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.
 
 

 

[Devv]

This week's lesson in crisis management was calcium deficiency/blossom end rot. It probably has a lot to do with why many of my plants have been so floppity. Fortunately, I've been saving eggshells to give them back to the neighbor to feed them to his chickens who are having shell problems. I had about 200 grams of them in a bag for him when I found the latest problem. I powdered them in a grain mill and made me a batch of water soluble calcium acetate to foliar feed all the plants. This made about 40 oz of what should be a high potency calcium supplement. Last night I used 100 ml of this with 60 grams epsom salts and 15 grams of k-mag to make 15 gallons of finished spray and hosed everything down really well. We got a tad bit of rain today so tomorrow I think I'll root feed another dose of the calcium. A really screwed up thing about growing in the hay bale compost is I don't have the foggiest idea about all the minor nutrient levels.
 
The bean ditch is wild country and really getting cranked up. With some added infrastructure, bean wall is quickly turning into bean gazebo. We started picking about 5 pounds every other day this week and the north half isn't even producing yet. Just growing like kudzu.
 

 
BER is a calcium uptake issue. Usually, at least in my case it's the high PH of the soil. The ca is there but the plants can't utilize it, due to the PH. I use Calmag; 1 tsp per gallon of water via a foliar application twice a week. I would lose 50% plus of the maters if I didn't do this. I hit the peppers as well, along with a 1tbls per gal dose of Epsom salt.
 
Edit: It has to be a foliar application, watering with the mix is not nearly effective.....
 

 

[Devv]

Now that I went and read through to catch up...I must say you're killing it!
 
Good work this season!

 

[DWB]

Now that I went and read through to catch up...I must say you're killing it!
 
Good work this season!

 
Thanks Devv. How is that calcium uptake issue affected when the bale compost was 6.2 and the irrigation water is less than 5?
 
Really though, the only irrigation water I've used (since the jungle was babies) is the foliar treatments. Otherwise it's all rain soaking that sponge even with a nearly three week drought that ended a few days ago. Almost 6" now so my goal of drying out the substrate is trashed again for a while.
 
Edit: My wrong, I looked it up and the growing media was 6.1. With the BER I'm operating under the assumption the bale compost is low in calcium and I can't see where I've gien the plants any since they were in the nursery and I fed them Masterblend with the calcium nitrate.

 

[Devv]

 
Thanks Devv. How is that calcium uptake issue affected when the bale compost was 6.2 and the irrigation water is less than 5?
 
Really though, the only irrigation water I've used (since the jungle was babies) is the foliar treatments. Otherwise it's all rain soaking that sponge even with a nearly three week drought that ended a few days ago. Almost 6" now so my goal of drying out the substrate is trashed again for a while.
 
Edit: My wrong, I looked it up and the growing media was 6.1. With the BER I'm operating under the assumption the bale compost is low in calcium and I can't see where I've gien the plants any since they were in the nursery and I fed them Masterblend with the calcium nitrate.

 
Well, I was giving you data on my garden, how I handle the BER issues.
 
Yes, uneven watering can cause it as well, or there's simply not enough ca in the growing medium. Regardless, the method I use works for me, and I'm guessing will work for you as well. I bought 1 gallon of Calmag like 6 seasons ago and I should be using it come the 8th season
 

 

[DWB]

Thanks. I think (I hope) it's under control now. I picked off all the BER maters I could find and I'm not seeing any new ones. Ya can't buy calmag around here. I looked at all the feed stores last year just to have some around so I learned how to make my own after checking the prices on Amazon. Breathtaking.
 
The inch of rain we got this morning finally soaked the ground enough to start making some puddles.
 

 

[DWB]

My wife's at the beach this weekend hosting a corporate entertainment so I get to eat anything I want. It just don't get any better than this.
 
Beef, bean and cheese burrito with Vidalia onion, salsa, sour cream and from the garden, tomato, lettuce, a few cinnamon basil leaves, jalapeño, yellow fatalii pepper powder and 7 Pot Douglah pepper powder. It was so good.

 

[PaulG]

Now, that is what I call a burrittooooooo!

 

[DWB]

Growth pic week 8. Harvesting or even finding all the ripe pods in this jungle will be a nightmare. I took a closer look today and found several pounds to pick out of the bottom layers. I barely got started.
 

 

[skullbiker]

Growth pic week 8. Harvesting or even finding all the ripe pods in this jungle will be a nightmare. I took a closer look today and found several pounds to pick out of the bottom layers. I barely got started.
 

Oh boy, now all the good fun of processing everything.
I really like growing and consuming the garden stuff but the processing not so much.

 

[BigCedar]

Nice work DW!! May I make a suggestion tho?.....
 
When your in the mood to do some military crawlin... We need some serious podtography!! 
 
That gnarly looking one in the middle of your picture in the distance is just teasing me! 
 
Nice burrito I haven't had breakfast yet and that just about ruined me! lol.
 
Super cool lizard shot, Anole? I had 6 of em as pets growing up, they're cool! No lizards around here I'm jealous! 
 
Once again lookin good sir! keep it up! 
 

 

[DWB]

Nice work DW!! May I make a suggestion tho?.....
 
When your in the mood to do some military crawlin... We need some serious podtography!! 
 
That gnarly looking one in the middle of your picture in the distance is just teasing me! 
 
Nice burrito I haven't had breakfast yet and that just about ruined me! lol.
 
Super cool lizard shot, Anole? I had 6 of em as pets growing up, they're cool! No lizards around here I'm jealous! 
 
Once again lookin good sir! keep it up! 
 

 
Thanks Brandon but when I'm facing  being on my hands and knees for an hour of so, my main concern is being able to get my old ass back up again. Can't see up in there to even find stuff to pick let alone take a picture. I think I'm losing as much fruit as I'm picking cuz I can't find it and then I'm breaking branches stuffing  a paw up in there to pick when I do find some that doesn't go squish in my hand. I am getting some stuff though. Picking everything but Douglah. I missed a cluster of fine reapers I found yesterday that weren't quite ripe so I left them for another day and now I can't find them again. I did find all this today. 18" basket that weighs 10 lb 15 oz right now.
 

 
Yeah, burritos. One of my major food groups. The chameleon is a green anole. They're very cool. They stay in my hillbilly wither shelter when I have the OW plants. That reminds me, I still need to take some pics of the OW plants for you.

 

[DWB]

Oh boy, now all the good fun of processing everything.
I really like growing and consuming the garden stuff but the processing not so much.

 

Indeed. We're eating all we can stand and I'm running two 8-tray, 1000 watt Nesco 1018 Gardenmasters full time and making purees in the food processor to freeze for my girl dog.
 
I may have to convert my freezigerator back to a freezer for a while.

 

[Devv]

 
Thanks Brandon but when I'm facing  being on my hands and knees for an hour of so, my main concern is being able to get my old ass back up again. Can't see up in there to even find stuff to pick let alone take a picture. I think I'm losing as much fruit as I'm picking cuz I can't find it and then I'm breaking branches stuffing  a paw up in there to pick when I do find some that doesn't go squish in my hand. I am getting some stuff though. Picking everything but Douglah. I missed a cluster of fine reapers I found yesterday that weren't quite ripe so I left them for another day and now I can't find them again. I did find all this today. 18" basket that weighs 10 lb 15 oz right now.
 

 
Yeah, burritos. One of my major food groups. The chameleon is a green anole. They're very cool. They stay in my hillbilly wither shelter when I have the OW plants. That reminds me, I still need to take some pics of the OW plants for you.

 
Hah! The issues we endure once the garden goes "jungle". I hate the squish of an over ripe mater or pepper, that I missed last time around. The good thing is we always plant too much, so....
 

 

[Ghost Pepper Revolution]

Those are some beautiful pods and plants, hows the heat treating ya? Its so hot here at times gotta water every day

 

[skullbiker]

 
Indeed. We're eating all we can stand and I'm running two 8-tray, 1000 watt Nesco 1018 Gardenmasters full time and making purees in the food processor to freeze for my girl dog.
 
I may have to convert my freezigerator back to a freezer for a while.

Sounds like you are about ready to move up to a Harvestright Home Freeze Dryer. We work ours pretty hard, just finished a 15 lb batch of rhubarb yesterday, now its available to use for the next 20 — 25 years. You could make some astronaut snacks for your pups!

 

[DWB]

Those are some beautiful pods and plants, hows the heat treating ya? Its so hot here at times gotta water every day

 
It's been very hot but we had a few days off with 6" of rain. I've been watering some things but the bale rows don't need much irrigation. They never dry out.
 
 

Sounds like you are about ready to move up to a Harvestright Home Freeze Dryer. We work ours pretty hard, just finished a 15 lb batch of rhubarb yesterday, now its available to use for the next 20 — 25 years. You could make some astronaut snacks for your pups!

 
How do those things work? Do they actually freeze or just do the vacuum? Sounds like it's much quicker than a hot air dehydrator.
 
Speaking of the pups, it's a big day for our family. Four years ago today young Mr Cody came home with us. Princess Lia picked him out of a litter of seven. She chose very well.
 

 

 

[PaulG]

Nice harvest, DW! Maybe you should lay
on your back with a head light on and look
up to pick your pods. Just have a helper on
hand to get you on your feet again!

That is def a jungle, my friend!

 

[DWB]

So, I don't think conventionally conditioned hay bales are a really good thing for growing.... aka not worth a hoot. Here's another growth comparison. There's another story here but to begin with the first, these cantaloupe plants were planted on the same day three weeks ago. The first is in a bale in my isolation area. The second is in a small pile of composted horse manure on what used to be grass before I covered the area with manure. Huge difference in growth.
 

 

 
The secondary story is the snake lives there under the tarp. I pulled back the tarp a few days ago to put that ring of fence around the plant because that  was the only one of 5 plantings outside of the garden perimeter the horse Cadillac didn't eat. Can't blame him for eating tasty plants. He's been so good staying out of the garden all the while between initially laying down the tasty hay bales in October to the jungle it is today.
 
I moved the snake to another area about 50 yards away where I thought he would be happy, set my fence and put the tarp back where it covers a part of the pile of manure. When I decided to take these pictures today for this growth comparison and pulled back the tarp, the snake was back home. And that provides the answer to why Cadi left that cantaloupe planting alone. It's guarded by a snake. Cadi don't like snakes. He was bitten by a diamondback in 2000.
 
 
 

 

[Uncle Eckley]

Snek likes that spot.

 

[DWB]

Snek likes that spot.

 
That's a good name for him. Snek the guard snake. Seems like it would get mighty dang hot living up under that tarp in the full sun.
 
Ripe douglah soon come.