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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.
 
 
 

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NorCaliente916 said:
 
Just an observation from my experience with growing in bales (very limited) 150 days until planting time is quite a bit. Those bales will continue to break down from now until planting time, even more so once planted and watered more regularly. You may come to find by mid season or even earlier depending on decomp rate, that those bales are "melting" and completely falling apart. Its natural for them to lose shape as times goes on, and in our long CA growing season it did become a challenge. Maintaining a viable planting medium could be difficult for a larger size pepper plant.
 
Again, just an observation from my own experience. I will be following along, good luck to you!
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I remembered your post and wanted to follow up with you.
 
You were exactly right. The bales melted down to compost long before planting time but I think it's probably a good thing. Now my bales are a thick layer of nicely composted material melding with the ground below. If you haven't seen it, there's a picture a page or two back of what the bale insides look like now. Before planting I decided to squish the bales down flat.
 
About the lightning, we get a bit usually here early on and it does help crank things up for sure.
 
Good deal on the sunshade. Iv'e been using it for several years now and the sunscald issues completely went away. I usually put it up in May once the 90's roll in.
 
Your forecast is close to mine but aboot 5° cooler. Had 35° Monday morning and 90° slated for Wed I believe.
 
DWB said:
 
I remembered your post and wanted to follow up with you.
 
You were exactly right. The bales melted down to compost long before planting time but I think it's probably a good thing. Now my bales are a thick layer of nicely composted material melding with the ground below. If you haven't seen it, there's a picture a page or two back of what the bale insides look like now. Before planting I decided to squish the bales down flat.
Click to expand...
 
I figured as much. Id be inclined to agree with you though, I don't think its a bad thing at all. Just like an air pot sitting on direct ground, the roots will extend down into the dirt below and anchor your plants/bales so to speak as they continue growing down. Why not have some nice rich compost for them to grow into? Things look awesome man, I've been following along and look forward to seeing the plant progress. If all fails, you should have some PRIME planting area for next year.
 
Devv said:
About the lightning, we get a bit usually here early on and it does help crank things up for sure.
 
Good deal on the sunshade. Iv'e been using it for several years now and the sunscald issues completely went away. I usually put it up in May once the 90's roll in.
 
Your forecast is close to mine but aboot 5° cooler. Had 35° Monday morning and 90° slated for Wed I believe.
Click to expand...
 
No lightning here today but we've had a nice, slow rain with an accumulation of a fuzz over 2" so far. We were overdue.
 
What shade percentage to you like for your plants?
 
NorCaliente916 said:
 
I figured as much. Id be inclined to agree with you though, I don't think its a bad thing at all. Just like an air pot sitting on direct ground, the roots will extend down into the dirt below and anchor your plants/bales so to speak as they continue growing down. Why not have some nice rich compost for them to grow into? Things look awesome man, I've been following along and look forward to seeing the plant progress. If all fails, you should have some PRIME planting area for next year.
Click to expand...
 
I'm hedging my bets with some new bales, freshly cooked. I'm also using some of the air prune heavy felt grow bags in 5 and 16 gallon sizes as well as my conventional large pots that are up to 20 gallons. Those will mostly hold my OW plants. I figure I need to grow in a range of media to gain the most valid experience.
 
We have warm weather for a while so I peeled back the covers. I hope it stays above 60° at night now so these puppies can get their grow on.
 
This is the pepper row most recently planted.
 
wfcwLTo.jpg

 
The first peppers planted.
 
FtG7sxx.jpg

 
This is a Shar Pei plant. It looks kinda like some of the growdown pepper plant pictures I've seen.
 
Z5NufWr.jpg

 
Tomato row. The ones to the left were planted earlier. The ones to the right I planted Wednesday. The first ones I planted in 2' deep post holes,. The new ones I trench planted. Not a good idea when planting in such gnarly media. I left no good tracks to know where the 2' lengths of buried stems actually are.
 
 
iYoeLCV.jpg

 
 
 
DWB said:
We have warm weather for a while so I peeled back the covers. I hope it stays above 60° at night now so these puppies can get their grow on.
 
This is the pepper row most recently planted.
 
The first peppers planted.
 
This is a Shar Pei plant. It looks kinda like some of the growdown pepper plant pictures I've seen.
 
Tomato row. The ones to the left were planted earlier. The ones to the right I planted Wednesday. The first ones I planted in 2' deep post holes,. The new ones I trench planted. Not a good idea when planting in such gnarly media. I left no good tracks to know where the 2' lengths of buried stems actually are.
Click to expand...
 
"Gnarly media" seems like a perfect description.  I can't wait to see what the new growth looks like as soon as they dig their toes into that gnarly media and start getting down to the business of putting on size.
 
Now I'm committed to the concept of no more frost. If we have one, I'm pretty well screwed in all the following areas. All difficult to protect. Should be safe. Really there's a snowball's chance in hell it will frost here again. I think the last one was in January.
 
I planted the pole bean starts in the bean ditch. I'm soaking the seeds to plant out the other half of bean ditch tomorrow.
 
FenZZxU.jpg

 
And I planted the winter squash starts in the tire hills.
 
YJxKc3F.jpg

 
And started pinching and trellis training the row enders.
 
ENHkAFe.jpg

 
All three nursery areas are officially closed for business now.. I pulled the last four bins out this morning to harden. I still have lots of stuff to plant. 50 peppers, 27 tomatoes and two large clones growing away in the house.
 
 
Zb2DVrE.jpg

 
 
Not to mention my 20-something OW mother plants in the hillbilly winter shelter.
 
30tJJv8.jpg

 
 
 
PaulG said:
Wow, it's all coming together, DW!
 
Sending good vibes for no frost!
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Thanks Paul. No more frost.
 
I read in one of your posts that you still have a 10% chance of frost until something like May 19? I thought PNW was milder than that. Do you have some altitude?
 
DWB said:
 
No lightning here today but we've had a nice, slow rain with an accumulation of a fuzz over 2" so far. We were overdue.
 
What shade percentage to you like for your plants?
 
 
I'm hedging my bets with some new bales, freshly cooked. I'm also using some of the air prune heavy felt grow bags in 5 and 16 gallon sizes as well as my conventional large pots that are up to 20 gallons. Those will mostly hold my OW plants. I figure I need to grow in a range of media to gain the most valid experience.
Click to expand...
 
I cover 1,600 sf. I made a ceiling system.
 
230.jpg

 
Some hail damage..LOL I started with 30% and am now buying 40%, which I use for the peppers. I buy it at the greenhousemegastore, it's good stuff. I bought some off Amazon and it's not as heavy, and certainly won't last as long. I think I'm in year 6 with the original purchase. I also use bird netting and have moved to chicken wire to keep the birds out. This pic is from 2017.
 
 
DWB said:
Now I'm committed to the concept of no more frost. If we have one, I'm pretty well screwed in all the following areas. All difficult to protect. Should be safe. Really there's a snowball's chance in hell it will frost here again. I think the last one was in January.
 
I planted the pole bean starts in the bean ditch. I'm soaking the seeds to plant out the other half of bean ditch tomorrow.
 
FenZZxU.jpg

 
And I planted the winter squash starts in the tire hills.
 
YJxKc3F.jpg

 
And started pinching and trellis training the row enders.
 
ENHkAFe.jpg

 
All three nursery areas are officially closed for business now.. I pulled the last four bins out this morning to harden. I still have lots of stuff to plant. 50 peppers, 27 tomatoes and two large clones growing away in the house.
 
 
Zb2DVrE.jpg

 
 
Not to mention my 20-something OW mother plants in the hillbilly winter shelter.
 
30tJJv8.jpg

 
 
Click to expand...
 
If you fear a frost, turn on a sprinkler at like 4AM and let it run until all danger has past. It really works, as it stops the frost which sucks the moisture out of the plants and well you know. I always push the frost date here as it gets hot so fast and then the fruit won't set. In fact I ran the sprinklers for over 3 hours last Tuesday morning, we had a very mild frost, but I was prepared. Several years ago this saved the garden on a 26° freaky cold spell in late March.
 
BTW, everything looking stellar!

 
 
Devv said:
 
I cover 1,600 sf. I made a ceiling system.
 
230.jpg

 
Some hail damage..LOL I started with 30% and am now buying 40%, which I use for the peppers. I buy it at the greenhousemegastore, it's good stuff. I bought some off Amazon and it's not as heavy, and certainly won't last as long. I think I'm in year 6 with the original purchase. I also use bird netting and have moved to chicken wire to keep the birds out. This pic is from 2017.
 
Click to expand...
 
 
That's a beautiful ceiling. Nicely built with quality materials and construction. That's not a garden, it's an outdoor room.
 
I went quick and dirty... and cheap. I put up 780 ft² for a cost of $77 and I have 50-something grommet clips left. I ordered in another 650 ft² of the cloth with clips and  another 50 wextra clips to have stuff on hand for a do-over when it becomes necessary.
 
Great tip on the sprinklers. It works for orchards so it should work for a garden. I'll go ahead and dial in a couple of heads so they're ready to go if we have more cold coming.
 
 
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