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]

Nice thinking , GPR.  I hadn't thought about
doing that to test soil pH.

 

[DontPanic]

I wonder if that Chlorine is in the form of salt, or if it's organically bound?
 
1% Chlorine seems high if it is in the form of salt.  Seawater is 3-4% Sodium Chloride (so, I guess 2-3% Chlorine?).  So we're talking a healthy chunk of the salinity of seawater.
 
On the other hand, there are only a few examples of organic compounds with Chlorine that aren't pretty bad.  If this was organically bound Chlorine, I'd want to know what form.
 
Then again, maybe they don't really have any idea how much Chlorine they typically have in their product, so they just throw a number "<1.00%" onto their labels.

 

[DWB]

I asked the man who runs the fertilizer company today. I guess it's above his pay grade too. He said I can call the plant up in Evergreen and maybe someone there will know. If 1% is high chlorine, some of this stuff I have must be ridiculously high. My main turf fertilizer is 16-4-8 with 8% chlorine

In the meantime I sent mail to CARDI to see if they can tell me more about pepper plants being chlorophobic.
 
After being beastly cold for a while, now it's hot and humid down here. When I checked the grow room this morning I found 90% humidity. I turned my large fan around to suck air the out of the growing area and fired up the dehumidifier. I ran it a couple of hours, pulled a bunch of water out of the air and got it back down to 57% when I took this picture. Now it's back up to 72%. Oh well.
 

 

[DWB]

The first bunch of tomatoes I bagged up and moved out to the nursery are slowly coming along. These seeds were started Jan 17.
 
I finally got a few of those miserable pelleted seeds to pop. Not the ones I started normally with all these on Jan 17 but all the extras I put in the soaking wet coffee filters in a plastic sheet inside a jiffy dome on Jan 30. I'm surprised they didn't drown. So, out of dang near 100 of these fancyass pelleted seeds I may have 3 Independence Day and 3 Juliet Hybrid.
 
I still haven't received the replacement seeds Ferry Morse promised to send.
 

 

[DWB]

Due to my method of starting seeds in smaller groups so they fit in the indoor Level 1 nursery until large enough to be bagged and moved out, I have a large range of plant sizes. They range from tiny little nubbins to plants that stand 10" above the dirt.
 
I think I'll reactivate the 2x3'  Level 2 nursery that will hold two tubs of plants. Seems like a good idea to keep the little ones on 16-18 hours of light per day under the 1000W LED array and leave the larger ones in the Level 3 nursery while reducing their light period down to 12 hours under the 1200W LED array on the light mover. This should allow the smaller ones to catch up while slowing down the big 'uns that are already plenty large enough for transplanting outside next month sometime.
 
Edit: This gave me a fine opportunity to take inventory and cull some of the stuff I didn't care for. It gives me just about the ideal mix of pepper plants I was looking for with a few pepper plants still in the inside grow area.
 
96 plants total now in Level 2 and 3.
24 graded as small, 24 graded medium and placed in Level 2 with long days.
48 graded large in Level 3 (along with the tomatoes) that I'll cut back to 12 hours over the next few days.
 

 

[DWB]

I just fed and watered the plants. This is the group of larger peppers with the tomatoes. I cut these back to 12 hours of light a day and they're all doing well. The silly tomato plants seem very large considering a month ago they were seeds that just hit the dirt.
 

 
 
These are the young plants in the small nursery area. They're still getting 16 hours a day in catch up mode. They aren't growing as fast as the plants I cut back to 12 hours. Maybe they like 12 hours better?
 

 

[CDNmatt]

Everything looks fantastic Dee
 
As for the lighting this sounds like a cool experiment sometime down the line...2 of the same types under the 2 different lighting times, might be neat to see what happens with that.
 
I have so many different stages of growth on both shelves its a tad messy,but I am just happy things are growing and for the most part healthy.....for now anyways.

 

[Sinn]

Plants looks great nice and green and you already have tomatoes going very nice


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[sinensis]

awesome stuff all around. i ordered some of those 14x16cm seedling bags
 
$5.41 shipped from cali: https://www.ebay.com/itm/273603236694
 
there were slightly cheaper options direct from china

 

[DWB]

Nice find on the bags.  Thanks for the link. I ordered more.

 

[DWB]

I have so many different stages of growth on both shelves its a tad messy,but I am just happy things are growing and for the most part healthy.....for now anyways.

 

I've been debating with myself whether my messy grow resulting from starting 20 or so plants at the time is a good thing or not. I suppose it would be nice to have everything the same size and on the same schedule but I've again decided the piece by piece method has benefits.
 
Since it's all about early pods, I'm gonna plant out some of my biggest and strongest plants in the middle row of bales early but with good frost protection. I have a 25x10 floating frost blanket that did a great job of protecting my OW plants until I finally folded, cut them down and put them away in mid-January due to a forecast hard freeze that never happened.
 
I'll definitely wait until after any danger of a hard freeze is past but it shouldn't be a stretch to protect what I plant out before the time of a likely last frost and get away with it. Between this row cover and buckets, I think it will work just fine and should give me very early pods. My biggest Fatalii is already starting to set pods.
 
And if I don't get away with it, I'll still have plenty of backup plants ready to go.

 

[PaulG]

All your starts are looking good, DW! 
It will be potting up time soon!

awesome stuff all around. i ordered some of those 14x16cm seedling bags
 
$5.41 shipped from cali: https://www.ebay.com/itm/273603236694
 
there were slightly cheaper options direct from china

That's like 5 cents a bag      The web page listed $3.95, 
so I assume that the $5.41 incl. shipping.
 
I like this fabric better than the root pouches made
from the heavy felt-type material, for these small pots.
 
I suppose they are washable? I wonder how many
seasons you can get from one?

 

[DWB]

All your starts are looking good, DW! 
It will be potting up time soon!
That's like 5 cents a bag      The web page listed $3.95, 
so I assume that the $5.41 incl. shipping.
 
I like this fabric better than the root pouches made
from the heavy felt-type material, for these small pots.
 
I suppose they are washable? I wonder how many
seasons you can get from one?

 
Thanks Paul. The plants will stay in those bags until it's time to move outside. That's why I'm kinda trying to slow things down by cutting back the light hours. Not sure that's gonna work. They started growing faster.
 
I bought 200 of the 14x16 bags rom that link this morning for $10.16 delivered. The $3.95 price is for the 8x10 size.
 
 
I suppose they're washable and may last for a long time but the roots grow through these bag like crazy. Would you risk tearing up a plant to reuse a bag that cost a lousy nickel?

 

 

[PaulG]

 
Thanks Paul. The plants will stay in those bags until it's time to move outside. That's why I'm kinda trying to slow things down by cutting back the light hours. Not sure that's gonna work. They started growing faster. Go figure!
 
I bought 200 of the 14x16 bags rom that link this morning for $10.16 delivered. The $3.95 price is for the 8x10 size.
 
 
I suppose they're washable and may last for a long time but the roots grow through these bag like crazy. Would you risk tearing up a plant to reuse a bag that cost a lousy nickel? No   So, you just plant them in the bag?
 

 

[CDNmatt]

I have some larger ones made from the same material as well...they are aboot 3Gs...a tad harder to find on Ebay (they are there just not a ton of them) but readily available on Aliexpress....they are 40x36 I believe it is but once filled work out to around 20x25 give or take. Other larger sizes are available as well
 
I kinda had the same question Paul...though it was more for the 20x22's (which is what I ordered back in Dec)...was hoping maybe it would get abit more time and air pruned where the root's hopefully wouldn't take over the bag like the smaller ones.
 
I also have 200 or so of the 8x10's...very very small...one thing I found I could do though is essentially make those jiffy peat plug thing-a-ma-jigers..can make 2 of them outta 1 bag cutting them in half and just staple the other piece.
 
And aye you would plant them right in the ground similar to a peat plug
 
Just as an example this seller has a few different sizes of the larger ones
 
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/MUCIAKIE-50PCS-32x34CM-Fabric-Planting-Bags-Nursery-Cup-Pots-Plant-Seedling-Grow-Bags-Biodegrable-Growing-Roots/32962385965.html?spm=a2g0s.13010208.99999999.292.777d3c00TT2qTw
 
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/MUCIAKIE-50PCS-48-43CM-Fabric-Grow-Bags-Biodegradable-Organic-Cultivation-Cup-Pots-Transplantable-Growing-Planting-Plant/32964278851.html?spm=a2g0s.13010208.99999999.298.777d3c00TT2qTw
 
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/MUCIAKIE-50PCS-40x41CM-Non-Woven-Fabric-Seeding-Growing-Bags-Nutrition-Pot-Grow-Bags-Degradable-Breathable-Planting/32965859045.html?spm=a2g0s.13010208.99999999.295.777d3c00TT2qTw

 

[PaulG]

Those look good, Matty. Looking forward to seeing
how they work for you. Looks like DW has it dialed
in with them.

 

[DWB]

Those look good, Matty. Looking forward to seeing
how they work for you. Looks like DW has it dialed
in with them.

 

To me, the bags are a second stage peat pellet.

 

[PaulG]

That's a great way to think of it, DW, especially
since the roots grow through so easily!
Also seems very convenient and easy to
pot up or plant out.  Hope you will show
some pics when that time comes.

 

[m1hagen]

Thanks guys, just ordered a couple hundred myself for next season.

 

[Ghost Pepper Revolution]

I just fed and watered the plants. This is the group of larger peppers with the tomatoes. I cut these back to 12 hours of light a day and they're all doing well. The silly tomato plants seem very large considering a month ago they were seeds that just hit the dirt.
 

 
 
These are the young plants in the small nursery area. They're still getting 16 hours a day in catch up mode. They aren't growing as fast as the plants I cut back to 12 hours. Maybe they like 12 hours better?
 

Im a firm believer that plants enjoy sleep as well, I feel like they look small then the next morning Id swear they grew overnight in the dark. IMO


Good looking setup and plants btw