• Blog your pepper progress. The first image in your first post will be used to represent your Glog.

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
 
03230414421_zps71edee93.jpg

 
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
img_0001_zpsb0111429.jpg

 
Black Zebra Cherry (Upon actual investigation, a terrible choice. Flavour described as "bland" or "average" :D) The undersides are almost completely purple.
img_0017_zpse609ab4e.jpg

 
Bhut Jolokai (tomatogrowers.com) light purpling, raised the bulbs today
img_0061_zpsb76cde1e.jpg

 
Morouga Scorpions and 7Pod (in the front) Here I also discovered and quickly lost the shiney clean shooting filter on the camera
img_0062_zpsbe2373be.jpg

 
Deadly chemicals and homemade toxic garbage
img_0023_zpscec084ae.jpg

 
Inspiring
img_0030_zps9ba1d505.jpg

 
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 :)
 
Yeah, THP doesn't seem like the ballgag/knives in the bedroom type of place.
 
 
Wulf and Orekoc have definitely bolstered the Freaks and Geeks though :dance: We'll make Gimps out of the rest of them.
 
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.
img_0014-1.jpg

I'm going to go with Ladybug eggs. I had them in the past and the google images look to be about the same. The larva are the best way to take care of aphids if you happen to have any.


Neil
 
Blister said:
I'm going to go with Ladybug eggs. I had them in the past and the google images look to be about the same. The larva are the best way to take care of aphids if you happen to have any.


Neil
 
I thought the same initially, or at least hoped :P But ladybug eggs are more oblong, pale-yellow to yellow/yellow orange and hang from end.
 
images.jpg

 
These were perfectly round, bright white and layed in a perfect pattern.
 
This page, though it doesn't give answer to what it specifically is, pretty much documents what they looked like up until I flushed the leaf like an errant goldfish.
 
Ah right you are. Probably be a good idea to pluck it and either jar it to see what emerges or squish them all.

Edit: reread your post again and realized that you flushed them. Man it's been one of those days.

Neil
 
For any Canucks ordering bugs on the West Coast.
 
Cucumeris showed up yesterday from The Bug Factory. I was almost indifferent about the whole thing. At first, I was pissed at seeing no activity, but then realized Canada Post travels unheated, and despite the shipping destination being about 50km away, it was sent on a 600km tour of the island. They're thoughtful that way.
 
After everything warmed up, it was clear things the little sprites were racing about, I just didn't see the activity I expected. Scoping a 7.5ml of bran material should have yielded 100-300 movers. I would guesstimate I was on the low side, but my method of counting isn't exactly scientific.
 
All in all, it wasen't a bad experience. The price difference to ordering from Ontario is huge, and muffles any unsounded guesstimation on bug count.
 
50,000 Cukes from TBF - 42.69 Total
50,000 Cukes from NIC - 100.00 (45.00 + Shipping + Tax)
 
I would have prefered the control release sachets, though the minimum order is a box of 100.
 
 
Now to find a plant that prolifically produces pollen, or maybe cop out and order a wee bottle of feed.
 
ikeepfish said:
Feed?  Make your own using some fish guts and kelp.  If you've been working so hard to make things organic, why ruin it now?
 
Hehe I mean pollen feed for the mites.
 
After a few days of scoping, I'm kind of pissed with the results. Waiting on a call back to see if TBF sorts things out. I was put back a week originally to bad bugs, and am starting to think perhaps this batch was muddled as well. Each guesstimate falls in around 10k.
 
Could actually be. I was thinking probably not based on how distinctively coloured/shaped the eggs are, but some are quite neutral and round when first layed, and the size is close.
 
Now I feel I should have kept them :D
 
 
I do have a pet spider on the balcony. I feel him periodically, especially after the wind knocks down his webbage. I like to this he is one of the offspring from the spiderlings earlier in the year. He eats with enthusiasm, but not out of my hand. A little stand-offish yet.
 
Coming along, almost time to get the cheeses for poppers :D
 
Das-Boot
img_0023.jpg

 
img_0003-2.jpg

 
Both developing an odd shade of red I wasen't expecting.
 
 
End result of snapping a 'mater stem on a 90* angle. Rooting hormone applied. Should have buried it deeper, and done it a bit earlier when the outer flesh was softer.
img_0001-2.jpg

 
img_0004-4.jpg

 
Roots filled out a 30 gallon pot, this is just the main rootball. The entire lateral stem was hollow up until the joint, I haven't bothered to look up whether that was due to the procedure or a sign of infection  :P  One of the 'maters I up-potted in the usual fashion had an odd spongy looking pith down the stem.
 
Closest thing I've found that resembles it is this, but I never had the ooze from stem-in-water routine.
 
cool looking pods

bummer on the stem issue ... I had one pepper this year which stem was completely dried right in the middle of the plant ... the main fork started to brown and it spread up and down .. about 10 to 15 cm .... until it started to wilt and died, pods falling off...... no idea what was the reason except the weather
 
Weeeelll. Ended with lots of chocolate pods, which is odd. If I was going to add anything else to what I ordered last year, and have been drooling over this year, that would have been it. The PepperJoe lottery was favourable to me in some regard....
 
This was hot
img_0026-1.jpg

 
This was not
img_0029-1.jpg

 
They both had the same colour change, a bloody red I am having trouble photopicturing (Especially above. Flash does not make up for bad back lighting) that started browning a few days after full blood colour set.
 
Making wings and decided to nip the asshats off. The first one was all placenta and throat fire. I neglected to eat any of the pokey bell pepper-esque fingers before making zee sauce, a 1 Alarm failure. I've made hotter with habanero XD
 
Definitely saving the first pod seeds and any others that come from that plant, but unless this bloody pokey bell pepper blows my socks off with flavour....
 
Made a few garlic-creme chizz poppers with the poblanos (lazy idea) and ended up with anywhere from 1-1000 seeds. I'ma distribute them next year among friends and family, and fingercross that some of the "Chocolate Douglah-7 Pot-What-ever-the-hell-it-is" pollen made it's way over.
 
 
Right. I did end up expressing my disappointment in bug count to TBF (Biobest), and they shipped a new order with little inquiry. I think I've settled on cherry tree pollen as a food source, but have a few more articles to read.
 
Edit: Wow, pruning a few peppers last night really put the rest in to overdrive.
 
So first "major" harvest a few days ago
 
A couple of Douglah 7-Pod  -  my god were these hot. The first raw one almost got on top of me :P No idea on flavour, just burns like hell bwahahaha
img_0076.jpg

 
Solitary Morouga - waaaaaaaaaaay hotter than the Douglah. Hopefully can get some more pods set indoors. A very fruity-floral-pine scented pod, can't tell ya what it tasted like other than "fire".
img_0020-1.jpg

 
Burgundy Shitsticks - not very hot, 1/2 a bhut, maybe 100-200k scovilles. Somewhere around a habanero. Chemical "chinense-y" taste.
img_0007-1.jpg

 
I dried most of the Shitsticks (135*F over night in the oven. May have been overkill, I plum forgot aboot them.) and will gift the majority to the generous-with-their-beans neighbours next door, and include a pack of seeds to go along.
 
The rest were turned in to poppers! :party: Excuse the cellphone peetchur
1017042118b1.jpg

 
Creme chizz, a head of garlic and a bit of S+P. Baked to gooey-oooey-ness. I brown the panko beforehand in a pan for visual appeal and crunch.
 
Nice havest!
And i'd hit those poppers!
 
miguelovic said:
Solitary Morouga - waaaaaaaaaaay hotter than the Douglah. Hopefully can get some more pods set indoors. A very fruity-floral-pine scented pod, can't tell ya what it tasted like other than "fire".
I had that impression too in spite of the fact that people here says the contrary... Add that moruga is a bigger plant, with much more and bigger pods that are less inclined to rot on plant, at least for me... Douglahs btw are easier to dry but i prefer moruga taste (fresh, i still have to check how powder turned out). So that season i clearly prefer moruga over douglah.
 
Back
Top