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]

Cool, is that like a 4 leaf clover?


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[Genetikx]

I don't know if there's any science here but I've always found tricot plants end up growing slower than others

 

[TrentL]

Cool, is that like a 4 leaf clover?


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A small percentage of pepper plants end up with three cotys instead of two. I'm not sure how small of a % it is. I imagine I could get some data on it this year with the size of grow I'm doing (3200 plants). So far that's the only one of 98 which have sprouted.
 

I don't know if there's any science here but I've always found tricot plants end up growing slower than others

 
I'll be tracking that too. So soon there'll be some science behind it, if no one has ever done any before.
 
Day 12 data is compiled; straight peat has pulled ahead again.
 
3 Coco coir trays will be joining the fray soon. They've been in the dirt for 2 days so in another couple I should see the first sprouts.
 
I had a BUNCH of tomatoes sprout after 2 days, using the same setup I used in tray 6.
 

 
 
Coir shipment showed up today.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Genetikx]

I know I've seen tricots are more prevalent in certain varieties, forget which but have seen many pictures here where the same variety pops em more than others, and feel they are also more prevalent in hydro due to the nutes. That was the initial impression anyway

Idk, whatever, that's a small footnote in what you've got going on here

 

[TrentL]

I know I've seen tricots are more prevalent in certain varieties, forget which but have seen many pictures here where the same variety pops em more than others, and feel they are also more prevalent in hydro due to the nutes. That was the initial impression anyway

Idk, whatever, that's a small footnote in what you've got going on here

 
The scale of this is mind buggering. 
 
I'm about to put down 30 trays of chinense ... got the coir inside warming up now.
 
As soon as those get true leaves and get transplanted to 4" and moved to the farm, I'll be starting the annuums... shooting for ~3200 plants. I wanted to do 5k but don't have space...
 
The *real* interesting studies will be when I start comparing potting soil mixes on a variety by variety basis. Sprouting is one thing, but tracking the development of these plants as they go through the longer process, will be something real interesting. 
 
E.g. how does the potting soil mix affect transplant shock when they hit the field?
 
How does the initial sprouting mix affect the development as they go to different potting soil mixes? Is there an optimum that can be found which provides good initial sprouting success as well as a subsequent pot-up soil which is best? Does that change for annuums vs. chinense, or does it change significantly from one variety to another within a species?
 
Lots of interesting questions and I'm sure there'll be some surprises along the way, positive and negative.
 
Even on the field level, if I do a randomized pattern on plant out, I can study the effects of different soil amendments in the field, year to year, etc.
 
Has my inner curiosity pegged.
 

 

[TrentL]

10 trays on the warming mats now. 720 seeds in the (insert various media here). 
 
I'm not even 1/3 of the way there .. starting to feel a lot like work.
 
The 4 trays I did tonight were the first of the big batches. Strait coir as I know it'll sprout them fine. 
 
Tray 7 - 72x 7-Pot Primo (PL)
Tray 8 - 72x MOA Scotch Bonnet (PL)
Tray 9 - Yellow Fatali (PL)
Tray 10 - Big Sun Habanero (Buckeye)
 
 

 

[Chilidude]

All that coco coir in the pictures makes me .

 

[PtMD989]

Do you have a plan for irrigation, once you get the plants in the dirt?


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[cubbieblue82]

this looks like a great project!!! congrats from right down the road in Springfield!

 

[TrentL]

this looks like a great project!!! congrats from right down the road in Springfield!

 
Howdy neighbor! Stop by sometime this summer once the plants are in the field!
 

Do you have a plan for irrigation, once you get the plants in the dirt?


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Yes, I'll be running over 1.5 miles of drip irrigation for this first year.  I figured up 7,000 feet of drip irrigation required for the half acre.

 

[TrentL]

1080 seeds in the dirt total as of tonight, have 14 trays down there simmering on the warming mats. This weekend I should be able to knock out more.
 
Lights for the grow house will be in next week, will need to do a little plumbing so I don't have to trek up and down the stairs for water... or I can just use it as training for a 14k mountain climb? lol
 

 

[PodHopper]

1080 seeds in the dirt total as of tonight, have 14 trays down there simmering on the warming mats. This weekend I should be able to knock out more.
 
Lights for the grow house will be in next week, will need to do a little plumbing so I don't have to trek up and down the stairs for water... or I can just use it as training for a 14k mountain climb? lol
 

 
Are you married?  If so, what does your wife think of all this????

 

[TrentL]

 
Are you married?  If so, what does your wife think of all this????

 
Yeah I'm married with 6 children..  She's been pretty supportive so far. I've done my best not to ask her for help, and clean up after myself the best I can, to avoid adding any work to her plate that she didn't volunteer for. She pitches in and helps when I need it though, like when I was pulling wiring in the basement to add more circuits, hanging lights in the seedling room, etc. 
 
The property company her and I jointly own together owns the farm, and is paying the bills for the setup. I've built that up over the last couple of years so it's making a decent profit; that will largely cover expenses without having to dip in to our personal funds.
 
The worst part about this is the long days. On top of the day job, and the side business on the property holding company, I'm doing renovation work on houses, and then coming home and night and doing all of this pepper stuff. So there's really no "personal" time right now for me to relax, pretty much work from the time I wake up until I go to sleep at night. Yesterday I worked on Exchange servers and other stuff at the 'day job' for 6 hours (8-2), went to a renovation project we're doing and hung drywall for another 4 hours (2-6), then came home, ate a quick dinner, mixed soil and put another 4 trays of seeds together (7-9), did my "daily logging" of sprouts, etc, and watched a hockey game I'd recorded until about midnight. Then turned out the grow lights and went to bed, to start it all over again today...
 
So yeah not much in the way of free time, although I am taking enough time to watch the Chicago Blackhawks lose ....yet again. Don't think they're gonna see playoff ice this year.

 

[TrentL]

Expenses to date; 14,660.84 
 
Not including wiring materials I pulled from inventory. I also haven't added in any LP gas bills, or electrical utility bills yet.
 
I have 1584 seeds in the sprouting trays now. Should have over 2k in by the end of the weekend. Getting all of the Chinense in, once those are transplanted out to 4" pots I'll start the annuums.
 
I have a conclusion to draw already; either pearlite or vermiculite (unsure which) hurts germination rates by as much as *50%*....
 

 
It appears to be interacting with nutrient supply as the trays with Azomite are offsetting the negative effect to some degree.
 
Trays 1/4 are pure peat / coir respectively
Trays 2/5 are 70% peat or coir, plus 15% vermiculite, 15% pearlite
Trays 3/6 are 70% peat or coir, plus 15% vermiculite, 15% pearlite + 1 tblspn Azomite 
 
I have 18 more trays on the warming mats.
 
Tray 7-10 are 100% coir
Trays 11-14 are 100% coir + 1/3 cup per gal kelp meal
Trays 15-18 are coir + 1 cup vermiculite / gal + 1/3 cup per gal kelp meal
Trays 19-22 are coir + 1 cup vermiculite / gal + 1/4 cup per gal kelp meal
 
The rest of the grow is scheduled to be done this way;
 

 
Note there are overlapping varieties so I can make direct comparisons between each sprouting soil mix.
 
Here's my final determination of variety and count; Once the first batch is potted up the second batch will get sprouted (starting all of the annuums later)
 

 
I haven't yet determined the experiments I'll run on the annuums. I'll figure that out later.
 
(There'll be pot-up soil comparisons too; that's where it'll get real interesting as that will be tracked through to yield.)
 

 

[TrentL]

Oh, and I rearranged the sprouting room.
 

 

 

[Chilidude]

Have been thinking about that Moa scotch bonnet, but my fear is the long ripening time it has.

 

[tctenten]

This is incredible Trent. Really is.

I really look forward to the first week in August. I want to see that harvest.

 

[TrentL]

Have been thinking about that Moa scotch bonnet, but my fear is the long ripening time it has.

 
It's my first year growing it. I've seen enough pics on here and heard enough good reviews over the years that I figure it'll make a good productive crop. It's at the upper band of the heat range that I can expect to sell at farmers markets, but it also has a good backstory to tell folks. IIRC it was one of the members of this forum that managed to get a hold of seeds and bring them back to the US. 
 

This is incredible Trent. Really is.

I really look forward to the first week in August. I want to see that harvest.

 
That's the part that really scares me.
 
Everything up to the harvest is predictable, controllable, and manageable. But where I go from there... ? 
 
I've got my eye on a big commercial smoker for doing smoked powders. Figure I can use that the "other" 10 mo's out of the year to do hot jerky and other seasoned meats. The thing isn't cheap, 20 grand for the smoker, but it'll do 70 whole chickens or 320 pounds of brisket in one shot. Over 60 sq feet of rack space would be good for doing lean jerky.
 
Then the commercial dehydrators. One I was looking at has about 60 sq feet of rack space, but the power it draws. Good grief. 5,000 watts in a refrigerator sized dual chamber / dual heater unit. That's over 40 amps at 120v. 
 
I'll be getting with the health department in a month or so and start laying out what the requirements are for a certified kitchen. Already sketching in some designs on a "processing building." 
 
Try to make some jobs with this. Lots of hungry people out there to feed good stuff to. 
 
I figure if I let my belly guide my decisions I can't go wrong, right?

 

[TrentL]

Data gathering on "first true leaf" appearances, by tray.
 

 
So far, while the soil composition has a noticeable impact on germination % and days to germination, the sprouting soil composition has a negligible impact on the appearance of first true leaves.
 
 

 

[TrentL]

The boneyard data. 
 
This is interesting; the sprouting media with the pearlite + vermiculite mix led to more seed heads and subsequent dead sprouts. I wasn't expecting that.
 
I'll know more as the other experiments continue; I think it is pearlite that had a contributory affect to slow / low germination rate and the higher concentration of seed head deaths.I have 8 trays with a vermiculite only mix (stopped using pearlite completely on subsequent trays). I *did* operate on every seed head. Only a couple will pull through. I only mark them as "dead" when the main stem withers away to nothing, there will be several more additions to this in the coming days.