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. 
 

 

 
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...
 

 
 
Has a 4 stall garage and a horse stable on the property
 

 

 

 
Probably do my grow room upstairs here after I insulate it
 

 
Built some doors for the horse barn and patched the roof last month
 

 

 
 
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.
 

 

[PtMD989]

I was at work when I posted earlier today. My seed estimate was way low. I looked when I got home I have a hell of a lot more than the 20 I said. Plenty more than 72 cells worth. You can have them all. If you want them.

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[Walchit]

Pm me your address and I can put a package together for you, I have open pollinated stuff from Texas hot peppers, and seeds I saved from bhuts,reapers,and Caribbean red habs. And some stuff from white hot peppers and seed trains. I can't guarantee anything other than they are free if you pm me your address

 

[Walchit]

I can do a little research to see if there are many annuums, hopefully I have more of these purple ufo seeds, they are growing incredibly fast

 

[Walchit]

And I have a bunch of biker Billy seeds from aj drew.
And I have dried Thai and dragon cayenne pods but they are probably mixed together. You would know what they were when you got pods though

 

[Walchit]

I didn't save as many biker Billy as I thought I did, they are definitely dry cause I never put them up lol. U can have all but 5-6 of them. A couple look kinda dark but most look good

 

[Walchit]

Here are the thai and dragon cayenne pods, I can crack some open if you want. Not trying to blow your glog up, I'll stop now lol

 

[Walchit]

One last time I promise...

I have these that look like there are enough to do whole trays, the colorful labels are from Texas hot peppers, and the white sloppy ones I got off of seed trains.



There are enough of these to do half trays



Or I have cubanelle seeds, they were a good sweet pepper, and productive too

Or I have a bunch of different types but only 10 or less seeds in them if you wanna do some mixed trays, or start them in paper towels to see if they sprout b4 you waste time putting them in soil. Just a thought, and I had thought about offering you seeds before, but didn't know if you wanted any OP stuff

 

[tctenten]

Same here Trent. If your ok with open pollenated, I will send you a list of what varieties I have.

 

[TrentL]

Ok Pm's sent. I'll send a care package back your way. I have about 100 varieties of seeds sitting here but all are tiny quantities. Not enough to put together a tray, or even a half a tray, though. Mix trays are a bitch, those first 6 test trays I grew were a month long nightmare trying to keep things organized and healthy. It's not bad if you have one or two, for a small grow, but jeez, when everything sprouts at different times in a 1020 it suddenly becomes a nightmare of juggling light, heat, and moisture to keep things right for the rest to sprout, without killing off the new sprouts that have already popped.
 
So I have some seeds to throw back your way. too, will get you a list to see what you want. I still have a whole mess of wilds (PI******).
 
Plus when harvest comes.. can definitely spoil y'all with goodies..
 
I have a new Rule #1 of farming, first year focus on farming and not building an organic potting soil mix from scratch.. definitely not as trivial as I thought it would be.. lol
 
 

 

[Walchit]

Yeah, my only suggestion for the varieties you only have a couple of would be to sprout in paper towels or jiffy pellets, then once you get 72 that have cotys put those in a tray... The 72 cell trays seemed to really hinder me this year, couldn't keep them evenly watered. Maybe because I put some in that didn't have cotys yet and those cells needed more moisture, idk.

I know that after switching to the clear cups everything is finally starting to take off.

 

[TrentL]

Got 10 1/2 weeks left before transplant time, you think that's enough time to still get some chinense going? It's nowhere near the 15 weeks I've done in prev years. 
 
I also have struggled with the 10/20/s. Even laying them on the flat concrete floor to water, I always end up with one end still wet and one end bone dry by the time it's time to re-water. Even if I get things perfectly level it seems it's not really perfectly level; whether that's the tray, or water re-flowing when I later put them back up on the uneven table, no idea. Probably the tables.
 
I *do* have a few trays that hit near 100% germination so I know I can't be doing tings THAT bad. They were watered and placed right next to trays that did 0%. So I'm totally laying the bad germination at the feet of the seed supplier. Just hurts to have 40% of the first half of the crop not even frigging sprout.
 
I mean, that hurts bad. That wasted 1 month of time, and 40% of the available space I had for sprouting.
 
Sure next year I can do germination and sprouting all out at the farm, but this year I had to do it in my basement as I was still wiring, insulating, and building out at the farm. Which put me at a space constraint. 
 
Plus watering is a real bitch here. At home I don't have running water down in the basement. So I have to fill a 5 gallon bucket at the kitchen sink upstairs. Mix in acid to get the pH down. Take tests. Then carry the 5 gallon bucket down 15 stairs to the grow room, water. Repeat when the bucket is empty. Depending on how many trays / pots need watering this might be once a day or 4 times a day. 
 
The fans dry the surface of the soil out in the pots, so the water wants to bead up. To get the water to take better I have to go around and pre-wet the surface of the soil with a spray bottle (by hand, 8 squirts) otherwise the water wants to run off the surface, down the sides ot he pots, out the drain holes, and on to the floor. If I pre-wet the surface of the pots with a spray bottle it takes water without running off and out.  But right now that's 2000 squirts with the spray bottle to pre-dampen 250 pots.
 
I also had to do that on all 30 trays when I was shifting pH levels because top watering would work out the old tap water. So every cell of every tray, for a few waterings, got 4 squirts and then a mellow top watering to flush crap out to the bottom, then the 1020 would get dumped.  The two times I did that was 8,190 squirts. I could barely move my arm the next day. And I wore out two spray bottles. Completely wore them out.
 
It'll be so mch easier at the farm where I have a hose hookup indoors now (we just re-did plumbing there) - I can just walk around with a mister sprayer and not have to kill my arms.
 
Although, my arms look like popeyes and I'm pretty sure I could crush a pool ball in my hands. Which on it's own is kind of cool, I guess. My wrists have always been weak (I am a programmer, network engineer, circuit designer, etc and type 130 words per minute; for 2 decades). Actually having wrist muscles for the first time in my life is not exactly a bad feeling.
 
I keep telling myself "Next year will be so much easier, sprout indoors at the farm, then move the stuff out to a greenhouse when it gets potted up"
 
But this year sucks.
 
A LOT.
 

 

[TrentL]

Regarding mixed trays & low qty seeds, I can probably stick a tag in the cells early on. I'm using those tear apart 4-cell 72 cell trays. So I can stick a tag in one cell and know that "these four are X type".
 
That'll cut down on paper recordkeeping to know what is what. And if stuff sprouts different rates I can pull the 4-cell stuff out and re-organize if necessary to keep the stuff still germinating separate.
 

 

[PtMD989]

Pm received. They will be in the mail today 3/1 . It’s my honor to be able to help out. I know you will have better results with these seeds than I have. I have faith in you [emoji16]


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[TrentL]

Pm received. They will be in the mail today 3/1 . It’s my honor to be able to help out. I know you will have better results with these seeds than I have. I have faith in you [emoji16]


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Big thanks, man. 
 
I'm going to go out to the shed and garage today and dig up every single 1020 tray I can find from past years and give them a good washing. 
 
I ordered 50 new trays this year but seeded 35 so far. I have 6 I can reclaim from that first batch so far (plus another 10 if i abort the no-germs and start over on them.
 
But I'm going all in now. Lights are en route to the farm so I'm going to try to get everything seeded. I can put sprouting trays out there too, now that it's insulated, heated, and has a water supply.

 

[tctenten]

I think you can still start Chinense

Just my .02

 

[TrentL]

I think you can still start Chinense

Just my .02

 
I've got 10 1/2 weeks before mid-May, I mean, worst case I can put them out early June. 
 
110 days from today is June 19, which is when habs / etc should normally begin putting on flowers. Hopefully that's early enough before midsummer heat really starts kicking the plants asses and causing flower drop.

 

[TrentL]

Well crap. I have a strong ammonia smell in my latest organic mixes (F, H at least, probably the others too), and the plants are keeling over dead.
 
Too much NH4 is being produced; not enough oxygen. Not enough 'good bacteria', those are dying and the anaerobic suckers that make nasty crap are taking over. It's most prevalent on the mixes which were straight coir. This is flat out killing roots dead. Probably (haven't tested) dropping the pH down to something utterly hostile to plant life, like 2.5-3.
 
But a bin, which I added the great white to, and let sit, smells like rotten fish. I guess that's a good thing. Means the fish bone meal is being broken down by the bacteria that was added? Those bins also were 5:1 coir to perlite, so they'll have more aeration. 
 
Organic potting soils are such a major pain in the ass to figure out.
 
I think I need to further ramp up aeration - more perlite??
 
 

 

[TrentL]

Batch H is proving to be 100% fatal to tomatoes and peppers. It was coir + vermiculite + dry ferts. Myco solution added post-transplant. Those reeked of ammonia.
 
Next most fatal were batches of straight coir + dry ferts. Those have not as strong (but still nose cringing) levels of ammonia buildup. I'd expect these batches to be 100% fatal - just slower at killing plants.
 
I'm also seeing deaths in the mix which had perlite. Which I'm not understanding. Those don't smell of ammonia; the soil is spongy, aerated, and just about perfect consistency of moist. These plants by and large are far more healthy than the others but still, a death is a death; and there have been multiple. Granted, all of the deaths so far were on B & C transplants which were re-potted, so it's possible those were already beyond saving.
 
Batch F (a 5:1:1 mix of coir, perlite, and vermiculite) went toxic as well - but those didn't get myco solution added. It actually produced a strong ammonia odor in the "leftover" soil bin after 5 days, too. Plenty aerated. Just didn't have any "good" bacteria.
 
Hopefully the mix & add myco & let sit for a week trick works. Otherwise I gotta pull the plug on the organic stuff altogether.
 

 

[TrentL]

Oh, the "add chemical fertilizer" thing .. that didn't work out so well, that was 100% fatal on a 1/4 dilution of 12-5-1. 
 
What happens when a soil goes toxic with ammonia:
 

 

 
Another die off - this one is in a pearlite mix, which smelled OK, but it was damaged heavily from mildew and re-potted; so chances weren't good it'd live anyway.
 

 
You can tell EXACTLY where I added great white... jeesh.
 

 
These are straight coir + dry ferts
 

 
Those are newer transplants, and were given myco the morning after they were transplanted. So far, I've only lost a couple; but the soil is beginning to reek of ammonia.
 
Death Row: these were re-pots from the mildew batch, all given a 1/4 dilution of miracle grow chemical fertilizer.
 

 
Did not help. The root damage was far too severe to salvage them with a re-pot.
 
 

 

[TrentL]

I pre-inoculated 8 trays of sprouts with the Great White myco solution two days ago. It's a gamble, if I screw up 8 *good* trays I literally blow my entire year away.
 
But a gamble I have to take.
 
So far they are not showing any ill signs. I figured since these are getting transplanted soon, why not give them a shot in the arm first, and get that fungus going to work on those roots to protect them?