• Blog your pepper progress. The first image in your first post will be used to represent your Glog.

Bigcedar 2019

[SIZE=11pt]Hi everyone! It’s been quite a few years since I’ve posted and after lurking around for the last couple months all excited about growing peppers again I decided it was time for a THP reunion :party:[/SIZE]  I’m happy to see a small handful of familiar faces still around and I’m Iooking forward to getting to know the rest of you guys and gals!
 
[SIZE=11pt]Quite a bit has changed in the last 6 years. Life was pretty crazy for awhile. The best news I feel like is that we are now homeowners on 5 acres. Left the rental in the city for a home in the country :) We lived in a trailer for 7 months while it was being built. It was one heck of an experience my family and I will never forget that’s for sure![/SIZE]
 
[SIZE=11pt]It’s been a full year since we got in our house. We absolutely love our house, we love living out in the country. Life is good. I spent last year planting stuff that takes a few years to produce well, an orchard, berries of all kinds, meadow flowers, and countless perennial flowers and trees. I swear I dug 3,000 holes last year. So this year it’s back to the important things, like growing chile peppers! I have some pretty intense ADHD like behaviors when it comes to hobbies. I’ve been borderline obsessed with quite a few in my days. I go big or go home and then I eventually get bored.. I find a new interest to obsess over and move on from the last. Growing peppers is the only hobby I’ve ever had that I always end up crawling back to. So here I am, growing some damn superhots again. A few months late, impulsive, but screw it, I’m going for it. A good 2 acres of the property is in full sun from sunup, to sundown and that’s double the direct sunlight that I’ve ever had in past grows, I’m okay with a game of catch up! [/SIZE]
 
N7c4nC9.jpg

 
[SIZE=11pt]Alright here we go.. Let the glog begin![/SIZE]
 
[SIZE=11pt]Well first off, during the big move I lost, or threw away my superhot seed collection... It was a good 300 variety + collection. I treated my house like I was the DEA and my seed collection was 50 kilos of Columbian snow. I looked in, under, over, and to the side of everything we own. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Man that was hard to swallow! No reason to dwell though, time to start over. I’ve been out of the game so long that I’d never heard of White Hot Peppers but they had some cool varieties that I’ve never seen and I read some good things here. I cannot say enough good things myself. Super fast shipping, quality seeds and tons of freebies I wanted to buy but restrained myself from! I felt like a little kid at Christmas time opening up that package. Thanks alot WHP![/SIZE]
 
qiNRlwL.jpg

 
[SIZE=11pt]Time to plant some seeds! I normally would have liked to have these in dirt by the end of February at the latest. Well that time has past, better late than never. Planted 4.10 My plan is to OW anything I feel is worth it, I think I have room for 40-60 overwinters, so even if I don’t get pods of these, I’ll be completely okay with a large plant that I can OW that will kill it next year. I did cheat a little bit as well and have some plants coming any day from cross country nurseries :shh:[/SIZE]  (just in case I lose this game of catch up! It's my pod insurance policy!!)
 
NGBGGeR.jpg

 
gzKILfV.jpg

 
Typical rainy April day in Western Washington!
 
wLfuUbo.jpg

 
 
[SIZE=11pt]Another issue, I sold all of my HOT5’s, MH’s, HPS’s, and seed heating mats back in the "holy shit we need more money!" moving days. Living out in the country has a way of teaching you how to jerry-rig so with that said...  How do I heat up these seeds without spending money.. Rubbermaid, old pots, old flats, a reptile heating mat, a baby chick heat lamp, lid, reptile thermostat and…. Walaa! [/SIZE]
 
muZumTw.jpg

 
af05Obe.jpg

 
Yep.... that'll work!
 
It's pretty ghetto I know and a lot different than using all the fancy equipment that I've gotten use to over the years but it'll do I think!
 
Should be seeing sprouts soon, CCN plants are coming in any day and I do have a few nursery bought plants I'm testing some new soil out with right now while using my aquarium plant LED light  :lol:
 
I have a bad habit of overfilling my time plate if you will, and back in 2016 I did just that. I thought it would be a great idea to grow again even with all of life's other things going on at the time. I embarked on my largest superhot grow to date after taking 3 years off.. Well, I barely had time to sleep that year, seriously.. But! I did accomplish my biggest and best grow yet! It was flawless from start to finish. I was pretty damn proud of it! All the while wishing I had time to post about it here on THP and that time was definitely not there. So, with that said I have to just share a few pics from that grow.. It was pretty nuts, I ended up having to move right as the major harvesting was going on and intense processing was about to start. I barely got to enjoy any of the peppers, lost most of it due to needing to find a new home and fast but that was totally okay, I had a ton of fun that year, I proved myself to myself that year. It was good!  :)
 
July 2016
 
XhexB8N.jpg

 
My daughter jumping so I could see where she was at  :lol:
August..
 
ZL8VJql.jpg

 
September..
 
R0OFx4U.jpg

 
and.. October.
 
H5j34hj.jpg

 
DU82xV0.jpg

 
XMUlyzU.jpg

 
:cool:
 
Well, it's good to be back! I gotta start meeting new chile people and checking out all these glogs! Til next time!
Brandon
 
 
 
 
 
 
Plants are looking nice and healthy, Brandon. sorry to
hear about the damping off issues. That's one plus  for
the RockWool cubes, no damping off. When I ran out
of my FF soil this spring, I mixed some Turf King (Fred
Meyer) and Black Gold. Seems to work pretty well.
 
Good luck keeping your menagerie under control. Do
you just let the snake 'run' around outside?
 
Yeah, getting old you'll find you need to write things down.  Then you'll forget the list.  When you find the list, you'll wonder why you wrote down "take bee photos".  Getting old isn't for the weak.
Devv said:
Nice work Brandon!
 
Love your place, I think you're gonna kill it this season ;)
 
I still need to remember to get hose bee pics...maybe I should write that down..LOL
 
 
Beautiful pics and progress BigCedar! It's a pleasure how well your season is progressing and once those temps take your plants out of bootcamp and into production, I'm sure you'll be swimming in pods before you know it! :)

Too bad about those damping issues, but don't let it spoil your fun! I like your approach of live and learn... ;) Shocking how much the soil has an impact at this stage already

Sent from my ZTE A2017U using Tapatalk
 
Orekoc said:
Yeah, getting old you'll find you need to write things down.  Then you'll forget the list.  When you find the list, you'll wonder why you wrote down "take bee photos".  Getting old isn't for the weak.
 
 
The key I have found is to not just write a short note. Descriptive paragraphs are where things are at :shh:
 
 
Funny you named your snake fluffy...I have a good friend that had a Burmese Python of around 12ish feet named fluffy. Fluffy unexpectedly latched on to his head one day, he has pretty cool scars now. I have a small Rosy Boa much more manageable. Plants and property look fantastic!  
 
I have corn snakes that I'm looking to rehome.  I'm just not taking proper care of them, plus OCD.  I have too many as well. :eek: :(
 
So many issues that were never diagnosed as a kid.  Mostly cause I'm so old, no one knew about them, back when god was in short pants. :violin:
 
DWB said:
 
Hey DR, snakes are fundamentally good and peaceful animals. They all deserve our respect.
 
vbrqK8i.jpg

 
Some command more respect than others but they're all sweet in their own special way.
 
8bc8fFG.jpg
 
We have many around here, and last year an angry green rat snake bit my foot! It came after me. I did scare it first, when I went to add scraps to the compost bin. I looked at it to make sure it wasn't poisonous, it was hiding on the far side, and came flying around the corner...wham. I saved 2 the year before that got tangled in the bird netting that was on the ground. Snakes are vermin control, the rattle snakes scare me because I don't want he dogs to get hit.
 
Here's one of the rat snakes. It was not a happy camper when I found it..
 
300.jpg

 
And that's not weed in the background. Just a crazy LO Thai plant...LOL
 
 
Sorry for the 3 weeks of delay you guys I suck!! I try to visit some glogs other than mine when I get a THP moment. I hate always saying I've been busy but I... have been... too busy...   :mope: I have a staycation/daytripcation coming up here in a week and a half that I'm pretty freaking excited about, need a break! I'm hoping to get some serious gloggin hours in on a few of those days  :party:
 
 
DWB said:
Batman's big sis and best buddy, Becky. She's 15 now and still climbing trees for fun and adventure.
 
 
 
Your cats are awesome DW! I feel like age is just a number with some cats, my mom has taken in alot of strays throughout the years, has even been dubbed the crazy cat lady lol.. Anyway, Rosy (who ended up being a boy) lived for 26 years. Didn't act "old" til 24ish. Pretty nuts.
 
PaulG said:
Plants are looking nice and healthy, Brandon. sorry to
hear about the damping off issues. That's one plus  for
the RockWool cubes, no damping off. When I ran out
of my FF soil this spring, I mixed some Turf King (Fred
Meyer) and Black Gold. Seems to work pretty well.
 
Good luck keeping your menagerie under control. Do
you just let the snake 'run' around outside?
 
Thank you Paul. Thanks for the dirt tips, I've used black gold before, I like it alot. It's a good brand you can find damn near anywhere. Fluffy comes out occasionally under supervision, probably giving her snake brain too much credit here but I think she likes feeling like a wild snake outdoors lol.. Ball pythons are pretty slow so it would be hard for her to slither off but they are very good at hiding under or in things so supervision is a must.
 
Devv said:
Nice work Brandon!
 
Love your place, I think you're gonna kill it this season ;)
 
I still need to remember to get hose bee pics...maybe I should write that down..LOL
 
Thanks alot Scott! I'm hoping! Need mother nature to cooperate a little bit more than she has and I'll be happy. Summer doesn't really start until July around here (temp wise) and the plants (atleast the supers) don't exactly grow much until then. You've probably got your bee pics up by now I need to head over to your glog it's been way too long. Speaking of bees I actually caught a swarm of bees 2 days ago for the first time! It was quite the experience!
 
Orekoc said:
Yeah, getting old you'll find you need to write things down.  Then you'll forget the list.  When you find the list, you'll wonder why you wrote down "take bee photos".  Getting old isn't for the weak.
 
 
Man... I'm 31 here and I have all the typical "old" people problems, I wonder all the time how bad it's gonna be when I'm 50+ cause I feel like it's pretty damn bad already. Ha! just like all you guys have said... I have a clipboard with a notepad on it at work that I write on a good 20-50 times a day.. Then I lose the clipboard and forget where I set it down... I'll find it eventually in some weird stupid spot I don't remember even being and wonder why I wrote down half the shit on the list and what it was supposed to mean at the time I wrote it.. Descriptive paragraphs... Need to start doing that!
 
lespaulde said:
Beautiful pics and progress BigCedar! It's a pleasure how well your season is progressing and once those temps take your plants out of bootcamp and into production, I'm sure you'll be swimming in pods before you know it! :)

Too bad about those damping issues, but don't let it spoil your fun! I like your approach of live and learn... ;) Shocking how much the soil has an impact at this stage already

Sent from my ZTE A2017U using Tapatalk
 
Thank you Erv! Seeing your post here is making me realize I need to head over to your place it's been too long! We have a couple 80, even a 90 degree day mon-wed this week outside I feel like PNW bootcamp is still in session most days around here, I can't believe none of my plants have been wind-topped! 
 
chileaddict said:
Hey Brandon.  I thought I would check in on THP and I am so happy to see that you are back!  Wow, you really know how to go big. Good luck on the farm this year. Where out in the country did you move to? Great photos as usual. 
 
Hey Richard!! Long time no chat! How the hell are ya man? Ah don't answer that well get some PMing going and catch up! I checked your profile after I got back on here to see when you logged on last saw it had been a while and thought that you might be MIA, glad to see you still around! Thanks for the compliments :) We are now on the other side of the Narrows Bridge out in Lakebay, our house is pretty dead center on the Key Peninsula. We love it, it's a drive to go just about anywhere but it's not country if a supermarkets down the road right? I couldn't go back to neighborhood living after being out here. I still have moments where it's kinda hard to believe that it's our house/land, pretty surreal. Great to hear from you buddy, I'll send you a PM!
 
stc3248 said:
Funny you named your snake fluffy...I have a good friend that had a Burmese Python of around 12ish feet named fluffy. Fluffy unexpectedly latched on to his head one day, he has pretty cool scars now. I have a small Rosy Boa much more manageable. Plants and property look fantastic!  
 
Shane! Thanks for stopping by man! Rosy Boas are beautiful... Pics? How big are they full size? Man I like snakes but speaking of that Burmese... Nah. I'm good. I wouldn't own a snake that could eat my dog, or me for that matter lol. Thanks for the compliments buddy, trying to catch up to you but I know that's not gonna happen! lol.
 
 
Orekoc said:
I have corn snakes that I'm looking to rehome.  I'm just not taking proper care of them, plus OCD.  I have too many as well. :eek: :(
 
So many issues that were never diagnosed as a kid.  Mostly cause I'm so old, no one knew about them, back when god was in short pants. :violin:
 
We had a corn snake a long time ago, she got very large and was very fast and aggressive, got to the point where opening her cage hungry or not she was ready to strike at all times. She found a new home. I much prefer the super lazy slow Balls over Corns! 
 
DownRiver said:
 
WTH?!?
 
You guys and your snakes a nuckin futs. :crazy: lol
 
:rofl:
 
DWB said:
 
Hey DR, snakes are fundamentally good and peaceful animals. They all deserve our respect.
 
Some command more respect than others but they're all sweet in their own special way.
 
 
 
 
DW! That is insanity!!! Did you catch that Rattler by yourself? Either way, I'm throwing some big time respect your way! That's nuts! Not many people would hold either of those. What kind was the first one? Man you got some serious snakes around your place that's really cool. If we see a little Gardener snake around here it's a big deal. I can't imagine seeing one of those hanging around!
 
Devv said:
 
We have many around here, and last year an angry green rat snake bit my foot! It came after me. I did scare it first, when I went to add scraps to the compost bin. I looked at it to make sure it wasn't poisonous, it was hiding on the far side, and came flying around the corner...wham. I saved 2 the year before that got tangled in the bird netting that was on the ground. Snakes are vermin control, the rattle snakes scare me because I don't want he dogs to get hit.
 
Here's one of the rat snakes. It was not a happy camper when I found it..
 
 
And that's not weed in the background. Just a crazy LO Thai plant...LOL
 
 
Damn you guys! You both have some serious balls! I love snakes and all but I can honestly say if any of the snakes you've posted were in my vicinity I would not be trying to pick them up! That rat snake is a freaking monster!!!
 
stc3248 said:
 
Those South Texas rat snakes are pretty aggro...I had one draw pretty good blood on me when I tried to pull him away from a cardinal nest. I always catch and release...even copper heads, cotton mouths and rattlesnakes I just drop them off a little farther from home.
 
That's cool of Shane, I'd do the same.. Unless I lived in Florida, those Burmese are tearing that place up! You guys see the latest 18? footer one of those snake hunters got? Pretty insane!
 
MGOLD86 said:
 
Once again Matt, great to hear from you!!
 
 
Alright you guys I'm gonna try my ass off today to get a update out there, my Daughter turned 9 yesterday, I took an extra day off work to recover from that LOL.  
 
Sorry for the super late responses everyone, once again I suck! I hope all is well and green with everyone!!
 
 
Sorry it's been awhile I need to seriously upgrade my glogging game on all accounts! 
 
Not much has changed with the outdoor CCN plants. They're starting to branch out, a few are setting early pods but the way our weathers been definitely put the brakes on growth rate. The Cayenne doesn't seem to mind our spring weather but man the c chinese supers have not enjoyed their stay outdoors for the most part. I decided that after years of growing that I've been doing it all wrong. I always feel like it's this big race to get the outside. Why this big rush to get them out when the temps are sub par? I mean the growth rate in the growroom is visible daily. The outdoor CCNs you almost have to look weekly to notice and real difference at this time of year around here. Gonna do things differently from here on out. I'd really like to get a hoop house going like CD or a small greenhouse like Paul's so the transition at this time of year isn't so dramatic. Okay rants over!
 
Here's a group shot of the CCNs and the Cayenne. You can see the windy days have taken their share of fan leaves off a good chunk of the supers
 
xID6aTW.jpg

 
Captain Cay is throwing out some pods pretty excited to see pods for the first time in 3 years!
 
J9bqzXB.jpg

 
Chocolate Ghost starting to set, I know it's too early to tell but I am rather suspicious of the pod shape...
 
qOceJ00.jpg

 
Can't seem to post everything at once again so I'm gonna try to break it up....
 
I think the best news of the update is my late start seeds I threw in that I was planning on being some nice big OWs that wouldn't produce pods this year are catching up to the outdoor CCNs in a quick hurry! I'm 99.9999% sure as long as I don't have any disasters that I can get these 40 gallons to full maturity this season pods and all. I'm not taking them outside until mother nature can match my 86 degree and sunny growroom either! You can see the back and left side are the 40 gallons and in front of them are 45 super late starts that I started a couple weeks back in 3.5 pots... Now I'm wondering if I can get them to full maturity..... Ok now I'm just talking non sense!
 
P4koFhu.jpg

 
Love me a canopy shot!
 
4Epg63j.jpg

 
So here is my version of Shanes "Twilight Zone" plant.... I don't have a cool name for it yet though, any ideas?  :think:
 
It's supposed to be a Brazilian Moruga Brown, I posted a picture of it in the last update because the early branching was quite abnormal to me, well it's grown up a bit since and now I'm convinced there is something really off about this plant. Maybe I'm an idiot and they're supposed to look like this but I have never seen a superhot personally or on the internet that looks like this so I have a hard time thinking that's the case but please, correct me if I'm wrong! 
 
GhYriys.jpg

 
KKNnEZI.jpg

 
I mean seriously... Totally weird freaking plant right?
 
It has a younger brother/sister as well that is also just as strange...
 
5XaOhfW.jpg
 
Back
Top