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Jeff H's 2014 glog- Season ending harvest pics.

Okay, time to kick this growing year off. First a pic from last year of the hydroponic scorpion right before I added it to the compost pile. The plant was so productive with 4 gallon freezer bags stuffed plus more already dried that not only did I decide to not overwinter it, but TSBTs won't be on the grow list next year. This was truly a beast and by far my most productive plant. IIRC, it was over 5' tall and just about as wide when hte branches were heavy with pods.
 
It was started about this time last year, so it is about time to start some of those pesky slower growing plants if I want them this big next year.
 
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All good things come to an end. The plants will be chopped up and mixed with the leaves for compost.
 
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Okay, with that out of the way, let's get started on next year.
 
First, a shot of some of the over winter plants in the upstairs window sill. I just plan on keeping them alive here with no real growth expected until I put them outside next year. The two small plants are scorpion clones from the monster. I still don't think they will make the grow next year, but I just couldn't kill it without taking a couple clones. Other overwinters in this pic include a ghost pepper, hot paper lantern hab, tabasco pepper, my largest and most productive giant jalapeno and a couple of others.
 
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Now down into the grow room for an overall shot of what I am doing this year. The flood table is new, but everything else is the same from last year. Same 600W MH light and same mylar on the walls.
 
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Now at this point, let me take a minute to explain that there is no organic soil in anything I brought inside, nor anything that I plan to plant this year. Everything will be hydroponic in one way or another. Even the plants upstairs. My soil for all plants not in the flood table is 50/50 perlite and peat moss. I water them with hydro nutes every few days, but probably can get away with once a week or so. Soil drains really well but the peat moss holds a decent amount of moisture. I'm hoping that we have no issues with root rot this year. I'm also betting that fungus gnats won't like this fast drying soil either. Well that and the mosquito dunks that will be in the hydro water if those bastards do show up again this year.
 
A close up of the "soil". Look at all that great perlite.

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Now, looking at the plants in the flood table, the perlite/pete moss is about 80/20 and I flood hte table once a day. As it is, there is probably too much pete in the soil because the grow bags stay soaked all the time and I'm going to have mold issues. I need to rethink this, but this is what I have for now.
 
Here they are the day it was installed on Oct 21st.
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Here they are a week later (last night). You can't really see it, but there are a couple of tiny growth nodes on the ghost pepper (big pot on the left) and the paper lantern in the black pot. No sign of growth on the monzano yet, but if you look close at the pot, you can see what looks like mold starting. I tossed a cup of H2O2 into the rez last night to kill it if it was mold. We'll see. Maybe plastic air pruning pots would be better suited, or giant net cups.
 
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That is all for now. Join me back on the next update. I'm working hot and heavy on some clones and other projects that aren't quite ready to be photographed yet. Soon though.
 
Nice start Jeff!
Under that light the plants should become monsters by springtime, are you going to prune them often?
 
Good luck
 
Datil
 
Datil said:
Nice start Jeff!
Under that light the plants should become monsters by springtime, are you going to prune them often?
 
Good luck
 
Datil
 
 
Oh yeah. Going to have to. My plan is for most of them to get no larger than can be supported by the root ball in a 1 gallon container. I bought a bunch of those black 1 gal root pouches with this in mind. I also don't have the light on for very long right now. Just 10 hours a day for now. I want the plants to continue to grow, but I have plenty of time until spring so no need to rush it.
 
Devv said:
Very interesting, I'll be watching.
 
Totally clueless when it come to hydroponics.
 
Good luck this coming season!
 
Its kinda like the opposite of Pepper Guru's approach. Screw mother nature. Good old fashioned chemicals can do a pretty darned good job. :D :D :D
 
Actually, I bring up Guru for a good reason. I was reading through his 2011 and 2012 glogs a week ago or so and stumbled on to some very cool stuff that  am going to have to give a try. Details in a later update when I have more of the ideas and concepts worked out. There is very good information in there if you haven't read them. 
 
 
Hydro is only for the winter though. I'll get back into the soil food web once my compost pile is done composting in the spring. I'll only keep 10 or so hydro plants next year during the summer. Everything else will be soil. 
 
I've read a lot of Guru's material, and many others, always jotting down the best info.
 
Been working on my sandy plot for years adding compost and heavier soil, made quite a few improvements for next year. Hoping to be able to cut down on the watering..
 
My brother lives in Vermillion, just retired and getting more into gardening. He's been sharing the challenges of growing in the colder climate.
 
I Tried 12/12 vers 24 hours last winter and thought the peppers under 12/12 did as well if not better then the plants that had 24 hours of light, peppers in you think of it are from So. Am. and 12 hours are what they Normally get I think down there.
 
So I started 6 of the more suborned varieties to make sure I had plenty of time in case they didn't germinate. The winner is the Indian Carbon with two sprouts and one hook after 14 days. Nothing from the other chinense or pubes.
 
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Update time.
 
The grow bags did not work for the flood and drain table. The bags never dried out mold started to grow on them. I repotted the in 8" net pots in straight perlite this time. No peat moss and changed the flood timing from once a day to 4 times a day.
 
for the slow winter grow, the nutes are at about 560ppm and 50/50 part a and b Flora duo.
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I pruned a branch off of another bhut jolakai plant I have growing and stuck it in some perlite with a basil branch just as an experiment to see if they would root. I suspect the intense light from the MH bulb will kill them before they root but we'll see. After 3 days they are still alive.
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This is the mother plant for the above clone, this was a 'left over' from this year and I never put it in a pot any bigger than the 3 gallon one it is currently in, consequently, it never grew to it's full potential. Once all the peppers finally turn red, I'm trimming all the branches back for the winter.
 
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Another ghost pepper plant. This one was pruned back to a stump sometime in early Oct IIRC. It is exploding with growth.
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I saw either a fungus gnat or fruit fly yesterday. It is execution time. Those bastards aren't getting a foothold in my grow room this year.
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As far as the new seedlings are concerned, here is how we look so far after 16 days in the dirt.
 
Indian carbon (Judy) 3/3
Naga Morarch (Judy) 1/3
Jigsaw (Dale) 1/3
Reaper (Ed Curry)   0/3
Red Rocoto  (CPI)  0/3
Yellow Monzano (My seeds)  0/3
 
Clones are sitting at about 50% success so far after the dame 16 days. Of the 18 I took, there was 9 still alive when I checked on them last night. Photos and a description of the cloning process in a later update once I see if they are actually going to live.
 
I received this great smoked hillybilly powder from Bodeen the other day. This stuff smells great and tastes even better. Thanks Jeff.
 
My son gave it the thumbs up too.
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The over winters are slow and steady with reduced nutes and only 10 hours of light, they are growing, but slowly and that is what I wanted. Anyone that grows too fast becomes instant clones as I prune them back. We have a long time before plant out this spring.
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3 new sprouts in their new home for the winter.
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Basil clone left, ghost pepper clone right. Both still alive, but neither is thriving for now. We'll see if the ghost grows roots this way or not because none of the 6 I was trying to clone in my big cloning project survived. This photo was from 11/11 and I checked on them last night and they are still alive but look basically the same.
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Not much progress on the other plants. Update from last week's post is in red.
 
As far as the new seedlings are concerned, here is how we look so far after 16 21 days in the dirt.
 
Indian carbon (Judy) 3/3
Naga Morarch (Judy) 1/3  2/3
Jigsaw (Dale) 1/3
Reaper (Ed Curry)   0/3
Red Rocoto  (CPI)  0/3- 1 hook so maybe it will pop.
Yellow Monzano (My seeds)  0/3
 
Clones are sitting at about 50% 25% success so far after the dame 16 21 days. Of the 18 I took, there were 9 4 still alive when I checked on them last night. Photos and a description of the cloning process in a later update once I see if they are actually going to live. Pretty dismal success rate, but all of the ones that are still alive are starting to grow leaves so maybe they will make it.
 
 
Everything's looking good Jeff... the Manzanos and Rocotos are finicky to start, so if you got one going, you're doing well. The good news is that if you can get one to fully sprout, they do pretty well at basement temperatures. Good on Bodeen for sharing some of his smoked powder... I'll bet it's killer!
 
I'm definitely interested in the outcome of your hydro grow this winter... I'll be keeping an eye here to see how it goes. Cheers!
 
Kim chi my way!!! 
 
Probably not very authentic, but  really don't care. This is one of the best ingreedients for a stir fry or just adding to fried rice to pep it up .
 
 
Start with a huge head of napa cabbage. This one is 3-3/4 lbs. 
 
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3.5% salt by weight, about 1/4 cup of mixed paper lantern habs, tabasco and yellow ghost flakes and a whole head of garlic. 
 
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All chopped up and ready to go. 
 
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After an hour or so of letting the salt work on drawing out moisture the bowl looks much smaller. 
 
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I added about a tablespoon of brine from a commercial hippy ferment my wife bought to kick things off. 
 
 
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and all jarred up with my super secret high tech air lock technology.  :shh:
 
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All in all, I only added about a Tbsp of water to each jar. The rest of the liquid came from the salt pulling it out of the cabbage. 
 
 
 
THe starter I used must have been alive with fermenting juices because the kitchen smelled very fermenting like after only an hour of mixing it in the kim chi in the bowl. 
 
 
We'll check on it in a few weeks .
 
Jeff H said:
Kim chi my way!!! 
We'll check on it in a few weeks .
 
I'd check it in 2-3 days Jeff. When it has the tang you like after that, put it in the refrigerator to slow the ferment down... otherwise it'll get sour very quickly.
 
Good to know Rick.
 
Any idea how to make it shelf stable without making it excessively sour? I know it can be done because I've bought it before, and that hippie ferment my wife bought was shelf stable. It would be nice to make a bunch of this stuff and regular sauerkraut and just pop them in the pantry. 
 
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