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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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OK no big updates or anything. I gotta take some pics. Actually, I took a bunch of pics but I lost my phone and I have pics on the new phone but I haven't uploaded them yet so oh well....

Here's my progress thus far, in no particular order:

1. just relocated the two existing beds in my yard. Dang near broke my back, doing it. Good workout. I made room for the beds in adding this year. I'm going to have a total of 8 beds going at home: five in the neighborhood of 8' or 10'ish by 4'ish, two 8' by 2', and one 5' by 3' oddball. I already bought the lumber; need to mill out up and assemble the beds. And, get the soil for it. (More on that later)

2. the community garden is open for business, and I been busting my as up there, too. I already pulled out all my dead plants from 2018 and we're, big the funny thing is, I was a real piece of shot and only cleared out only one of my beds. I left the zombie remains of all my old plants... And the only bed that really had more than a tiny handful of weeds was the one i'd cleared out. Guess I won't be doing that again lol.

I also topped off all the beds with more compost, and put fresh woodchips down between the beds. Way ahead of the game, this year. I've got three 16' by 4' beds up there, plus my buddy Dave is taking on a bed, but he's just growing all my culls, so that's awfully convenient. (I'm going to have a lot of culls.) The bad news is, ol' Dave is some kind of musician, and he's touring till the week we're planting out, so I'm gonna have to clear out his stupid bed, too.

The worse news is, the City is talking about repo'ing the lots that the garden is on, which would be a dank Shane. It is the City's property, so I guess they can, and developers have bought a lot of the property right by it, so I guess it makes sense, but it still sucks pretty bad. They're saying that we'll still have it all season but I can't count on it for next season...

3. I took inventory on my seedlings, it's mostly accurate, and I plotted out my plans for what goes where... Not to far off from my original plans.

I also have been finding good homes for my many culls. So far, So good with that. I suspect a lot of the plants I gave away last year died premature deaths in their solo cups, but the folks I'm giving them to this time are the ppl who grew them out and shared pods with me last year, so I know they're not going to waste.

4. I sent supplementary "thank you" messages to folks who hooked me up with seeds. If i missed anyone, I'm sorry, but I tried to get everyone.

I guess that's all the progress I've made. I dunno. Here's what I'm currently stressing about:

A. I only have one Yellow Fatalii plant, and it's runty. I had a hell of a time germinating those this year, and a lot of my annuum varieties, too. Not sure why. I'm a bit vexed about it, mostly the Fataliis b/c I can buy the annuums locally but Fataliis ain't nowhere.

B. I'm still trying to figure out how I'm going to fill these beds at my house. Not just the ratio of topsoil to compost and other shut, but also how much will it cost? I sold my truck so I can't just make multiple runs back and forth to the garden center, but if I pay then to deliver a bigass pile, where will they dunno it? I love in a sense little neighborhood, in a row home. No driveway. Little fenced-in yard. Parking is scarce so if I get it dumped on the street for even just a few hours, the neighbors will be pissed. Plus, it's NJ so basically EVERYtging is illegal.

C. final bit of anxiety: I am looking to plant out on Mother's day, and I haven't yet begun to harden-off. Tbh, I'm itching to be they need out and I want the free sun, but I'm terrified of the Aphids. I don't want to be fighting those lil fukers for a month, and my plants are numerous and some are quite bushy. I've got s schedule for hardening offer pretty much figured out, with like a two days out, two days in kinda thing with progressive duration and all, but I'm thinking I should wait for the final two weeks? And should I start spraying them with neem solution now, to keep those Aphids at bay from jump?

That's another long lost. Sorry. As always, thanks for reading and thank you in advance any advice, criticisms, and wisdom. Y'all are the best.

-rob
 
Bicycle808 said:
C. final bit of anxiety: I am looking to plant out on Mother's day, and I haven't yet begun to harden-off. Tbh, I'm itching to be they need out and I want the free sun, but I'm terrified of the Aphids. I don't want to be fighting those lil fukers for a month, and my plants are numerous and some are quite bushy. I've got s schedule for hardening offer pretty much figured out, with like a two days out, two days in kinda thing with progressive duration and all, but I'm thinking I should wait for the final two weeks? And should I start spraying them with neem solution now, to keep those Aphids at bay from jump?
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You have been a busy biker, Rob! Sounds like you
are pretty much proceeding on course and to 'the plan'!
 
As for getting a jump on the aphids, I might think about a
NEEM preemptive strike. Not a heavy application, but
good coverage on the under leaves especially. Then, at
the first sign of aphids, hit the infected plants with some
insecticidal soap.
 
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!
 
I intend to use whatever weapons I have in my arsenal to kick the shhh out of these fuckin' Aphids.

In other news: No real updates except that some of my plants have buds on them. A few Sugar Rush Peach and, surprisingly, a Red Brain Strain. The one Brain plant is just head and shoulders taller than the rest of the plants, and I guess it's simply on turbo shitkicker mode. Psyched to get some ripe pods.
 
Ok I can't figure out how to post pics directly to the forum from my phone and I probably don't want to learn (gotta fix laptop!) But here's pics of basically ALL of my plants in an imgur album, plus somewhat detailed descriptions so, of you're bored and/or interested, check it out

Chile Peppers April 10 https://imgur.com/gallery/U8nHfj5

Feel free to comment there, but I'm more likely to see comments and reply if they're over here on THP, where they belong.
 
Bicycle808 said:
I intend to use whatever weapons I have in my arsenal to kick the shhh out of these fuckin' Aphids.

In other news: No real updates except that some of my plants have buds on them. A few Sugar Rush Peach and, surprisingly, a Red Brain Strain. The one Brain plant is just head and shoulders taller than the rest of the plants, and I guess it's simply on turbo shitkicker mode. Psyched to get some ripe pods.
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My Sugar Rush Peach have buds too. 2 of them. Maybe they are just buds. lol
 
I always keep an eye out for early blooming plants. Keep us posted and maybe such an animal will have a place in a northern garden!
 
I just rearranged my grow shelves; had to take everything off so I could move shelves up and down to provide more light clearance, so I took the opportunity to take a bunch of pictures and scrutinize shit. I got the Sugar Rush Peaches with buds. One got two big buds. Two different red Brainstrains were showing buds, as we're a number of other SuperHots, which I did start back in January, so maybe it's not that surprising, but dang. I know I have at least one Bhut Assam Yella with buds, all of the 7Pot Cinder plants got buds, and tbh I stopped checking which were which after that, as I expect all the buds will drop at plant-out, if not before.

I have had my share of set backs this year (especially with annuums), but overall i am light years ahead of where i was in April 2018. Right now, I'm just trying to maintain the momentum, and regulate the watering and space. . . Having runty plants last year was way easier than having these fairly vigorous ones this year
 
Bicycle808 said:
I just rearranged my grow shelves; had to take everything off so I could move shelves up and down to provide more light clearance, so I took the opportunity to take a bunch of pictures and scrutinize shit. I got the Sugar Rush Peaches with buds. One got two big buds. Two different red Brainstrains were showing buds, as we're a number of other SuperHots, which I did start back in January, so maybe it's not that surprising, but dang. I know I have at least one Bhut Assam Yella with buds, all of the 7Pot Cinder plants got buds, and tbh I stopped checking which were which after that, as I expect all the buds will drop at plant-out, if not before.

I have had my share of set backs this year (especially with annuums), but overall i am light years ahead of where i was in April 2018. Right now, I'm just trying to maintain the momentum, and regulate the watering and space. . . Having runty plants last year was way easier than having these fairly vigorous ones this year
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I hear ya brother.  A mixed bag,  Some great looking plants.  Some not so good looking plants. Some runts.  Out of my 325 I should get enough.  7 Pot Cinder is killing it.  So are some of the Bhuts, Bahamians and SBs,  My annuums kind of suck.  They went crazy and now they want to go outside real bad.  They subliminally stalk me.  
 
I know I'm the self-deprecating type but, if I'm being honest, my kickass plants far outnumber my runts and weirdos. My annuum game sucks this year, but I can chalk half or more of my losses up to mold, and close to half my losses to helmetheads. Next year, I'll be speaking in chamomile, for sure.

Without blasting anyone out, I can trace my successes/failures with these annuum seeds to vendors very very easily. Like, too easily. The seeds i'd saved myself germed at 100% in under a week. The other seeds? Well... I didn't expect to do too well with seeds I got out the bottom of a bag of dried pods that I got at the mercado, but those fared far better than some seeds that I spent $3 to $5 for 10 seed packets. Next year, I'll give myself more time and more seeds to play with, and once I get pods, I'll be saving the F out of those seeds.... The seeds I saved from my semi-iso Zapotecs outperformed every other seed i'd sown. Except the seeds from Scotch Bonnet Foodaramas that I'd saved (non-iso, but around other yellow Bonnets only) and Cream Fataliis. No, I don't have any delusions of grandeur when it comes to saving seeds, but I do care 100% about my seeds and I also do know that i dried and saved then shits in October 2019, which has got to be a huge advantage over seeds that have been on a shelf for awhile...
 
Wow. Got to page three again. I'm slippin'!

Updates: I'm realizing that starting bright and early has its consequences. Some of my plants are pretty big and quite crowded... a few of my SuperHots unexpectedly dropped some leaves. No yellowing, no obvious signs of distress, and no overwatering. If anything, I'm having trouble keeping up with the watering bc the big boys drain that red cup quickly.... So, the plants still have most of their leaves, still look healthy. Most have buddz; a few have blossoms. (Some of my Baccatums have tiny lil fruit!!! But only the SuperHots have dropped leaves...)

So, trying to start some new habits, I'm staying calm. Not freaking out (yet.) I'm still lightyears ahead of Bike808 '18 and I don't even feel comfortable comparing my grow this year to Bike808 '17.

So, I'm just gonna keep on moving forward, and keep listening to my plants. I'm not sure what they were telling me when they dropped leaves, but they don't seem to have anything else to say right now...

And, shit, I have like 120 extra plants anyway bahaha haha... Although, to be fair, I've got adoptive homes for at least half of those extras.

Mostly what I'm trying to document today is that this is day one of hardening off. I'm real nervous about Aphids, but I neemed my plants up really good yesterday so hopefully an oz of prevention is worth a shit-ton of cure. Plants were all watered yesterday, so there's little chance of drying out. The weather is breezy but not scary, about 65°F right now, partly cloudy, no sign of rain....

I remember how brutal hardening off was to my plants the last two years, but I procrastinated like crazy in '17&'18; I was nervous about taking the leap, plus I'm just kinda lazy in some ways. And, bc I waited so long, it was harder on the plants. Bugs were out in-force, the sun was blazingly bright, and the temps were much higher. So, predictably, the leaves got scorched and the plants were infested. I'm hoping that, MAYBE, with proper timing & planning, with sane temperatures, progressive exposure, and preventative pest measures, it will go more smoothly this year?

Maybe not, but I'm emotionally prepared for the worst right now...

On a more embarrassing note, I had to lug eleven trays of 24 plants each from the third floor to my deck on the ground floor. I timed it; took me 17 minutes, which included moving stuff around on the deck and making sure my cat was securely cloistered away in the bedroom, with the door closed. Pretty embarrassing amount of time, but at least I got some cardio in. I didn't rush it at all, but I didn't allow myself to stop for a sip of coffee or to skip a bullshit song that came on while I was moving'm. I wasn't winded at all, but I definitely got my heart rate up a little bit...

Here's some pics of the plants right after I put them out: http://imgur.com/gallery/nIWojYS
Some pictures from the weekend:
http://imgur.com/gallery/fqM0mRL

As always, thanks for reading. Please, wish these tender young plants luck in their first experience with the Elements!
 
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