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Bike808 getting Dirty in Jersey

Well, it's that time of year where old fashioned folks are making resolutions, and I want to resolve to work on my GLOG consistently in 2019. 2018 was a great year, despite some considerable setbacks. I managed to grow far more chiles than I could ever hope to eat, so I gave tons away. In the end, a few disappointments aside, it was an overall successful season.

The same cannot be said for my GLOG. I neglected the fark out of my 2018 GLOG. This year, I want to post at least once a week, no matter what.

At this point, I don't want to post lists or anything because I have a herculean season ahead of me. See, I intend to overhaul my yard, build some beds, order up some topsoil and compost to fill then, amend the soil with all kinds of other Bullshit, and have all that done before it's time to plant out. Of course, before then, I'll need to have started all my plants and I'll need to know what I'm looking at in terms of density and (dis)organization. Hmmmph.

But, long story short, I'm learning from past mistakes. Only using the right kind seed starting soil. Going to be more diligent with my seeds as I sow them, to avoid leggy-azz seedlings. Harden off early but slowly, and methodically. Try to figure out fertilizers, and maybe develop and enact a strategy as far as that goes, rather than randomly dumping Alaska Fish Ferts on my plants whenever the whim hits me. In summary, take another step towards becoming a real gardener.

So, yeah, I plan on planting less densely this year, so I need to figure some shit out, but a GLOG ain't a GLOG if the first post doesn't include some name-dropping as far as intended varieties. This year will be my usual: far too many Yella Bonnets, a bit too many red, orange, and chocolate Bonnets, various Superhots of the Seven Pot and Ghost/Naga groups, some low heat Habs, many Jalapeños (strictly Zapotec this year), mild to mid Mexican kitchen staples, random other shit, and I have some baccatums to try out this year. (I bought a Bishop's Crown plant from CCN in 2018 and I'm stoked to try others now...)

Oh, and Fataliis. Plenty of those little yellow treasures. The best.

Thanks for reading. Oh, and if anyone wants to be my accountabili-buddy on this one, i'd appreciate it. Just making reminders in case I neglect my GLOG again, LOL...

-rob
 
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Thanks, everyone, for the birthday well-wishes.  I had a blast yesterday, but now i gotta jam on these plants s'more b/c i  am about to work 40hours over the next 3 days, and these seeds keep poppin left and right....
 
In solos tonight:
-1x 7Pot Brainstrain Chocolate
-1x Naglah Brown (4 total)
-1x JPGS x Primo (2 total)
-3x 7Pot Cinder
-1x BBM (I had another 7Pot Douglah, 100% germination in 9 days, but i lost the seed.  It might be in the cup with this BBM.  Not sure.  Shouldn't mess with tiny things when you're exhausted, i guess.  sorry for this boring bullshit note, but i wanted to remember this if/when i get two seedlings in this one cup.  FWIW, i also made a note on the cup.)
-1x Bhut Jolkia (plain, red, old-school)
-2x Naga Morich (same kinda deal as with the Douglah; i fumbled one of the seeds, so i put 2 in one cup b/c i'm not 100% sure i buried the first one properly, lol)
-1x Chocolate Primo
-3x 7Pot Brainstrain Red (Cappy)
 
 
Bicycle808 said:
 (Soon, these things will be truly sprouting with cotyledons and then at least I'll have cool pics to keep it interesting.)
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As promised:
kMYqanq.jpg

(7Pot Brainstrain Red, compliments of THP member JediSushi)
 
Thanks for reading, y'all!
 
Okay, Rob, too late to turn back now!
 
Good luck getting through the three-day work stint
without mixing up more of your seeds and starts! 
 
Brief and shitty update: on February 2, I came down with a shitty illness, some sort of upper respiratory thing that left me nearly useless for three weeks and I'm still not even 100% a month later. And, same day, my laptop died, too. Weird situation with the boot hardware. So...

The good news is, I never stopped tending to my starts and they're doing pretty well. I have at least 130 sprouts on solid already, and plenty of seeds in baggies with coffee filters. I feel pretty good about it.

The bad news is, due to technical limitations, I totally fell off on posting my GLOG. I just type better on the computer than my phone, and photo uploads are easier for me, too. Worse, being sick and prone to hallucinations, I didn't really keep track of everything as well as of have liked. So, now that I'm better, I'll be organizing, counting, and cataloging the successful starts so I can get a better handle on where in at in terms of my goals, and whatever revisions I'll need to make. But I'm not nearly as organized as of planned to be. I know my Bonnet numbers are off and I might need to start some more...

But mostly, the plants are kicking ass, at least relative to my first two years of growing. Things aren't perfect, though. I've got a few runty plants that suffered from semi-botched helmet-head remediation procedures, but they seem to be on-track to catch up. I also have a few runty plants that didn't suffer from helmet-head syndrome; they're runty for mysterious reasons. But, even those are picking up speed, although they may ultimately get culled.

The creepy part is, I got some plants with weird crinkly deformed leaves. It's only affected two varieties: all 4 of my Douglahs have the issue, plus one yellow Primo (out of 4 or 5 yellow Primo plants)... Not sure of it's genetic or if it's a pathogen of some sort, but I guess I'm starting to become concerned. I'll try to take some pictures tonight, and probably cross-post it on the general Growing forum.

As always, thanks for reading, and I apologize for neglecting my GLOG for so long...
 
Well, I haven't forgotten my glog, not entirely. I've sowed a bunch of seeds. Got a lot of plants getting to be nice and leafy. I got some others that are runty for reasons that I'll never understand, but seen otherwise healthy. But those account for only like maybe 6 out of like 150 plants. I bought some lumber for beds. I've come to the realization that I have way way way too many plants versus growing space, but I'll be giving away culls and appropriating more beds at the community garden lol.

The thing is, I've even been taking some pictures (I usually don't) but I haven't been uploading them. I know a glog without pictures sucks. I got a slightly better phone that takes slightly better pics. I really ought to get on that
...

So, here's a list of shit I still have to do:
-obtain and start Guajillo seeds
-plant the annuums seeds that I've already started, once they pop.
-rearrange my shelves so the plants don't actually grow directly into the lights
-get some more shelves and lights lol
-builds these beds
-order up some topsoil and compost for the beds, get some peat, mix this shit up.

Mostly, though, I need to research what, exactly, to get and a nice raised bed recipe for media. I have very little experience with this, and the experiences I do have weren't very promising lol. We use straight compost at the community garden, and i think I can do better. Last season it rained a lot later in the season and I looked how well the compost drained (it was still murder on the pods, though) but I gotta figure that out as soon as possible...
 
Thanks for the encouragement, internationalfish and sleeper67. Despite my traffic results with Fataliis and a few late/slow starts, I am light years ahead of where I was these past two seasons. I'm feeling fairly optimistic.

I have no worries as far as getting rid of my exes culls. I have one friend who is on tour now and won't be back until plant-out time anyway. He wants to start growing, but being out of town for two months, he couldn't start seeds... So the plan is, he's going to take a bed or two at the community garden and with the dirt, and I'll give him a pile of culls. Then I got social media contacts who are local and excited to take free plants, my mom will take a few mild varieties, and last year I set up a table at a cafe on a Sunday and gave them away to random strangers. Many ppl insisted on paying a few bucks for them. Not big money, but definitely pub crawl level money.

I feel torn bc I know a lot of them probably never even get transplanted, and probably just waste away on their solo cups. But since ppl, like my ol buddy BobSteve, really go hard and even give me peppers so it all works out.

Right, I'm still trying to figure out what to fill these beds with. I am thinking half and half topsoil/compost, with a bunch of peat mixed in and maybe some gypsum of lime pellets. Then mulch it down with this sea hay after plant out.

But if anyone has any advice, I'd appreciate it, for sure. I'm psyched, but largely clueless and I feel like the more I read, the less i know. My head is spinning a little bit.
 
bpiela said:
Do you need Guajillo seeds?  I can send you a bunch if you like.  I have some seeds that are a few years old, but I have tons...  I had purchased them from chileseedusa.com...
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Yeah I do. My usual move is to buy a sack of dry Guajillos and then germinate seeds in the bag, lol. Pretty good germination rates, too, and they always grow true.... So, of I strike out at the mercado, I'll pm you about seeds. Thanks so much for offering!!!

PtMD989 said:
I would stay away from gypsum and lime, unless your soil is way low pH. Gypsum and lime will raise soil pH, I believe peppers and tomatoes like lower pH soil.


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Yeah I guess my plan is to test where my pH is at and make adjustments from there. It is my understanding that gypsum is neutral, and won't affect pH but will increase calcium. I have had issues with BER and thought calcium was the culprit, but now I think it had more to do with the overly dense planting strategy I was using. I have a shit ton of lime pellets, which definitely bump pH up but I probably won't need or want to use that. But I have it, just in case. I live in South Jersey, which tends to run low pH but I'll be getting compost and soil dropped off and there's no telling what the makeup of that stuff will be like, until I get it....
 
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