BeerInHand 2017 Grow Log

Trident chilli · Feb 4, 2017

Disappointed with myself that I missed this read ... very comprehensive updates wishing you all the best for this season you have some really healthy plants

BeerInHand · Feb 18, 2017

Pruning is always hard. Coming at your babies with some scissors? Gruesome. But the results? Awesome!!

Here's two shots 1 week apart. From a stem to a bush in 7 days!

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Bam! That's so nice. These are gonna be some nice bushy plants.

See a pic from each day: http://imgur.com/a/fsZ1N

BeerInHand · Feb 27, 2017

Quick update - over the past two weeks I've been doing some heavy pruning. Afterwards the table looked so bare, but things are filling back in nicely - too nicely in fact. I'm starting to worry that with everything bushing up so much I'm going to run into issues with airflow long before the weather is good for putting in the ground. Live and learn I guess. It just means that the 1-2 hour weekly pruning task is now going take many more to keep things growing.

Here's a full table shot after this week's pruning:

Here's a close up of one of the trays:

Here's a shot of a nice looking Yellow Brain Strain:

And one final shot of one of my most interesting plants this year. Seeds from what was supposed to be "Daisy Cutter" but grew this cool variant with whitish leaves:

On the outside note, last weekend I put down black tarping over a 50'x25' section of the yard. That will allow me 6 rows of peppers each 4'x50' long. Each row will hold 24 plants. I plan on planting 2 of each variety of the ~70 varieties I have growing, The 2 plants will be spaced 1 foot apart, then I'll skip 2 feet and plant the next group. Something like this:

I expect by the time I'm ready to plant, the grass under the tarp will be dead. I'll then cut circles out of the tarp and use a 8 inche post-hole digger/auger to drill out the existing soil to about 1 foot deep. I'll fill each hole with a compost/coir/perlite mix and run a drip line to each plant.

Any suggestions for a good mix to fill my dug out post-holes with? At this point I'm figuring on buying mushroom compost by the yard and hand mixing it at 15% coir/15% perlite/70% compost. Maybe adding some blood or bone meal in the bottom of each hole? I need to do some research.

mpicante · Feb 27, 2017

Awesome.Big list of nice varieties.Good luck.

BeerInHand · Apr 4, 2017

Ok, it's been a while but here's an update - 650 2x2 inch pots on this space was crazy! And I started in late November, so I'm 4 1/2 months in already.

The plants have grown crazy roots under the trays and it required some serious pulling, untangling and tugging to get these plants separated again.

The peat pots have turned to mush and have no integrity left, so I pulled each plant from the tray and repotted into 2"x2" plastic pots.

It was very labor intensive and I have to buy 400 plastic pots to put them in, but it is done and now I have a better handle on what I have and the plants are sorted. I repotted 2 of each into 16oz solo cups, destined for the outside garden (130 total plants, 65 varieties). The rest I have available for sale. PM if interested, I'm looking to move these quickly and cheaply. Probably 12 plants shipped for $40, mailed out within the next 2 weeks depending on weather.

Here's a nice healthy tray of Reapers with fat stems and busy growth.

This Piri Piri plant is a monster!

BeerInHand · Jun 4, 2017

Howdy THP! It's been a few weeks since my last update. It's been productive, but also boring. The garden is in, but May has been too cold for much growth.

April 09:

The plastic ground cover had been down since February and taken care of the lawn under it nicely. Instead of containers, I'm going with plants in the ground. I am drilling out the soil with an 8" auger to about 16" deep and replacing with conditioned topsoil. At the bottom of each hole I put a cup of worm castings, cup of gypsum, a handful of shredded cardboard and 1/2 cup 5-10-5 slow release fertilizer. I cut a 9" hole in a round plastic snow sled and used that as a template to cut the holes with a razor knife. Then I put the sled over the hole while augering to catch the dirt as it was excavated. It made the job of removing the dirt much easier. Most of the excavated dirt I put in the bottom of my existing garden boxes layered with last fall's leaves.

April 29:

Finally getting the plants in, but it turned out this was a bit early. Philadelphia's May was basically 50F and raining, with nights into the 40's. Oh well, live and learn...and then make the same mistakes anyway! I really had no choice - the basement table was a jungle and overgrown.

A another dumb mistake, I moved my over wintered plants out one day before the last frost! Doh! They all survived but were stripped bare by the frost.

My over-wintered plants were put into the garden boxes. I'll think twice about bringing plants in next winter after I got aphids in my cellar grow room. The over-winters were on the 3rd floor and brought aphids in with them. My grow room was in the basement but somehow those pesky aphids managed to find their way down 3 flights of steps and a couple of doors to get to my seedlings. Ladybugs took care of the problem in the end but I ended up with a couple hundred plants that I could not sell as planned. Next year I'm only growing what I need.

June 3rd:

Oh well, I said I was going to skip containers this year, but I had so many seedlings left. The garden is finally fully in place. 175 plants covering 75 varieties. Cold weather slowed upward growth over the past month, but I suspect plenty of growth has been happening downward as roots. Steady rain through May also kept everything watered.

Next project is installing drip irrigation.

I'm using shredded cardboard in my garden boxes this year. Typically I put down heavy brown paper and cut holes in it similar to how the black plastic is. Sprinkling shredded cardboard around is much easier and free. Worms also love cardboard.

Here's my overwintered Carolina Reaper - and a shot of it from last year.

Thanks for reading! I'll be back soon with an update. I expect June will come with explosive growth!

BeerInHand · Jul 15, 2017

Hello THP! It's been 6 weeks since I posted, so here's a quick Grupdate!

A shot of the garden currently. It's starting to get hard to walk between the plants, but between the rows is still clear. Hopefully my spacing was good and I don't end up with a solid square of plant!

My plants are being fed with ACT made with vermicompost from my worm farms.. Adding about 3 quarts of worm castings to this pot with a bubbler in the bottom and then dropping the entire thing into bin with 16 gallons of water. Add 12 oz black strap molasses, put a lid on it and let it bubble for 2-3 days. A submersible pump inside a paint strainer bag in the bin is also run occasionally to churn things up and then to pump the tea out into a bucket.

Here's a few of the gnarliest pod shots:

Chocolate Naga Brain

Black Naga:

Big Black Mama:

Devil Brain: (thanks AJ!)

Sugar Rush Peach: (thanks lovepeppers!)

And finally, this beautiful Aji White Lightning Plant (thanks again lovepeppers!)

TTFN! Updates should be coming more often now that there's something to report!