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]

That's too funny. I'm a bit curious about how good it looks. Like it's been fed...

 
We've got good soil around here, that's probably growing in virgin silt loam.
 
But yeah, that little girl is showing zero deficiencies. 
 
If I were a couple decades younger I might sneak a cutting, got root hormones in the basement for cloning.. lmao
 
They still don't let you grow it for personal use in IL though. They decriminalized possession of under 25g but it's still a felony if you get caught with a plant.

 

[TrentL]

Some weeds we don't pull.
 

 

 
Yeah, sacrificial border crop of big leafed something-er-rather weeds. Dunno what they are but they can stay and be bait, for all I care.
 
Brown bhut jolokia turning colors.. looks like a turd. 
 

 
Blurry pic of a 2nd Trinidad Scorpion Cardi. Livestreamed my oldest boy eating this one today.
 

 
Some trinidad scorp yellows, one should be changing colors soon.
 

 
Happy tomato plants
 

 
My assistant.  She got brave today, usually she only goes up two rungs. Today she went clear to the top, climbed over, down the other side, and back again!
 

 
The beekeepers came out today, the lady fed Gabby a bunch of big mints. 
 
Well, about two hours later that sugared up kid was running laps around the pasture.
 
She's waaaay down by that white fence.
 

 
Only problem was, she decided it would be a good idea to strip down naked before she went on her marathon run.
 

 
You ever try to catch a naked 3 year old running through a farm field who is amped up on mass quantities of sugar? 
 
Didn't think so.
 

 

[Sawyer]

I may have missed this if you said anything about it, but are you putting down milky spore for those Japanese beetles? It has worked wonders here on my place.

It would be pretty expensive to treat a place as large as yours, but maybe not prohibitive if you treat only untilled areas.

With milky spore in the ground, the traps become a viable option again. Yes, they do attract beetles from surrounding areas, but then when they try to reproduce on your place, the spore puts an end to them.

I did a single treatment several years ago and am only now starting to see a resurgence of beetles.

PS - That plant looks like a pure sativa. Don't see that too often anymore. Seems like everyone wants some indica in their strains.

 

[Ghaleon]

Put out tiny Pachinko machines to distract the Japanese beetles.

 

[Chilidude]

Put out tiny Pachinko machines to distract the Japanese beetles.

 

I am sure if put few Konami made pachinko machines down there, the beetles will leave cursing.

 

[Ghaleon]

Konami used to be awesome.. oh how the mighty have fallen.

 

[TrentL]

I may have missed this if you said anything about it, but are you putting down milky spore for those Japanese beetles? It has worked wonders here on my place.

It would be pretty expensive to treat a place as large as yours, but maybe not prohibitive if you treat only untilled areas.

With milky spore in the ground, the traps become a viable option again. Yes, they do attract beetles from surrounding areas, but then when they try to reproduce on your place, the spore puts an end to them.

I did a single treatment several years ago and am only now starting to see a resurgence of beetles.

PS - That plant looks like a pure sativa. Don't see that too often anymore. Seems like everyone wants some indica in their strains.

 
This year I'm not too worried about the Japanese beetles. They are favoring certain weed species and soybeans over any of my plants. So far they've only nipped at the Okra plants very lightly, and in light enough numbers that even Baby Gabby can pick them off in a few minutes. She went around collecting beetles in a jar yesterday, out of the blue, no idea where she got the jar but she had a big collection of them by the time anyone noticed. 
 
I've never used milky spores. I'm not sure how expensive it would be to use on 26 acres of beans (there are millions of beetles currently on the land), nor do I know how well it would do with miles of untreated fields around us, also breeding billions of beetles. It's bad, the entire 10 mile drive to the farm I'm driving through CLOUDS of these hard japanese beetles every day. They sound like you are driving through hail or heavy rain when you run through a cloud of them.
 
 

Put out tiny Pachinko machines to distract the Japanese beetles.

 
Can I use them for target practice?!
 

 
I am sure if put few Konami made pachinko machines down there, the beetles will leave cursing.

 
So will all the workers!
 

Konami used to be awesome.. oh how the mighty have fallen.

 
Yes, indeed. They were!

 

[stettoman]

You have a gorgeous operation down there, Trent! You seem to have the same black stuff in the ground we have up here in the river valley....

 

[TrentL]

You have a gorgeous operation down there, Trent! You seem to have the same black stuff in the ground we have up here in the river valley....

 
Thanks!
 
Yeah the plants in the pasture are doing fantastic. It's how soil is *supposed* to work. Zero deficiencies, no need for fertilizer...
 
The field that was row cropped?
 
Good grief..
 
I haven't posted any pics lately but I put the hydro plants up in the dirt in the north field (it's in a 36 month organic transition so no biggie, putting prohibited stuff up there; planting the hydro plants in the transitional acreage creates a 12 month re-transition, but it's already just starting a 36 month transition, so no biggie.). They are *horrible* looking. The dirt that was row cropped for decades is going to take a LONG time to get productive again.
 
if I remember I'll try to get some pics of those miserable bastards up there today. It's ... ugly.

 

[Devv]

 
Brown bhut jolokia turning colors.. looks like a turd.

 
Got my chuckle of the day
 
Looks like things are coming along nicely!

 

[TrentL]

 
Got my chuckle of the day
 
Looks like things are coming along nicely!

 
Peppers are doing fantastic. I'll be doing a first-pick of Jalapenos, and a few other annuums for a farmers market this weekend.
 
We might have had a few bowls of cherry tomatoes to take too.. but .. uhh.. someone got hungry today while stringing tomato plants.
 
Speaking of, those damn tomatoes are KICKING MY EVER LOVING ASS. 
 
One person cannot keep up with a whole field of tomatoes. It's impossible. The other folks are about done with ground cover (finally, I've had EVERYONE working on it for over a month now, nonstop). Hopefully I'll get some backup on plant maintenance soon. 
 
I have amish paste that I haven't got to, that I have to de-tangle and string, which are SEVEN FEET TALL already. Needless to say, it's a damned chore. A nasty, nasty chore.

 

[Ghaleon]

Sounds like you need Amish people or at least those with a similar work ethic.

 

[TrentL]

Sounds like you need Amish people or at least those with a similar work ethic.

 
Yeah I fired a kid today. 
 
Short on workers, but it had to happen. Third strike.
 
First strike was not securing ramps properly to offload my lawnmower, it took a 3' fall and blew out a seal on the hydrostatic transmission.
 
Since our lawnmower was down, second strike was when I gave him written instructions - WRITTEN - on weed eating between rows on the North field. We were gonna plant the last of the watermelons and figured weed eating would level that section of field quick since the lawn mower was down.
 
"Do not get within 8 feet of the string line, we will hand weed it."
 
What does he do? 

Cuts clear to the string line and wipes out a pair of 220' rows of watermelons. They were 4 weeks old, pretty good sized, about to start flowering. 
 
Third strike was today. I had to work at the office early morning, come out to the farm about 10 AM, he's got one of the other workers' trucks pulled in to the garage.
 
Go inside, kid is under it grinding off exhaust (without eye protection).
 
"What in the hell are you doing?"
 
"Fixing Ann's muffler, I brought out my welder."
 
"Uhh, are you clocked in right now?"
 
"Yeah"
 
"What the hell are you doing fixing other employees exhaust problems on MY dime, kid? Do you see a goddamn sign out front that says "Trent's Muffler Repair Service"? No, you don't, because this is a damn FARM. Not a goddamn auto repair shop."
 
He mouthed off and that was that, down the road you go kid.

 

[Ghaleon]

Sent him back to Facebook. Lol

 

[PtMD989]

I’ve never strung up tomato plants, so once they are wrapped around the drop line, will they continue to wrap themselves around the line as they grow?


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[Chilidude]

I’ve never strung up tomato plants, so once they are wrapped around the drop line, will they continue to wrap themselves around the line as they grow?


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No, you have to do the wrap thing yourself as they grow and i find the clip system much easier to handle.

 

[TrentL]

I’ve never strung up tomato plants, so once they are wrapped around the drop line, will they continue to wrap themselves around the line as they grow?


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Clips and strings work together.
 
They need trained about once a week. Well, twice a week would be better. It took me a full day to prune suckers and de-tangle that first row, a couple days ago, after I let it go 8 days without re-training. All vines on plants, including new shoots, had grown 2 1/2 feet (!!) in 8 days. 
 
The way I'm doing it (which may not be "correct", just going off my gut here)
 
Main vines you want to keep get strung (tie the string to a clip at the lowest fork to secure it). 
 
Suckers you want to keep get clipped to their parent branch with a tomato clip. Shear off any leaf branches which "get in your way" to promote airflow and make clipping the stems together easier. Keep all of the flowering branches and OUTWARD facing leaf branches. You don't want a bunch of leaf branches cluttering up the "interior" of your stringed plant though. I only keep leaf branches that are facing OUT away from the interior of the plant.
 
Suckers you don't want to keep (due to density), cut off. Professional greenhouses on 18" spacing will maintain exactly TWO vines, period, no suckers will be allowed to grow. However, I had enough tomatoes die, my spacing in places is .. well, like 15 FEET (with peppers inter-planted between where tomatoes died), so I'm letting them grow a lot bigger and spreading them out. Some plants I am maintaining 10-12 vines on now. Where the plants are denser, I'm chopping them back to 2-5 vines, depending on spacing. 
 
Any leaf vines that reach towards the ground, cut off short so they stop growing, I don't let any leafs get within 6" of the ground (had a run in with septoria blight once that I don't want a repeat of)
 
Mercilessly cut any leaf branches (those don't produce fruit) as needed to improve airflow and/or make life easier on yourself stringing. You want a tomato plant that breathes well, and is easy to pick. Once a week "clear the air" and trim off any leaf branches on the interior of the plant so they get good airflow and pollinators have an easier time reaching flowers.
 
When fruit vines get long enough, gently bend them up and clip to the parent vine. 
 
If suckers (new shoots) that you choose to keep start getting too thick, you can either thin them out, head them back (cut the growing part off and terminate it's upward growth entirely), or run a new string down to it to maintain it as a new main vine.
 
Those Amish Paste are actually very easy to string. The worst problem I've had is waiting until they're 7 feet tall and knotting themselves in pretzels before I got to them!
 
The cherry tomatoes I am growing are a lot more cantankerous. They are much more inflexible and prone to breakage. It's important to stay on top of those as "training" will inevitably break a LOT of fragile tomatoes off the plant. I've had more cherry tomatoes hit the ground unripe from breakage when training, than I've put in to my belly so far....
 
 

 
No, you have to do the wrap thing yourself as they grow and i find the clip system much easier to handle.

 
On peppers I run string directly to clips to support the weight of branches (I planted tekne dolmasi under the tomato high tension lines, as those get 1+ pound pods!), but on tomatoes I use both together. I string main vines and use clips on branches to support them on their parent vine. (Fold up the branch and clip to the parent so they "run up the string" together.)
 
 
Another word on stringing tomatoes.
 
Left un-strung, I have had HORRIBLE results with the tomatoes this year. The ones I am just now getting to that are large, have clusters of leaves that were never pollinated - just bare fruit branches with no flowers or tomatoes. Some have had 1 out of 10 on a fruit branch actually produce a tomato. The ones which are strung are batting 100% so far on fruit production with big clusters of fruit. 
 
That's a big problem for me as I am going to be very late to market with tomatoes since my entire "early crop" (first and second flowering nodes) were mostly barren - no pollination, not even self pollination, when flower clusters were buried under a mass of sprawling tomato vines on the ground.  If I'd got them strung earlier I'd have 10-20x the tomatoes getting ready to go to market this weekend... bushels of them.. whereas right now, I've got a half dozen fruits ready to go, not even enough to bother taking. 
 
So letting tomatoes "go feral" and just spread out along the ground, or get clustered up in cages with no airflow, will produce poorly, compared to their more aerated counterparts. 
 
Next year those bastards get strung the moment they hit the dirt.
 
This year I couldn't even get started until mid-June, because it took OVER A MONTH for the 1/8 galvanized aircraft wire rope high tension line I ordered to get in (2000 lb shear strength). I should have just ordered the crap from Fastenal but went with the lowest priced place on the internet I could find, and paid a heavy price for it on production when the shipment was delayed. 
 
Well, by Mid June they were already 4 1/2 feet tall, and now I'm only 6 rows in after 2 weeks of stringing every spare moment I have, and still have 9 rows to go... It takes me about 1 hour to thin and string a fully grown tomato plant, real pain in the ass to detangle and cut through them to find out what is what, pick out what vines I will keep, etc. I'm tossing about a 5 gallon bucket full of tomato plant material out off each plant, trimmed off suckers, vines that are growing the wrong way, crap I break off, leaf branches I've thinned out, and so on.
 
It'll be Mid July before I get the tomatoes fully under control.

 

[Walchit]

Yeah I'm just gonna take what I get on my free range tomatoes. They are spaced at 2 feet apart and are working on being 4 foot wide right now. I just need enough ripe at the same time to make salsa and I will be happy

 

[PtMD989]

Thanks TrentL for the tutorial. Now get back to work. [emoji16]


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[Ghaleon]

I'm glad I'm not big on tomatoes..