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.
 

 

[CMJ]

Well I can draw, weld, program, and can build or fix anything, but you my friend are pretty darn sharp! Electricity is the one thing I refuse to fool with. I get shocked turning on a light switch, lol!

 

[TrentL]

God dammit, are you sure you have any money left after building so many buildings.

 
Yeah, I'll be fine.
 
I'm trying to find a tractor locally to rent for a day to do a shallow till, though, to break up those damn corn stalks remaining in the field. They're going to be a problem very soon. The thought of dropping 40-80k on a decent tractor for 1 day of work just kind of.. well, sucks. I mean, *eventually* I'll need a tractor, but on this year? With only an acre? It's kind of a waste of money. 
 
So we'll see. If I can't find a nearby farmer to till it up for a day's wages, I'll go buy a damn tractor.  One of my customers has a Deere 5075E in stock for $40,100 I can pick up in a pinch.

 

[TrentL]

Well I can draw, weld, program, and can build or fix anything, but you my friend are pretty darn sharp! Electricity is the one thing I refuse to fool with. I get shocked turning on a light switch, lol!

 
I got electrocuted last year, rewiring the office. Fatigue, and a minor stupid mistake earned me a trip to the hospital after I got a full hit of 240 across the chest, from one hand to another. It depolarized the right half of my heart for about a week.
 
On the follow up checkup, the doctor heard something and after some testing I got diagnosed with a bad valve in the left ventricle, so my heart is only pumping about 80% as well as it should. Eventually I'll have to get it corrected. That wasn't related to the electricity; but I would have had no idea I have (longer term) heart failure looming if I hadn't been shocked. For now it's just "monitor it each year to see how bad it gets", later on in life I'll need some surgery to fix that valve.
 
Just have weird luck sometimes. Runs in the family. My mom fell down the stairs once, went to the ER to get the bruise looked at, and they found a 1.5" dia brain tumor on the right side of her head above and behind her ear, just inside the skull. She got it surgically removed a month later. Would have eventually killed her, if she hadn't fallen down the stairs and got that CT scan done that day.
 
But as far as the rest of the stuff goes.. not so much smarts or talent but persistence. I just don't give up or quit when things don't go my way. I'm not wired that way. I keep at it, progressing from "I'm horrible at this", through "I'm only bad", to "pretty mediocre", and keep at it until I finally get it.  Early on in life I convinced myself I could learn anything, and .. well, never shied away from new stuff, and never let myself believe I *couldn't* do something.
 
Gets me in over my head sometimes, sure. But I learn by getting knocked on my ass.
 
Except for plumbing.

I gave up on that shit.
 

 

[nmlarson]

Have you figured out what this is?  I see it's with the tomatoes, but it doesn't look like any tomato I've ever grown....
 

 

[Chilidude]

You might want to start stringing your chilis up in the greenhouse, when the time comes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJgA4n-sCE8&t
 
This is what i do, but in a much smaller scale.

 

[TrentL]

Have you figured out what this is?  I see it's with the tomatoes, but it doesn't look like any tomato I've ever grown....
 

curious.jpg

 
That is a mutant cherry tomato. It sure as shit doesn't look like any cherry tomato I've ever seen, but it *does* smell like a tomato (unmistakably so).
 
My wife nicknamed it "scrawny" and it is her pet tomato. it actually is blooming right now, I'm insanely curious to see how it grows out.
 
My wife is also VERY protective of scrawny, it is her adopted child, and she is *very* particular about *where* it sits on the table, to the point she hand-selects neighbors to put around it. 
 
Whenever I'm watering or fertilizing that table it is under her critical, cold glare. "YOU BETTER NOT KILL SCRAWNY."
 
The rest of the ultimatum is left unsaid, but I'm confident it involves a great deal of pain, in places I would rather not experience pain.
 

You might want to start stringing your chilis up in the greenhouse, when the time comes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJgA4n-sCE8&t
 
This is what i do, but in a much smaller scale.

 
That's interesting, might have to give that a try on some of 'em.

 

[Chilidude]

You can also use these clips, so that you dont need to put the string around the stem but instead run the string straight up and just use the clips to support the plants:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01C6PEW28/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
 

 

[Chilidude]

This is how our best commercial chili grower does it:

 

[Chilidude]

Using similar clips alright:

 
I am going to start using the same clips too in this season as that is so much easier compared to my previous stringing techniques.

 

[nmlarson]

 
 

 
These clips are a great invention and I've used them, to great success, with tomatoes, eggplants, cukes and top-heavy peppers.  They are, however, a royal PITA to take down at the end of the season if you compost.  There are compost-able versions available out there, which I discovered too late.    Last June, a couple of girlfriends and I spent a week drinking in Napa and Sonoma, and it rained the entire time I was gone.  Hence the tomato "trees" I didn't get suckered before I left.
 

 

[nmlarson]

My wife nicknamed it "scrawny" and it is her pet tomato.

 
LOL!  I don't suppose she's going to let you sucker it, either?  Make certain we get a look at the fruit when it bears.!

 

[TrentL]

 
LOL!  I don't suppose she's going to let you sucker it, either?  Make certain we get a look at the fruit when it bears.!

 
Oh hell no, I'm not supposed to even look at it sideways let alone cut on it!
 
What *would* be interesting is if it's offspring turn out just like it, and the fruit is right and good. That'd make for a neat little potted tomato plant, if it survives. Although with the lack of leaves I am dubious on how well it's going to be able to produce. I'm betting, if it produces any fruit at all, it'll be bitter little pea sized tomatoes.
 
But who knows. Maybe it'll be great tasting?

 

[Devv]

Dang Trent! Your glog moves so fast I have trouble keeping up!
 
I have one of those Ruger pistols, or one very similar. It's close to 30 years old, 5.5" Stainless bull barrel, with windage and elevation sites. Accurate as hell.
 
I spent 17 out of 25 years as an auto tech specializing in electrical and computer based systems before getting into IT. I never got hit with 240, but one time I stalled an engine reaching for a connector to an EGR solenoid behind the coil of a 2.8 S10 (piss 10, hah!). That coil had a max output of 100,000 volts; it went through from left hand to right and knocked the living shit out of me. I stalled the engine. Not only did it hurt; but I couldn't work for over an hour. I just couldn't think. That and all my chest muscles ached pretty good the rest of the day. I never did that again.
 
You are extremely lucky to survive the 240 hit, as it can fry, or burn tissue, causing permanent physical damage. My experience could stop a heart, but if it doesn't, no harm done (I think?). They say 1 amp can kill. I do my own electrical, but cut the power off and check with a volt meter..live for another day.
 
Plumbing, also my nemesis. Teflon tape is your friend with threaded joints, 5 laps of the Teflon per joint. Copper: sand both sides of the joint, apply flux and heat until the solder flows well.
 
Cool your getting the greenhouses. In your climate they will help. Have you figured in ventilation costs? Just watch your temps, they can be heaters. But the huge size may offset that some.
 
Keep on truckin' buddy!

 

[TrentL]

I got lucky on the hit. Whoever wired the building back in the 70's did some odd shit. Like only use half the commons they should have; not one per circuit, but just "here's a common, let's use it."
 
So I was retiring some old wiring - replacing some old florescent fixtures with new ones, etc. Nothing big. There was a big rats nest of wire in a splice box, clear at the roof level of the steel & concrete building, just under the ceiling steel. I was standing on the very, very tippy top of a 10' ladder, grabbed on to a big steel girder with my right hand, while barely able to reach the box with my left hand (it was at about the 18' level above the concrete floor; I was "standing" above the drop ceiling which was hung at 9 feet..)
 
Anyway I tested all of the hot circuits coming in to the box, called out to my helper to kill circuits "whatever, whatever, whatever." We go on for a while - lots of circuits coming in to and out of the junction box. Green, purple, two blues, a yellow, an orange, a red and a black circuits all test dead. I clear the FMC w/ the pair of 12 awg wire out of the box, no biggie. 
 
Well I was tired as shit and neglected to test the commons.
 
I split the common bundle. Only *two* commons going back to the subpanel, 6 others coming in from other junction boxes further up the line, plus the one I was retiring, for a total of 9 common wires).
 
I pull that FMC conduit out, get it's purple and white wire pulled out of the rats nest in the junction box. 
 
Sweat pouring down my face, got a death grip on the girder with my sweaty right hand.  Ladder teetering underneath me. Right armpit is over a metal brace that's holding up a big air vent for the HVAC, kind of balancing on that, while I reach out with my left hand above another HVAC duct to get at this box 18' up off the floor, that I'm working on.
 
Well, I couldn't get that damn common bundle back together. Trying like hell to get all 8 wires twisted back together with only one hand and a pair of needle nose pliers, fully at the max length I can reach.
 
Hand slips off the insulated part of the pliers on to the metal, I don't notice. Sweating, slippery.
 
Well, I grab those white commons and BAM.
 
I am FULLY locked up. I can't move. Every muscle in my arms and chest fully contracted. Only thing that comes out of me is a grunt. 
 
Well, my legs obviously lost signal from my brain and they buckle.
 
Only thing that kept me from falling through the drop ceiling and that hard concrete floor way below me was the fact I'd hooked my armpit over that HVAC vent brace.
 
So I'm dangling there, after gravity broke the connection. 
 
The electricity went from the commons, through my left hand (which was burned), across my chest, through my armpit to that metal HVAC brace, *and* through my right hand that was gripping the steel roof girder (which was also burned.)
 
My left hand index finger second knuckle, which was contacting the pliers, actually blew out a chunk of flesh. 
 
Well I climb down, after a co worker helps get my feet back on the ladder from underneath.
 
Sit there for a few minutes, dizzy. 
 
What happened was some electrician 40 years ago had decided to run the hot legs for two circuits - outside lights at the rear of the building, and rear stairwell lights - through one conduit, and brought the commons back to meet up in the junction box I was working on. There were no commons at all in the other conduit (which I found out later), just some hots. So for a brief time *I* was the connection that let those two circuits work. 
 
It was very painful, first and only time I'd ever been nailed by a damn common wire. 
 
Anyway, it was bad enough blew some flesh off my finger and depolarized half my heart.
 
I climbed back up, finished the wiring with an insulated glove on, then had a co worker drive me to the hospital.
 
When I showed up at the ER I walked up to the counter and told the person there I needed help. The dude asked "what's wrong?" and I said "I just got electrocuted." 
 
I skipped triage, they didn't even bother. Straight to the room I went in back, where a cardiac dude showed up *right* now, an EKG got wheeled in 30 seconds later, and I got full heart attack treatment (swallow this cocktail down, shoot this other crap in an IV, chew these, etc). Then they wheeled me back for a chest X-Ray. 
 
All in the time span of 10 frigging minutes from when I walked in the door of the ER. They do NOT mess around with that stuff!
 
Lesson learned. When clearing a box, don't just check hot legs. Check the commons too!
 
 

 

[Chilidude]

Are you sure you dont end up killing yourself or even worse you lose some limbs permanently before the chili growing have even started.

 

[nmlarson]

The electricity went from the commons, through my left hand (which was burned), across my chest, through my armpit to that metal HVAC brace, *and* through my right hand that was gripping the steel roof girder (which was also burned.)
 

 
Sooooooooooo, does hair grow in your right armpit?    They call that electrolysis at my salon.  
 
All kidding aside, that is NOWHERE near electrolysis and I am happy you survived to tell us this tale.  Yikes!  

 

[TrentL]

This table has *all* of the ultra hots on it, that survived the soil testing experiments. Not much. Many are stunted from experiments gone wrong or the stupid calcium overdose fertilizer run gone wrong a few weeks back.
 

 
I'd say I probably have less than 60 viable plants here.
 
There's more on the hydroponics table, which seems to be doing well still, but maybe only another 40 or so.
 
The tomatoes on tables 1 and 7 were crowding the peppers on tables 2 and 8, so I rearranged the tomatoes to all be together on tables 1 and 2. Plus sorted a bunch of other tables, took about 4 hours total.
 
Tomatoes (tables 1 & 2)
 

 
 
Table 3 - taller, faster growing stuff;
 
yellow fatalii, drying serrano, aji cereza, french bell, sugar cane, elephant trunk, matay, sweet aconcagua
 

 
Table 4 - MOA scotch bonnet (left), Big Sun Habanero (right)
 

 
Table 6 - Santa Fe Grande, Turkish Cayenne, Sweet Charleston 
 

 
Table 8 - Farmers Jalapeno, Criolla Sella, Teken Dolmasi, Sweet Anaheim, Jalapeno Biker Billy
 

 
At home, tomatoes and melons started (directly in 4" pots). Filled most of the pot with Mix N, then topped it with 100% coir.
 

 
No more pepper eating for these guys!
 

 

 
 

 

[TrentL]

Laying out cold frame buildings and isolation buildings
 

 
White 1-5 rectangles are cold frame buildings. 1-3 will be built this month and first week of next month. Light gray A,B,C buildings are isolation buildings. Dark gray is where I'm going to truck in some gravel for a parking area.
 
We'll have three 100' long by 8' wide isolation buildings, sectioned off in to thirty 8x10' isolation rooms. Materials will be qty 519 8' 2x4, qty 182 10' 2x4, qty 66 12' 4x4, sunk in to 4' deep 12" holes and tamped (all AC2 lumber). Screened, then I will also for a while cover them in poly to protect against any potential herbicide drift.
 
Lumber cost is 5882, haven't priced screws, door hardware or screen material yet.
 

 
I also ordered three 24' wide by 96' long cold frame structures today, with 6' sidewalls and steel endcaps 
 

 
Cost on those was $17,533.39. Haven't calculated concrete cost for the 180 12" 4' deep holes required yet.
 
Also ordered a pallet (QTY 480) of 15 gallon plastic injection molded pots for the isolation crop at a cost of $1780.  Will pick those up with the cold frame houses.
 
Hired on two laborers plus my usual carpenter for the job.  I'll do surveying, site prep, hole boring, etc with my skid loader myself.
 
Labor costs will be about $7500.
 
So total cost for 2400 sq foot of isolation rooms, plus 6,912 sq foot of cold frame structures is going to be about $30k. I budgeted 50k which should cover concrete, hardware, misc crap.
 
One cold frame building will be used for hardening off, one for tomatoes, and one for peppers. Those will be the earliest to go out - most at risk for herbicide drift, so the buildings will protect those against a nasty death. 
 
It will also extend the growing season for me on those tomatoes and peppers by a few weeks this fall, and give me an earlier start on the dirt crop next year. Should add 3-4 weeks to the growing season for about 800 or so plants, anyway. 
 
This is all going to be getting pretty interesting soon.
 

 

[TrentL]

Also, by using the horse pasture, I can go for Organic certification whenever I want, for the stuff going in to dirt under the cold frame houses. Hasn't been any chemicals applied to that horse pasture, so it will pass a soil test. The only downside is I'm going in to the dirt blind (didn't do a soil test on it for nutrients), so I'll have to make judgment calls on plant fertilization based on some quick self-run soil tests for macronutrients and then watch the plants for signs of deficiencies.
 
 

 

[Chilidude]

It wil be very interesting to see how long it takes to cover all those expenses growing chilis and tomatoes.