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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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nmlarson said:
 
I'll be watching and waiting to see what affect it has on the stinkers.  Five years, or so, ago, we were inundated with them.  They ruined so many tomatoes and peppers.  I haven't [knock on wood] seen too many so far this year.  It's my believe taking down the trees in the front yard is the reason.  I used to see them fly from the trees to the tomatoes, and back.  Or, maybe, they've just moved on.
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Nothing seems to have much effect on the stink bugs but I haven't used a strong soap solution. In fact, I haven't sprayed except for my monthly spinosad spray with a bit more soap last Saturday but that didn't seem to do much. But then again, stinkers aren't a spinosad target and I didn't use much soap. It's not a real problem as long as I have a ton of sentinel tomatoes but that's not gonna last forever.
 
I plan to do a high volume BT treatment tonight and will use a much stronger solution with Dr Bronner's as a surfactant since the soap I've used so far hasn't harmed the plants.
 
 
The only thing I found to work on stink bugs was to smash the f*ckers, then flush 'em. My husband used to just flush them, but, somehow, they always floated back up. They would never crawl up the sides of the toilet bowl and it would just creep me out when I lifted the lid to use it and they'd be floating around the water's edge, trying to climb out. Eeeek.
 
DontPanic said:
I like those ol' rat snakes.  They compete with the poisonous snakes, and will try to chase them off.  The squirrels are terrified of 'em.
 
And, as far as I know, I've never had one try to eat any of my peppers!  :)
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I checked today and Snek is still under his tarp. Not sure what he's eating but he seems to be growing.
 
I now have pepper plants that are taller than me.
 
 
stc3248 said:
I've had decent luck with Sevin Dust on stink bugs and squash bugs, but I hate using it because it also kills my beneficial bugs. 
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Pyrethrin works and it's organic. Only thing is it puts the honey bees at risk. Last resort for me.
 
Update on the stink bugs. I sprayed 15 gallons with 150 ml BT and 80 ml Dr Bronner's peppermint castile just before dark last night. No stink bugs to be found today. I was nervous about burning the plants but I don't see where that happened. It was a potent mix. I can still smell the peppermint on the leaves and my wife could smell the peppermint on my hands after I had my hands all up in the bean jungle earlier this afternoon. Stink bugs aren't listed as a potential victim for BT so maybe the soap got them. Or maybe they can't stand the peppermint and hauled ass.
 
I was in there looking several times today including what felt like walking a mile on my knees giving each plant a Tbsp of fertilizer. I felt like a Caribbean gyno feeling up in there to locate each main stem for placing the fertilizer.
 
They haven't been fed since 5/19 when I gave them each a Tbsp of 10.25-10.43-12.5. I'm kinda happy with the way that went and the BER treatment sprays using calcium acetate, epsom salts and a bit of K-Mag on 5/31 and 6/2. They do seem to love some potassium so I cut the N way back this time by adding a bit of P and a bunch of K. Final mix of 5.66-7.34-16.03.
 
 
Their original feeding when planted was a small handful of 18-7-11 downhole.

 
 
Bean ditch stopped producing after we had the crazy heat wave a month ago and they entered a period of insane growth. The 3 week younger, seed planted north section of beans never produced a thing. Now that it's stinkin' hot all the time, the older plants are starting to produce again and the younger plants have made a bean or two. Not sure if Kentucky Wonder/Old Homestead heirloom beans are worth a hoot for hot weather but since they originate from Texas, you would think so. Maybe the severe late May heat attack weirded them out and they'll get back to work.
 
If not, they're doing a magnificent job of shading and cooling tomato road which is still growing and producing like there's no tomorrow.
 
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simp3204 said:
Those beans are looking crazy thick! I’m hoping my bean plants finally take off, they have been super slow to grow.


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For reference, I dug up a 1'x1' ditch in our hard, red clay and mixed in a whole bunch of composted sheepstuff/hay and horse manure and planted into that. The 3-week old pre-starts went into the ground May 6 and the rest were seed planted the next day.
 
The support crew be taking a break. It's so stinkin' hot now. Sit in the shade and sweat like a pig. Now that it's picking time, Miss Amelia is spending a lot more time out there with us. I guess she thinks Cody and I need a supervisor.
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