Ausmith's 2013 Germany - First big pull

Better late than never!
 
Life was a bit overwhelming this year and finally we had a lazy Sunday... so I thought I'd start my 2013 Glog. Besides work being crazy I got married in May, plus the honeymoon in July, thus the lack of time for posting on THP. So here we go... starting with the obligatory wedding picture.

 
 
 
Last year I grew 100% indoor, but decided this year to venture outdoors. I was offered some modest space in my wife's grandfather's garden, so I took him up on it. I also kept a bunch of plants in the tent inside, but they got so big I had to pot them up and put them outside at our place. Once things sorted themselves out I ended up with 17 great plants. 
 
Here's the list:
Dutch Yellow x2
Caribbean Red or Jamaican Red Hot x3
7 Pot Jonah x1
Billy Goat x1
Goat Weed x1
Scarlet Lantern x1
Thai Dragon x1
Trinidad Yellow Scorp x1
Aji Lemon x1
Aji Pineapple x1
Bhut x1
Naga Morich x1
Choc. Hab x1
Jamaican Mushroom x1
 
**Big thanks to Rick for some of the seeds!!!
 
Here are the plants at our place:

\

 
 
 
Here's the garden at Grandpa's place

 
 
 
Dutch Yellow
 

 
 
Caribbean Red
 

 
 
7 Pot

 
 
Billy Goat

 
 
 
Next year I've been given as much space as I need for a garden. Here's the area I have to work with.

 
 
 
 
 

 

[capsidadburn]

Congratulations!  Great looking garden.

 

[stickman]

Hi Clayton... Congratulations are in order for your wedding, house and garden! Things are looking great where you are. It looks like the soil is awfully sandy there though. Not an impediment really... my garden is the same, but it'll require building up the soil and frequent watering to get good results. Being at around 50 degrees N. Latitude, you might want to put down some black plastic mulch once you've prepared the soil, and plant your chiles in holes punched in the plastic. It'll give you at least a 2 week jump on the season for planting in-ground, and if you put a low row cover over that you can plant even earlier. Our first frost-free date here at 42 degrees N. Latitude is around the middle of May, and using this method I was able to plant outside by the 3rd week in April... a necessary thing for plants that take 100+ days to mature.
 
Anyway, glad to have you back around, and glad you could use the seeds. I put a couple of Ochsenhorn in-ground and they did fairly well for me this year. Next year I'll definitely try the Vesena. Cheers!

 

[Ausmith]

...continuing so I can post some more pictures. For our honeymoon we did a bit of caribbean island hopping. We stayed 5 nights in Dominica (not dominican republic, but the little island between Guadeloupe and Martinique. We got up super early one morning to hit the local market. I scored a bottle of local rum, bag of peppers, onions, and tomatoes for about $10. They have a local variety of Habanero which is red and a bit larger than a normal Hab. Great heat and flavor. I smuggled seeds from 4 types of local peppers back into Germany. We'll give them a go next year. 
 

 

[mlh5953]

Congratulations on your wedding and new garden space!
I look forward to hearing more about how your smuggled seeds turn out.

 

[Ausmith]

Hi Clayton... Congratulations are in order for your wedding, house and garden! Things are looking great where you are. It looks like the soil is awfully sandy there though. Not an impediment really... my garden is the same, but it'll require building up the soil and frequent watering to get good results. Being at around 50 degrees N. Latitude, you might want to put down some black plastic mulch once you've prepared the soil, and plant your chiles in holes punched in the plastic. It'll give you at least a 2 week jump on the season for planting in-ground, and if you put a low row cover over that you can plant even earlier. Our first frost-free date here at 42 degrees N. Latitude is around the middle of May, and using this method I was able to plant outside by the 3rd week in April... a necessary thing for plants that take 100+ days to mature.
 
Anyway, glad to have you back around, and glad you could use the seeds. I put a couple of Ochsenhorn in-ground and they did fairly well for me this year. Next year I'll definitely try the Vesena. Cheers!

Hey Rick! Great to hear from you. Thanks for the tips, I'll put them to good use. The soil is very sandy here... we're only 200 meters from the Rhein river, essentially living in the ancient river wash. I'm going to work on prepping the area for the 2014 garden in October and November. Despite having a northern latitude the weather here is pretty temperate, plus nice long summer days. We had such a terrible April, May, and June... three months of cold and wet. Then it flipped 180 and we had dry and really hot. The plants loved the hot weather and just took off, but they are still a month or two behind due to the crappy late spring/early summer weather. I saved a pack each from the Ochsenhorn and Vesena... we'll give them a whirl next year. I'm on the lookout for good Poblano seeds

 

[Ausmith]

Okay here are pictures of the peppers from the island of Dominica. I have no way to verify what they are exactly, but they are all grown on the island. I assume the last one is the Dominica Red Habanero.
 
Dominica Mystery Pepper #1
Yellow. Round. Thick Skin. Decent flavor, a little Hab taste.

 
 
Pepper #2
Red. Elongated. Thinner skin. Almost no heat. Fruity taste.

 
 
Pepper #3
Red. Almost Bonnet shape. No heat. Decent taste.

 
 
Pepper #4
Red. Round with a slight pointed tip. Little bit of heat. Interesting fruit taste.

 
Pepper #5
Big red habanero looking peppers. Has to be the Dominica Red Habanero.

 

[stickman]

Very cool-looking varieties you've collected Clayton! Good flavor is enough for me to try to grow a chile once... if it grows well in my region and is prolific, I'll keep on doing it...   

 

[Spicegeist]

 

 
Jamaica Mushrooms look great!

 

[Ausmith]

Friday was pizza day... I covered mine with fresh Dutch Yellow's from the garden (pretty much because those are the only ripe peppers at the moment). Was tasty. More Pod action next week.

 

[mlh5953]

Looks good!
Is that a wood-fired oven?

 

[stickman]

Pretty cool setup for making pizza outdoors Clayton! Did you make the sauce with any of your peppers?

 

[Ausmith]

Looks good!
Is that a wood-fired oven?

Yes indeed.

Pretty cool setup for making pizza outdoors Clayton! Did you make the sauce with any of your peppers?

Hey Rick.... I made the sauce, but didn't use any peppers. Pretty much just garlic, onion, tomato, oil, and spices. I had to share with others and they can't handle the heat

 

[Devv]

Congratulations on your recent wedding!
 
I love the outdoor oven, es ist sehr schön!
 
Oh, I see another project coming...would love to see more detailed pics. So I'm guessing the cooking area is heated by wood but the smoke doesn't enter?
 
Love the pepper plants, and nice haul from Dominica.
 
Glück in dieser Saison!

 

[WalkGood]

+1 on 14, congrats and you have great looking garden, plants, pods & pics ... keep up dat great grow!

 

[Ausmith]

I'm away for 12 days at a tradeshow, the largest bicycle tradeshow in the world. We've got a new booth this year so figuring out the structure and fixtures has been fun. The walls are pretty cool aluminum structure with LED back light - really makes the images POP. 
 
Looking forward to getting home because a lot of the pods were starting to get some color before I left. I hope we can have our first decent pull when I get back.
 

 

[Ausmith]

Okay finally back from the tradeshow.... 2 weeks and a lot of work, but it was worth it - lots of new business 
 
Here's a shot of the finished booth, and then on to my first pull of the season.

 
 
 
Yesterday I decided to pluck a few peppers that looked like they wanted to be eaten. Made some fresh pico de gallo for dinner. Scotch Bonnet, Dutch Yellow, Jamaican Red Hot. All of them tasted great!

 

 

[stickman]

Alright Clayton! Nice pull. Did you plant lots of Tomatoes this year too?

 

[Ausmith]

Alright Clayton! Nice pull. Did you plant lots of Tomatoes this year too?

 
Hey Rick - my Grandfather-in-law is the tomato farmer.... but yes, lots of Toms  I love going to the garden and grabbing 2 peppers and a handful of tomatoes for dinner.

 

[Ausmith]