2019 Hay Bale Pepper Patch

I've been a member for a while but never posted a grow log. My usual garden is too boring for that. I use 20-30 pots and overwinter my mama plants in a hillbilly winter shelter. Our ground here isn't good for in soil gardening and I've not been enthused enough to undertake the work and expense to build raised beds.
 
Now I have my peppers working the way I want and have the need for a much larger grow to supply a project. The main peppers I'll grow will be reaper, douglah and fatalii. For a couple of years I'll do hay bale gardens and heap tons of organic trash into the area. I have monumental amounts of pine straw, oak leaves and bonfire ash every year to dump in the walkways. I think this will do a world of good to make this new garden area mo'betta for eventual in ground growing.
 
I closed off a 38x38 patch in the NE field that gets full sun. This is the area I chose. The big painted guy is my fertilizer supplier.
 
The little painted guy is my running buddy and load inspector.
 
 

 

[stc3248]

Damn...that's a crazy sprout!!!

 

[DWB]

I've about decided the 1200W blurple UFO landing light can grow some decent plant in a 30 ft² area. I imagine the light mover helps a lot. The both of them draw a total of 256 W and the dang light cost me $75.99. Folks say blurple don't grow good bud but peps and maters sure seem to like it.
 

 

[CaneDog]

By the look of things it seems like they're liking it just fine.  Can't wait to see how they react when they hit the patch!

 

[PaulG]

Plant-out cant come soon enough for those tomatoes!

 

[DWB]

Yep, some of this stuff needs to be out of there ASAP if for no other reason than I'm out of room to conveniently work with these things without shuffling bins in and out of the room. Plus, even with two exhaust fans, two circulating fans and a bigass dehumidifier running just about full time, it feels like rain forest jungle in there. They're still happy and I'm feeding them well. They're really punching a lot of root out of those bags. I hope they really take off when I give them room to run.
 
Probably late this week I'll plant most of the middle row of bales with the largest plants. The north end will be protected by the 25X10' row cover. I tied in the stuff to support it yesterday. The bales are all compressed in this row. I poked in my planting holes and used a 18" sharpshooter to kick and work an  x-mark in the ground below each hole to loosen the soil beneath. It's nice and soft.
 
Hopefully we'll get a good rain today and wash in a tad bit of the 18-7-11 "Blueberry Special" fertilizer I added on top and more hardwood wood ash I'm gonna spread today.. I'll run a pH and nutrient test from samples taken from the composted bales and see what additional pre-treatment I'll want to do prior to planting.
 

 

[CDNmatt]

It's really coming together Dee
 
I see your helper is standing guard up top, damn good dog.
 
Is that a pile of Pine straw at the top end of the garden you got there?? Most of our stuff is all short needled trees the longest being Jack Pine, which is not something I would consider a long needle even.
 
Edit - If you ever decided you needed some shade cloth those bars would make it nice and easy to suspend some across and take it on and off as neeed.

 

[DWB]

Cody, being half Australian Cattle Dog and half English Foxhound, is a working dog and definitely a heeler. I think I posted a picture earlier in this thread of him heeling me when he was still a baby.. Nothing makes him happier than being outside working on the land with me, chasing balls and playing with the horse. Actually, I think his favorite thing is truck and car riding and going shopping in the stores but yeah, he's a damn good dog.
 
That's mostly Loblolly pine straw. It's 8-10". Works great as ground cover and weed blocker. I did get 100' of week blocker fabric for a few places like under my squash vines and on the other side of my pole bean trench but that will be covered up with straw and mulch as well.
 
I had in mind I could use the posts for shade cloth but I don't want to go there. I've never grown superhots in full, all day sun before. I always have some of my pots in mostly full sun but growing around the house, there are no spots with zero shade so this will be all new for me. I did grow a quarter acre of habanero in 1994 in the full sun and that worked very well. Supers may be a whole ball game.. I suppose I should rethink this. I believe it will be a brutal summer. It's 83° US (28° Canadian) in the shade right now.
 
What do you southern pepper growers like for fire ants? I've had four hills of them come up through the bales since November. Personally I like nuclear strength dursban but I had to quit using that in a garden so I got me a jug of spinosad to stay safe, clean and organic. I haven't needed it yet but I hope it works. You have to use up everything you mix but it's good for plants so I suppose I'll just randomly spray any leftovers around the garden.

 

[CDNmatt]

Wish it was easier to collect the short needles around here without raking up everything else as well. One way I got a bunch last year was after doing a bunch of pruning, I let them dry out for a couple months with a tarp under the pile spread out, so when they dried most would fall off and the rest just by kicking the pile. But man, having pile of brush all over just isn't very practical and most of it gets burned pretty quickly since we torch our garbage.

 

[DWB]

Edit - If you ever decided you needed some shade cloth those bars would make it nice and easy to suspend some across and take it on and off as neeed.

 
I did rethink it after reviewing ideal conditions as seen by CARDI and our conditions are far from ideal here in L.A. Not that difficult or expensive to improve my odds.
 
I found this. Enough material to give everything some good protection for dirt cheap. Agfabric is the same brand and from the same seller as my row covers.
 
https://www.ebay.com/itm/2PACK-Agfabric-30-Sunblock-Shade-Cloth-for-Plant-Cover-Greenhouse-Barn-6-5FT/232351185094?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&var=531610407597&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649
 
Found these hangers.
 
https://www.ebay.com/itm/100Pcs-Plastic-Shade-Cloth-Fabric-Snap-Clips-Butterfly-Shape-Garden-Greenhouse/123508220089?hash=item1cc1a9e0b9:m:mpFQeW2CPWkI-y493hN26uQ
 
Throw in some rope and/or high tensile wire with some rebar posts and I can put some shade over my entire garden for $66 and change.

 

[CDNmatt]

Dee not sure if you ordered your Shade cloth yet but is a flash coupon today till 10pm EST for 15% off with no minimum purchase
 
Code - PSAVETODAY
 
Edit - Not sure if it is an in app only code or not  I haven't checked just a heads up on that
 
Double Edit - Aye it is an in app only code just went and checked on that

 

[bpiela]

Awesome glog!  I don't know how I missed this one.  So much interesting stuff going on here.  I do have a question for you.  You say you are a long time member.  I had gotten some seeds on a seed train from 2015 that were labelled "DWB Orange Matte".  The THP member fiogga put them on the train.  I am wondering if they were seeds from a pepper that fiogga got from you.  Or maybe "DWB" is a TLA for some other pepper like a Datil Wiri Biquinho or something...

 

[DWB]

Awesome glog!  I don't know how I missed this one.  So much interesting stuff going on here.  I do have a question for you.  You say you are a long time member.  I had gotten some seeds on a seed train from 2015 that were labelled "DWB Orange Matte".  The THP member fiogga put them on the train.  I am wondering if they were seeds from a pepper that fiogga got from you.  Or maybe "DWB" is a TLA for some other pepper like a Datil Wiri Biquinho or something...

 
Member for a while for regularly growing peppers without posting a grow log.  Since July of 2016. I never participated in a seed train. I have sent seeds to members but never that one.
 
Thanks Matty, I ordered that stuff Monday morning.
 

 

 

[CDNmatt]

Bahhhh crrrrrrap
 
Never fails though at least for me. I go ahead and buy something 2 days later its on sale or clearance somewheres else.

 

[Ghost Pepper Revolution]

Looking good, its amazing how all those turds turn to gold. My cowpost area is ready for a raking. You should be good for plant out real soon

 

[DWB]

This is the bale-soil pulled from the middle of several bales. On the left, mostly dehydrated. In the middle, crumbled. On the right, sifted for testing.
 

 

[PaulG]

Soil looks great, DW, dark and rich!
Can't wait to see peppers growing in it!
 
Your Hay Bale garden is really taking shape.
The before and after pics in September
should be awesome!

 

[DWB]

I mixed 1 part of sifted bale stuff with 5 parts of 7.0 pH bottled water and left it sit a day.
 
This stuff wasn't looking or acting like a usual soil mix which settles very welI so I filtered the liquid and left it sit for another day. The`liquid turned out very dark, like I would expect from a compost tea (imagine that). Somewhere between the iced tea and root beer.
 
The nutrient tests compensate for the color but the "soil based" pH test does not. So I just used the meter for pH. 6.1 is that result. Very nice.
 
The picture shows the result of the nutrient tests. They all appear pretty good so I'm feeling confident about having a great starting point for planting.
 
 
 

 

[DWB]

I was considering use of this once the plants hit the bales. The man at the fertilizer company likes this stuff for peppers and tomatoes because it has quick acting K Mag in it. He says it's very popular around here for these particular crops
.
It may be too high on the nitrogen and I don't particularly care for the (up to) 1% chlorine. Any advice?
 
It's only $14 a bag but it may be better just to keep putting it on my grass
 
 
 
 

 
I don't know if any of this is worth a hoot but I tested this stuff for residual chlorine. I wasn't too sure about how to do it so I used the MasterBlend recipe and hope it crosses over well. To make a gallon of the MB in  19.5-18-38 strength you must use a total of 6 grams of the three components. Logic says if I want to make a gallon of the 18-7-11 Blueberry Special, I would likewise use 6 grams in a gallon.
 
The finished product tested at something between 0 and 0.05 ppm chlorine (basically unreadable), the TDS was 775 PPM. The TDS starting point was the usual 25 ppm for the raw water. The fertilizer brought the pH of the water up to 6.1. The fertilizer itself didn't fully dissolve like the very high quality MB hydro stuff. After 18 hours of soaking, there was maybe a half gram of muddy funk that never would fully dissolve in the beaker even though I refreshed the soak with hot water every time I poured solution off into the gallon.
 
I still don't know how much chlorine is too much for pepper plants. CARDI never responded to me so "chlorophibic" remains a rather amorphous term made only by CARDI although both blueberries and peppers are classified as chloride sensitive plants. A swimming pool is supposed to have 20-60 times more residual chlorine than this fertilizer... if it actually has a full 0.05 PPM. I'll see if a pool guy who rents land from us can do tests to better quantify the chlorine.
 
I'm starting to learn some interesting things about our acidic water now that I'm able to see readings below 6.0, I'm finding the quicker I test it, the lower it is. Freshly pulled it's 4.3. After it's set in a closed gallon jug for a week, it's up to 5.0 and some of that same water parked in an open watering can for another day goes up to 5.2.

 

[DWB]

The chinese light mover I borrowed from a friend had a blowout already. It started shredding the rubber donut drive wheel the other day so I shut it down to preserve what's left of it. Hopefully Pensacola Rubber & Gasket will have o-rings to replace it. That's a task for later.
 
In the meantime, I didn't feel one stationary light could do the right job so I shut down nursery level #2 and moved everything to level #3. Filled it right up. No more working room.
 
I'm gonna have to use my phd to dig holes through the bales and deep into the ground to plant those freak of nature tomato plants. I need to plant them deep. It's hard to believe those silly things that are 2-3 feet tall now were nothing but seeds 8 weeks ago. And growing in what amounts to a tube sock. Amazing.
 
It's supposed to get cold again in the wake of the latest massive storm but if it's not gonna get below freezing, those puppies are going out this weekend. I checked the soil temp under the bales this morning and it's a nice, toasty 71° F. Plenty warm for them bigass maters.
 

 

[CDNmatt]

Aye pretty busy in that bad boy eh
 
At least your close to plant out if there is a plus to the mover shatting out on ya Dee.