• Blog your pepper progress. The first image in your first post will be used to represent your Glog.

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.
 
 
 

Attachments

  • layout.jpeg
    layout.jpeg
    251.8 KB · Views: 8,446
  • cody hay inspector.jpg
    cody hay inspector.jpg
    367.8 KB · Views: 328
Click to expand...
DWB said:
Yay! The jungle is showing signs of slowing down to take a breath. Today's pickings are a bit smaller than last picking but I'm still 10 pounds behind with what's still in the freezigerator.
 
 
Click to expand...
 
 
glad to see you'll be able to catch your breath before the pods demand more. lol  
 
 
will you post any pics of the pods being dehydrated?   sounds like that would be visually impressive to see.
 
BDASPNY said:
 
 
glad to see you'll be able to catch your breath before the pods demand more. lol  
 
 
will you post any pics of the pods being dehydrated?   sounds like that would be visually impressive to see.
Click to expand...
 
Here's my stack to fill today. Hopefully the slow drip of highly discounted trays from amazon will end today. The supposed last package is out for delivery today. I hope it includes all four they still owe me.
 
1RMYqbf.jpg

 
Here's a picture of a  small "clean-a-screen" in a large tray. Not perfect but for $3 instead of more than $9 each, I can live with it.
 
hLOnlvp.jpg

 
 
DWB said:
 
Here's my stack to fill today. Hopefully the slow drip of highly discounted trays from amazon will end today. The supposed last package is out for delivery today. I hope it includes all four they still owe me.
 
1RMYqbf.jpg

 
Here's a picture of a  small "clean-a-screen" in a large tray. Not perfect but for $3 instead of more than $9 each, I can live with it.
 
hLOnlvp.jpg

 
Click to expand...
I have 2 Nesco dehydrators with stacks of trays that tall and now rarely use them since we bought the freeze-dryer.
 
dragonsfire said:
LOL, I found 12 stack more then plenty for the dehydrator.
Click to expand...
 
That's what I have at this moment. Twelve for each motor. It's not enough. They only hold a fuzz less than 14 pounds. I am gonna try to get by with a total of 28 but I still have more than a month of this before it really slows down. Nice thing about these motors is they handle 30 trays each.
 
 
skullbiker said:
I have 2 Nesco dehydrators with stacks of trays that tall and now rarely use them since we bought the freeze-dryer.
Click to expand...
 
The bad part about this stuff is the room it takes to store them. Maybe I'll rent a uhaul to store my nesco crap during the off-season ;)
 
I tried to learn about that freeze dryer you have but I didn't get too far other than figuring out it's breathtakingly expensive.
 
DWB said:
 
The best deal I know about on the 15" trays is at amazon. $30 for 4 trays, delivered.
 
https://www.amazon.com/Nesco-American-TR-2-Dehydrators-FD-1018P/dp/B00004W4VA
 
Their open box stuff isn't a deal anymore. They quit offering the extra 20% discount and getting them takes forever. They still owe me two trays that haven't even been shipped yet.
 
Click to expand...
 
 
too bad I didn't get in on the open box deal.    these trays are so pricey, I can almost buy another unit cheaper.
 
Looks like maybe I finally got me some aphids. Never had them before but I found this on the beans this morning. I hosed everything off after I took the picture. Maybe I should have let the fire ants finish their treats?
 
I'll thoroughly nuke everything tonight with pyrethrin. May use neem with Dr Bronner's as the surfactant and will throw in some BT just because I haven't sprayed anything since Aug 28.
 
Happy anniversary to the Hay Bale Pepper Patch. I "broke ground" a year ago today when I removed some trees that were in the way.
 
I counted up and so far this month I've put 47.7 pounds of halved, de-stemmed pods in the dehydrators, put 3 pounds in the freezer and have a surplus of 8 pounds waiting in the freezigerator. Time to pick again today. Lather, rinse and repeat. Pick and sterilize today. Empty dehydrators and crush to flake late tonight or in the morning, slice and refill tomorrow afternoon. Or not. Must watch/nap the Alabammy/A&M football game.
 
zeW2W0v.jpg
 
Devv said:
Dude, I love what you're doing!
 
I think you could skip the next few years and still have enough ;)
Click to expand...
 
Thanks Scott.
 
Running out is never a concern. I have a large cloth shopping bag full of seal-a-meal pod pouches from the year before last and 12 mason quarts of flake from last year and always pods in the freezers. God only knows what I have stashed around here and have forgotten about.
 
 
Mr.joe said:
60+ pounds is some serious weight. Bound to have a few bugs, probably more than you realize, but there is enough to go around.
Click to expand...
 
The bugs get some and some pods are never seen until they fall rotten to the floor. When I pick, I always have my picking basket and one of those brownish plant containers like you see in all these October pickings pictures. Every picture from this month shows the cull bucket laying on its side to demonstrate the ratio between good and bad.
 
Probably close to that many more are rejected before going into the dehydrators. All in all, I don't think it's a significant loss although I don't check the weights of the stuff going to the BSF compost tea.
 
Ever since I started picking, I've removed all defective fruits from the garden. I just don't want that trash in there.
 
We finally got a bunch of rain. That's the good part. The bad part is I didn't do any picking since last Friday. Mucho peppers.
 
I let the plants dry before I started today and picked all day. I was gonna run out of buckets and daylight before I ran outta peppers.
 
s26uqqa.jpg

 
It takes forever to pick because what used to be 10 ft. in the air is now a foot above the floor. This is a typical scene. The entire row is collapsed and hanging down to the floor.
 
CoAtI8D.jpg

 
The plants were so heavy up top they broke the support rope tied off at 7 ft. You can see the other end of the rope tied to the post in the picture above.
 
vXomar5.jpg

 
Sea of plants.
 
wu0rKkf.jpg

 
 
 
 
 
That is one hell of a thick rope to break! :neutral:  :shocked:
I can't recall ever seeing peppers thrive like that.
 
Amazing!
 
Thanks for showing what an impact a rich soil can have.
And loads of TLC and a long season ;)
 
Thomas
 
I don't de-seed peppers before dehydrating but this is the incidental bycatch. 214 grams that won't be making it into 3½ kilos of powder.
 
I've always put mass seed into the compost but I decided to start saving it to play Johnny Pepperseed. I'll throw it out in the 60' buffer strip along my 750' south fencerow. I doubt the dehydrated seeds will do anything since I run hot but you never know. Maybe next year I'll have a wild pepper patch too.
 
IfZVbyC.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top