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2018 - The Farm

Well, I've been gone a few years from the board, and away from growing peppers, but looks like life is pushing me back that way again. 
 
I recently (last month) closed on a 25 acre farm in Central Illinois with some primo soil, and I'm going to give a commercial grow a test run. 
 
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From up on the roof, when I was doing some roof repairs on the outbuildings. Not much as far as the eye can see, but cornfields...
 
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Has a 4 stall garage and a horse stable on the property
 
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Probably do my grow room upstairs here after I insulate it
 
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Built some doors for the horse barn and patched the roof last month
 
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Anyway just dropped a cold grand on seeds from pepperlover and buckeye, going to hit a greenhouse supplier up for other materials next week.
 
Have plans to build a 30x72' greenhouse in the spring, and a ~1200 sq foot dedicated grow room. Too late really to help with this year's grow, but next year it'll save me a lot of hassle on hardening off. 
 
The greenhouse, I am going to do a piped infloor heat slab, with a horizontal loop geothermal system (I own a mini excavator) that is solar powered. So heating should be nice, uniform, not create heat / cold bubbles, and not dry out plants like forced air would. I build circuit boards in my day job, so I will also build a microcontroller to handle the automated watering system with soil moisture monitors and actuated plumbing valves on the water supply.
 
Also plan on building a "deep winter" greenhouse for year round production. Got blueprints I made from a couple of years back, those are walled on three sides with heavy duty insulation, with the glass wall side angled to face winter solstice, so you can grow in the deep freeze months of the north. In the summer, those get hot enough to use as a natural dehydrator, replace the tables with racks for bulk drying.
 
Only doing a half acre or so of peppers to start with this year, the balance will be put in corn. I can't manage more than that with the labor I have available. (When you start talking thousands of plants, simple tasks like up-potting grow in to hundreds or thousands of man hours...)
 
Going to hire some local kids to help, school has a good ag co-op program for high schoolers, they can get school credit working on local farms. Since the plant out and harvest doesn't conflict too badly with corn, shouldn't have a problem finding labor around here.
 
Anyway, that's the plans.
 
We'll see how it goes.. er.. grows.
 
 
I ordered some CBD extract, going to see if it has any effect on osteoarthritis. My knees are shot and NSAIDs are hard on my stomach, and had to stop taking them when my stomach got worse.
 
I'm about as cynical as they come, but ready to try alternatives. So far the only stuff that's made a difference is prescription anti-inflammatories like Mobic (meloxicam), or celebrex (celecoxib). Problem is my stomach gets so upset taking those I end up puking. Over the counter stuff like Ibuprofen doesn't do anything except make my gut worse.
 
The other problem I have which this may help with (or not) is my sleep schedule has been pretty random since I had a motorcycle crash back in 2010. I took a massive head impact and my sleep pattern (day / night cycle) has randomly flipped ever since. 
 
I got oil on the way that was CO2 extracted, supposed to put a few drops under your tongue a few times a day. 
 
THC makes me paranoid as hell so not a lot of interest in that. But if CBD solves one or both problems? This time next year I"ll be rolling my own CBD hemp cigarettes. ;)
 
 
Ruid said:
Do you have a deal with the state to grow medical or something?
 
No they passed industrial hemp this summer. I'm planning to cultivate a high CBD crop as part of a research project, once they get rulesmaking done and have an application program put together. I'm already hunting down seed supplies which have no restrictions, as I plan on doing selective cultivation to find an optimal strain that will stand up well to our local growing conditions and common pathogens. 
 
The new governor-elect Pritzker also said he is signing a recreational marijuana bill as soon as he gets in office in January. I'll utilize the # of plants you can grow at home under that recreational program to grow out selectively culled or hybrid varieties for lab testing THC content, to ensure they stay below 0.3%. If you test "too high" at the farm under the industrial program you have to destroy the crop, whereas if I grow test hybrids at home under the recreational bill, if they test high I can just roll 'em up in to CBD/low THC cigarettes and smoke them, or whatever. :)
 
Right now it's looking like you'll only be allowed 5 plants at home under the recreational bill, unless that changes it'll limit me quite a bit on what I can develop for a CBD crop.
 
Reason I want to do that away from the farm, is if I grew out a batch of untested hybrids and they ended up testing too high on THC, I'd have a field full of a controlled substance. If I grow momma out at home and she tests high, I can just start over with a different variety. If I get a good mother plant that tests great after flowering, I can then clone her out at the farm, grow a full generation of clones out for seed and do a re-test, then if it's still OK legally (under 0.3 THC) I will have a new variety I can market.
 
So multi-year plan, and relies on having both the industrial hemp research program approved, *and* recreational marijuana approved, so I can do hybrid testing at home where I'm (more or less) safe, legally.
 
My home basement is listed on my organic certification and is organic certified, as is the farm greenhouse, so if I go from mother (in the basement) to clones) at the farm to seed, then grow a generation of the seed out, the offspring will be organic certified seeds. It takes an extra generation because the cloning gel will not be organic approved. However, if I grow the cloned transplants out in the transitional land, organically, then the resultant seed will be eligible to plant in organic certified land and be considered organic.
 
ETA: Because of the rapid growth (~100 days flowring) I can actually do that extra generation in the same calendar year, so this isn't really a multi year plan but rather a multi-crop-within-a-year plan, as I can realistically get 3 generations indoors in a year's time.
 
 
TrentL said:
I ordered some CBD extract, going to see if it has any effect on osteoarthritis. My knees are shot and NSAIDs are hard on my stomach, and had to stop taking them when my stomach got worse.
 
I'm about as cynical as they come, but ready to try alternatives. So far the only stuff that's made a difference is prescription anti-inflammatories like Mobic (meloxicam), or celebrex (celecoxib). Problem is my stomach gets so upset taking those I end up puking. Over the counter stuff like Ibuprofen doesn't do anything except make my gut worse.
 
The other problem I have which this may help with (or not) is my sleep schedule has been pretty random since I had a motorcycle crash back in 2010. I took a massive head impact and my sleep pattern (day / night cycle) has randomly flipped ever since. 
 
I got oil on the way that was CO2 extracted, supposed to put a few drops under your tongue a few times a day. 
 
THC makes me paranoid as hell so not a lot of interest in that. But if CBD solves one or both problems? This time next year I"ll be rolling my own CBD hemp cigarettes. ;)
 
 
CBD does work for pain etc. but not as well as you would hope.
Pure CBD will kill pain but you may need 10 or more. No psychoactive effect.
Pure THC will kill pain almost immediately but you may only need 1 or less. Extreme psychoactive effect.
Mix the pure CBD with the pure THC and you may need three. Psychoactive effect but not until after you pass the point of pain relief.
 
Daytime puffs vs nighttime puffs. Is paranoia really a concern when it's sleepytime?
 
DWB said:
 
CBD does work for pain etc. but not as well as you would hope.
Pure CBD will kill pain but you may need 10 or more. No psychoactive effect.
Pure THC will kill pain almost immediately but you may only need 1 or less. Extreme psychoactive effect.
Mix the pure CBD with the pure THC and you may need three. Psychoactive effect but not until after you pass the point of pain relief.
 
Daytime puffs vs nighttime puffs. Is paranoia really a concern when it's sleepytime?
 
It's not so much the pain as inflammation which leads to it. Painkillers don't tend to help whatsoever on my joint pain. Potent anti-inflammatories help after I'm on them a couple days. But they are so damn hard on the stomach.
 
The random day/night cycles are a real PITA though. Last week my day/night cycle flipped again unexpectedly, now my body wants to fall asleep at 8-9 AM instead of 8-9 PM. When it happens it is almost always a direct 12 hour shift from the previous cycle. Very frigging annoying and disruptive to life. 
 
Hopefully this will help sort it out.
 
We still don't know if IL will even allow CBD production - the law was signed in August, the state legally had 120 days to sort out the program, but there's no signs yet of any progress. I doubt they have anything in place by the deadline at the end of the month. Which sucks, for everyone, as after the first of the year, any delays cut in to our time for doing the app, getting our background checks done, etc. Which ultimately can screw our ability to grow a crop in 2019, if they don't get things sorted out in a timely fashion.
 
Also had to work this weekend so did not get test germs started. Hoping I can get some trays seeded this week yet, need to get things ready. Still shooting for a Jan 1-ish ship date on seeds.
 
 
Cannastuff is highly anti-flam. Lots of studies on that. I wonder if there's a study comparing it to the very potent nsaids you take? I'm probably mis-remembering but wasn't  celebrex was one they restricted some years ago for utter nastiness.
 
The sleep problems sound awful. I'd hope there are some strains that could fix that problem. Three puffs and the lights go out.
 
You can use fresh aloe Vera instead of clonex. That would probably keep you organic, I'm not sure. I think the guy on YouTube calls himself "Minnesota Nice" or something. Maybe Michigan Idk lol.
 
DWB said:
Cannastuff is highly anti-flam. Lots of studies on that. I wonder if there's a study comparing it to the very potent nsaids you take? I'm probably mis-remembering but wasn't  celebrex was one they restricted some years ago for utter nastiness.
 
The sleep problems sound awful. I'd hope there are some strains that could fix that problem. Three puffs and the lights go out.
 
Celebrex made me throw up for 4 days straight before I realized "I don't feel sick, but a couple hours after I take this med I projectile vomit.. something isn't right"
 
I quit taking it, and the constant nausea went away. Turns out I wasn't sick at all, the medicine was doing it. I tried taking it one more time, puked, and said "no more of that shit"
 
Dunno what the hell that crap was doing to me but it sure as hell wasn't doing me any good!
 
Walchit said:
You can use fresh aloe Vera instead of clonex. That would probably keep you organic, I'm not sure. I think the guy on YouTube calls himself "Minnesota Nice" or something. Maybe Michigan Idk lol.
I've never cloned a damn thing, so have a bit of research to do on it this winter! I've always done seed propagation. Something new to learn.
 
TrentL said:
I ordered some CBD extract, going to see if it has any effect on osteoarthritis. My knees are shot and NSAIDs are hard on my stomach, and had to stop taking them when my stomach got worse.
 
I'm about as cynical as they come, but ready to try alternatives. So far the only stuff that's made a difference is prescription anti-inflammatories like Mobic (meloxicam), or celebrex (celecoxib). Problem is my stomach gets so upset taking those I end up puking. Over the counter stuff like Ibuprofen doesn't do anything except make my gut worse.
 
The other problem I have which this may help with (or not) is my sleep schedule has been pretty random since I had a motorcycle crash back in 2010. I took a massive head impact and my sleep pattern (day / night cycle) has randomly flipped ever since. 
 
I got oil on the way that was CO2 extracted, supposed to put a few drops under your tongue a few times a day. 
 
THC makes me paranoid as hell so not a lot of interest in that. But if CBD solves one or both problems? This time next year I"ll be rolling my own CBD hemp cigarettes. ;)
 
Ive been using CBD Critical Mass and its been a life changer, great against pain, even from a very bad tooth ache it completely removed the pain, great for insomnia as well. Started growing them this month.
 
Well after a few days of use, CBD hasn't made my back pain go away completely, but it's noticeably better. My knee pain is gone. Totally gone. Doesn't hurt to go up and down stairs anymore, and my joints aren't stiff and popping in the morning.
 
So think the anti-inflammatory part works, for me at least.
 
Also improved my mood, noticeably. No other mind altering effects, just mellowed me out a little. Don't feel stress and worry quite as poignantly as before. That'll probably have some long term benefits to my stomach. :)
 
 
 
nmlarson said:
Good deal! I'll be jumping on some of those Al**po seeds...the dried peppers I made with yours is excellent!
 
Yes, those worked out real well on flake.
 
Speaking of flake, if anyone needs some, I've got something like 40 pounds of various flake vacuum packed. PM if you want to order some, we'll figure something out. Mainly stocked for farmers market sales next year. I can't stick it on the store as it was processed in a home kitchen, cottage kitchen rules in my state mean I can only sell locally, but for folks on here I'm sure we can figure something out if you need some heat this winter. :)
 
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