Trent's 2014 Grow Log - COLD COLD COLD

Nulle · Apr 13, 2014

And who is the other dog?

Svetlana · Apr 13, 2014

Hi Trent,

I just read your glog, I like it !
You have a very nice list!

I find your OWs in great shape. And your little plants of the year are beautiful

Like you, I am always sad when I lose plants.
Unfortunately, this winter in Provence, there was too much rain and the tunnel was flooded several times. I lost all my OWs in big pots. :cry:

Only pots which was above ground survived.
But to comfort me, I think it is the "natural selection" and it allows me to replace them with new varieties ........
There is so much to discover in the world of peppers!!

I like your garden, everything is neat and clean. :clap:

Zen, your little princess is really delightful !

Jeff H · Apr 13, 2014

Everything is looking great Trent.

I hear you about having a more well rounded grow this year. I still have bags and bags of Scorpions, brainstrains and morugas in the freezer. The wife has been on me to get rid of them, but instead, it might be time to get a chest freezer.

I too am growing less supers and more milder ones this year.

TrentL · Apr 13, 2014

Nulle said:
And who is the other dog?

The smaller black dog is Kojak. He's about 60lbs, 7 years old. Husky/Shepherd cross.

The larger dog is Marley, he's now about 180 lbs, stands 40" tall at the shoulders, and 2 1/2 years old. He's an Irish Wolfhound.

We also got a new family member about 6 months ago when my wife brought home Neko. He's a white purebred husky. Marley was fascinated with him...

And they've become best buddies since then.

Neko is about 70 lbs now, he's growing faaaast! When the three dogs wrestle around, things get broken.

Svetlana said:
Hi Trent,

I just read your glog, I like it !
You have a very nice list!

I find your OWs in great shape. And your little plants of the year are beautiful

Like you, I am always sad when I lose plants.
Unfortunately, this winter in Provence, there was too much rain and the tunnel was flooded several times. I lost all my OWs in big pots.
Only pots which was above ground survived.
But to comfort me, I think it is the "natural selection" and it allows me to replace them with new varieties ........
There is so much to discover in the world of peppers!!

I like your garden, everything is neat and clean.
Zen, your little princess is really delightful !

Appreciate the feedback. Zen is my middle daughter, she loves helping in the garden. So does her younger sister, Raven.

Here's another shot of the little garden troll.

I've made plenty of dumb mistakes in the garden in the last couple years and expect this year to be full of learning experiences too.

Last year I had to crawl around under my pepper plants to harvest pods, and it was a real pain trying to trace branches back to plants to figure out what pepper belonged to what. Very crowded! Hoping to keep them organized a bit better this year, but have more woods than yard. We get very tall trees on 4 sides of our property so I've got a very small area that is "full sun". Try to make the most of it, but it keeps me pretty limited on what I can put in the ground.

Jeff H said:
Everything is looking great Trent.

I hear you about having a more well rounded grow this year. I still have bags and bags of Scorpions, brainstrains and morugas in the freezer. The wife has been on me to get rid of them, but instead, it might be time to get a chest freezer.

I too am growing less supers and more milder ones this year.

I filled 14 pint jars with flake last summer/fall! I have enough flake to last me (personally) to the next ice age. I still give stuff away freely in the rare occasion I'm asked by a friend; but not enough of my friends are pepperheads (yet, anyway, I am winning some converts).

It is profound how much heat you can grow in even a smaller garden! My garden last year was maybe 400 sq foot and produced far more than we could eat. Put back about 20 quarts of tomatoes and pickles. I grilled the tomatoes to loosen the skin then canned them whole. Tried a few different types of pickles, and they were all gone by end of January. My younger boy is a pickle connoisseur, it turns out, and will eat them as fast as I can can them it seems.

I had problems with deer in 2012, so in 2013 I planted a marigold in the center of the garden. It got ENORMOUS.

And I had no deer problems in 2013!

Gardening is a real chore sometimes, and can be frustrating, but the results are SOOO worth it.

Last year I celebrated my first ripe pods of the year with some salsa. It was pretty warm.

(Oh, and by the end of the year, I had to separate "my" utensils from my wife's. Those cutting boards were ABSOLUTELY off limits to everyone else; cutting anything up on them would guarantee extreme heat. They were stained orange by countless Morugas, Naga Vipers, Reapers, 7-Pot, Bhut Jolokia, Naga Morich, etc).

Even the PANS were hot. My daughter cooked up a grilled cheese one afternoon using a pan that I'd done a small batch of hot-sauce in, and yelled at me. A LOT.

I found that RUBBING ALCOHOL does what water cannot do.

Capsaicin is hydrophobic, as evidenced by this picture of the patio table. Got distracted and left a plate of naga viper flake on the table out back after grinding; wind flipped it and a storm rolled through.

Devv · Apr 13, 2014

Very nice Trent!

Nice kids, dogs and place

Garden looks like it did really well last year.

Living in the sticks is grand, you couldn't dynamite me out of my place here.

I flood irrigate too, but my plants are in the ditches. It's really dry here.

Keep up the good work!

TrentL · Apr 13, 2014

Thanks devv. After the "great washout of 2013" I learned my lesson. Even a mild 3% grade hill turns in to a frigging disaster when you get 3" of rain during a thunderstorm. In 2012 I lost my carrots, onions, broccoli, lettuce, and beans in one garden, all in one afternoon. When I tilled up the second one for more room, I spent a few afternoons with a shovel terracing it off. "Getting my hands dirty"!

I've since filled that in and extended the main garden but that gives 40-50 foot of downhill runoff if we get a heavy rain. In 2013 I dug a trench system, of shallow trenches between rows. After a heavy spring rain I'd have to go re-dig them as they'd fill in with soil; but at least I wasn't LOSING it this time, or having plants get washed out.

I'd thought about putting in wooden barriers and levelling it of in true terracing but the thought of trying to till that up each year made me cringe a little. So I'll stick with the shovel & trench method.

There were some unexpected results though from the 2012 washout. A random volunteer cherry tomato popped up in the downhill driveway/garden junction in 2013 - this thing ended up growing all the way to the camper 14 feet from the garden, and crawling up the forward stairwell. There were originally 6 of them clustered together, I let the biggest one live, and it produced more cherry tomatoes than my son and I could eat.

I always get far too many volunteer cucumbers and tomatoes each year - I get lazy in the late fall and just let the stuff rot in the garden until it's time to knock it all down.

Devv · Apr 13, 2014

My place is on a slope too, when we first moved here we had a rain that washed through the garden and cut a ditch almost large enough for a refrigerator to fit in. It dropped 4"s in less than 45 minutes. I've since terraced above the garden and direct water away form it.

Last year I came across some railroad ties and put a row in halving the garden.

TrentL · Apr 13, 2014

Devv said:
My place is on a slope too, when we first moved here we had a rain that washed through the garden and cut a ditch almost large enough for a refrigerator to fit in. It dropped 4"s in less than 45 minutes. I've since terraced above the garden and direct water away form it.

Last year I came across some railroad ties and put a row in halving the garden.

I do the same here, sort of. The deepest trench I dig (about 1' deep) is between the two halves of the garden. The dirt from it gets piled in to a raised row on the downhill side. It serves as a water break to help stall the flow of water. The end of that is cut in to a channel, which goes down the side of the garden, to redirect water out of the garden.

When it rains heavy early in the year, I'll stand in the garden with a shovel studying and digging and redirecting. Don't care if it's 50mph winds and the tornado sirens are howling, I'm in the damn garden "redirecting traffic" lol.

Then I do a pair of 6" deep trenches on each half, to keep momentum from building up and washing out sprouts.

The slope faces south, which helps a little. I've learned to plant the shorter, rooted plants on the downhill side so if they do get an extra inch or so of migrated soil, it doesn't hurt them. (Carrots, onions, garlic).

I have to rearrange my garden this year somewhat to avoid planting tomatoes where I had bad blight problems last year. So the tomatoes will be at the most uphill point, then the cukes, then I'll do the pepper rows, then beans, etc. Try to keep the height squared away so things don't shade each other.

Trouble is I'm growing so many new peppers I don't know how big many of them get!

Last year I sheltered a short yatsufusa *really* bad between tomatoes and 7-pots.. little guy couldn't get hardly any sun.

Nulle · Apr 13, 2014

You've got cute kids and some very beautiful pets. Love Marleys big brown eyes.

You definitely won't get in trouble for more pet pics down the road.

Devv · Apr 13, 2014

I don't know how big the peppers will grow in your climate, but if they do as well as your Tom's you're in for quite the jungle. Last year I went 3' between plants and 3' between rows, this year 3' between plants and 4' for the rows.

I didn't like finding 2 rattle snakes in there last season.

TrentL · Apr 13, 2014

Pruned the hell out of my OW's this afternoon. They got depressed after the one afternoon in the sunlight; so I took them back a LOT. I figure, if they survive, they survive.. if not.. more pots for the youngins.

The goal of the overwinters was to get pure pod stock, but with the gigantic war fighting the aphid infestation this winter, the plants dropped too many leaves. When they did flower, the buds dropped off (even trying to manually stimulate them). I got three sets of pure seeds, the rest were a wash.

So, with that project failed, time to cut them back to shape and get new, fresh growth. Will post pics next time I take a run, of any survivors.. or deaths. 27 overwinters left at this point. We'll see what happens next.

I feel like such a bastard. Took a 40 gallon trash bag out full of stems & leaves.

I had to hit the reset button on some of these. I shouldn't have taken them out for sun this early.... the leaf drop was staggering. Hopefully they recover.

Jeff H · Apr 13, 2014

TrentL said:
Thanks devv. After the "great washout of 2013" I learned my lesson. Even a mild 3% grade hill turns in to a frigging disaster when you get 3" of rain during a thunderstorm. In 2012 I lost my carrots, onions, broccoli, lettuce, and beans in one garden, all in one afternoon. When I tilled up the second one for more room, I spent a few afternoons with a shovel terracing it off. "Getting my hands dirty"!

I've since filled that in and extended the main garden but that gives 40-50 foot of downhill runoff if we get a heavy rain. In 2013 I dug a trench system, of shallow trenches between rows. After a heavy spring rain I'd have to go re-dig them as they'd fill in with soil; but at least I wasn't LOSING it this time, or having plants get washed out.

I'd thought about putting in wooden barriers and levelling it of in true terracing but the thought of trying to till that up each year made me cringe a little. So I'll stick with the shovel & trench method.

There were some unexpected results though from the 2012 washout. A random volunteer cherry tomato popped up in the downhill driveway/garden junction in 2013 - this thing ended up growing all the way to the camper 14 feet from the garden, and crawling up the forward stairwell. There were originally 6 of them clustered together, I let the biggest one live, and it produced more cherry tomatoes than my son and I could eat.

I always get far too many volunteer cucumbers and tomatoes each year - I get lazy in the late fall and just let the stuff rot in the garden until it's time to knock it all down.

All the pics of the plants look great. Got a real kick of your teenager standing in front of your RV. This is my first year camping with a teenager (13 year old son), it should prove interesting to see him in the camper this year. The camper has no cell or internet service where it is stationed. Should be interesting to see him unplugged. :twisted:

My hill is steeper than yours. Check my glog to see my solution.

Marigolds. Deer hate them so we love them.

TrentL · Apr 15, 2014

This "April snowstorm" can kiss my behind... that is all.

Running heater full time in basement instead of switching to the oscillating fan, for a few days, to keep the little ones warm and cozy.

cypresshill1973 · Apr 15, 2014

I liked her garden ... you lucky to have a lake behind the house! Know how to fish there?

Beautiful girls ... My girls their own age and are a delight

TrentL · Apr 15, 2014

Unfortunately no, I haven't learned how to fish THIS lake yet. I keep trying but no major catches.

I do alright at other lakes, but I seem cursed in my own. Which is a shame, when they shocked the lake last time to do a head count, they pulled out some *massive* bass, northern pike, and even a 5' long catfish....

cypresshill1973 · Apr 15, 2014

Fly fishing there?

TrentL · Apr 15, 2014

No, usually I fish off the dock / shore on the other side of the lake. Sometimes (rarely) I get my little john boat out, but never really get anything.

Some of my neighbors who share lake rights do fantastic "jugging" for catfish and *most* of them do ice fishing in the winter; but I'm afraid of falling through the ice and won't join them. Even when I see them driving their 3/4 ton pickup trucks across the lake, I can't stomach walking on it.
This is as far as I could make it off the shore this winter. which is much better than the 2 steps I managed last winter.

cypresshill1973 · Apr 15, 2014

TrentL said:
Even when I see them driving their 3/4 ton pickup trucks across the lake, I can't stomach walking on it.

Are crazy! Beautiful place to live! congratulations

TrentL · Apr 15, 2014

cypresshill1973 said:
Are crazy! Beautiful place to live! congratulations

Thank you. Had to work 20 years and put up with a lot of dingy rental houses before we could finally buy the property we wanted.

Only regret I have is working too much early on to provide the life I wanted to give my family - I missed out on far too much of my kid's earlier years, and now constantly feels like I'm playing catch up.

cypresshill1973 · Apr 15, 2014

I rent also be some time to buy dream home in a fantastic location and is a paradise here.

But unfortunately Latin American policies, formed "favelas" in all suburbs. Poverty, insecurity, drug trafficking and crime make it impossible to live in peace.

Here gated communities are built within perimeters with lots of armed security personnel. and those who can afford the economic cost can live on these sites. Here we live 330 families. Inside is very safe, we have a lot of vigilance and no one can enter the outside without permission, but must leave a real life daily. and is increasingly dangerous.
By year end, I think we're migrating from here, the whole family. One of the destinations, maybe it's USA, where I am looking to invest in companies with business advisors in your country.