)

Below, The Ming in front of "Pinatubo" from Erwin (from the Phils) and a nice batch of Chimayo:

Note the leaves yellowing likely due to my neglect of adding nutrition. I have an in-ground backup and running a comparison, as I learn the container growing ropes. Easy to say, the container plants grew much faster and now the in-ground are growing much larger. Next year, will do both again and pay more attention to container ferts.

Inspite of my neglect, I got a few Bhut Jolokia Indian Carbon and Trinidad Scorpian Mouranga Blend. (Way out of my league, but I powderized them):

I ate my first Fatalii, roasted, BBQ. Cried like a baby without the boo-hoos, just water coming out of my face:

These Feher Ozon are now paprika in a bottle!

Same fate for the choc Hab: powder river.
.

The Inca Red Drop proved to be a mighty producer in the container and in the ground. The sheer volume from this little guy is amazing, as well as the versatility: heat , flavor, fresh, salsa, powder. It might prove to be my favorite of the year. I planted it next to Wayrights other gift--the Purple Maui--also a vigorous plant with lots of action.

Now, to the smoker / dehydrator:

 

[stc3248]

Read your full Fatalii review over on Paul's glog
Nice looking pull! Love your killer attack cat up there too, looks fat, dumb and happy.

 

[PaulG]

Hey, Ken, your pods have really ripened up nicely, and naturally
smoked, too! Your garden looks great - Fall always finds the plants
starting to look ragged in our area, anyway. j The plants are dropping
leaves, but the pods keep on ripening. The cool weather varieties
are still flowering and setting pods. Crazy (baccatums, and jolokia
varieties).

Hope you had a good weekend, and the fires start to mellow for you.
We are going backpacking this coming weekend, and had to change
our destination because the central oregon cascades where we
wanted to go is closed due to fires.