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Stickman's 2015 - That's All She Wrote...

Hi All! It's been an incredibly busy winter dealing with one thing and another, and it's only about half over here. :rolleyes:  Still, it's time to get on the stick and put my seeds in the dirt in preparation for plant-out in another 12 weeks or so. I have a Manzano over-wintering inside that's going on its third year. It's next to a sliding glass door with a great southern exposure but the light it gets here this time of year is pretty paltry... I expect it'll start to perk up sometime in March. I have a couple of MoA Scotch Bonnets over-wintering at a friend's house because there wasn't space in front of the sliding glass door for them and my wife's indoor plants... the deal is that if they both survive the winter, we'll split the plants. If not, he'll keep the one that lives. That seems fair since he did all the work. ;)
 
The rest of the list is looking like this...

Pubiscens Varieties
Total bust this year... nothing that germinated survived.

Baccatum:
Ditto

Frutascens:
Tabasco
Hawaiian Bird chile
 
Chacoense:
Ditto

Chinense:
7-pot Yellow Turned out to be a red "Not"
MoA Scotch Bonnet
Beni Highlands... Also turned out to be a "Not"... maybe a Mako Akokrosade cross?
Ja Hab
Trinidad Perfume
Zavory

Annuum:
Cabe Rawit (mouse turd pepper, in Singapore where the seeds were collected they're called Cili Padi)
Red Thai
Biggie Chile Anaheim

Poblano Gigantia
Jalapeno Ciclon
Jalapeno Tormenta
Serrano Tampiqueno
Hungarian Hot Wax
Almapaprika
Ethiopian Brown Berbere
 
I'll also be planting a sweet Criolla de Cucina plants and about 20 sweet Kurtovska Kapijas. The Kapijas have the longest growing and ripening times of any Annuum I know, but they're big, meaty sweet peppers that average around a half a pound apiece... just the thing for making that eastern european condiment called Ajvar.
 
Too tired to say more now, but will pick up later... Cheers!
 
tctenten said:
Nice work Rick.  Looks like you will be able to dry a fair amount of pods in there.  
 
Cheers Terry! The folks who designed this say that it'll dry up to 5 pounds of food in a day or two... depending on how much water's in it in the first place. Herbs and cut up peppers should only take a day. Sliced tomatoes and apples would take two days. It'll also be a great thing for making jerky and curing onions and garlic for storage.
 
OCD Chilehead said:
Going together Rick. Now I've got a visual. You've might of mentioned it, but is this for strictly peppers or other fruit and veggies?
 
Sorry Chuck... I guess I squeezed your answer in just ahead of your question... ;)
 
Hi all! Making good progress on my solar dehydrator today. Got the vent openings covered with aluminum window screen and fastened on the roof and the cleats that the drying frames will slide on...
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...fastened on the back legs and "wheelbarrow handles"...
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...lined the solar collector with heavy gauge aluminum foil as reflective material...
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... and caulked all the joints to keep the box tight.
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I'll cut and paint the metal lath after lunch, then mount it in the solar collector, rig the vent covers, mount the hinged back door and apply weatherstripping around it. Tomorrow will be assembling the drying trays.
 
   Great stuff Rick.I am hard on my dehydrator.I am tinkering with old widow screen covers from my house.If i sun dry I need to garage them at night because of heavy dew.We just dont have that dry heat to screen outside daily.
 
cypresshill1973 said:
Aewsome!  looking good
 
Cheers Fabian... getting pretty near done... :)
 
 
randyp said:
   Great stuff Rick.I am hard on my dehydrator.I am tinkering with old widow screen covers from my house.If i sun dry I need to garage them at night because of heavy dew.We just dont have that dry heat to screen outside daily.
 
Cheers Chuck! Supposedly, I can dry about two and a half pounds of thin-fleshed peppers in this contraption in a day... if the sun cooperates. I'll be posting the results of my efforts once I get it all put together. I've probably got about 3 pounds of peppers to go in the dehydrator whenever that is... just waiting on the glazing material now.
 
Front piece secured and heat exchanger screen in place...
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...and back panel is in place. Only things left are installing the glazing, sheet copper roof, sliding vent covers and assembling the drying frames.
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Have a great Saturday night all!
 
cypresshill1973 said:
I thought that you would do a acrilic door to see inside
 
Nope... the idea was to keep light out of the drying box to preserve the vitamins in the foods I'll be drying. I can always pop open the door if I need access to the drying trays, but I'll probably keep the door closed all day to let the sun do its thing. :)
 
Devv said:
Cool project Rick, can't wait to see how it works.
 
Me too Scott! I might not just wait around for the glazing material to get here... I think I'll staple some of the 4 mil sheet poly down that I use for low row covers and see how it dries peppers until the proper stuff gets here.
 
 
PeriPeri said:
Not just a class act in the garden, but handy with the old wood tools too! Man, you should apply for that superman position, we'll just have to swap out the kryptonite for capsaiconite of course ;)
 
Cheers Lourens! Actually, shouldn't it be more like Popeye? The capsaicin makes pepperheads stronger! :P
 
 
randyp said:
   Neighbor kids might take that for a new slide. ;)
 
I didn't sand the corners very well so I don't think they'd do it twice...
 
The project is shaping up great, Rick.  Maybe I missed where you said, but what are you using as an absorber in the collector? 
 
Trident chilli said:
Amazing Rick quite the DIY ... can't wait to see your results
 
OCD Chilehead said:
Looks amazing Rick.
 
Cheers guys!
 
 
Sawyer said:
The project is shaping up great, Rick.  Maybe I missed where you said, but what are you using as an absorber in the collector? 
 
Sorry Buzz... it's six layers of expanded sheet metal lath (like they use for plaster or stucco) spray painted flat black with Rustoleum high-temperature paint and laid out diagonally from the bottom front to the top rear of the collector. That way, as the air flows through it, it gets heated by the lath and normal convection carries it up the slant of the collector and into the bottom of the dryer box.
 
Back vent covers, front and side view
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Front vent covers, front and side view
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Have to redo the back door, install the weatherstripping for it, the sheet copper roof and make the jig for putting together the drying frames this afternoon. Then I'll knock together the frames and staple in the polypro netting.
 
Hey, Rick, not much time to do more than browse a couple of pages, but you are
getting some nice pods.  The MoA's have some nice phenotypes in them.
 
Gotta love the solar dryer, too!  That would have worked well here this summer!
Sort of reminds me of Mezo's contraption back in 2012.  I think the wind
wrecked his, along with a lot of other stuff but it worked awesome!
 
Keep on rollin' buddy!
 
PaulG said:
Hey, Rick, not much time to do more than browse a couple of pages, but you are
getting some nice pods.  The MoA's have some nice phenotypes in them.
 
Gotta love the solar dryer, too!  That would have worked well here this summer!
Sort of reminds me of Mezo's contraption back in 2012.  I think the wind
wrecked his, along with a lot of other stuff but it worked awesome!
 
Keep on rollin' buddy!
 
Cheers Paul! Now that I've got the dehydrator pretty much put together I've gotta start processing peppers in a big way. I'm thinking puree with the MoA Bonnets, pickling the Hungarians and Jalapenos, roasting, peeling and freezing the Kapijas and drying the rest for powder... :rolleyes:
 
Mezo's solar dehydrator is the reason I wanted to build one like it. I wish he was still around so I could natter with him about it, but, oh well. I got the rest of mine pretty well finished today. Just waiting for the glazing material to get here so I can install it, but I put on the reclaimed sheet copper roof, rehung the back door and installed the sliding vent covers...
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...here's some of the vent covers partly open...
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... I put in hooks and eyes to secure the back door. It swings down from the bottom on a pair of stainless steel hinges...
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... I made a jig out of scrap plywood to help put the frames for the drying trays together nice and square...
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... and here are the finished products loaded into the dehydrator.
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