2019 - The Farm

TrentL · Apr 19, 2019

DWB said:
Be thankful it's not iron bacteria. We have that in the well at our Styx River property and that stuff is pure merde.

I ended up losing about 35 plants of the first 300 I brought out, from the iron toxicity, and still have two that are stuck at 1st true leaves and haven't moved on. Iron toxicity does some nasty, nasty shit to pepper plants.

On the flip side I did decide after the early-season scorched tray light incident, and losing more to iron toxicity, to start another tray of reapers back on 3/11, those are all doing well. I ended up with 198 additional reapers out of one 72 cell tray, overseeded 4 per cell. I tossed any which were really lagging. Still, I ended up with 68.7% viable transplants out of 288 seeds, after tossing the little ones which couldn't compete due to overcrowding.

They're doing very well now, looks like they survived transplant successfully, which is a feat on it's own considering I had a carpenter helping me pot up and with our callouses neither of us could really feel how gentle we were actually being with the plants. Turns out you can grab 4 plants all crowded together in a little 1" starter cell, smack the shit out of the root ball on the table, tug them apart, and drop them in a pot and they still survive just fine.

PtMD989 · Apr 19, 2019

It’s great that it seems , this years going a hell of a lot better than last years grow [emoji106]

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Devv · Apr 19, 2019

Great work ethic there Trent!

Every time I come here I see yet more good stuff, you just keep moving forward, gotta hand it to ya

Congrats on the certification, that's a real win there buddy!

stettoman · Apr 19, 2019

Devv said:
Great work ethic there Trent!

Every time I come here I see yet more good stuff, you just keep moving forward, gotta hand it to ya

Congrats on the certification, that's a real win there buddy!

Yessir, won't be long and he'll no longer have time for hobbyists...it is an amazing process to watch!!

TrentL · Apr 19, 2019

Final pepper inventory count

Sinn · Apr 19, 2019

Great list Trent can't wait till you start selling some pods :drooling:

TrentL · Apr 19, 2019

Sinn said:
Great list Trent can't wait till you start selling some pods

I already have one podding up in the basement.

I have no idea what the hell sprouted under the habanero tray earlier this winter, but it.. is not a habanero. I thought it was a damn weed, because it was growing so weird, but left it go, and there's 3 pepper pods on it now.

I'll grab some pics later, it's still in the basement.

luvmesump3pp3rz · Apr 19, 2019

just curious but i notice you are growing 1 fresno plant and 11 greek pepperoncini. i`m just wondering why so few plants on ones that should sell good.

TrentL · Apr 19, 2019

luvmesump3pp3rz said:
just curious but i notice you are growing 1 fresno plant and 11 greek pepperoncini. i`m just wondering why so few plants on ones that should sell good.

Because... we kinda.. sorta.. might have.. forgot to harvest fresno seeds last season. I had one lonely sprout out of 40-something seeds leftover from last year, from another vendor.

Pepperoncini, is a seed planting to grow in isolation, gotta grow seeds for next year.

Everything in qty < 20 will get culled down to 2-3 plants for isolated seed production. We'll also grow a few of each type in the field to monitor for any marked pathogen susceptibility (fusarium, etc).

Everything 50+ is for field production.

luvmesump3pp3rz · Apr 20, 2019

TrentL said:
Because... we kinda.. sorta.. might have.. forgot to harvest fresno seeds last season. I had one lonely sprout out of 40-something seeds leftover from last year, from another vendor.

Pepperoncini, is a seed planting to grow in isolation, gotta grow seeds for next year.

Everything in qty < 20 will get culled down to 2-3 plants for isolated seed production. We'll also grow a few of each type in the field to monitor for any marked pathogen susceptibility (fusarium, etc).

Everything 50+ is for field production.

ok, makes sense. i figured there must be a reason for some numbers to be so low. :cheers:

Ruid · Apr 20, 2019

Well you can't provide EVERYTHING..

Though you definitely seem to be trying!

Orekoc · Apr 20, 2019

Maybe you consider selling some of those cull plants.

TrentL said:
Because... we kinda.. sorta.. might have.. forgot to harvest fresno seeds last season. I had one lonely sprout out of 40-something seeds leftover from last year, from another vendor.

Pepperoncini, is a seed planting to grow in isolation, gotta grow seeds for next year.

Everything in qty < 20 will get culled down to 2-3 plants for isolated seed production. We'll also grow a few of each type in the field to monitor for any marked pathogen susceptibility (fusarium, etc).

Everything 50+ is for field production.

TrentL · Apr 20, 2019

Orekoc said:
Maybe you consider selling some of those cull plants.

Yeah will be shopping for boxes Monday. Local cardboard box factory in Lincoln IL is stopping by the farm to talk with us.

Hawkins · Apr 20, 2019

TrentL said:
Yeah will be shopping for boxes Monday. Local cardboard box factory in Lincoln IL is stopping by the farm to talk with us.

Speaking of boxes, where do you get your boxes for market? Like tomato flats? Is it the local place?

TrentL · Apr 21, 2019

Hawkins said:
Speaking of boxes, where do you get your boxes for market? Like tomato flats? Is it the local place?

Last year I ordered from here; https://rockfordpack.com/

PaulG · Apr 21, 2019

Trent, you should teach a course on pepper growing
once your grow system is totally dialed in and you have
a lackey or two working for you!

TrentL said:
It's just temporary for hardening off. 50% shade for a few days, then I open up slits between the 20x24 sheets.

Instead of dragging peppers in and out of the shade (which would be quite a chore, with 5,000 peppers) I let the sun marching across the sky do the heavy lifting for me.

The slits I open between sheets will grow a little every day until the plants are hardened off.

Creates an aperture that causes direct sunlight to sweep across the plants, so instead of moving plants.. the sun moves.

Incremental amounts of sunlight each day, this way, just need to roll it back a little at a time.

Only way I could think of to do large scale mass hardening off.

Great idea. I can't imagine moving thousands of plants in and out every day!

Boyan said:
After several days of absence, I am always very happy to see that Trent, step by step, turns big plans into reality. Bravo!! Easy to talk of course. But let all the forces, time and money return with a profit and happiness at memory for each family member. The latter, it seems to me, is priceless

Well said, Boyan!

TrentL said:
They're doing very well now, looks like they survived transplant successfully, which is a feat on it's own considering I had a carpenter helping me pot up and with our callouses neither of us could really feel how gentle we were actually being with the plants. Turns out you can grab 4 plants all crowded together in a little 1" starter cell, smack the shit out of the root ball on the table, tug them apart, and drop them in a pot and they still survive just fine.

Now that's what I call Tough Love!

Devv said:
Great work ethic there Trent!

Every time I come here I see yet more good stuff, you just keep moving forward, gotta hand it to ya

Congrats on the certification, that's a real win there buddy!

+1 Scott!

Yes, undoubtably the mos' epic grow on the forum!

Every detail worked out and the total system really
coming together. I hope you sell the heck out of your
products, Trent!

TrentL · Apr 23, 2019

Lots of happy peppers

PtMD989 · Apr 23, 2019

Gotta love when a plan comes together [emoji106][emoji16].

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Wermland · Apr 23, 2019

Absolutely beautiful [emoji173]

m1hagen · Apr 23, 2019

There is nothing more beautiful than a sea of green.