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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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DWB said:
I started building a new shit sandwich to serve to the garden the next year. I actually started it three weeks ago with the grass clippings from the far front yard, horse poo and the last of my conveniently procured oak leaves for the year.
 
I let the grass go three weeks before cutting it yesterday and scored a big pile of stuff. About 2 yards of very finely chopped hay. I mow and throw to the middle so it's cut and recut many times over. Made for a big pile. My fertilizer guy Cadi eats his fill but that's only fair since he provides the rest of the mixture. I think it will make some good compost. The pile appears to be blessed by light beams from above :surprised:
 
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The late summer compost pile for the pepper patch is finished and all encased in horse manure. All in all, it's about 10 yards of fluffy stuff, 2000# of manure.and is well seeded with a few pounds of ammonium nitrate.
 
Leaf season is starting soon so I'll be shredding the usual mountains of oak leaves with the Kubota and top dressing the garden with alternating layers of poo and shreds again this year.
 
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Watching this grow has been a real highlight this season, DW.
A real lesson on how thorough prep can make all the difference.
 
When all is said and done, and you cut down those trees, the
remaining root systems in the soil are going to add a ton of great
organic filler to the garden!
 
I'm almost afraid to see what it will produce next season!
 
PaulG said:
Watching this grow has been a real highlight this season, DW.
A real lesson on how thorough prep can make all the difference.
 
When all is said and done, and you cut down those trees, the
remaining root systems in the soil are going to add a ton of great
organic filler to the garden!
 
I'm almost afraid to see what it will produce next season!
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Thanks Paul.  I'm afraid to see what it will produce this year but it's definitely on for the duration.
 
I've been lazy and busy with other things so today was the first picking since the nice cool day last Thursday. Since the jungle was still dripping wet at 9:15,  I started with the outside on the sunny east side. The row to the left in the picture and the few pepper plants in the old tomato row to the right. I figured I'd blaze through there and get into the shade inside the jungle. Ha, after an hour twenty I still hadn't finished the row, had filled my basket and was sweating like a pig with the heat index already over 95. I folded and went to the house.
 
I just weighed it and got 8 pounds. There are 5 more faces just like this to be picked before this picking is done.
 
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Mr.joe said:
You may need to hire help for that harvest.
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I'm definitely gonna have to up my game. I just did the west face and got another 8 pounds. That leaves me the four interior faces where the heavy stuff grows. I also got me a bee sting and got tagged by a wasp... twice... and all on the same finger. Damn pollinators.
 
Just got my dehydrators cleared out yesterday from last week. Unless I get more trays, I don't think I can fit these 16 pounds.
 
We need rain. It's been more than four weeks without a drop.
 
Bitch, bitch bitch.
 
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Mr.joe said:
Does that include air fare and room and board?
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I wish. In fact, I truly wish I could afford to bring all of my forum friends out here just to see the cray cray jungle in person.
 
I did invest $35 this morning to upgrade my dehydrator space to 20 ft², to be delivered by Monday. That should help.
 

 
 
Devv said:
Good stuff DW! It seems you got it dialed in fo sho! You get a gold star (5!) this season!
 
We still got 95° for the highs..
 
I sure wish I had your weather!
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Thanks Scott.
 
Be careful what you wish for. We have your weather with bonus high humidity. Our highs have been up to 99° and just about every day this month in the mid-90's. Definitely the hottest month we've had in a very long time with many days of breaking all time record highs. Plus not a drop of rain in 4½ weeks and now officially in the worst drought  since fall of 2016. No rain reasonably expected in the next week.
 
We did have one nice, cool, cloudy day that was sweet. But that day, Mobile (about 30 miles crowfly) got up to 8" of rain in a few hours and downtown was filled with floating cars.
 
PaulG said:
Your harvests are astounding. Can't wait to
see the production on the interior faces.
 
I have always thought if the PNW and the
S/SW could average out our climates, it
would be just about ideal!
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Yes indeed, we would do very well if only we could crossbreed our weather
 
I wasn't intending to pick today since I had plenty in the freezigerator to sanitize, slice and refill my 16 trays after I empty it tonight. That plan didn't work after I did a quick assay this morning. I'm finding some amazing things inside the mats of collapsed tops. I found a cluster of 15 huge Fatalii pods in a space smaller than a football. And that's only counting the ripe ones. I got two baskets like this before I gave up on it. There's probably at least two more this size that can be picked tomorrow.
 
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Those dang wasps are really beginning to be torture. I got tagged on the hand again this morning and it still hurts.
 
The 4 new trays arrived today. I had pre-sliced pods ready to go so I loaded those up and put them on the extra dehydrator motor. I still have 8 more trays enroute but they may not arrive until Friday. I scored those from amazon for about $5.60 each, delivered. Open box "rental returns".
 
So tonight I have a shit ton of pods to prep for the dehydrator. Good thing I took the afternoon off to watch the Alabama football game. The bonus naptime is one of the simple pleasures of my life. :P
 
I did do all the sanitizing today so all I have to do is slice and load. Two totes full of pods in the freezigerator.
 
The bean ditch is back in business. The Liana Yardlong Asparagus beans for Lia are producing now. They were seeds 56 days ago. I have about 20 plants that are doing very well and should produce until frost. The way the weather is feeling, that may not happen until next year.... if ever. Regardless, one of my frost covers will beat a bunch more life out of them.
 
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Better watch those wasp stings, I read that they are cumulative. I got stung a bunch when I was younger and now whenever I get stung it swells up worse than the previous time. The last was a sting on my forearm and it got swolen like a football! And hurt like hell.
 
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