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.
 
 

 

[lespaulde]

After average April high of 75 and average low of 57, it's back on with the row covers. No realistic danger of a frost but lows in the low and mid 40's for a few days.
 
Dang cold again. Early this morning it wasn't bad at all. 70-something. Since then I had to give up my usual shorts and  tank top for jeans, a hoodie and a coat. It feels like the wind is coming straight down from Matty's frozen wonderland in Canada with nothing but a barbed wire fence to block it.

How annoying! Hopefully a week or 2 tops and it will be back to normal - plants are looking awesome and are clearly enjoying the great care you're taking of them. Impressive grow and all that prep work on those hay bales should give you lots of benefits for years to come! How many maters are you expecting to harvest from such a huge amount of plants? Guessing you'll be canning quite a bit at the end of season?

Great work Dee!

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[DWB]

How annoying! Hopefully a week or 2 tops and it will be back to normal - plants are looking awesome and are clearly enjoying the great care you're taking of them. Impressive grow and all that prep work on those hay bales should give you lots of benefits for years to come! How many maters are you expecting to harvest from such a huge amount of plants? Guessing you'll be canning quite a bit at the end of season?

Great work Dee!

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Thanks.
 
I think the weather should be back to normal by the first of the week. We just had a superstrong cold front/squall line come through and drag a bunch of Matty's igloo air down here. Pretty soon we'll be wishing for more of the same but it can't happen too many more times this year. After another month a cold front will be simply be more heat with a tad bit less humidity for a day or two.
 
I have 48 mater plants and I'm just hoping for a few good meals became they're very difficult to grow successfully around here.
 
In the event they do well, I'll dry, can and otherwise preserve as many of the Amish Paste and A Grappoli D'Inverno as possible.
The A Grappoli D'Inverno are actually designed to be hung on the vine in a shed and stay fresh into the winter  We'll see about that.
 
As for the grape and cherry snack varieties, I have no problem at all eating a kilo a day, every day. I hope they do well enough to make me sick of eating tomatoes. Yeah, like that's gonna happen. I love those suckers. My candy.
 
Any overflow of the sauce tomatoes I don't want to deal with will go to the restaurant of a friend who will make kickass pizza sauce with them.

 

[Devv]

 
Thanks.
 
I think the weather should be back to normal by the first of the week. We just had a superstrong cold front/squall line come through and drag a bunch of Matty's igloo air down here. Pretty soon we'll be wishing for more of the same but it can't happen too many more times this year. After another month a cold front will be simply be more heat with a tad bit less humidity for a day or two.
 
I have 48 mater plants and I'm just hoping for a few good meals became they're very difficult to grow successfully around here.
 
In the event they do well, I'll dry, can and otherwise preserve as many of the Amish Paste and A Grappoli D'Inverno as possible.
The A Grappoli D'Inverno are actually designed to be hung on the vine in a shed and stay fresh into the winter  We'll see about that.
 
As for the grape and cherry snack varieties, I have no problem at all eating a kilo a day, every day. I hope they do well enough to make me sick of eating tomatoes. Yeah, like that's gonna happen. I love those suckers. My candy.
 
Any overflow of the sauce tomatoes I don't want to deal with will go to the restaurant of a friend who will make kickass pizza sauce with them.

 
I've been growing the Early Girl variety here for years, after trying many other varieties. Very productive and tasty   I also grow the Amish Paste now. Eric (stetto) turned me on to them. I start them 7 weeks before typical dirt day (March 1st), this year I had to hold off 1 week due to cold weather. I bury the plants at a 45° angle (kinda) and just leave the crown and one leaf on top. Once they get 1 foot over the top of the cages I cut them back, as that growth never produces any viable maters. The heat kicks in and by mid June we're done here. I usually can get close to 2 quarts of canned maters per plant in a good year. I'm trying Pink German this season, just cuz   And always drop a couple of grape mater plants in the mix as well...
 
You mentioned drying them, can you enlighten me on the process?
 
The garden looks great and I feel this last blast is the last of the worry weather, 'cept for stormage....
 

 

[DWB]

I've grown the Early Girl before. Those put out a ton in Denver but not so much down here.
 
I'm hoping the heirloom tomatoes do better down here with better resistance to the zillion forms of deep south tomato death. You like the Amish Paste?
 
Drying produce is the quick and dirty way to save a lot of space and time. Just hack them up to preference and put them in the dehydrator. I'll do most of the green beans in there. Most stuff I do the quick soak in antibacterial produce wash before the dehydrator unless I'm gonna do it hot.
 
I figured you were around San Antonio when I saw your turkey picture. It may be dry enough there for you to sun dry maters.
 
I'll be glad when the nights start staying reliably above 60. The plants should take off then.

 

[DWB]

Making progress. Tomato road and a pepper row. For perspective, the yellow ropes are at 33"
 
I think I'm way behind on my tomato training.
 

 

 

[dragonsfire]

Nice!
Wish I could put mine out but we still get 0 at night at times, next weekend also 0 temps.

 

[DWB]

Thanks.
 
Sorry about the cold weather.

 

[PaulG]

 
I can neither confirm nor deny that I had any part of that....The only thing I have found to combat said problem is to bitch aboot it till the warmer weather eventually comes.

Geez,Matty, that's a great strategy.
Maybe I'll give it a go!
 
Wait a minute, I already do that  
 

 
I'll be glad when the nights start staying reliably above 60. The plants should take off then.
No s**t, Sherlock    

 
 
Annual Climate Data for Zipcode 97006 - Beaverton, OR    zone 8a, 9b
                              Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Annual
Avg Min Temp (°F) 34 36  38   41   45    51   54  54  50   43   39   35   43
Avg Max Temp (°F) 46  51 56   61    68   73    80  81  76    64   52   46   63   
Avg Precip (In.) 5.96 4.89 4.16 2.78 2.41 1.63 .63 .95 1.68 3.02 6.05 6.39 40.55        
                 
Feel better? If we had to wait for 60˚F nights, 
we could never grow peppers here  
 
That's why plant-out here is literally like childbirth,
going from the warm, serene garage and greenhouse
wombs out into the realities of the insect, disease-laden,
and stormy world. The varieties I grow must be able to
perform well with some 45˚F nights, occasionally a cooler night
in the mix.
 
Of course, with all the climate weirdities going on, that
could well change. 
 

Nice!
Wish I could put mine out but we still get 0 at night at times, next weekend also 0 temps.

 
Your chart probably looks worse than mine!

 

[DWB]

                 
Feel better? If we had to wait for 60˚F nights, 
we could never grow peppers here  
 

 
If I had the stones for it, I could have planted out in February.
 
Maybe next year I'll plan a little better and do more starts so I can go ahead and clear out a bunch really early and have 100 extra to put in large pots to grow out for disaster recovery.

 

 

[dragonsfire]

not good.
 

 

[PaulG]

not good.
 
That's just sick, Neil!
Here's hoping for better weather to come!

 

 

[CDNmatt]

not good.
 

 

Tradsies?
 

 

[PtMD989]

 
Tradsies?
 

You forgot to call “ no trade back “[emoji16]


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[Devv]

I've grown the Early Girl before. Those put out a ton in Denver but not so much down here.
 
I'm hoping the heirloom tomatoes do better down here with better resistance to the zillion forms of deep south tomato death. You like the Amish Paste?
 
Drying produce is the quick and dirty way to save a lot of space and time. Just hack them up to preference and put them in the dehydrator. I'll do most of the green beans in there. Most stuff I do the quick soak in antibacterial produce wash before the dehydrator unless I'm gonna do it hot.
 
I figured you were around San Antonio when I saw your turkey picture. It may be dry enough there for you to sun dry maters.
 
I'll be glad when the nights start staying reliably above 60. The plants should take off then.

 

That's strange the Early Girl don't do well there. Here, it's rather desert like at times , so I hand water them from the rain collection system we have. I guess it's really wet there then? Because heat we got!
 
The Amish Paste are really good, they just don't produce as well as the EG's.

 

[Devv]

Geez,Matty, that's a great strategy.
Maybe I'll give it a go!
 
Wait a minute, I already do that  
 
 
 
Annual Climate Data for Zipcode 97006 - Beaverton, OR    zone 8a, 9b
                              Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Annual
Avg Min Temp (°F) 34 36  38   41   45    51   54  54  50   43   39   35   43
Avg Max Temp (°F) 46  51 56   61    68   73    80  81  76    64   52   46   63   
Avg Precip (In.) 5.96 4.89 4.16 2.78 2.41 1.63 .63 .95 1.68 3.02 6.05 6.39 40.55        
                 
Feel better? If we had to wait for 60˚F nights, 
we could never grow peppers here  
 
That's why plant-out here is literally like childbirth,
going from the warm, serene garage and greenhouse
wombs out into the realities of the insect, disease-laden,
and stormy world. The varieties I grow must be able to
perform well with some 45˚F nights, occasionally a cooler night
in the mix.
 
Of course, with all the climate weirdities going on, that
could well change. 
 
 
Your chart probably looks worse than mine!

 
Perhaps I wait too long before I set them out? That's crazy your average night time temps are never above 60°
 
Next year experiment time!
 
San Antonio temps, we're a bit warmer..and those highs get to 100+ from May on, and the lows could be in the 20's in late March. What's a mother to do?
 
Month Low High
Jan  38.6°F   62.1°F
Feb  42.4°F   67.1°F
Mar  49.9°F   74.3°F
Apr  56.9°F    80.4°F
May 65.5°F   91.4°F
Jul   74.0°F     94.6°F
Aug  73.6°F   94.7°F
Sept  68.8°F   90.0°F
Oct  59.4°F    82.0°F
Nov  48.6°F    71.4°F
Dec  40.8°F   64.0°F
 
Edit: format the temps a bit, very little bit
 
 

 

[Downriver]

Wow D, plants are lookin happy, happy.
 
What kinda beans you got growin?

 

[DWB]

 
That's strange the Early Girl don't do well there. Here, it's rather desert like at times , so I hand water them from the rain collection system we have. I guess it's really wet there then? Because heat we got!
 
The Amish Paste are really good, they just don't produce as well as the EG's.

 
The air gets really swampy in the summer with a lot of rain. Everybody has trouble growing maters around here. Seems like wilt is endemic. This year I have the best looking mater plants ever so I hope they do well early and survive the awful part of summer and live to make me some late tomatoes.
 
 

 
San Antonio temps, we're a bit warmer..and those highs get to 100+ from May on, and the lows could be in the 20's in late March. What's a mother to do?
 

 
The news said a new historical low for 4/21 in Mobile was set yesterday morning at 42°. The lowest I saw was 48°. Still not completely home free since we could theoretically still have a light frost.
 
 

Wow D, plants are lookin happy, happy.
 
What kinda beans you got growin?

 
 
Thanks DR. All but a Fatalii and a Douglah are looking happy. I think maybe Cody peed on them. I wasn't thinking far enough ahead when I taught him to fertilize the bales with urea nitrogen last year.
 
The beans are Old Homestead heirloom pole beans from Baker Creek.

 

[DWB]

Potting mix. Basically the same as I make every year. I'll put it here so I never lose my note.
 
5 parts last year's mix
5 parts Suwanee River pine fines
2 parts composted sheep manure/hay
2 parts composted horse manure
2 parts peat (from a bale)
2 parts perlite (smaller particle than the PVP perlite I like but it was $4 cheaper per 4 cf bag)
1 part high calcium (egg shell)  compost
requisite handful of Osmocote
 

 

[DWB]

I wrapped my first tulle/field fence isolation cage today. I used hot glue for this one so we'll see how it holds up in the big storm that's allegedly coming tonight.
 
I learned something on this first one. Don't glue it all up and then try to slip in place over the wire. Methinks that's about like trying to put a condom on a cholla cactus. When I do another, I'll glue the top shut then glue the side seam shut while in place on the cage.
 

 
I found a bunch of baby maters on the A Grappoli D'Inverno plants.
 

 
 
 
 

 

[Devv]

I wrapped my first tulle/field fence isolation cage today. I used hot glue for this one so we'll see how it holds up in the big storm that's allegedly coming tonight.
 
I learned something on this first one. Don't glue it all up and then try to slip in place over the wire. Methinks that's about like trying to put a condom on a cholla cactus. When I do another, I'll glue the top shut then glue the side seam shut while in place on the cage.
 

 
I found a bunch of baby maters on the A Grappoli D'Inverno plants.
 

 
 
 
 

 
I like the isolation idea!
 
Speaking of the maters, mine usually run March 1st to mid June in the dirt, then off with their heads, because enough is enough...