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]

Gotta leave for the first farmers market in a half hour, but figured I could get some pics up from the field yesterday real quick while I drink some coffee.
 
What's left of the cantaloupe and muskmelon;
 

 

 
Okra
 

 
What's left of the first block of pickling cucumbers after the cucumber beetles were done with them (we re-planted these THREE TIMES.)
 

 

 
First block of peppers;
 

 

 
Second block of peppers
 

 

 

 
First block of slicing cucumbers
 

 
Third block of peppers
 

 

 

 
Second block of pickling cucumbers
 

 
 

 

[TrentL]

Fourth block of peppers
 

 

 

 
Some beans as filler (royal burgundy)
 

 
Second block of slicing cucumbers
 

 
First block of beans (royal burgundy)
 

 
 
View of everything above;
 

 

[TrentL]

Rows of ez pick bush beans (these got ground cover finally yesterday afternoon)
 

 

 
More royal burgundy beans;
 

 

 
Turkish Cayenne and MOA scotch bonnets
 

 

 
Tomato field
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Isolation plants (still haven't got them isolated lol)
 

 

 
 

 

[TrentL]

North field (yes, we weeded this a week ago, but it doesn't look like it)
 

 
My north field peppers definitely got herbicide drift, but nothing fatal, and no idea where it came from. It'll come up during the organic audit but not a big deal, that field is just starting it's transition.
 

 
Gnarly bastards compared to the pasture!
 

 

 

 
Uhh, I think there's some beans and sweet corn in those weeds?
 

 

 
And an occasional watermelon?
 

 
Happy pollinators.
 

 
And two types of cucumber beetles trying their best to kill off my good intentions.
 

 
That's all for today.
 
Well, almost.
 
Bushel and a half harvested for a very light trip to the farmers market today.
 

 
 
 

 

[TrentL]

Well we didn't have much to offer today, but got through our first Farmers Market.
 

 
My daughter Raven came along to do the chalkboard. This is an upscale indoor market ran by a local hospital, each vendor gets black tableclothed tables, and a nice chalkboard. We also all had to go through 4 hours of orientation training earlier this year for it!
 
The other markets we are signed up for, you bring your own canopy tent, tables, chairs, etc, and you're subject to all the elements mother nature can throw at you; wind, rain, sun, etc.
 

 

[TrentL]

Our 2014 garden grow, vs. the 2018 farm. These pictures were both taken on the same day, June 29, one in 2014, the other yesterday.
 

 

 
Plant spacing is the same (chinense on 24" centers 3 foot rows, annuums 18" on 3 foot rows)
 
What a difference a good start, good dirt, and organics make. The 2014 grow was great by any stretch, as far as production goes, but this year is off the damn hook. 
 
Everything tastes frigging outstanding too, which is awesome. The peppers I'm pulling so far this year have more meat, more flavor, and bigger pods than I've ever had before. Also producing a lot heavier, a lot earlier, than any of my past grows. The Jalapeno plants are growing pods so thick they are clustered up and have to be carefully extracted from the plant, which is kind of annoying from a harvest standpoint, but mind bending on how much they are putting on. I've never seen plants so thick with growth looking this damn healthy before.
 
This year is turning out damn good.
 
I just need the temps to drop back down a hair now, all of my chinense are flowering and I'm worried about flower drop with temps over 95F.
 

 

[Chilidude]

Well we didn't have much to offer today, but got through our first Farmers Market.
 

 
My daughter Raven came along to do the chalkboard. This is an upscale indoor market ran by a local hospital, each vendor gets black tableclothed tables, and a nice chalkboard. We also all had to go through 4 hours of orientation training earlier this year for it!
 
The other markets we are signed up for, you bring your own canopy tent, tables, chairs, etc, and you're subject to all the elements mother nature can throw at you; wind, rain, sun, etc.
 

 
How did your first farmers market go, did you have to haul much product back once the day was over?
 

 

[TrentL]

 
How did your first farmers market go, did you have to haul much product back once the day was over?
 

 
Sold 14 dry quarts of peppers. People cleaned us out of Santa Fe Grandes and Sweet Charleston cayenne. Not as much interest in the Jalapenos, brought a little over a half bushel back. 
 
There was another vendor there with green bell peppers, but other than that, nothing. There's two other farms growing chili peppers, but neither of them have anything ready yet. In fact, all of the sweet charlestons were bought by one of those other farms lol! We bought up some brocolli and reaper jelly off of them.
 
I don't think the hotter ones are going to go over that well. The vast majority of attendees are elderly or young women who seemed to take no interest whatsoever in Jalapenos. The colorful and mild santa fe's went over well though.

 

[Chilidude]

 
Sold 14 dry quarts of peppers. People cleaned us out of Santa Fe Grandes and Sweet Charleston cayenne. Not as much interest in the Jalapenos, brought a little over a half bushel back. 
 
There was another vendor there with green bell peppers, but other than that, nothing. There's two other farms growing chili peppers, but neither of them have anything ready yet. In fact, all of the sweet charlestons were bought by one of those other farms lol! We bought up some brocolli and reaper jelly off of them.
 
I don't think the hotter ones are going to go over that well. The vast majority of attendees are elderly or young women who seemed to take no interest whatsoever in Jalapenos. The colorful and mild santa fe's went over well though.

 
Well, that is going to give you some nice ideas what to grow if you want to sell more stuff in the farmers market..eh.

 

[TrentL]

 
Well, that is going to give you some nice ideas what to grow if you want to sell more stuff in the farmers market..eh.

 
Yes, indeed. I'm also watching what other vendors are selling and not selling!
 
I was surprised to see so many unsold fruits. There was a vendor there with three tables full of fresh peaches, cherries, etc and they didn't move much produce today. Another had two tables of green beans, lettuce, etc and they also didn't move much.
 
Meanwhile the lady that baked cakes and pies sold out of everything! She must have raked in a couple thousand dollars today, easy.
 
Hell, I didn't even cover the cost of 5 hours of payroll for the one worker I brought along!
 
Tomorrow I take a tour of another organic farm about 20 minutes from ours. It's part of an organic consulting firm's seminar tour, on how to conduct on-farm variety trials to figure out what varieties of plants grow best in your soil, etc. Seems pretty common-sensish to me, I just want to eyeball their farm up close..
 
They have 300 acres certified organic. They grow vegetables on 20 of them, then do organic corn, alfalfa, wheat, etc on the rest. 
 
I am barely keeping up with things this year with me, my wife, and 3 full time workers. I'm bringing on two more workers for harvest, after crawling through plants picking peppers Friday, it took 4 people 2 hours to pick 1.25 bushels of peppers. Plants are so small still we literally have to crawl along the rows to pick, very much a pain in the ass, very hot on the black ground fabric when it's 95+F outside.
 
We aren't done with maintenance of plants yet (stringing) and we keep falling behind on weeding, so I need more help. 
 
I'm going to lose a lot of money this year, but have a whole new game plan for next year.. mechanization for plant out.. 
 
https://www.rainfloirrigation.com/equipment/raised-bed-layers/model-2550
 
With that bad boy the entire plant out & irrigation run will be a 2 man deal. 
 
The soil mix equipment I have being manufactured will also make pot-up a breeze. I already have an idea on how to bulk-fill 4" pots to transplant seedlings in to which will make it a very fast process.
 
The irrigation plan I have for the indoor part of the grow will make that totally automated.
 
Next  year the goal is zero unnecessary labor. 
 
If I'm going to make money at this I have to cut costs, and that means machines.

 

[Edmick]

Everything looks great Trent. Perhaps not what you had envisioned when you started with all your setbacks and all but still something to be proud of nonetheless. Hopefully you can put a sizeable dent in your investment by seasons end.

 

[TrentL]

SONOFABITCH P(*@RJIO:NKLBM <S>A<E$:KNLBO:JK
 
Storm hit. 2" of rain in just 10 minutes and 70 mph winds.
 
We counted 237 knocked over pepper plants in the first 10 rows this evening, before we quit counting.
 
We're gonna drive T-Posts every 10 feet, run rope between them, and string up the peppers. 
 
At least 70% of the entire pepper crop (some 1800+ plants) are laying on the ground.

ALL of my sweet corn was knocked clean over.
 
437 T-Posts (4,370 row feet to do)
 
Gonna be a LONG couple of days.
 

 

[Genetikx]

Damn, that storm made its way up here too but didn't have nearly as much punch. I don't remember this much friggin rain in a month. It's been a gift and a curse really with the scale tipped more to the latter. At least I've got houses and trees to block the big winds, your plants are sitting (and sometimes swimming) ducks.

Congrats on the first Farmers market...at least gets your name out there more, which is just as important as a sale. Maybe they'll scoop some of your potting soil in the spring

 

[TrentL]

We went to another organic farm today for a workshop on variety trials, and made some decent connections. This farm is about 30 mins from ours, they have over 300 acres certified organic, with 25 acres in vegetables. Was interesting seeing what they do different. They are pretty heavily mechanized, which allows them to do 10x the acreage as us in vegetables, with about the same amount of workers. 
 
We've been centerpunched by several isolated storms last month; had over 10" of rain in June at the farm. That's prevented plants from setting deep roots; they haven't had to wander far for water and haven't gone deep because the soil has been anaerobic below 6". 
 
This is going to make them VERY drought sensitive if it dries up, and it (of course) has now made them wind intolerant. They were doing so very good; early on as smaller transplants they held up through several storms that brought 70+ mph winds, until they started bushing out and got loaded with pods. Now their weight and the shallow roots are just too much.
 
The next few days are going to be asskickers, don't expect much in the way of updates until closer to this weekend. Probably won't be able to lift my arms to type after the next two days of driving posts.
 
 
 
 

 

[TrentL]

670 t-posts now in the pasture, total. 
 

 

 

 

 
That made for a long enough day, but when we got done, we stored 15 of those ground cover rolls in the loft (used the skid loader as an elevator, then had to rig each and pull them in to the loft), and after that, we took delivery of 80 bales of straw.
 
I had 6 workers yesterday (counting my wife and I), EVERYONE went home tired.
 

 

[Bold Badger Sauces]

Dude, much respect, this is by far the most epic grow log ever.  I just made it to the end after spending several weeks reading each and every post.  Makes what I'm doing look like child's play, lol.

 

[TrentL]

Dude, much respect, this is by far the most epic grow log ever.  I just made it to the end after spending several weeks reading each and every post.  Makes what I'm doing look like child's play, lol.

 
Thank you, very much! It's been a ton of work so far. Next year will be SO much easier. (That's the mantra that keeps everyone going!)
 
We got hit by a nasty thunderstorm AGAIN today. We got all the posts hammered in Tuesday but ran out of hemp twine to run along side the plants, to keep them upright. So I still have like 40 rows of plants unsupported. They got beat to hell again.
 
Only the strong survive! 
 
This year has been treacherous all around.
 
Fortunately all of the native pests are leaving the peppers alone. Got a lot of leafhoppers on the beans, Japanese beetles devouring my okra, cucumber beetles and stink bugs destroying all the cucumber and melon plants.. but the peppers? 

EVERYTHING has left them alone.  
 
Except the wind and the hail. 

 

[TrentL]

Second pick coming tomorrow for Saturday's market. 
 
Ate two of the first 7-pot brainstrains yesterday, DAMN those were hot. Not as hot as the brown bhut jolokia my boy and I ate last Friday.
 
Oh hell I forgot to tell that story.
 
So yeah, we had one Turd Pepper (brown bhut looks like a turd...) and he got the lower half, I got the seeds and placenta half. 
 
That thing put a world of hurt on both of us. BADLY.
 
I made it 20 minutes, got severe gut cramps, then puked, violently. Hurt even worse coming back up. I got a chunk of the pod stuck in my nose when I puked, and while I'm sitting there in the bathroom doubled over, had like 3 feet of snot coming out of my nose. Was HORRIBLE.
 
That plant is FRIGGING HOT. 
 
We had stuffed peppers that night for dinner at home, though, so it didn't ruin my pepper eating desires.
 
Much hotter than the 7-pot brainstrains I ate yesterday. By a LONG shot.
 
It's been a LONG time since I puked after eating a pepper. Last time it took multiple carolina reapers (6 of them) to get me to that point.
 
This time it took a half of a damn pepper!
 
Anyway, that's my adventures this week with ultrahots.
 
 

 

[Ghaleon]

Did you do any preparation for it? I insist on having eaten first and I drink a glass of milk about five minutes beforehand so my stomach already has help waiting.

The thread about first superhot stories will explain why. Lol

 

[Sawyer]

Glad to see (some) things are turning around for you, Trent. Any sales are gratifying, even if they don't cover expenses.
 
Interesting about that brown bhut. I've long suspected brown varieties tend to be hotter than their other-colored counterparts.
 
I meant to follow up on the milky spore thing. If you're doing no-till on the larger fields, then it'll probably be prohibitively expensive. But if you till the bigger fields, I think that alone knocks out the beetle grubs.
 
I've only ever applied milky spore to lawn and meadow, but it made a real difference. But even for less than an acre, the cost was around $50.
 
Hmmm... just checked Amazon and found 40 ounces for $80, enough to treat 10,000 sqft. Claims to be organic.