I am starting this GLOG now to kinda give myself a kick in the azz and make sure I document my grow this season. This will be my second real grow; I learned a whole lot last year, but I'm realizing that I still have much to learn and I still feel a bit of of my element.
The plan, this year, is to continue growing in beds at the Community Garden, and build up some beds in my yard as well. Last year, I grew on some bags at home, and two beds at the Community Garden. This year, in hoping to take over three needs at the Garden, and really expand on my garden infrastructure in my tiny yard. My wife has sort of caught the gardening bug, too, so I'll regrettably have to share space with her and her tomatoes and zucchinis and what not. Other than that, though, I think it's going to be a good year.
Some key differences I am planning this year, a compared to last year:
-starting earlier. Last year, I started my seeds on, like, frigging March. This year, is promised myself that I'd start in January, and I got pretty close, having started all of my chinense on February 7. I intend to start the annuums in a few weeks, once I have the chinense moved along.
-last year, I grew to much hot shit, which made it hard to share with friends and family, and for to be a little bit fierce for me, too. This year, I promised to not grow too many Super Hot varieties, and instead concentrate on Hab level and below chiles. Based on what I started so far, I've succeeded in growing more Hab and under chiles. But, I've still elected to grow way too many Supers and Hab plus stuff. Just can't help myself, I guess.
-last year, I feel like if wasted a lot of time and effort messing with jiffy pots and such. This year, I plan on going right from the paper towels to solo cups. I'm not there yet so, of that's a stupid idea, someone PLEASE tell me asap. FWIW, I experimented with a dead end sacrificial seedling in like August, and it seemed to work really well...
-last year, I didn't give my plants nearly enough room. I overloaded my needs, and used 5 gal fabric root pouches. As a result, the plants in the beds were a big jungle, completing with escorted for sunlight and making harvests difficult. My plants in the bags, I think, suffered from not having enough root space. And also from shitty soil (more on that later...) This year, I'm still likely to overcrowd the plants as compared to what is conventionally accepted as good spacing for chinense, but I'll be planting out at less than half the density as compared to last year. I'll also be moving up to 7gal pouches for all the excess plants that I don't have actual room for LOL.
-soil is giving me a headache. I'll be building a lot of new beds, plus a lot of fabric bags, so I'll need a good mix to get things going the proper way. I realise I'll need to decide a slightly different mix for the bags as compared to the beds. I'll be starting a separate thread, seeking advice on that, but of course if anyone wants to offer insights here, that'd be appreciated, too. I've been reading a lot on the subject but instead of getting clarity and confidence from the research. I'm just feeling more overwhelmed.
-Hardening off. Last year, with train and aphids and general overprotective parental instincts, I took far too long to harden these plants of, which really set my grow back significantly. So, I am resolving to get these things hardened of ASAFP this year.
-Last year, I had a run-in with aphids. Ultimately, i&i survived, and arguably triumphed, but I'm still feeling a bit gun-shy about those little vampiric pricks. I week like the hardening of process ended up saving me, as it introduced predators to who they azzes, but I suspect all that Neem oil helped too. But, basically, I reel bullied by aphids and I'm hoping to get some moral support about that as soon as possible.
I guess that's it for now. Sorry if that's all boring content. But, the main point of this initial post was to make some public resolutions so I can hopefully hold myself accountable and get things closer to "right" this time. Once i get home to my computer, I can link to my GLOG from last year, post up some pics, cut and paste my gross list, give shout outs to THP members who shared or traded seeds, etc. On just stick at work, and figured I'd set this thing of now, to get the GLOGball rolling.
Thanks for reading...
The plan, this year, is to continue growing in beds at the Community Garden, and build up some beds in my yard as well. Last year, I grew on some bags at home, and two beds at the Community Garden. This year, in hoping to take over three needs at the Garden, and really expand on my garden infrastructure in my tiny yard. My wife has sort of caught the gardening bug, too, so I'll regrettably have to share space with her and her tomatoes and zucchinis and what not. Other than that, though, I think it's going to be a good year.
Some key differences I am planning this year, a compared to last year:
-starting earlier. Last year, I started my seeds on, like, frigging March. This year, is promised myself that I'd start in January, and I got pretty close, having started all of my chinense on February 7. I intend to start the annuums in a few weeks, once I have the chinense moved along.
-last year, I grew to much hot shit, which made it hard to share with friends and family, and for to be a little bit fierce for me, too. This year, I promised to not grow too many Super Hot varieties, and instead concentrate on Hab level and below chiles. Based on what I started so far, I've succeeded in growing more Hab and under chiles. But, I've still elected to grow way too many Supers and Hab plus stuff. Just can't help myself, I guess.
-last year, I feel like if wasted a lot of time and effort messing with jiffy pots and such. This year, I plan on going right from the paper towels to solo cups. I'm not there yet so, of that's a stupid idea, someone PLEASE tell me asap. FWIW, I experimented with a dead end sacrificial seedling in like August, and it seemed to work really well...
-last year, I didn't give my plants nearly enough room. I overloaded my needs, and used 5 gal fabric root pouches. As a result, the plants in the beds were a big jungle, completing with escorted for sunlight and making harvests difficult. My plants in the bags, I think, suffered from not having enough root space. And also from shitty soil (more on that later...) This year, I'm still likely to overcrowd the plants as compared to what is conventionally accepted as good spacing for chinense, but I'll be planting out at less than half the density as compared to last year. I'll also be moving up to 7gal pouches for all the excess plants that I don't have actual room for LOL.
-soil is giving me a headache. I'll be building a lot of new beds, plus a lot of fabric bags, so I'll need a good mix to get things going the proper way. I realise I'll need to decide a slightly different mix for the bags as compared to the beds. I'll be starting a separate thread, seeking advice on that, but of course if anyone wants to offer insights here, that'd be appreciated, too. I've been reading a lot on the subject but instead of getting clarity and confidence from the research. I'm just feeling more overwhelmed.
-Hardening off. Last year, with train and aphids and general overprotective parental instincts, I took far too long to harden these plants of, which really set my grow back significantly. So, I am resolving to get these things hardened of ASAFP this year.
-Last year, I had a run-in with aphids. Ultimately, i&i survived, and arguably triumphed, but I'm still feeling a bit gun-shy about those little vampiric pricks. I week like the hardening of process ended up saving me, as it introduced predators to who they azzes, but I suspect all that Neem oil helped too. But, basically, I reel bullied by aphids and I'm hoping to get some moral support about that as soon as possible.
I guess that's it for now. Sorry if that's all boring content. But, the main point of this initial post was to make some public resolutions so I can hopefully hold myself accountable and get things closer to "right" this time. Once i get home to my computer, I can link to my GLOG from last year, post up some pics, cut and paste my gross list, give shout outs to THP members who shared or traded seeds, etc. On just stick at work, and figured I'd set this thing of now, to get the GLOGball rolling.
Thanks for reading...
