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.
 
 

 

[PaulG]

Gotta agree with Shane and Brandon,
your grow is proceeding quite nicely, DW!

 

[DWB]

Wow! You're killing it!
 
Very interesting about the maters liking the shade, but I can see why. They just have to be getting all the sun they need.
 
I struggle with the peppers here, maters grow like crazy. I'm 6'3" and cut them back 12"s 10 days ago because they were eye level. Now they're even higher. For me that extra growth never offers any return so I clip now. My peppers don't look near as good as yours...I've been fighting high soil PH, which I'm sure is locking out the nutes. It's in the mid eights. I added elemental sulfur last spring, so another soil test is needed. I'm sure 40"s of rain leached that all out..
 
Those peepers sure do look fantastic!

 
Thanks Devv. Eveything is out of control but that's better than the polar opposite. The maters are crazy. I've been trimming back the row enders so they don't overgrow the peppers. They refill the space very quickly. Like they seem to be determined to fill up every nearby cubic foot as soon as possible. The shady tomatoes are also crazy but it seems to be a valid small scale case study on growing tomatoes in the deep south.
 
 
 

I have never had any luck tying up or staking pepper plants. I find the only thing that really works(especially once they have pods hanging on them) is my reinforcement wire cages. I try to get them on early enough so the plant can grow through them.

 
Hey skull, as has happened at least twice before, you have given me a good idea. Difficult to implement but when I consider the management of these pepper plants over the next six months, maybe worth the bother. Thanks for thinking for me again :-)
 

Aside from those few sick ones your grow is looking awesome!  Hopefully the bad weather and sickness is all in your rear view! Those shady tomatoes look really good! Your hay bales are getting harder to identify...all just looks like well composted soil.

 
I appreciate the good thoughts Shane. I had my first garden on my own when I was 13 and have never had a garden as crazy as this one although I've done much larger and more ambitious grows before. But then again, I've never grown anything in what amounts to straight compost.
 
I'm definitely not impressed with the performance in the more recently conditioned bales that are more proper for bale gardening. Very stagnant growth compared to what's in the ground and what I potted up. I am very happy I got the new bales to compare. At two bucks a bale it's worthwhile even if the highest use turns out to be growing bush beans and providing a large amount of future compost.
 
A lot of these bale plants are falling out to disease but the internal temperature of the bales in my isolation area are at least 15° higher than any of the adjacent potted plants and 10° higher than around my garden plantings. That may explain the disease. The bales out in the full sun near the garden are cooler and much less problematic. Go figure.
 

DW, thanks for all the information. That's pretty insane about the farming and "family farms" in other areas of the US I guess I'm sheltered living here in western WA my whole life.. Small family farm means an upscale XL backyard grow around here, no planes, herbicides, etc. It's a bit mind bending for me to know that in this day and age practices like that are still acceptable.
 
Glad to see most of your plants are doing very well, your dedication to the sick ones is respectable to say the least. The tomatoes shade vs sun is so nuts, if I tried to grow tomatoes in WA shade I would see little growth if I was lucky, and very little fruit! Climates are crazy. I hope everything continues to do well for you. You seem like you have it all under control!
 

 
Although I used to work as an ag pilot and have seen plenty of stuff, I've never lived around industrial farming until the use of the 80 acres behind us changed from cattle to this back in 2012. The ONLY benefit is I haven't caught a rattlesnake around our house since late 2012 when they started working the land. Prior to that I caught them regularly, including two young ones within a week and both in the same place just below our back porch and both within 6' of our back door.
 
Thanks Brandon but I'm not sure if anything is under control. This year it's more like crisis management than gardening.

 

[DWB]

Gotta agree with Shane and Brandon,
your grow is proceeding quite nicely, DW!

 
Thank you Paul.
 
Here's the 4th weekly installment of the same single shrubbery compartment to document the growth. The white on the leaves is from a good dusting of DE I put down yesterday to back up the spinosad treatment I did the day before. Worms started invading my sentinel tomatoes and another battle is on. The spinosad is working well. Only two barely alive worms to be found today. The spinosad is good for 4 weeks but I'll follow with BT this weekend.
 

 

[PaulG]

 
Thank you Paul.
 
Here's the 4th weekly installment of the same single shrubbery compartment to document the growth. The white on the leaves is from a good dusting of DE I put down yesterday to back up the spinosad treatment I did the day before. Worms started invading my sentinel tomatoes and another battle is on. The spinosad is working well. Only two barely alive worms to be found today. The spinosad is good for 4 weeks but I'll follow with BT this weekend.

What kind of worms? Good luck getting on top of
the situation. Sounds like you have taken effective
steps in that direction, already. 

 

[DWB]

What kind of worms? Good luck getting on top of
the situation. Sounds like you have taken effective
steps in that direction, already. 

 

http://thehotpepper.com/topic/71446-help-with-worm-id/

 

[DWB]

Okay skull, here's the first annual skullbiker honorary pepperplant rowrack. I'm not sure how much I don't like this thing yet but it has potential. I know either before or after I get it stable and locked down tight I'll screw up a bunch of plant when I feed branches through the fencing. Not a big deal. They'll have 6 months to get over it and pretty much be on autopilot for the duration.
 

 

[Devv]

Good luck with the worms. They have been horrible this year on my place. The tomato horn worms, the fuzzy ones that sting, and the army variant. I feel like I should pipe BT into the sprinklers
 
Dang, I see a jungle in the making....

 

[skullbiker]

Okay skull, here's the first annual skullbiker honorary pepperplant rowrack. I'm not sure how much I don't like this thing yet but it has potential. I know either before or after I get it stable and locked down tight I'll screw up a bunch of plant when I feed branches through the fencing. Not a big deal. They'll have 6 months to get over it and pretty much be on autopilot for the duration.
 

That will work, that is EXACTLY how I used to do rows of tomato plants years ago. I dont think you have to feed many branches through, they just kind of find their own way as they grow and the mesh provides some support. Looks GOOD to me.

 

[DWB]

Good luck with the worms. They have been horrible this year on my place. The tomato horn worms, the fuzzy ones that sting, and the army variant. I feel like I should pipe BT into the sprinklers
 
Dang, I see a jungle in the making....

 

I've never had anything but those he-ned tomato hornworms before. Disgusting critters they are. Never had these tiny ones. These things hit the sentinel mater plants ithat surround my pepper crop from two different directions. West wall and the mater at the very southeast corner. Nowhere else and I have none in the isolation area up by the house.

 

[DWB]

That will work, that is EXACTLY how I used to do rows of tomato plants years ago. I dont think you have to feed many branches through, they just kind of find their own way as they grow and the mesh provides some support. Looks GOOD to me.

 

The more I look at it, the better I like it. I'll probably do the three main pepper rows.

 

[Uncle Eckley]

Where'd you get that mesh, D?

 

[DWB]

It's the same as this except mine is Bekaert Gaucho fencing.
 
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Red-Brand-Actual-330-ft-x-4-ft-High-Tensile-field-Fence-Silver-Steel-Woven-Wire-Rolled-Fencing/3624024

 

[Uncle Eckley]

It's the same as this except mine is Bekaert Gaucho fencing.
 
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Red-Brand-Actual-330-ft-x-4-ft-High-Tensile-field-Fence-Silver-Steel-Woven-Wire-Rolled-Fencing/3624024

 
Ah.  I saw that stuff all over the place when I was looking, but couldn't find shorter rolls of it.  Shame, it's exactly what I wanted.  Maybe I can get my BIL to go in with me.. He's got a big piece of land..

 

[DWB]

 
Ah.  I saw that stuff all over the place when I was looking, but couldn't find shorter rolls of it.  Shame, it's exactly what I wanted.  Maybe I can get my BIL to go in with me.. He's got a big piece of land..

 
Unc, check with the Home Depot stores around you. They had one 100' roll of the same 10/12½ ga. wire for $70 at the P'cola store when I was in there this morning.
 

 

[Uncle Eckley]

Found this.  Maybe not just the same, but very similar, thanks!  I actually ended up getting everything I needed for this season from the 50' roll of 2x3 garden wire.  I'll be looking again next year, I bet.
 
https://www.homedepot.com/p/FARMGARD-3-ft-3-in-x-132-ft-Field-Fence-348105B/206739544

 

[DWB]

This is what I saw but it appears to be a discontinued item.
 
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Red-Brand-4-ft-x-100-ft-Field-Fence-70426/206690771

 

[DWB]

I'm starting to find some ripe tomatoes but they're all wormy. At least one worm got into the mater before my first spray with spinosad. He's fat and happy and a hell of a lot bigger than the 5-10 mm little bastards I was finding under the leaves before the spraying I started last Monday.
 

 

[lespaulde]

I'm starting to find some ripe tomatoes but they're all wormy. At least one worm got into the mater before my first spray with spinosad. He's fat and happy and a hell of a lot bigger than the 5-10 mm little bastards I was finding under the leaves before the spraying I started last Monday.
 

Oh no, how annoying! I clicked the 'like' button, but of course mean 'dislike'! Hopefully the spraying will keep them in check from now on! Guess when wasps start appearing for the summer, that they will take their fair share of the worms?

Sent from my ZTE A2017U using Tapatalk

 

[CaneDog]

Oh no, how annoying! I clicked the 'like' button, but of course mean 'dislike'!

 
I call that an "empathy like," when you don't like the content, but you share the feels.
 
DWB, I guess that's always an concern when you create conditions so favorable that the undesirables can't resist it either.  I hope you can keep it all in line and get great production this year (and following).  Lots of effort put in and it's definitely deserved.
 
Plus I selfishly want to see lots of pics of ridiculously large and prolific hay bale plants.

 

[DWB]

Thanks LP and CD. I still have the little bastards alive on leaves so I trimmed off all the damaged foliage I could find and removed some more low flying tomato branches. Then I sprayed 8 gallons of BT with a hose end sprayer trying to apply more volume and get better penetration. I forgot to add a surfactant again. Oh well, maybe next time.
 
It's a damn jungle out there and that's most of the problem. They're not hitting my peppers too badly but that's why I surrounded them with maters, squash and beans. While the hay bale garden is a problem, the other garden area 100 yards away has zero caterpillars.