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.
 

 

[TrentL]

There's also notable weed pressure now.. so setbacks like this not only piss me off (when I pay a days' wages at $12.50+ an hour - this kid makes a bit more than that as he also doubles as a construction laborer, not just a field hand) for a worker to push stakes in to the ground, you expect the CORRECT stakes on the CORRECT spacing), but goddamn, to have a few dozen feet of pepper plants rolled up and wadded by ground cover that was improperly staked just really pours salt in the wound. Having to fix it on a Sunday, alone, in high winds, when the problem is discovered just adds more insult to injury. 
 
Simple instructions... not an overly difficult task.. decent wages.. yet things keep getting screwed up. I checked in on the guy I had running these between planting runs in the North field, and the first two rows were OK, but after that he started cutting corners and re-using dripline stakes instead of walking up to the head of the row to pull longer ones out of the box.
 
Of course I don't catch it until the wind picks up today when no one else is around to help correct it. 
 
Irritating to see my peppers under the ground cover, and not the weeds!
 

 

[Walchit]

Hit him with that bat! Outta knock some sense into him lol

 

[CMJ]

Trent has been quiet lately. I think he may have worked himself to death....

 

[TrentL]

No, been busy with day job stuff and farm stuff.
 
The latest bad news is I figured out what's been killing the peppers, now that it's also killing tomato plants, it's more easy to identify
 
I noticed today big tomato plants wilted badly - two hours after a good rainstorm. Which didn't make any sense. Until I started poking at them.
 

 

 

 
White fungus, rotting the stems out. This is easier to see in the tomatoes; but it's the same basic thing I've seen in all of the peppers that have been dying too; stem rots itself right in two.
 
I didn't know what it was for sure until today. Sclerotinia sclerotiorum. 
 
I have no answers for this, either. There's literally nothing I can do to save the plants that are infected, other than rip them out and burn them. And there's nothing I can do to get the shit out of the soil, must have been dormant there from nearby soybean crops (which are prone to getting it). That southern field of mine which has spent the better part of the last three weeks under water, and the wet land all around, must have triggered a bloom of the stuff. It kills fast, and it's moving through my pasture fast. I've found it all OVER the place so far. Over 100 dead peppers and today alone I pulled out another 18 tomato plants.
 
Might be a season ender for me. Nothing I can do with an organic grow, and even if I did withdraw the field there's no guarantees a fungicide chemical treatment would do any good at all. That stuff is notoriously hard to kill off.
 
 

 

[TrentL]

Dead plants and problems are depressing. Here's some pics of the pepper crop. Crossing fingers that the fungus death doesn't sweep through everything. 
 
These were taken today after a torrential downpour, from a storm that spawned a tornado not far away. We got hit by some 80+ mph winds but everything held up well.
 
You can see the weed pressure where we haven't got fabric deployed yet is getting pretty intense.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
The wind blew my drip irrigation all around today, we haven't re-staked it yet where the ground cover has been deployed. Haven't needed to use it in a couple weeks now anyway. 
 
Trying to figure out if that ground cover is making my fungus problem worse, or less worse. I guess the good part is it will prevent spore travel, and might get hot enough to kill off anything close to the surface. The bad news is, it keeps the ground wetter.
 
 

 

[TrentL]

It's hard to see with all the damn weeds, but there's some bean plants, cucumbers, and other stuff in there. 
 
I also have sweet corn sprouted, and more watermelons coming up.
 
Although those damn cucumber beetles are trying to end all of my melon and cucumber crops. This was from today; they're eating holes right through the stems of my watermelon vines.
 

 

 

[PtMD989]

That sucks about the stem rot disease. Does the organic growing council ( not sure of the proper name)help you with suggestions to combat this disease? And other disease and pest problems?




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[TrentL]

That sucks about the stem rot disease. Does the organic growing council ( not sure of the proper name)help you with suggestions to combat this disease? And other disease and pest problems?




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No the certifying agency is actually prohibited from offering advice. All they do is certification. We'd have to hire in an organic consulting agency like MOSES to get advice and stuff. https://mosesorganic.org/
 
Not sure what they cost. We're doing an organic farm walkthrough with them of another local organic grower July 1st, maybe make some contacts and see how that place is doing some things. 
 
Copper spray is one way to deal with most fungus, but by the time plants are hit with this white fungus, it's too late - the fungus is systemic, it affects all parts of the plant tissue. Basically hijacks the entire plant in to becoming it's host. Can't even compost the stuff, have to burn it. So copper wouldn't work in this case, since it can only be applied to the foilage, it only really works on surface molds and fungus. Not something that's in the soil, enters through the roots and stem, and grows inside the whole plant.
 
It's possible that this traces back to an infected seed, as it can exist on seeds from year to year. I had plants in 4" pots getting hit with the same thing so it's not coming FROM the soil. It either blew in on the wind when they were being hardened off outside, or started growing back in the indoor part of the grow, and spread via bottom watering to infect more.
 
Except those tomatoes I pulled; those were started directly in 4" pots and went straight to the ground out of my basement; they skipped the indoor grow at the farm, and we didn't bother hardening them off. Those *had* to have been hit from the soil, proper.
 
I did prune those a month or so ago, to get rid of sunburned foilage and to remove foilage that was in contact with the ground. So it's possible the open pruning sores were infected by spores on the wind, too.

 

[tsurrie]

Shit. I have this small garden with a lot of weeds... but you have this HUUUUUGE garden with a lot of weeds. I do not envy you Trent. I admire the courage and the work you put in this project. The glog is incredible. I hope you get the weeds and diseases under control asap. Take care and good luck.

 

[TrentL]

Well, the ground cover will knock most of it out. 
 
But we got like... 2,000 feet of cucumbers to weed by hand. I did a 100 foot row today and timed it, took me 55 mins, and it wasn't as bad as some of them are. 
 
What worries me is the north field where we aren't using ground cover. It'll be a race to see if the crops can out-run the weeds, there. Those rows are 220' long and there's a LOT of them, and the first 10 (watermelon) rows are spaced 6' apart. I dunno how it's gonna work out, to be honest. Was hoping to find a bunch of straw by now but I only have managed to find about 40 bales locally. Hopefully some farmers will be knocking down wheat soon and I can get some more on the ground!
 
 

 

[TrentL]

Shit. I have this small garden with a lot of weeds... but you have this HUUUUUGE garden with a lot of weeds. I do not envy you Trent. I admire the courage and the work you put in this project. The glog is incredible. I hope you get the weeds and diseases under control asap. Take care and good luck.

 
I think we can get a handle on the fungus, since I got lucky and caught on to it early. Or, early enough.
 
Had four workers out widening the holes around the plant stems today in the ground cover, so that the soil immediately around the plant can "breathe" (and dry out) better. Incidentally, it'll also make it a lot easier for me to spot check plants for problems.
 
The damn cucumber beetles are driving me nuts, though. Nothing I can do about them. They're rampant again. 
 
Next year, hopefully I have a spider population built up (fresh tilled sod killed most of the good hunters), row covers and high tunnels to help with that situation.
 
Also was some taste testing today. 
 

 
Good old BB Jalapeno, tasted just fine. Sure wish that pod had been isolated, so many damn seeds.

 

[TrentL]

So... we got SEVEN inches of rain last night. On a 20% chance of scattered thunderstorms.
 
Wife gave the workers the morning off (mud pit), I haven't been out there yet myself, been working day job stuff. 
 
 

 

[Walchit]

We got an inch or so... Layed down a bunch of my plants

 

[TrentL]

We got an inch or so... Layed down a bunch of my plants

 
I've been pretty fortunate with that so far, I haven't had any keel over (yet). Knock on wood. Staking 3,000 pepper plants is probably bound to happen in my not so distant future as they get bigger.

 

[TrentL]

Got a little hail damage in the storm night before last.
 

 

 
Been pulling a few pods here and there, too.
 

 

 
 

 

[TrentL]

The "NuMex Jalapeno" seeds I planted (got from an open pollinated bag from a forumite here), are a continual source of amusement for me at the farm. I'll try to grab some pictures of the diverse pods they're producing. For the most part, all of the plants look the same; except some have purple flowers and produce purple pods. Others are making pods that look like cayenne peppers. Others have normal looking jalapeno pods.. while others still have pods that look like a jalapeno and a green bell had a baby together.
 
At least some of them were crossed with ultra hots. I ate a Jalapeno yesterday at the farm that had a slow burn heat so intense I nearly puked from it. Wasn't expecting anything near that hot. Most of the pods I pulled so far are relatively mild, but there's two plants in particular that are real sleepers. One plant is making normal looking pods, with Jalapeno flavor and shape and size , but the heat is somewhere close to a bhut jolokia. WAY hotter than a habanero. I got stomach cramps from it, lips were on fire, gums were on fire, roof of mouth, back of throat, nose was running, sweat beading, etc. I wasn't at all ready for that level of heat yet, since I'm only picking the very first pods from annuums. I drank two bottles of water and STILL had a burning throat for 15 minutes afterwards.
 
Anyway there's 5 rows of them and as they begin ripening pods, every day is an adventure out there.
 
 

 

[fcaruana]

The "NuMex Jalapeno" seeds I planted (got from an open pollinated bag from a forumite here), are a continual source of amusement for me at the farm. I'll try to grab some pictures of the diverse pods they're producing. For the most part, all of the plants look the same; except some have purple flowers and produce purple pods. Others are making pods that look like cayenne peppers. Others have normal looking jalapeno pods.. while others still have pods that look like a jalapeno and a green bell had a baby together.
 
At least some of them were crossed with ultra hots. I ate a Jalapeno yesterday at the farm that had a slow burn heat so intense I nearly puked from it. Wasn't expecting anything near that hot. Most of the pods I pulled so far are relatively mild, but there's two plants in particular that are real sleepers. One plant is making normal looking pods, with Jalapeno flavor and shape and size , but the heat is somewhere close to a bhut jolokia. WAY hotter than a habanero. I got stomach cramps from it, lips were on fire, gums were on fire, roof of mouth, back of throat, nose was running, sweat beading, etc. I wasn't at all ready for that level of heat yet, since I'm only picking the very first pods from annuums. I drank two bottles of water and STILL had a burning throat for 15 minutes afterwards.
 
Anyway there's 5 rows of them and as they begin ripening pods, every day is an adventure out there.
 
 

Please show us a pic of that crazy plant with the pods on it (the super hot jalapeño)! So funny. I know it’s painful when it happens, but those stories really are funny after they happen and everything cools down. I have so many good ones and I’ve only been growing peppers for 4 years.

Last year my 94 year old grandma and her friend (who is in her 60s) were walking through the garden and her friend picked one of the red peppers off of my mystery plant for a little taste (I wasn’t around at the time to warn her)... mystery because I was sold “red savina” seeds and instead got these really tiny gnarly little pods that were absolutely blazing hot. Probably 400-500k Scoville. Some kind of cross. Anyways, she bit into one out of curiosity and was immediately sent running back to the house for relief. She couldn’t even bring my grandmother back, the pain was too much.. she left my her out there standing alone waiting for her to return while she dealt with the unprecedented amount of heat. She kept referring to it as “the pepper plant from hell” after that.

I of course wasn’t around for this, I just heard about it afterwards. This woman was visiting in from Canada too... I’m sure she didn’t even know Peppers could be that hot.

Ah, gotta love peppers.


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[TrentL]

Yeah I'll post an assortment of "Jalapeno freaks" tonight.
 
I also have some Drying Serrano freaks, it looks like. I got those from Pepperlover. To the best of my knowledge, Serrano peppers are not supposed to be .. purple.  
 
I tasted one last night and it was the most bitter damned pepper I'd ever put in my mouth. WOW that thing was harsh. 
 
I guess with all of the purple and chocolate craze the last few years, and growing out 50-250 plants of each type, it's not totally unexpected that I'd get a lot of oddballs with purple traits. 
 
In just about every row so far, of every type of pepper, I have at least a few plants that aren't adhering to the norm. Every one of them were carefully tagged, tracked, and transplanted (PAINSTAKINGLY so), so I'm totally ruling out chance of mix-ups on our end. I tracked every plant from seed to dirt.
 
But like I said, I don't mind oddballs and crazy crosses, kind of keeps things interesting. A bland field of "all homogenous Jalapenos" would be about the most boring damn thing I could possibly envision. I guess that's why I'm growing 50 different types of plants in a 3 acre grow. (Well, that, and to hedge bets in case I lose a full type of plant, still have others.. like those damned tomatoes, MAN I have bad luck with tomatoes).
 
Part of the excitement I have about the high tunnel and doing the isolation grow is to *intentionally* cross stuff up. 
 
E.g. I'd actually really LIKE a "much hotter jalapeno" for nachos, etc. My biggest complaint with jalapeno is they are just too damn mild. By the end of a growing season, they don't even tingle my tongue much anymore, not after months of eating hot and ultrahots.
 
If I can cultivate a potent Jalapeno, well, that'd be a worthy goal. Something I'd actually like to have, that isn't really available? I like the Jalapeno flavor but want a LOT more kick. 
 
So maybe I'll get lucky?
 

 

[fcaruana]

Yeah I'll post an assortment of "Jalapeno freaks" tonight.
 
I also have some Drying Serrano freaks, it looks like. I got those from Pepperlover. To the best of my knowledge, Serrano peppers are not supposed to be .. purple.  
 
I tasted one last night and it was the most bitter damned pepper I'd ever put in my mouth. WOW that thing was harsh. 
 
I guess with all of the purple and chocolate craze the last few years, and growing out 50-250 plants of each type, it's not totally unexpected that I'd get a lot of oddballs with purple traits. 
 
In just about every row so far, of every type of pepper, I have at least a few plants that aren't adhering to the norm. Every one of them were carefully tagged, tracked, and transplanted (PAINSTAKINGLY so), so I'm totally ruling out chance of mix-ups on our end. I tracked every plant from seed to dirt.
 
But like I said, I don't mind oddballs and crazy crosses, kind of keeps things interesting. A bland field of "all homogenous Jalapenos" would be about the most boring damn thing I could possibly envision. I guess that's why I'm growing 50 different types of plants in a 3 acre grow. (Well, that, and to hedge bets in case I lose a full type of plant, still have others.. like those damned tomatoes, MAN I have bad luck with tomatoes).
 
Part of the excitement I have about the high tunnel and doing the isolation grow is to *intentionally* cross stuff up. 
 
E.g. I'd actually really LIKE a "much hotter jalapeno" for nachos, etc. My biggest complaint with jalapeno is they are just too damn mild. By the end of a growing season, they don't even tingle my tongue much anymore, not after months of eating hot and ultrahots.
 
If I can cultivate a potent Jalapeno, well, that'd be a worthy goal. Something I'd actually like to have, that isn't really available? I like the Jalapeno flavor but want a LOT more kick. 
 
So maybe I'll get lucky?
 

I hope so! They purposely bred the jalapeño to be less potent back in the 80s I think. Idea was that US consumers wouldn’t be able to handle the true heat of a jalapeño, which is actually quite hot. Mexican jalapeños are closer to the original heat, but you’re right, that would be awesome to have a truly hot jalapeño variety


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[TrentL]

Yeah those "early" Jalapenos that seed companies sell are really, REALLY bland. 
 
NuMex are supposed to be about 10k SHU, if I remember right. I'd like a jalapeno in the 100K range, or 150K. 
 
The one I ate last night was probably (just a gut feel) well north of 500K. It burned a LOT more than a habanero, and for a hell of a lot longer. Such a slow onset, too. It was frigging sneaky. I was munching away, happily, and after about 20 steps I'm like "uhh, damn."
 
Ate another bite.
 
Another 20 steps and I'm like "uhh, wow, shit this is REALLY hot."
 
Ate a few more bites.
 
By the time I got back to the building and dropped the placenta in the trash, I headed for the fridge, I was LIT THE HELL UP.
 
I had stomach cramps for about 30 minutes after that. Actually thought I was going to puke at one point. I wasn't prepared for that level of heat this early in the season.
 
Probably a *wee* bit too hot to bring to market and sell as a Jalapeno.