Any growers in KS?

robbyjoe01 said:
Hail coming my way - under a hour
 
Covered what I could - hoping the rest survives

Think I'm in the clear now
 
Good to hear the hail missed you! No hail here but another heavy downpour... Another start to the year that has been way too wet for the peppers anyway.  Don't think my beds have been 'dry' since planting out...
 
My plants are looking a tad beat.  Too much rain, that 40 degree low run a week or so ago, little bit of sun scorch from the first week they were out still,  Definitely hoping the bed can get fully dried out soon, I am little worried of a bacterial disease coming back that hit some of my plants late last season, apparently started by rain/wind coming off the large trees behind my beds according to my nursery lady. :banghead:
 
I now have a serious roly-poly infestation and they do seem to be interested in the pepper plants but i'm not sure to what extent  :doh: Also something is eating the bottom leaves of my peppers, dunno what it is, don't think the roly poly's can do that kind of damage, but maybe?  Maybe slugs with the dampness? Dunno, have not had much bug problems with this bed until this year. :eh:  Have not seen any trails but also have not gone out in the middle of the night to look either.  Was planning to take a few pictures up to the nursery lady and see what she says... Anybody here know?
 
pepbite.jpg
 
 
Although woodlice, like earthworms, are generally considered beneficial in gardens for their role in controlling pests,[26] producing compost and overturning the soil, they have also been known to feed on cultivated plants, such as ripening strawberries and tender seedlings.(pulled from Wiki)

They have been good to me but I'm sure mine would turn on me if they weren't well fed. Even with the wet weather my ladybugs and bees seem OK with it. Egyptian Walking onions are ready to go to good homes so if your in Wichita stop by the Economy Inn 3051 S. Broadway. I'm in the back.
 
My lady at the nursery shared similar knowledge to yours about my roly poly(woodlice :)). She had me set a couple things out to see if we could further decide what was eating them. One of which was a beer trap, we shall see..
image.jpeg


Hopefully the lady bug larvae I have been seeing stay out of it...
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Went out at 5am before the storms this morning... board trap, sticky trap, and beer trap had nada except a drunken roach.   :beer:  I did have the beer trap setup to see if slugs were around however (ala raised slightly above ground level)
 
What I did see though was a small fleet of roly-poly's climbing around on the bottom 3 inches of a few pepper plants. Including the edges of a few lower leaves. I wonder if they are hungry enough to be eating the new leaf growth and the damaged/roughed up edges of the lower leaves.   
 
Thinking through it, I may have been the one to inadvertently start this mess as I got lazy this year and just threw a bunch of crap wood mulch over the beds for winter. Of course we had an abnormally warm winter here without a lot of hard freezes.  Since planting out I removed the mulch which means I may have taken huge amount of their food source away.  Now their hungry enough to nibble the plants, encouraged to the surface by the continued rains.  :doh:
 
Got another 2 inches of rain this morning, so that makes 4 inches here in 24 hours.  If I can't dry out soon the roly polys may be the least of my problems.  The top new growth on the bhuts and fataliis are completely curled. I know I'll be begging for rain in a few months but damn... TOO MUCH RAIN! :shocked:        
 
You guys in/around Wichita have been getting hit pretty good it looks like. Up here in KC we have had a LOT of rain.  Ground is full of water. Hope we can dry out. The trees and grass are loving it though. Tomatoes as well. Its like 1 inch one morning, then the next day 1.5-2 inches more. Every week.  Roly Poly everywhere. My ghost leaves have been munched on, not sure what.  Did see a ladybug on my blueberry bush.  My plants need a break. Going to get down to the 40s for lows in a few days, for a few nights.  
 
 
Spicymon: "The top new growth on the bhuts and fataliis are completely curled" 
 
exactly wht happened to mine. 
 
 
My lady at the nursery shared similar knowledge to yours about my roly poly(woodlice :)). She had me set a couple things out to see if we could further decide what was eating them. One of which was a beer trap, we shall see.My lady at the nursery shared similar knowledge to yours about my roly poly(woodlice :)). She had me set a couple things out to see if we could further decide what was eating them. One of which was a beer trap, we shall see..
You should use a red solo cup. You might not catch you pest but it would be interesting to see what concert t-shirts the bugs gathered around the beer were wearing. Of course a strong magnifying glass would be required......................
 
WichitaChief said:
You should use a red solo cup. You might not catch you pest but it would be interesting to see what concert t-shirts the bugs gathered around the beer were wearing. Of course a strong magnifying glass would be required......................
LoL :)

I left the beer traps out for 24 hours... this is what I caught...
image.jpeg


Roaches... :shocked:
The lady at the nursery gave me a shipping damaged can of sluggo plus (iron phosphate) to put down. After yet another inch of rain yesterday afternoon I put it down and almost immediately the roly polys were checking it out. This morning I do not see much activity in the bed. We'll see.
 
WichitaChief said:
I can't be sure but the one face down has an Iron Maiden shirt on. 
Haha  :P
 
After putting that sluggo plus down I have gone from seeing hundreds of pill bugs to not seeing a single pill bug so that shit works.  Unfortunately I haven't really seen anything moving in the beds lately so I might have wiped everything out good and bad.  :neutral:
 
Sure am ready for the warmer temperatures to come back.  Got 2-1/2 more inches of rain midweek and it is currently drizzling this morning... still can't get dried out.  Peppers are pissed but they have a lot of good looking new growth starting to develop.  I went ahead and thinned a few of the original large leaves that were looking bad off the plants to give the new growth a bit more exposure. Hoping for a break in the rain, at least for a few days... :pray:      
 
Wow gona get a few light showers this weekend then all next week rain. It seems like a losing battle this year. Oh well still a growing season good or bad. Thinking about using more containers then raised beds at least for peppers next year.
 
robbyjoe01 said:
Wow gona get a few light showers this weekend then all next week rain. It seems like a losing battle this year. Oh well still a growing season good or bad. Thinking about using more containers then raised beds at least for peppers next year.
Agreed!!!

Hope I don't have to throw in the towel but every thing that can go wrong is going wrong this season... had a bad bad storm last night that leveled the garlic and the peppers. Unfortunately the wind was so strong it not only uprooted the peppers but quite literally ripped the roots in half below the soil. That's a first for for me, have had them pulled up in storms before but never ripped from the root ball itself... Forecast is pretty much 50% chance of t-storms everyday for 2 weeks straight. I replanted ALL the peppers a little deeper with their half-in-tact roots but one more strong storm and they will be finished. Right on que... there is the thunder :(
 
We're up to nine days straight rain averaging over a inch so far every day. Lettuce is holding it's own but yea my peppers and tomatoes are on life support. At least no tornadoes so far.
 
Tornado came within 10 miles of here last night... thank goodness it pulled up as it was staring us down. Watching the horizon during lightning strikes quickly changes ones perspective from simply garden problems. 5" of rain already today with several more expected. Horrible wind during a thunderstorm around 5pm today re-leveled the peppers that I just re-dug after they got ripped up from the storm last night :( Rough year this is...
 
wow, I have probably 8 inches in the last 4 days.  KCI airport had to put everyone in the tunnels for a tornado warning today.  My 7 pots, Chi Cheins, and Orange habs are too beat up. Its still raining. The rest are still in containers inside. We cant get a break to dry out. 
 
Hey fellow Kansans anyone else gearing or geared up for this year? I direct sowed today just to see how the do. Plant and forget on some farmland in Leavenworth County in northeast Kansas's glaciated region. So far I am only doing three types. Ghost, Scotch Bonnets, and Cayenne. Got the seeds in the River Market in Kansas City.
 
Now tonight I will be planting those three types of peppers in my Jiffy 72 peat pod mini greenhouse. I have used it before and worked great.  These will be the ones I tend to. The others on the farmland I want to see how they do on their own without much help or over-watch.
 
 
Here is a fun fact about northeast KS. Did you know when the glaciers covered this part of the state they brought pulverized gold down from Canada? They say you can find flakes in streams. Nothing like Colorado or California gold, but still fun to know. The glaciers left plenty of good water deposits in the ground for water wells. Plan on buying 80 hopefully 160 acres in this area to get a massive pepper growing operation going with that water. If you have a pond that water works great too. Plants love that pond water compared to city water.
 
 
 
 
I have about 160 plants that will start going into the ground this Saturday. I finally managed to truly cut back a little by killing a bunch of seedlings due to neglect. The ones that survived ought to be really tough!
 
midwestchilehead said:
I have about 160 plants that will start going into the ground this Saturday. I finally managed to truly cut back a little by killing a bunch of seedlings due to neglect. The ones that survived ought to be really tough!
 

You are in Tecumseh? I was actually in Topeka today on the south side of town having a lunch meeting at Banjo's by Forbes Field. Never been there before. Food hits the spot there thats for sure.
 
 
160 plants sounds like a lot of work! Wait a minute, I think I bought some seeds from you last year. Do you own some land over there?
 
I don't have a lot of land - just over an acre, but do all my chile growing in 6 raised beds of various sizes. I do think you bought some seeds from me last year. How did they do?
 
midwestchilehead said:
I don't have a lot of land - just over an acre, but do all my chile growing in 6 raised beds of various sizes. I do think you bought some seeds from me last year. How did they do?
 

Yes I remember you. The seeds did great. You replied quickly with the order too. I did direct sow with your seeds, and also started some indoors to later transplant outside in buckets. Last spring here if you remember we had so much rain it literally flooded the seeds to death. The indoor ones I transplanted outside did great, but most my crop was devastated by a puppy. Who knew dogs liked to eat pepper plants?
 
 
I see you have a new website, or at least I dont remember you having one last winter. An acre is plenty of room for the perfect grow. Im hoping to buy some land in Jefferson County later in the year to grow next spring. I like your website. Do you grow all those strains on your property? Ill be making more trips to Topeka this spring/summer. Have some Geologists that live there that are helping me with some work related matters. Hope your business grows (no pun intended) and takes off. If I get some land I wouldnt mind working with you on space to grow a large operation. Im looking for 80 acres minimum, but would really like a quarter section (160 acres). Need to find one with a large pond. Preferably spring fed, large enough to hold big fish, and large enough to pump water our to water acres of peppers. Pepper plants love nutrient rich pond water.
 
I could use some more seeds actually. Might have to place another order!
 
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