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.
 

 

[fcaruana]

Haha awesome. Does the pod look any different than a regular jalapeño? Also, you know those “fooled you“ jalapeños that they sell now with no heat? You should sell these and call them “REALLY fooled you” jalapeños!


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[ShowMeDaSauce]

I had a couple freak jalapenos one year. Nowhere near what you are describing but i would guess they were pushing 40k SHU. They were sure hotter than all the serranos i grew. I got a bunch of Fresno growing to compare to a few kinds of jalapeno this year. They are definitely hotter than a jalapeno when both are ripe. Ive never tried a green Fresno though.

 

[TrentL]

Haha awesome. Does the pod look any different than a regular jalapeño? Also, you know those “fooled you“ jalapeños that they sell now with no heat? You should sell these and call them “REALLY fooled you” jalapeños!


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No, that's the real kicker. It looked and tasted just like a normal Jalapeno. The burn though, good grief man. It was HOT. 
 
Can't wait to stuff some of those bad boys and throw 'em on the grill. 
 
There's some Jalapeno with curved tails that are already intimidating me a little too. Watch them be super mild.
 
 

I had a couple freak jalapenos one year. Nowhere near what you are describing but i would guess they were pushing 40k SHU. They were sure hotter than all the serranos i grew. I got a bunch of Fresno growing to compare to a few kinds of jalapeno this year. They are definitely hotter than a jalapeno when both are ripe. Ive never tried a green Fresno though.

 
I'm wondering what other surprises I'll get this year. Peppers are really starting to take off, now! 
 
Speaking of, the white fungus problem I have killing off my Nepal and Rose tomatoes? And some peppers?
 
I did a little thinking, and those are all plants that did NOT get mycorrhizae treatments indoors. I ran out of the stuff during the indoor grow. So 5 tables of peppers and all of those tomatoes I started later, didn't get any. 
 
I think the "inoculation" part of the claim is pretty valid, considering every plant I've lost to stem rot fungus has been plants that did NOT get mycorrhizae, while the plants which did get dosed with it are doing just fine.
 
I think I'm going to treat the whole field with myco this fall. I can administer it through drip irrigation, and I did get it approved w/ MOSA for application direct to the field.
 
My 'retaliation' brain keeps thinking "how do I kill this crap" when I should be thinking 'fight fungus with fungus'
 

 

[Sawyer]

That's disheartening news about the fungus, but it sounds like you may have the solution figured out. No plant stands alone, but with a little help from the myco friends...

Hope you get some ripe seeds from the superhot jalapeno. If they stabilize to that heat level, maybe you can market them as hellapenos.

 

[TrentL]

That's disheartening news about the fungus, but it sounds like you may have the solution figured out. No plant stands alone, but with a little help from the myco friends...

Hope you get some ripe seeds from the superhot jalapeno. If they stabilize to that heat level, maybe you can market them as hellapenos.

 
Haha!! Great name for them. 
 
I do have an update on those.. they, uh, were hot enough to burn twice. 
 
Aaaaaanywho, got some more work done at the farm today;
 
With one twist of this valve...
 

 
And the help of these hollow stakes...
 

 

 
I can water aaaaaalll of those plants at once.
 

 

 
Yeah, I know, someday I'll get around to covering that damn tunnel up. Need a lot of rope pullers, and a VERY calm day.

 

[TrentL]

Those plants are doing well in the organic potting soil mix. All of the components of the mix were approved by MOSA so seeds I harvest from those plants (once properly isolated from pollinators) can be labeled certified organic seed stock. 
 
 

 

[saiias]

Man.. This is one long a$$ glog. Awesome stuff here Trent. I Hoped I could complete reading atleast 1000 posts today. But stopping at 866. 300 to go.. See you tomorrow(or should I say today as the date has already changed)

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[TrentL]

Man.. This is one long a$$ glog. Awesome stuff here Trent. I Hoped I could complete reading atleast 1000 posts today. But stopping at 866. 300 to go.. See you tomorrow(or should I say today as the date has already changed)

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You are a real trooper! 
 
Today we'll be running high tension wires over the tomato field, for stringing plants, and replacing a water heater.
 
We pulled the water heater out of the old homestead basement, to get us hot water in the garage. The old house, it's (supposed to, maybe, eventually, when the company gets around to it) get demoed, but the bottom of the tank was rusted and it's got a slow leak. 
 
The tomato trellising is an obnoxiously expensive project considering I have lost the majority of the tomato plants already, but a job is a job, and it's gotta get done.
 
A thousand bucks in cedar (pressure treated lumber is verboten on an organic grow). $175 in bolts, 1/8" galvanized wire rope $350, $204 in hourglass crimp fasteners and 8" eye bolts, $45 for a wire stretcher, a days rental on a post hole digger (on the stable side, used my skid loader auger on the east side), 4 days labor on a skilled carpenter / laborer, plus another ?? on tomato twine and plastic clips. (I forget how much they cost, ordered 5,000 plastic clips and 12,000' of tomato twine).
 
Of course with over 75% of the tomatoes dead, and white scrotum (can't remember the exact name, it's a few posts back, we'll just call it white scrotum fungus from now on) present in the soil which makes growing anything other than grains on that plot risky as hell for future years, I'd have to sell tomatoes at something like $250 each to break even this year. 
 
But that's OK, I will push forward with pouring good money after bad and get it done, because when you start something, you best be prepared to finish it.
 
Besides, I can always push up a dirt backstop on one side, and use the goddamn things as the worlds most expensive target holders, if everything else fails. Lead is organic, right?

 

[TrentL]

Also totally forgot to get pictures of Jalapenos yesterday. I'll try to get some actual pepper plant pictures today if I don't put my eye out with a high tension steel rope line first. I'm overdue on documenting them.

 

[saiias]

Just completed this till the end... phew…
What an intriguing and inspiring read it has been...
 
I should hand it to you Trent. You are the most adventurous soul that I know (did not meet and want to meet someday) in my life.
I came here for pepper farming lessons but stayed for some important life Gyan like
 
 

• "Never stop learning."
• "Construction things don't happen overnight! Unless you're using slave labor or work for the state road departments."
•  “operations manual for plants can be more complex than for women”
• “In some regards we are like monkeys operating a microwave. A monkey can push buttons on a microwave. He can open the door. He can even get food out of the refrigerator and put food in the microwave. But he's never going to reliably cook his own dinner. There's tools and phenomenon in this world that are like that microwave, and we are like the monkey”.
• “I get more satisfaction out of a slab of concrete that I poured than any computer program I ever wrote (and that's a LOT of code over the years). Because I know in 150 years someone will walk on that slab of concrete. But no one will even remember any of those programs I wrote, or servers I've built.”

 

• "Best way to keep a racoon and his family off your property is to feed them 2 year old Butch T's"
• “teach the dogs to quit chewing on things (chair legs, work boots, etc) by rubbing ultrahots on them.”

 
Hats off to your persistence and the never give up attitude Trent. I would have given up much before if I was in your shoes.
 
Coming from a farming family ( back in India), I can see why I did connect with this glog at this level. Your work ethic and relentlessness reminds me of my Dad. Next time he is here in states, I will show him your glog and I am sure he will be happy with your efforts.
 
Will keep watching this space.
Moving on to next Glog..
 

 

[saiias]

Also, shout out to other pepperheads who stepped in selflessly by sending their seeds to Trent when required.
Though I am new here, I am already loving the brotherhood in this community.
 

 

[TrentL]

Took some crazy Jalapeno pics today. But very tired. So only posting one pic right now.
 
This was my favorite shot of the day.
 
I was crawling around on my hands and knees, examining all the various oddball Jalapenos (aka Lookin up the skirts!), when I stopped, looked up (it had just finished raining), and kind of had my breath taken away for a moment.
 

 
I had to stop and take a moment there. Just to stop, for a few minutes, and admire the wind blown field of green.
 
Then I ate a bunch of Jalapenos, found one of those "OMFG THAT IS HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT" Jalapenos again, drank a LOT of ice cold water, and had the gut wrenching cramps hit me again from that damn mutant variety of Jalapeno.
 
There's more than one of them.
 
I swear this thing has to be at LEAST 900k. It hits SO slow. You can eat a half a pepper, or more, without so much as a tingle; then you realize, "oh, my tongue is numb", then that burn just steadily increases over 10-15 minutes to the point you are wondering "is this going to stop or is my face going to light on fire" - gums, tongue, roof of mouth, lips, back of throat, ALL on fire. Then the gut burn starts. 
 
I have never, EVER, had a Jalapeno kick my ass like this before. By the time I stumbled across another "OMFG" plant, I'd eaten a dozen or more ripe ones of different phenotypes, nothing more than your usual mild Jalapeno burn. Some mutant hybrids are sour, some are bitter, some have no heat at all, others are pretty mild, others are pretty normal.
 
Then, that light green, slightly skinny pod, ever so slightly crackly skin, VERY thick juicy walls, and you think "damn that's a good Jalapeno" when you bite in to it.
 
Then it bites back as fierce as a thrice-scorned woman.
 
I *really* hope I can grow these out in to a stable hybrid, my god, they are serious ass kickers.
 

 

[TrentL]

Just completed this till the end... phew…
What an intriguing and inspiring read it has been...
 
I should hand it to you Trent. You are the most adventurous soul that I know (did not meet and want to meet someday) in my life.
I came here for pepper farming lessons but stayed for some important life Gyan like
 
 

• "Never stop learning."
• "Construction things don't happen overnight! Unless you're using slave labor or work for the state road departments."
•  “operations manual for plants can be more complex than for women”
• “In some regards we are like monkeys operating a microwave. A monkey can push buttons on a microwave. He can open the door. He can even get food out of the refrigerator and put food in the microwave. But he's never going to reliably cook his own dinner. There's tools and phenomenon in this world that are like that microwave, and we are like the monkey”.
• “I get more satisfaction out of a slab of concrete that I poured than any computer program I ever wrote (and that's a LOT of code over the years). Because I know in 150 years someone will walk on that slab of concrete. But no one will even remember any of those programs I wrote, or servers I've built.”

 

• "Best way to keep a racoon and his family off your property is to feed them 2 year old Butch T's"
• “teach the dogs to quit chewing on things (chair legs, work boots, etc) by rubbing ultrahots on them.”

 
Hats off to your persistence and the never give up attitude Trent. I would have given up much before if I was in your shoes.
 
Coming from a farming family ( back in India), I can see why I did connect with this glog at this level. Your work ethic and relentlessness reminds me of my Dad. Next time he is here in states, I will show him your glog and I am sure he will be happy with your efforts.
 
Will keep watching this space.
Moving on to next Glog..
 

 
Thanks for spending the time to read the Glog, I know that had to have taken a LONG time. 
 
I didn't really know or plan on this being such a lengthy adventure. I'd done some decent sized pepper grows in past years up until my garden was blighted in 2014-2015, and I had to let the ground rest,  But nothing remotely close to this scale. I have been keeping my eye out for land for a long time as well, because I knew that some day I wanted to try scaling up. With things going the direction they are in IT work in the states (you say you are from India; a lot of our tech jobs were offshored there*), I needed a plan B. 
 
* All of the programmers for "That Really Big Company Who Shant Be Named Who Happens to Make Big Green Stuff" used to be up in Moline, IL. Now it is split between India and China. There's a ghost town of cubicles up in Moline where there used to be 200+ programmers and server architects, back when I first started doing programming work for dealerships back in the late 90's.  A year ago that same company made the decision to completely outsource everything to a Microsoft partner, really a conglomerate of partners, mostly out of Eastern Europe, to convert over to Microsoft Navision 365, so the end of my 20+ year career working with them is already determined. Hence the farm. I still have Plan C, D, and E that I can try as well, but I liked growing peppers so figured that would be my first "pick".
 
Anyway yeah thanks for giving me some feedback, encouragement, and support. Right now is a particularly hard spell for me at the farm, 
 

Also, shout out to other pepperheads who stepped in selflessly by sending their seeds to Trent when required.
Though I am new here, I am already loving the brotherhood in this community.
 

 
Yeah, community members were instrumental in filling that field up this year. I can't even express how disappointed I am in a couple of vendors. You spend a thousand bucks in seed 'from reputable vendors', only to have germination rates in the gutter. Abysmal. I wasted more money on pepper seed this year than the entire 20 acre soybean crop cost, and I have 3 million soybean plants in the field. (OR did, until 6 acres flooded and killed 30% of my crop) If those soybeans germinated at the same rates the earlier pepper seed purchases did, I'd have 17 acres barren.
 
Just a handful of community members here got me an extra thousand pepper plants in the field this spring, that I wouldn't otherwise have.  Their generosity is outstanding, and a great example to follow.

 

[Sawyer]

Just beautiful

 

[Devv]

Good to see all those healthy plants!
 
One thing about the Annuum's, they be hearty MF-ers!

 

[nmlarson]

Took some crazy Jalapeno pics today.
 

 

 

They look like soldiers, all lined up for parade!

 

[TrentL]

Ok the numex hybrid lineup; most of them are growing true at this point, but there's a few major "types" evolving here.
 
Maybe a cayenne cross?
 

 
Maybe growing true? Or maybe one of the ones that's mind bending hot? This looks just like the plant that blew my ass away. Also looks just like the plant that was a normal Jalapeno heat. No idea, it's a "chomper beware" gamble what you'll get.
 

 
a purple-somethingrather-cross? Got a LOT of these. Probably 20-30% of the numex are growing purple pods
 

 

 

 
These, no frigging idea what the hell they crossed up with.
 

 

 
Some oft he purple ones are not like the other purple ones. I have purple ones that are growing Jalapeno shaped, then I get these curvy guys.
 

 
Long, slender, paler green version;
 

 

 
These long skinny ones are BITTER tasting with no heat. I'm hoping the taste improves with a color change.
 

 
 

 
These might be a serrano mix. They've got a very bitter heat, that reminds me of serrano.
 

 

 
 
 

 

[karoo]

Thank you for the update , good to see pods .

The only way forward seems to be , isolate your own plants and build up your own seed stock of what works best for you , on the farm and commercially.

Best of luck.

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[TrentL]

Thank you for the update , good to see pods .

The only way forward seems to be , isolate your own plants and build up your own seed stock of what works best for you , on the farm and commercially.

Best of luck.

Sent from my HUAWEI VNS-L31 using Tapatalk

 
Yeah, there's no doubt about that. I think one of the fun things, though, will be "what if" and these open pollinated plants are holding my attention pretty good. I mean I have to have most stuff grow true to sell, but by the same token, 8,000 of the same thing is pretty damn boring.

 

[karoo]

 
Yeah, there's no doubt about that. I think one of the fun things, though, will be "what if" and these open pollinated plants are holding my attention pretty good. I mean I have to have most stuff grow true to sell, but by the same token, 8,000 of the same thing is pretty damn boring.

At least your germination figures will improve.[emoji3]

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